Project CRT (aka The CRT Project)

[PDB]

I've completed a few of these CRT projects (still need to finish Banzai) but been lately I've been trying to regrade some modern video masters that have the typical green-yellow tint. This line of thought and experimentation came from me trying to fix the current Nolan masters that push that particular look hard.

So from said experimentation I have a test/rough LUT I've call the inverse CRT, named so since it kind of is the opposite of this CRT project. Whereas the CRT LUT fixed old masters with a red tint by adding green-blue, this inverse CRT corrects modern masters with a green-yellow tint by adding red and blue. So examples:

Interstellar


Dunkirk


Dune


Ghostbusters: Afterlife


Original TGTBATU BD


I purposely selected shots that had blue, like the skies, so members could compare and contrast. None of those are rendered yet but will eventually get to the Nolans and maybe GD:A. In general I think the LUT(s) makes them much better with the exception of Dune which loses too much yellow when they get to Arrakis.

Some projects I finished just for fun:

Aliens TC/Aliens TV
 


The Terminator


Both still have green left but now the blue we expect from a Cameron film has been pushed to the forefront. Not sure if either is 100% theatrical accurate but I enjoy watching them more then the official BDs.

[CloakedDragon97]

Really good looking on the Nolan and Villeneuve films but I’ve always thought Cameron’s films look better with the teal IMO. Also is there any way to get this LUT?

[The Aluminum Falcon]

That's fun! I can confirm that Dunkirk looks like the 70mm prints (I did a regrade myself that I never got around to uploading). I saw it both in 70mm and as a DCP and the DCP was just covered in yellow comparatively.

I dig how vibrant Terminator and Aliens are starting to look, not necessarily theatrically accurate as you say but far more balanced...

[Hydra Spectre]

I thought this would add a CRT filter over the entire film. I would love to see that, especially for SD-only movies or films which looked better in SD.
The GKIDS Blu-ray has a 480i LaserDisc-era master of Perfect Blue included as a bonus and I would really love to see a 4K or 1080p upscale of the 480i LaserDisc, in 60fps (with bob deinterlacing and alternating scanlines to truly replicate the CRT effect) to preserve the retro CRT presentation of Perfect Blue. The Dragon Ball series would also be well-preserved with this, apply a CRT filter over SoM's Dragon Box merges. They can even be in HDR.

First, make sure that the display and capture config is in the same refresh rate as the input, then take the raw 480i/480p/720p/1080i DVD/Blu-ray/HDTV remuxes and play them on RetroArch via. the ffmpeg core. Apply a CRT shader for RetroArch (probably the crt-sony-pvm-4k-hdr.slangp if it supports alternating scanlines for interlaced content, if not that, then CRT-Royale with tweaked settings would be great), then record the entire thing in the highest quality possible, ideally with a PC capture card that supports 4K60 and maybe even HDR.
Apply some finalising such as syncing with a widely-available source, then boom.

The CRT effect also smooths out SD and even lower-definition content giving them the illusion of a higher resolution while retaining true to the original intent. It's really great.
I have the ADV Platinum DVDs of Neon Genesis Evangelion, I watched them on a CRT with a DVD player hooked up via. Component and it is just as good, if not even better than the Netflix stream on my 1080p LCD.
I think this will be even better than AI upscaling for older TV/film content. I would especially love to see how this can be applied to LaserDisc and VHS captures.

A good name for this would probably be Project RetroArch, but I am going way too long with this and I may save the rest for a separate thread.

[LucasGodzilla]

I thought this would add a CRT filter over the entire film. I would love to see that, especially for SD-only movies or films which looked better in SD.
The GKIDS Blu-ray has a 480i LaserDisc-era master of Perfect Blue included as a bonus and I would really love to see a 4K or 1080p upscale of the 480i LaserDisc, in 60fps (with bob deinterlacing and alternating scanlines to truly replicate the CRT effect) to preserve the retro CRT presentation of Perfect Blue. The Dragon Ball series would also be well-preserved with this, apply a CRT filter over SoM's Dragon Box merges. They can even be in HDR.

First, make sure that the display and capture config is in the same refresh rate as the input, then take the raw 480i/480p/720p/1080i DVD/Blu-ray/HDTV remuxes and play them on RetroArch via. the ffmpeg core. Apply a CRT shader for RetroArch (probably the crt-sony-pvm-4k-hdr.slangp if it supports alternating scanlines for interlaced content, if not that, then CRT-Royale with tweaked settings would be great), then record the entire thing in the highest quality possible, ideally with a PC capture card that supports 4K60 and maybe even HDR.
Apply some finalising such as syncing with a widely-available source, then boom.

The CRT effect also smooths out SD and even lower-definition content giving them the illusion of a higher resolution while retaining true to the original intent. It's really great.
I have the ADV Platinum DVDs of Neon Genesis Evangelion, I watched them on a CRT with a DVD player hooked up via. Component and it is just as good, if not even better than the Netflix stream on my 1080p LCD.
I think this will be even better than AI upscaling for older TV/film content. I would especially love to see how this can be applied to LaserDisc and VHS captures.

