Grainy blu-ray

yh125d

Diamond Member
Dec 23, 2006
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Lately some of my BD movies have been very grainy, both while playing the m2ts file, and during playback from the disc. Could this be some sort of software issue or are some BD movies just like that? The most obviously grainy movies I've watched so far have been Burn After Reading and We Were Soldiers. Anyone else with these movies notice them being quite grainy?

I'm leaning towards it being a particular movie thing, since most of them are perfectly clear, but I just figured I'd get a decisive answer
 

Zorba

Lifer
Oct 22, 1999
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I was watching a BD demo at BB last weekend and I noticed some clips were very grainy and others were amazing.
 

techwanabe

Diamond Member
May 24, 2000
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From my old color photog days, I learned that if you shoot saturated pictures with film, ie stopdown, you can make a picture grainy. So it can easily be intentional.
 

destrekor

Lifer
Nov 18, 2005
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It's completely intentional.

Some directors choose to use grainier film stock, or the preferred photography style just resulted in grainier scenes.
I personally both like it and don't. Depends on the type of movie sometimes, other times I think it's just because there is a fine balance I like. Too much can destroy a good perception of depth, and can just result in a picture feeling completely flat... or lend itself to destroying my favorite effect of perfect film grain - of which is it can create a more surreal viewing experience that to me feels more lifelike.
Too little film grain, or worse, movies shot in pure digital without artificial grain structure or grain from printing the digital onto a film stock for the same effect (but far superior to artificial), just leads to an artificial, sterile image for certain styles of movies.

Either its the style of movie that does this, or it's the overall direction from those making the movie. Haven't figure out which yet - but what I mean is how the cameras pan, how they use focus and whether they manipulate depth of field, as each director and photography assistant has their own overarching style that tends to show in all their movies.

On purely digital movies, as in CGI, this problem doesn't really cause problems.

Movies that are really saturated, I feel need film grain. Saturated, white-stressed movies shot in pure digital seem completely sterile. But indoor movies, or ones that are much darker, can benefit from far less film grain, and sometimes no true grain. This is because film grain in dark scenes, even if it isn't a lot (say the same as a beautiful outdoor-focused movie), can lend to making the scenes feel soft and again, really hurt perception of depth. The more sterile, HD images of dark indoor scenes, if the colors are balanced properly, can lead to amazing depth.

But don't get me wrong, depth is sometimes more easily defined in all movies that are free from film grain, but imho, outdoor, daylight-shot movies benefit from a slight amount of film grain.
Maybe that's my photography nature speaking out. I love film photography, it just presents a more artistic photo. That, and it's almost how my mind wants to perceive real life. Nobody sees an entire scene crystal clear, and the focus and depth of field adjustments in a movie can only go so far to recreate how our eyes perceive the world, that it's lacking just a little bit sometimes. That film helps bring life to film by helping create a whole-picture that, to me, better portrays how we'll sometimes see something.
Or, again, maybe that's just me. My mind is strange like that, and I feel my photographic-memory always looks at scenes like how they would look on a perfect film print. So there's a step somewhere in the wiring that is my brain that is sometimes applying a film-grain filter to what my eyes see. :)
 

yh125d

Diamond Member
Dec 23, 2006
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Good. At least I know its not my fault now ;)


It's absolutely dreadful. It made Burn after reading painful to watch. We Were Soldiers was as grainy, but it was easier to watch because it seemed to fit the setting a bit better