Can't Stomach Blu-Ray

[FordSVT]

It depends on the size of the television as well. On a smaller TV you probably can't tell much if any difference between Blu-ray and DVD.

You can on a 42" hdtv, if the bluray release is a sufficiently good one.

Go back and read this post in this very thread.

Surely the excessive use of grain removal techniques is not the sole reason for the amount of low quality bluray releases?

The article is not just about grain removal techniques really, there are many different processes involved in film transfer and all of them require the same attention to detail and adjustment.

 

[CommodoreKong]

Actually, I can say that regular DVD does not look so good on smaller HD LCD sets. I have a 23" LCD HDTV 720p, and DVD looks terrible on it. Even upconverted DVDs on an "upconverting" DVD player looks terrible. The pixelation, jagginess and blurriness of the film quality makes it difficult for me to watch.

Sounds like you had a bad upscalling DVD player, I'm watching DVds upscaled on my 40" LCD and while they certainly aren't HD quality (don't have a Blu Ray player but I do watch quite a bit of over the air HDTV) the DVDs I watch don't have pixelation, jagginess and blurriness.

 

[Amaris]

Actually, I can say that regular DVD does not look so good on smaller HD LCD sets. I have a 23" LCD HDTV 720p, and DVD looks terrible on it. Even upconverted DVDs on an "upconverting" DVD player looks terrible. The pixelation, jagginess and blurriness of the film quality makes it difficult for me to watch.

Sounds like you had a bad upscalling DVD player, I'm watching DVds upscaled on my 40" LCD and while they certainly aren't HD quality (don't have a Blu Ray player but I do watch quite a bit of over the air HDTV) the DVDs I watch don't have pixelation, jagginess and blurriness.

Maybe. I went through 3 players like that though. Surely they weren't all bad.


J.

 

[Harvey]

As mentioned, 35mm film has much greater resolution that you'll even get right now on blu-ray. Since getting my blu-ray, I'm much more interested in the older movies. If you can, I suggest you check out Patton, Casablanca, and 2001. I nearly shit myself when I saw Casablanca. It looks like it was filmed yesterday.

I can't wait to see the 1080p version of Casablanca, but unless things have changed, I've heard to steer clear of the transfer of Patton. Apparently Fox went out of control with the digital noise reduction, and essentially eliminated all the film grain.

 

[Hober Mallow]

But still, in one more year Blu-Ray will begin to significantly supplant DVD. You can see Blu-Ray exclusive features, and some films (like the Watchmen Director's Cut) going exclusive to the format (at least, I think it's a Blu exclusive), but the majority of discs are going out side by side with regular DVD releases.

VHS was still being released alongside DVD for years before DVD totally took over.

I can't wait to see the 1080p version of Casablanca, but unless things have changed, I've heard to steer clear of the transfer of Patton. Apparently Fox went out of control with the digital noise reduction, and essentially eliminated all the film grain.

I've heard that, too, but I thought Patton looked amazing. Definitely rent it, at least, and judge for yourself.

 

[Dane_Whitman]

Yesterday I watched The Searchers blu-ray and it looked STUNNING! Really incredible picture quality, I couldn't believe my eyes. It's definitely in the 2001/The Shining/Casablanca range of great-looking blu-ray releases.

 

[Brolan]

Actually, I can say that regular DVD does not look so good on smaller HD LCD sets. I have a 23" LCD HDTV 720p, and DVD looks terrible on it. Even upconverted DVDs on an "upconverting" DVD player looks terrible. The pixelation, jagginess and blurriness of the film quality makes it difficult for me to watch.

Sounds like you had a bad upscalling DVD player, I'm watching DVds upscaled on my 40" LCD and while they certainly aren't HD quality (don't have a Blu Ray player but I do watch quite a bit of over the air HDTV) the DVDs I watch don't have pixelation, jagginess and blurriness.

I watch upscaled DVDs on a 720P projector, throwing a 95" screen on the wall, and I don't see those those types of artifacts. The upscaller is a Toshiba A30 HD-DVD player.

 

[Amaris]

Actually, I can say that regular DVD does not look so good on smaller HD LCD sets. I have a 23" LCD HDTV 720p, and DVD looks terrible on it. Even upconverted DVDs on an "upconverting" DVD player looks terrible. The pixelation, jagginess and blurriness of the film quality makes it difficult for me to watch.

Sounds like you had a bad upscalling DVD player, I'm watching DVds upscaled on my 40" LCD and while they certainly aren't HD quality (don't have a Blu Ray player but I do watch quite a bit of over the air HDTV) the DVDs I watch don't have pixelation, jagginess and blurriness.

I watch upscaled DVDs on a 720P projector, throwing a 95" screen on the wall, and I don't see those those types of artifacts. The upscaller is a Toshiba A30 HD-DVD player.

Well an HD DVD player is going to do a superior job of upconverting a DVD, just like a Blu-ray player. All of this happened on a standard upconverting DVD player.

J.

 

[BigFoot]

I have sort of a mid range DVD player and while it doesn't upscale DVDs quite as well as my PS3, it does a pretty good job.

 

[James Bond]

Boom, baby.

 

[jefferiestubes8]

...if a show is already filmed in HD there's no excuse not to put it on Blu-Ray, or some sort of combo pack

I agree.

You can't even buy a portable BR player yet.

The closest thing so far are laptops with a BD-ROM drive that will play Blu-ray media.

Check out this CNET article
When Blu-ray and laptops collide

and just last month a sale at a major retail store:
Black Friday: Sony VAIO VGN-NW Laptop w/ Blu-ray Player for $479 at BestBuy
ray-player-for-479-at-bestbuy/

The alternative is you can get a BD-ROM internal drive for a desktop computer that is much cheaper. at the moment they are going for $102-171. at online vendors.
They come with Blu-ray player software such as:
Cyberlink's PowerDVD 7.3 Blu-ray Disc software player
Cyberlink TrueTheater software

For around $100. though on sale you can get a standalone Blu-ray player now.

 

[FordSVT]

Dude, the last post in this thread is six months old and the post you're responding to is even older. Start a new thread if you want to talk about how cheap portable Blu-Ray players are starting to become.