The Santa Clause Blu-Ray

[tomswift2002]

I received my copies of The Santa Clause and Santa Claus 2 on Blu-Ray a few weeks ago, and I just watched them.

Unfortunately, it looks like Disney took the easy route and just reused the files that were made back in 2002 and 2003 for the DVD releases in those years, and just upressed the movies to 1080p, since the 2002 and 2003 DVD's look just as good, if not a little bit better being upressed to 1080p than the actual 1080p films.

Plus the bonus features are a major let down. On both discs there is nothing new (on the first movie the short The Night Before Christmas is a copy from the 2002 DVD, minus the "Santa's Helper" game that you had to beat to unlock it; and for the short Disney didn't bother to use the remastered Treasures version, so quality wise the Blu-Ray ends up with a cartoon that looks just a little bit better than VHS, because Disney used a tape master from the 1970's or 1980's).

The audio on the main movie, when compared to [i}Santa Clause 3[/i] is nothing spectacular, since while it is in DTS-HD (SC3 offerred the English audio in both DTS and LPCM 5.1) 5.1, it is the exact same mix, for both movies, as was used on the respective 2002 and 2003 DVD's.

If you like the Santa Clause movies and have been waiting since The Santa Clause 3 was released on Blu-Ray in 2007 too have a Blu-Ray version of the first two movies, then this is a really disappointing release, and I would recommend the DVD's over the Blu-Ray's.

[Ar-Pharazon]

They were probably saving up money so they could give 4 billion to that George Lucas guy

Seriously, I hate it when a blu-ray release is nothing special. No point in even doing it if it's only going to be up-converted SD quality. A process your player can do.

I've noticed a lot of blu-rays don't even have a booklet included.

[Gaith]

blu-ray.com gives the transfers high marks, and the screen caps look pretty good to moi...

[the G-man]

Guys, we're talking about "the Santa Clause" movies. I'd think a worn out VHS tape would be sufficient convey the quality of each.

[Agent Richard07]

The whole trilogy is out in one boxed set. I enjoyed these movies. Actually, I enjoyed 1 and 2. The third? Not so much.

[Dream]

All TOS blurays still look like shit except for TWOK.

[JRS]

Bain wrote:

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The whole trilogy is out in one boxed set. I enjoyed these movies. Actually, I enjoyed 1 and 2. The third? Not so much.

Me too
The third one is indeed the weakest one

[tomswift2002]

Gaith wrote:

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blu-ray.com gives the transfers high marks, and the screen caps look pretty good to moi...

Well they must be looking at Blu-Ray's that were mastered from different masters. I was expecting the picture to pop, and I remember what the picture for The Santa Clause 2 looked like in the theater, and unfortunately, it doesn't have that detail and sharpness that they theater had. At most, for these Blu-Ray releases, it looks like Disney might've used a 1080i broadcast master, instead of doing a transfer right from the negatives. And, really, a 1080i broadcast master is only comparable to 720p on Blu-Ray.

[BillJ]

Dream wrote:

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All TOS blurays still look like shit except for TWOK.

Don't know what Blu-ray's you're watching but the ones I own are all massive steps up from the DVD's.

[Gaith]

tomswift2002 wrote:

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Well they must be looking at Blu-Ray's that were mastered from different masters. I was expecting the picture to pop, and I remember what the picture for The Santa Clause 2 looked like in the theater, and unfortunately, it doesn't have that detail and sharpness that they theater had. At most, for these Blu-Ray releases, it looks like Disney might've used a 1080i broadcast master, instead of doing a transfer right from the negatives. And, really, a 1080i broadcast master is only comparable to 720p on Blu-Ray.

So being able to watch a favorite movie of yours at any time, something pretty much no one could until the mid-80s, at this level of detail, which wasn't available just a few short years ago, at a cost of less than fifteen bucks isn't satisfactory?

[tomswift2002]

What is satisfactory when you watch something on one medium that is at the same level as an older, more decrepit medium, that is enlarged to the newer medium?

And on't forget, this is Disney we're talking about who will slap n "Digital Restoration" and "Digitally Remastered" in order to increase sales, but won't do that much unless it is one of their famous classic films.

[Brikar99]

BillJ wrote:

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Don't know what Blu-ray's you're watching but the ones I own are all massive steps up from the DVD's.

Compared to the DVD versions, they look great. Compared to other blus, not so much.

[Agent Richard07]

I got the trilogy on blu-ray recently and yeah, they do have the look and feel of upscaled DVDs, but I'm not bothered by it.