BLURAY hype

[Salinga]

A general word on CRT Tube TV sets: They still have a couple of advantages over modern flat screens. Black will be solid black and not just some shade of grey, and color fidelity usually is better than with most flat screens (of course, the wear of the phospors over time will no longer yield the rich original colors but most older programs - not yet remastered in HD - usually still look better on CRT TV than on a flat screen, i.e. CRT TV hides deficiencies in the image sources that flat screens will brutally reveal).

That all only goes for TFT screens. I use a plasma flatscreen from Panasonic because I switched from a very good tube and plasma is the best compromise between tube and flat screen: It has the same solid blacks (because a black plasma pixel is inactive like on a tube and not just blocks the light like with a TFT). It has almost the same reaction time like a tube, so watching sports programmes is not much of a problem - the details on green grass during camera pans are visible. And it also hides deficiencies, because the plasma picture has a slight grain that dithers the image slightly (without loosing any sharp edges).

The only disadvantages of plasma: It uses up more energy and you have to avoid static images since otherwise the pixels burn in (like station logos). Fortunatly plasmas offers options to prevent that (like switchting off the screen and have sound only, if you run it in the background or a scrolling white border to smoothen out burned in images).

Oh, and the plasma image flickers a little, because the pixels light up by fire them up. But if you come from a tube, you wont have a problem with it, because you are already used to the flickering.

Here is one scene of ENT on the Plasma from BluRay:

http://i.imgur.com/Ng6BNxh.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/GGOOo0j.jpg

http://imgur.com/a/vg7yI

 

[JirinPanthosa]

If increased clarity was a positive no matter how clear you go, 48 FPS would have become the standard after The Hobbit. At some point the gains from greater resolution will hit a point of diminishing returns hard.

 

[MacLeod]

It's not just a blu-ray player we're talking about here. All I have are old tube type television sets. The one I'm currently using, only because it has the larger screen, is a 19" built in 1992.

A general word on CRT Tube TV sets: They still have a couple of advantages over modern flat screens. Black will be solid black and not just some shade of grey, and color fidelity usually is better than with most flat screens (of course, the wear of the phospors over time will no longer yield the rich original colors but most older programs - not yet remastered in HD - usually still look better on CRT TV than on a flat screen, i.e. CRT TV hides deficiencies in the image sources that flat screens will brutally reveal).

Bob

Doesn't that depend on the type/age of the HD TV?

Black looks black on my HD TV, no hint of grey in it.

 

[Robert Comsol]

That all only goes for TFT screens. I use a plasma flatscreen from Panasonic because I switched from a very good tube and plasma is the best compromise between tube and flat screen

It is the best compromise, indeed, but since Panasonic is now stopping production and most flat screens on the market are TFT, CRT TVs still have the upper hand in reproducing the best black levels.

The moment you switch off the lights and just look at the images on a flat screen will brutally reveal how "black" the blacks actually are (admittedly, I prefer to watch films in a home theatre enviironment so I don't get distracted from anything else in the room). It may not be an issue for most flat screen users watching with ambient daylight.

The opening scenes in "Master and Commander" are a good visual test to visualize how important solid black levels can be. On my DLP front projector it just looks "flat" (no depth because of insufficient black level reproduction) and my old Sony CRT front projector lacks capability to reveal HD resolution.

Bob

 

[8472]

I suspect the bluray stuff is hype, when we're talking about releasing old shows that came out in the SD days. Aren't old TV shows just upscaled to HD with fancy filters? That's not the same as true HD content. But if you are a completionist fan of ST, bluray is for you. I'm sticking to watching it on Netflix for now. You don't have to fiddle with discs this way, and any episode is a few clicks away.

 

[BillJ]

I suspect the bluray stuff is hype, when we're talking about releasing old shows that came out in the SD days. Aren't old TV shows just upscaled to HD with fancy filters? That's not the same as true HD content. But if you are a completionist fan of ST, bluray is for you.

You simply have no clue as to what you are talking about.

 

[feek61]

I suspect the bluray stuff is hype, when we're talking about releasing old shows that came out in the SD days. Aren't old TV shows just upscaled to HD with fancy filters? That's not the same as true HD content. But if you are a completionist fan of ST, bluray is for you. I'm sticking to watching it on Netflix for now. You don't have to fiddle with discs this way, and any episode is a few clicks away.

