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Update: We are now hosting our own video platform where we will be uploading all our 4K trailers. Please take a look at our new channel for all the latest 4K uploads.
So you've been asking us some questions, and here are some of the answers to the most frequently asked ones.
Index:
How do you make the music-only trailers?
Can I request music-only trailers?
What tools do you use for upscaling?
Is upscaling real or fake 4K?
Speaking of YouTube's crappy HD quality, why is this still a thing in 2020?
Why do your 4K uploads look much better than other channels' 4K uploads?
So what about Original 4K Ultra HD uploads? Are they upscaled?
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How do you make the music-only trailers?
This one we get asked a lot. Some studios provide trailers with what's called "split" audio tracks, that's the dialogue, music and effect separated into different channels. The music channel is exactly as it sounds in the trailer, with the volume going up and down to accommodate the dialogue. We take this music track and normalize it so that the volume is more even, and then clean it up a little to make it sound better.
Most studios don't provide these split tracks, but if they provide a 5.1 channel track and the dialogue is mostly in the center channel, we can also clean up the audio to provide a track with only the music and effects (these tracks will be marked as "dialogue-free" as opposed to "music-only").
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Can I request music-only trailers?
This one we get asked a lot too. As only some studios provide split tracks or 5.1 tracks (see above), we usually can't take requests for music-only trailers. 99% of the trailers that we can make music-only trailers for, we already do. Some trailers (WB/Universal ones, mainly) from before the channel was fully operational (July 2019) could be done though, and we are going through some of these older ones from time to time to create the music-only versions.
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What tools do you use for upscaling?
We believe in open source and freeware and all of the tools we use are freely available as such. We use Davinci Resolve for editing and StaxRip for encoding/conversion. For the upscaling, we use multiple AviSynth+ filters that we've sourced online with our custom configurations/modifications.
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Is upscaling real or fake 4K?
Many believe that upscaling to 4K from a 2K sources is not real 4K, and that only content filmed in 4K or better should be considered to be the real thing. The truth is that many commercial 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray movies you buy come from 2K masters, as while some film are shot in 4K, most effects are still done in 2K, meaning the mastering is eventually done in 2K as well.
But with a ProRes master quality source (high bitrate, 150 Mbps+), there is a tremendous amount of detail in the picture that, if upscaled correctly, would be almost indistinguishable from content coming from a 4K source, at least on most good sized TVs. There is a lot of marketing when it comes to 4K.
Don't believe us? Cinematographer Steve Yedlin (director of photography for Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi, Knives Out) has produced this excellent video that provides real world examples of why this is the case, and why pixels aren't the one and only game in town when it comes to resolution and detail.
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Speaking of YouTube's crappy HD quality, why is this still a thing in 2020?
YouTube's HD bandwidth is criminally limited. Which is why our videos are almost ways better looking than the official upload. As a comparison, this is the typical bandwidth of various formats:
These all use different codecs of varying efficiency (Blu-ray 4K being the most efficient out of this bunch), but the simple answer is that YouTube HD doesn't get enough bandwidth for anywhere near acceptable quality.
But as you can see above, when a 4K video is uploaded to YouTube, they assign it a higher maximum bitrate, and even if you watch this 4K upload with the display setting set to HD, it will be of higher quality than the HD upload, including official trailer uploads from the movie studios.
------
Why do your 4K uploads look much better than other channels' 4K uploads?
That's because their uploads are actually fake 4K uploads. What they do is to rip the official HD uploads from the movie studio's channel using a YouTube ripper, which already means a quality loss due to the conversion needed. Some of these rippers have the option of converting the rips into 4K without any actual upscaling, and this is what they then upload. This is why their 4K uploads look worse than the original HD upload (which, as you can read above, is already fairly crappy).
------
So what about Original 4K Ultra HD uploads? Are they upscaled?
As the name suggests, original 4K Ultra HD uploads are not upscaled, they are sourced from studio provided 4K files. Most of these come via Digital Cinema Packages, which are digital video packages designed for use in digital cinemas.
So you've been asking us some questions, and here are some of the answers to the most frequently asked ones.
