And now, Ludwig van Beethoven!!!

someone made a comparison of the itunes movie store version (1080p at 1.33:1) vs the blu-ray.
please note that the itunes version has been resized for a closer comparison.

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/33385

Alas, no uncensored footage... :(

Lots of cuts through the Beethoven. I don't know if that's how it was cut for TV, or if that's how it was cut for the Educational Digest version. Either way, bummer...

I'll post pics later - decent color, but nothing we haven't seen.

Wow, tons more grain and info in the itunes version! Here's the link again for people who had trouble with it (like I did)...

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/33385

Could be... What was the running time of the original? This one was only about 20 minutes...

Well that was in there, but during the Bacchus sequence. No "second movement" sequence at all (the censored portion). Matter of fact, the zebras were cut from the Bacchus sequence entirely!

Well, it's Mylar, so what's that, '84?

I could look for a date code on Eastman (actually SP) stock...

I know when Vault Disney was running the episode in the late 90s, it just spliced out the offending parts. 

The 1993 digital restoration was output to film because it was done for theatrical re-release, as was the case with the Star Wars SEs.

Even uncritical accounts say they used digital paintbox technology to clean up dirt, scratches, etc. I don't even know if the technology existed to directly convert a 2K DI to D-1 or D-2 or whatever the storage medium was at the time.

Antcu, I revised my post, it was a fully digital restoration - I believe the first of its kind: http://articles.latimes.com/1993-07-31/entertainment/ca-18865_1_snow-white

I was getting mixed up with the YCM Labs photochemical restoration done for the 50th anniversary re-release. But yes, each frame of the 1993 digital restoration was output to film after completion, as the New York Times article describes: http://www.nytimes.com/1993/06/30/business/business-technology-snow-white-is-made-over-frame-by-frame-and-byte-by-byte.html

As I said before, the technology to produce a direct-digital transfer either didn't exist, was in the experimental stages, or would have been prohibitively expensive. It was major news when Pixar did a direct-digital transfer of A Bug's Life, in 1999.

And as far as The Sword in the Stone, Disney does have HD masters of quite a few of their catalog which have still never been released on physical media. To name a few; Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, Honey, I Blew Up the Kid, Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey, A Goofy Movie. But this surprises me because it IS on Blu-ray, yet has an iTunes version that is superior! How often does THAT happen?

Yeah, whatever stuff they did to Snow White, step 1 was output to film. They ran off copies of it on both 35mm and 16mm, and my guess is they made the LD from a telecine of a print. Remember, this was before DI, so people were a lot more comfortable handling and telecining prints. I don't know that it had as drastic a reanimation (like Sleeping Beauty) but there can be digital enhancements without that level of computer work...

I have the Snow White DVD which has a restoration featurette that touches on the 1993 restoration.

If anyone's interested, I'll post it to the group.

That might be interesting...

I wonder if they used something like CAPS to isolate elements?

Yeah, that documentary would be interesting to see, provided it's not just a "glossy" picture of the restoration process (sometimes the Disney releases are like that...)

That's what it looked like to me, too. Only way to check would be to compare it ourselves to the BD...