Toho mastered DVD - Blu-ray Black Levels

[John Schuermann]

Hello all -

I've taken it as a project to re-cut the video pulled from the German Ghidrah Blu-ray (which has excellent picture, btw) to recreate the American version of the film in HD. I'm about 1/3 of the way through the movie, and it's amazing how many little cuts there are in addition to the obvious reshuffling of scenes. I also did a test render out to DVD and it is amazing how much better the picture is compared to the Classic Media DVD. I may post some screen caps in the Home Media Releases thread. The American version on the Classic Media is almost unwatchable, with interlacing problems, print degradation, crushed blacks, moire, you name it. The "down-rezed to DVD" video I created from the Blu-ray master is night and day better.

As I was doing this, I applied the Sony Vegas 'Studio RGB to Computer RGB' level correction to the Blu-ray video and it appears to solve all of the black level "problems" on the Toho mastered DVDs / Blu-rays. For anyone who has a TV that allows the black level setting to be set to Computer levels, change it to the computer or 0-255 setting and the Toho mastered discs will display properly. I thought that was the problem, but only now got around to confirming it.

EDIT!!!

Correcting myself - it appears that setting the TV to computer only makes the problem worse. The discs must have been mastered with black at zero, instead of 16. The Blu-ray player doesn't know this, of course, so outputs black at 16. Setting the display to computer just pushes black down even further. All of this sounds counter-intuitive. Must ponder some more...

More to come as I experiment...

[EddieLarkin]

Coincidentally, I was just experimenting myself with my Biollante and DAM discs trying to get the perfect picture adjustments, when I found an "RGB PC" option in my Oppo BD players HDMI settings. Changing from "Auto" to "RGB PC" solves the issue on both of these discs perfectly, turning the muddy green/gray blacks on these discs into real deep blacks instantly.

I can't understand why this doesn't work for you when using your TVs settings though, as it sounds like the same option.

[John Schuermann]

[EddieLarkin]

Yes, it must be something to do with the source needing to be compensated for, rather than the output. My Oppo is the newest model so hopefully it's an option that is available on older models as well, if that's what you have. The path to get to it is:

Setup-Video Setup-HDMI options-Color Space-RGB PC Level

On mine you can even change it on the fly. These players are fantastic!

[John Schuermann]

[EddieLarkin]

Great work John. Now we know what every kaiju fan needs: Oppo Blu-ray players! Though I wonder if other brands typically have this feature?

[canofhumdingers]

I think the ps3 has this feature, but I'm not 100% sure. Will try to check when I have a chance.

[EddieLarkin]

It does:

http://manuals.playstation.net/document ... range.html

[John Schuermann]

Joy was everywhere!