Titanic 4K UHD (1997)

[bmick23]

Titanic Comparison - Part 2! - YouTube

Someone made a comparison video that shows the laserdisc/DVD/bluray/4K versions side by side and the green tint is so obvious in the HD remasters. It looks straight up nasty in the daytime scenes with that teal sky. It's not a scene-by-scene issue, it's like they added a tint over the entire film and it affects everything from black to white, and makes skintones shift yellow instead of pink.

At 2:18 in the video, look at the white areas of the ceiling and clothing. The 4K image looks dull and the color balance looks off compared to the DVD. The overall image looks muted as well. It might be a subtle difference to some, but for those who know this movie well, it is very distracting.

[ImBlu_DaBaDee]

Originally Posted by bmick23

Titanic Comparison - Part 2! - YouTube

The 4K image looks dull and the color balance looks off compared to the DVD.

lol

[bmick23]

Originally Posted by ImBlu_DaBaDee

lol

Perhaps a better word is flat. Those with eyes can see it

[lilboyblu]

Originally Posted by bmick23

Perhaps a better word is flat. Those with eyes can see it

His “lol” is at quality comparisons being made via compressed and inconsistent YouTube videos is completely useless.

[bmick23]

Originally Posted by lilboyblu

His “lol” is at quality comparisons being made via compressed and inconsistent YouTube videos is completely useless.

The main point I was making is about the major color shift and white balance, which is undeniable even with compression.

[Modren]

Originally Posted by bmick23

The main point I was making is about the major color shift and white balance, which is undeniable even with compression.

DVD transfers should never be used as a reference for color. Many of them were intentionally shifted towards magenta to compensate for CRT color temperature, and some were aggressively white balanced when the films were intended to be warmer (The Big Lebowski is a very prominent example of this). Not to say that the Blu-ray or UHD versions of Titanic are 100% accurate, but it's extremely unlikely that the DVD or Laserdisc were either.

[bmick23]

Originally Posted by Modren

DVD transfers should never be used as a reference for color. Many of them were intentionally shifted towards magenta to compensate for CRT color temperature, and some were aggressively white balanced when the films were intended to be warmer (The Big Lebowski is a very prominent example of this). Not to say that the Blu-ray or UHD versions of Titanic are 100% accurate, but it's extremely unlikely that the DVD or Laserdisc were either.

The sky in real life is simply not teal. The sky is blue. Looking at the uncompressed 4K rip on the scopes, there is an obvious green shift and that is not debatable. White areas on the HD masters also do not show as white on the scopes. For example, when they are looking at Jack's drawings in the promenade scene, the white/cream paper has a green cast. I recently viewed the DVD and VHS versions on a CRT and there was still not a green tint like there is on the newer HD masters. The sky registers as pure blue on a CRT. You cannot deny that they changed the color grade for the 2K remaster that was also used for the 4K release.

[Mierzwiak]

Originally Posted by bmick23

The sky in real life is simply not teal. The sky is blue.

Real life has no aspect ratio or color grading. Movies are not real life. Please stop whining about colors using real life as an argument. It's stupid.

[Academyratio]

Originally Posted by bmick23

The sky in real life is simply not teal..

what's the point of comparing a movie with a preference of color grading to real life?

[steve_dave]

Originally Posted by bmick23

The sky in real life is simply not teal. The sky is blue.

I live in Southern California, my sky is either grey, purple, orange, or blue depending on the weather and smog.

Right now, it is grey.

[bmick23]

Originally Posted by Academyratio

what's the point of comparing a movie with a preference of color grading to real life?

Because it looks bad, period and even the scopes show that it is graded as green. I'm not going to argue with people on the internet that the sky is blue.

[bmick23]

Originally Posted by Daredevil666

Probably what the poster is trying to say, is someone messed up the colors at some point.
You wanna check it out, watch the JC masterclass.
In the Terminator section, he shows footage on his monitors, and on a display in front of him, from Arnold at Tech Noir. On both his monitors, and the display, the color scheme is blue.
When the edit shift to the Blu-ray to cut in the full screen footage, the color scheme is green.
Something is rotten in the state of Denmark, and this ain't James Cameron own's monitor screens.

