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Sony gives me a great reason NOTto buy blu-rays
Topic Started: Apr 20 2009, 03:43 AM (508 Views)
benstylus
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It's kind of funny actually... I'll start with a confession - I bought my first blu-ray on Saturday.

Not necessarily because I wanted to spend more money, but now that I have a new TV, I figured I'd like to see the difference between blu-ray quality and dvd quality for myself.

So, with that in mind, I picked up the Princess Bride - for three reasons: (1) My fiancée wanted the movie, (2) it was cheap, and (3) it included both a blu-ray disc and a DVD so I could make a side-by-side comparison of the two.

Well, I popped in the blu-ray into my sony system and skipped to the scene as Westley is reaching the top of the cliffs (it has a lot of close-up face shots). It looked fine and dandy. I switched to the DVD (which was being upscaled by the sony system), and went to the same scene, to compare the quality...

It was roughly 90-95% the same - very little difference at all compared to the blu-ray. A couple of details were maybe a hair sharper in the blu-ray versus the upscaled DVD, but this was when I was sitting very close to the TV to make the comparison. I'm sitting further away from the television, the difference is even less noticeable.

thanks to the upscaling in the sony system, there's literally no reason for me to want to get a usually-double-the-price-or-more blu-ray over the much more reasonable dvd version. I may try one more time, on a more recent movie, to make sure it's not just the age of the film that's causing the difference. But from my perspective right now, the difference in quality between blu-ray and an upscaled dvd is minimal, at best.
Edited by benstylus, Apr 20 2009, 03:44 AM.
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sheath
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This is true of my HTPC (What the heck does HTPC stand for anyway?) and Xbox 360 as well. Even when Netflix graces me with "HD Quality" at random we can't tell the difference in shows like Heroes from when it was just streaming at four bars. The only scenes I've noticed a significant difference between HD and SD resolutions are in are CGI scenes like Transformers or Ironman, and even then the regular footage doesn't look significantly better in HD.
Edited by sheath, Apr 20 2009, 07:46 AM.
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LoneCrusader
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The differences depend on the equipment you're watching the movies on, the quality of the video source master that the dvd/bluray whatever was made from, etc. New stuff will look better on newer equipment, but with older movies, its just more post processing that they try to do to make it look better, which is sort of what an upscaling dvd player will do anyway. Which is why I can't understand when blu ray players will still play dvds, that it's necessary to re-release movies like Dirty Harry from 1971 on blu ray. It really has taken a while for the TV's to catch up to what blu ray and hd-dvd supported anyway, most tvs on the market when the formats were released were 720p anyway, not taking full advantage of what the new disks had to offer.

Prices haven't really come down enough for me to go back to buying new dvd's regardless, I was kind of hoping new dvd's might be mostly under $10 by now, but they aren't. I'll stick to going up to blockbuster and grabbing their 4 for $20 on new releases that they're tired of keeping 200 copies of on the wall once a month.
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sheath
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I agree that older movies just don't seem that improved in HD. With newer movies I can see more colors and sometimes more fine details, but it never slaps me in the face like the change from VHS to DVD did. I am more than willing to settle for a really high bit rate compression at 480p and not mess with the file sizes of 720p, much less 1080p. I just don't see that much of a difference between them. Now, my HD-DVDs sound a hell of a lot better than anything I've watched through fileshare or Netflix, so the audio issue is still up in the air. All the same, with my Yamaha Dolby Prologic *1* system that just keeps plugging along like it's not eighteen years old, I have next to no interest in multiplying my file sizes/streaming times for the sake of the occasional back speaker effect.
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Groover
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I can see a difference when I watch HD DVDs or Blu-rays over DVD. I mean maybe because I have sort of a big screen and I have watched them for years. I recommend just keep picking up the bargains.
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Belpowerslave
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May 12 2009, 08:15 PM
I can see a difference when I watch HD DVDs or Blu-rays over DVD. I mean maybe because I have sort of a big screen and I have watched them for years. I recommend just keep picking up the bargains.
I can too...though I will admit that my player's "Qdeo" chip does some unbelievable upscaling on SD DVDs...the shit almost looks HD on certain movies with higher bit rates.

