I think it would have to be SDR but to me, that’s not really a problem - the colours of 44rh1n’s version are just lovely, so if we could get the best of both worlds - the detail of the UHD or rather EE BD version with the colours of the theatrical BD or EE DVD, I would be perfectly happy.
We watched disc one last night and today, I decided to try playing disc two of 44rh1n’s version instead and almost immediately my mom, who has no idea about colour grading and stuff like that but is a huge fan of LOTR, commented that the colours are much nicer.
So, I don’t have an hdr TV but my folks do, so I took my UHD player along with my LOTR UHD BDs with me for Christmas. We’re watching FOTR now and I definitely don’t like the new grade so far - the Shire looks bland and desaturated. And I don’t like the hdr either - the brighter scenes seriously hurt my eyes and it makes it uncomfortable to watch.
I will keep the UHD Blu-Rays but only so that I can download any fan-versions sourced from them.
Yeah, the more I look at these, the more disappointed I am. I think I actually will be sticking to Blu-Ray for my viewing, at least for TTT and ROTK and for FOTR, I might actually stick to 44rh1n’s version, because I looked at it again yesterday and even though the detail level is noticeably worse when comparing it to the UHD or even the EE BD, on its own it just looks beautifully film-like with lovely colors. This sort of really shows the rule of diminishing returns with 4K - sure, in direct comparison, there may be a difference in detail but when I’m watching a good 1080p transfer, not comparing it to UHD, never do I think “I wish I was watching 4K” - what I think is “this looks gorgeous” but if I was watching a DVD, I certainly would think “I wish this was HD”.
Well, having compared it directly in motion to the Blu-Ray version, it does look to me like the same source with a new color grade and tons of DNR and sharpening applied.
Yeah, there is grain in some shots and then the next one will be completely grainless. Also, in some scenes, there’s grain in the background but none on people’s faces. Also, most of the time, the grain that is there appears to be the same in all channels, which makes it look more like added digital noise and less like film grain.
Don’t get me wrong, I still think it looks pretty fantastic and it probably will become my go to way to watching the movie but it just could have been better 😁
I also finally got a look at it. I still prefer the theatrical colors when looking at it side by side but on its own, it looks great. The only thing that bothers me is that to my taste, they went a little over board with dnr. It’s really good state-of-the-art dnr, so it didn’t really remove any detail but it looks a bit clinical and digital.
That’s great news! And if one wanted a closer to the theatrical version, it sounds like this new one would be much easier to regrade 😊
https://www.redfox.bz/en/anystream.html
Maybe this could be used to get the Netflix theatrical version?
I got the trial version but can’t log into Netflix with it - perhaps it would work for someone in another region?
Yeah, they got back to me pretty quickly and the page seems to be back up!
IIRC there are a few places where the heavy cropping has a significant impact on content. I think ESB is worst affected of the three films, and I think there’s one scene where Leia is cropped out of the image altogether. But as far as I know, nothing of that scale in Star Wars.
Ah, well, I guess where that’s the case, it would be worth doing.
Unless it’s shots like the Falcon cockpit shots in Empire, where the frame was zoomed in a lot for creative reasons, I’ll be leaving the framing as it is in the UHD version. It would be way too much work to go shot by shot and restore the edges in the whole movie. If someone else wants to do it, I’ll be happy to use their project as a source but looking at some comparisons, the croping looks fine to me,even if it is slightly tighter in places than the 2011 BD.
Just read the quote in 44rh1n’s post 😉
Here’s the promised video: https://youtu.be/5ByflKACiBQ
Thank you! I will be posting a small video later today 😊
Definitely
I decided to go 4K in the end 😃
OK, converting with FFMPEG seems to have solved the problem. 😃
Oh, yeah, I know that and have that turned on 😃
Thank you! I’ll give it a go 😊
OK, I see 😃
Just a hypothetical - if one used a LUT on an adjustment layer above everything and then graded everything so that it looks good with the LUT and then exported a 10bit file without the LUT, could this be used as HDR output?
I figured as much 😃
OK, I’m testing the command line now - we’ll see tomorrow, I guess 😃
Yep, I’m using the same settings but the job won’t start.
Same.
I’m trying to download some alternative sources to see if they have the same problem.
Looking at the artifacts, they look like compression artifacts, so maybe it’s something to do with the h265 decoding.