Les Diaboliques

[David M.]

Gary's Cap:


1 frame later:

Optical blurring is one thing, but are you sure this is not just yet another example of DVD Beaver presenting screen grabs with lower effective resolution than what's actually on the disc? Check out the shots from Black Swan which have obvious jaggies, and appear to have about half horizontal resolution.

I am sorry to keep banging on this drum, but they can't hide behind the "everyone's TV is different" excuse. Some people still rely on this site (evidently, wrongly) for accurate technical comparisons, and the effects could at some point become damaging for a small label. We all make mistakes, but it's how we deal with them that matters.

[peerpee]

Wow - those Black Swan grabs are shite.

[manicsounds]

Blu-ray.com on Les Diabolique

[MichaelB]

And here's the same reviewer's take on the Criterion edition.

This looks like a repeat of the Criterion/MoC situation with Vampyr - in which both Criterion and Arrow are working from the same obviously compromised master, but while Criterion has tried to clean it up a bit, Arrow has left it alone. With the result that Criterion has a 'cleaner' image, but Arrow's looks more film-like.

(Pure speculation on my part, I should stress - I haven't seen either disc in motion).

[David M.]

I don't see any evidence of that from the screen grabs myself. Both have decent resolution, the dynamic range seems to be the same on both, and neither seems to have had anything done to tamper with grain. The only difference I see is that the Arrow version is zoomed in slightly. I wonder what the reason for that could be...

[Feego]

The only difference I see is that the Arrow version is zoomed in slightly. I wonder what the reason for that could be...

I noticed that too while looking at the screenshots at Bluray.com just now. Granted, they are not exact matches, but if you compare, say, the close-up of Vera Clouzot on the telephone from both editions, the Arrow release is significantly cropped on all four sides.

[jsteffe]

Optical blurring is one thing, but are you sure this is not just yet another example of DVD Beaver presenting screen grabs with lower effective resolution than what's actually on the disc? Check out the shots from Black Swan which have obvious jaggies, and appear to have about half horizontal resolution.

Fascinating! I checked the Blu-ray.com screen grabs, and they lack those jaggies which pervade the DVD Beaver grabs for Black Swan. Now I have a technical question for you: how is it even possible to introduce jaggies into screen grabs when you're working from a 1080p source?

This summer I'm going to make a number of DVD and possibly Blu-ray frame grabs for a book. I think it's time to create a separate thread just to deal with technical issues regarding screen grabs, which people can use for general discussion and as a technical reference.

[David M.]

I'm at a loss to explain how those jaggies could be introduced. Some players, when in Pause mode, will only show one field. That would require a design which, for some bizarre reason, read 1080p as 1080i + pulldown. I've seen hardware players which do this (some high-end Sonys from a few years ago) but I don't know of any PC video cards or software players doing that.

DVD Beaver should share their process, because I'd also love to know!