[In progress] The Dark Knight full 4K IMAX 1.43:1 restoration

[Hitcher]

For me it's No.4.

[bobbster574]

thanks for the input!

ngl i was half expecting people to say there was no real difference lol so this is v helpful to hear

[weirdlonda]

so when should we expect a full release of this version?

[Bilbofett]

Changed my answer to #3, 4 is too bright. 1 and 2 have some black crush and artifacting in the backgrounds. 3 is a good balance.

[bobbster574]

Changed my answer to #3, 4 is too bright. 1 and 2 have some black crush and artifacting in the backgrounds. 3 is a good balance.

haha the brightness can be tweaked if need be but from overall im hearing a bunch of 4s and a bit of 3s and after some personal reflection and a bit of looking into it im probably going to do something in the middle. sort of.

so when should we expect a full release of this version?

so this is something ive been trying to ascertain over the last couple weeks. ive been on 2 fairly big tangents with it but ive got some idea.

if i am to continue on the current path, my current estimate is 6 months. a big reason for that is that the current plan is to enhance the bonus disc and bluray footage with upscaling, similar to what ive done with the DVD but a lot more restrained, ive got a new model ive tweaked which offers similar image characteristics to the 4KBR albeit with less detail but thats expected. the issue is that my current hardware is a bit limited and so im expecting to spend 3 solid months just upscaling

now so i can cut those ~3 months out, all the footage would look about what number 3 looks like. and im considering that because i could probably get it out very early next year, and when you look at the differences in 2K is kinda minor (for reference ive been mostly inspecting the ~6K upscaled outputs so the difference is much bigger there)

i should mention thats with the context that i am 100% not stopping there, i am going to go and do the 4K version. which i will definitely want to upscale everything anyway, but by my current estimates the 4K version is going to take me likely over a year. ive already accepted that bits going to be kinda a long haul type project and so i want to get the 2K version out so its there and i can point to it bc itll probably be decent for a lot of ppl (esp if watching on 1080p/1440p display).

my thought process is as follows:
- try my best to finish the 2K version (hopefully january release). maybe not perfect quality but should be on par with 2KBR.
- spend some time diving into some enhancement ideas ive had
- get the 4K project all set up
- slowly work on the 4K version, maybe having intermediate renders available for anyone who wants to see how its going/offer feedback/etc
- finish the 4K version, and reissue the 2K version for a probably kinda small but still nice nonetheless quality boost from all the 4K downscale

obv this isnt set in stone if anyone has any thoughts on the matter but my mind is leaning there. (sorry if this ended up sounding a bit rambly lol )

[bobbster574]

hiya! 
 
been a while, so i thought id give an update on wuts been going on and where im at.

ive basically finished all of the IMAX shots, and im in the process of rendering out v1. im rendering it out in chapters to chunk it out and so i can check it as i go (and for the occasional issue ive missed i can fix it relatively quickly)

atm ive rendered just over half of the film; once thats done ill need to encode it so no one needs to deal with a 300+ GiB file. ill have AVC and HEVC versions so theres a bit of choice

as so much of it is effectively done, i thought i might as well share the prologue of the film so you have a decently long preview before i finish the whole film.
 if you want, the original file is available to download (AVC @ 34Mbps + 5.1 audio)

if you spot any issues ive missed, then by all means let me know, and ofc feel free to ask any questions you have

[Hitcher]

Grabbed the download to check it on my TV and it's looking amazing. Keep up the great work.

[bobbster574]

heyo!

turns out encoding a 2hr30min film multiple times takes a while

for now, i consider v1.0 to be done! i plan to continue the project, hopefully getting to 4K, but lots of stuff is going on and i would like to play around with some other project ideas so this is going on the backburner. but, you know, i think v1.0 is pretty decent as it is.

currently, i have 3 presentations:

1. 1.43:1 container [2048x1432] - this is as it is presented in IMAX 70mm. the 2.40:1 scenes are heavily letterboxed and presented constant width. i would probably say this is the intended presentation of the project, but ofc the others are there if you prefer

2. 16:9 container [2560x1440] - this is as the sequences are presented on the special edition bonus Blu-ray, and also how BvS' IMAX 4KBR is presented. the 1.43:1 scenes are pillarboxed, the 2.40:1 scenes are letterboxed. imo this doesnt manage to maintain the relative scale of the IMAX footage, but each frame fills a 16:9 screen as much as it can, and presented in 1440p as to maintain IMAX detail with the other versions (2.40:1 scenes are not enhanced at all from 1080p source)

3. 16:10 crop [2048x1280] - this presentation is designed to be in the middle of the other two. its presented constant width, but the IMAX scenes are cropped to 16:10. this offers noticably more image than the 16:9 crop on the Blu-ray, but doesnt have the extreme pillar/windowboxing you get with the 1.43:1 container. also if you have a 16:10 screen, this gives a Blu-ray like experience by filling your screen. note the footage has been properly reframed and isnt just centre cropped.

all are available in 3 sizes:

1. AVC (h.264) [~37GiB] - large file but high quality and should be very compatible
2. HEVC (h.265) [~22GiB] - around the same quality, but a smaller file.
3. HEVC compact [~5GiB] - lower (but still good) quality, much smaller file. DTS-HD track encoded to FLAC to save space.

all files include a Dolby Digital 5.1 track for compatibility, as well as SDH subtitles.

im not sure how you guys prefer to do your releases, so for now ig PM me?

also i made trailer 3 into IMAX if youre interested https://youtu.be/VzPyhTXPvyw?si=XiYvxty18WCnsmyJ

[X5gb]

Loving your work on this project, bobbster578, but one issue I have is the frame rate appears to be variable rather than a constant 23.976fps (at least on the 16:9 AVC one I grabbed) which is causing micro stutters (al least during the first Imax sequence) on my setup which is a htpc server connected to a shield pro.

Was this an intentional choice or is this an issue with an incorrect encoding. Is anyone else getting issues with this variable frame rate.

[bobbster574]

Loving your work on this project, bobbster578, but one issue I have is the frame rate appears to be variable rather than a constant 23.976fps (at least on the 16:9 AVC one I grabbed) which is causing micro stutters (al least during the first Imax sequence) on my setup which is a htpc server connected to a shield pro.

Was this an intentional choice or is this an issue with an incorrect encoding. Is anyone else getting issues with this variable frame rate.

i dont have anything like a setup like that so i wont be able to try and replicate the issue properly, but the VFR encoding has posed no issue for me, and it is also based off a CFR render so i would guess its VFR in name/metadata only? idk, not an expert on that element of encoding.

regardless, the 16:9 presentation has an audio sync issue which i am currently working to resolve. looks like i will need to re-render anyway so i can look into encoding these ones in CFR? itll be a couple of days before i can get these uploaded so hang tight