Body Snatchers (1993)

[Geoff D]

Yeah, I know you're not a fan of how others handle their transfers but at the same time I can't argue with what WAC are doing as the image looks so gloriously analogue, for want of a better word. And those blacks, oh mai. I'm a 4K HDR junkie, I'll state that just so's we're clear where I'm coming from, and yet when I look at the highlights in these WAC 1080p transfers they roll off so beautifully compared to the harsher clipping of other labels' SDR transfers that I don't find myself missing the extra range at all.

I think them predominantly using interpositives for transfer actually helps with that as well because a certain amount of range and spatial resolution is going to be lost anyway vs the negative, but rolled off in an inherently photochemical way rather than someone scanning the negative and then having to adjust grain and highlights downwards using digital tools. Not that IP scans are simply stuffed onto a disc as-is, they also require careful manipulation to translate into the SDR gamma domain as they're still quite low contrast, but there really does seem to be an ethos of handling it as transparently as possible at WAC.

Don't get me wrongo, I'd still want a 4K HDR version to be transferred from camera negative as we're well through the looking glass of what is/isn't intended on that format so I say go for it, but these 1080p WAC discs are their own thing and I love them for it. I've heard tell that WAC are looking into UHD though, and if they did I think it'd be interesting to see how they'd handle it, whether this same ethos would carry over into that realm.