As for the quality of Princess Bride, Ben you just have to remember that not every disc is treated with the sort of 5-star care that movies like King Kong or Chronicles of Riddick were(both of which got a perfect score for picture quality)...some, in fact, are fucking mediocre. Traffic is a good example...great movie, but on HD DVD people swear it's nothing but the DVD version upscaled, and that WB didn't even use an HD source to encode it. A lot of the older films are like this too, stuff like Full Metal Jacket...that's gotta be one of the ugliest HD DVD discs I have ever seen.

If you want quality on your Blu-Ray player, try out one of those copies of Spider-Man 3 you have left...that shit looks nice. Now, granted, the SD DVD version looks damn good upscaled...but I think mos could tell the difference on a well done HD disc.

Bel
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Belpowerslave
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sheath
 
All the same, with my Yamaha Dolby Prologic *1* system that just keeps plugging along like it's not eighteen years old, I have next to no interest in multiplying my file sizes/streaming times for the sake of the occasional back speaker effect.

I have to disagree here. Being a huge sound guy(fan, not technical), I thought that my upgrade from 2.0 Stereo to 5.1 Surround was much better than my upgrade from 480i 4X3 to 1080 16X9 TV. Don't get me wrong, HDTV is fucking awesome and all...but I enjoyed my 5.1 upgrade far more than I have my HDTV upgrade. If you get a chance, try to grab the full 5.1 setup and play around with some discs...some have some unbelievable surround mixes(The Running Man has one of the best 5.1 mixes I have *ever* heard in my life, as does Unreal Championship on Xbox).

LoneCrusader
 
Which is why I can't understand when blu ray players will still play dvds, that it's necessary to re-release movies like Dirty Harry from 1971 on blu ray.

Money. With the dwindling income form DVD sales, the industry thought that Blu-Ray or HD DVD may rejuvenate the market(and thus, sales)...but both were already too late: Digital downloads are what's killing DVD, it's what'll kill Blu-Ray.

LoneCrusader
 
Prices haven't really come down enough for me to go back to buying new dvd's regardless, I was kind of hoping new dvd's might be mostly under $10 by now, but they aren't. I'll stick to going up to blockbuster and grabbing their 4 for $20 on new releases that they're tired of keeping 200 copies of on the wall once a month.

This is why I've just been buying used DVDs lately...they're cheaper and there are, literally, *millions* of movies I have never seen...all of which can be had for $5 and less, used.

Bel
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sheath
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I have been, and remain, non-sequitur
Quote:
 
I have to disagree here. Being a huge sound guy(fan, not technical), I thought that my upgrade from 2.0 Stereo to 5.1 Surround was much better than my upgrade from 480i 4X3 to 1080 16X9 TV. Don't get me wrong, HDTV is fucking awesome and all...but I enjoyed my 5.1 upgrade far more than I have my HDTV upgrade. If you get a chance, try to grab the full 5.1 setup and play around with some discs...some have some unbelievable surround mixes(The Running Man has one of the best 5.1 mixes I have *ever* heard in my life, as does Unreal Championship on Xbox).


I do have a 5.1 setup, with the full surround speaker treatment. I think I have had it for as long as I've owned a DVD player even. This is how I've noticed the improved audio of HD DVDs over regular DVDs. But the difference in audio from a DVD to a 720p MKV is negligible on my system.
Edited by sheath, May 14 2009, 08:11 PM.
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Belpowerslave
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Oh, I see...yeah, I know what you mean...those MKV files have a very compressed, and downgraded version of the original's audio most times, so a DVD or HD original will just simply blow it away.

Bel
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LoneCrusader
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It depends on how the MKV was encoded, there are different settings you can use to keep 5.1 audio. Most of the mkv files I see are Anime, and they're usually compressed with mp3 and are downgraded to 2 channel, but one one of the sites I go to to download tv shows I can't record will post 720p 5.1 mkv files that weigh in at about 1 GB per 45 min show.
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Belpowerslave
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Yeah, most MKV rips will keep the original 5.1 source...but what I'm saying is that they drop that down from, say, 320kbps to around 128kbps, which kills a lot of the finer details of the quality...which is why Scott is saying it's negligible on his system.

Now, those 30+ gig Blu-Ray rips, they will often times include a 640kbps version of the 5.1 soundtrack...but this is still compressed down from the 3 or *18*mbps Dolby Digital Plus or Dolby True HD originals...

Bel
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