DVD Review HTF DVD Review: The Jungle Book - 40th Anniversary Platinum Edition (2 Viewers)

[Stephen_J_H]

Chuck, those screencaps are impressive. Looking forward to picking up my copy even more now than before.

 

[DavidJ]

Picked it up this afternoon and I can't wait to share my favorite Disney movie with my daughter. It looks like they did a nice job on the disc.

 

[Chris Cheese]

I bought this yesterday and watched it on my LG 32" LCD last night, and was horrified at the picture quality. Throughout the entire picture, at times when there were large patches of grays and browns on the screen, there are rows of horizontal lines visible on the screen. It doesn't seem to be the print itself, because it comes and goes, but it is definitely in the transfer (I double checked on a few different screens and it's there on all of them). I've read a number of reviews that have only the best things to say about the video on this DVD, which I find absolutely shocking, because I was really taken aback at how bad this looked at times. I posted it on another DVD message board and someone there confirmed that the same thing was present on their DVD. Here is a snapshot I took of my TV screen with a digital camera from around the 43:30 mark, when they're talking and realize that night has just turned into day. Not the greatest quality since it's a picture of a TV, but it gives you the idea. This is just one of many, many occasions this happens throughout the film though.

 

[Jason_V]

Chris, maybe it's my computer monitor or my headache, but I'm not seeing anything in that picture. I haven't checked my copy out yet, but I may throw it in this weekend to check.

 

[Chuck Pennington]

Here is the frame that Chris pointed out. I haven't watched the entire film on my HDTV yet, but I can see from his screen capture what he's talking about.



I'm working on making some more screen captures from the 1992 Laserdisc, 1999 DVD (not doing the 1997 Laserdisc captures anymore since it is from the same master as the earlier DVD release and looks almost identical), and this new 2007 DVD release. I'm also working on captures from ROBIN HOOD, another Disney title that has received criticism for being 1.75:1 anamorphic on its last DVD release.

 

[Jason_V]

Okay, I definately have to watch now-maybe even tonight. I'm still not seeing anything.

 

[Chris Cheese]

I don't see it in the screencap Chuck posted, but it seems to vary frame to frame, so it may be that right after the part I posted doesn't have it.

I would use my computer to do screencaps except that I'm not really sure how to do that. I could go back and take some pictures with my camera of other instances though. It's not at all an isolated thing. It happens a lot throughout the movie.

 

[Chris Cheese]

Ok, here are some more pictures I just took with my digital camera of some of the more obvious spots. Rarely does a minute go by in my copy without seeing this though. Sometimes it's barely noticeable, other times it is very blatant. And looking closer, it isn't just on grays and browns. It isn't quite as obvious, but you can see it on the pink of the elephant ears in the second and third pictures.


5:16


13:43


14:26


15:11


23:48

 

[Chuck Pennington]

Go to 43:25 on your THE JUNGLE BOOK DVD. That is the shot Chris is speaking of, and indeed there are these strange horizontal lines going through the image, most noticeable on the solid patch of gray that makes up Baloo's fur. It looks like an encoding problem. Weird that it isn't noticeable in the screen captures I made using VLC, but I can see it on my Sony Blu-Ray player (HDMI) and Pioneer DVD player (component) on my 32" HDTV - though it doesn't stick out anywhere near as much as in the capture Chris posted.

Seems things sometimes go awry in these digital-to-digital encoding jobs for DVD.

 

[Kris Z.]

Not again! It seems like almost every single classic Disney release has had some kind of issue the last couple years. No more restorations/remasters for the Treasures line, botched DVNR'd "restoration" of The Little Mermaid with no original audio mix, incorrect masters used for the True Life Adventures etc. etc. and now this.

I saw these lines in most of the caps at DVDBeaver but thought they might have just been some effect of bad scaling of the screencaps but I guess I was wrong. All these errors and the way Disney have been treating their classics actually made me stop supporting their DVDs a while back. I will give them a new chance and a fresh start with the HD formats, and just hope they'll be able to get their act together in time.

