What You've Done Today...or yesterday...or what you are doing RIGHT THIS MINUTE!!!

[Sarex]

On that topic I watched the remaster extended editions of LoTR recently and it's amazing how much of a difference it is. The downside is that the CGI is much more apparent due to how sharp and clear the image is. Another thing I noticed is that they shifted the colors to a more natural hue, instead of the warm yellowish of the originals. 

Edited May 6 by Sarex

[Bartimaeus]

9 hours ago, Sarex said:

On that topic I watched the remaster extended editions of LoTR recently and it's amazing how much of a difference it is. The downside is that the CGI is much more apparent due to how sharp and clear the image is. Another thing I noticed is that they sifted the colors to a more natural hue, instead of the warm yellowish of the originals. 

Let's play a game: Spot the Source We Made a Crappy Upscale From! Was it A., the theatrical blu-ray that actually has the proper colors and uses different color tones for different times and locations throughout the movie as shown in original theatrical viewings, or B., the extended edition blu-ray that's a load of busted-up garbage? If you chose A., then congratulations, you won a one-way ticket to Mount Doom! If you chose B., then good job, you have eyes.

tl;dr: "sharp and clear" That's because the recent-ish 2K and 4K remaster blu-rays of LotR are just processed color regrades of the ancient original blu-ray releases. The image is sharper, yes - that's typically what these processed "remasters" (as opposed to actual re-scans of original film elements) do, sharpen up already prominent details while losing or warping smaller details. The color regrading is an inconsistent mess on top of it - instead of restoring the films to their original theatrical look (which you can see in the original non-Extended Edition blu-rays), they are all over the place - sometimes it looks more similar to the theatrical colors, sometimes it's very neutral, and sometimes it's...just doing something else entirely. The neutral colors are weird - those films used color to signify different locations and their respective tones, so it's bizarre to see a "remaster" lose that entirely at times.

They're awful releases that are lower picture quality than the original blu-rays from which they are derived from (plus, as you mentioned, the over-clarification of details makes some of the already low quality 2000s CGI effects stand out even more, and the films generally lose their filmic look due to over-processing), but if you really prefer the Extended Editions, I guess they might be preferable to previous official releases. There are fan color regrades of the original blu-rays that are better quality than those shoddy remasters.

Edited May 6 by Bartimaeus

[Sarex]

I really would have to rewatch the original bluray to say, but my brother was of the same opinion as you. I am still unsure if I like it better, but the difference is still amazing. But damn the original EE is bad...

 

Edit: just watched the video. I'm not sure, while it is bad, I'm just not certain it's that bad (the 4k version). It would have been better if they kept to the original, but I am not against some of the changes they did. The biggest issue I cannot make up my mind on is the coloring, tbh I like natural tones a bit more, but the warm tones work for LoTR.

Edited May 6 by Sarex

[majestic]

3 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Even better are TN1's efforts, which are derived from actual film prints, IMO:

Nice, haven't really read the article on Wikipedia, just linked to it. Guess I'll go check TN1's version out at some point.  

[Bartimaeus]

22 hours ago, majestic said:

Nice, haven't really read the article on Wikipedia, just linked to it. Guess I'll go check TN1's version out at some point.  

It took them forever to finish The Empire Strikes Back - IIRC, the film prints they had available for it were all badly damaged and it took combining several of them to construct a whole film...plus all the necessary editing and re-grading to make them approximately match. The Empire Strikes Back is, of course, the only Star Wars film I particularly like. The result is...mixed. I think their A New Hope looks generally better than Harmy's Despecialized, I think their Return of the Jedi trades blows with Harmy's - both kind of have their pros and cons, I don't think you're wrong for going with either. But their The Empire Strikes Back has a rougher appearance to it, and I feel like Harmy's generally wins. Though both of them kind of try to accomplish different things - Harmy's is a cleaner and more traditional digital blu-ray experience, while TN1's efforts are more like what you'd have experienced if you'd watched these movies in theaters way back when. Even with that said, I like to see clarity of detail, correct color grading, and not having the brights or darks blown out, and I think the Empire Strikes Back reels they had just have too many problems - problems like the above LotR screenshots that are simply impossible to correct in post. I think I read that they actually found a new reel that's better than the previous sources they used and they plan on making a 2.0 at some point using it, but that might still be years off at this point.

