DVD Review HTF REVIEW: Toy Story 10th Anniversary Edition: MUST BUY (1 Viewer)

[JonZ]

The video is amazing!

DTS track is excellent, glad I bought it.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

You certainly do...you can't imagine the sadness of visiting your site only to find no new updates...



Actually, as much as you did for the Fifth Element Super-bit, I'd LOVE to see/read a comparison by you with the new Toy Story. It's possibly the finest DVD image I've ever seen. I can't wait to see what your own impressions may be.

BTW, to everyone worried that the image improvement isn't going to significant enough in your system...regardless of that concern don't let the fact that the new sound mix and DTS encoding utterly, shockingly, annihilates the previous DVD elude you...

 

[Mark Lucas]

You're greatly missed, Bjoern. I visit your website almost every other day hoping another fantastic update will come along.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Damn you, Dave! As a father of two (one in college) and owner of the Ultimate Toy Box, I made the responsible decision to pass up the re-release of Toy Story. I even pulled the UTB off the shelf and popped TS to give it a spin and see if I thought there was any way it could be improved upon. I satisfied myself that any improvement would be negligible and that there were too many other ways to spend my limited disposable cash. But if you keep this sort of rhetoric up...

 

[JoshB]

It looks as if they are releasing Toy Story 2 this December, in much the same way this one was released., with remastered audio and picture. DavisDVD has the press release.

http://www.davisdvd.com/bin/press87.html

 

[Bjoern Roy]

Ordered the disc. Shipped already, should be here any day now. Really excited to see it!

After seeing the incredible unfiltered detail in Sin City and hearing the report on this disc, i think they might have gone the Bjoern-Bit non-filtered route indeed in these 2 cases. Sign of things to come?

I have been telling people for ages that DVD mastering is FAR below DVDs potential, falling on deaf ears in most cases. Heck the original Toy Story is still a great DVD, yet and it can be topped like it appears to be the case here. Imagine the improvement in PQ for titles which are 'only' good, ok or mediocre! (if both a top notch transfer is done AND a proper low-filter encoding is accomplished)

If they made a rerelease like this of Finding Nemo, which was the most 'handicapped' Pixar release so far, people would drop dead.

Let alone if they rereleased a hideous effort like Episode I...

Or Incredibles, which is a really good DVD in PQ terms for a 'commercial' release. Its still heavily filtered. The legit DVD-9 acadamy screener has MUCH more detail! The RC1 looks rather soft in comparison.

Oh well, seems like this is a glimpse of what DVD 'could' have been over the last 5 years.... if only the proper people and machines would have been in place. And that 'now', when videophile DVD is about to be obsolete due to HD-DVD, BluRay anyway...

Best regards
Bjoern

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Ironic...isn't it? Yes...industry folks *finally* figuring out how to master a DVD to its full potential right before the advent of HD media...grin...




He speaks the truth. Folks...are you aware that the image of the comercial R1 DVD of the incredibles is CLEARLY filtered? It's not "bad" but it's not "excellent" either...and the bonus material on disc 2 shows movie clips that are razor-sharp and much more 3-dimensional than the feature film.

I've seen the screener disc and that's correct...it's noticably more crisp, detailed, and 3-D than the R1 commercial disc...much like the improvement of the Toy Story 10th anniversary over the original edition.

How does that make you feel? Do you like your images being down-filtered for no good reason? (there is no good reason...I'd rather take a few MPEG artifacts here and there than watch a down-filtered image).

The good news is that if the studios are wiseing up to how to master...that's good news for our HD copies...we certainly don't want *those* downfiltered like our DVD software!

BTW, I actually suspect that in some cases some titles are downfiltered on DVD because the studios want the 'before and after' effect to be more dramatic when those titles emerge on HD media. DVD can look so good when done to its full potential that, even though HD would be better still, many folks wouldn't get the same "woosh" factor from the improvement were the DVD today maximized in quality. That's my little conspiracy theory anyway

But let's give credit where credit is due, and I'm pleased to see that with this Toy Story release Disney has done it RIGHT. They deserve two

Bjoern, I can't wait to hear your impressions. Please post back here and do consider using Toy Story as a new update-comparison on your awsome site!

 

[Bjoern Roy]

What do you know... Disc just arrived at my doorstop!

Too bad i won't have enough time to sample it right away. Maybe tonight, or tomorrow.

Regards
Bjoern

 

[Dave Mack]

Good to see you again, Bjoern! I recently got the R2 PAL Lord of the Rings Extended editions based on your site's reccomendations and they are noticeably better than the R1, especially "Fellowship".
Dave, I share that conspiracy theory as well. In my opinion, "Spiderman 2" could have looked ALOT better but if it did, who would buy the "superbit"...?
What's wild is when you get an older catalog title that is very un high profile and they don't really do anything dramatic to "tweak" the PQ and it looks amazing. And the deleted scenes on "Road to Perdition" look twice as good as the film and in one extended scene where the scene continues without a cut in the shot, the PQ suddenly snaps into apparent focus because they apparently didn't filter and then sharpen the image.

d

 

[Mark Lucas]

Doesn't reading what Bjoern has to say get you psyched up to see another update to his website?

It's pretty sad when 99.9% of dvds are crippled because of stupidity, ineptness, or even worse, ignorance. I don't doubt it will carry over into the HD formats. If they couldn't get 480p right most of the time why would they get 1080p right?

 

[Ravi K]

Is overfiltering a problem outside R1?

 

[Patrick McCart]

I just picked this up...

As with other Pixar films, it obviously looked wonderful. However, when I magnified to 9x filling my 1600x1280 screen.... there were almost no compression artifacts at all. I can't believe how much detail is intact.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

Damn, David, I had to quit my job and give up my social life to read your review!

But oh you are so right! I bought this yesterday and the instant I popped it in and initiated the film, my jaw was agape, this is the best i've seen the film look since the theatrical presentation and is the best looking disc in my 700+ collection hands down!

My video system can't touch yours, i'm running a well calibrated (thanks Chris Wiggles ) Infocus X1 on a 96" screen on a regular Sony progressive scan player, and I could see the difference quite easily.

I could type all night about this disc, Disney hit this one to infinity and beyond without a doubt!

 

[DaViD Boulet]

 

[Holadem]

I am a bit surprised at all the claims of reference sound from the original release.

Toy Story (original) definitely left much room for improvement on the audio side, on my system anyway. It didn't sound bad, but it certainly wasn't reference.

Toy Story 2 now is another story, I am having a hard time imagining how it's audio could be improved upon.

--
H

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Holadem,

Are you talking about "reference" sound comments about the previous Toy Story DVD or this current DTS edition?

This new one sounds BETTER to my ears...much more the "reference" that I never quite felt the original to be (more active 360 sound...much more like TS2)

 

[Holadem]

The original TS1 release. It was a good DVD but it did not merrit the "hard to improve upon" skepticism expressed at the news of a second release.

--
H

 

[DaViD Boulet]

I'd Agree. Especially in light of the outstanding (improved) audio mix on this new disc!

 

[Reagan]

After watching this new release of Toy Story a few times, we watched Toy Story 2 (I have the single disc Widescreen/Fullscreen version) and the difference was profound. Toy Story 2 looked like a blurry mess by comparison. I can't wait to see the improvements offered by new Toy Story 2.

-Reagan

 

[Ravi K]

Will the new TS and TS2 disc look better than the UTB on a computer screen? I currently watch movies on my 19".