Ghost in the Shell 4K UHD (1995)

[KubrickKurasawa]

FINALLY A 4K MOVIE TO BUY THIS YEAR.

IT'S BEEN A TERRIBLE YEAR FOR 4K IF YOU ASK ME.

I'VE ONLY PURCHASED THE FIXED 2001 ASO, INCEPTION AND NOW GITS 1995 4K'S. THAT'S IT!

[Kyle15]

Originally Posted by KubrickKurasawa

FINALLY A 4K MOVIE TO BUY THIS YEAR.

IT'S BEEN A TERRIBLE YEAR FOR 4K IF YOU ASK ME.

I'VE ONLY PURCHASED THE FIXED 2001 ASO, INCEPTION AND NOW GITS 1995 4K'S. THAT'S IT!

[cheez avenger]

Originally Posted by KubrickKurasawa

FINALLY A 4K MOVIE TO BUY THIS YEAR.

IT'S BEEN A TERRIBLE YEAR FOR 4K IF YOU ASK ME.

I'VE ONLY PURCHASED THE FIXED 2001 ASO, INCEPTION AND NOW GITS 1995 4K'S. THAT'S IT!

[Mr Anderson]

Originally Posted by manuelink64

You guys, know about a fan restoration project based on a old Japanese Broadcast @1080i?

The Project

[Show spoiler]First of all i thank the_E_y_Es for his help. He spotted and marked lot of spots for me, which i could fix in return.

This is a re-encode of my original release, since the source/MPEG2 stream is not available anymore. This is a huge improvement over the original video and as before a lot better than the BD source.

This encode is not completely issue free and perfect. not all of the MPEG2/WMV artifacts could be fixed completely without damaging other areas of the video. The video is still quite dirty in places and not all spots have been fixed. Tbh one could probably sit on this for an eternity and won’t be able to fix them all.

Video:
– Several 1000 frames (severely damaged by MPEG2/WMV artifacts) were restored (per frame)
– Several 100.000 spots on several 10.000 of frames were removed and fixed (per frame)
– Frames edges were fixed (per scene)
– Remnants of the Logo have been removed
– Colour and range correction have been made (red/yellow tints etc.) (per scene)
– Some combing remnants were fixed
– Heavy sharpening artifacts were removed as good as possible (ringing/haloing)
– Chroma bleeding has been fixed
– Everything was cleaned up to remove encoding artifacts
– Everything was stabilised
– Banding was removed (per scene)
– Frames were matched to the BD source (audio matches properly now)

Audio:
– Japanese audio: Sourced from a DTS-HD MA track
– Japanese audio: Cut to make it properly sync with the video (bad mastering, BD audio wasn’t in sync on the BD)
– Japanese audio: A missing dialogue line was added
– Japanese audio: The original Japanese ending theme was re-inserted (U2’s “One Minute Warning” replaced with “Reincarnation”)
– English audio: Sourced from the 6.1 DTS-ES track instead of the UK BD’s DTS-HD MA track because of severe mastering problems, same problems on the US DTS stream
– English audio: Problems were missing sound effects and bad mixing (more infos here and here)

Subtitle:
– The opening Sign was redone
– Song lyrics were added
– Dialogue styling was adjusted
– Some lines were fixed

For some history, of the several stages of my filtering, you can look at these three comparisons.

Specs of this release are:
Video: 1920×1040 (1.85:1) h264 10 bit
Audio: Japanese 5.1 FLAC, English 6.1 DTS-ES
Subtitle: English ASS Subs (Dialogue, Signs/Songs)

================================================== =
The guy [Judgament] made and incredible work, there is a bunch of pictures comparing all version in existence and his work looks really great, even than the latest UHD release, so I wonder how this release will be in PQ compared to all previous versions?

for example:

4K Release (somehow cropped and blurred, green-ish tinted)



[Judgament] (uncropped, clean and sharp)



BD 25th Anniversary [cropped, blurred, black level messed up]



[Judgament] (uncropped, sharp, good black level)




Please, Check all the comparisons here
http://comp.judging.it/index.php?ser...parisonid=4K-1

http://comp.judging.it/index.php?ser...isonid=1080p-1

Regards!

^Wow! That last pic: Major doesn’t have an all black mop on her head!

It looks great!

Edit:

[Mosley likes BFDI]

I also think Lionsgate should release it on 4K Blu-ray in the UK.

[BobbyMcGee]

$19.29 on Amazon. Pre-ordered.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by Mosley likes BFDI

I also think Lionsgate should release it on 4K Blu-ray in the UK.

I very much doubt that they have the UK rights?

[Weirded Wonder]

Originally Posted by BobbyMcGee

$19.29 on Amazon. Pre-ordered.

Thank you. Me too.

[professorwho]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

I very much doubt that they have the UK rights?

Let's look at the production committee for Ghost in the Shell:

製作 - 講談社、バンダイビジュアル、MANGA ENTERTAINMENT

(Production: Kodansha, Bandai Visual, Manga Entertainment)

Kodansha= company who published the Ghost in the Shell Manga; Bandai Visual= Japanese distributor; Manga Entertainment= western distribution

(In short: Japanese company, Japanese company, British company)

[KMFDMvsEnya]

Pre-ordered and hope it a fantastic release with all previous issues resolved no visible DNR and a quality standard BR encode as well.

