UHD Encodes and Technical Discussion

[Yakushima]

nicolas, have you compared the Eagle UHD to the Paramount UHD, and if so : does the difference in encode really alleviate the textural issues of the Paramount UHD, or was it always really a baked-in issue of grain management in the restoration (which is my POV) ?

Caps-a-holic just posted a comparison between Italian (Eagle) and UK 4K UHD versions of Once Upon a Time in the West, and Eagle clearly shows more texture.

But it still looks scrubbed compared to the old US BD

I received the Eagle edition today and previewed it. The restoration looks and sounds absolutely gorgeous. It is clearly DNRed, but still watchable. Some sections preserve a near-filmic look with a hint of grain. Other sections look a bit waxy, but not overwhelmingly so.

It is a crying shame that Paramount did such a hack job of noise reduction on this beautiful restoration. It could have been an absolutely stellar reference version for years to come.

As it is, it looks like Eagle people did their best to recover the film texture to the degree it was possible, and this disc is still a solid upgrade over the US Blu-ray and is recommended to all but the most DNR-averse.

[tenia]

I think we can all agree it's the best (as to date) presentation of a non-optimal restoration, but whose alternative is an arguably even more non-optimal BD.

[Maladroit Aggregator]

So those caps aren't representative of what it looks like in motion?

Lack of grain bothers me much more than wrong color, and while I'd hardly call what the old BD has "grain" (more like digital noise) at least it's a texture - again, at least in the stills.

I'll likely pick up the Italian disc anyway, but I don't see what everyone is so enthusiastic about, here or at the other forums.

[tenia]

Maybe I poorly expressed myself.
What I meant is that while the restoration in itself does provide an upgrade over the BD, it remains a flawed restoration due to the artificial filtering baked into it. At least, the Eagle UHD doesn't add compression issues on top of that, but no encode, no matter how good it is, will ever bring back what has been filtered out.
The caps do look representative to me, I just think the DNR is more visible that what you found of it.

[Stefan Andersson]

Charlotte Barker comments on To Catch a Thief restoration - see Oct. 31 post:
https://www.hometheaterforum.com/commun ... 325/page-8

[tenia]

I'd love to be able to see this restoration one day.