A good name for this would probably be Project RetroArch, but I am going way too long with this and I may save the rest for a separate thread.

Bit of a minor bump, I know, but I only saw this post now LOL

Whilst a CRT emulation like the kind you see with RetroArch I think is fantastic for retro videos games like Doom and the likes, I'd sooner say that for movies you'd have better results if you tried to emulate film (at least for titles that had a proper theatrical run).

So for something like Perfect Blue, supposing the BD isn't too overtly scuffed (I recall hearing it's a victim of DNR & Sharpening), one could try upscaling, regraining with a 35mm grain plate, apply some sort of release print stock emulation, and then softening slightly so you'd have a faux-filmic UHD. Maybe if you're lucky, someone can also sync a theatrical DTS disc (I presume they exist since it came out in '97) for a truer experience.

Would love to see a print of that movie crop up one day though instead of a GKIDS DCP.

[Hydra Spectre]

I thought this would add a CRT filter over the entire film. I would love to see that, especially for SD-only movies or films which looked better in SD.
The GKIDS Blu-ray has a 480i LaserDisc-era master of Perfect Blue included as a bonus and I would really love to see a 4K or 1080p upscale of the 480i LaserDisc, in 60fps (with bob deinterlacing and alternating scanlines to truly replicate the CRT effect) to preserve the retro CRT presentation of Perfect Blue. The Dragon Ball series would also be well-preserved with this, apply a CRT filter over SoM's Dragon Box merges. They can even be in HDR.

First, make sure that the display and capture config is in the same refresh rate as the input, then take the raw 480i/480p/720p/1080i DVD/Blu-ray/HDTV remuxes and play them on RetroArch via. the ffmpeg core. Apply a CRT shader for RetroArch (probably the crt-sony-pvm-4k-hdr.slangp if it supports alternating scanlines for interlaced content, if not that, then CRT-Royale with tweaked settings would be great), then record the entire thing in the highest quality possible, ideally with a PC capture card that supports 4K60 and maybe even HDR.
Apply some finalising such as syncing with a widely-available source, then boom.

The CRT effect also smooths out SD and even lower-definition content giving them the illusion of a higher resolution while retaining true to the original intent. It's really great.
I have the ADV Platinum DVDs of Neon Genesis Evangelion, I watched them on a CRT with a DVD player hooked up via. Component and it is just as good, if not even better than the Netflix stream on my 1080p LCD.
I think this will be even better than AI upscaling for older TV/film content. I would especially love to see how this can be applied to LaserDisc and VHS captures.

A good name for this would probably be Project RetroArch, but I am going way too long with this and I may save the rest for a separate thread.

Bit of a minor bump, I know, but I only saw this post now LOL

Whilst a CRT emulation like the kind you see with RetroArch I think is fantastic for retro videos games like Doom and the likes, I'd sooner say that for movies you'd have better results if you tried to emulate film (at least for titles that had a proper theatrical run).

So for something like Perfect Blue, supposing the BD isn't too overtly scuffed (I recall hearing it's a victim of DNR & Sharpening), one could try upscaling, regraining with a 35mm grain plate, apply some sort of release print stock emulation, and then softening slightly so you'd have a faux-filmic UHD. Maybe if you're lucky, someone can also sync a theatrical DTS disc (I presume they exist since it came out in '97) for a truer experience.

Would love to see a print of that movie crop up one day though instead of a GKIDS DCP.

Perfect Blue comes with two presentations on the GKIDS Blu-ray: the DNR'd "remastered" main presentation and a bonus original presentation in letterboxed SD 480i.
I assume some tweaking was done for the HD version so the bonus SD version may be the original version.
Also, the original audio mix was mono, though the LaserDisc release had a Dolby Digital 5.1 remix that sounded better than the future Blu-ray versions.

And also, I think CRT emulation would be great for TV series like Dragon Ball or the extended cuts of F*R*I*E*N*D*S.

[Beber]

@PDB, have you ever tried your CRT LUT on the 2015 "Terminator 2" Blu-ray? I wonder if it would bring it back to the theatrical color timing since it would remove the extreme magenta push. It would have to keep the cyan and purplish blue areas at night, though. And I suppose reducing the reds would bring the fire and explosions back to their more yellow state.

[PDB]

@PDB, have you ever tried your CRT LUT on the 2015 "Terminator 2" Blu-ray? I wonder if it would bring it back to the theatrical color timing since it would remove the extreme magenta push. It would have to keep the cyan and purplish blue areas at night, though. And I suppose reducing the reds would bring the fire and explosions back to their more yellow state.

Yes, I have. The old and new Cameron masters don't line up the whole old red (CRT) LUTs or new yellow/green (Inverse) LUTs much to my frustration. I was also hoping for an easy fix but its not there with my tools.

[Beber]

Okay. I figured. That would have been too good to be true, uh?