kk650's Star Wars Saga: Regraded and Semi-Specialized (Released) — Page 22

nightstalkerpoet said:

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/112470

Looks GREAT kk650 :)

Thanks nightstalkerpoet! Yes I agree, quite the difference and certainly for the better, no more blanket yellow tint.

When I did V2.1 I was kinda fixated on the idea of using pretty much the same settings from Star Wars for Empire Strikes Back, removing as much blue as I did with Star Wars. What it actually did was create a blanket yellow tint as you pointed out because a lot of that blue is actually meant to be there for Empire Strikes Back. Now I know that all three films require quite different settings, with Empire Strikes Back especially needing completely different settings from Star Wars and Return of the Jedi.

It's primarily because of you and your feedback about the V2.1 release that I came to that realisation so thank you! :)

_,,,^..^,,,_ said:

nightstalkerpoet said:

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/112470

Looks GREAT kk650 :)

Agree! Faces were a bit too yellow in V2.1 (at least, in my uncalibrated small monitor) while they seem perfectly healthy in V2.2! (^^,)

Personally, I think to preserve grain it's better, for a 1080p version, to stay above 16mbps - or more likely above 20mbps; so, a smaller size would not retain all the grain... IMHO of course!

Thanks for the feedback Andrea!

I agree 100% about staying above 16mbps to preserve the grain as much as possible, that's what i've found from experience as well. That said, an 8gb regrained release of TPM will still look much better than a DNRed 8gb release, even if the grain is not fully preserved, so if there was interest in such a release I wouldn't have any problem creating it.

Hal 9000 said:

For your version of Empire, have you addressed the SE continuity error with the windows on Cloud City immediately prior to the reveal that Lando had been working with Vader?

Hal, I just went to check out what you meant. I assume you're talking about the transparent window that they go past before reaching the door before the Vader reveal? The transparent window as they're going past is actually a more visually interesting shot IMHO than what was in the GOUT, where the window is not transparent at all and is actually a pretty dull background in general for such a well crafted film visually, seems pretty lazy, which is I imagine why GL changed it for the SE. A good change in my book.

They didn't continue that change after the Vader reveal which is a pity, it reverts back to the old windows, but those windows are very much in the distant background of the shot with the viewers eyes focused on Han and Vader, so the lack of continuety is not really noticable IMHO, certainly not enough to jarr people out of the film.

I used the blu-ray footage of the transparent window for this shot in my previous versions of Empire Strikes Back and consider it much more interesting visually than the GOUT window, making Cloud City seem more lived in, dynamic and less of a set, a definate improvement IMHO, so that is the footage i'll be using for this V2.2 release, even if it introduces minor continuety issues with the old windows in the background in later shots, the gains outweight that slight issue for me.

_,,,^..^,,,_ said:

Indeed kk, experience teaches a lot! (^^,)

And it's very rewarding to learn many things on your own, doing many tests, spending many time to tweak, fix, adjust any little bits here and there...

Yup thats pretty much how I learnt the majority of what I know as well, by simple trial and error, test, tweak, test, tweak, test, tweak ad infinitum haha :)

nightstalkerpoet said:

I've also found that rendering in x264 using tune grain and veryslow preset is amazing at saving those small details, though again smaller sizes still suffer some

I always use the slowest presets to get the highest image quality possible, that tune grain is an encoding option that I don't think the program I use allows you to change though.

Okay, just confirming that the new The Phantom Menace 20-21GB release will be regraded as well as regrained, i've just finalised the settings.

nightstalkerpoet said:

That's been my only issue with you releases is i have to reencode to make a disc. So i lose quality :-( 

mkvs are meant to have the black bars on the top and bottom removed. I've personally found from experience that removing the black bars also noticably increases the overall image quality of an encode of the same size.

I recommend using a laptop to stream directly onto your TV like I do or get a player like a patriot box office or popcorn hour to play mkvs natively, then you'll get to enjoy the encodes with as good quality as possible without any need for conversion.