Star Trek was shot on film which still has superior resolution to the current Blu-Ray and the forth-coming 4K. The film is scanned frame-by-frame so it is not at all upscaled; in fact its down-scaled for Blu-ray since the film resolution is far superior. Even so the resolution is so far superior to DVD; that for me it's a no-brainer; go with Blu-ray. The show looks absolutely fabulous like you have never seen it before.

I hope that clarifies.

 

[Shaka Zulu]

To watch a DVD on a 50+ HDTV verses a Blu-Ray on the same; there is a world of difference.

This. There is a big difference from DVD to Blu-ray. That's as far as I'll go, though. I don't see 4K being in my future.

Thirded. I own a Blu-Ray player just to get great picture quality and sound quality (ass well as extras which are no longer on standard DVD sets), even though all I have is a standard LCD screen. I want to buy the show on Blu-Ray, and eventually get a HDTV set to see the show on.

 

[8472]

I suspect the bluray stuff is hype, when we're talking about releasing old shows that came out in the SD days. Aren't old TV shows just upscaled to HD with fancy filters? That's not the same as true HD content. But if you are a completionist fan of ST, bluray is for you.

You simply have no clue as to what you are talking about.

And you fail to explain what was wrong about it, so it stands.

 

[8472]

I suspect the bluray stuff is hype, when we're talking about releasing old shows that came out in the SD days. Aren't old TV shows just upscaled to HD with fancy filters? That's not the same as true HD content. But if you are a completionist fan of ST, bluray is for you. I'm sticking to watching it on Netflix for now. You don't have to fiddle with discs this way, and any episode is a few clicks away.

Star Trek was shot on film which still has superior resolution to the current Blu-Ray and the forth-coming 4K. The film is scanned frame-by-frame so it is not at all upscaled; in fact its down-scaled for Blu-ray since the film resolution is far superior. Even so the resolution is so far superior to DVD; that for me it's a no-brainer; go with Blu-ray. The show looks absolutely fabulous like you have never seen it before.

I hope that clarifies.

Where is your source for the claims that the Star Trek series were all shot on film? And even if that were true, analog film has no digital resolution, so you're wrong, either way. Films will look better on bluray because you can see the film grain with more detail, but not TV series shot on tape. But even something shot on 1080p digital will look better than anything shot on film.

 

[BillJ]

Where is your source for the claims that the Star Trek series were all shot on film? And even if that were true, analog film has no digital resolution, so you're wrong, either way. Films will look better on bluray because you can see the film grain with more detail, but not TV series shot on tape.

Star Trek, shot on film, edited and completed on film.
*The Next Generation, shot on film, edited and completed on video tape.
Deep Space Nine, shot on film, edited and completed on video tape.
Voyager, shot on film, edited and completed on video tape.
Enterprise, some shot on film, some shot with HD cameras.

*CBS went back to the original film negatives and completed the show at 1080p. Trekcore.com has extensive material concerning this project.

But even something shot on 1080p digital will look better than anything shot on film.

Google is your friend. There are tons of resources out there that explains why you are wrong.

 

[8472]

Of course Enterprise is the exception.

edited and completed on video tape.

And there we go. That's the answer we're looking for.

Google is your friend. There are tons of resources out there that explains why you are wrong.

Google says digital is better than film.

 

[Maab of the Ten Tribes]

Where is your source for the claims that the Star Trek series were all shot on film?

Wow. Seriously? I've got to go with BillJ on this one.

As far as blu ray being "hype", it is now a standard and has been for a couple of years. I think we are way beyond the "hype".

 

[8472]

Wow. Seriously? I've got to go with BillJ on this one.

Well, you're going with the idea that content edited on videotape can be bluray HD.

As far as blu ray being "hype", it is now a standard and has been for a couple of years. I think we are way beyond the "hype".

It's hype mostly because the technology is advancing so quickly that any optical media standard seems obsolete at this point. Few years from now they'll start selling the new UltraHD Super Dooper re-releases on new discs, and all the previous ones are supposed to be old hat. Just milking more money out of people. With any luck optical media will go extinct, instead.

