I started a thread a while back concerning the crop and other questions regarding this release. Read starting from here for detailed info regarding how the movie was cropped:

Questions about the Shout Factory TFTM 86 BluRay / DVD

The next post after the link has a link to the home theater forum where there is even more extensive discussion along with examples of the full images used to create both the 4:3 and widescreen versions.

 

I do. I haven't done a proper side-by-side, but I can tell you for sure that the new release is better overall.

They actually did a ton of cleanup, which you can see in the special features. To my recollection, it's worse in the older Blu-Ray releases. What hasn't been fixed in the new version is dirt, scratches, glare, etc. that were present in the original cell photography itself. In other words, it's not dust on the film negative or the film scanner, it's a picture of dust that was on the animation mat or the camera. They used the actual negative, so there's not a better copy out there to work from. Without consulting Brian Ward and Shout! Factory, I can already think of at least three issues with trying to clean up

1. Restoration software identifies noise and damage by comparing frames. If there's dust or hair on the camera lens, cells, or backdrops, then it will be visible in multiple frames, and the software won't identify it as noise.
2. There are so many dust specks in the original photography (especially in dark scenes) that it would take years to clean it all up by hand.
3. There are no clean duplicates of the dirty frames to work from, so anything painted over it by hand would be a guess and not necessarily the original art.

It's a faithful restoration of the film as it originally was not an enhanced edition with the original errors and flaws edited out. As much as I'd love a super-clean, error-free special edition, what we got is a perfectly valid approach and probably the best we can realistically hope for. Compared to what we've had before, I'm quite pleased with it. If the flaws are just too bad to ignore, then the blame belongs with Toei and Sunbow.

Actually, it makes sense if you know a little bit about the h.264 video codec. It's a "lossy" codec that achieves its compression by sort of "forgetting" about minor details of the image. The video stream on the Blu-Ray disc should be about 20-30 GB. I haven't tried the digital download yet, but it obviously needs to be much smaller--probably between 1 and 5 GB. So it has to gloss over a lot of visual detail compared to the disc version, and a lot of what it "forgets" about is going to be speckles and film grain. The down side is that you'll also lose a lot of fine detail (such as textural detail in the brush strokes of the backdrops) in the actual artwork too. Whether that's better is subjective, but the Blu-Ray is more accurate to the original film negative.

 

Someone just posted come comparison shots in the news forum thread...


Also, I get the compression stuff as that's part of the field I work in...just confused about the part where you say the digital copy looks better, then go on to explain why it isn't as good.

 

Yeah, but they're photos taken with a camera. What we need are stills taken directly from the discs. If nobody gets to is first, I might be able to do that.

That wasn't me, that was TFXProtector. But the impression I got is that he liked the picture better, but was unhappy with the actual process of downloading and playing the video.

 

I checked mine out briefly yesterday, doing chapter skips. I can see a noticeable difference. The colors and details are crisp and pop. I never noticed the little sparks that the Insecticons create when they are feasting on Autobot city before. I may have been looking too hard, but things like that made me really appreciate the level of detail the movie has over a standard TV episode. It was like watching this film for the first time again in some instances. That Megatron-to-Galvatron sequence is always a highlight. If you need to see any scene to get an idea how gorgeous this version is, its that and the battle on Junkion.

 

The Junkeon fight really shows off the detail of the hand-painted backdrops.  

 

Agreed. But even some establishing shots on Quintessa come off really vibrant.

 

The movie's also available on Google Play in SD and HD formats.

 

I almost posted that the scenes of the Dinobots wandering around Quintessa felt more like a real, expansive physical space and less like a dark, abstract sound stage. But then I thought maybe that was just me trying to hard to notice things. I'm curious whether anyone else got the same impression.

 

Look forward to seeing more comparisons!
Sorry about the mixup 

 

Okay, I get you. So the intermittent pops, artefacts etc. have been cleaned up by the automated software (which works by comparing adjacent frames and checking for discrepancies), but 'static' faults like, for instance, a hair in the gate, aren't detected by that method and can't be painted out (at least, not with the budget they had to hand).

Yeah, that's cool. To my mind the 'jumping' dots are far more distracting than the fixed flaws anyway, so thanks for setting my mind at ease!

