Lion King SD looks AMAZING upconverted on Blu-ray Player!

[AT-AT Luvah]

Okay, so my son wanted to watch the Lion King the other day. So I popped in the 2-disc platinum edition that I had from a few years back. Here's my setup:

TV: Sony 46" LCD KDL-46XBR2

Blu-Ray Player: Sony BDP-S300

HDMI to HDMI interconnects: Monster 400 Series

The upconverted picture was nothing short of SPECTACULAR. I can honestly say this is the best upconverted image I've ever seen and the colors absolutely floored me. The only improvements I could see an HD transfer making would be slight delineation improvements in only a few (and I mean a few) scenes, but overall, this was like watching High-Def.

See for yourselves. I am truly, truly impressed.

Hector

My Blu-Ray library so far:

The Patriot
The Last Samurai
Superman the Movie
Casino Royale
300

[CptGreedle]

If Lion King was still easy to find I would... but now I have to go hunting for it.
Yes upsampled DVDs look awesome on HDTVs. At times it is hard to tell if it is a DVD or BD... that is until you look at a BD and realize what you were missing before.
I just watched Blazing Saddles for the first time in HD. I have seen it in SD before, and what a difference the HD makes.
I think I will compare the DVD of Hellboy with the BD, just to see how much different they look. But you can really see the detail in the films. Animations tend to look good but still missing details. It's not as obvious cause there is not usually as much detail since it all has to be drawn/rendered into the scene.
I eagerly await the day i can compare disney movies b/t the DVD and the BD.

[stonemountain]

I have a playstation 3 and have been watching the following standard definition DVD's: starwars trilogy (episodes 4-6), LOTR trilogy, Cars, and The Incredibles. Both animated DVD's look so great, I don't know if I would get the BluRay versions if they came out. However, with StarWars and LOTR especially with distance shots, people's faces are blurry, so I would get the Bluray version if they came out in BD.

[baccusboy]

I find that I have little need to view animation titles in Blu-ray. I have several, but the SD DVD versions just look so good when upconverted. Actually, I find BR tends to make poor graphics stick out like a sore thumb -- to a point of ruining the movie!

It depends on the flick.

[AT-AT Luvah]

Any other animation titles that are comparable to Lion King (quality of Std Def upconversion to 1080p)?

[jedivball]

Cars and Finding Nemo look great. I will have to look at the Lion King tonight. That being said I would still buy the Blu-ray version when Disney re-released them.

[Banjo]

Originally Posted by AT-AT Luvah

Any other animation titles that are comparable to Lion King (quality of Std Def upconversion to 1080p)?

'Lady and the Tramp' would be a good choice.

[stockstar1138]

Originally Posted by jedivball

Cars and Finding Nemo look great. I will have to look at the Lion King tonight. That being said I would still buy the Blu-ray version when Disney re-released them.

agreed. finding nemo looked very close to blu-ray quality. ill get the blu-ray versions just to support the format and for better sound, the PQ will probably be a tad better too, but i can't see by that much.

[JTK]

Originally Posted by baccusboy

I find that I have little need to view animation titles in Blu-ray. I have several, but the SD DVD versions just look so good when upconverted. Actually, I find BR tends to make poor graphics stick out like a sore thumb -- to a point of ruining the movie!

I'm amazed a bunch of people haven't tripped all over this post yet.

I just have to honestly wonder: Why not just stick with DVDs outright?

I'm amazed to read something like this here.

Animation I've seen in HD has been outstanding. When properly implemented and coming from a quality master...animation should benefit same as anything else from going to HD. From what I've seen so far, it does!

I'm curious to know what you've seen on BD in regards to animation that would make you come away with this kind of puzzling reaction.

[deathscripture]

I must agree whole heartedly on the "Lion King" looking spectacular upscaled on my ps3. I was really impressed.

However, I didn't have the same reaction to cgi movies though. Monsters Inc., Cars, and Finding Nemo still looked like shit on my 60" SXRD. Just horrible.

I will definitely pick up these when they are re-released on Blu.

If you thought those looked good, you will be floored later on.

Use Chicken Little as a reference.