 

[BillJ]

...

Best to allow the ignorant remain ignorant. Have a great day!

 

[Toxteth O´Grady]

edited and completed on video tape.

And there we go. That's the answer we're looking for.

Yeah? And...what? It was originally edited on video tape. That's no secret. You know what else isn't a secret? That the original film negatives were pulled and the footage from each episode has been scanned digitally and reedited in HD for the purposes of being presented on Blu-ray. They never touched the original edited episodes made for broadcast 20 or so years ago.

It seems like you're trying really hard to be "right" about this by purposely ignoring facts.

 

[MacLeod]

Wow. Seriously? I've got to go with BillJ on this one.

Well, you're going with the idea that content edited on videotape can be bluray HD.

As far as blu ray being "hype", is now a standard and has been for a couple of years. I think we are way beyond the "hype".

It's hype mostly because the technology is advancing so quickly that any optical media standard seems obsolete at this point. Few years from now they'll start selling the new UltraHD Super Dooper re-releases on new discs, and all the previous ones are supposed to be old hat. Just milking more money out of people. With any luck optical media will go extinct, instead.

Just because technology keeps advancing doesn't mean that blu-ray is hype. DVD was superior to VHS does that mean DVD was hype?

Yes one day UHD will no doubt supplant HD, just as that might one day be replaced.

As for milking more money out of people, people have a choice they can either purchase it or not. As for blu-ray players they'll happily play DVD and upsacle it a bit, many people don't double dip and re-purchase a blu-ray of a DVD that they already own or if they do it's only a few films.

Optical media has several advantages over On Demand services.

1.>You don't require an Internet service

It might be shocking to hear but not everyone has the internet by restricting to On Demand services you lose customers. Not very good for buisness

2.>Even if you have Interent you don't require a fast connection

It might be shocking to hear but some people can barely stream SD never mind HD. See above loss of potential customers

3.>Might be rare that it occurs but with a physical disc you are not subject to outages by your ISP, On Demand provider.

4.>There is the potential that different studios might provide content as exclusives to a particular On Demand provider, so you might have to pay for multiple On Demand providers

 

[feek61]

I suspect the bluray stuff is hype, when we're talking about releasing old shows that came out in the SD days. Aren't old TV shows just upscaled to HD with fancy filters? That's not the same as true HD content. But if you are a completionist fan of ST, bluray is for you. I'm sticking to watching it on Netflix for now. You don't have to fiddle with discs this way, and any episode is a few clicks away.

Star Trek was shot on film which still has superior resolution to the current Blu-Ray and the forth-coming 4K. The film is scanned frame-by-frame so it is not at all upscaled; in fact its down-scaled for Blu-ray since the film resolution is far superior. Even so the resolution is so far superior to DVD; that for me it's a no-brainer; go with Blu-ray. The show looks absolutely fabulous like you have never seen it before.

I hope that clarifies.

Where is your source for the claims that the Star Trek series were all shot on film? And even if that were true, analog film has no digital resolution, so you're wrong, either way. Films will look better on bluray because you can see the film grain with more detail, but not TV series shot on tape. But even something shot on 1080p digital will look better than anything shot on film.

Wow!! Really? There is no question that Star Trek WAS shot on film and that information is readily available.
Sometimes it is best to do a little research before you start posting. Just a little advice.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Calling Blu-ray "hype" is at least 5 years behind the times. I have a shelf of 50 HD-DVDs -- way to back the wrong format just because I detest region coding with a passion. I'll probably end up biting the bullet and buying the required tech to watch 4K UHD or whatever it's branded as. I itch to own some classic films in the best format available and that includes the Star Trek movies -- sad first-world consumer that I am.

 

[LOKAI of CHERON]

Where is your source for the claims that the Star Trek series were all shot on film? And even if that were true, analog film has no digital resolution, so you're wrong, either way. Films will look better on bluray because you can see the film grain with more detail, but not TV series shot on tape. But even something shot on 1080p digital will look better than anything shot on film.

I've just caught up on this thread. I'd normally skip a reply to your post as you've been corrected by several members already. However, it strikes me your assertions are so misinformed they are worthy of consideration as trolling.

If not, please do some easy research as suggested. Cheers.