Here's what you get when you re-map the blue channel so that 255 goes to 200 linearly:

original DVD:

Much too yellow

Avisynth code:

luma=last

ConvertToRGB()

r=ShowRed()
g=ShowGreen()
b=ShowBlue().Levels(0, 1, 255, 0, 200)

MergeRGB(r,g,b)

ConvertToYV12()

MergeChroma(luma,last)

Shouldn't those converts be using matrix="rec709"?

DE

Darth Editous said:

Shouldn't those converts be using matrix="rec709"?

DE

Yes; they should, assuming HD output. 

I actually quite like the yellow look of those screenshots, but only as a new look.

No offense, but that setting not only makes the movie too much yellow, it also makes it even more dark.

And Chewtobacca: On avisynth wiki it says:

The second one (Rec.709) should be used when your source is DVD or HDTV:

ConvertToRGB(clip, matrix="rec709")

So it's not about output but input it seems.

You_Too said:

And Chewtobacca: On avisynth wiki it says:

The second one (Rec.709) should be used when your source is DVD or HDTV:
<pre>ConvertToRGB(clip, matrix="rec709")</pre>

So it's not about output but input it seems.

It should technically be on both. Whatever you play the final output on should be expecting something that's been encoded with the rec709 matrix. The effect of using the wrong matrix is a slight remixing of RGB channels, which you may find gives a result more to your liking anyway.

DE

Thanks for the feedback guys!

Thanks DE, I forgot that avisynth defaults to rec. 601. Stupid!

Here's what you get by setting the blue output from 255 to 235, and overall gamma of 1.2

 

You_Too said:So it's not about output but input it seems.

Whenever you convert from RGB to YUV and back again, you have specify the matrix.  ConverttoYV12() is wrong if you intend to output HD.

Looks much better g-force !

Chewtobacca said:

You_Too said:So it's not about output but input it seems.

Whenever you convert from RGB to YUV and back again, you have specify the matrix.  ConverttoYV12() is wrong if you intend to output HD.

Unless you're happen to like the way it alters the colours - it's still valid in that sense.

DE

pittrek said:

Looks much better g-force !

 Thanks man. Still blinded by the slightly over-yellow but otherwise stellar colors of msycamore's capture.

Now to figure out why the reds are now magenta on the DVD/BRs...

Thought that has been running through MY mind on the topic - what if someone were to simply generate histograms from Adywan's CC'd HD broadcasts and then applied the histograms to the extracted BD files?  Much like the original ideas was with Paul and correcting the DVDs based on the GOUT.  It seems like that would be a better place to start than trying to find a global correction, no?  Only question I would have is of a technical nature - can you demux, CC, and recode without so much loss of data and compression that it ends up being better than the original CC'd HD broadcasts?

LexX said:

The images seem too dark, though.

 Agreed.

Hi g-force. Do you have additional tweaks still planned or is that your "ideal" setting listed above for Star Wars? Thanks for all your work!

Funcha said:

Hi g-force. Do you have additional tweaks still planned or is that your "ideal" setting listed above for Star Wars? Thanks for all your work!

 Sorry, been out of the loop a bit, I didn't even see this post.

Some major progress was made, it seems I was mistaken thinking things were too blue. They are actually too violet. Here is my latest script, it's not 100% yet, but probably as close as I'm gonna get without some feedback:

o4=last
mt_lutxy(o4,o4.Tweak(hue=-90,coring=false,starthue=315,endhue=135),"y",y=2,u=3,v=2)
mt_merge(o4,last,o4,luma=true,y=2,u=3,v=3)
Tweak(hue=-45)
SmoothCurve("0-0;128-158;255-255","0-0;20-0;128-128;255-235","0-62;50-67;100-102;128-125;255-252",dither=100,show=false)
Tweak(hue=50,sat=1.3)

You will need LaTo's plugin Smoothadjust, which you can get here:

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=154971

Anyone willing to try it out and post some screencaps?

-G

Looks nice, from what little I've been able to sample on the MeGui video preview screen. Interestingly enough, I applied your script to Empire and Jedi and browsed a few scenes, which look quite excellent. Empire still maybe just slightly too blue, but overall a HUGE improvement. Vader's saber is a bright red in each too. Are you planning to do a set of settings for the latter two of the OT also? Thanks!

