Project #4K77 — Page 5

There has been some discussion recently and in the past on what the interior of the Tantive IV and the rebel soldier’s uniforms look like. One question asked is, whether the Tantive IV walls are a pure neutral white color? Mike Verta has stated on this subject, that the Tantive IV walls are not a pure white, but sort of an off-white with a hint of mint. Here’s a frame Mike Verta’s shared a few years ago from Legacy:

While production photos cannot be considered an accurate color reference, they can serve as a guide to steer you in the right direction. With regards to the question at hand, this production photo is instructive:

What is revealed, is that the walls in this photograph have a slight mint/teal cast. Since the lamps in Tantive IV emit a somewhat warm yellow light, the overall effect is to make them appear more neutral, but not quite.

Another thing is, that we can clearly distuingish the colors of the rebel soldier’s outfits, with blue/gray shirts, and beige/gray pants.

I’ve been working on refining the latest color grade. Here’s a somewhat larger set of examples of the color grade for the sample video Williarob posted:

The color grading is based on a Technicolor reference print, where I strive to do the grading using multiple shots, to preserve the color relations/variations inherent to the print. For the above sequence of samples a single color correction was used. As such any color variation is inherent to the scan of the reference print (either the scan or print itself).

Beautiful ! You also posted this photo a few months ago : http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/188516.

The colors and the correction I tried to do could be a litte wrong, but accordind to it, there seems to be differents colors in the Tantive IV walls : the walls themself are slighly mint colored, whereas the “boxes” on the walls are off-white but on the yellow side. And there would be a third tint for the door jambs, which are a more neutral white.

Beautiful. Grain all the way!

It looks awesome.
I much prefer the grain version. The denoised version, to me, looks like it’s not quite in focus.

As to using x265… while I agree it is the way of the future, currently playback is problematic for many people including myself. Even though file sizes would be larger using x264 (for equivalent quality) x264 gives most people buttery smooth playback even at a high bitrate. I vote for x264.

Thanks for all your work on this.

oohteedee said:

It looks awesome.
I much prefer the grain version. The denoised version, to me, looks like it’s not quite in focus.

As to using x265… while I agree it is the way of the future, currently playback is problematic for many people including myself. Even though file sizes would be larger using x264 (for equivalent quality) x264 gives most people buttery smooth playback even at a high bitrate. I vote for x264.

Thanks for all your work on this.

I agree. I have a relatively strong computer but I had to reencode the samples so that I can actually watch them with a better framerate than 1fps

Good point, girl

Blackout said:

Here’s a comparison video of the non-DNR clip Williarob posted with the both the SSE and DeEd: https://youtu.be/NN59EkcGtQk
There is one instance where it goes out of sync(presumably due to missing frame(s)), but it’s quickly corrected soon after.

If anyone is interested, I can upload and link the raw video file here for download for viewing without YouTube compression degrading the quality.

Presumably you’ve fixed your synchronization issues now if you’re discussing sync again?

Darn. Would love to see these but they’re not playable from my Vizio M Series. It is picky. 😃

The codec is fine. I believe it is expecting the entire 3840x2160 resolution. Can these be provided utilizing the full pixels?

Sorry, I do not yet have a 4k computer monitor and I do not have a 4k-capable computer hooked up to my Vizio so I must use USB media directly connected to the TV.

Williarob said:

Attention grain lovers. As promised, here is the same extended clip as before, but this time without the DNR:

https://we.tl/jUPOL363xc

I tried to match the brightness and sharpness of the bluray using the video sample with the DNR, the result is slighty underexposed and there’s too much green 😃

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/188627

Just curious, Williarob: is there any overlap between this project and the Team Blu / Poita restoration effort? This would seem to be the ultimate preservation of SW77, will it render Poita’s project moot?

I’d also like to say that, even if The Mouse House embark on their own 4K reissue I still believe yours to be a very worthwhile and essential effort. Disney will still go back to the negative and may well foul up the color timing again while digitally scrubbing the movie within an inch of its life. I love the grain I see here; the mild presence of dirt, the subtle picture weave that speaks directly to my memory of what Star Wars - and film-going - was like in '77. That’s something a glossy modern transfer is very unlikely to achieve.

So I know this is a bit premature, but I gotta ask: any plans to do Empire and Jedi at 4k once this is complete?

Shuggy said:

Just curious, Williarob: is there any overlap between this project and the Team Blu / Poita restoration effort? This would seem to be the ultimate preservation of SW77, will it render Poita’s project moot?

I’d also like to say that, even if The Mouse House embark on their own 4K reissue I still believe yours to be a very worthwhile and essential effort. Disney will still go back to the negative and may well foul up the color timing again while digitally scrubbing the movie within an inch of its life. I love the grain I see here; the mild presence of dirt, the subtle picture weave that speaks directly to my memory of what Star Wars - and film-going - was like in '77. That’s something a glossy modern transfer is very unlikely to achieve.

Great comment! I’d like to echo the question above, but also, there were some stunning Tech IB segments in the SSE 1 and 1.6 (supremely colourful and sharp). Is it likely that they’ll make the transition to this project, or is your Eastman source even better? All the best and thanks as always 😃

Just saw the 4K video samples on my 2560x1600 30" monitor and they are AMAZING! I definitely prefer the non-DNR, but I saw that second and was blown away by the DNR version first. For those having problems playing this, use Windows Media Player, not VLC.