Are some video remasters messed up too?

I wonder if some digital remastering on videos is going overboard, especially in regards to contrast, but probably with color balances as well.
The newest Hard Day's Night DVD has a lot of contrast but when I watch the Criterion LD, it seems like there may be a wider range of grays that were lost.
Anyone else feel that there may be insensitive video remastering that's comparable to insensitive audio remastering?

 

They sure messed up the framing on that one, chopped up the top and bottom too much to try to make it more widescreen. And that 5.1 mono...hmm...

 

On AHDN, if you set your amp to "mono", do you eliminate the problem and get a nice sounding mono soundtrack, or not?

 

Haven't tried that but I don't think it would eliminate the problem. They added reverb to the concert portions for one thing - sort of Capitol Dexter Beatles revisited.

 

I think it might exist something like "No-Noise" in the movies.

 

The new AHDN DVD is just a total mess - Avoid at all costs.



James

 

IMO, I think that's easily answered by the Warner Bros. Citizen Kane DVD. As clean as that version looks, I sometimes still prefer the old Criterion laserdisc, despite all the audio and video imperfections.

(Steve commented on that DVD's visuals some time ago; maybe someone can do a search?)

 

I didn't care much for the remastered version of "The Fugitive" on DVD. The thing that bothered me the most, was where the layer change occurs. It's in a very awkward place that was very jarring, and really broke the mood of the scene. Plus the bonus materials weren't all that great either. I ended up getting rid of the new one and fortunately found a used copy of the original.

 

Exactly, video no-noising.

 

Wow.. does this exist for real?! What effect does it have on an image when it's over-used?

 

That was just an analogy. But in Photoshop, you can adjust brightness, contrast and colors as much as you want, and it's easy to destroy subtleties of tone. A crude example would be messing with the adjustments on your TV set.

 

Well, if you get the excellent Kino transfer of METROPOLIS and watch the extras on the restoration process, there's a scene where the technician says the automatic noise removal process they were using had to be dialed down to a certain threshold, or it would remove things that weren't necessarily just "noise". For instance, the leg of an actor who was running, looked like a splotch to the computer at a certain setting, so it removed his leg! Otherwise, noise removal can remove film grain, taking away some of that film look. You should read all the articles by Robert Harris on www.thedigitalbits.com, but I believe there's one that specifically address the "over" use of film noise reduction.

 

One equivilent is "edge enhancement", similar to jacking up the treble on music remstering.

 

Just like with hiss.

Yikes!

 

Indeed. Fortunately, in the finished DVD, they left his leg on. Just shows how in-discriminant the technology can be, and why the person behind the controls must be so much more discriminant, like this forum's namesake.