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Registered: October 15, 2008 | Posts: 58 |
| Posted: | | | | I do not currently have a Blu player (will probably eventually get an Oppo as I love my Oppo dvd player now.)
Anyhow, I have been purchasing the Disney sets recently that contain DVD/Blu/DigiCopy in order to eventually be able to watch the Blu.
My question... I see some great deals on Blus out there but already own the dvds. Don't most Blu-players upscale already? And if so, is double-dipping for Blu worth it (putting aside any bonus features that may be available) or is the upscale pretty decent. If a movie or tv show wasn't filmed in HD already can it really be enhanced that much to make Blu a viable option? |
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Registered: March 13, 2007 | Posts: 21,610 |
| Posted: | | | | But they don't upscale to BD standards, you can't take a DVD and turn it into something it is not. DVDs will upscale to a maximum of 1080i, while this is a marked improvement, it is still roughly half of 1080p. | | | ASSUME NOTHING!!!!!! CBE, MBE, MoA and proud of it. Outta here
Billy Video |
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Registered: March 13, 2007 | Posts: 756 |
| Posted: | | | | We bought an £250 LG Bluray player last year to replace a £900 six-year old top-of-the range Pioneer. The Pioneer can upscale up to 1080i but we found that there was little or no improvement in PQ over 720p (the TV will only do 1080i anyway).
We were pleasently surprised at the improvement in PQ of DVDs played on the LG, and the upupscaling capability of the newer machine is such that we now run them at 1080i; and this from a "cheaper" player to boot. Technology marches on.
We have one double-dip, which is the Matrix trilogy in both DVD and BD, and yes, the BD PQ is superior to that of the DVD, which is, I suppose, as it should be, even at 1080i. | | | Chris | | | Last edited: by Mole |
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Registered: March 14, 2007 | Posts: 868 |
| Posted: | | | | I've double dipped various titles already. I'd recommend reading several reviews before purchasing though. Also you'd have to see which movies you'd yourself are willing to double dip as i am not going to double dip everything. It's a decision based on the title, the leap in quality is has, the extra features and the price. For some titles i'd only buy when it's very cheap.
In the end you are the only on ewho can make the decision, also, for new titles, when available on BR i buy them on BR.
Paul |
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Registered: June 12, 2007 | Reputation: | Posts: 2,665 |
| Posted: | | | | Without hesitation i'll upgrade anything that wasn't anamorphic on DVD.
Same answer, something only ever released 4x3 on DVD.
If i had that much will power i'd be much happier.
Turns out i'l' upgrade almost anything if the DVD is less than $12-13. (and that isn't a hard limit).
Apparently i'm an upgrade slut. I'll upgrade almost anything that moves.
Sigh! | | | Bad movie? You're soaking in it! |
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Registered: March 13, 2007 | Reputation: | Posts: 2,217 |
| Posted: | | | | Quoting hornplayer: Quote: My question... I see some great deals on Blus out there but already own the dvds. Don't most Blu-players upscale already? The BD-Player, the TV and (if present) some AV-Receiver can upscale. Word of advice: see to it that only one of them does! Which of them does the job best is for your eyes to decide, e.g. I still whatch my DVDs on a DVD-Player via SCART and let the TV do the work, simply because my Sony-TV rocks on in that department. Quote: And if so, is double-dipping for Blu worth it Again, unfortunately only your eyes can answer that question for you. I only double dipped on certain titles, either because the DVDs weren't at least anamorphic PAL or that the movie simply is so good in it self that I could justify the money spent. Quote: If a movie or tv show wasn't filmed in HD already can it really be enhanced that much to make Blu a viable option? If it was really filmed then of course a new scan of the movie can yield fantastic results. cya, Mithi PS Can't wait for the LOTR extended edition going blu, and if Torn comes out eventually it will be bought again also | | | Mithi's little XSLT tinkering - the power of XML --- DVD-Profiler Mini-Wiki | | | Last edited: by Mithi |
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Registered: March 13, 2007 | Posts: 21,610 |
| Posted: | | | | A 720P image MAY be of better quality than a 1080i image. A 1080i (interlaced) image is made of two filelds of 540 lines of resolution for each of the two fields creating a single frame, While a 720p (progressive) has 720 lines of resolution for each screen of data. | | | ASSUME NOTHING!!!!!! CBE, MBE, MoA and proud of it. Outta here
Billy Video |
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Registered: March 13, 2007 | Reputation: | Posts: 2,372 |
| Posted: | | | | Something that typically gets left when the "should I upgrade to Blu" question comes up is the sound difference! No matter what your setup you can't up-scale the sound. There is nothing like the uncompressed formats available on just about every Blu-ray disk out there. Even on a mediocre HT setup you can hear a difference. So don't forget the other half of the movie watching experience when you make your decision. |
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Registered: February 23, 2009 | Reputation: | Posts: 1,580 |
