Best film restoration companies? (1 Viewer)

[Stephen_J_H]

David, what special challenges have you encountered in authoring and encoding, particularly in reference to effects-heavy films? Particularly, I'm thinking of Flash Gordon which has a lot of optical work.

 

[titch]

Even with that size of disc, my strategy is always to do a lot of noise reduction and compression on the bonus features, to make room on the disc for all the grain. This just makes sense becuase nobody really cares if a video interview isn't presented with its original video camera noise intact, but preserving the original grain is essential for a high quality presentation. So the bonus features use a tiny portion of the disc because they're very compressable with a lot of pre-optimization. CINEMA PARADISO is another example of this, if I recall correctly the feature is on there at CBR 95mbps. The bonus features had to be recompressed for the UHD BD because they were originally interlaced (UHD BD doesn't support interlaced formats), so we took the opportunity to redo them in HEVC and compress them further. More room for the film.

Thank you very much for your answers. I had been wondering a bit at how you had converted all the bonus features for Cinema Paradiso, as Arrow Video's original blu-ray came out in 2013, which was three years before the 4K UHDs started appearing.

 

[dmac]

David, what special challenges have you encountered in authoring and encoding, particularly in reference to effects-heavy films? Particularly, I'm thinking of Flash Gordon which has a lot of optical work.

From a compression standpoint, the most obvious problem is that sometimes the encoders will under-allocate bits when they get to any kind of optical shot. The overall picture has less high frequency content because of the softer optically printed film source (relative to the rest of the feature which is from the negative and has sharper grain and sharper everything). The default algorithms are often a bit too confident in their own ability to drop the bitrate in certain parts of the feature.

 

[titch]

From a compression standpoint, the most obvious problem is that sometimes the encoders will under-allocate bits when they get to any kind of optical shot. The overall picture has less high frequency content because of the softer optically printed film source (relative to the rest of the feature which is from the negative and has sharper grain and sharper everything). The default algorithms are often a bit too confident in their own ability to drop the bitrate in certain parts of the feature.

Default algorithms - is a lot of the mastering process automated? How long would you typically need to master a delivered scan for a 4K UHD? Does it require more time than for a blu-ray or DVD?

 

[Vern Dias]

The encoders (which are computer programs) use rules that are defined when the program was written. There are some tuning parameters that affect what overall levels of compression will be applied (max bit rate, target size, for example) but the algorithms used by the program are constantly making adjustments to optimize the final size of the output file.

 

[sultan of cinema]

There was a comment earlier regarding Lowry restorations. I felt they did a terrific job with Dr. No, From Russia, With Love, Goldfinger and Thunderball. I ask why You Only Live Twice has a blue tint to it, On Her Majesty's Secret Service has definite color issues and Diamonds Are Forever shifts colors thru out. I recently viewed them on Amazon Prime and they looked terrific. Will we ever get to see these Bond titles perfected? I have seen them enough times since their release theatrically to know what they should look like. This is also why I haven't prerecorded the upcoming The Good The Bad and The Ugly. Having seen it almost 80 times theatrically since its initial release in 1967, I KNOW what it should look like and the recent Kino release (I thank them for the original UA Transam logo!) still doesn't resemble what I saw. There was an older Italian out of release Region B disc for The Good, The Bad and The Ugly that looked beautiful. I would love to hear some comments and thank you.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

There was a comment earlier regarding Lowry restorations. I felt they did a terrific job with Dr. No, From Russia, With Love, Goldfinger and Thunderball. I ask why You Only Live Twice has a blue tint to it, On Her Majesty's Secret Service has definite color issues and Diamonds Are Forever shifts colors thru out. I recently viewed them on Amazon Prime and they looked terrific. Will we ever get to see these Bond titles perfected? I have seen them enough times since their release theatrically to know what they should look like. This is also why I haven't prerecorded the upcoming The Good The Bad and The Ugly. Having seen it almost 80 times theatrically since its initial release in 1967, I KNOW what it should look like and the recent Kino release (I thank them for the original UA Transam logo!) still doesn't resemble what I saw. There was an older Italian out of release Region B disc for The Good, The Bad and The Ugly that looked beautiful. I would love to hear some comments and thank you.

Yes, but didn't Lowry screw up big time on LIVE AND LET DIE? I remember that the initial release had completely incorrect colors in the opening credits.

 

[MatthewA]

Lowry fucked up a bunch of Disney movies in the 2000s IIRC. Weren't they responsible for the "wrongly restored" Cinderella?

 

[Bob Furmanek]

Who did the over the top digital scrubbing on Patton a.k.a. House of Wax?

 

[Ray H]

There was a comment earlier regarding Lowry restorations. I felt they did a terrific job with Dr. No, From Russia, With Love, Goldfinger and Thunderball. I ask why You Only Live Twice has a blue tint to it, On Her Majesty's Secret Service has definite color issues and Diamonds Are Forever shifts colors thru out. I recently viewed them on Amazon Prime and they looked terrific. Will we ever get to see these Bond titles perfected? I have seen them enough times since their release theatrically to know what they should look like. This is also why I haven't prerecorded the upcoming The Good The Bad and The Ugly. Having seen it almost 80 times theatrically since its initial release in 1967, I KNOW what it should look like and the recent Kino release (I thank them for the original UA Transam logo!) still doesn't resemble what I saw. There was an older Italian out of release Region B disc for The Good, The Bad and The Ugly that looked beautiful. I would love to hear some comments and thank you.

Much of Lowry's work on the Bond movies was done in the mid '00s and I fear they don't hold up all that well. Their software can lead to a lot of distracting artifacts I noticed when viewing the Connery films in 4K via iTunes a few months back.

 

[titch]

Much of Lowry's work on the Bond movies was done in the mid '00s and I fear they don't hold up all that well. Their software can lead to a lot of distracting artifacts I noticed when viewing the Connery films in 4K via iTunes a few months back.

I've recently watched the Connery Bonds up to You Only Live Twice, plus On Her Majesty's Secret Service, from the blu-rays, projected onto a 130 inch screen. There were surprisingly few artifacts to be seen and I suspect the steaming versions on iTunes introduce compression artifacts that are not present on the blu-rays. The only transfer that is noticeably problematic, is Thunderball. Those Lowry digital scans and restorations from pre 2008 must be among the first performed in 4K resolution.

 

[Robert Harris]

The first 4k restorations were The Godfather(s) and Dr. Strangelove. GF in Burbank, SL in NY, both in 2007.

 

[titch]

The first 4k restorations were The Godfather(s) and Dr. Strangelove. GF in Burbank, SL in NY.

2007?

 

[Robert Harris]

2007?

Our project began with research and prep around August of 2006, which continued well into test scanning around January of 2007. Search for elements continued throughout the entire process, and up until the final color and clean in the summer of 2007.

I can't speak to Mr. Crisp's dates, but I know we were working concurrently on both coasts.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I thought the 4K-sourced restorations of the first Bond films were a Nov/Dec 2006 DVD release - yes, DVD, but the work was done in 4K and has since been released on BD and now 4K streaming.