From the Earth to the Moon

[Geoff D]

Anyone else spotted the grading error in Episode 2? Near the end, when Joe Shea is remembering the Apollo 1 crew giving him and Storms those gag photos, the black and white is supposed to transition back to colour on the final dissolve from the crew to the photo, with the last shot of Shea in colour (it's kinda the point of that visual device, B&W for 'memories' and colour for 'now') but on the HD it stays in black and white until the end of that sequence, the colour re-appearing on the cut to Betty Grissom sparking up a loose.

The most grievous error to end all errors? No, but it's somewhat indicative of the slapdash nature of this remaster. And I had a feeling that the black levels would be much darker on the DVD and so it proved, the image is very dense indeed but if it feels too crushy-crushy in SD then the HD remaster is far too thin and milky in the blacks, the contrast is now shot to hell for Blu-ray. For the remaining episodes I'm gonna raise the gamma by a good few notches to thicken up the low end.

I think I figured out just why so many shots look as processed as they do, numerous opticals aside, as the corresponding sequences on the DVD have a fair bit of 'flutter' in the grain which they've decided to, ah, even out for the remaster.

[Indiana Jones]

Originally Posted by Warbler

That is a good point. But one would think it would be pretty obvious that you put out a very bad release and people boycott it, the reason is probably because it is a bad release. Also it is possible to send an email to the studio explaining the boycott.

This is by no means a very bad release, it has issues but it’s still far superior IMO to the DVD set and while the new CG might not be all it could have been it’s still serviceable at its worst and fantastic looking at its best.

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Anyone else spotted the grading error in Episode 2? Near the end, when Joe Shea is remembering the Apollo 1 crew giving him and Storms those gag photos, the black and white is supposed to transition back to colour on the final dissolve from the crew to the photo, with the last shot of Shea in colour (it's kinda the point of that visual device, B&W for 'memories' and colour for 'now') but on the HD it stays in black and white until the end of that sequence, the colour re-appearing on the cut to Betty Grissom sparking up a loose.

The most grievous error to end all errors? No, but it's somewhat indicative of the slapdash nature of this remaster. And I had a feeling that the black levels would be much darker on the DVD and so it proved, the image is very dense indeed but if it feels too crushy-crushy in SD then the HD remaster is far too thin and milky in the blacks, the contrast is now shot to hell for Blu-ray. For the remaining episodes I'm gonna raise the gamma by a good few notches to thicken up the low end.

I think I figured out just why so many shots look as processed as they do, numerous opticals aside, as the corresponding sequences on the DVD have a fair bit of 'flutter' in the grain which they've decided to, ah, even out for the remaster.

I hadn’t noticed that grading error but while I have watched the show a number of times over the years I don’t remember each scene in detail but I thought about putting on the DVD to compare certain scenes to see how much of a difference there was but in episode 7 there were a few scenes of upscaled footage so the quality difference was made apparent and I am even more grateful they released this in HD despite its issues.

Regarding the look of the remaster I could be completely wrong here but might this be a similar situation to the BD remasters of ID4 and The Matrix where the colours/black level/contrast are off but are displayed accurately on the UHD and as the show was remastered in 4K HDR perhaps something was not handled correctly when it came to creating an HD version from the finished 4K files?

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by Indiana Jones

I hadn’t noticed that grading error but while I have watched the show a number of times over the years I don’t remember each scene in detail but I thought about putting on the DVD to compare certain scenes to see how much of a difference there was but in episode 7 there were a few scenes of upscaled footage so the quality difference was made apparent and I am even more grateful they released this in HD despite its issues.

Regarding the look of the remaster I could be completely wrong here but might this be a similar situation to the BD remasters of ID4 and The Matrix where the colours/black level/contrast are off but are displayed accurately on the UHD and as the show was remastered in 4K HDR perhaps something was not handled correctly when it came to creating an HD version from the finished 4K files?

Yeah, it's almost got a kind of ungraded look to it as the skin tones are this kind of pale orange, the blacks are milky AF and the highlights are so flat. I'd love to see this in HDR.

[Indiana Jones]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Yeah, it's almost got a kind of ungraded look to it as the skin tones are this kind of pale orange, the blacks are milky AF and the highlights are so flat. I'd love to see this in HDR.

Yea it definitely has an unprocessed look to it which I have to wonder was it a deliberate choice to give it that period look or another error, regardless it is certainly annoying when they go to the extra effort of mastering in 4K with an HDR pass but they don’t release it (Wrath of Khan )

Something else I noticed while watching Episode 7 yesterday was that the upscaled footage had these horizontal lines through the picture, not sure if these were present on the DVD or if it’s an artefact of the upscale but would like to know the reason for it, assume like with TNG there were instances were the OCN couldn’t be located or was too far gone so they had to resort to SD footage to fill the gaps which is understandable but those lines

[vjo81]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Yeah, it's almost got a kind of ungraded look to it as the skin tones are this kind of pale orange, the blacks are milky AF and the highlights are so flat. I'd love to see this in HDR.

I watched the first two episodes last night. My only real complaint is that there are times where skin tones looked an under-saturated yellowish-orange. There were other times, however, where skin tones were excellent, sharp and well saturated. The Mercury and Gemini capsules in space looked great. The Atmos sound wasn't all that immersive but was generally good. My nit picks are just that and don't detract from a solid release that is a nice upgrade from my Signature Edition DVDs. There's also an interesting feature on the restoration process and the conversion to 1080P resolution. At the end of the day, the content of this series rules and it's up there with The Sopranos, Band of Brothers, Game of Thrones, etc. in the pantheon of HBO's best work so, for me, "all systems are go" with this release.

[AmishParadise]

Originally Posted by vjo81

...so, for me, "all systems are go" with this release.

I couldn't agree more. One small set for DVD. One giant leap for Blu-ray, warts and all. Physical media for the win!

[CouncilSpectre]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Anyone else spotted the grading error in Episode 2?

[Show spoiler]Near the end, when Joe Shea is remembering the Apollo 1 crew giving him and Storms those gag photos, the black and white is supposed to transition back to colour on the final dissolve from the crew to the photo, with the last shot of Shea in colour (it's kinda the point of that visual device, B&W for 'memories' and colour for 'now') but on the HD it stays in black and white until the end of that sequence, the colour re-appearing on the cut to Betty Grissom sparking up a loose.

The most grievous error to end all errors? No, but it's somewhat indicative of the slapdash nature of this remaster. And I had a feeling that the black levels would be much darker on the DVD and so it proved, the image is very dense indeed but if it feels too crushy-crushy in SD then the HD remaster is far too thin and milky in the blacks, the contrast is now shot to hell for Blu-ray. For the remaining episodes I'm gonna raise the gamma by a good few notches to thicken up the low end.

I think I figured out just why so many shots look as processed as they do, numerous opticals aside, as the corresponding sequences on the DVD have a fair bit of 'flutter' in the grain which they've decided to, ah, even out for the remaster.

Sorry Geoff, I “had something in my eye” at that point. It’s a shame that that happened, but not having noticed it on my watch I can attest that it does little to undermine the impact of that scene.

My eyes are nowhere near as discerning towards the digital tinkering and grain structure/management as yours are so I bow to your judgement. I can only say that I have not found it overly distracting myself.

Positives/negatives aside, I’m just glad that this release has given me the perfect excuse to watch this great series again.