first pics from remastered FIFTH ELEMENT :) 21.6 MPEG2 versus 35.1 GB AVC (1 Viewer)

[Edwin-S]

I don't get the controversy. Sometimes I have seen a similar type of haloing on original film prints during theatrical viewings. It always seems to occur at rapid transitions between areas of high contrast, especially dark areas against light backgrounds.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

I'll contact Dan to find out more about his calibration and set up.


That is quite possible. I know my Momitsu scaling DVD player used to introduce ringing that, at the time, I thought was on the (DVD) discs. When I upgraded to my Momitsu I couldn't belive how much *clearer, sharper, and more detailed* the images were... and this time without any ringing!

Turns out that was just the DVD player (except on discs that actually had EE, of course).

Projectors/displays and players can all introduce various sharpening artifacts. It's not a for-gone conclusion that Dan's system *is* introducing the ringing, but it's possible as well... though there ARE discs he's seen which have no EE whatsoever... so that's a mark in favor of his sytem having proper calibration.

It's all so confusing!

In any case... my conclusions on the reference system we watched on is that, from a 1.5 screen-width distance, we saw no ringing while simply "watching the movie", which for me is all that matters since that's how these discs are meant to be used.

Maybe if we get more time Matt and I will check out some specific scenes more closely (and closer viewing distance) to see if we can find the "ringing" that some reviewers have noticed.

 

[Paul Hillenbrand]

From Dan Ramer's review:
While the disc is in "pause mode", you have to literally walk up to the screen to see this, which should make it a NON-issue. From a proper seating distance, it is invisible to the eye.

I applaud Dan Ramer for reporting it.

Paul

 

[Cees Alons]

If it's on the original disc as well, it may even be on the film. It could be a blue-background projection effect, or so.


Cees

 

[Paul Hillenbrand]

Good point Cees!

This 1997 CGI artifact may very well be the norm for this type of master. With 1080P, maybe we just now, can see it.

Paul

 

[Paul Hillenbrand]

If this "EE/halo look" is actually CGI artifacting on the film, then the half a star HighDef-Digest took off , because of an EE/halo authoring effect, should be put back, giving the Video a perfect score.:rolleyes

Paul

 

[Douglas Monce]

He specifically states that he took the "screen shot" with a digital camera. In my opinion that makes that image next to useless.

Doug

 

[Douglas Monce]

Also some systems process a paused image to try and make it look pretty. This could be introducing some artifacts.

And it is quite correct that EE could have been introduced at the point the original film was scanned in to do the effects shots. The effects software could have rendered the EE. It could be a flaw in the lens that originally photographed the scene.

I mean come on folks if we are talking about something that you have to get 3 inches away from a 106 inch screen to see, it's not something I would call a flaw. This isn't the horrible original Pirates DVD where you could see the EE on a 19 inch set.

Doug

 

[Paul Hillenbrand]

It maybe useless, because your not sure if it is accurate, so you can make a judgement Doug, but I have to verify that it's exactly the same artifact I saw, when looking up close at that same frame on my theater screen.

Paul

 

[Dave Mack]

Thanks DaVid!

 

[Paul Hillenbrand]

If it's on the studio master then it's not a flaw of the disc and if it's "introduced at the point the original film was scanned in to do the effects shots", then it is an historically accurate reproduction.

 

[Paul Hillenbrand]

Don't be discouraged Dave, keep up the good work.
It's appreciated.

 

[Edwin-S]

Well, the original DVD of this film exhibits haloing around the ship as well. Is this the only example of haloing on the new transfer? If excessive edge enhancement was used then I would expect it to be apparent throughout the disc. If the ship is the only example then that would appear to point to the haloes being present in the source.

 

[Douglas Monce]

Paul,

Don't get me wrong I'm not saying that you didn't see it or its not there. I'm not doubting your word. I'm saying that from that picture I can't tell a thing. Frankly I can't even tell if I'm looking at T5E or some other movie, or even if it's a movie at all by looking at that image.

Screen shots are problematic at best when they are electronic captures, (really about all they are good for is saying "look at this frame on yours and tell me what you think") but using a digital camera to shoot a picture of a screen is kind of ridiculous.

If you have to get very close to the screen to see it, or you have to freeze the frame, then I'm really not sure why its an issue.

Doug

 

[Edwin-S]

Well, the PQ on this remastered version was impressive. Very nice detail and dimensionality in this version. I compared it to the original SD DVD. The HD version is a major improvement; however, I have to say that the SD DVD still holds up well in terms of PQ as well.

Color saturation on the HD version is markedly improved; although, sometimes it seemed
to be a little too pumped.

The sound did not impress me nearly as much. I found that some of the explosions had some nasty distortion in the upper ranges. Some dialog passages also seemed to suffer from distortion in the higher ranges.

 

[Brian L]

Just another vote in favor of the remaster. Absolutely beautiful...probably the best image of any hi-def title I currently own.

I really want to focus on David Boulet's comment about the uncompressed PCM soundtrack allowing little bits of dialog to be understood for the first time. EXACTLY! I have seen this film dozens of times, and the PCM tracks allowed me to hear things that I have never understood before. Fantastic!

The folks over at AVS have this rated Tier 1. The only Tier 0 title I own is Dead Man's Chest, and I can say without question that TFE betters it on my system. I don't know if that means that DMC is over rated, TFE is under rated, or its a system dependency deal, but suffice to say that this one is an absolute stunner.

Brian

 

[DaViD Boulet]

I really hope we start to raise awareness of just how much better lossless audio is than what we've lived with on DVD... and even better than the high-bit-rate lossy on HD media.

Lossless rules. Plain and simple. FINALLY I can watch movies that sound as good as they sounded back on laserdisc!

It's been a long 10 years waiting for that...

dave