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Dirty Harry - Color Regrade and New 5.1 remix project (Released)

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 (Edited)

This is a project I have been slowly working on for a while. It started months ago when I ripped the mono tracks from the laserdiscs and VHS tapes of the Dirty Harry movies. I toyed around with remixing the soundtrack with the original Mono elements. I have improved upon it since this video, but here is a taste from Magnum Force:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLYbDGdkGzk

Inspired by several regrading projects on this site, I wanted to regrade the teal and sometimes over saturated blu ray from 2008 back to a more subdued color pallet (similar to how it may have looked on 35mm) like the one found in early home video releases, and also on the 2002 dvd release. Here is the first 2 minutes of the movie:
https://vimeo.com/367003359
(password is: ot)

I plan to do at least the first 3 movies like this.

Hello, although I have uploaded many things in the past, my Mega account was taken down recently. If you are looking for something I’ve previously said I uploaded, I may not have it anymore or know where it is. I’m sorry

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Man, I dig that regrade! Talk about déjà vu 😃
The teal Blu always bugged me.

You really only need to hang mean bastards,
but mean bastards you need to hang.

John ‘The Hangman’ Ruth

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Ronster said:

over saturated, get the saturation right first before re-grading

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkqF0EED6AA

These films never looked good so colorful why make them over saturated now?

shift cyan towards blue more Highlights are blown on the source.

Oh yeah, I still have it way too saturated. And that Youtube video is darker than the DVD I’m using (at least it looks like it), I have several DVDs/VHS/Laserdiscs of the movie. I think the full screen DVD from 1998 has that darker saturation/color grading as well, so I might use that. I’m getting the original JP laserdisc of DH soon, which might be the same transfer as the old rental tape (which was taken directly from a print), so that might be a useful reference as well.

Hello, although I have uploaded many things in the past, my Mega account was taken down recently. If you are looking for something I’ve previously said I uploaded, I may not have it anymore or know where it is. I’m sorry

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kchrules said:

Ronster said:

over saturated, get the saturation right first before re-grading

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkqF0EED6AA

These films never looked good so colorful why make them over saturated now?

shift cyan towards blue more Highlights are blown on the source.

Oh yeah, I still have it way too saturated. And that Youtube video is darker than the DVD I’m using (at least it looks like it), I have several DVDs/VHS/Laserdiscs of the movie. I think the full screen DVD from 1998 has that darker saturation/color grading as well, so I might use that. I’m getting the original JP laserdisc of DH soon, which might be the same transfer as the old rental tape (which was taken directly from a print), so that might be a useful reference as well.

From what it seemed in your uploads that 1979 VHS tape was too yellow looking

Raccoons

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SpacemanDoug said:
From what it seemed in your uploads that 1979 VHS tape was too yellow looking

Yeah, maybe I need to re rip it, or the LD is graded different?

Anyway, here are screencaps from the Full Screen dvd from 1997:
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screenshot

Is this closer to what I should aim for color wise? It seems to me the most well rounded in terms of color and not too saturated. The Widescreen version on the same disc is much more saturated.

Hello, although I have uploaded many things in the past, my Mega account was taken down recently. If you are looking for something I’ve previously said I uploaded, I may not have it anymore or know where it is. I’m sorry

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https://vimeo.com/371054639/5a71498441
Here is a new crack at it. I used the aforementioned FS DVD as the color source. It’s the same 2:20 as before. The big video on the top half is the re-grade/re-color, the video on the bottom left is the untouched blu ray, and bottom right is the FS DVD (which I tried to emulate)

Hello, although I have uploaded many things in the past, my Mega account was taken down recently. If you are looking for something I’ve previously said I uploaded, I may not have it anymore or know where it is. I’m sorry

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 (Edited)

kchrules said:

https://vimeo.com/371054639/5a71498441
Here is a new crack at it. I used the aforementioned FS DVD as the color source. It’s the same 2:20 as before. The big video on the top half is the re-grade/re-color, the video on the bottom left is the untouched blu ray, and bottom right is the FS DVD (which I tried to emulate)

This grade looks really good and the blue color of the pool is a lot better, though I think the cyans have been pushed too dark in some places. While what you have there looks a lot better than the Blu-ray, I think you’ve replicated the DVD a bit too closely perhaps. The blue tones should maybe be kept lighter and a bit less magenta. The sky in some shots looks almost purple in the DVD, and I’m not sure if that necessarily should be replicated verbatim.

Also, in the first shot of the scope cross-hairs in front of the woman, the furniture she walks by that looks teal in the Blu-ray and and is blue in the DVD still looks teal in your grade. I’m curious why that would be.

And are some of the highlights blown out? I can’t really tell, but many shots have highlights that seem oddly brighter than both the Blu-ray and the DVD, like the buildings in the slow zoom-out shot. Some areas on the buildings just look white where they appear to have some color in the other sources.

Overall this looks great, and I can’t wait to see any progress you make on it.

EDIT: By the way, could you post some screencaps of the widescreen side of the DVD for comparison?

