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Post #301295

Author
Moth3r
Parent topic
Info & Info Wanted: GOUT film grain
Link to post in topic
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/301295/action/topic#301295
Date created
14-Nov-2007, 10:04 AM

A few days ago I was discussing the level of grain in the GOUT DVDs with a couple of people. Looking round on teh interweb, I saw a statement on the Doom9 forum: “many cinemaphiles adore heavy grain these days”. This got me questioning the preconceptions I had about “film grain”.

I always knew that there are some benefits in having a bit of grain in the image:

  • it reduces the appearance of macro-blocking in backgrounds
  • it breaks up any banding or false contour compression artefacts
  • it gives the illusion of increased detail and texture

There are also some occasions where artifical film grain is digitally added to video, for example, to match CGI sequences with live action film.

The problem is that grain, due to its randomness, is difficult to retain when compressing video - you either have to increase the bitrate or reduce the overall quality. This is why, generally, most people who encode video perform some grain reduction or removal as a matter of course. These days, we have highly developed motion-compensated grain reduction tools at our disposal. Viewers have become accustomed to the “smooth” look.

But it doesn’t have to be that way any more. There’s now an AviSynth filter to optimize grain so that it’s efficiently retained by encoders without having to increase the bitrate. There are developments in film grain technology for h.264 and HD DVD.

Now: about the GOUT DVDs. Notwithstanding all the other defects present on these discs, there are three schools of thought on the heavy grain issue:

  • the “artificial grain has been added in post” conspiracy
  • it’s a side effect of sourcing the DVDs from the LD pressing masters - sharpness and edge enhancement were cranked up for the LDs which emphasises the grain on the DVDs.
  • the films were always that grainy, and the image on the GOUT DVDs is consistent with their theatrical presentations (as demonstrated by the 70mm film cell scans)

So, I want to hear your opinions. Do you consider the grain to be excessive or authentic? Given the option, would you prefer to watch a grainy GOUT or a grain-filtered GOUT?