"Club Penton" - Ask questions to Hollywood insider "Penton-Man"

[WickyWoo]

ut he’s a professional (well respected I might add) in the film restoration business

The post from AVS, claiming a 16 year old transfer tweaked and re-tweaked not RH's post.

I doubt there is a greater living authority on that movie

Claudio pulled that page BTW because the Red(One)Ants swarmed

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by WickyWoo

Claudio pulled that page BTW because the Red(One)Ants swarmed

^
I know.
Kinda reminds you of another Red army back in day, doesn't it ?

[Agent Cooper]

Interesting.

I certainly wouldn't mind Fincher and/or Pitt taking a golden statuette home with them - their time is due.

[PeterTHX]

Patton was restored recently.

Could the DNR (if any) be done from that restoration?

Was the BD mastered from a new digital IP?

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by WickyWoo

I agree, it was almost certainly done at telecine. It's simply not in Panasonic's MO. I'm going to run down to Borders this weekend and see if I can sweettalk them into "accidentally" selling me one early. They've done it with books before

The only reason I can fathom for any *excessive* DVNR being applied to this title is that during the restoration, the original element required a significant amount of DSR (dirt and scratch removal) which included as part of the post processing, a hefty load of non- real time digital noise reduction.

[WickyWoo]

Maybe. I'm trying to get a call in to Fox to find out exactly what went on

[Rob Tomlin]

..

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by Rob Tomlin

If true: damn!!

That is still the operative word……….if – and I’m still not convinced untill I see it with my own eyes- because it makes no logical sense.

The problem with *classic* titles like this is, that sometimes the restoration requires several outside contractors. Despite what some on the internet may have you think, there are several major Hollywood studios which believe that to this day the DTS (Lowry) process is optimized with a certain amount of DNR and sharpening built-into the sofware. So, the studios only utilize that route when there is no other alternative for a *problem* title.

Think of it as having to take chemotherapy for cancer. Amir is even familiar with their work (related as such during past altercations with “RBFilms” during the good ole days on AVS) so, this is no big secret in Hollywood. Hell, I'm told the RedOne users on their forum even give DTS (Lowry) a good bashing every so often (those having experience as past clients).

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by WickyWoo

Maybe. I'm trying to get a call in to Fox to find out exactly what went on

Wicky,
It will be interesting to see whether DTS had its finger in this pie at some stage in the process, as that should be your first question and should be easily ascertained by the records, no matter how unfamiliar your contact is with this particular title.

Meanwhile I’m trying to set-up a pow-wow between Schawn (who knows more about this restoration than anyone else at Fox) and Deci at the upcoming symposium but even if their schedules do click, that won’t be for a week.

[Penton-Man]

Deci,
Try to get a copy of this title and watch it before The Reel Thing 20 and give us your opinion.

P.S.
And any other forum members (don’t be afraid to come forth), let’s hear your opinion on this title before everyone jumps to conclusions on this thing. I don’t want to make us all look like fools to Fox studio.

Best also to compare it at home to another title that has *documented* digital noise reduction (for instance, U.S. vs U.K. versions of the same HD title).
Something is still fishy here for the amount of hoopla.

[lgans316]

Looks like WB have actually started releasing on Blu-ray

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film2/DVDRe...rs_blu-ray.htm

Technically the three are supported with their original aspect ratios, 2.35-2.40 and 1.85:1 in glowing 1080p with VC-1 compression. I would occasionally check the bitrates and it would be a quite high - in around 34-40 Mbps.

[PeterTHX]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Wicky,
It will be interesting to see whether DTS had its finger in this pie at some stage in the process, as that should be your first question and should be easily ascertained by the records, no matter how unfamiliar your contact is with this particular title.

DTS sold off Lowry recently.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by PeterTHX

DTS sold off Lowry recently.

lol,
Peter I can't figure if that would make you happy or sad.

[WickyWoo]

Wicky,
It will be interesting to see whether DTS had its finger in this pie at some stage in the process, as that should be your first question and should be easily ascertained by the records, no matter how unfamiliar your contact is with this particular title.

Way ahead of you Penton Thanks for the suggestions though

[PeterTHX]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

lol,
Peter I can't figure if that would make you happy or sad.

I like Lowry

[WickyWoo]

I like Lowry, when they do their careful meticulous work

Not when they use the auto-smoother

[Rob Tomlin]

..

[WickyWoo]

I've struck out thus far on getting a copy, I'm going to try again this weekend

[hollywoodguy]

When I alluded to Patton possibly being a contender for "best overall PQ" of any Blu-ray title some time ago, I was basing this on a few snippets of a screener that I saw and word from Fox that they were ecstatic how well it turned out.

I have since seen the whole disc and I can see where Robert Harris is coming from when he is writing about how the PQ feels light-weight, but I still thought it was terrific overall. This isn't Face/Off or any of the longer Warner titles (Troy & Alexander, I'm looking at you!) that we are talking about, detail is absolutely ASTOUNDING on Patton.

However, the very low level of grain and the somewhat "airy" feel of the movie remains a little suspicious. As Penton has explained numerous times, and this is also what I think happened here, a certain amount of DVNR (hopefully judiciously applied) can be used at several points of the production chain and not necessarily at or right before the encoding stage with the goal to "make it look clean on BD".

By the way, I don't think this is a new policy for Fox. In fact, we will probably see threads pop up all around that The Sand Pebbles, Battle for Britain etc. are all too grainy, similar to the reaction to Predator or Butch Cassidy. People always talk about sending "messages" to studios... Even if the people who want everything to look like Discovery HD might be in the minority on boards like this (and I'm not so sure that is really the case outside of threads like this one where the connoisseurs congregate), the message that studios are hearing from people who actually write in and complain is that customers want less grain and more "HD pop." After all, how can the Tonight Show on free TV look "better" than a $30 Blu-ray of a $100mil movie?

[WickyWoo]

Hollywoodguy is absolutely right

Don't take the stuff for granted, don't just write/call the studios to complain

Make sure you send the "I loved this wonderful disc, the high detail without unnecessary DNR or sharpening really helped bring out the best in my system and my investment in Blu-ray"

Studios need happyness to balance the *****ing.

Remember: SNAIL MAIL is the best route to make sure your voice is heard and counted!