The Abyss 4K UHD (1989)

[matbezlima]

Originally Posted by mar3o

Improvement in detail, of course. Improvement in color? Nope, it's a step back from the scan.

He didn't say there was an improvement in color. He called it as a negative point. What he said is that when you weigh everything, all aspects of the restoration, it's overall an improvement over any previous release. If you will prefer the 35mm scan though, that's another matter. The difference will not be as huge in detail improvement, in comparison to DVD.

[Member-222782]

Originally Posted by matbezlima

Interesting post about The Abyss transfer. Source linked below, from the True Lies 4K thread.

[Show spoiler]https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.p...&postcount=543

Here's an excerpt of the comment by u/LawrenceBrolivier on the post from yesterday about upcoming Cameron 4K's in the r/movies subreddit

Quote:
Win some - lose some:

WIN: The Abyss is finally re-scanned and presented in hi-def, in a way you can purchase and own, for the first time since they scanned the Special Edition for a LASERDISC TRANSFER.

LOSE: This hi-def presentation has been DNR'd. It's not as bad as the original T2 4k release, thankfully. But people definitely have a faint sheen of waxiness to them, and there is some noise-reduction artifacting visible

WIN: The detail on The Abyss is greatly increased! You can see wrinkles on faces, shimmer in eyes, rust on bolts, all that, and objects in the shadows are a little more clear as well.

LOSE: The film has been color graded to look very cyan/green instead of blue/white. The contrast level overall is flattened out, and the picture in general is just a smidge dimmer.

Some examples:

https://imgur.com/a/djXF2CW

https://imgur.com/a/j7T8t1z

Overall, this is absolutely an improvement (and the soundtrack alone is going to be a massive upgrade, I'm certain) visually, but it's also going to come with a bunch of nagging problems that you can't really get around.

Was any of this evident in the ProRes trailer?

[Socko]

Originally Posted by SpacemanDoug

also the CGI for the gigantic waves didn't age all too well

I don’t think that’s CGI.
It looks like a real wave (albeit a smaller one of course) composited on to other footage

[matbezlima]

Originally Posted by mar3o

Color was a big part of my job, and though older now, thankfully my eyes still do very well with color. I can pass 100% on those color tests online like this one:

https://www.xrite.com/hue-test

Not bragging. I'm just thankful I can still differentiate color so well. But it's a double-edged sword. I really appreciate seeing so any older films coming out and seeing their true colors come through in these newer 4k scans, when they're treated properly, but then lots of the big studios films have awful color in general these days, so they look awful to me. Older films were so much more colorful. And sadly some directors are obsessed with making their older films look "new again". Only today's new ain't so great when we're talking color.

Interesting. I say there are far more good transfers than bad ones. That said, I would love to see you making a list of amazing catalog UHDs regarding color for you, and the not-so-good ones. They would be amazing recommendations to everyone. The Wizard Of Oz, Singin' In The Rain, Vertigo, The Trouble With Harry, Lawrence Of Arabia, 2001 A Space Odyssey are just a few examples of UHDs with stunning colors. The Italian Job, though, suffers with color issues, mainly teal.

[starmike]

Originally Posted by mar3o

Color was a big part of my job, and though older now, thankfully my eyes still do very well with color. I can pass 100% on those color tests online like this one:

https://www.xrite.com/hue-test

I did a quickie test and got a score of 2.

EDIT: Took more time and got a score of 0 ��

[mpls1981]

Originally Posted by Socko

I don’t think that’s CGI.
It looks like a real wave (albeit a smaller one of course) composited on to other footage

It's been awhile since I've seen it, but doesn't the wave have moving water effects while it's "frozen" near the shore and people are starring at it? Or was it more of a static frozen shot composited onto the other footage? I would assume if it was the first that there would have been CGI involved in making that happen.

[HeightOfFolly]

What will Bill Hunt do now that this and other James Cameron movies are finally getting modern releases?

[starmike]

Originally Posted by HeightOfFolly

What will Bill Hunt do now that this and other James Cameron movies are finally getting modern releases?

Same thing he's done for the last 30 years?

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by mar3o

Color was a big part of my job, and though older now, thankfully my eyes still do very well with color. I can pass 100% on those color tests online like this one:

https://www.xrite.com/hue-test

Not bragging. I'm just thankful I can still differentiate color so well. But it's a double-edged sword. I really appreciate seeing so any older films coming out and seeing their true colors come through in these newer 4k scans, when they're treated properly, but then lots of the big studios films have awful color in general these days, so they look awful to me. Older films were so much more colorful. And sadly some directors are obsessed with making their older films look "new again". Only today's new ain't so great when we're talking color.