[JTK]

Originally Posted by deathscripture

I must agree whole heartedly on the "Lion King" looking spectacular upscaled on my ps3. I was really impressed.

However, I didn't have the same reaction to cgi movies though. Monsters Inc., Cars, and Finding Nemo still looked like shit on my 60" SXRD. Just horrible.

I will definitely pick up these when they are re-released on Blu.

If you thought those looked good, you will be floored later on.

Use Chicken Little as a reference.

I can't wait to buy all of those on BD at first crack!

[zdefonte]

I think 3D animation movies (i.e. Cars, The Increidbles, Toy Story) will benefit the most from the HD upgrade compared to the 2D movies (i.e. Lion King, Little Mermaid, Mulan, etc.) because of the more level of detail in 3D animation, i.e. hair/fur, texture, shine/gloss.

[blu_world]

forgot about these movies,should look good



as i remember "crank" not a kids movie i might add should look good on SD upconverted since it was shot on hd film.

[JadedRaverLA]

This has always been one of the big "debates" when it comes to new formats.

I remember back when I started getting into laserdiscs. I bought all the big Disney animated movies, and everyone always thought that was strange because "for animation, VHS looks good enough." Then people saw them, and were always amazed by the increased quality on a 60" set.

When DVD came out, many people initially didn't want to upgrade animation titles because VHS or laserdisc looked "good enough" for animation. Years later, everyone has realized that on an up-to-date digital display, neither VHS nor laserdisc can hold a candle to a great DVD -- regardless of the material.

With Blu-ray I'm sure the same thing will happen, although this time around we're going from one digital source to another. Add to that the fact that many more people have access to quality upconverters than have in the past, and the argument is somewhat stronger. But upconverters can only do so much. The real benefit of HD on hand-drawn animation is that you should really be able to see the brush strokes and color-fades, etc. -- in other words, see how the art was made. Some of the backgrounds especially could really benefit, especially if the color range can be expanded. If you've seen the "Aladdin" clip on the Pioneer demo BD, you can see that it's unbelievably clear and detailed -- far more so than you remembered the film to be.

But, as others have said, the benefit is much more pronounced on the CGI-animated movies where far more detail exists within the characters and settings. At any rate, I don't see animation as being all that different than live-action -- some things look amazing in HD and others were just never that great-looking to begin with.

[ryoohki]

LOL wait until you see it in HD. I saw it at ABC a while ago and it destroyed the DVD version upscaled eyes closed..

[GCW2216]

I watched the SD DVD's of Children of Men and The Good Sheperd on my PS3 and all I have to say is WOW!

[Deciazulado]

Well if youre watching DVDs upconverted to the sizes of Blu-rays, you can apply the same logic and watch Blu-rays the sizes of barn houses. HD Home theaters are in their infancy, you'll reap even more rewards when at one point you buy bigger and better screens as they become the norm and they come down in prices. You'll watch Ben Hur as it used to be watched, with 8 horses breathing down your neck.

Telepresence


btw great post, JadedRaverLA

[AT-AT Luvah]

Okay, people. The thread was just meant to point out that The Lion King SD DVD looks amazing upconverted via my Blu-Ray player. I also stated that I wasn't sure how an HD incarnation could make broad improvements, but i'm sure it will.

I will buy the Lion King on Blu-Ray when it becomes available and I am just impressed by the upconversion capability. I WILL be upgrading my standard-def library as titles are released in HD.

Hector

[J. Severe]

Today, I felt like checking out The Lion King again, since it's one of my favorite movies, and I popped it into my Sony BDP-S370 Blu-ray player. That was probably the most unintentional miracle that's happened to me this week. The first thing I noticed when I started watching the movie was that it was widescreen. I had seen the movie on an SDTV before, and it had the black bars on the top and bottom of the screen, but now the lines were gone, and it was just the widescreen picture, like on a Blu-ray movie or HD TV program. Another thing I noticed was that the picture was more crisp and such, in part because I had set the player to play all discs in 1080p, so this was upscaled. The actual product was so cool looking () I just had to talk about it somewhere... specifically, here.

[Alpha]

If all this is true, just imagine the BD