[gjwAudio]

Hi All

After searching the forum(s) today, I'm losing hope that this is technically possible

I wish to watch an old, classic B&W movie in it's original form - that is: without the horror of TMC-colorization !

It seems easy enough in theory - just reach for the "saturation" or "color level" control, and reduce to zero %.

The reality is, I can find no such control within Kodi.

If anyone can point the way to black-and-whitedness, I'd be so very appreciative.

Thanks in advance, for pointers & tips

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FYI: hardware & OS/Kodi noted in signature below...

[nickr]

Control it on your tv.

[gjwAudio]

Control it on your tv.

Thanks for that. Just one issue... I'm not ready to destroy the professional calibration of my plasma TV to achieve B&W viewing.

Perhaps a saturation control in Kodi is not as simple to implement as I imagine (...being totally unaware of the internal structure )

[nickr]

Good point, can't you get the TV to 'memorise' the settings and revert to the calibrated settings after playing the B&W movie?

[Gracus]

If it was on windows, I would have suggest to look in the GPU driver control panel but (as seen in your signature) do not know if there is something like that on LibreELEC....

[gjwAudio]

Good point, can't you get the TV to 'memorise' the settings and revert to the calibrated settings after playing the B&W movie?

Well, each input will retain ONE set of custom settings - not two as would be ideal in my situation. I've already used it to store the NTSC calibration.

Fumbling in behind the TV -OR- HTPC to swap around HDMI cables is not a workable solution.

Toggling an option in Kodi would sure be nice

[DJ_Izumi]

I'd look at reencoding options rather than putting the burden on Kodi.

[gjwAudio]

I'd look at reencoding options rather than putting the burden on Kodi.

Yes, another good strategy. I had a quick look at Handbrake (Windows, GUI version) and could not see an obvious way to "just strip out the chroma".

If there is a way to use Handbrake in this regard... I'm all ears

Thanks for any tips or tricks.

[Gracus]

I'd look at reencoding options rather than putting the burden on Kodi.

Yes, another good strategy. I had a quick look at Handbrake (Windows, GUI version) and could not see an obvious way to "just strip out the chroma".

If there is a way to use Handbrake in this regard... I'm all ears

Thanks for any tips or tricks.

Try to check "greyscale" in the filters section

[jjd-uk]

Thanks for any tips or tricks.

How about don't buy the colourised version if you don't want to watch them like that, sorry couldn't resist stating the obvious

[DJ_Izumi]

Thanks for any tips or tricks.

How about don't buy the colourised version if you don't want to watch them like that, sorry couldn't resist stating the obvious

This too, that said, some of the films may be so obscure that their only disc release was colorized because it was seen as the only 'marketable' version. Afterall, colorization itself is done to keep audiences who would otherwise go 'Eww, a black and white movie!'.

[gjwAudio]

This too, that said, some of the films may be so obscure that their only disc release was colorized because it was seen as the only 'marketable' version. Afterall, colorization itself is done to keep audiences who would otherwise go 'Eww, a black and white movie!'.

Yes DJ_Izumi... (to quote Meatloaf...) you took the words right out of my mouth ! Quite agree with you.

And thanks Gracus for pointing out the "greyscale" ticky-box in Handrake. After a five hour run, my resultant file is a little bit larger (by 200 mb) and in glorious MONOCHROME.

A workable solution for the small number of classics that deserve viewing as they were originally released.

Cheers

[DJ_Izumi]

I wonder if there are any luminance changes when a film is converted to color. I work for a stereo conversion company but it originally started out as a color conversion company long ago and obviously well before my time. I wonder if there's still anyone at the company from long enough ago who worked on colorization who could answer that.

[nickr]

I recall reading a book about still photography about 30 years ago. It claimed that b&w had two stops more definition than colour. I dunno if that was the film stock available at the time.

[DJ_Izumi]

I recall reading a book about still photography about 30 years ago. It claimed that b&w had two stops more definition than colour. I dunno if that was the film stock available at the time.

That would be dynamic range, not definition, but yeah that'd be the film stock. That said, DVD and Blu-Ray and any of the previous standard analog broadcast/storage technologies have less dynamic range than any film, so you're clamping the dynamic range once you go off film anyway.

I'm more wondering if when you compare a black and white master to a colorized master if there's any luminance differences or if the process has only added chroma information.