I don't rule out creating bd25/bd50 versions of these Semi Specialised Editions at some point in the future but first i'd like to get the Cinema DTS tracks for the three OT movies done.

I'd also like to see what materialises in terms of 4k remastered releases of the SE original trilogy/unaltered original trilogy this year so I have a better idea of what sources are available and whether these Semi Specialised Editions should be redone using those improved 4k sources.

kk650 said:

I'd also like to see what materialises in terms of 4k remastered releases of the SE original trilogy/unaltered original trilogy this year so I have a better idea of what sources are available and whether these Semi Specialised Editions should be redone using those improved 4k sources.

 It would be great. Obviously, first and foremost just to have the OOT would be amazing. But for anyone wanting to make a semi-specialized, the process would become very straight forward. We would probably end up seeing a ton, with everyone's slight preferences depicted (as with Superman II, for instance).

towne32 said:

kk650 said:

I'd also like to see what materialises in terms of 4k remastered releases of the SE original trilogy/unaltered original trilogy this year so I have a better idea of what sources are available and whether these Semi Specialised Editions should be redone using those improved 4k sources.

 It would be great. Obviously, first and foremost just to have the OOT would be amazing. But for anyone wanting to make a semi-specialized, the process would become very straight forward. We would probably end up seeing a ton, with everyone's slight preferences depicted (as with Superman II, for instance).

I hope it ends up being as straightforward as an editing job only but if modern blu-ray releases are anything to go by, I imagine something's going to be wrong with the colours again.

Fingers crossed they'll get the colours right this time and there'll be nothing to do in terms of colour grading but i've been burned so many times over the last few years with new blu-ray releases, especially 4k remastered releases, that I had high hopes for that now I always expect the worst.

nightstalkerpoet said:

Hey, kk650 - did you add grain to ANH, and if so what grain plugin/settings are you using? Just watched all of ANH, and my only complaint is that the grain is a bit strong in it. Is there a chance that added grain is conflicting with any grain that is already present?

No grain was added to Star Wars, all the grain you're seeing there is straight from the blu-ray.

What you're seeing is the somewhat static 'frozen' grain that was added by Lowry when they restored the Original Trilogy in 2004 and ended up on the blu-rays, it lacks that organic constantly changing feel of natural film grain. Hopefully the 4k remasters of the OT when they come out will fix that and have a nice natural looking organic grain structure.

Delayed in providing feedback but we just finished finally watching the newest SW semi-specialized this past weekend and it's definitely the best we've got for this version until like everyone hopes that a proper 4k is released.  Great job on everything thus far and anxious to see the finished product for ESB and ROTJ!

kitt1987 said:

Delayed in providing feedback but we just finished finally watching the newest SW semi-specialized this past weekend and it's definitely the best we've got for this version until like everyone hopes that a proper 4k is released.  Great job on everything thus far and anxious to see the finished product for ESB and ROTJ!

Thanks kitt1987, fantastic to get some feedback on V2.2! With V2.2 Star Wars certainly looks the best I can make it look using the current blu-rays as the main source, very much looking forward to the 4k releases to get back to work again! :)

Just finishing up with John Wick and Gone Girl, then i'll get round to creating The Empire Strikes Back Semi-Specialised Edition V2.2, i've already finalised the settings so it shouldn't be long.

kk650 said:

Just finishing up with John Wick and Gone Girl, then i'll get round to creating The Empire Strikes Back Semi-Specialised Edition V2.2, i've already finalised the settings so it shouldn't be long.

 Saw you posted those movies about a month back and some other movies since then, any word on if we'll be seeing Empire soon? :) Thanks!

Quick update from kk over at tehparadox:

After Interstellar my next release will be The Empire Striked Back Semi-Specialised Edition V2.2 16gb version and soon after the Return of the Jedi Semi-Specialised Edition V2.2 15gb version so no worries, I definately intend to release them. After this release they are my top priority.