Index:
How do you make the music-only trailers?
Can I request music-only trailers?
What tools do you use for upscaling?
Is upscaling real or fake 4K?
Speaking of YouTube's crappy HD quality, why is this still a thing in 2020?
Why do your 4K uploads look much better than other channels' 4K uploads?
So what about Original 4K Ultra HD uploads? Are they upscaled?
------
How do you make the music-only trailers?
This one we get asked a lot. Some studios provide trailers with what's called "split" audio tracks, that's the dialogue, music and effect separated into different channels. The music channel is exactly as it sounds in the trailer, with the volume going up and down to accommodate the dialogue. We take this music track and normalize it so that the volume is more even, and then clean it up a little to make it sound better.
Most studios don't provide these split tracks, but if they provide a 5.1 channel track and the dialogue is mostly in the center channel, we can also clean up the audio to provide a track with only the music and effects (these tracks will be marked as "dialogue-free" as opposed to "music-only").
------
Can I request music-only trailers?
This one we get asked a lot too. As only some studios provide split tracks or 5.1 tracks (see above), we usually can't take requests for music-only trailers. 99% of the trailers that we can make music-only trailers for, we already do. Some trailers (WB/Universal ones, mainly) from before the channel was fully operational (July 2019) could be done though, and we are going through some of these older ones from time to time to create the music-only versions.
------
What tools do you use for upscaling?
We believe in open source and freeware and all of the tools we use are freely available as such. We use Davinci Resolve for editing and StaxRip for encoding/conversion. For the upscaling, we use multiple AviSynth+ filters that we've sourced online with our custom configurations/modifications.
------
Is upscaling real or fake 4K?
Many believe that upscaling to 4K from a 2K sources is not real 4K, and that only content filmed in 4K or better should be considered to be the real thing. The truth is that many commercial 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray movies you buy come from 2K masters, as while some film are shot in 4K, most effects are still done in 2K, meaning the mastering is eventually done in 2K as well.
But with a ProRes master quality source (high bitrate, 150 Mbps+), there is a tremendous amount of detail in the picture that, if upscaled correctly, would be almost indistinguishable from content coming from a 4K source, at least on most good sized TVs. There is a lot of marketing when it comes to 4K.
Don't believe us? Cinematographer Steve Yedlin (director of photography for Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi, Knives Out) has produced this excellent video that provides real world examples of why this is the case, and why pixels aren't the one and only game in town when it comes to resolution and detail.
------
Speaking of YouTube's crappy HD quality, why is this still a thing in 2020?
YouTube's HD bandwidth is criminally limited. Which is why our videos are almost ways better looking than the official upload. As a comparison, this is the typical bandwidth of various formats:
- YouTube HD: 2-3 Mbps
- Netflix HD: 4-5 Mbps
- Blu-ray HD: 25-40 Mbps
- ProRes Studio Master HD: 150 Mbps
- YouTube 4K: 20 Mbps
- Blu-ray 4K: 35-75 Mbps
These all use different codecs of varying efficiency (Blu-ray 4K being the most efficient out of this bunch), but the simple answer is that YouTube HD doesn't get enough bandwidth for anywhere near acceptable quality.
But as you can see above, when a 4K video is uploaded to YouTube, they assign it a higher maximum bitrate, and even if you watch this 4K upload with the display setting set to HD, it will be of higher quality than the HD upload, including official trailer uploads from the movie studios.
------
Why do your 4K uploads look much better than other channels' 4K uploads?
That's because their uploads are actually fake 4K uploads. What they do is to rip the official HD uploads from the movie studio's channel using a YouTube ripper, which already means a quality loss due to the conversion needed. Some of these rippers have the option of converting the rips into 4K without any actual upscaling, and this is what they then upload. This is why their 4K uploads look worse than the original HD upload (which, as you can read above, is already fairly crappy).
------
So what about Original 4K Ultra HD uploads? Are they upscaled?
As the name suggests, original 4K Ultra HD uploads are not upscaled, they are sourced from studio provided 4K files. Most of these come via Digital Cinema Packages, which are digital video packages designed for use in digital cinemas.