I got a score of zero. Is that good?

[starmike]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

I got a score of zero. Is that good?

Yeah, it says 0 is a perfect score. I got that too 😁

[Jonathan McLeod]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

I got a score of zero. Is that good?

Says on it:

About your score: A lower score is better, with ZERO being a perfect score. The circle graph displays the regions of the color spectrum where your hue discrimination is low.

I got zero also.

[Geoff D]

We all verr speshul

[Spooked]

Originally Posted by mar3o

Color was a big part of my job, and though older now, thankfully my eyes still do very well with color. I can pass 100% on those color tests online like this one:

https://www.xrite.com/hue-test

Not bragging. I'm just thankful I can still differentiate color so well. But it's a double-edged sword. I really appreciate seeing so any older films coming out and seeing their true colors come through in these newer 4k scans, when they're treated properly, but then lots of the big studios films have awful color in general these days, so they look awful to me. Older films were so much more colorful. And sadly some directors are obsessed with making their older films look "new again". Only today's new ain't so great when we're talking color.

This test was fun. Thanks!

[Croweyes1121]

Originally Posted by drush9999

Oh yeah thanks to you for keeping The Abyss alive in other ways. Your work was much appreciated.

Thanks so much.

Thrilled to finally be retiring SEHD as the best way to experience this fantastic film. I always said it was just a temporary bandaid. It was awesome to work on, but this release should rightfully leave it in the dust.

[matbezlima]

Originally Posted by mar3o

Color was a big part of my job, and though older now, thankfully my eyes still do very well with color. I can pass 100% on those color tests online like this one:

https://www.xrite.com/hue-test

I got a 0, the perfect score here.

But I can't say it was easy at all. One thing that kept wrecking and confusing me over and over was that often when I tried to switch the third square to the second's position, it wouldn't work, and I would be confused about why the colors still looked the same. Then I noticed it actually worked if tried to switch the second square to the third square's position, so the problem wasn't me.

[Matt89]

K that was a fun little test.

Also got 0.

[mjvmovieman]

Originally Posted by Croweyes1121

I’m on pins and needles to know what your new avatar will be once this streets.

Ha! I haven't even thought about it. It would be weird to change since this has been my avatar here since I joined.

[chewbabka]

[Show spoiler]

Originally Posted by matbezlima

Interesting post about The Abyss transfer. Source linked below, from the True Lies 4K thread.

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.p...&postcount=543

Here's an excerpt of the comment by u/LawrenceBrolivier on the post from yesterday about upcoming Cameron 4K's in the r/movies subreddit

Quote:
Win some - lose some:

WIN: The Abyss is finally re-scanned and presented in hi-def, in a way you can purchase and own, for the first time since they scanned the Special Edition for a LASERDISC TRANSFER.

LOSE: This hi-def presentation has been DNR'd. It's not as bad as the original T2 4k release, thankfully. But people definitely have a faint sheen of waxiness to them, and there is some noise-reduction artifacting visible

WIN: The detail on The Abyss is greatly increased! You can see wrinkles on faces, shimmer in eyes, rust on bolts, all that, and objects in the shadows are a little more clear as well.

LOSE: The film has been color graded to look very cyan/green instead of blue/white. The contrast level overall is flattened out, and the picture in general is just a smidge dimmer.

Some examples:

https://imgur.com/a/djXF2CW

https://imgur.com/a/j7T8t1z

Overall, this is absolutely an improvement (and the soundtrack alone is going to be a massive upgrade, I'm certain) visually, but it's also going to come with a bunch of nagging problems that you can't really get around.

Based on what, the YT trailer?

[SpacemanDoug]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

I still don't like the way that the SE wave ending kinda removes us from the darkness and claustrophobia of the Deepcore, but this is one of those rare cases of an extended edition where all the added character stuff far outweighs the problems I have with it elsewhere. I can happily watch the theatrical but the SE is my jam.

Yea that's one of the other reasons I prefer the theatrical cut, with the exception of the surface ship moments, the entire movie takes place in the oil rig and nothing more, giving a far more isolated feel compared to showing the "outside world" in the special edition

[SpacemanDoug]

Originally Posted by Socko

I don’t think that’s CGI.
It looks like a real wave (albeit a smaller one of course) composited on to other footage

Some of it was real (which those shots look great), but I was referring to the CGI specific shots not looking that great