A Few Words About A few words about...™ Mary Poppins -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[moviebuff75]

Looks fantastic....you are making me very impatient! Will show this on my big screen outside next Spring.

 

[AnthonyClarke]

All this discussion is whetting my appetite ...
I ordered a couple of days ago from JBHIFI in Melbourne (just $20 including postage!) and am hoping it arrives in time for Christmas so I can show it to my grandson.
Then again, I guess it doesn't matter too much if it doesn't arrive in time .. he's only three weeks old!
Meantime, another technological miracle arrived in the post today for me ... the COMPLETE ORIGINAL CAST RECORDING of Oklahoma! with Alfred Drake and Joan Roberts, in a beautiful original album containing six original UNCOMPRESSED 78 recordings .. 12 sides of Christmas bliss .. I'll use a new needle for every side of course. That'll hold me till the movie Blu ray is finally issued. ......

 

[David Weicker]

All this discussion is whetting my appetite ...
I ordered a couple of days ago from JBHIFI in Melbourne (just $20 including postage!) and am hoping it arrives in time for Christmas so I can show it to my grandson.
Then again, I guess it doesn't matter too much if it doesn't arrive in time .. he's only three weeks old!
Meantime, another technological miracle arrived in the post today for me ... the COMPLETE ORIGINAL CAST RECORDING of Oklahoma! with Alfred Drake and Joan Roberts, in a beautiful original album containing six original UNCOMPRESSED 78 recordings .. 12 sides of Christmas bliss .. I'll use a new needle for every side of course. That'll hold me till the movie Blu ray is finally issued. ......

I own an original 78 box of Oklahoma. Unfortunately, one of the records is duplicated, so I have 10 songs (I'm not sure how my parents ended up with two of the same records - missing one). The box is in great shape, and has been in their possession since the 40's.

 

[Oblivion138]

You need to scan at somewhere near 1080p resolution. The anti aliasing of the image processing program blurs everything out otherwise. Do the fox closeup. That would be a good one to compare.

Sorry, but this post is discourteous in the extreme. Doug is going out of his way in scanning his 35mm print and posting the scans here. To give no thanks, and rather demand that he scan at higher resolution and post the frames again...that's just plain RUDE. "Please" and "Thank You" go a long way. Show the man a little appreciation for what he's contributed to the thread, which is a great deal indeed.

 

[AnthonyClarke]

Fascinating scans, Doug .... I like the warmth in the 'London' Technicolor, but then again, it's hard to go past the wonderful clarity of the Blu ray as seen in the caps.

 

[bigshot]

Sorry, but this post is discourteous in the extreme

It wasn't intended to be discourteous. I was talking about things that are only revealed in hires video or 35mm prints. A low res image, below even 480p, isn't going to show whether the lines were mucked about with or not. Might as well look at the DVD for that.

 

[Doug Bull]

Thank you Oblivion138 and Anthony for your kind words.

All these appreciative posts over the last few days have managed to cheer me up, at a time when it is most needed.

And we are getting closer to identifying the origin of the 35mm print that I have been displaying.
Stay tuned, there could yet be a surprise.

Doug.

 

[Mark Booth]

OK, here are shots taken directly from the North American Blu-ray, compared to the 35mm print previously posted. I used VLC Media Player set to source colors. I did scale the images from the Blu-ray for size. They are not representative of the clarity of the image, since there is likely some compression:

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Interesting discussion! We watched the Blu-ray on Sunday and felt it looked gorgeous!

I have taken the liberty of capturing the same seven frames (that Cinescott captured) from my Blu-ray in full resolution (click image for full-size version)! When you look at the full-size versions, it's noticeable that some of the images don't appear quite as sharp as they appear in Cinescott's smaller images. (That's what can happen when you reduce an image in size.)

I also noticed that the movie looks a bit sharper in motion than it does in some of these frame grabs. In particular, the image of them stepping onto the turtles. In the full-size image, the turtle on the left looks a tiny bit blurry. But in motion, that shot of the turtle doesn't look blurry at all.

Overall, I'm impressed with what Disney did here.

