GODZILLA VS HEDORAH, EBIRAH: HORROR OF THE DEEP and GODZILLA

[canofhumdingers]

[Tom R VanSlambrouck]

I'll probably get Gigan for sure and if for some miraclous reason Hedorah and Sea Monster gets their original dubbs I'll get those for sure.

[Dr Kain]

I was going to ask this. I remember years ago someone mentioning that the black levels in Japan are different from the US, so if you watch a Japanese disc, it can look faded out. I can definitely say this is real because I have my tv calibrated to a brightness level of 42, but whenever I watch any of Toho's DVDs and BDs, they look washed out unless I drop the brightness to 30. In fact, I also found this to work with the Echo Bridge Biollante disc as well. Thoughts?

[canofhumdingers]

I've posted about it numerous time over the years. to the first one I was able to find.

But in short, yes, any video that comes form a source originally intended for sale or broadcast in Japan will look faded and washed out on American TV's. This includes any disc you import from Japan or any domestic releases that use video transfers from Japan where the company didn't bother to make any adjustments to the source prior to pressing it to disc. Examples being the recent Destroy All Monsters and Biollante blurays, most of the old Media Blasters/Tokyo Shock DVDs, and most likely these new blurays from Section 23.

[Goji 84]

That's helpful, thanks.

It would be awfully nice if these companies actually took notice of how bad these transfers look on most HDTVs (in the U.S., and wherever else this is an issue), and did some color correction themselves so we wouldn't have to bother with all of this.

[klen7]

[canofhumdingers]

Also, for what it's worth, many people have complained about the somewhat significant video noise on the Toho HD masters. Supposedly it was either added on purpose to hide some flaws or a natural by product of the older HD telecine machine they used. Either way any Toho BD or domestic release sourced from the same masters (DAM, Biollante, and the most recent Megalon DVD) has a noticeable amount of video noise throughout the movie.

I normally vehemently shun using any sort of video noise reduction or DNR, but in this case I've had very good results turning the video noise reduction setting on my TV to low or even medium. It significantly reduces the video noise but I'm still able to clearly see film grain and other fine detail where I should be able to. For me it actually greatly enhanced my viewing experience as I wasn't constantly being distracted by all the video noise on screen.

The big caveat being that you don't want to turn the setting too high and turn everybody into wax figures (like that terrible Predator transfer from a few years ago!). Also, you will obviously have different results based on your individual tv. I'm using a Panasonic plasma and have been impressed with the results but I've seen other brands where turning it on quickly reduces fine detail into a blurry smudge-y mess.

Don't get me wrong, even on my tv it DOES reduce the fine detail, but you have to REALLY look closely to notice it. It's a balancing act between losing detail and eliminating video noise. On my tv a low or medium setting for these discs works great, but then I always turn the noise reduction back off for watching anything else!!

[Tom R VanSlambrouck]

Not to hijack the topic but canofhumdingers do you have any good recommendations for calibration software preferreably free? I do have one blank BD-ROM that I can use to help calibrate my sets if that helps and I have several blank DVDs to use as well.

[O.Supreme]

It just seems odd to me that we've finally reached a point in terms of watching media there is no 100% true definition of what is "Best". It seems everyone has their own preferences. A Quarter-Century back, when most of us were watching these films on TV, or from VHS sources, we knew the ony way to see them with better quality would be in a theater. But then theater prints themselves vary greatly.

Now in the age of Blu-Ray, there are so many differing opinions, its hard to keep track. Some say the Toho BRD's have serious problems, others say they are just fine. Some fans have put much work into color-correcting, contrast, balck levels adjustment etc. etc... only to have other fans say it dosen't look right to them. In all honesty, i dont think we will ever have a perfect presentaton of these films because the fanbase cannot agree on what would designate a perfect presentaiton of them. I guess I'm just happy to get what we are getting.

[lhb412]

I'm just glad that Criterion got their hands on Gojira. It was the film most in need of major restoration and it got that to the nines!

[Dr Kain]

[Goji 84]

Well, Cameron supervised the restoration of ALIENS a couple of years back, so clearly he knows what his movie is 'supposed to' look like. I've seen it in 35mm twice, and the color timing is basically exactly the same.

[Joseph Goodman]

There have been more than enough Blu-ray discs of films from the days these titles come from, that perfectly represent all the quality that can be harvested from vintage films. And it's not just discs from major studios, either.

[John Schuermann]

Canofhumdingers is pretty much spot on regarding the Toho transfers. The black level calibration is different. One of these days when I have some time I will bring the pure HD streams into Sony Vegas and see if using a PC to Studio levels transform solves the problem. I imagine it will. Eddie Larkin in the "Optimizing an HDTV for Japanese Discs" thread has a pretty good explanation.

The DVD vs. Blu-ray screenshots posted above reflect these differences in mastering. The DVD looks better because the contrast is better. But correcting the black levels on the Blu-ray screen cap can help equalize that out. Lowering the black level will also make the colors pop as well (as canofhumdingers points out). I may try ripping my DAM Blu and running it through Vegas tonight. If so I will report on the results.

I believe my JVC projector lets me adjust for PC or Video levels so I might try that too.

[Zack Metoyer]

SCORE! Someone just bought my copy of Sea Monster for 80 bucks.

[jellydonut25]

[Zack Metoyer]

[Russzilla]

[MekaGojira3k]

I lived in such a rural area that I didn't have the opportunity to get bootlegs until much later. I had Bootleg tapes of vs. MechaGodzilla 93/SpaceGodzilla/Destroyah/GMK

[Bluejira]

[DannyBeane]

I remember paying $25 for a crappy VHS tape from Video Daikaiju back in the 1990s. Thats how I watched all the Heisei films. They were terrible They Heisei film were all washed out and fuzzy. I remember my copy of Godzilla Raids Again was so Dark you couldn't see anything from the time Anguirus and Godzilla come ashore till after Anguirus dies. But I was super grateful my parents got them for me as a kid.

[Zack Metoyer]

And I just went to pre-order these, but they all jumped $3.00 in price. Ugh.

[Dr Kain]

[Dr Kain]

[Zack Metoyer]