House of the Dragon: Season 1 4K UHD (2022)

[JMDiaz718]

Not holding my breathe for the many deleted scenes as extras. The list of extras on the cover seem pretty lackluster.

[PonyoBellanote]

That's dissapointing, just an hour of fluff promotional featurettes, when the original GOT Blu rays had extras of extras. Seems this release is pretty standard for them.

That, or they're saving it for a double dip later.

[Jonathan McLeod]

Most of the bonus stuff on the Game of Thrones sets were audio commentaries, and there's none mentioned here. Would be a shame. Always nice to hear about production from the people behind the scenes.

[krismate]

Originally Posted by Lozin

I haven't seen this show yet but everyone is saying its a dark mess due to the HDR, I'm thinking the Blu-Ray might be a better choice as in SDR I might be able to see.

Didn't have any issues so far with a Sony OLED. There is really only 1 scene (technically 2 back to back) that takes place at night, to look like it's lit via moonlight, that leaves little room for error for incorrectly setup displays or viewing conditions. Rest of the show is hardly a dark mess. Anyone who thinks so needs to look at their TV settings, instead of blaming the production.

[Tommy K]

Originally Posted by JMDiaz718

Not holding my breathe for the many deleted scenes as extras. The list of extras on the cover seem pretty lackluster.

That’s what I thought, it’s disappointing of the list of extras, not even audio commentaries. Season one of GOT is loaded with extras. Clearly Warner Bros isn’t going all out on this.

[drb999]

WBD is getting cheap on extras for their tv series.

[Deciazulado]

new pre-orders


House of the Dragon: Season 1 (2022) 4K Bu-ray

House of the Dragon: Season 1 (2022) 4K Bu-ray Steelbook

[Pieter V]

Over 70 minutes of bonus content, including two featurettes exclusive to DVD, Blu-ray and 4K UHD

• Welcome to Westeros
• Returning to the Seven Kingdoms
• A New Reign
• Returning to Westeros
• Before the Dance: An Illustrated History with George R.R. Martin
• Height of an Empire
• Noble Houses
• Familiar Places
• Introducing the Characters

[NoFro]

Going to buy this for my parents as well as they've just bought a 4K TV and player and they loved Game of Thrones but don't subscribe to the streaming service that has this in the UK.

[Herry Dunston]

"Over one hour of bonus content."

Jesus TD Christ, do I miss HBO's home video department. You get Warner Bros to handle the home video stuff, and this bereft of content is what we get. We don't even get the Inside the Episode bits. Damn it.

[chip75]

Originally Posted by krismate

Didn't have any issues so far with a Sony OLED. There is really only 1 scene (technically 2 back to back) that takes place at night, to look like it's lit via moonlight, that leaves little room for error for incorrectly setup displays or viewing conditions. Rest of the show is hardly a dark mess. Anyone who thinks so needs to look at their TV settings, instead of blaming the production.

Some of the scenes are around 1 cd/m². There's also the possibility/speculation that they may have mastered this on monitors that may have been an issue.

[lgans316]

Originally Posted by chip75

Some of the scenes are around 1 cd/m². There's also the possibility/speculation that they may have mastered this on monitors that may have been an issue.

This was highlighted by Vincent few weeks ago and discussed in his new video but again he could be speculating but IMO, I think some creative choices are not boding well with the consumers.

Not saying everything must look bright and pop but 1 nit means it will draw criticism.

The Most Stable OLED Display I've Measured in HDR Mode - 500 Nits at 50% Window Size! - YouTube

[krismate]

Originally Posted by chip75

Some of the scenes are around 1 cd/m². There's also the possibility/speculation that they may have mastered this on monitors that may have been an issue.

Possibly but at the end of the day, a lot of people with calibrated displays/setups say there's no issues being able to see what's going on. If viewers want to watch in their room with all lights on or with their TVs next to a window with light shining on their TV, and with their TV set to standard or vivid, that's really on them, at the end of the day. I don't fault people as much for watching in standard/vivid picture modes, as the TV manufacturers are more to blame there and the TV manufacturers/industry has also done next to nothing to educate consumers on picture accuracy, and the pros/cons of each picture mode. The fact that standard is the default picture mode for TVs is pretty ridiculous but I also understand why they do it.

The other likely culprit, also explained by Ryan Condal in a recent interview, are the different streaming platforms. In this day and age, I'm sure the quality varies wildly between them. Some are HD, some are 4K, some are HDR, some are SDR, some are decent bitrates, some are very low bitrates. Low bitrates would've wreaked havoc on the compression for that scene and that very easily could contribute to people struggle to see things.

