Ghostbusters?

[Osi Osgood]

I downloaded the original "Ghostbusters" today, and I was surprised as to just how much they had changed the color and overall appearance of the film. I thought I might be wrong, so I dug out my DVD from the fist DVD release, and I was right, boy did they mess with it. They lightened the overall image, making everything brighter. They also muted the color. I think they are attempting to give it a modern color scheme. The only improvement is that there is nearly no grain and super sharp. How many of you have run on into this kind of thing with your own cherished classics.

[Lincoln Thorn]

I’ve seen it quite a bit on streaming platforms for older movies! The color grading being completely different from what I remember before.

[Osi Osgood]

We even used two flat screen HD screens. On one, We watched the new Blu-ray version, and the other was playing the DVD. In some cases, the new Blu-ray version was so bright that lots of details like steps, facial features, were completely obliterated. They added way too much green to the image. Things that were a perfect white, like walls in the original version, had a certain light lime green hue to them. Details in some of the ghosts were completely gone. For instance, when all the ghosts are released, one comes out of the subway. In the original version, you could see a lot of details, but in the new version, there is literally no detail, just an overly bright mess.

[Tony Ferrara]

I never cared for that movie, but it still isn't a good thing. First we had to deal with people colorizing B&W movies. Then in the digital age the use of noise-reduction for pic and sound. Now we have to worry about them changing the colors of movies shot in color? Maybe they are going for the "faded eastmancolor" look! lol

[Brian Fretwell]

There has been a great deal of complaint on some DVD/Blu Ray forums about "Teal" tinting of films over the past few years.

[Tony Ferrara]

I guess it is a good thing that Blu-Ray is the first physical format of movies that I have skipped over since the laser-disc.

[Graham Ritchie]

That's interesting about "Ghostbusters" I have yet to watch that blu-ray as its still sitting on my "to do" watch list I will have a look at it soon and see if its as bad as mentioned above. I have lost count of the number of blu-ray titles I picked up over the years. One really let me down and that was 2010 and that was mainly because, it did not come anywhere close to the quality of the 35mm print.

All up, the blu-ray releases of movies have been in general, of excellent image quality. One conversion to color I though was well done, was "Its A Wonderful Life" both B/W and color conversion "are" available on this particular disc, here is a past screen shot. . Other outstanding conversions of films to the 3D blu-ray market, have been "The Wizard Of Oz", that one blew me away and of coarse James Cameron "Terminator 2".

Although I have the feature of "Its A Wonderful Life" on Super 8, I have found that after reel one, in which it really looks good, the B/W image quality begins to slip downhill after that.

In saying all that, many films I have I will only watch on a "film projectors" other movies, well then the Video projector takes over.

[Ed Gordon]

That's interesting about "Ghostbusters" I have yet to watch that blu-ray as its still sitting on my "to do" watch list I will have a look at it soon and see if its as bad as mentioned above. I have lost count of the number of blu-ray titles I picked up over the years. One really let me down and that was 2010 and that was mainly because, it did not come anywhere close to the quality of the 35mm print.

All up, the blu-ray releases of movies have been in general, of excellent image quality.... Other outstanding conversions of films to the 3D blu-ray market, have been "The Wizard Of Oz", that one blew me away and of coarse James Cameron "Terminator 2".

Graham, I agree that blu-ray releases for the most part have excellent image quality. I have the blu-ray release of "Ghostbusters" and can't complain about the quality of images (see frame grabs below). And then there is UHD which will have you will simply blow you away when watched on a 12 foot scope screen in your home cinema.

I suspect that the "Ghostbusters" download Osi watched was poor quality highly compressed copy. I have seen downloaded movies sourced from blu-rays that were truly awful copies that look and sound inferior to a good DVD.

Frame grabs from "Ghostbusters" Blu-ray:

[Osi Osgood]

It wasn't the compression level or the size of the file, it was the color correction. On a manner of speaking, the original 80's release had a warm, natural color, where the re-release of this has, for lack of a better expression, an off putting "cold" feel. I think at some point, I will take a video of my two flat screens, next to each, both calibrated the same, same color, same image, and video them together, to show the difference.

[Ed Gordon]

Osi, how does it compare to the frame grabs above? You can also just grab a couple of images with Media Player Classic or VLC from both the DVD and the downloaded file. It sounds like someone tried to "improve" the original and mucked it up...

[Mike Newell]

Have to agree with Graham over It’s a Wonderful Life colorised version. It is a tremendous job . I usually avoid those type of conversions but I sat down and watched all the movie and enjoyed it. The black and white version is also superb. It is ironic because that title started the whole debate about colorisation of black and white movies so maybe they made an extra effort.

Two Blu ray versions, I was disappointed with were One Million Year BC Kino. The colour was vibrant but way too jarring I prefer the DVD version scratches and blips included. Also, Incredible Shrinking Man Region. A version was grainy and not an improvement on DVD.

[Graham Ritchie]

Screen images you have put up, looks good to me Ed

[Tony Ferrara]

I really, really wanted to like "Ghostbusters", since I watched them film some scenes at Columbia. Didn't like it when it came out over a year later. I remember reading in the papers that it was being shelved and might not even be released!

I gave it another try when I rented it on VHS. That was the last time I saw it. I barely remember it, but I do remember leaving the theater thinking that some stuff seemed to be inspired by "Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein." I think it had something to do with the similarities between Sigourney Weaver's character and Lenore Aubert's character, but I don't remember the details. And BTW, A&C never met Frankenstein in the movie. They met "The Creature", aka "Frankenstein's Monster". And they never went to Mars in "A&C Go to Mars", and Boris Karloff wasn't "The Killer" in...oh forget it....

For a minute there I thought someone was going to say they colorized the first 20 minutes of "The Wizard of Oz"! I don't like that they colorized the first season of "I Dream of Jeannie" and the first season of "Gilligan's Island", either. As my friend once said some 30 years ago, regarding when they first did that for Gilligan on TBS: "How are you gonna tell now if it was originally a B&W episode or not?" Quick answer: "...and the rest" instead of "The Professor and Mary-Anne".

Someone once told me a great technical reason on why you should not colorize -- the films were lit for B&W, not color, when filmed. 'Nuff said.