Looney Tunes Platinum Collection on Blu-ray Reviews

[DocMario90]

This is a pretty decent lineup, I must say. Would have preferred that The Unruly Hare and Lumber Jack-Rabbit be included, but it's safe to say that I'll be picking the Blu-ray up when it's released.

[Adam4Rizzel]

Could someone explain to me why some shorts are slightly letterboxed and why others aren't?

[shinobipopcorn]

Originally Posted by DocMario90

This is a pretty decent lineup, I must say. Would have preferred that The Unruly Hare and Lumber Jack-Rabbit be included, but it's safe to say that I'll be picking the Blu-ray up when it's released.

I want this one restored in its proper aspect ratio...

[Squeakyboots]

Originally Posted by Adam4Rizzel

Could someone explain to me why some shorts are slightly letterboxed and why others aren't?

All of the classic shorts should be in their correct aspect ratios. Which ones aren't?

[Adam4Rizzel]

Originally Posted by Squeakyboots

All of the classic shorts should be in their correct aspect ratios. Which ones aren't?

Sorry I didn't ask this correctly. Why are some of the shorts' opening credits letterboxed, while others aren't?

[Akibiyori]

Originally Posted by Adam4Rizzel

Sorry I didn't ask this correctly. Why are some of the shorts' opening credits letterboxed, while others aren't?

Oh, you mean they’re windowboxed (a border around the entire picture area.) Warner and some other companies do that with their old films to ensure the credits appear intact on the screen. It’s a byproduct from the days of TV overscan and they don’t really need to do it anymore but many of these HD masters were made when 4:3 CRTs were still the most common TVs.

[Squeakyboots]

Originally Posted by Adam4Rizzel

Sorry I didn't ask this correctly. Why are some of the shorts' opening credits letterboxed, while others aren't?

That, I have an answer for. That was something WB was doing for their earlier restorations for DVD to avoid any part of the credits being cut off by crt overscan. This isn't needed anymore now that everyone is using an hd display of some type but it was necessary back when crts were commonplace. Old tv broadcasts did this as well.

[WaltWiz1901]

Originally Posted by shinobipopcorn

I want this one restored in its proper aspect ratio...

Don't we all? The transfer on DVD looked and felt so cramped that even the opening credits had to be pillarboxed so as to keep all of the text onscreen!

[Adam4Rizzel]

Originally Posted by Akibiyori

Oh, you mean they’re windowboxed (a border around the entire picture area.) Warner and some other companies do that with their old films to ensure the credits appear intact on the screen. It’s a byproduct from the days of TV overscan and they don’t really need to do it anymore but many of these HD masters were made when 4:3 CRTs were still the most common TVs.

Gotcha, thanks for clarifying that. I certainly remember the red and blue window boxing on MGM cartoons (mostly Tom and Jerry) back in the Cartoon Network days. It makes sense now. However, why is this still present now? Weren't most of these scans made for the LT Blu-Ray releases? Why continue the practice?

[RadRen]

Originally Posted by Adam4Rizzel

Gotcha, thanks for clarifying that. I certainly remember the red and blue window boxing on MGM cartoons (mostly Tom and Jerry) back in the Cartoon Network days. It makes sense now. However, why is this still present now? Weren't most of these scans made for the LT Blu-Ray releases? Why continue the practice?

I'm pretty sure most of the HD masters on the Platinum Collection were made back when cartoons were being restored for the Golden Collection DVDs.
The Chuck Jones Mouse Chronicles BD mainly has newer masters that don't have the windowboxing.

[Adam4Rizzel]

Originally Posted by RadRen

I'm pretty sure most of the HD masters on the Platinum Collection were made back when cartoons were being restored for the Golden Collection DVDs.
The Chuck Jones Mouse Chronicles BD mainly has newer masters that don't have the windowboxing.

Very interesting to know. Perhaps that means that those shorts from the GC days could look even better with a 4K scan.

[shinobipopcorn]

Originally Posted by WaltWiz1901

Don't we all? The transfer on DVD looked and felt so cramped that even the opening credits had to be pillarboxed so as to keep all of the text onscreen!

Yeah, the 3D effect necessitated keeping the title card 4:3, so I don't understand why they didn't just keep the whole thing that way. The DVD they released it on must have been at the heyday of "I WANT ALL MY SCREEN USED!" mentality.

[Banner23]

Hi, I just purchased the blu ray platinum collections and last night I watched One Froggy Evening. After watching the episode I then watch the commentary, and the video quality was no where near as good.
My question is, is the commentary video what the DVD video looks like ? I was thinking about getting the Golden Collection DVDs but if the video looks like that, I will wait for the blu ray versions of the other episodes.

Thanks

[Akibiyori]

Originally Posted by Banner23

Hi, I just purchased the blu ray platinum collections and last night I watched One Froggy Evening. After watching the episode I then watch the commentary, and the video quality was no where near as good.
My question is, is the commentary video what the DVD video looks like ? I was thinking about getting the Golden Collection DVDs but if the video looks like that, I will wait for the blu ray versions of the other episodes.

Thanks

I’m not sure why the commentary would be an entirely different video file - do you mean a documentary about that short? I don’t have the first platinum collection but I do have the other two and what you’re probably talking about is a problem Warner Home Video had with standard definition video masters on Blu-ray, which the bulk of the special features are. SD masters on Warner Blu-rays years ago typically had frame rate issues and jagged edges.

In short, no, the DVDs don’t look like that, they playback and look like other normal DVDs. It’s just an issue Warner had with certain things on Blu-ray.

[Dsneybuf]

Originally Posted by Akibiyori

I’m not sure why the commentary would be an entirely different video file

Warner Bros. does it a lot, but I'd have to check myself if One Froggy Evening really presents one such instance.

[jacksonwalker]

I have all three Blu-ray Platinum collections, but I hardly ever watch the extras on any of my discs. I may have to go back and check this particular commentary to see if it is sub-par.

[Banner23]

Originally Posted by Akibiyori

I’m not sure why the commentary would be an entirely different video file - do you mean a documentary about that short? I don’t have the first platinum collection but I do have the other two and what you’re probably talking about is a problem Warner Home Video had with standard definition video masters on Blu-ray, which the bulk of the special features are. SD masters on Warner Blu-rays years ago typically had frame rate issues and jagged edges.

In short, no, the DVDs don’t look like that, they playback and look like other normal DVDs. It’s just an issue Warner had with certain things on Blu-ray.

No, they just replayed the episode and had someone doing commentary, the quality difference really stuck out.

[shinobipopcorn]

I haven't watched the commentaries on these discs, but I watched Froggy and it looked fine to me. The commentary probably is another file.

[WaltWiz1901]

In case anyone was wondering what was up with One Froggy Evening, I checked my copy of the first Platinum Collection and saw that there were apparently three separate video files for the main (English/Spanish), commentary, and isolated music tracks. I'm pretty sure the other shorts with more than one sort of audio track are like this, too; it would've been better to have just one file with four different tracks to choose from...

[Azores26]

Hey guys! I've been out of the loop, it seems that a new Looney Tunes blu-ray collection may be released soon? I only have the LT shorts on DVD and I've been thinking about getting the Platinum sets. Do you think I should wait before buying them?