[Geoff D]

There’s a short interview with the colourist in the latest issue of AmCin, it was done before the 1 nit controversy but even so, there’s some relevant titbits in there about the creative intent - yes Vincent, actual creative intent! - behind the show.

[chip75]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

There’s a short interview with the colourist in the latest issue of AmCin, it was done before the 1 nit controversy but even so, there’s some relevant titbits in there about the creative intent - yes Vincent, actual creative intent! - behind the show.

"It's only creative when it's intended to melt your face."

-The FakeDR Society

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by chip75

"It's only creative when it's intended to melt your face."

-The FakeDR Society

“And it’s only creative when it doesn’t trigger whatever shitty problem your supposedly “perfect” TV has”

[PissedOffPeoN]

Notice the 1 on the spine.. wonder how many seasons we will get?

[Farerb]

Originally Posted by PissedOffPeoN

Notice the 1 on the spine.. wonder how many seasons we will get?

Four.

[Geoff D]

From AmCin:

When colorist Asa Shoul presented his first pass of the House of the Dragon pilot to Miguel Sapochnik, the showrunner replied, “It looks a bit too Game of Thrones.” Having just finished a five-week preparatory binge of the entire series, Shoul understood the note.

“This is not a criticism of the original show — which I thought was graded beautifully — but I think Miguel felt the last couple of seasons had gotten more contrasty, and the shadow detail had gotten crushed a bit,” says Shoul. “For House of the Dragon, we talked about seeing that detail, because the costumes and the sets are very rich and it’s a more colorful world they live in than Game of Thrones. For me, it was like the 1920s — an age of wealth, prosperity and enjoyment.”

In Game of Thrones, King’s Landing took on a golden hue to contrast the city to the cool Northern environs of Winterfell. With House of the Dragon largely unfolding in the former locale, that visual counterpoint became unnecessary. “We went with a more neutral look, while letting colors come through as long as they weren’t too bright and gaudy,” Shoul says.

“For example,” he adds, “each character’s costume colors often represented their house. Queen Alicent (Emily Carey) wears green to the wedding in Episode 5 to show her allegiance — and [Alicent’s fami- ly] the Hightowers are referred to in later episodes as “the Greens.” Also, each dragon has a specific color, so that they are more easily identifiable in flying duels. The neutral grade meant that, where possible, we didn’t apply a color wash or tint to scenes.”

To add a touch of the imperfect to the pristine Alexa 65 and Mini LF images, Shoul used a LiveGrain selection based on Kodak Vision3 500T 5219. “The LiveGrain gave it a more filmic look, and I also added diffusion across the board just to break up anything that felt too digital or sharp,” he notes. “I used other softening tools as well, at times on close-ups — with fine face or hair detail, or with dragons that looked too sharp.”

Working in Baselight, Shoul graded on Sony BVM-X300 monitors. Unlike Game of Thrones, the HDR version became the primary deliverable. “It’s much easier to get the HDR version right and then go down to SDR than the other way around,” says Shoul. “The HDR is going to be the one that lives forever. That’s the one that everyone sees on their newer TVs and iPads.” He adds that the season was graded in HDR at 1,000 nits in Rec 2020 color.

Before beginning work, Shoul created a new LUT as a starting point, tweaking the show LUT used on-set to account for elements that were imperceptible on production’s SDR monitors. “What no one realized on-set was that the LUT was making highlights very gold or pink. The skies were going a bit of a crazy color, which you could only see in HDR.”

It’s an example of why Shoul hopes to see the adoption of HDR monitoring throughout the entire production workflow. “If we’re finishing in HDR, we should be monitoring in HDR. Sometimes, VFX will come down and see their work in HDR for the first time, and they’ll see skies or flames be different colors, and they’ll say, ‘Oh, it didn’t look like that on our monitors.’”

Shoul compares the shift in dynamic range to the transition in audio technology from mono to 5.1 surround sound. “HDR gives you these new tools, but just because you can now put a dog barking in the background on one of the tracks doesn’t mean it’s not going to be distracting. It’s the same with HDR. If it’s used incorrectly, it can look gimmicky and distracting. What we try to do is use it to make the viewing experience more immersive.”
— Matt Mulcahey

[testmon112]

Does anyone know if that scene with Daemon & Rhaenyra at night was really shot at night or was done day for night with a hard grade in post?