So anyway, I was just flicking through a review of First-World-War film, The Blue Max on DVDBeaver, and I couldn’t help noticing the outrageous teal-ing that it has received on the new Twilight Time Blu-ray.
The iTunes HD version isn’t anything to write home about either, some scenes look good, with grain and appropriate dirt and scratches, especially in rear projection sequences but occasionally the image takes on a very smeary DVNR look during pans that suggest perhaps due to bit-rate starvation on either the iTunes encode or the master that was used for it, I suspect a badly encoded MPEG-2 master.
The Blue Max – Twilight Time Blu-ray vs iTunes HD
Now to the heart of the matter – did they Orange and Teal it?
Take a look at the screenshots, the map scene below, George Peppard’s black leather jacket is almost green, and his skin orange, absolutely no way you could get that look with printer lights.
Now check the top screenshot, the generals ribbons on his jacket are like a set of color bars – look at the white parts, look how unnaturally they shade from white to blue. Don’t even get me started on the buttons. Now look at the shoulder on the left of the shot, how it blends with the curtain in the Blu-ray, but is distinct in the iTunes version.
Comparison between Blu-ray and iTunes versions of ‘The Blue Max’
Conclusion
Well it’s yet another classic catalog title trashed by an over-eager color-correction. The Blue Max has recieved a good dose of orange and teal. Even more irritating is the emptied-headed reviews on mainstream review sites poster-boy for which is:
‘Colors are gorgeously vivid and accurate looking…’ – blu-ray.com
Well yes, they are vivid: because someone has cranked them up to eleven in a digital color corrector.
So what to conclude ? Don’t trust the mainstream review sites since it’s very hard to monetize a negative review. Heck, don’t trust me – I’m an Amazon and iTunes affiliate advertiser.
The iTunes version has issues, so is difficult to recommend. There are no winners here. Make up your own mind.