These are linked from the photo gallery I created here:

http://www.thephotobooth.net/Screencaps/Mary-Poppins-Screencaps/35477757_zgB5Wq#!i=2978147642&k=J6x2X5d

Mark

 

[Oblivion138]

Nice captures, Mark. And tack sharpness is never something that I expect in scenes which mix live action with animation. I'm actually amazed at how sharp those scenes are, all things considered.

Not to open up an old can of worms, but it reminds me of the hoopla when Roger Rabbit was released on BD.

 

[Yorkshire]

I've just checked those comparisons, looking particularly at the black lines in the animated characters.

If any difference in the lines on the Blu-ray Disc compared to the 35mm film put you off from watching Mary Poppins, then good luck to you, but I think we're talking about cinema in quite different ways.

Steve W

 

[ThadK]

I'm really not seeing a problem in the frame grabs from the Blu-Ray. The vandalism in SWORD AND THE STONE was obvious even when the images weren't at full size. With MARY POPPINS, I'm not seeing the line erasure/smudging/'redrawing'.

 

[Steen DK]

IMO, I think the detail on the Blu-ray is astonishing. This is a prime example of just how much detail a well-done Blu-ray transfer can bring out. With my 55" display, it looks incredible. I can't imagine 4K being much better unless I had a much, much larger screen (i.e.: over 100").

Oh, trust me: 1080p is just fine on 108" too.

Well I'm glad my display is different from yours, for mine is not that blue or dark.

No offense but I don't think you understand: Cinescotts' display has nothing to do with how the grabs look. The difference you're seeing is between your PC monitor and your TV. If they were set up identically, then you'd see no difference.Try saving the blu-ray caps on a USB stick and displaying them on your TV, and they should look exactly the same as the blu-ray (provided that your different inputs are calibrated the same way, of course).

 

[WilliamMcK]

Back in the day I kept all my calibration levels neutral -- and while that's still not a bad idea for many of the controls, I've discovered it's deadly (or can be, depending on you TV's brand) when it comes to color temperature. I couldn't afford to have my modest 46" Samsung professionally calibrated, but after doing a great deal of research (and much trial and error), I discovered the most accurate color representation is given when my color temperature is set at "Warmest" and my "mode" is set for "Movie" -- With those settings, 90% of my discs look excellent... and that includes POPPINS, which while not quite as orange as the 35mm scan, is no where near as blue as the BD capture. In fact I've been looking for those "pearly" grays and neutral whites... and on my set up there is no shift to blue at all in the whites and grays.

As for the animation... I will say that after reading this thread I looked very carefully at the sequence... the lines around the animated figures *are* rather thick..., but I have no way of knowing how they should look (does the 40th anniv. DVD reproduce the animation as originally seen in theaters?). The main thing I noticed about the animation however, is the clarity of the drawn background... in fact it's so clear, I wonder if it's actually sharper than it's supposed to be? Though I have to confess, I like it.

Whatever the animation issues (and I don't mean to minimize them from an artistic point of view... I genuinely appreciate bigshot's contributions, and he/she has given me much to look for... here and on future releases), I'm more than a bit thrilled by the overall effect of this Blu-ray... Like others have pointed out, I felt like I was 4 years old again and seeing it first run in a theater!

 

[ahollis]

Oh, trust me: 1080p is just fine on 108" too. No offense but I don't think you understand: Cinescotts' display has nothing to do with how the grabs look. The difference you're seeing is between your PC monitor and your TV. If they were set up identically, then you'd see no difference.Try saving the blu-ray caps on a USB stick and displaying them on your TV, and they should look exactly the same as the blu-ray (provided that your different inputs are calibrated the same way, of course).

There is no offense taken but to me you just explained why caps, scans or images should not be trusted. People's computers, iPhones, and other items that they view images on can be different than what they see n their 33 inch monitor to their 10 front screen. Let alone the differences in programs to do the caps, scans, or imaging. We can discuss the look of a 35 mm technicolor print timed for carbon arc projection all we want to but only a hand full of people can see it today, if any one can. What I do know is I am extremely happy with the Mary Poppins Blu-ray and have watched it many times already. I love how it's a moving picture.

