HTF BLU-RAY REVIEW: Monsters, Inc. - Page 2

There is a smattering of stuff on the second disc of the DVD that was not ported over to the Blu-ray as well. A sound feature on binaural recording, the "scarer" cards and company play program are not on the Blu... perhaps a couple other small things. 

While not mentioned here, Monsters, Inc. is not as perfect as other Pixar BD releases. Myself and a few other review sites have spotted some aliasing in Sulley's fur. In addition, I am also seeing some jagged edges on objects in the background in some scenes. This comes very unexpectedly given the quality of Pixar titles on Blu-Ray thus far.

I am curious how this could have happened. Is it an artifact of the down-conversion process? I assume the source material is higher than 1080p since it was released on film at one time.

I have watched A Bug's Life on BD but may have to go back and check it out to see if any of these problems at present there as well. Cars & Wall-E are devoid of these artifacts. I am concerned about how future, older Pixar titles (mainly Toy Story 1 & 2) might turn out since they pre-date Monsters.

My guess (and it's only a guess) is that it is a downconversion artifact. Pixar was trumpeting the "direct digital" transfers onto DVD [going back to the original Toy Story films I believe] so I can't imagine they did it any differently for Blu. That said, I agree that the source material is likely at a higher resolution than the 1920x1080 of Blu, so some artifacts may arise from the down-rezzing.

 

That said, I've watched Monsters Inc. twice since buying it and did not notice anything you noted. That doesn't mean they weren't there, just that they weren't noticeable to my eye when watching the movie (ps3 -> 60" Sony 1080p/24 SXRD via HDMI).

^ Yeah, me too. BDP-83->Pio 151. Unlike many others, MI is one of my top 3 Pixar offerings (and the only one on BD so far). I'd like to know a time-code for a problem scene "just to see"...if I already didn't notice it, then it's not like it's "ruining" my enjoyment.

At Pixar, they apparently call rendering something very difficult the "Yeti's Cave". Specifically, that scene where Sulley is lying in the snow after the sled crash (snow glistening on fur) was deemed "impossible" by the people who work on such things, using the tech they had at the time. But they pulled it off. Knowing this from the DVD, I stared at the BD version of that scene for quite a while and IMO it did look very good. I realise staring is not motion, so I may not have seen the problem referred to, but this was considered the most complicated scene in the movie and it seems to have been transferred beautifully.

One thing I really noticed from the BD compared to the DVD is how shiny so many things are, how they subtly glisten. And not just Sulley's fur. Besides the obviously increased detail, like I could easily read the Harryhausen's menu from 8-9' away.