DVD Savant Review of "Mary Poppins"
12-16-04, 08:56 PM
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DVD Savant Review of "Mary Poppins"
I loved the review. I loved the movie just as Savant does (and I agree with the footnote about this being better than Sound of Music).
One quick unanswered question, though for us DVD voracious ones:
Is this release better and why than the original one, if we do not care about the extras? I have it, its video and sound is good. Is it worth replacing?
One quick unanswered question, though for us DVD voracious ones:
Is this release better and why than the original one, if we do not care about the extras? I have it, its video and sound is good. Is it worth replacing?
12-17-04, 06:17 PM
#2
DVD Talk Hero
Hope this answers your question. This exerpt if taken from DVD Town's review:
Video:
Almost everything about this new DVD incarnation of the movie is better than it was on the first "Mary Poppins" disc I reviewed some years ago. The transfer, measuring a ratio approximately 1.74:1 across my standard-screen HD television, is anamorphic, it's mastered to THX specifications, and it uses a higher bit rate than before. Therefore, the colors are deeper and more solid, and the detail is more revealing than ever. Definition is good, although not as sharp as I've seen on a few other DVDs, plus a touch hard, and there is some minor grain in darker areas of the screen; but these may be imperfections inherent to the original print.
Interestingly, minor defects that were less noticeable in the earlier transfer show up more tellingly now that the image has been sharpened up. For instance, in the live-action/animation sequence in the park, the minute halos around the live characters are more visible in a few scenes, where the actors were superimposed against the animated backgrounds. It's not particularly objectionable, but it does show that technology hasn't yet answered all of our questions.
Audio:
On their first two DVDs of the movie, Disney was guilty of some slight overkill in their Dolby Digital 5.1 remix of the score. They have carried that over to the new disc, where the regular DD 5.1 sound is wide spread but has sometimes a little too much information funneled into the rear channels, most discernible in big musical production numbers. No matter. As I said last time, it may not be entirely realistic, but it adds to the fun of the proceedings.
The more important item here, though, is Disney's new enhanced home-theater mix. Like the home-theater mixes the studio provides on its "Lion King" and "Aladdin" DVDs, the home-theater mix on "Poppins" spreads the sound out among the various speakers even more than in the regular mix, sometimes making individual voices seem a bit wider than they should be. The mid-to-upper bass has also been increased a fraction, and overall volume seems a tad louder. Disney claims the new mix brings out the special audio effects better and clarifies some of the dialogue.
This enhanced mix is probably even more unrealistic than the regular DD 5.1 mix, losing some of the former's more accurate directionality, especially in the front speakers, and exaggerating many of the aural effects; however, it continues to be good fun, warmer overall and more enveloping. The whole listening area comes to life with musical sounds, some of the orchestral parts often in the sides and rear, but I suppose since the movie is a fantasy, anyway, some small price in overall musical coherence is of little consequence.
Video:
Almost everything about this new DVD incarnation of the movie is better than it was on the first "Mary Poppins" disc I reviewed some years ago. The transfer, measuring a ratio approximately 1.74:1 across my standard-screen HD television, is anamorphic, it's mastered to THX specifications, and it uses a higher bit rate than before. Therefore, the colors are deeper and more solid, and the detail is more revealing than ever. Definition is good, although not as sharp as I've seen on a few other DVDs, plus a touch hard, and there is some minor grain in darker areas of the screen; but these may be imperfections inherent to the original print.
Interestingly, minor defects that were less noticeable in the earlier transfer show up more tellingly now that the image has been sharpened up. For instance, in the live-action/animation sequence in the park, the minute halos around the live characters are more visible in a few scenes, where the actors were superimposed against the animated backgrounds. It's not particularly objectionable, but it does show that technology hasn't yet answered all of our questions.
Audio:
On their first two DVDs of the movie, Disney was guilty of some slight overkill in their Dolby Digital 5.1 remix of the score. They have carried that over to the new disc, where the regular DD 5.1 sound is wide spread but has sometimes a little too much information funneled into the rear channels, most discernible in big musical production numbers. No matter. As I said last time, it may not be entirely realistic, but it adds to the fun of the proceedings.
The more important item here, though, is Disney's new enhanced home-theater mix. Like the home-theater mixes the studio provides on its "Lion King" and "Aladdin" DVDs, the home-theater mix on "Poppins" spreads the sound out among the various speakers even more than in the regular mix, sometimes making individual voices seem a bit wider than they should be. The mid-to-upper bass has also been increased a fraction, and overall volume seems a tad louder. Disney claims the new mix brings out the special audio effects better and clarifies some of the dialogue.
This enhanced mix is probably even more unrealistic than the regular DD 5.1 mix, losing some of the former's more accurate directionality, especially in the front speakers, and exaggerating many of the aural effects; however, it continues to be good fun, warmer overall and more enveloping. The whole listening area comes to life with musical sounds, some of the orchestral parts often in the sides and rear, but I suppose since the movie is a fantasy, anyway, some small price in overall musical coherence is of little consequence.
12-18-04, 08:57 AM
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Originally Posted by TomOpus
Hope this answers your question. This exerpt if taken from DVD Town's review:
12-18-04, 01:32 PM
#4
DVD Talk Gold Edition
There is lots of discussion in two threads at HTF here:
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htfo...hreadid=219229
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htfo...hlight=poppins
Perhaps too much discussion. I cannot vouch for the accuracy of these conclusions, but here are a couple of things discussed in the two threads that might concern me if I were planning on buying the new version:
- It seems that the 1.66:1 aspect ratio was acheived by cutting the sides off of an existing 1.85:1 transfer. The movie was originally composed so that framing from 1.66:1 to 1.85:1 would be acceptable. However, instead of going back and getting the correct framing, the 1.66:1 ratio was achieved as described. This resulted in less visual information on the sides than should be expected.
- The sound mixes are all problematic. The new remixes seem overly pumped up and the original mix, while available, seems to have been encoded poorly or at least less than optimally.
If either of these points are a concern, you might want to browse the linked threads and draw your own conclusions.
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htfo...hreadid=219229
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htfo...hlight=poppins
Perhaps too much discussion. I cannot vouch for the accuracy of these conclusions, but here are a couple of things discussed in the two threads that might concern me if I were planning on buying the new version:
- It seems that the 1.66:1 aspect ratio was acheived by cutting the sides off of an existing 1.85:1 transfer. The movie was originally composed so that framing from 1.66:1 to 1.85:1 would be acceptable. However, instead of going back and getting the correct framing, the 1.66:1 ratio was achieved as described. This resulted in less visual information on the sides than should be expected.
- The sound mixes are all problematic. The new remixes seem overly pumped up and the original mix, while available, seems to have been encoded poorly or at least less than optimally.
If either of these points are a concern, you might want to browse the linked threads and draw your own conclusions.