| Posted: | | | | No matter what, an upscaled image can never compete with an image that is native to that resolution. In short: - upscaling DVD to HD : the image contains only data for a certain number of dots. What upscaling does is adding extra dots and calculate the color those dots should have by using an algorithm. For example, the original image has a white and a black dot next to each other. When upscaling, extra dots are added in between and given various shades of gray to transition from that black to that white dot. As sophisticated as some of those algorithms are, this is never a perfect image as it is in a way a 'best guess', it only extrapolates to fill in gaps of data that isn't on the disc - native HD images contain enough data for all dots, so no such guess-work or extrapolation is needed I've noticed that on occasion such upscaling of DVD's can yield good results. Better of course than just watching them on a SDTV with DVD-player of course. But when comparing to a decently authored Blu-ray, the difference in quality is very noticeable: depth of blacks, color fidelity, natural film grain, vividness of the image, and so on. Also note that the age of a movie or TV series doesn't necessarily mean that Blu-ray can't offer an upgrade in quality. It doesn't need to have been filmed with HD cameras. Just look at the Star Trek The Original Series season box sets on Blu-ray: completely remastered video image with DTS HD-MA 7.1 lossless audio. Superb! If you would like to see for yourself, there are a lot of DVD vs Blu-ray screenshot comparisons here: http://www.zonadvd.com/modules.php?name=Sections&secid=12http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=811102So in short, I'd say it's worth to upgrade DVD to Blu-ray, but before deciding it's better to read online reviews to see if the gain in quality is sufficient over DVD (a very poorly mastered Blu-ray could look worse than DVD, potentially). And as Lyonden pointed out: there's not substitute for a nicely mastered lossless track. Since moving to Blu-ray, my home theater has never received so much love as it does now | | | Blu-ray collection DVD collection My Games My Trophies | | | Last edited: by Taro |
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Registered: March 13, 2007 | Reputation: | Posts: 13,203 |
| Posted: | | | | I only upgrade if it is a really good price...unless I really liked the film, I won't spend more than $15 on an upgrade...or a film that will be enhanced by the HD format. | | | No dictator, no invader can hold an imprisoned population by force of arms forever. There is no greater power in the universe than the need for freedom. Against this power, governments and tyrants and armies cannot stand. The Centauri learned this lesson once. We will teach it to them again. Though it take a thousand years, we will be free. - Citizen G'Kar | | | Last edited: by TheMadMartian |
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Registered: May 20, 2007 | Reputation: | Posts: 2,934 |
| Posted: | | | | I have DD on a few. The ones I decide are worthwhile are typically the ones that have fantastic visuals or if the sound quality improvement can be justified.
Matrix is one. The presentation is fantastic in BD.
Man on the Moon, would not be a choice to upgrade.
It is all personal. Today, I try to buy combos, if possible.
Charlie |
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Registered: March 13, 2007 | Posts: 736 |
| Posted: | | | | My Blu-ray double dips usually meet one of five criteria: 1.) The existing DVD is mediocre 2.) The film is something that could benefit from the enhanced resolution (usually big-budget spectacles) 3.) It is one of my favorites and/or a true classic 4.) There is an upgrade in special features on top of the audio/video 5.) It is really, really cheap |
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Registered: June 21, 2007 | Reputation: | Posts: 2,621 |
| Posted: | | | | Non-anamorphic discs are the first to get upgrded for me:
Natural Born Killers Director's Cut looks as awesome as it can (some scenes are rough, but they were shot 16mm or maybe even 8mm)
The Thing (if you have the old dvd)
From Dusk Till Dawn (Canadian disc, found at FYE in the mall in US, too bad it's got no extras)
Waiting for The Edge to get around $10 or less (probably would've spent the $15 if it had a trailer or something for extras), same with Escape from L.A., but that one is $20 cheapest so far.
Can't wait for Ravenous, com'on now Fox!
See synner_man's post below this, all those reasons as well. But I do read reviews on if it's really worth it. For instance, Predator 2 is one of my all-time favorite films (yeah yeah, eat it!) but I haven't picked that up yet as all reviews say the current BD is basically scheise. Even when it went on sale for $10 I passed.
That being said, upscaled dvds look great to me, esp. stuff you know will probably never get a BD release like my low-budget horrors. Blu always looks better, although with True Romance I could not see a marked difference between the BD and DVD (except for obvilous dnr on the BD, the dvd seemed to have more detail in the scenes I tested back to back). Shame as that's another favorite with a sub-standard BD. |
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Registered: March 13, 2007 | Posts: 736 |
| Posted: | | | | Reason #6) Something extra that makes it stupid not to buy: A movie ticket for a film you are planning to see anyway. I picked up several double-dip blu-rays a week ago (the 1st 3 Die Hard films, Transporter 1 & 2) because they can with movie tickets to your choice of The A-Team, Knight and Day and Predators. The movie tickets are worth $10 and the cost of the blu-rays ranged from $12.99 to $14.99. So essentially I bought the blu-rays for $3 to $5, since I had plans to pay for the films anyway. |
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Registered: March 13, 2007 | Reputation: | Posts: 13,203 |
| Posted: | | | | Quoting synner_man: Quote: Reason #6) Something extra that makes it stupid not to buy: A movie ticket for a film you are planning to see anyway. I picked up several double-dip blu-rays a week ago (the 1st 3 Die Hard films, Transporter 1 & 2) because they can with movie tickets to your choice of The A-Team, Knight and Day and Predators. The movie tickets are worth $10 and the cost of the blu-rays ranged from $12.99 to $14.99. So essentially I bought the blu-rays for $3 to $5, since I had plans to pay for the films anyway. Yep, I had forgotten about this one. | | | No dictator, no invader can hold an imprisoned population by force of arms forever. There is no greater power in the universe than the need for freedom. Against this power, governments and tyrants and armies cannot stand. The Centauri learned this lesson once. We will teach it to them again. Though it take a thousand years, we will be free. - Citizen G'Kar |
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Registered: February 23, 2009 | Reputation: | Posts: 1,580 |
| Posted: | | | | Quoting CharlieM: Quote: Matrix is one. The presentation is fantastic in BD. Agreed. The upgrade in visuals as well as audio quality is stunning! When I watched them again on BD, I felt like I was watching them in the theater again. | | | Blu-ray collection DVD collection My Games My Trophies |
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