Sony Black Crush on late-2014 / early-2015 BDs

[jscoggins]

Originally Posted by StingingVelvet

His English is perfect, he just disagrees with you. I think I do too. To me the DVD looks too washed out, too bright and lacking contrast and blacks. It looks like my TV does when I am calibrating and turn the brightness up way high. I didn't see Fury in the theater but it's definitely supposed to be super dark in the tank. I watched the BD and you definitely see faces most of the time. If some are blacked out a bit in certain scenes I don't think you can prove it isn't intentional.

This reminds me of AvP: Requiem, a movie that is supposed to be super dark but a ton of people got on here talking about black crush and faulty discs. I don't think it's clear cut at all.

Again, you watched the rental BD, which might be different. You even said that it looks more like the other screencaps than the BD screencaps!

[James Luckard]

I'm honestly not here out of interest in FURY, but THE INTERVIEW. However in both cases, it seems we basically have UV/DVD/Netflix/special features versions of the films all matching, and the BDs the lone versions that are noticeably darker.

Only the DPs or the directors can say definitively which are their intended versions, but with so many lining up and only the BDs different, I tend to think they're the ones that are flawed. We'll hopefully soon find out.

[StingingVelvet]

Originally Posted by jscoggins

Again, you watched the rental BD, which might be different. You even said that it looks more like the other screencaps than the BD screencaps!

The original caps posted by a member did look darker than my experience with the rental. Especially the one of the dead Nazi on the ground. However the new caps-a-holic caps look like my rental experience exactly, so sorry, I'm guessing they're the same.

[frogmort]

I'm sorry, but I just don't care enough about any of these titles to help you guys carry the torch for this fight, but I can definitely see that it absolutely has merit. Sure, the BD has certain inherent benefits over the freakin' DVD (duh), but the black crush isn't one of them, and seems obviously worse to me.

I might have eventually purchased The Interview or Fury, but not until this gets rectified. It seems like a flaw to me, and I truly appreciate you guys fighting for a proper presentation. There's a ton of detail that's just not there on the BDs, and seems f@cked up to me.

[James Luckard]

Originally Posted by frogmort

I'm sorry, but I just don't care enough about any of these titles to help you guys carry the torch for this fight, but I can definitely see that it absolutely has merit. Sure, the BD has certain inherent benefits over the freakin' DVD (duh), but the black crush isn't one of them, and seems obviously worse to me.

I might have eventually purchased The Interview or Fury, but not until this gets rectified. It seems like a flaw to me, and I truly appreciate you guys fighting for a proper presentation. There's a ton of detail that's just not there on the BDs, and seems f@cked up to me.

In the end, it'll come down to people who care about each individual title, it's true. I loved THE INTERVIEW, saw it twice in one week, and couldn't wait for the BD. I thought something was wrong with my TV until I learned of this ongoing Sony BD issue.

Getting a corrected BD of THE INTERVIEW is my mission, though I'd love to see the other two titles fixed too, and also hopefully stop future Sony titles form being darkened like this.

[Blu-21]

The BD has obvious black crush and you can see more revealed information on some of the DVD caps, but the DVD itself has the complete opposite problems in that its way way too bright, and looks ugly and washed out as hell.

[jscoggins]

Originally Posted by Gieferg

Check out screenshots from polish edition:

http://poral.eu/fury.php

This is really interesting -- the Polish BD is lighter/brighter than the American DVD?

American DVD:

[Show spoiler]

Polish BD:

[Show spoiler]

American DVD:

[Show spoiler]

Polish BD:

[Show spoiler]

American DVD:

[Show spoiler]

Polish BD:

[Show spoiler]

[James Luckard]

Originally Posted by Blu-21

The BD has obvious black crush and you can see more revealed information on some of the DVD caps, but the DVD itself has the complete opposite problems in that its way way too bright, and looks ugly and washed out as hell.

Totally true. What we need is a BD with a 1080p HD image, but proper black levels. What we need is a BD that reflects the clips used in the special features of THE INTERVIEW. I wish I had the technology to cap those frames, in full 1080p, and present them alongside the same frames from the feature film, I just can't do that.

However these low quality, low resolution caps from other sources still effectively illustrate the issue, which is so severe it's still unmissable.

[James Luckard]

Originally Posted by jscoggins

This is really interesting -- the Polish BD is lighter/brighter than the American DVD?

The BD appears to be from a local Polish company called Monolith, according to the link.

They seem to have have used the 1080p master, unaltered, matching all the other various versions (UV, DVD, etc).

Yet more evidence that there's an ongoing technical issue at Sony late in the BD mastering process.

