Originally Posted By Bellella Yeah. The Xerographic animated films are totally cool. It's just as good a style as old-school cell animation. I think they did a great job restoring the Xerographic films. Although, I'm not sure if they cleaned up "Robin Hood" before they issued it in the Golden Collection. That's the version I have. Dalmatians, Sword in the Stone, and Jungle Book are simply beautiful.
Originally Posted By basil fan And check out the short John Henry, which is 'sketchier' still. It's a delight to watch. Gilligan's Island <a target="blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.whatsitsgalore.com/etc/gilligan.html">http://www.whatsitsgalore.com/...gan.html</a>
Originally Posted By Bellella I just saw "Mickey's Christmas Carol" as part of a "House of Mouse" special. (Thank you Netflix!!!!) I thought it looked great. Was that version before or after the restoration?
Originally Posted By mawnck >>Was that version before or after the restoration?<< Don't know, but it's airing locally at 2 AM (tune in, kids!) on KTLA. I have the DVR set to grab it, and I'll let you know what I get. We know from that menu image that they have a perfectly good HD transfer of it in their archives. They might have ruined it special for the DVD. I had a balance on an expiring Disney Rewards card and used it up on a stack o' Blu Rays. Am sorry to report (based on spot-checking only) that the Blu Rays of The Aristocats, The Great Mouse Detective, and Oliver and Company are also various degrees of ultra-processed awful. The Rescuers was somewhat better, The Rescuers Down Under was EXCELLENT (go figure!), and of course Atlantis looked digital. Was reminded yesterday that Disney aren't the only ones who wreck HD "restorations". The original Chuck Jones "Grinch" - GAAHHH, what is with that color? How can the Grinch sneak around when he glows in the dark like that?
Originally Posted By Bellella I only have DVDs (not Blu-ray, not digital copies) of my Disney movies. Aristocats and Rescuers look awesome, Oliver and Company only as good as I've ever seen it on VHS. Great Mouse Detective has been seriously cleaned up and shined. Quite an effort for a somewhat mediocre film. If they keep screwing up with the Blu-Rays, screw em. Who needs Blu-Rays? Just stick with the DVDs, your player (whatever it is) can play just about any kind of disc, so what's the big deal? mawnck, how about you re-sell your legit Blu-Rays online and buy regular DVDs of the same movies? You'll get some money back.
Originally Posted By mawnck #1 … I won't bore you with the tech details, but the source for the "Christmas Carol" broadcast will have to remain a mystery. My DVR setup didn't get it. #2 … Truth is, on these particular movies, I don't care all that much. I wouldn't have purchased them at all if it weren't for the Rewards Card balance that was about to expire, and I don't expect I'll be watching them that much. I may very well be selling them - that was part of my thinking when I bought 'em. But I have no sympathy for people who dis the Blu Ray format, at least when it comes to picture quality. Blu Ray and DVD are NOT close. Not even in the same zipcode. And to me it's a VERY big deal. It is not the format's fault that Disney is trashing these movies. They wrecked quite a few of the DVD releases as well. Some of the Disney Treasures series had QC issues way more spectacular than The Sword in the Stone Blu Ray - some of which never got corrected. The Cinderella DVDs all have exactly the same DVNR problems as the Blu Ray. The *corrected* Little Mermaid Blu Ray is the first half-decent copy of that movie that's been available to the home consumer. Ever. The Dumbo and Peter Pan Blu Rays are also spectacular improvements over their rather lousy predecessors. And don't EVEN get me started on the Studio Ghibli titles. Go back to those awful DVDs? Fugget it.