Finally got a chance to take a bit of a more detailed look at some scenes. Haven't rendered a final version yet. The blast flashes and explosions on the Blockade Runner look excellent. Love the saturated rich colors but not sure if they're maybe slightly too saturated. Flesh tones seem to shift slightly toward the sunburned in a few spots (blockade runner troopers). Not sure if that’s just something that would need to be tweaked by scene. The only other thing that seems to stick out to me is there appears to be ever so slight of a green tint to the movie now. Some shadow details appear to almost have a greenish cast, at least to my eyes and 3P0 at times almost appears to have a slightly greenish gold tint. Not sure if that was maybe your intent as I’m hearing supposedly some prints had this tint from others on this forum. Of course, this is very subjective so you may be seeing something entirely different. Thanks for your efforts!

Funcha said:

Finally got a chance to take a bit of a more detailed look at some scenes. Haven't rendered a final version yet. The blast flashes and explosions on the Blockade Runner look excellent. Love the saturated rich colors but not sure if they're maybe slightly too saturated. Flesh tones seem to shift slightly toward the sunburned in a few spots (blockade runner troopers). Not sure if that’s just something that would need to be tweaked by scene. The only other thing that seems to stick out to me is there appears to be ever so slight of a green tint to the movie now. Some shadow details appear to almost have a greenish cast, at least to my eyes and 3P0 at times almost appears to have a slightly greenish gold tint. Not sure if that was maybe your intent as I’m hearing supposedly some prints had this tint from others on this forum. Of course, this is very subjective so you may be seeing something entirely different. Thanks for your efforts!

Thanks for the feedback Funcha! I've had some time to work on this some more recently, and I am torn about the darks being green. It was originally a result of removing the overall magenta/violet tint, and I kinda like how it matches some 70mm prints, but maybe not a good representation of what the colors were intended to look like.

I'm also considering scaling back on the magenta-to-orange a bit, as some things that should be magenta are now just red. I hope to come to a compromise so that the blockade trooper explosions still look good though.

Could you give me a good example of the "sunburned" shift, so I know where to look to check that I don't go too far with anything?

-G

Okay, made some changes. I decreased the overall saturation boost as you suggested Funcha. Here's my most recent color tweaks:

dv1=mt_lutxy(last,last.Tweak(hue=-90,coring=false,starthue=315,endhue=135),"y",y=2,u=3,v=2)
dv2=last.Tweak(hue=-45,coring=false).SmoothCurve("0-0;255-255","0-0;255-255","0-0;128-128;255-128",dither=100,show=false,interp=0).Tweak(hue=45,coring=false)
dv3=mt_merge(dv2,dv1,last,luma=true,y=2,u=3,v=3)
mt_average(last,dv3,y=2,u=3,v=3)
mt_merge(last,last.Tweak(sat=1.5,coring=false),last,luma=true,y=3,u=3,v=3)
Tweak(hue=-45,coring=false)
SmoothCurve("0-0;128-158;255-255","0-0;128-128;255-235","0-20;128-125;255-255",dither=100,show=false)
Tweak(hue=50,sat=1.1,coring=false)

Feedback is much appreciated.

 

-G

skyjedi2005 said:

In Lowry's defense the final color grading was done before it was sent to them and fucked up by Lucas.  They were only given a 1080P master to work with its hard to recover detail that is not there, especially when you dvnr the hell out of a 1080 scan.  That was not even state of the art in 2004, despite the bs claims of the Lucas folks during the hype of the BD release.

Try that would have been state of the art circa 2001.

And would have been excusable for the dvd format because the sins of the dvnr would not show as bad.  To use that same master for the blu rays and not do a new 4k or 8k scan is laughable to say the least.

I couldn't agree more. Not that I personally have much if any love for the SE anyway. You look at all the previous releases - Laserdisc after Laserdisc it was a new Telecine all the time! Then, because Lucas is an arse, he refused to release the 1997 SE on DVD. In 2000, I think, he released the Special Editions on VHS and Laserdisc! How pathetic you don't even release it on the current technological medium. The DVD didn't come until 2004. The bluray didn't come until 2011. That's SEVEN full years later. Lucas has managed to make more changes to the thing, and only he can explain why, and yet he didn't do a new transfer. As for 8k scan, I think 4k would be well enough for these films, after all 1080p does reproduce "nearly all" of the resolution.

Noise Reduction is fine when done properly. Lucas on the other hand always wants far more than should be applied, he basically doesn't want to see evidence of his movie being shot on 35mm, he wants to be able to pretend it was shot in digital.