 

[Patrick McCart]

It would have been nice to have this much discussion on The Sword in the Stone and Mickey's Christmas Carol, which are undeniably ruined on Blu-Ray. From what I can see, the animation sequence in Mary Poppins looks like a thoughtful middle ground between keeping it untouched (like the live action bulk of the film) and having it completely processed like the other pre-1960 classics.

 

[Cinescott]

The usefulness of caps and scans should be taken with the known warnings, but that doesn't eliminate the fact that they can be useful. Particularly in the event when you have images from different sources viewed on the same screen, like the 35mm and the Blu-ray grabs, I think there can be very useful comparisons. They can highlight differences that while not always 100% accurate (is there any such thing?) are at least consistent for an individual computer monitor.

No one can argue that in bringing a film to Blu-ray or any medium other than film, there are colorists, telecine artists, and even directors who may have the motive of making the product look better on Blu-ray than in the theater. All I'm trying to do is reinforce the concept that the goal of Blu-ray ought to be to reproduce the theatrical experience to the highest degree possible within the technology's limitations. Our home viewing experiences are now so clear and precise with Blu-ray that it can be tempting to bring older technologies into the future by revising effects, colors, etc. This is why George Lucas has driven me crazy over the years. Not only are his original films not available (and what are available are badly color timed), but he has done his best to wipe the originals from the planet.

For all intents and purposes, I now have a small theater in my home with an enormous library of films at my fingertips. Yes, this is a very good thing and something I dreamed about when I was younger. However, no good thing ever comes without its built-in dangers. This becomes particularly dangerous in cases like Mary Poppins when all the principal filmmakers have since passed on. How do we determine what was seen in the theaters in 1964? I don't have a clear answer, but I'd like to know.

People can adjust for personal color preference all they want and there's nothing wrong with that, but I'd like to know that what's encoded on the disc is accurate, not an attempt at 'art' with the goal of making it look better for the home environment. Same goes for animation. Thicker lines may look better on a TV, but I want to see what the filmmakers made back then.

Films are time capsules to me now. When I watch a catalog movie, I often think about the time in which it was made and what I was doing then. Any revision to that film on Blu-ray somehow seems to chip away at my memory of it. Yes, the Star Wars Blu-rays are a prime example of this. I have no qualms with the Special Editions, but the Originals need to be available too.

There was a Renaissance in film during the 60s and 70s. A lot of the titles made then are just now becoming available on Blu-ray. My plea to the studios is to bring them to HD with as much integrity as possible. Just use Taxi Driver and Jaws as your templates. Make me feel when I watch your discs like I am in a time capsule and seeing what audiences saw then. Given that, I'll be a happy camper.

 

[Reed Grele]

The only dangerous things in my HT are all the wiring strewn about hither and yon which might be tripped over while stumbling around blindly in the dark searching for the light switch.My obit will most likely read something like: "Home Theater Forum member killed by falling diy projection screen."

 

[haineshisway]

I'm not seeing much difference between the film caps and the Blu-ray caps in terms of animation other than the Blu-ray has more detail. I'm not seeing anything like any of the past examples from other films shown here. And bigshot has been very silent since the comparisons have been put up. Sorry, I think this entire thing was a tempest in a teapot and that the animated sequence in Mary Poppins looks terrific, like the rest of the film.

 

[JoHud]

While there's so much talk of the animation portions, I also recently heard talk that Disney might have "fixed" some of the obvious matting during special effects where the background was noticeably grainier than the foreground (and vice verse). Now there may be some truth to this, but the early scene where Mary Poppins removed impossibly large items from her handbag had some pretty noticeable matting so if there was any such matte fixing, it was used sporadically.

I'm really not seeing a problem in the frame grabs from the Blu-Ray. The vandalism in SWORD AND THE STONE was obvious even when the images weren't at full size. With MARY POPPINS, I'm not seeing the line erasure/smudging/'redrawing'.

Having watched it myself, though there did appear to be some tinkering, it wasn't near as bad as Sword in the Stone or others. The fox hunting sequence in particular didn't have any noticeable errors while in motion and looked fantastic.

 

[Steen DK]

it wasn't near as bad as Sword in the Stone or others.

Let's hope that we never see anything as bad as Sword in the Stone. Abysmal is the word that best describes it.