Spaced Ranger said:

I am still perplexed by the appearance of "recombination noise". In my assorted proof-of-concepts of the HSL-mix technique, I haven't come across this kind of anomaly. (Although it did prompt the further development of the process -- normalizing the Lightness spectrum between the sources. That alone was worth the work.)

Can you link to non-recompressed, full-sized caps in .PNG format of that exact frame from the Blu-ray (1920x1080) and the Criterion (letterbox) Laserdisc (720x480)? Even if you're not going to consider this approach, I'd like to look into the problem. (Thanks.)

Thanks for the demo and hard work Spaced Ranger. Sorry for the late response, I've been out of town. That's a great detail technical read. Unfortunately, I can get you PNG for that scene with the Blu-ray and Pan and Scan laserdisc. I don't have that particular scene yet with the Criterion yet (only have a copy of the first side so far). But when I get it I will send it your way. If noise is the problem, the Criterion may not be much more help since it is very soft and noisy.

Following up what captainsolo said about the Director's Cut laserdisc, Jonno did some research and found some interesting information in Sammon's Future Noir: Making of Blade Runner:

"There was a last-minute processing error affecting theatrical prints, so some reels looked darker than others.

On the subject of the CAV DC laserdisc, Sammon is quite a fan. In fact he goes so far as to say, "The imagistic and audio qualities of this disc far surpassed those of the BRDC seen in motion picture theaters!"

More specifically, The CAV BRDC laserdisc features warm colors and rich hues that faithfully reproduce the original Blade Runner theatrical viewing experience far better than prior video editions. "

The warmer colors comment is funny since that is the way the other LDs look and totally contrary to the BRs which are clearly darker and colder.