OK, people, it's not like I jump up and take hold of the reins all that often, but I finally sat down and watched the new version GB DVD from the "Green Slime-Boxed" Double-Feature Gift Set.
Yes, I saw the words "Mastered in High Definition" on the box.
No, I didn't see it on my screen.
After an evening of Internet research and my own testing, I herewith present my case that the new GB DVDs are NOT better than the old ones, and are in fact WORSE. Listening to the folks around here go on about how these new disks are so "next level," I wanted to believe it but found nothing to support it.
BASIC DVD TECHNOLOGY 101
Until Blu-Ray, or any other genuinely new DVD format comes out, the best any DVD movie will be is 720x480 pixels, period. In the case of widescreen, the picture is "letterboxed" within that 720x480, which means your picture is now only 720x360 of raw image. That's the size AND aspect ratio of "Ghostbusters" in both the old and new DVDs. Period. Your DVD player corrects and interpolates the anamorphic image to fill the screen, but both version DVDs have the same identical raw data on them.
So what means "Mastered in High Definition?"
Just what it says. For the original DVD, the original GB movie film was likely scanned straight to a 480i (standard definition) video file and simply burned to DVDs. For the new DVD, the film was dragged out again, reloaded and re-scanned into a new high-definition master video file - suitable for 720 or 1080 or whatever the new HDTV formats are. HOWEVER, that new HDTV file STILL had to be reduced back down to standard 480 format to fit on the new DVD because DVDs haven't changed. So you don't see any more details on the new DVD.
Think of it this way: you see a gorgeous rose in your yard and you take a photo of it with your crappy li'l 2 megapixel camera. A few days later you find an even better rose, twice as big, twice as beautiful, but you still only have your 2 MP camera to snap it with. Both those photos will come out the same... get it? The best source quality in the world is only as good as your output quality.
SO WHY MAKE A HD FILE OF GB?
To be ready for the "next generation" of DVD technology. Columbia knows it's coming, so they are "re-mastering" their library this way and will be ready to go HD at a moment's notice. But until then, like any good marketing department, they know that by putting "HD Master" on a box, many people will re-buy it, unaware that they have no way of seeing the improvement.
Or, to put it another way: the minute HD DVD players hit mainstream, I guarantee you will see GB/GB2 released YET AGAIN in the new format, and all the poor saps who bought this new green-box set thinking it's got hidden extra (High) Definition encoded in the frames, waiting for the new players to release it, will be very disappointed. Read
here, and
here to read some conversations on this very topic.
PICTURES SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS
Absolutely, so here they are. The new DVD is indeed different, if not necessarily better, than the old one in the following ways.
(this is a reduced image)
The old DVD had a little void area all around the entire frame, represented by red. The new DVD is enlarged a few percent to put image all the way to the left and right edges, and in fact goes a little too far and slightly crops the sides. Look at the peak of the roof on the building at the left of the frame.
Next, the dynamic range and color of the film was "adjusted," but probably to a generic formula. Simply put, color casts were removed whether they belonged or not, and dark shadows were removed whether THEY belonged or not. In this scene alone, the low afternoon sun on a hazy autumn NYC afternoon produces color EXACTLY as the top frame shows, reddish cast and all. The "improved" image looks more like a black and white photo viewed through a blue lens. Where's Ted Turner when you need him?
Shown above are matching segments from matching frames from both DVDs, NOT reduced or processed in any way, and saved with high JPEG quality to minimize adding new compression artifacts. What do your eyes tell you? Here, don't strain them:
Here is a simple 2x enlargement. No, I haven't mixed them up... the new DVD actually has LESS detail than the old one!
In reality, the new DVD's HDTV video file has less "sharpening" and other processing done to it, which will look great on the new HDTV DVD whenever it comes out, but for now it's a big step backwards!
Moving on:
Yes, the new DVD not only makes the green traffic light greener, but the firehouse as well!
Which version can YOU read the sign?
How here's a great example of what I'm talking about. On the left, you can see the new DVD not only blows out Atlas' hair to an overexposed white blob, but look at the film grain now exposed in the background. On the OMNI cover, look at the knob on the gun. You can make out its shape on the old DVD, but not the new.
Look at the UPC and the bumper label, and would you even KNOW the shockmount had surface detail from the new DVD?
All these images were captured as BMP (lossless) with PowerDVD 5, with color set to "original," capture size set to "original video frame size," and no additional processing in Photoshop except cropping and adding text.
I hope this sets things straight and all those folks wondering whether or not to re-buy their GB movies can breathe a sigh of relief.
- Ken -