msycamore said:
litemakr said:
This is a comparison I made to demonstrate exposure/gamma problems during the Ark opening sequence. That is by far the most botched scene on the blu-ray. It is kind of shocking how bad some of the shots are once you see how they are supposed to look and how much detail is lost. Wowow is better but still has problems. The DVD has the best exposure and matches the look of the laserdisc.
This also shows a digital tweak to the blu-ray I haven't seen discussed elsewhere.
Note that the descriptions refer to the screenshot below them, not above. I am curious to hear what people think.
Thanks for posting. Your comparisons aren't frame accurate though, in other cases where it's done to show a general timing it may not matter much but in these particular shots where there's a lot of things going on from one frame to the next, it's quite misleading. The contrast and brightness between DVD and Wowow aren't as different as your comparisons lead us to believe. Just an example...
As you can see the Wowow isn't any brighter, the DVD in this shot is actually a bit warmer and more contrasty.
And this is fucking ridiculous. What about the light in the left corner of the frame, will that one be lit on the next release? It seems like the filmmaker's still can't decide on how they want their film presented, or is it just the computer nerds who call themselves "restoration artists" who simply cannot leave the fx-work alone?
litemakr said:
What did Spielberg tweak in the opening? The boulder shots?
Except for the altered boulder shots, the only concrete I've heard is the minor info we got from producer Frank Marshall in the radio interview the year before release...
"Frank Marshall, the producer of all 4 films, was on "Geek Time" and said the transfers for the blu-rays are done and approved by Spielberg with modifications. All he said was changed was the brightness during the jungle chase at the beginning of the film. Spielberg felt it was too dark. He gave no release date..." http://raven.theraider.net/showthread.php?t=21508
Unfortunately I can't find the broadcast any longer, we discussed some of this here: http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Re-mixed-audio-tracks-on-video-releases/post/579169/#TopicPost579169
You are right about that frame being slightly off. My main point was the difference in the blu-ray, not the wowow, although I still think the wowow is slightly brighter in your frames (look at the sand and curtains on the left). Regardless, the wowow looks acceptable but the blu-ray is too bright for that entire sequence.
And yes, the continuous tweaking is annoying, made even more so because now they just deny they are doing it. Spielberg made a big deal about the blu-ray being a "warts and all" restoration of the theatrical version and it couldn't be further from the truth. New digital changes, new color, new gamma, new sound mix. There is nothing original about it.