Also wondering if any of the previous betas are any better than v1.0. I know there was a sharpening mistake that happened for v1.0, and I wonder if maybe Beta 5 didn’t have this issue and possibly looks better as a result.
That issue is in every beta, it happened during the initial cleanup stage of the print.
Man, that is such a shame. What’s worse is that you can literally see it happen. The first reel isn’t affected by it and looks far better than the rest of the film. I know v1.0 just came out, but toggling between this and 4K77/4K83, I just can’t help but feel like this could be so much improved. I hope they get a better source down the road and can do the original version of the film a bit more justice.
There are better sources available now and there will be a v2.0 at some point in the future, understandably however it won’t be done for a while since releasing v1.0 took a lot of effort and it’s likely Rob will want a rest before committing tons of time to cleaning ESB prints again.