For an overview of the issues in the first 3 seasons, see this article.
The HD version of Buffy the Vampire Slayer is now (sadly) replacing the original one. It is streaming in almost every country where Amazon Prime is available (UK, US, Latin America, most of Europe...), Disney + outside the US, Facebook Watch and other streaming services. It is airing on Syfy, E4, 6ter and many other channels. If you don't own the dvds, it is now very difficult to watch Buffy in its original version.
This second article will be looking at the main issues present in the remaster of seasons 4 to 7. All of the issues mentioned in our first article are still present, the framing and DNR being particularly disastrous. The only slight improvement is how most of the widescreen goofs have been cropped out. Only they should have been removed digitally, to avoid losing a lot of the original 4:3 frame.
The HD transfer seems to be done automatically by some software, and the remastering team was clearly not looking at the original edited episodes. And by not color-correcting the episodes, they skipped a crucial part of post production. The HD masters were basically sent unfinished to whoever was interested.
The Digital Noise Reduction (DNR) is still a major issue in these seasons, it smooths everything to the extreme and destroys the benefit of HD from the 35mm film. What Fox (now owned by Disney) needs to do is to start again and review every episode, this time preserving the original framing, colors and film grain.
As a point of comparison, CBS Studios is currently doing a fantastic job remastering Charmed. Not only the show was very carefully converted to 16:9, but a 4:3 HD version was also made available on streaming services. The CGI effects were faithfully recreated in HD and the picture isn't ruined by DNR. It is everything we could dream of for a Buffy remaster.
All the issues mentioned below are still present in the HD version. The article will be updated if anything changes. These examples only serve to illustrate the overall problems, that need to be addressed for every episode.
And you can watch our most recent video (made with the Passion of the Nerd) for a clear analysis of all 7 seasons:
THE ABSENCE OF COLOR CORRECTION:
The most outrageous issue may be the fact that a crucial part of post production has been skipped: color correction and color-grading. Buffy was clearly using it a lot, more than most shows. The original team used color-correction to improve the quality of the footage and then color-grading to change the atmosphere of a scene when needed. It is safe to say that about 90% of the footage in HD has been transferred without being color-corrected. That explains why the atmosphere of the show is completely destroyed in HD.
Adding to that the fact that just like the framing, a computer was probably correcting the brightness and color automatically, completely changing the mood as a result.
Many night scenes now have these unnecessary cold bluish colors and need to be color-corrected.
However when a scene should actually look different, almost all the color filters are missing in HD, it’s opposite world! In the case of 'The Gift', the entire second half of the episode is missing the blue filter that set it apart visually.
Many episodes suffer from a strange purple tint (especially in seasons 6-7), and many scenes lose their warmth as a result.
One recurring problem in season 5 is how some bright colors and white often turn to beige.
One of the main issues in season 5. Many scenes now look cold, greenish, and the blacks can be extremely pronounced.
The last shot of the series, in bright daylight. And the colors are much too cold, and the gamma needs adjusting.
If you listen to Joss Whedon's audio commentary, you'll know that the yellowish and over-saturated look of this scene was intentional. The shot is supposed to create a sense of nausea. The same filter hasn't been used in HD and Whedon's original intention is lost.
This time, it's the other way around. The scene is now bright yellow!
The Gamma/Saturation:
There are many color issues, but the main one might be the lack of saturation in almost every scene of season 4. It's true that the dvds can be over-saturated, but the remaster often looks completely washed-out. More examples of why color-correction is so essential.
The entire musical episode also looks completely washed out. This could easily be fixed by increasing the saturation:
Tara isn't "bathed in light" anymore, sadly.
What is true for almost the entire 7 seasons, is that the brightness is excessively strong, and often making no sense with the context of the scene.
DNR ISSUES:
Possibly the worst issue. Remember, DNR stands for Digital Noise Reduction. It is used to reduce the presence of the film's natural grain. In excess, it can lead to a plastic appearance. With film transfers, all the detail is in the grain, remove the grain, you remove the details.
This transfer suffers from a severe lack of grain. These HD screencaptures from Amazon (1920x1080) show a strong overuse of DNR, to the point where the HD quality of the 35mm film looks almost non-existent. Everything looks smooth and the actors start to look more like plastic dolls than human.
Many shots get a bad watercolor effect as a result:
You can often find more details in the dvd version than in the remaster, which is truly absurd.
FRAMING ISSUES:
Not only we often lose a lot of the original 4:3 frame in HD but seasons 5-7 suffer once again from the extra head room issue. If it isn't as bad as in seasons 1 and 2, it still happens in many scenes. These are only a few examples.
Green: Picture gained from original version. Red: Picture lost in 16:9 HD.
This shot was probably re-framed by the original team to focus more on Buffy, but the framing hasn't been corrected in HD.
The new editors need to compare every shot with the original version and match the framing.
In this example, the new framing changes the impact of the moment. Buffy can now be seen getting up in the shot sooner than she's supposed to.
