Hulu LA Law Remastered on Hulu (1 Viewer)

[Todd Erwin]

I started watching "LA Law" on Hulu, and for the most part I am very pleased with how this show was remastered. However, episode 3 of the first season looks wrong, as if it was upscaled from the original 4:3 SD broadcast master and then zoomed in to fill a 16:9 frame. The framing on the episode looks wrong, basically cramped and claustrophobic. Colors are much more muted, the overall image is much softer, and the episode is littered with upscaling artifacts and overuse of edge enhancement.

Anyone else notice this?

 

[JohnRice]

Do you know how it was typically filmed, and if the 16:9 is a combination of cropping and open matte?

 

[Todd Erwin]

Do you know how it was typically filmed, and if the 16:9 is a combination of cropping and open matte?

Having watched the first four episodes, episodes 1, 2 and 4 appear as if they were shot with a 4:3 safe area in mind. When comparing the Hulu remasters to the 4:3 SD versions on Prime Video, the Prime Video versions have a little more head room while the Hulu remasters are slightly cropped top and bottom but more breathing room on the sides.

Episode three, on the other hand, looks like they just did a 16:9 crop from the 4:3 broadcast master, but as I said, the color fidelity is also very poor and the overall image is soft with excessive edge enhancement.

 

[Todd Erwin]

 

[smithbrad]

Having watched the first four episodes, episodes 1, 2 and 4 appear as if they were shot with a 4:3 safe area in mind. When comparing the Hulu remasters to the 4:3 SD versions on Prime Video, the Prime Video versions have a little more head room while the Hulu remasters are slightly cropped top and bottom but more breathing room on the sides.

Episode three, on the other hand, looks like they just did a 16:9 crop from the 4:3 broadcast master, but as I said, the color fidelity is also very poor and the overall image is soft with excessive edge enhancement.

I'd say that is an accurate assessment. The font size difference is a dead giveaway. Guessing that there was an issue with the original film elements for that episode, so they used the SD master instead. Might have been better to have just left it 4:3 then zooming in, but they were probably hoping no one would notice. It's not a completely unheard-of situation. Hopely, there are very few if any more similar situations.

 

[Todd Erwin]

Here's a link to my episode on both Moonlighting and LA Law on Hulu:

 

[Lord Dalek]

Yeah episode 3 is clearly upscaled from the 1" broadcast master except for the credits. Must be missing elements.

Also I noticed the opening titles have a shot of the South Flower Building that wasn't there originally.

EDIT: The Bentley license plate on Season 8 is upscaled.