That's the artificial sharpening/DNR that gives it the illusion of a sharp image but it looks unnatural.
The Undiscovered Country - Theatrical Cut Blu-ray vs Director's Cut iTunes
- Thread starter MakeshiftPython
- Start date
I fully agree that it's lame. However the reasoning for it doesn't follow.Windowboxing to protect credits from overscan. Annoying, as it's not something really needed nowadays. I still remember one of my previous copies (either UK VHS or US LaserDisc) where all you could see was AME JUDITH ANDERSO on my old TV. Lame.
I've seen some of the instances in which the James Bond Blu-Rays did this (right, I'm pretty sure Spy Who Loved Me is one of them), and the whole panorama shrinks accordingly, maintaining its aspect ratio as far as I could tell. The Search for Spock, it's more like the sides of the frame are cropped during opening titles, changing the aspect ratio from 2.35 to a 2.00 or something stupid.
It also seems to me the Search for Spock titles themselves have been reprinted on both DVD and BluRay. In the above scenario, there's no question Judith Anderson's name should have been cropped rather than protected (In addition, ALL the classic ST movie Blu-Rays -except The Wrath of Khan, which has now been remastered twice- were clean of subtitles wherever they are needed). Meanwhile on the Search for Spock DVD, Nichelle Nichols' name cuts directly into Mark Lenard's, with no fade applied.
I do recall the credits being a little off on the DVD. Like how the title of the film only appears one beat too late, and it appears with no fade-in.
I took a peak at my iTunes copy of III. Holy Hell! It's been awhile since I watched any of the blu-rays, so I forgot just how severe the cropping on the sides was during main credits.
I took a peak at my iTunes copy of III. Holy Hell! It's been awhile since I watched any of the blu-rays, so I forgot just how severe the cropping on the sides was during main credits.
Yeah, I've just had a fresh look at it and that aspect ratio is weird. From what I can tell, it's not actually cropped, it's squished. So the text is basically correct, but the background is thinner horizontally that it should be.
I compared it to the previous DVD release, and the text does seem to have been re-comped. I wonder if they did the same as what happened to some of the Hitchcock movies, where they decided the opening credits were too damaged to bother fixing, so instead went back to the raw background footage and did the titles fresh. (Which was done without care and using moden typeface substitutes instead of the original lettering, leading to differences and even spelling mistakes.)
That would also explain why there's a gap between Nichols/Lenard on one version and not the other.
Even so, still doesn't explain the squish.
Not exact frames, but the difference can still be seen...
Last edited:
It seems to me they're more cropped than squished. Like from the cloud patterns, I can almost definitely tell there's some cropping action going on. The Blu-Ray may just have more information in the frame (prior to cropping, I'm looking not just at the sides but up top), or the image may be more pulled back because it's not the same frame. And I don't think there's even a way to be sure of an exact-frame comparison, since the titles (on at least the DVD) are suspect.
Best bet is probably to see if any squishing/unsquishing is visible in real time during the boarder transitions. Since there are no solid cuts (only dissolves) during the entire sequence, such a thing should be fairly impossible to hide.
Squishing would make more sense if the titles were fixed. But that doesn't seem to be what we're seeing here either.
Best bet is probably to see if any squishing/unsquishing is visible in real time during the boarder transitions. Since there are no solid cuts (only dissolves) during the entire sequence, such a thing should be fairly impossible to hide.
Squishing would make more sense if the titles were fixed. But that doesn't seem to be what we're seeing here either.
There's way too much headroom in the open-matte Top Gun. If they'd used a common top line this would not have been a problem.
agreed
The iTunes digital copies of V and VI have just upgraded to the newest transfers. They’re still locked in HD, but you can already see a vast improvement with the DNR gone and very apparent film grain in the new remaster.
iTunes will likely upgrade them to 4K Dolby Vision on the day the discs release.
TFF looks good too. Great even, as long as you look away from the f/x… For the first time I saw a string holding up the tail of the three boob cat stripper
iTunes will likely upgrade them to 4K Dolby Vision on the day the discs release.
TFF looks good too. Great even, as long as you look away from the f/x… For the first time I saw a string holding up the tail of the three boob cat stripper
Last edited:
The main digital copy is still the theatrical cut. The 2003 Director’s Edition (with the cutaways and gongs) is an iTunes bonus feature but it didn’t look like a new transfer. That said it still looks better than the 2009 blu-ray.
They used to sell the Trek VI "Director's Edition" separately. I purchased it and the last time I checked it hasn't upgraded to the new transfer. They still sell "The Director's Edition" of TWOK and that upgraded to 4k/HDR years ago.
I bought the TMP DE separately on iTunes as well. I’ll keep my eye on that for when the new version hits iTunes, which will either mean my iTunes transfer upgrades but is stuck in SD or it doesn’t change and they sell the new version completely separately online.
The Digital Bits review mentions the mind-meld cutaways, so it seems that, aside from the aspect ratio, this is the 2003 version, gongs and all. https://thedigitalbits.com/item/star-trek-6-4k-uhd-2022
I was hoping they’d preserve the taller aspect ratio, but I guess beggars can’t be choosers.
Oh, thank god. I watched that scene without the gongs and it just doesn't work. You need something audible to go with flashes like that.
There is no official version with the flashes but no faces. There's theatrical, no faces. Home video, no faces, director's edition, faces with gongs.
I hate the faces entirely, but I regard the gong as verging on self-parody. I can appreciate the need for some kind of accompanying sound effect, but a little "woosh" would probably have been sufficient. Still, I was hoping for a return to the VHS version, give or take the swapped-in close-ups elsewhere in the scene.