 

More or less. The correction process was multi-leveled and not just automated though. Starting with the scanning process, they used an infrared scan to identify any physically damaged or dirty areas of the negative. They put the scanned results through a manual quality checking process, and then a partially manual, partially automated cleanup and reconstruction process. It's pretty cool to see the process in the extra features.

 

Having not seen any copies since the 20th anniv edition (which I've watched many times), I was extremely pleased going in. I'm not uber-strict when comparing HD to SD. I hear a lot about Framerates, artifacts, etc and while I have a basic knowledge, my eyes aren't good enough to pick out all the supposed errors here and there that many people talk about.

That said, this is the cleanest I've ever seen the film. Played it from my PS4 onto my 4k UHD Samsung 50" and was really happy with the quality. Just the opening scenes on Lithone looked so much more defined and well shaped, rather than a sea of static and moving things. About the only thing I noticed was some odd framerates on the stars during the opening credits.

And one thing that I could never find on my 20th anniv copy....subtitles. I FINALLY was able to figure out all the stuff Wreck-Gar was saying, and it only took 30 years. (slightly disappointing that a chunk that I've been trying to decipher was just "(Speaking Native Language")

All in all, really happy with this remaster. Only thing I like off the 20th version over this one is the "Matrix of Knowledge", but I'll live.

 

Okay, so I've never seen the movie, getting ready to watch my DVD (not going to spring for Blu Ray just to get slightly better quality images) but I have to ask... which cover are you displaying?

Because for those that don't know, at least for the dvd, there are two covers. The new art and what looks to be the classic art. I went with Classic... just looks more interesting.

 

Oh man... you're welcome to your preference, but it's more than slight this time.

I have the classic Japanese poster cover facing out, but I keep the cardboard cover sleeve (with the Livio art) on it. That way I get to see both covers every time I get the movie out to play it.

 

I prefer the new artwork myself, tried the Japanese poster and just didn't care for it. Plus it matches up with the sleeve the case is in.

 

Again, never saw the movie so a bit of quality in HD isn't enough for me.

I got the film for 8 bucks... it would have been 19.99 to find it on Blu Ray. Minimum. I'm happy with a bit of lower quality.

 

My Steel Book arrived from Amazon yesterday. I opened it and the little middle circle plastic ring that holds the disc in place was shattered so the disc just kinda sat there. I popped it into my Xbox One and once the Top Menu showed up and the theme music started and getting me pumped up, I heard a gigantic "POP!" and my Xbox died because a capacitor blew up. Had to get a paperclip to manually remove the disc delicately from the dead Xbone and put it back in it's broken steelbook case.

Today, I got a new Xbox, put the disc in, got all ready and started the movie. SO MANY SCRATCHES and blurry lines. Umm the remastering thing...it's kind of okay, but nothing great. The whole remastered from a 6k to 4k transfer is very underwhelming. The only scene where I noticed any improvement was when Megatron becomes Galvatron. That's about it. Otherwise, it pretty much looks like the DVD version plus a lot of coloring mistakes. Megatron's legs are white/grey at times.

Don't bother listening to this in 2.0. It's ridiculously quiet. Even if you only have stereo, do yourself a favor and turn on 5.1.

The extras were okay. First couple or three were interesting, including the remastering process. But after watching the movie and that extra, it makes me think those remastering machines are pieces of shit and/or the people in the documentaries rushed the process.

 

Is the overseas edit on the disc at all (crawler caption, no swearing, Optimus Prime Will Return etc.)?

As a UK-er, this is the definitive version of the movie for me, and also one I can show to my kids and nephews/nieces. With seamless branching, it wouldn't have taken up much in the way of extra disc space, I'd have thought...

I know that some previous releases have included both versions, will this do the same? Don't get me wrong, I have this on preorder anyway just for the new remastering job, but I'm just wondering whether or not to bin off some of my old copies.

Also, with this having been scanned in 4K, is there any possibility of an actual 4K release down the line?

 

Must be something wrong with your set-up, maybe? I mean, I've not seen it myself but I find it hard to fathom that a 4K remaster on BD looks akin to a DVD, especially given what flamepanther has told us in this very thread. What's your display? Have you got any of those weird TV settings (like 'fluid motion') switched on?

I would assume that any 'colouring mistakes' (I know Hot Rod's exact hue has been cause for debate) were simply due to the poor quality/grading of previous releases, and that we're now finally seeing the film in its 'proper', as-shot palette.