The Cropping:
It seems like most of the widescreen goofs of seasons 4-7 have been removed. One could say this is good news, as it is a serious problem. Unfortunately, it often means losing a lot of the original picture, as the remastering team decided to zoom-in on the shots instead of erasing the goofs digitally, like HBO did for The Wire to avoid cropping. Fox should really take example. The picture quality would also be better and not suffer from zooming.
And as in previous seasons, there is a ton of unnecessary zooming. We often lose a lot of the original 4:3 frame for no reason at all! Probably due to the auto-framing option of a computer, with no artistic check-up after.
These are only a few of the many many examples. There are no goofs in the 16:9 dvd version of these shots to justify any zooming!
The worst amount of cropping for the later seasons is for season 6, which has almost all of its episodes zoomed-in (sometimes slightly, sometimes more heavily), still for no reason. Season 7 isn't spared either.
You can see a very small piece of equipment on the left side of the frame, but it could have been removed digitally or even by a very slight zoom. The cropping is completely unjustified.
To see more examples of cropping/reframing, see these albums: SEASON 4 - SEASON 5 - SEASON 6 - SEASON 7
One goof we noticed that hasn't been corrected is the shot where Adam kills Professor Walsh. You can clearly see that Adam wasn't there to stab her in the 16:9 version. That isn't a problem in 4:3.
Another 16:9 goof that hasn't been corrected is the one where you can hear Willow speaking but her lips are not moving (you don't see her in the 4:3 version). There are most likely others.
You'll find four albums collecting the "goofs" for seasons 4 to 7 (16:9 dvds) on our Facebook page.
SPECIAL EFFECT/UPSCALE ISSUES:
After remaking some of the CGI effects for seasons 1 and 2 (and very poorly creating a new dusting effect, very different from the original one), Fox simply decided to upscale all the CGI shots from the SD version starting the middle of season 2. That means you often switch from HD to a much lower quality upscale in the same scene, which is distracting and looks very poor. Firefly also had its CGI effects upscaled on Blu-Ray but didn't suffer too much from it (being a more recent show).
The main issue is that many of those shots in the Buffy remaster are very poorly upscaled, and suffer from an overuse of edge enhancement and DNR. Fox recreated many of effects for The X-Files, why should it be different for Buffy?
But the example to follow is the excellent remaster of Charmed, for which CBS Studios recreated all the CGI effects in HD, looking extremely close to the original ones. Some of the Charmed effects are actually SD but edited on an HD plate, which looks much better than a simple upscale of the shot. That is what should be done for Buffy.
The edge enhancement is so strong that you can notice the white edges around the characters.
The whole Buffy/Faith transition is not only upscaled from SD, but they used the 4:3 version, which means drastic cropping and an even worse picture quality.
The entire Xander/Anya scene is upscaled from SD because it was shot in front of a blue screen. The result looks very bad. This is definitely one example of a visual effect that should be re-rendered in HD. Especially when the rest of the remastered episode looks very good.
The entire spell sequence is badly upscaled. Dawn almost turns to black & white in HD.
This shot is sadly an upscale, probably because the shot was digitally corrected for Joyce in the original version..
All the shots starting with the creation of the portal until it's closed are upscaled from SD. Only a few close-ups are in actual HD. A shame for such a big episode.
Same issues in seasons 6 and 7, all the CGI shots are very poorly upscaled.
All the Willow/Giles scenes (shot on location in England) are upscaled from SD (7x01-02). It is unlikely the film negatives were lost, but it seems like Fox didn't make the effort to find them.
Note also that many shots are upscaled from SD in the "previously" segments or in the opening credits when you can see them in HD in the actual episodes. Another proof of the laziness behind this remaster.
Conclusion:
Looking at the last 4 seasons, you can see that the show was still being remastered in the cheapest way possible. The remastering team was only doing half the job, and the result is incredibly frustrating, as it got more and more obvious how fantastic Buffy could look in high definition, if only it had been properly remastered.
The DNR being overused is a real shame, as the film's natural grain could really make a difference in HD.
Note also that these are only a few examples, there are a ton more. An entire episode can sometime be zoomed-in (almost all the episodes from seasons 6-7 are). We also didn't address the aspect ratio issue, but 4:3 HD masters should be created for all the episodes, just like CBS did for Charmed.
We're counting on everyone to still get the word out. Disney needs to know that spreading this current remaster is not acceptable. Whoever makes new HD masters needs to compare them to the original version. Check that the framing is right. Avoid DNR at all cost. Remove the "goofs" with minimum cropping. Color-correct every scene properly. And members of the original team like Loni Peristere (visual effects supervisor) and Brian Wankum (post-production supervisor) should definitely be consulted.
So keep sharing this article, and the show might eventually get the royal HD treatment it deserves.
Want to know more about the original team's reactions? Read this. Want to share your opinion with us? Contact us through our Facebook page.
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