TServo2049 said:

Grain. Beautiful, beautiful grain. How I've missed you so.

It looks more and more like 4K is driving a stake into the heart of the waxy DNR trend. This is as revelatory as Lawrence of Arabia. (Off-topic, I still don't understand why the HD master of the original Harris restoration of LoA, the one that was used for every DVD release and HDTV broadcast, looked so cloudy and diffused. I swear I heard that the theatrical re-release prints were sharper.)

I think for LoA and Spartacus, the original restorations were photochemical in nature and faded elements are impossible to recover through those means. They had to go up the ladder and use elements that were further away from the negative.

With digital restorations, you have much more power and so they were able to use the original negatives for a much sharper picture.