Yes, exactly. Here is an album of screenshot examples where someone went through and corrected the shots to have proper white balance:




The top shots all have the green cast that's present on the HD remasters, and it's especially noticeable during daytime shots or interiors with white walls. The green cast also makes skin tones look yellow and reds slightly brown, creating an overall muddier image than the corrected versions.

[bmick23]

Originally Posted by Bolty

Are we expected to cry about the color grading or go back to watching the DVD/LD? For goodness' sake tell us how to feel!

You can enjoy the green sky and green whites if that's what you like. I really don't care what you watch, but scopes don't lie and there is a very distracting green cast on the film that wasn't there in the original masters.

[bmick23]

Originally Posted by Bolty

29 posts in over two years of being a member.
ALL of them in this thread complaining about this release. It's one thing to be a sock but a dirty rotten smelly sock is another thing...

Bye, bye.

You're mad that I'm not thrilled about a bad color grade on my favorite film? Yes, I came here to talk about this release specifically, is there something wrong with that? I assumed this was a place to discuss the technical aspects of the release given there has been so much discussion on the AI upscale artifacts and grain. What's your point exactly?

[bmick23]

Originally Posted by Academyratio

what's the point of comparing a movie with a preference of color grading to real life?

Because green is not a natural color for the sky, and it was not green in the original.

[James Luckard]

Just checking in again, since the chat has gone in various strange directions.

Is this breakdown accurate?

Originally Posted by James Luckard

So it looks like:

US UHD disc:
7.1 track - all 3 lines missing
2.0 track - all 3 lines missing

UK UHD disc:
7.1 track - fuzzy at the moment, depending on your setup, all 3 lines missing on some systems, present on others
2.0 track - all three lines present

If it's correct, I'll stick with my US disc and accept the missing lines. I'm not down to watch the film in 2.0 stereo only.

[bmick23]

Originally Posted by Mierzwiak

Real life has no aspect ratio or color grading. Movies are not real life. Please stop whining about colors using real life as an argument. It's stupid.

What I'm saying is that the sky is blue, and it's hard to believe people are even trying to debate that.

For reference, here are the scopes on the main "TITANIC" text titles at the beginning of the film, which are supposed to be white. In a properly balanced image, the levels would be on the same line. Instead there is an obvious green shift in the top gain level and that issue is present throughout the entire film, causing whites to appear green/teal, and shifting other colors away from their natural hues.

[brian9229]

I see the world in a green tint when I wear my sunglasses, though I do take them off to watch Titanic, because the movie is already so green, I don't want it to be double green, I mean, then the sky would be just awful and look like puke, so less green is good.

[bmick23]

Originally Posted by brian9229

I see the world in a green tint when I wear my sunglasses, though I do take them off to watch Titanic, because the movie is already so green, I don't want it to be double green, I mean, then the sky would be just awful and look like puke, so less green is good.

Why is everyone so combative and sarcastic about this? There are 200+ pages of people discussing AI artifacts and grain on this release, but color is off limits?

[kmhofmann]

Originally Posted by bmick23

For reference, here are the scopes on the main "TITANIC" text titles at the beginning of the film, which are supposed to be white. In a properly balanced image, the levels would be on the same line.

No, they would not be.

Your home theater output device is supposed to be calibrated to D65 (white point). Only if that's the white point you actually want to hit with your master, i.e., both are identical, then the lines should be identical.
If you want to emulate a projection print, then you do not want to hit D65.

Projected film - analog or digital, DCI-P3 as an example here and in the Wikipedia quote below - has a warmer white point, where the spectrum is shifted toward, you guessed it, green.

If that is emulated correctly on a master made for a D65 calibrated device, then pure white isn't and shouldn't be {255, 255, 255}. Film print emulation LUTs take this into account.

DCI-P3 specifications are designed for viewing in a fully darkened theater environment. The projection system uses a simple 2.6 gamma curve, the nominal white luminance is 48 cd/m2 with the white point defined as a correlated color temperature of ~6300 K. It is incorrect to refer to this as "D63" as this white point is not a CIE standard illuminant, and is not on the Planckian locus. Instead, the white point is slightly greener. This resulted from optimizing for best light output with the xenon arc lamp projectors commonly used in theaters.