DS9 on blu ray?

[Admiral Bear]

How bad/good is the quality if I re-purchase the DS9 DVD's and watch them on a Blu-ray player on a 50" screen?

I have the US NTSC DS9 sets, but I do have a 50" telly and a Blu-ray player, so I'll tell you later. However, I can tell you now it won't be good. I tried upscaling my TNG DVDs years ago on a £2k Kuro Poineer. Above 720p, the picture started to show cracks.

Edit: I've had a look at Emissary. Horrible. Just horrible. Watched a couple of minutes and had to turn it off as it was knackering my eyes. I suppose it depends on your tolerance of fuzz and shadows on just about everything, but I would say think of a well worn VHS tape on a CRT. That's for those of us who can still remember what well worn VHS looks like.

Seriously, I wouldn't bother buying DS9 on DVD if you only have a 50" box to watch them on.

 

[doubleohfive]

The problem just seems to be more and more people are not buying things on disc anymore.

 

[Turd Ferguson]

How bad/good is the quality if I re-purchase the DS9 DVD's and watch them on a Blu-ray player on a 50" screen? This discussion has certainly whet my appetite for introducing my other half to this great show. But I'm resigned to it never getting the TNG treatment.

Time to stop talking in circles about what we might have had and instead focus on what we've got.

Not sure if you were ever a gamer, but on my 55" my DS9 and Voyager DVDs look like the old Sega CD FMV games

 

[Lord Garth]

The problem just seems to be more and more people are not buying things on disc anymore.

Yup. My peak DVD-purchasing years were 2003-2009. Since then, I've been shedding them left and right. In 2011, I shifted almost completely to streaming. Very rarely will I buy a DVD or Blu-Ray anymore and it's always for the DVD Commentary and if I get it for under $30.

Blu-Ray never had much of a chance, as I got my Blu-Ray player in 2008. Six-and-a-half years later, it's not working properly and I seriously have to wonder if I even want to replace it.

Hulu, Amazon, and Netflix. Those are my Big Three.

 

[MacLeod]

The big problem with streaming is you need an Internet connection capable of streaming, which many of us don't all of the time. The infrastructure isn't there (yet) to fully replace physical media in many places.

 

[Lance]

The problem just seems to be more and more people are not buying things on disc anymore.

Yup. My peak DVD-purchasing years were 2003-2009. Since then, I've been shedding them left and right. In 2011, I shifted almost completely to streaming. Very rarely will I buy a DVD or Blu-Ray anymore and it's always for the DVD Commentary and if I get it for under $30.

Blu-Ray never had much of a chance, as I got my Blu-Ray player in 2008. Six-and-a-half years later, it's not working properly and I seriously have to wonder if I even want to replace it.

Hulu, Amazon, and Netflix. Those are my Big Three.

I don't think you're alone. Furthermore, I think this situation, happening among a wider share of the market (people adopting methods other than physical media to watch their TV and movies), is almost certainly one of the things that made the biggest impact on TNG-R's blu ray sales. They had the misfortune to start releasing this product over a period where people went from still buying physical media, to virtually shunning it. This accounts for why the early seasons sold relatively well, but tapered off as they went along.

I do think TNG-R will prove profitable, eventually, in media other than blu ray. But that doesn't help the budget bottom line, which was designed around the assumption that the boxsets would sell well. They didn't.

 

[Mage]

For those complaining about the quality of the dvds on blurayplayers..... just turn off the upscaling on your blurayplayers. Most tvs will upscale, and you can't turn that off. If both your player and your tv are doing the upscaling/enhancing, you're gonna get a shit image. My player is set at native, so it plays everything in native. Sure, it's not HD quality when I play a dvd, but I also don't get that incredibly f***ed up image quality.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Yeah, in some cases the image from a DVD on a big screen TV looks very good.

 

[DragonQ]

The problem just seems to be more and more people are not buying things on disc anymore.

Yup. My peak DVD-purchasing years were 2003-2009. Since then, I've been shedding them left and right. In 2011, I shifted almost completely to streaming. Very rarely will I buy a DVD or Blu-Ray anymore and it's always for the DVD Commentary and if I get it for under $30.

Blu-Ray never had much of a chance, as I got my Blu-Ray player in 2008. Six-and-a-half years later, it's not working properly and I seriously have to wonder if I even want to replace it.

Hulu, Amazon, and Netflix. Those are my Big Three.

The big problem with streaming is you need an Internet connection capable of streaming, which many of us don't all of the time. The infrastructure isn't there (yet) to fully replace physical media in many places.

I waited until BD-RE drives were under £100 then got one for my desktop. Never had a BD player but I just rip them all losslessly to my server. Streaming is the future, even if it's on a LAN.

For those complaining about the quality of the dvds on blurayplayers..... just turn off the upscaling on your blurayplayers. Most tvs will upscale, and you can't turn that off. If both your player and your tv are doing the upscaling/enhancing, you're gonna get a shit image. My player is set at native, so it plays everything in native. Sure, it's not HD quality when I play a dvd, but I also don't get that incredibly f***ed up image quality.

Unless it's a CRT, the TV has to upscale. Even if it's a 1080p screen and you're passing it 1080p video, it still has to convert YCbCr to RGB, which includes upscaling the chroma channel (consumer 1080p video only has 960x540 resolution on chroma channel). Then there's overscan adjustment unless you disable it...

Whether it's better to let your source device (e.g. BD player) upscale depends on how good it is at upscaling compared to the TV. Often there's no way of knowing without trying.