[amoergosum]

The Interview (US Blu-ray vs US DVD)

The black crush is UNACCEPTABLE.

http://www.caps-a-holic.com/hd_vergl...ess=#vergleich

http://www.caps-a-holic.com/hd_vergl...ess=#vergleich

[Pecker]

Having been through a few of those comparisons, particularly Fury, the black 'problem' (if there is one) is far less pronounced now that we have proper screengrabs than on the earlier comparisons we saw. As an example, the soldier on all fours being sick, the gap between the two was far greater on the previous comparison.

The DVD is definitely way, way too bright. For a film that we know (as evidenced by the link to the article in AC) is supposed to look dark, the DVD is anything but - there are no 'blacks' on show at all.

Has that led to a small amount of low light level information becoming more visible? Yes. Does that mean it's right? No, not necessarily. It would be extremely difficult to take those DVD grabs and reduce the brightness to the (clearly more correct, un-washed out) Blu-ray Disc levels, and still keep all of the information and detail in the darker areas.

Until we get a definitive statement from either Sony or the film makers we won't know for sure, but for the reasons given, the fact that we can see a little more low light information in the (clearly too bright) DVD is not evidence that the Blu-ray Disc is wrong.

Steve W

[filmmusic]

Originally Posted by James Luckard

In the end, it'll come down to people who care about each individual title, it's true. I loved THE INTERVIEW, saw it twice in one week, and couldn't wait for the BD. I thought something was wrong with my TV until I learned of this ongoing Sony BD issue.

Getting a corrected BD of THE INTERVIEW is my mission, though I'd love to see the other two titles fixed too, and also hopefully stop future Sony titles form being darkened like this.

I'm interested only in My Best Friend's Wedding.
I'm afraid if it remains like this, i won't buy it.

[DJ Mike]

Haven't movie studios been seriously scaling back the budget for their Blu-ray departments (owing to less-than-stellar sales) recently? I wonder if Sony have hired someone new who is unfamiliar with encoding Blu-rays correctly for TV RGB levels.

[tenia]

Originally Posted by DJ Mike

Haven't movie studios been seriously scaling back the budget for their Blu-ray departments (owing to less-than-stellar sales) recently?

I don't think it is linked to budget in the studios but rather lack of skills, knowledge and care (and quality control also, certainly).
The studios have never been as careful as independant labels. It has always been the case, and certainly still is.

[jscoggins]

Originally Posted by amoergosum

The Interview (US Blu-ray vs US DVD)

The black crush is UNACCEPTABLE.

http://www.caps-a-holic.com/hd_vergl...ess=#vergleich

http://www.caps-a-holic.com/hd_vergl...ess=#vergleich

The loss of detail is astonishing.

[lolwut]

Originally Posted by Latheofheaven

I have read every post of the 13 pages from the beginning my dear, so please do not be so quick to judge.

Thank you...

11 posts in a row! Use the edit button my dear.

[vargo]

Originally Posted by Gieferg

Check out screenshots from polish edition:

http://poral.eu/fury.php

I don't have time to frame-match them all but here is two:

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/113594
http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/113596

Good to see this issue is getting some discussion, I posted about it on the Fury thread in January:
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.p...&postcount=168

I also notice the usual suspects on other sites telling people there is no problem, just calibrate your TV. Same guy who hilariously burned their credibility by insisting there was no LOTR green tint.

[HD Goofnut]

Originally Posted by vargo

I don't have time to frame-match them all but here is two:

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/113594
http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/113596

Good to see this issue is getting some discussion, I posted about it on the Fury thread in January:
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.p...&postcount=168

I also notice the usual suspects on other sites telling people there is no problem, just calibrate your TV. Same guy who hilariously burned their credibility by insisting there was no LOTR green tint.

As did I and no one seemed to take notice until about two week ago.

[vargo]

Originally Posted by HD Goofnut

As did I and no one seemed to take notice until about two week ago.

Hopefully nobody can deny it by now.

This thread is very informative, keep up the good work guys.

[bruceames]

I don't think there is really anything wrong with Fury. To me the Polish BD looks too bright. Some people seem to think that all exposed shadow detail is supposed to be visible. And again, Fury PQ got top marks from practically every reviewer. And to pass that off as some kind of conspiracy theory ("oh, we have to give it a top score, otherwise they'll stop sending us free copies") is being incredibly naive.

Can't speak for The Interview though, but since one review (from HDD) already brought it up, there is probably some truth in that. But in any case, the amount of shadow detail that is intended to be seen is a very gray area (and believe it or not, is also affected by how well your TV is calibrated and able to produce black). If The Interview is too dark, how do we know that the UV/DVD version is also not wrong? (being too bright).