Army of Darkness: The Medieval Deadit | The Terminator - Color Regrade | The Wrong Trousers - Audio Preservation
SONIC RACES THROUGH THE GREEN FIELDS.
THE SUN RACES THROUGH A BLUE SKY FILLED WITH WHITE CLOUDS.
THE WAYS OF HIS HEART ARE MUCH LIKE THE SUN. SONIC RUNS AND RESTS; THE SUN RISES AND SETS.
DON’T GIVE UP ON THE SUN. DON’T MAKE THE SUN LAUGH AT YOU.

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Doesn’t look perfect, probably a little too close to the DVD, but it looks vastly superior to the blu-ray color timing, especially the skies since they don’t look green anymore

Raccoons

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kchrules said:

https://vimeo.com/371054639/5a71498441
Here is a new crack at it. I used the aforementioned FS DVD as the color source. It’s the same 2:20 as before. The big video on the top half is the re-grade/re-color, the video on the bottom left is the untouched blu ray, and bottom right is the FS DVD (which I tried to emulate)

Whilst I think It looks good… Try now to bring in the red and the green to a similar level in the bluray but without ruining the way you have it looking now…

So a subtle boost of red and green. Look at scorpio’s hair and the trees on the roof from the Blu ray.

Not as over accentuated as the Blu Ray but some of what it has…

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I went to a screening of a I.B. Technicolor print of this film yesterday and surprisingly it was actually quite close to the Blu-ray in terms of colour although it depends on the scene. The blue on the Blu-ray is definitely a tad strong and the highlights now have teal in them but the other colours and the saturation are pretty close to the print. The print was quite warm, especially the bank robbery scene which was darker and warmer on the print than on the Blu-ray, making it seem like it was ocurring in the late afternoon. The night scenes in particular look very close to the print, the daytime exteriors are quite good and the interior scenes are generally the least accurate. The DVD doesn’t look anything at all like the print I saw, it is too bright and the colours are washed out. I would have taken some photos and video but I didn’t find this thread until after the screening. I hope this information helps.

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slumberdore said:

I went to a screening of a I.B. Technicolor print of this film yesterday and surprisingly it was actually quite close to the Blu-ray in terms of colour although it depends on the scene. The blue on the Blu-ray is definitely a tad strong and the highlights now have teal in them but the other colours and the saturation are pretty close to the print. The print was quite warm, especially the bank robbery scene which was darker and warmer on the print than on the Blu-ray, making it seem like it was ocurring in the late afternoon. The night scenes in particular look very close to the print, the daytime exteriors are quite good and the interior scenes are generally the least accurate. The DVD doesn’t look anything at all like the print I saw, it is too bright and the colours are washed out. I would have taken some photos and video but I didn’t find this thread until after the screening. I hope this information helps.

That is helpful, thank you. Seems much like Batman 1989, the home releases were probably de-saturated and toyed with meaning the blu-ray (which in both is heavily blue) is more accurate

Hello, although I have uploaded many things in the past, my Mega account was taken down recently. If you are looking for something I’ve previously said I uploaded, I may not have it anymore or know where it is. I’m sorry

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I did a resync for all the analog tracks + the digital track of dead pool. Not sure if u did that already or not.

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springfeel said:

I did a resync for all the analog tracks + the digital track of dead pool. Not sure if u did that already or not.

Not a resync of Dead Pool no. The rest of them yeah, but I have not had time to work on any of my projects as of recent.

Hello, although I have uploaded many things in the past, my Mega account was taken down recently. If you are looking for something I’ve previously said I uploaded, I may not have it anymore or know where it is. I’m sorry

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Any chance I could get the Dirty Harry films on BD-R discs? I’m a huge fan of these films and love the old mono tracks. I don’t see them getting a release any time soon.

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kchrules said:

SpacemanDoug said:
From what it seemed in your uploads that 1979 VHS tape was too yellow looking

Yeah, maybe I need to re rip it, or the LD is graded different?

Anyway, here are screencaps from the Full Screen dvd from 1997:
screenshot
screenshot
screenshot

Is this closer to what I should aim for color wise? It seems to me the most well rounded in terms of color and not too saturated. The Widescreen version on the same disc is much more saturated.

Can you give me the link for this,please? 😃

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kchrules, was there any progress on this one?

You really only need to hang mean bastards,
but mean bastards you need to hang.

John ‘The Hangman’ Ruth

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This is more of a question of the original mono tracks from the LaserDisc for all five Dirty Harry movies for the BD releases. Might there exist BD25s or guides on how to sync it up with the retail BDs? Don’t want to veer too far off this thread topic.
This regrade is nice but not very interested in the 5.1, unless if it isn’t the original cinema audio. Really hoping Warner Brothers will have Dirty Harry on 4K UHD with Blu-ray disc for a new remaster. Maybe even do an Unforgiven where the included BD is also remastered. This is more speculation than anything.

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The original mono or stereo tracks require edits to be in sync with the BD, + they require the center channel of the 5.1 to keep the sync double checked, as some LD scenes have additional frames but the audio is untouched.

One wish indeed they materialise on 4K, with both the mono and stereo original tracks included, but one doubt it since this is Warner. You’ll get the exact same tracks as before. Check out the Eastwood thread on the other forum for more information.