A Few Words About A few words about...™ The Wild -- in Blu-Ray DVD (1 Viewer)

[Robert Harris]

As a parent, one thing that goes undisputed is the need for children's programming, for which Disney has always been the leader.

To be honest, I haven't viewed a great number of children's films lately, as my son has found other cinematic interests more in line with Wes Craven.

So it was with a bit of deja vu and benign interest that I inserted Disney's new Blu-Ray DVD of The Wild into my new Panasonic player.

I just knew that it wouldn't be anything special.

To my surprise, it was something unbelievable.

This new Blu-Ray release once again, sets a technological standard that will keep cinemaphiliac parents in their home theaters with the children.

I almost didn't care what The Wild was about.

The image quality, derived from a pure digital source, looks as though one is not watching a video at all.

The impression is more like looking out an open window to a stage play.

Extraordinary, groundbreaking, reference quality bar none -- this is a disc to run when someone stops by that hasn't a clue what HD is all about, and doesn't care. They'll leave sold on the new format, as this is a demo disc that will sell Blu-Ray players.

I've not seen anything quite like it.

As a film... great for children.

As a disc... a demonstration piece, par excellence.

Even if your youngest child is 40, this is a must-own disc, that extends the limitations of what, even a week ago, we perceived to be "home video."

RAH

 

[Neil Joseph]

Great. What kind of audio are they using (curious).

 

[RobertSiegel]

Robert, I have to agree. Today I got my Playstation 3, and already have THE WILD. I can't believe the quality. Absolutely stunning. I also got an early copy of ICE AGE 2, and the same applies, I've never seen anything look like these on a home theater system. I use a Sony vpl-11ht which is 1366x768, and even on that, it's simply the best signal the projector has ever seen. I can't wait to buy the Sony Pearl projector....it's hard to imagine anything better than what I saw today on the playstation 3, but that projector will be fully hd.

I also must add that I was surprised The Wild did so little at the boxoffice, because I loved it. I have a feeling I will be watching this blu-ray disc dozens of times, and the same with Ice Age, if not for the movie, then to sit there with my jaw on the floor in shock at what blu-ray can deliver.

Also, a friend out in California last month sent me a blu-ray sample disc, and on it is the advertisement that starts each new Rodgers and Hammerstein special edition dvd, of all 6 R&H films...and the trailer is in HD. Well, I cannot believe what the clips look like....AMAZING. I have never seen The Sound of Music opening look like that....stunning. And King and I....wow, it makes the INHD tv broadcast seem like VHS tape. My only other comment is PLEASE FOX, give me the Rodgers and Hammerstein blu-rays!

 

[Yumbo]

The Wild SD is also very good. I liked the movie too.

 

[Neil Joseph]

Robert (Siegel), I have the exact same projector as you do and although I don't have my player yet, I will be picking it up on Monday (the panasonic one) and doing some vigorous testing later on that week.

 

[Kirk Tsai]

I have not switched to the HD formats, and I did not like this movie very much. That said, it is arguably the most vibrant movie I've seen in theaters all year. Good to know it looks great on BR.

 

[Paul Cordingley]

Robert,

Could I respectfully ask that you call it either "BD" or "Blu-ray Disc", not "Blu-Ray DVD."

The same goes for HD DVD (not "HD-DVD").

Just a stickler for accuracy!

 

[MarekM]

it is interesting that almost everywhere I see HD-DVD not HD DVD.

on amazon.com it's Blu-ray and HD-DVD
even on such site as digitalbits.com you have Blu-ray and HD-DVD

at least on site as highdefdigest.com you have Blu-ray and HD DVD correctly...

Marek

 

[Robert Harris]

I have no problem calling either format by any name agreed upon by all.

Accuracy is a good thing.

RAH

 

[Robert Crawford]

RAH,
It doesn't matter what you call either format. I think some of us are being a little too serious or sensitive about the names. If a person isn't trying to degrade the format or start another of those senseless format arguments then I don't understand the need for others to tell somebody else how to refer a piece of HT equipment by.

Matter of fact, I've been thinking of referring both formats as the following:

Blu-ray = BR

HD DVD = HD

That's it and I'm sorry if that offends others, but I tend to post a lot throughout the day and shortening names helps me out.

Crawdaddy

 

[MarekM]

Robert,

I don't have any problems with short names at all........, just it's confusing for NEW people reading these pages,........ because both formats are HD, and they could be confused with question - only one format is HD ?

I am talking only about people new to HD, not for regular visitors....

Marek

 

[Neil Joseph]

ahem

Can anyone report on the pcm 5.1 audio that this disk has?

 

[Paul Cordingley]

Hi Robert,

I do have to take you to task on this point, as much as I don't want to.


But they have official names, why not simply use those instead of inventing your own?

That's like me saying "ah, I know your name's Robert, but I can't be bothered with that, 'Jim' is shorter and easier for me - I'll call you that." No one will know what you mean, or at best be confused.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Curious how great this title looks on BD (the industry-agreed upon 2-letter abbreviation for Blu-ray Disc, BTW).

The SD DVD version was pretty over filtered... much softer and almost "blurry" at times than any other digital cartoon except maybe in comparison to Chicken Little which was also really over-filtered and soft looking.

My suspician is that Disney filtered both of those SD DVD titles on purpose in order to make the BD version look even better by comparison.

Personally... as long as the 1080p versions look as good as they can, I don't care! But when I reviewed the SD DVD of The Wild I knew something was wrong. Glad to see that the BD version doesn't reflect the same "low bar" mentality for video mastering!

dave

 

[Yumbo]

I couldn't fault the SD picture.

 

[RobertSiegel]

I find it hard to believe, Paul, that any person on this forum would read "bluray" or "blueray dvd" or whatever someone calls it, and not know what is being talked about. I agree 100% with Mr. Crawford. I can't believe how nit picky some people are, one is almost afraid to type anything here anymore for fear of not being 100% correct. Over on another forum yesterday, I was near insulted for saying that the Flower Drum Song dvd had nowhere near the quality of extras of the Fox Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals. I wish people would lighten up. We all know what bluray, blue-ray, or blu-ray dvd is.

and,,,anyone who wants to call this Robert "Jim", go ahead

 

[Neil Joseph]

Gents, we are steering poor Robert's original thread off topic. I believe there is another thread here that I saw open that can be used to discuss this particular topic.

Now!!! Can anyone answer my question on the audio of the Wild please.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Yumbo,

what type of display system do you have? What resolution and what's your viewing angle?

I'm curious because in my review thread other HTF members also noticed the softness in the picture of the SD DVD.

 

[Yumbo]

Panasonic 500 projector at 185"
Panasonic 50" plasma

Upscaled on both. Almost equal to ROBOTS quality.
See my comments when I reviewed it.

 

[PerryD]

I watched Chicken Little on Starz HD a couple weeks back and was floored by the picture quality. Actually, with my new Sony Pearl projected onto a 119" screen, I've been floored by HD a lot lately.

The detail on Chicken Little was fantastic, every little detail was visible, each stitch on the dad's flannel shirt, the textures used on the walls and furniture, everything crisp and clear.

The only picture break up occurred near the end of the movie with the alien invasion when the main characters were running around and the camera was panning around, the fixed bitrate couldn't keep up for a couple seconds. I'd be curious to see if the Blu-ray disc handles that sequence.