[Cat III]

Originally Posted by jjlikesonions

Finally. Now I can triple dip on my favorite animated film ever. Patlabor and Patlabor 2 would also be great on 4k.

Only triple? This will be my sixth dip on this film.

I had just about convinced myself to spend the $100 on the Japanese UHD when this came up. Please God, be a quality release.

Originally Posted by professorwho

I assume the awful dub will be in Atmos, but honestly, that it's being "upgraded" at all is unfortunate.

In what universe is GitS dub awful? Probably not stellar, and certainly not must-hear, but awful?

[Cat III]

Wonder if this is the final art or just a placeholder.



I haven't been a fan of most any new cover for 4K releases, but I'd be fine with this.

[DAT_JB]

Could this be GITS or is the picture something else?

[Viking61]

Originally Posted by DAT_JB

Could this be GITS or is the picture something else?

It's "Weathering With You".

[professorwho]

Do not go into this with expectations that the Lionsgate UHD will be better than the Japanese release with regards to its restoration (as in, not having lots of DNR). Anime licensing is tough, with tons of hoops and hurdles to go through. Everything has to be approved by the Japanese licensor, and if you make changes without consulting them, then you’ll be essentially blacklisted and get in serious trouble. Doing remasters of anime completely outside Japan is basically unheard of, with so few examples, and those ones being of poor quality (Perfect Blue, Dragon Ball Z, and maybe one or two others). There have been instances where western distributors pay the Japanese licensor to do a restoration for them (for example, Discotek did that with Robot Carnival), but that’s also rare.

This is in opposition to, say, Criterion and Arrow who have made their own restorations for classic Japanese films, using film prints and elements provided by the Japanese distributors, but in those cases, it lies with the rightsholders and other circumstances. Now, even if the Japanese distributors were somehow lenient and were willing to let Manga Entertainment, who owns US and UK distribution rights, do their own restoration, they probably wouldn’t, as Ghost in the Shell already has a 4K restoration, approved by Oshii and done in Japan, so in their eyes, it’s redundant to do another, even if the 4K restoration isn’t perfect (it clearly isn’t).

Now, it’s obviously possible that some additional work is being done for this release, but the expectations that it may be better than the Japanese release with regards to its restoration are too high and nearly impossible.

Kevin from Sakugablog said this, which sums up the industry in a nutshell:

[Vangeli]

When it first came out in Japan the director openly admitted that it was their first time working with the format and they made decisions (DNR, no audio remix) to make it work in the time they had. Since then they could’ve very well tweaked and improved the master but I’d expect any new master to hit Japan first, long before anywhere else.

[Pyoko]

I've worked on projects with pixel-peeping directors who look at things frame-by-frame with their nose right up to the screen (which I simultaneously both admire and hate ) but as we've seen evidence of through various puzzling and questionable restoration and grading decisions over the years, many directors and cinematographers are not that technically-minded or involved and will defer to the judgment of the people at the controls.

And if during the session they happen to mention that some shot looks very noisy but the DNR tool the studio uses is crap, what are they going to do? Say "This has created a very ugly waxy/artifacted/oil-painting look, let's go back"? No, that's unlikely to happen, that kind of detailed analysis is for us forum nutters. They ask for less grain, they get less grain, then they move on. And we get Batman Begins.

Considering Akira and pretty much every other remaster handled by Q-TEC looks like this, it's safe to say this garbage DNR is part of their standard workflow and it'd most likely have ended up very similar regardless of any other factors.

tl;dr Director/cinematographer involvement often means next to nothing with incompetent, ignorant people of poor taste at the controls.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by Vangeli

When it first came out in Japan the director openly admitted that it was their first time working with the format and they made decisions (DNR, no audio remix) to make it work in the time they had. Since then they could’ve very well tweaked and improved the master but I’d expect any new master to hit Japan first, long before anywhere else.

Yes, but given how plenty (not all, but plenty) of anime labels LOVE to DNR the ever-loving shit out of their product then I don't buy the "but it's our first 4K!" excuse. Not least because Akira came along and then...oh dear. Now I ain't too quick on the uptake but I'm sensing a trend there regardless of who made what.

[Vangeli]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Yes, but given how plenty (not all, but plenty) of anime labels LOVE to DNR the ever-loving shit out of their product then I don't buy the "but it's our first 4K!" excuse. Not least because Akira came along and then...oh dear. Now I ain't too quick on the uptake but I'm sensing a trend there regardless of who made what.

The director is at the very least disappointed with the DNR somewhat, so there’s a modicum of hope. I’m curious if he had any sort of approval on the Atmos remix. Hmm.

[professorwho]

Originally Posted by Vangeli

The director is at the very least disappointed with the DNR somewhat, so there’s a modicum of hope. I’m curious if he had any sort of approval on the Atmos remix. Hmm.

Where did you see that from Oshii?