[This thought came to me over at the THX 1138 thread and I've copied the back-and-forth here for any further exploration] ..

poita said:

In reality though when watching a movie, no one will see it ... But I can't help it, knowing it is there is enough to irk me.

And it's worse if you've actually seen it once. Like first the time I watched the newly acquired 2001: A Space Odyssey in high def. The TV wasn't wasn't properly set up (I was playing with it) and I saw this ..

.. instead of this ..

What!? I had seen "behind the curtain" and saw ... the title board? From Stanley Kubrick? Genius? Perfectionist? And I just saw a sloppy overlay? Ever since, I can't watch 2001 without subconsciously scrutinizing every little corner to spot more poorly-joined seams.

SilverWook said:

There are issues with the HD master of 2001. You're not supposed to be seeing the seams in the front projection screen used for The Dawn of Man sequence. They were never visible in 70mm, and they sure as heck shouldn't be now.

... I think their monitors weren't calibrated and they pushed the film beyond reasonable limits. I just grabbed the DVD (Warner 1999) and it shows the title board more plain (just like with the above downloaded HD image, when I paint-program pushed it to duplicate my maladjusted TV) ..

I wonder if this would show on the laserdisc, too (the Kubrick approved, Criterion Collection one PDB is using at the 2001 thread)?