 

[BillJ]

Blu-Ray never had much of a chance, as I got my Blu-Ray player in 2008. Six-and-a-half years later, it's not working properly and I seriously have to wonder if I even want to replace it.

Hulu, Amazon, and Netflix. Those are my Big Three.

I'm not leaving the ability to access the media I want in the hands of corporations. Corporations that can pull it any time, for any reason.

I bought a Magnavox Blu-ray player in 2009 that is slow as molasses, but still going strong.

 

[Lance]

Blu-Ray never had much of a chance, as I got my Blu-Ray player in 2008. Six-and-a-half years later, it's not working properly and I seriously have to wonder if I even want to replace it.

Hulu, Amazon, and Netflix. Those are my Big Three.

I'm not leaving the ability to access the media I want in the hands of corporations. Corporations that can pull it any time, for any reason.

I have great sympathy for this point-of-view, and personally I prefer my media on disc for the very same reason. But just very recently I've found it impossible to ignore the apparent trends in the market. I didn't want to believe it, and in some ways I'd still like to deny it, but unfortunately even I can't pretend streaming hasn't made incredible in-roads in even the last twelve months. It's firmly establishing itself. Unfortunately.

 

[MikeS]

The reply's to my query don't fill me with hope. It would appear that DS9 is now dead. :'(

 

[Mage]

Unless it's a CRT, the TV has to upscale. Even if it's a 1080p screen and you're passing it 1080p video, it still has to convert YCbCr to RGB, which includes upscaling the chroma channel (consumer 1080p video only has 960x540 resolution on chroma channel). Then there's overscan adjustment unless you disable it...

Whether it's better to let your source device (e.g. BD player) upscale depends on how good it is at upscaling compared to the TV. Often there's no way of knowing without trying.

I know, that's why I said turning it off on your player. Otherwise, two devices are upscaling. I noticed a HUGE difference after I set my player to Native, it made the dvds look much better, as if they would on a normal dvd player.

 

[Lance]

Unless it's a CRT, the TV has to upscale. Even if it's a 1080p screen and you're passing it 1080p video, it still has to convert YCbCr to RGB, which includes upscaling the chroma channel (consumer 1080p video only has 960x540 resolution on chroma channel). Then there's overscan adjustment unless you disable it...

Whether it's better to let your source device (e.g. BD player) upscale depends on how good it is at upscaling compared to the TV. Often there's no way of knowing without trying.

I know, that's why I said turning it off on your player. Otherwise, two devices are upscaling.

One way I'd describe it is as being like taking a .JPEG image, and applying five layers of the 'Sharpening' tool in a paint program. With one or two sharpenings the image still holds it's integrity, but by sharpening number five you've got a picture that is substantially worse than before it was sharpened at all.

Basically, when the source resolution is set at a low-level X, then applying upscaling will only work to a certain point, after which the clarity of the image will actually lose definition.

 

[Mage]

Unless it's a CRT, the TV has to upscale. Even if it's a 1080p screen and you're passing it 1080p video, it still has to convert YCbCr to RGB, which includes upscaling the chroma channel (consumer 1080p video only has 960x540 resolution on chroma channel). Then there's overscan adjustment unless you disable it...

Whether it's better to let your source device (e.g. BD player) upscale depends on how good it is at upscaling compared to the TV. Often there's no way of knowing without trying.

I know, that's why I said turning it off on your player. Otherwise, two devices are upscaling.

One way I'd describe it is as being like taking a .JPEG image, and applying five layers of the 'Sharpening' tool in a paint program. With one or two sharpenings the image still holds it's integrity, but by sharpening number five you've got a picture that is substantially worse than before it was sharpened at all.

Basically, when the source resolution is set at a low-level X, then applying upscaling will only work to a certain point, after which the clarity of the image will actually lose definition.

Yup. Although I haven't watched DS9 on dvd yet on my blurayplayer, Voyager for example looks just fine.

 

[MikeS]

So Options > Settings > Picture > "native" ?

 

[Salinga]

I dont stream movies, because stream just dont delivers the quality I demand for an HD picture. I also want access to a movie I bought anytime I want, not just when I paid the provider and have a stable connection. And I dont want a provider to be able to keep a logfile about what I watched when where how long and how often. Thats my private information (but thats of course why streaming is where providers want to go: total control over and total transparency about the consumers of a movie).

So far I only stream content that I watch one time only and are not available on Bluray or DVD, like late night shows or clips from YT. Movies I only watch from Bluray and collect it on Bluray so I have the best quality, accessibility and privacy possible - streams just dont provide that for me.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Whether it's better to let your source device (e.g. BD player) upscale depends on how good it is at upscaling compared to the TV. Often there's no way of knowing without trying.

Most of the time a decent HDTV will be better at upscaling than the player would.

 

[Admiral Bear]

So Options > Settings > Picture > "native" ?

You'd need to set your Blu-ray player to output at 480p, and if you can, 4:3 screen ratio. Your TV will then upscale within its capabilities. but you'll just get the picture in the middle of the screen (assuming you can do 4:3 only) as with the TNG Blu-rays, so you won't be stretching an already poor quality image. I tried this with my DS9 DVDs today. It's a lot better than what I got last night. Not great by any stretch, but it is watchable.

 

[Lord Garth]

I'm not leaving the ability to access the media I want in the hands of corporations. Corporations that can pull it any time, for any reason.

I bought individual episodes/seasons of various shows on Amazon so, if they pull whatever I purchased, I hope they give me a refund.

Otherwise, I'm probably not going to be the one who does it, but someone will file a lawsuit.