The Matrix 4K UHD (1999)

[Noremac Mij]

UHD corrects with just about one single setting. Does the top image look good to anyone who isn’t colour blind?

[James Freeman]

Originally Posted by Noremac Mij

I’m not exactly sure what’s being asked here, but with professional software I got this in approximately 2.5 seconds by sliding two sliders quickly.

This is great.

UHD corrects with just about one single setting.

What is the setting?

[Noremac Mij]

Mostly “Tint” and a touch of “Temp.” Now in all honesty guys, we’re just doing this for fun, but imagine how stupid the paid colorist of The Matrix is. He has this beautiful scan and he simply plunges the “Tint” all the way towards green. And then collects his paycheck. What an easy way to just give it a look and make it seem like he worked hard. These are the so called professionals…

[Noremac Mij]

[OutOfBoose]

^These shots don't use just tint. They excluded skin tones and tinted the rest. By reducing green on the entire image, the face looks too red-pink.

[Noremac Mij]

Originally Posted by OutOfBoose

^These shots don't use just tint. They excluded skin tones and tinted the rest. By reducing green on the entire image, the face looks too red-pink.

I know. Just illustrating that green could be easily taken out from these high resolution images. And with the right tools, the UHD can definitely be regraded.

[Markgway]

Originally Posted by OutOfBoose

Some look better than other, but here you can see magenta haze in shadows:

Better a whiff of magenta than a blanket of teal or puke green.

I think Freeman's stills look great.

[Noremac Mij]

And just to be perfectly honest, removing all green is not the right approach. 35mm from my recollection looked like above bottom image. Due to fluorescent lights, gels, or whatever.

[James Freeman]

Originally Posted by OutOfBoose

^These shots don't use just tint. They excluded skin tones and tinted the rest. By reducing green on the entire image, the face looks too red-pink.

That's why I'm saying the 4k is inconsistent.
With the 1080p blu-ray you pull one control and the entire scene looks great and balanced.

[James Freeman]

[Noremac Mij]

To make things easier, looking at the DVD caps again, they’re very close to the 35mm prints that I saw. Any UHD regrade should be regraded to the DVD colours, due to it being an easily accessible reference. DVD is 90%+ in the ballpark. The old Blu and the UHD does not look like film.

[Noremac Mij]

Top UHD. Bottom closer to what film could have looked like.

[-JKR-]

Originally Posted by Noremac Mij

To make things easier, looking at the DVD caps again, they’re very close to the 35mm prints that I saw. Any UHD regrade should be regraded to the DVD colours, due to it being an easily accessible reference. DVD is 90%+ in the ballpark. The old Blu and the UHD does not look like film.

You do realize that old home video formats are not representative of the original 35mm copies, as the movie had to be retimed in both color, constrast and luminosity in order to not lose details, avoid color bleeding and overall turning them into an analogue or digital artifact mess.

For example, as much as people like to cry revision at the new 4K master for Tim Burton's Batman, this was actually the very first time the movie has managed to even get near its original 35mm look (but they could have included the original audio mix together with the new one, I'll give you that).

Now, The Matrix is known for having been revised by the Wachowskis, adding the heavy green tint in order for it to align itself with the sequels.

But I think that they (and Bill Pope, who was involved with the remaster) did a good job of finding the right balance with the new color timing. And if you really want to talk about accuracy... the DVD is definitely not the way to go.

So yeah, I get that people may be nostalgic about when they used to watch this or that movie on VHS, laserdisc and DVD. But they should definitely stop using those as examples for movies 'being tinkered with' or color accuracy to the original version.

Yes, revisionist masters are made sometimes. But on average the movies have never been as faithful to the original prints as they are on the new formats and masters.

As far as The Matrix goes, I'd have to delve further into it to determine how much they stuck to the original prints. But from what I've seen (and remember) the 4K remaster is probably the one that looks the closest to the original prints.

EDIT: Here > https://imgur.com/a/iSfSrsM you find a great comparison between an original 35mm scan + an open matte HD TV version (which has the same color timing as the old DVD) + the 4K master + the old Blu-ray masters



There are slight differences in tint depdending on the scene, but overall the new 4K master definitely looks the closest to the 35mm print to me among any of the home media versions

[OutOfBoose]

Old DVD is garbage. If couple of shots resemble theatrical prints, it's only by accident.

[elgee]

Is it just me or is anyone else having a problem syncing the Atmos track on the 4K? Never had any issues with any other movies with Atmos, but this is ever so slightly out of sync.

[Tru-way]

Originally Posted by Noremac Mij

I’m not exactly sure what’s being asked here, but with professional software I got this in approximately 2.5 seconds by sliding two sliders quickly.

In the words of Neo, "Woah!"

Wouldn't mind rewatching my 4k copy of The Matrix with this color timing, the color palette just screams 90's cinema! Then we entered the early 2000's where it became trendy to dip movies in depressing hues of green and blue.

[Jay H.]

Originally Posted by Noremac Mij

To make things easier, looking at the DVD caps again, they’re very close to the 35mm prints that I saw. Any UHD regrade should be regraded to the DVD colours, due to it being an easily accessible reference. DVD is 90%+ in the ballpark.

"DVD and LCD/LED/miniLed are the worst home video technologies of all time." - Noremac Mij

[sanjuro_61]

Originally Posted by Tru-way

In the words of Neo, "Woah!"

Wouldn't mind rewatching my 4k copy of The Matrix with this color timing, the color palette just screams 90's cinema! Then we entered the early 2000's where it became trendy to dip movies in depressing hues of green and blue.

Please, please... As an experiment, that "regrading" is fine (pronounced as close to funny as possible). Those are not the theatrical colors (same for all the other blue-magenta pics

[HeavyHitter]

Originally Posted by nick4Knight

"Original 35mm colors" is a loaded and strawman metric to want applied to this format. And it doesn't even make sense when using the color space of SDR blu-ray to claim it is accurate to a print within rec 709. What are you even saying, quite honestly Lol It makes little sense across the board, and keeps being invoked for some reason...

Yep.

It's a bit funny reading posts from people who claim to be so damned certain about what this movie looked like theatrically while vehemently arguing with others who claim to be just as certain. The truth is, no one knows and it's irrelevant to people like myself because I understand it's an impossible task and impossible moving target for a multitude of reasons which have been discussed in threads before.

On any rate, I think the disc looks and sounds fantastic - and I'm almost in the mood to watch it again soon.

[Geoff D]

The Magentatrix