Digital Noise Reduction. It comes in a ton of guises, and you will find it in televisions, receivers, anything, and yes your software too. The idea behind the tool is to reduce distracting flaws in the source material, but the cost comes with the plain and simple removal of detail. Perfectly good shots, let's say a woman's face with freckles, wrinkles, and skin detail, but then with a massive amount of DNR applied, will now look like a waxy face. Like a cartoon face.
It is IMO, by far, the easiest video flaw to pick out with anything. I didn't know that my friend's top tier Pana plasma had NR engaged, but I saw it coming through like crazy (wondering if it was his cable signal), but then found that his video mode had a couple of NRs engaged. Once you know what it looks like, it then becomes very easy to pick out.
Of course and unfortunately, a lot of the "scrubbed" titles have a lot of other things going on, like artificial contrast boost and/or strange color timing, edge enhancement, and whatever else they do to film.
For example, I think of Gangs of New York BD. These are between two different blurays! The first was so bad, and enough of us enthusiasts complained, they released another one.
Ok, this is my main issue. If it's an old title, with the source material being shot to hell, ok use DNR as it was meant to be intended. The funny thing is that there are so many great sources for even half century old (and even much older) titles that don't need any DNR!!!
But, with a modern bluray? C'mon gimme a freakin break.
I guess I would describe DNR as a subtle (but not really once familiarized), well, blurring of fine detail. For me, the color detail at borders, (or even the overall color though I might be imagining this), just never seems right.
So, look at the shredded cloth next to his right hand. Doesn't the remastered version look a lot more detailed? Almost as if it is just much better in focus? Well, with close up shots of faces, it can be a really big difference, if only because we are so familiar with faces, especially famous ones. OTOH, it's possible that actors might ask for DNR? Speculation though, to cover their blemishes . . . .
