Are the Season 1-4 Blu-Rays worth it?

[The Borgified Corpse]

As many of you know, when the new series started in 2005, it wasn't initially shot in native HD. They didn't start shooting in native HD until the final year of David Tennant specials in 2009, starting with "Planet of the Dead." Everything from "Rose" through "The Next Doctor" was shot on non-HD digital video. (Which is odd, because Torchwood was shot in native HD from the beginning, even though its first 2 seasons were shot concurrently with the 3rd & 4th seasons of Doctor Who, which were shot in a lower resolution.)

In 2013, they released a big Blu-Ray gift set containing the first 7 seasons of the new series, from "Rose" through "The Name of the Doctor." This included, for the first time, HD up-conversions of the first 4 seasons, from "Rose" through "Journey's End." ("The Next Doctor" had previously been up-converted as part of the Complete Specials Blu-Ray set released in 2010.)

Now, BBC Video is doing individual Blu-Ray releases of the first 4 seasons. Season 1 was already released on June 21. Seasons 2, 3, & 4 are slated for release on August 23, November 15, & March 14, respectively.

I'm considering upgrading to a Blu-Ray player and I'm wondering if anyone else here has gotten Seasons 1-4 on Blu-Ray and whether the up-conversion is worth it? I'm particularly curious about Seasons 1 & 2, since it seemed like those were shot on even poorer cameras than what they used for Seasons 3 & 4? (My DVDs of Season 1 in particular seem to flare up a lot around brightly lit objects while darker scenes seem to have poor contrast.)

 

[StCoop]

In short: no.

Not are they no better than the DVDs converting them from 25fps to 24fps means they all run at the wrong speed.

And just regarding you point about the look of Series 1 & 2. That was (astonishingly) a deliberate choice by the DP and as you noticed once he was gone things started to improve.

 

[ATimson]

In short: no.

Not are they no better than the DVDs converting them from 25fps to 24fps means they all run at the wrong speed.

If you live in NTSC-land, you're damned either way. The slowdown from 25fps to 24fps arguably results in a better picture than conversion from 50i to 60i, though. Plus you don't have to deal with the lower resolution.

If you're in North America and you don't have either version, I'd recommend the Blu-rays.
If you're outside North America, I'd recommend the DVDs.
If you're in North America and you have the DVDs, it's probably not worth upgrading.

 

[Pindar]

Get them if they are cheap I guess. I swapped my dvd's to the blu-rays to save shelf space they are no improvement on the dvd's though.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

If you live in NTSC-land, you're damned either way. The slowdown from 25fps to 24fps arguably results in a better picture than conversion from 50i to 60i, though.

I'm in Arizona, so that's good to know. I thought that might make a difference. (Sometimes, when I see British making-of TV shows for certain movies, I can tell that the change in frame rate makes the picture look more washed out. IIRC, there were some bonus features on the Casino Royale DVD like that.)

If you're in North America and you have the DVDs, it's probably not worth upgrading.

Good to know. Sometimes I'm half tempted just because I don't care for the original fold-out DVD boxes that they used for the first couple seasons. In particular, the plastic slipcase for Season 2 got severely warped by being wrapped so tightly in the security wire.

 

[TommyR01D]

I've never quite understood how an up-conversion from 480p to 1080p actually works. What, precisely, happens in order to fabricate the extra resolution?

 

[Mr Soak]

Mathematical extrapolation. It can't recreate detail too small for SD cameras.

This being Doctor Who, it would be upscaled from 576i, not 480p.

 

[Mr Awe]

Technically it would be interpolation because it is estimating new pixels in between existing pixels. But, agreed, it cannot create detail that was not present in the original.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

Meanwhile, I got a 720p TV hoping that the low resolution classic Doctor Who DVDs wouldn't look too bad on it. (I wish stores would let you test out lower-resolution shows on the big new HD TVs to see how they look. Most of what I watch is old SD stuff that's never going to be released on Blu-Ray anyway like Doctor Who, Mystery Science Theater 3000, & Red Dwarf.)