Noise Reduction Cinem...err... New Line Cinema...

[Sehnzeleid]

Looks like New Line is at it again.

Blu-ray.com: The Golden Compass BD Review

Video: 3.5/5

The Golden Compass comes encoded in a high bitrate VC-1 presentation, averaging around 25 to 30 Mbps. This release looks quite impressive, though it does sport some drawbacks. The film's color palette has been well-preserved; the overall tone does not have a vividly bright quality to it, nor is it drastically dull. It feels natural; a lived-in world full of burnished golds for the affluent college and icy hues in the far north.

Black levels are excellent and remain consistent throughout the picture. In addition, no noticeable artifacts were present. One important aspect of this film is, of course, the profuse amount of CG effects, and it is to be noted that they look excellent on this Blu-ray Disc. Subtle touches, like spectral sheen on the hairs of the dæmons Pantalaimon and Stelmaria, are captured beautifully on high definition; I don't recall catching such a detail when seeing this film in the theatre.

Unfortunately, being that New Line is under Warner Bros, the mastering of this film likely had a hefty amount of digital noise reduction applied to it, as film grain and fine detail such as skin pores or cloth textures are noticeably absent. Despite the overall clarity of the picture, it definitely has a "tuned down" feel to it, and I found that highly unfortunate.

I couldn't care less about the title myself, but New Line needs to freakin' stop with the digital noise reduction. First Pan's Labyrinth and now this.

The comments above seem to be pointing towards Warner being to blame for the DNR, but I think it's more New Line's fault. Just look at the (albeit scaled down) screenshots in their The Orphanage Blu-ray Review, released by New Line. Grain structure is clearly evident in those shots and fine detail is popping all over. My theory is that New Line utilized Warner's BD transfer for The Orphanage since Warner handled the Spanish Blu-ray release. Plus both Warner's and New Line's BDs have the original Spanish credits.

I think The Golden Compass and Pan's Labyrinth BD transfers are purely New Line and they will only continue down the "Blu-ray as a DVD with better color" path. This certainly dampens my outlook on future New Line titles. I gotta wonder what the hell they'll do to Dark City.

[ganthc]

Are you really saying that with noise reduction the movie is no longer HD? That it has the same detail level as DVD? I find that very hard to believe.

[dugpa]

Originally Posted by Sehnzeleid

The comments above seem to be pointing towards Warner being to blame for the DNR, but I think it's more New Line's fault.

New Line doesn't really exist anymore. Most everyone was fired a couple of weeks ago and what little was left was obsorbed into Warner. Even before then New Line was in the process of shutting down. So Warner is most likely the one to blame.

[plissken99]

Well the mastering process is usually done months before the actual release of a given title, so New Line should still be to blame. If this is Warners fault, it would be the 1st I've heard of them doing this.

[Derb]

I kinda dig the NR on Pan's Labyrinth. In fact I'd need side by side comparisons to spot the difference. If the actors looked like wax figures, than yes I'd bitch about it but that isn't the case, not even close.

Look at how well Starz titles turned out because of NR. I bet if you took away the NR all of their initial line up would look like nothing but a poor DVD upconvert.

[ganthc]

Originally Posted by Derb

I kinda dig the NR on Pan's Labyrinth. In fact I'd need side by side comparisons to spot the difference. If the actors looked like wax figures, than yes I'd bitch about it but that isn't the case, not even close.

Look at how well Starz titles turned out because of NR. I bet if you took away the NR all of their initial line up would look like nothing but a poor DVD upconvert.

Agreed. In the 300brd thread, there are arguments again that DNR and grain removal is akin to upconvert dvd. I disagree completely. I think it isn't about pan & scan vs widescreen being the same. I think it is film purists that are just trying to argue that films look terrible when you remove the grain and noise. In some cases, it should stay, but if 300 had been without the noise, and still had the same level of detail (which I think it could have), then it really wouldn't have bothered me. Perhaps the director and some purists would throw hissy fits, but if blu-ray movies don't have to look like "Sleepy Hollow" or "Hoosiers" then I won't be registering any complaints.

[Ruined]

Originally Posted by ganthc

Agreed. In the 300brd thread, there are arguments again that DNR and grain removal is akin to upconvert dvd. I disagree completely. I think it isn't about pan & scan vs widescreen being the same. I think it is film purists that are just trying to argue that films look terrible when you remove the grain and noise. In some cases, it should stay, but if 300 had been without the noise, and still had the same level of detail (which I think it could have), then it really wouldn't have bothered me. Perhaps the director and some purists would throw hissy fits, but if blu-ray movies don't have to look like "Sleepy Hollow" or "Hoosiers" then I won't be registering any complaints.

Again, that may be true for film purists, but I'd be the ranch that J6P prefers a "clear" image that "pops" over a grainy one that is source accurate... Just like they preferred pan&scan movies that "filled the screen" over widescreen movies and the evil black bars that were source accurate! J6P sadly just wants the more shiny one.

New Line is probably trying to appeal to both groups. Remove some grain to capture J6P's favor, but not so much that the purists go ballistic.

Also re: upconvert DVD, my point in the other thread was that J6P may prefer a highly processed image accentuating the color, lack of grain & noise, & pumped artificial detail to the original unprocessed image which may contain grain, less pumped colors, and more source-accurate detail. For J6P its not about what is more accurate, its about which one "pops" better IMO. That's why they set up the TVs in Best Buy with all the horrendous post-processing turned on and settings jacked up, because it sells TVs. Remember, I'm not talking about current upcon (though Silicon Optix and Anchor Bay have some pretty awesome solutions), but the proposed nextgen upcons where much more extensive post processing will take place to make DVDs "pop" similar to HDTV.