23 hours ago, Sarex said:

I really would have to rewatch the original bluray to say, but my brother was of the same opinion as you. I am still unsure if I like it better, but the difference is still amazing. But damn the original EE is bad...

 

Edit: just watched the video. I'm not sure, while it is bad, I'm just not certain it's that bad (the 4k version). It would have been better if they kept to the original, but I am not against some of the changes they did. The biggest issue I cannot make up my mind on is the coloring, tbh I like natural tones a bit more, but the warm tones work for LoTR.

While the neutral color tones are interesting, The Fellowship of the Ring is my favorite of the LotR movies and has the widest range of deliberately chosen color tones/themes due to its more varied locations than the later two movies, and seeing it all get neutralized ends up being rather undesirable to me. The over-sharpening and DNR (dynamic noise reduction) employed to eliminate grain and make the movie look more digital (they were shot on film!) is also terrible, it gives the whole thing a certain uncanny look. It's bad enough when it's done to just cartoons, but I cannot abide it at all when it's done to real human faces.

Edited May 7 by Bartimaeus

[majestic]

3 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

The over-sharpening and DNR (dynamic noise reduction) employed to eliminate grain and make the movie look more digital (they were shot on film!) is also terrible, it gives the whole thing a certain uncanny look.

It's silly - on the one hand, we have film studios doing remasters with excessive noise recuction to remove film grain, and on the other hand we have game developers with nothing better to do than to add film grain and motion blur options to their games.

The games have the advantage here though. I just turn both options off.  

[LadyCrimson]

It's probably my imagination or poor camera angles, but over time re: all the brief little clips I've seen, I've felt like Trump has been slouching further and further downward in that oval office chair. If it continues, at the end of the four years all we may be able to see of him is the top of his fluffy toupee hair.

Edit: oh, and I'm taking some singing lessons. Nothing serious. Just something to do. I used to be able to sing "average/ok" but now age and never doing it at all, I'd break eardrums, I'd like to at least not break eardrums.

Edited May 10 by LadyCrimson

[Malcador]

Got flowers for my mom, lesson learned is to buy it from big corporate chains.  Got some tulips that are pretty crap compared to the grocery ones at 1/3rd the price. 

Happy Mother's Day

[Agiel]

After 10th Edition 40K kind of falling flat for me I've been having some of the most fun playing tabletop wargames with <<The Old World>> of late. Though it might help that I finally have the confidence to field a big centerpiece model like the Forest Dragon now that the elf with garbage Toughness riding it can't just be cut off or blasted by a cannonball just like that:

And my army on parade:

Edited May 11 by Agiel

[Gfted1]

So two years ago I hung a birdbox in one of our trees and it was a rousing success (3 chicks born huzzah). Then last year I took it down and hung a new one in the same spot and bupkus, no residents and the squirrels eventually nibbled it to pieces to take the cedar to their nests. This year I bought a two-pack of boxes and hung one in the same spot and one a few feet away, and Im thrilled to report we have a nesting pair in one of them! w00t! Next up I plan to hang the hummingbird feeder. I love those little guys.

I really want to make lifelong friends with a crow or raven but I dont see them too often around my house.  

[rjshae]

My Sis had a nice trip to Scotland, England, and France all planned out, and I was happy for her since she's had some difficult times lately. She ends up in a hospital in Scotland with Legionnaire's disease. Sheesh, who gets Legionnaire's disease? Anyway, she's resting up and recovering now, thank goodness. But the holiday had to be cancelled.

[Gfted1]

My AI overlord tell me: "People are most likely to become infected when they inhale water droplets containing Legionella bacteria from sources such as: air conditioning units, hot tubs, showers, fountains, and humidifiers."

Thats why I dont go to Buckingham Fountain, bums wash in there.

Just kidding. I hope she has a speedy recovery. 

[BruceVC]

1 hour ago, Gfted1 said:

My AI overlord tell me: "People are most likely to become infected when they inhale water droplets containing Legionella bacteria from sources such as: air conditioning units, hot tubs, showers, fountains, and humidifiers."

Thats why I dont go to Buckingham Fountain, bums wash in there.

Just kidding. I hope she has a speedy recovery. 

Yes dont drink the water in public  fountains, that would be my advice 

[Malcador]

Actually, what are you supposed to say for Memorial Day for you US folk, if anything ?

Edited May 26 by Malcador

[rjshae]

1 hour ago, Malcador said:

Actually, what are you supposed to say for Memorial Day for you US folk, if anything ?

Nothing really. It's a day of introspection.

[Malcador]

1 hour ago, rjshae said:

Nothing really. It's a day of introspection.

And buying patio furniture it seems.  

[rjshae]

8 hours ago, Malcador said:

And buying patio furniture it seems.  

Well it's almost barbeque season, if it isn't already.

[Malcador]

My coworkers think the best way to get your issue resolved is to be incredibly vague about what you're actually doing.   At least it's better than the "Check performance is slow" guy.  A little. 

[Gfted1]

We bought a new stackable washer and dryer: Single Unit Front Load LG WashTower™ - WKEX200HGA | LG USA

Should be delivered on Saturday.

[Sarex]

31 minutes ago, Gfted1 said:

We bought a new stackable washer and dryer: Single Unit Front Load LG WashTower™ - WKEX200HGA | LG USA

Should be delivered on Saturday.

Damn, I'm so jelly of you Americans for the deals you get.

[Gfted1]

1 hour ago, Sarex said:

Damn, I'm so jelly of you Americans for the deals you get.

Interestingly (to me), we checked Home Depot, Lowes and Costco and the best deal was found on LG's website itself. In LG's case, delivery of the new units and haul away of the old units is included in the price. The other three charge you $50 each ($100 total) to haul away the old washer and dryer.

My wife does the same thing for our vacations. She will go to the website of the resort we plan on staying and join their "preferred member" program and then book it through the hotel. Turns out to be more economical and a better deal than using an agency like Expedia.com, Cheap Carribean Vacations.com, etc.

[Sarex]

20 minutes ago, Gfted1 said:

Interestingly (to me), we checked Home Depot, Lowes and Costco and the best deal was found on LG's website itself.

Yeah, my brother got a projector from LGs US website 500 bucks off, plus a free speaker, plus a free stand... The speaker is like 250 bucks and the stand is probably 100. To be fair LG germany had a similar price, but they only offered the stand, or it was like pick one or the other.

I already ranted about laptops, so I won't go in to it again, but yeah...

[Malcador]

I still seethe at Bosch for doing away with vented dryers.  Both my LG washer and dryer needed service within 5 y, bah. 

[Sarex]

1 hour ago, Malcador said:

I still seethe at Bosch for doing away with vented dryers.  Both my LG washer and dryer needed service within 5 y, bah. 

Was it belts, shocks or electronics?

They are still miles better than Samsung appliances and Bosch I wouldn't touch with a flagpole. Got burned too many times with their stuff...

[Malcador]

18 minutes ago, Sarex said:

Was it belts, shocks or electronics?

They are still miles better than Samsung appliances and Bosch I wouldn't touch with a flagpole. Got burned too many times with their stuff...

The Bosch had a pump issue which repairmen broke. We bailed and got LG , washer had a seal issue, dryer control board got fried.  Have had decent experience with Bosch considering how heavy our use is, to be honest.