 

[RobertSiegel]

wow, I havn't gotten my copy yet from Amazon, ordered late, but judging from those pictures, this one definately needs a recall. That's awful.

 

[Chuck Pennington]

It's strange, but even with the rather shoddy encoding I prefer the new DVD. I can only see the flaws when I get up close to the screen, but then again I only have a 32" HDTV with an 800:1 contrast ratio - perhaps bigger displays with a higher or lower contrast ratio show up these flaws more readily.

For some reason I can't get a capture that shows it up very clearly. I'm using VLC to grab images directly from the DVD. Is there another program for the Mac than perhaps can do a better job of this?

 

[Mark-P]

Strange, there's not a single mention of this phenomenon in every online review I've read, even DVDBeaver says nothing about it though it is clearly visible in their screencaps. David Boulet's review at DVDfile was mostly positive regarding PQ. I wonder if he would care to join in with his comments about this? I haven't bought mine yet, but I'd certainly like some more opinions.

 

[Chuck Pennington]

As picky as I am with PQ, I can only see the encoding flaws when I get close to the screen. I think the upscaling on my Blu-Ray player softens these flaws a bit, and I'm a good 6-8 feet away from the monitor when I view things as well. And my screen is only 32", so I can imagine that a larger display and sitting closer to the screen would REALLY change my opinion.

Remember how bad the encoding was on BEAUTY AND THE BEAST? Boy, I can still see that quite clearly though. :-(

 

[Chris Cheese]

That's strange, because I'm also watching on a 32" screen with an upscaling player and it's hugely obvious to me. Maybe my display is set a little brighter or something. It is very strange to see those things obviously in the screencaps on DVD Beaver but with no mention of the defects at all. I too was really shocked in reading mutliple reviews of this with no mention whatsoever of a problem, all with very positive marks for the video quality.

 

[captainjoe]

I watched those scenes and many others my my 56' screen upconverting on the PS3 and the lines are clearly visible. It definately is a compression issue as there is also posterization visible in similar shots. Upon first glance I didn't see it but after the captures were posted I saw them. It's a shame.

 

[Stephen_J_H]

My suspicion is that if they're not there in the screen captures, it's a hardware problem. Everyone raves about upconversion and various connections, but fails to consider whether these introduce artifacts into the equation. I seriously have to wonder if that is the case.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Haven't watched from stem to stern yet, but in the various sections I have watched--the commentary (including the incomparable Richard Sherman) is just wonderful. Very informative and very entertaining. Sounds like the participants had a lot of fun watching the film while recording the commentary. Also participating were the actor who voiced Mowgli (Bruce Reitherman) and an animator (Andreas Deja) who talks about the work of Frank Thomas & Ollie Johnston and others who worked on the film.

There is also a highlight in the music section of the various Terry Gilkyson songs which didn't make the cut. There is a demo version of The Bare Necessities which contains a minor key melody that really doesn't work (no small wonder it didn't make the film)...but the lyrics are still fun and I think the voice is none other than Thurl Ravenscroft. Ravenscroft is the deep baritone best known as the voice of Tony the Tiger and the vocalist of the song "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" from How the Grinch Stole Christmas. He was also a member of the Mello Men singing group and was a veteran of many Disney projects. Very cool extra.

 

[Patrick McCart]

The "lines" artifacting is visible on my disc for that last shot, but I wouldn't have seen it if I hadn't known it was there. The contrast has to be adjusted a lot to make it visible without having to look up close.

I'm extremely happy with the new remaster. Along with the SEs of Robin Hood and Peter Pan, the remastering is the best I've seen from Disney. No DVNR, no edge enhancement, proper compression, and high sharpness.

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[DavidJ]

Now I almost scared to open it and I have been looking forward to it for a long time. Is everyone seeing the lines?