mverta said:
I did this in about 30 seconds. Just took a raw frame, applied a standard but robust de-graining algorithm, and added grain back. Looks a lot like Lowry to me. I'm sticking with this theory because if nothing else, it is 100% certain that noise reduction was used on every shot. But whatever... however it happened, it happened, and is just 1 of a billion travesties in the results.
I'm just interested as to wether it would even be possible to maintain that detail on a BD release no matter what you did, if you want to leave the gate-weave in.
I tried it, and it smears out, just like the BD release.
I don't think it would be possible to keep that detail, and the gate-weave, due to the resolution and compression on a standard Bluray.
BD is still quite limiting with the resolution being relatively low for cinemascope movies, and the compression method (H.264 is pretty damn lossy, and over 10 years old now) results in a lot of detail being lost. Not all of the woes on the BD are due to the methodology used in the reconstruction of the film, or at least, in some cases, like this one, it would make no difference in the end result as it would happen in the encode anyway. e.g. the missing detail in the door seal, some of the macroblocking on the red lights, the burned out highlights mentioned also appear to be burned out on your scan as well etc.
That isn't to say that the Lowry noise-reduction didn't wipe the detail before the encode, but even if they hadn't, I can't see some that detail making onto a BD release. I guess I'm just trying to point out that some of the problems with the BD release are inherent in the medium. Of course a lot of other problems with it are just poor choices, or choices due to economic realities when working on a commercial release. As fans we can take as long as we like, at a company as you have said before, it is a very different story, especially if you know that the final product is a BD and know that format's limitations.
I'm glad you are doing this at 4K and keeping a losslessly compressed master, as a lot of the restoration work would be lost anyway if made into a BD.