Blu-ray barely better than DVD

The Register ^ | 25th November 2010 17:51 GMT | Caleb Cox

[snarkpup]

Blu-ray discs are supposed to represent "the maximum high-definition experience" yet there is little difference in quality to that of a DVD, apparently.

A study by consumer advocate Which? found less than a third of Blu-ray films demonstrate an exceptional difference compared to the equivalent DVD, and with a large gulf between the best and worst, HD quality is inconsistent.

[snarkpup]

So far I only have a couple of Blu-ray discs. Most of the discs I've considered buying I've decided to take a pass on after reading reviews indicating they were simply upconversions from standard definition and aren't worth bothering with.

My understanding is that in many cases either the original show was not shot with hi-def in mind or the disc producers don't bother to get a hi-def master and just upconvert the standard def material they already have on hand.

[LS]

We shot our documentary, “Rockin’ the Wall” (www.rockinthewall.com) in HD and the difference to my eye is quite noticeable. It’s stunning in Blue Ray.

[KoRn]

New movies that come out on Blu-Ray are far superior in quality than standard DVD(if you have a good HD TV).

Older movies that have been ‘up-converted’ aren’t much different.

Blu-Ray are also great for file storage, compared to other disks, but who in the hell uses optical disks for file storage anymore? Flash memory, FTW. I wish they would start putting media on Flash disks, but I doubt it will happen. As bandwidth increases, expect all media to go online, where the providers can control all of the content.

[James C. Bennett]

This is a silly argument.

Without a good display capable of supporting 1080p natively, there is no point in investing in Blu-Ray media and equipment.

With the necessary items, Blu-Ray is stunning.

[jeffc]

My PC has a 27 inch 1080p monitor and 5.1 surround sound. My TV is a 37 inch 720p with built-in speakers.

I don't watch much TV, but I do play computer games. Racing is my hobby. It's cheaper than golf (I lost a lot of balls . . .)

[GOP Poet]

Awesome. What camera did you shoot with?

[raybbr]

ping

[snarkpup]

One question I have is whether it is feasible to do upconversions oneself by playing a standard-def DVD on an upconverting player and viewing the result on a suitable screen. I've tried this a couple of times and the biggest difference is that the upconversion done by my player converts subtitles into jagged, barely readable piles of aliasing artifacts.

My questions is whether the high-end Blu-ray players that cost several hundred bucks more than the one I got do a better job of this.

[yarddog]

I have two Blu-Ray players but only one disc. I hooked one player up to a Dell 25” monitor which is the only thing I own which has HD specs.

Now I am not tech savvy, tho I would have been in my youth. I suppose my single Blu-Ray disc which is “Smallville” season 7, may not be of best quality but I can’t see a difference when viewing regular DVDs and the one Blu-Ray.

[max americana]

I belong to a volunteer fansub group which catches raw broadcasts of Japanese anime from Tokyo and convert them with English subtitles. Mostly in MP4 format but sometimes we have do with AVI. A year ago, I had an argument with the encoder that downloaders are idiots and they wouldnt know the difference between BRRIP H264 and XVID/DVD. We have both DVD and BR versions of a “well known” anime in 720P and later released both but deliberately misplaced the format description. The downloaders mostly went for the AVI (described as BRRIP) and later posted it was one heck of a BRRIP. Unless we need thick glasses, we didnt see much difference either. We even had a test that we set up the same reso, sound and audio at the the same rate..without even telling the same person if it is BR, and a good # of them were wrong.

[Strk321]

“New movies that come out on Blu-Ray are far superior in quality than standard DVD(if you have a good HD TV).”

Emphasis on “if you have a good HDTV”. Theoretically, the quality is better, but you need the right equipment to get results.

“Blu-Ray are also great for file storage, compared to other disks, but who in the hell uses optical disks for file storage anymore? Flash memory, FTW. I wish they would start putting media on Flash disks, but I doubt it will happen.”

I never cared for flash drives. I use them, but I don’t particularly like them. To me, a computer is not a computer without having boxes of disks everywhere.

[Magic Fingers]

“New movies that come out on Blu-Ray are far superior in quality than standard DVD(if you have a good HD TV).”

I’ve got a Sony Blu-Ray player and a 42” Sony Bravia TV, and have been disappointed that I can’t tell any difference between a good HD disc and any Blu-Ray disc I’ve ever rented.

[snarkpup]

I belong to a volunteer fansub group which catches raw broadcasts of Japanese anime from Tokyo and convert them with English subtitles.

I have a lot of standard DVDs from Japan, mostly anime but some live action—which is why I care about subtitle readability and doing upconversions through a player; since practically none of these are available on Blu-ray.

I just got a setup suitable for watching Blu-ray a few days ago and have been considering getting Appleseed or Appleseed Ex-Machina on Blu-ray to try it out; but I've read mixed reviews about whether the masters for these shows are sufficiently HD to exploit HD formats.

[Cementjungle]

I haven’t taken the Blu-Ray plunge yet. I figure I’ll wait for the next generation of “the latest” to come out, then think about it.

[max americana]

I have the Appleseed DVD version and also in Blu-Ray. Been a long time since I played them both, but I will try them out tonight, see the specs and talk back to you if you remind me. I was also considering buying from my Japanese pal about getting the DVD version of the 2010 Yamato Revival movie but he told me later that the encoded H264 version is already out on the torrents so that could save me money.

If you are a fan of Claymore, I was able to get the BR version of it straight from Japan and superbly done by Madhouse. You wont find it in North Am or Europe.

[Williams]

I believe plenty of dvd’s are HD, high definition films as seen on an HD tv, blue ray being a further hd enhanced format.

[Politicalmom]

I just got a blueray, solely because I wanted a mega-disc changer. I only have one BR that I got for $5, and I won’t buy any more until the prices come way down. I won’t replace my regular discs either.

[Domandred]

No surprise. Just like when DVDs first came out many of them were no better quality than VHS because the masters used to press the DVDs were the same ones used for VHS.

That’s also why many movies got released to DVD several times using better or digitally enhanced masters.

[Drew68]

Without a good display capable of supporting 1080p natively, there is no point in investing in Blu-Ray media and equipment.

With the necessary items, Blu-Ray is stunning.

You are correct. I have two HDTVs each with a PS3 serving as my Blu-ray player. In my bedroom is an older 32" 720p LCD. On this TV the difference between Blu-ray and DVD is negligible. In my living room is a newer 46" 1080p LED. On this TV, the difference between the two formats is quite substantial with Blu-ray obviously being far superior. It's like the difference between DVD and VHS.

Honestly, I don't even really like to watch DVDs anymore. I only rent BD from Redbox and Netflix.

[murron]

I remember in the 80s the debate was Beta or VHS? I could never see the difference, but Beta was supposed to be the better of the two. My uncle swore that he could tell the difference, but I just never did see it. I can’t speak about Blu-Ray, as I have no first hand experience with them.