EE in HD

[Pirate]

This has probably been answered before, but I was wondering why we’re still seeing edge enhancement (EE) on HD DVD/Blu-ray transfers. Are they still low-pass filtering these transfers to reduce flicker, etc.? Are the EE-laden transfers a result of using the same master as the original DVD (e.g., 40-Year-Old Virgin)?

Shed some light, brethren!

[ganthc]

I would guess the master, but A Few Good Men actually eliminated the massive amounts of EE in it, so maybe it's not.

[Ruined]

Originally Posted by piratehunter

This has probably been answered before, but I was wondering why we’re still seeing edge enhancement (EE) on HD DVD/Blu-ray transfers. Are they still low-pass filtering these transfers to reduce flicker, etc.? Are the EE-laden transfers a result of using the same master as the original DVD (e.g., 40-Year-Old Virgin)?

Shed some light, brethren!

Likely a combination of reasons:

1) Often if a hidef movie is not razor sharp, it is characterized as "soft" and having "no 3d pop" in reviews. This is undesirable, far less so than a transfer that looks "sharp and detailed with occasional halos." So I would guess sometimes EE is added to films that lack fine detail sometimes. In the same train of thought, grain is often associated with a shitty transfer (unless the director/cinematographer has gone out of their way to mention somewhere that the grain is in there on purpose) - sometimes resulting in DNR to filter out grain.

2) Sometimes EE is purposely added after filming by the director for various reasons.

3) Sometimes the master got EE'd for whatever reason, and there is no backup copy aside from the film elements. Of course, in this case retransferring the film just to get rid of EE would be quite a costly endeavor that probably would not recover its cost unless it was a very popular movie. So in this case its a matter of release it with EE, or don't release it at all - in most cases, people would rather have a transfer with a little EE than nothing at all.

[Sehnzeleid]

Fuck edge enhancement and digital noise reduction. End of story.

[Pirate]

Originally Posted by Ruined

1) Often if a hidef movie is not razor sharp, it is characterized as "soft" and having "no 3d pop" in reviews. This is undesirable, far less so than a transfer that looks "sharp and detailed with occasional halos." So I would guess sometimes EE is added to films that lack fine detail sometimes. In the same train of thought, grain is often associated with a shitty transfer (unless the director/cinematographer has gone out of their way to mention somewhere that the grain is in there on purpose) - sometimes resulting in DNR to filter out grain.

So, as it is with most things, the problem is stupid people. Awesome.

[jriseden]

EE is the new "fool screen"!

[esc]

Firs you git da grain. Den yous get da halos. Den you gets da edge enheh-mint. And den, den yous gits da women.

[dugpa]

Many of these transfers, especially of catalog titles, were done with only DVD in mind, so EE was added then. The studio (I'm pointing my finger in your direction Universal) is too cheap to go back and do a new transfer so we're stuck with it. Granted, it had no business on SD DVD either, but someone somewhere seems to dig it. Probably figure all those people with players hooked up to old tv's via composite will like it.
And there are other reasons as well as Ruined mentioned. Sometimes it actually gets added when the 2k (or 4k) digital intermediate is done believe it or not. I've seen more than a few films in theaters with EE. Odd since the better way to do it is shoot with a sharper film and cinematography style in the first place. But I guess sometimes the director decides he wants it sharper after the fact.
Worse case of EE I ever saw in a theater was Inland Empire, which was shot on SD DVD. Every wide shot had tons of EE added to try to make up for the lack of sharpness of SD. I swear the halos were the size of a small Volkswagen. Still a good film though.

[Ruined]

Originally Posted by dugpa

And there are other reasons as well as Ruined mentioned. Sometimes it actually gets added when the 2k (or 4k) digital intermediate is done believe it or not. I've seen more than a few films in theaters with EE. Odd since the better way to do it is shoot with a sharper film and cinematography style in the first place. But I guess sometimes the director decides he wants it sharper after the fact.

Yeah, in addition to sharpening film "after the fact" in general which seems to happen now and then (I could see this happening with 40YOV since its a fairly recent movie that looks like it was shot cheaply and the EE is inconsistent throughout) - I've also heard of instances where EE was added to the live action filmed portions of some movies so that it looked as sharp as the CG portions of some movies. Though it can be, its worth noting that EE isn't always the result of studios bowing to "stupid" consumers or studios not wanting to fork over the dough for a new transfer.