It's A Wonderful Life - convert 4K B&W version-->1080p

[Rumourd]

"It's A Wonderful Life (4K)" was released in B&W -- but the included Blu-Ray was the colorized version. I need an HD version for travel this Christmas, because I don't trust VUDU to work on Xmas Eve with the family.

I'd like to convert the B&W-4K to 1080p, is there any software out there that can do near-proper tone-mapping to an SDR HD version? Please throw me advice on this.

(If the above is not do-able, that's cool...but advice like "just turn down your color" doesn't help anyone.)

[dcoke22]

https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Its-a-Wo ... ay/249570/

Seems like it is in HDR. I know of transcoding tools that can resize down to something smaller, like 4K to 1080, but I don't know anything that can do it while preserving the HDR.

FFmpeg allows for tone map filters that can probably convert from HDR to SDR. https://ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg-filters.html#tonemap-1 I'm not well versed in that particular alchemy, however.

You might also be able to convert the colorized blu-ray into B&W with Handbrake. It has a grayscale filter.

Or redeem the digital code that came with the movie and see if you can download a copy to your device. This might be the easiest thing to do.

[Rumourd]

https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Its-a-Wo ... ay/249570/

Seems like it is in HDR. I know of transcoding tools that can resize down to something smaller, like 4K to 1080, but I don't know anything that can do it while preserving the HDR.

FFmpeg allows for tone map filters that can probably convert from HDR to SDR. https://ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg-filters.html#tonemap-1 I'm not well versed in that particular alchemy, however.

You might also be able to convert the colorized blu-ray into B&W with Handbrake. It has a grayscale filter.

Or redeem the digital code that came with the movie and see if you can download a copy to your device. This might be the easiest thing to do.

Thanks for the response.
Let's take this point by point, alluding to my original post:

(1) As I said, I need to tone-map to SDR so that the 4K-->1080p conversion displays properly on a non-HDR monitor, i.e. a typical older HD-only TV. That means conversion to a .709 colorspace, from the original .2020 colorspace.

(2) As I stated above, I don't want anything to do with the colourized version, as its tonalities would be wildly different.

(3) Again, I don't trust the digital download/VUDU to work properly while gone on vacation. Besides, I simply want a backup copy existing on my drives.

Not trying to sound ungrateful, I'm just saying that forum responses to give you all the alternatives you've already dismissed and have stated as such. I need a solution to the problem I've laid out.

[preserve]

I don’t know that there’s a good conversion option available yet, but I’ve stopped investigating it since madVR:

Rip the 4K and then use MPC-BE with madVR for on-the-fly HDR mapping during playback.

Or buy the Blu-ray (which is what I did for this particular release).

[Rumourd]

How would you use mpc-be on an HD TV?

[preserve]

I do all playback just from my desktop PC (or my laptop) so my TV and projector are both connected via HDMI.

Maybe now that we’re in the processing forum some others can chip in with more ideas on the processing side.

[Rumourd]

Ah. Yeah I don't like casting/projecting the colorimetry of my laptop screen to a TV. That's very different from what the original file should look like.

[Billycar11]

Ah. Yeah I don't like casting/projecting the colorimetry of my laptop screen to a TV. That's very different from what the original file should look like.

No it's not a computer can pass the full HDR or tonemap with madvr to see and all that stuff to look good or if using HDR look 100% correct

[TeaspoonVFX]

Hey RumorD,

Did you ever receive an adequate answer for this? I too would like to tonemap the HDR down to SDR -- as I use these for reference and need to clip out certain scenes or shots. So, its not strictly about the display, it needs to look correct on any display device.

[Rumourd]

Yup!
The newest version of Handbrake now includes a filter for transcoding 4K HDR (bt2020) to bt709, and it does a fantastic job for both color and B&W!