DVD vs Bluray for Old(er) Movies?

panthro

panthro

panthro

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I have a lot of dvds I want to purchase from Dragon Dynasty. I just bought Fist of Legend and 36th Chamber of Shaolin on BD.

I watched Fist of Legend last night and whilst it looked good on BD, it wasnt as impressive as something newer, like Ip Man on BD. I dont have surround sound so HD sound is not a factor.

Should I wait for these other Dragon Dynasty films to be released (if they ever are) on BD, or would it be wiser to just purchase the DVD's and upscale them, bearing in mind a lot of these films are from the 70's, 80's and 90's, im not convinced the quality will be much better as they were never intended for high def.

Hope this makes sense!
 
Depends on what format the original movie was shot in. The can wreck a transfer also by over editing and noise reduction. No one can give you an answer to that until they actually do it
 
It entirely depends, go watch some properly remastered titles like North By Northwest and you'll be stunned that they can look so good.
 
These have all been remastered brilliantly, but Im not sure if the BD is worth the extra money and the wait.
 
Was mulling this over in my head the other day and was thinking how can something shot in the 80's look that much better in HD, then Back to the future 1, 2 & 3 came on SKY HD and OMG it looked so much better than the DVD release, deffo going to be buying them again in HD.
 
95% Blu-rays of old movies will look the best they can (and usually a noticeable step up from the DVD). The individual quality all depends on the source, whether its scratched, dusty, whether the editors try and clean the image too much and end up making it worse.
 
depends on how the film studio do on the transfer tbh .. some reviews of blu ray compared to the dvd version actually have the dvd better ... good example of a good transfer is "zulu" the blu ray is fantastic
 
All depends, Blade Runner looks fantastic, although to be honest, a well encoded DVD also looks very good, a badly encoded DVD really does look terrible. (Withnail and I springs to mind - badly transferred and they set the anamorphic flag when it's clearly letterbox!)

I've watched Casablanca and Brief Encounter in HD and they really do look amazing, despite being produced during the war!
 
I bought Full Metal Jacket on Bluray and I don't think theres much difference to the DVD in terms of quality. Made me think that older films don't convert well.
 
EddScott said:
I bought Full Metal Jacket on Bluray and I don't think theres much difference to the DVD in terms of quality. Made me think that older films don't convert well.
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Its the same story with Die Hard 1 & 2 and Predator, however I think the poor quality is down to the film stock that it was recorded on.

Some older movies look fantastic though, such as Blazing Saddles and The Wizard of Oz.

As others have said its down to the quality of the source material and how much the studios have messed around with the image; even some new films can look bad on blu-ray. Its best to google for a review of each individual disc before you buy them.
 
The original 1969 Italian Job looks incredible on Bluray too, I was amazed such an old film can look so good. It actually looks better then some new films.
 
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