Originally Posted By ecdc >>Who needs Blu-Rays?<< Me and other people who care about good quality My wife and I popped in our trusty DVD of Love, Actually last night. We typically watch blu-rays, and I was stunned at the quality difference. The DVD didn't even compare to Netflix or Apple streaming, fer cryin' out loud! >>But I have no sympathy for people who dis the Blu Ray format, at least when it comes to picture quality. Blu Ray and DVD are NOT close. Not even in the same zipcode. And to me it's a VERY big deal.<< +1,000,000 Look, if it's not important to someone or they just don't care, that's cool. Watch what you want how you want. But let's be clear: DVD vs. blu-ray quality isn't some subjective opinion--it's a matter of measurable data. Triple the resolution and up to five times the data storage space (50GB for a blu-ray vs. 8.5 for DVD. It just is better.
Originally Posted By basil fan >>up to five times the data storage space I would consider this a legitimate plus if DVD discs were so filled with data they couldn't hold any more. Is that the case? Do we need 5x more storage space because Disney was gonna add all kinds of great bonus features to their DVDs until they ran out of room? Seems more like Disney purposely puts less on their DVDs. If that's the case, then it's not that DVDs need more space; they just need somebody to put something in the space they have. IMHO Basil of Baker Street <a target="blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.whatsitsgalore.com/basil/bakerst.html">http://www.whatsitsgalore.com/...rst.html</a>
Originally Posted By mawnck >>I would consider this a legitimate plus if DVD discs were so filled with data they couldn't hold any more. Is that the case?<< Yes. Definitely. But you've totally missed the point. The extra data on a Blu Ray is not going to extras. It's going to the creation of a drastically better picture. Each individual frame of an NTSC DVD is made of 345,600 pixels. That same frame on a Blu Ray is 2,073,600 pixels. So when we're saying six times the data, that's six times the data IN EVERY SINGLE FRAME. DVD is also extremely limited in the *amount* of data it can push through at any given moment, which further limits the quality of the picture it is capable of reproducing. The limit is drastically higher on Blu Ray (54 Mbps vs. 10 Mbps), so those 2 million pixels are also considerably more accurate than their DVD counterparts.
Originally Posted By Bellella >Is that the case?< Uh, no. All the recent DVD releases, i.e. "Princess and the Frog", "Tangled", "Wreck-it Ralph" have been gypped on special features. I'd have loved to see some "making-of" documentaries. They purposely skipped out on features on the DVDs so more people would be compelled to buy Blu-Rays.
Originally Posted By mawnck >>They purposely skipped out on features on the DVDs so more people would be compelled to buy Blu-Rays.<< Which is exactly the same thing they did when records gave way to cassettes, cassettes gave way to CDs, and VHSs gave way to DVDs. So you have two options here: (1) Stubbornly resist, complain vociferously on this board, and be ignored until you die horribly and alone in a trailer by the river, strangled by a stray strand of a VHS tape that got eaten. (2) Join the rest of us in 2013 and enjoy your bonus features, and the vastly improved picture quality (certain botched Disney releases notwithstanding). Choose wisely.
Originally Posted By ecdc I had a chance to watch just a few minutes of the blu-ray version of Mickey's Christmas Carol last night. It is much, much worse than I ever imagined. The effect in the screen grab posted earlier is magnified many times over. Here's how bad: even my wife, who usually rolls her eyes when I upgrade from DVD to blu-ray, noticed. She asked, "Uh, why does it look all...plasticky?" There is no subtlety. Main characters pop out with bright (but scrubbed) colors, while backgrounds are ridiculously soft. If Disney gave me a case of these for free, I'd feel compelled to burn them because I'd feel like I was ripping someone off if I tried to sell it to them. I'm not trying to pile on for piling ons sake; it really, truly, is just that bad.
Originally Posted By CuriousConstance "(1) Stubbornly resist, complain vociferously on this board, and be ignored until you die horribly and alone in a trailer by the river, strangled by a stray strand of a VHS tape that got eaten." I thought it was a van down by the river?
Originally Posted By mawnck >>I thought it was a van down by the river?<< I'm trying to SAVE YOUR LIFE, girl! Stop quibbling!!
Originally Posted By CuriousConstance Never dreamed I'd have actual reason to use it, *wail* *gasping, sniffing*...........*wail*
