Buffy in HD

[rbfvid]

For those who are curious about that Pivot's HD remastering of Buffy, here is a lenghty discussion with screencaps.

Quick recap: serious DNR (noice reduction), cropping from 4:3 to 16:9, and extremely questionable change of coloring. Well, at least it's not simple upscaling...

Comments

[beer_good_foamy]

It lost me on the aspect ratio change, you don't zoom in to get an aspect ratio that was never intended. That's just blasphemy.

Agreed, that's pretty much a dealbreaker. And still, I want to see what it looks like for a whole episode. The old 90s grain worked fine on my old fat TV, but on the HD screen it looks... not as bad as my old VHS tapes, but the resolution is noticeable in a way it was never intended to be either. Of course like you say, the question is if that's even possible to fix without redoing the whole thing.

[rbfvid]

Ditto. I would love to see how it really looks like on screen.
Hopefully they will make DVD or BluRay release without cropping.

[davesmusictank]

Me too. Having a sharper image DVD version will be terrific.

[spikesredqueen]

I am all for better quality but I am not sure I like the close ups. I like how it was before where you got to see more of the scene. Not sure how I feel about the color change, though.

[rbfvid]

I was pretty much ok with their coloring decisions until I saw this:

[rbfvid]

Changing coloring here from blue to red changes the whole mood of the scene. Orange-red just looks too cheery for me. But probably it feels different in the actual video, who knows.

[quinara]

Hmm... I think, in the end, I find it all a bit uncanny! Everything about early Buffy's production is so 90s (both the bright colours and the dark grainy ones and the 4:3); I don't know how to make the HBO-ified versions work with the tone (and fashion!) of the show. Still, the trailer was interesting and it's not like I haven't seen it all in the original anyway, so I could live with it as a rewatch... Maybe I'll see what the internet has in store...

[rbfvid]

Oh, their trailers are awesome, whoever was behind that idea (remastering + marathon) is a true buffy fan.