NY Ripper/Highlander UK/Stendhal Syndrome etc. video/digital noise?

[Aristide Massaccesi]

First of all I have nothing against grain, in fact I appreciate a healthy layer of film grain. But noise is something else. I've seen it called 'video noise' and I've also seen it referred to as 'digital noise'. So far I've noticed excessive video noise on these titles:

The New York Ripper (otherwise a great transfer)
Highlander (UK)
The Stendhal Syndrome

I also noticed some on The Bird With The Crystal Plumage.

Remarkable that three out of these four titles are Blue Underground releases.

Can someone explain to me what is the cause of this phenomenon? Unlike grain, it doesn't seem to be part of the original film master, rather it's something that is created during encoding. Hence it bothers me somewhat, because it's not supposed to be part of the presentation. Is it a manifestation of compression?

[#Darren]

I never noticed digital noise on Highlander.

[csdot]

i own all four titles and havent had any issue with the PQ

[Aristide Massaccesi]

Well, it's not just me. Here are some excerpts from reviews of the Stendhal Syndrome disc:

The print is in great condition, with hardly a blemish, good blacks and great colour. Unfortunately the film seems to be covered in extensive video noise. It's not even film grain, but what seems like white noise. It is constant and pervasive, and very distracting. At times I even ended up watching the noise, not the film. As a result, there is not as much detail in the picture as you'd expect, or if there is, it's difficult to see due to the noise.

The PQ in this release has huge video noise problems! Not grain, but pervasive and distracting video noise that totally ruins the viewing experience. No, it is not grain in any shape or matter. Nor is the problem related to a "director's intent". The video noise is present in about a 12 inch rectangle in the middle of the screen. The noise is not seen in the top of bottom of the screen, but in the middle portion... It lasts the entire movie. The movie is typical Argento and entertaining enough but this disc should have never seen the light of day.

the picture quality is terrible. it has heavy white noise the entire movie, with this flickering effect to it that is definitely not on my troma DVD. it's not film grain. it looks like static on a TV station when your cable is loose. out of my hundreds of blu-rays, i only have 2 or 3 that do this, and they only do it during a couple of scenes. this does it the whole movie. it's incredibly distracting. turning off edge enhancement on the tv helped a little, but not much.

[#Darren]

I don't have TSS so I can't comment on that.

Originally Posted by Aristide Massaccesi

Well, it's not just me. Here are some excerpts from reviews of the Stendhal Syndrome disc: