Date: Tue, 23 Jul 2002 02:08:35 -0700 From: Paul Mayer Subject: Sen's video transfer / orchestra I asked a friend of mine, a long-time engineer at Kodak and fellow SMPTE member, to take a look at the Sen screen grabs posted on the AnimeonDVD forum. His conclusions matched mine in that we both thought this looked like a mistake in the transfer process. The low contrast and orange tint suggests that they used an interpositive (IP) for the transfer, but did it on a machine set up for release prints. As SMPTE Recommended Practice 166 establishes the standards for video monitoring in professional applications, there should have been no way that such color shading could have gone undetected during the transfer sessions. So either this "look" was an unbelievably big mistake or it is indeed the intended result. But some of BV Japan's statements regarding the reasons for going with this look just don't make any sense to me. First, video transfers are done to a standard with the expectation that the display devices will also be set to that standard (a reasonable expectation for professional applications--rarely achieved in people's homes unfortunately). Theatrical DLP projectors are video devices and as such are set up to display white at 6500K. Home displays, whether they be CRT, LCD, DLP, D-ILA, LED, or plasma are also expected to display white at 6500K. Yeah in reality home displays are factory set to anything but 6500K (usually a lot bluer, like 9000K+) but still, the people doing film transfers have to assume that 6500K will be used, just like all the other video professionals out there. That way all pictures, regardless of source, will look about the same on any given display, even if that display is off temperature. The typical set owner just sets the display to look "good" on whatever he or she watches the most (only us geeks would know to use things like Avia or Video Essentials ^_^) . BV Japan's decision to use a different standard is just plain wrong--the proof is that many people watching this DVD release of Sen feel like they need to adjust their displays. Making a release look correct on poorly adjusted LCD or plasma displays deprives the vast majority of CRT viewers of that look. To me BV Japan made a very bad call on this one, either deliberately going with a different standard, or going along with an accidently created one. BV Japan's explanation of doing this to make theatrical DLP presentations look good is total nonsense. First, professional DLP and D-ILA projectors easily achieve 6500K--there is no need to throw the color balance this far off for DLP. Second, even if it were true, the HD DLP master has to be downconverted to SD for the video/DVD master. At that point, any offsets needed for DLP would be taken out--unless they were being ultra cheap or ultra incompetent. Or they could do a second pass to create the SD video/DVD master directly without downconverting from the HD. Either way, DLP performance has nothing to do with the video/DVD master. As for theaters adjusting the color during presentation--it doesn't work that way. Presently only a handful of screens in Japan are equipped for DLP and they are calibrated to 6500K at the time of installation. The vast majority of screens that played Sen did so using good ol' 35mm prints. Theater prints are timed (adjusted for color) assuming the color of white on the screen (with no film in the projector) will be 5400K at 16 foot Lamberts (SMPTE Standard 196M). Regular theaters do not have the ability to change color temperature on the fly, nor do they need to, as long as their lamphouses, lenses, and screens are properly maintained. All of the color setting is done at the time the print is struck at the lab. The same goes for DLP--there is no need to adjust the DLP as long as the video feeding it is shaded to the 6500K standard at the time of transfer. BV Japan also has stated that Miyazaki approved this look for Sen on video. I suppose that could be true but that's hardly an endorsement--Miyazaki is on record as not particularly caring about what his films look like on video. Sorry to be so longwinded. It's just that the explanations I've heard coming from BV Japan thus far don't add up for me, and I work with this kind of stuff. Admittedly we may be losing something in the translation of BV Japan's statements here, but for now those statements are smelling to me like a big steaming pile of unko. I just hope the issue is resolved before the R1 DVD release. ***** BTW regarding the New Japan Philharmonic, they're the band that played the Evangelion Symphonic Concert, with Derrick Inoue conducting, at Bunkamura Orchard Hall in the summer of 1997. Long out of print on LD, hopefully a DVD version is not too far off. Ogenki de, Paul SMPTE Hollywood Section Mercenary video/16/35/70mm/IMAX projectionist/engineer "Otaku wa tsurai yo" <-- Yeah I know, bad pun. Sue me. It's tough being a fan!