Film vs picture quality.

Schizo

Schizo

Schizo

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Right,this has been a topic of mine with friends for quite a while and thought i would bring it to general discussion for a open view on this.

Right,i have seen people on overclockers mention they wouldn't watch a film in standard definition and only watch it in high definition.

As a nation of people with so much tech available its hard to choose whats what.

What happened to watching a film for what its made for ?...Enjoying the story line,the atmosphere ect.....all i see mentioned is "not watching that film until its on blu-ray ect.

Here is a quote from calm in this thread http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18665800&highlight=game+of+thrones he said "I'm a little conflicted about this, on one hand I don't want to watch them in ****** SD quality" Game of thrones is good either in sd quality or hi def is it not ?

Whats peoples views on all this hi def vs film malarkey.

What do you say at the end of the film...."that film was amazing" or "the picture quality was amazing"

If it is watchable ill enjoy the film no matter what its picture quality.
 
This will probably get moved..

The film/movie is the most important thing but if you keep degrading the quality then it starts to have a noticeable effect on your enjoyment of it. The 'line' of when that happens changes according to a lot of things.. environment, screen size, audio setup etc.. and people's perceptibility to all that.

For me on my 42" Panasonic plasma I hate watching SD. In fact I can notice even the lower bitrate 'HD' channels and that annoys me. However I work in the industry and part of my last job was to notice this sort of things. I also notice shots that are out of focus, when lip sync is off, when something is in the shot by accident, even something as subtle as when the grade/colour doesn't match :p

EDIT: It's actually a very interesting discussion. With everything in HD now and tehcnology screaming forward.. at the same time people are perfectly happy to watch films on their phones on the train (i.e. at terrible quality). How these attitudes co-exist is quite interesting.
 
Depends on the film for me. Certain films I try to watch in the cinema, like the upcoming Avengers: Age of Ultron. The rest I don't really mind, although some I do like to watch in HD, mainly those where a ton of effort and investment has gone into the special effects and CGI, think Avatar.
 
In relation to scams comments, the degree of graining, and the degree of blockiness that you see in a picture in sd versus hd on certain channels or for ats really makes a difference.
Where i can i will watch bbc1 hd not sd, same for other broadcast stations.
There is a noticable difference, and the improvement in quality is just that, quality. Doesn't change the show or the movie, but can detract from it, if it is a badly coded, or low quality stream.

I will watch sd where there is no alternative, as with a great many of our stations.
Some of the broadcast gubbins by sky has such a poor birrate it is amazing it isn't classified below sd.
 
No Issue with defenition unless it's particularly poor and blurry if it's watchable I don't really have an issue, the issue with the GoT episodes In my view at least is I see all 4 eps and I'll be stuck with withdrawl for 3-4 weeks until the next episode is released and after sufferring for a year I don't think I could take any more!
 
It depends on what you watch some stuff I don't care if it's in SD as the content is totally related to the story in a modern day setting (eg say The Good Wife or Whiplash) and then there are other things that I would only watch in HD because the content is also reliant on how the story is portrayed visually (eg say Game of Thrones or Avengers).
 
I always think it's how well it's been transferred (For older films/programmes) & the broadcast bit rate (for sky/cable).

Some 1st release blu-rays (Full Metal Jacket, 5th element, Ghostbusters, SPR, Predator & Gladiator, all in my blu-ray collection) were not remastered properly so they had to do them again (I had to send 2 back to the distributor for replacement, SPR had lip-sync issues so it not always PQ) The Original Godfather blu-ray trilogy on BR was no better PQ than DVD & ID4 is the same too.

These days I'm quite happy to watch film releases in SD & if I decide to buy then I wait a while for the Blu-ray to lower in price.
 
Highly compressed online video is usually bad enough to detract from the experience for me (e.g. the online GoT episodes).

DVD and upwards is generally "good enough", but an excellent blu-ray conversion is usually a treat (the most recent Star Wars release is a good example, saw it the other weekend).

So it's not all about picture quality, but it helps IMO.
 
We're working our way through the mentalist at the moment, which is quite acceptable in SD.

Other shows, and the majority of films, have much better imagery, and HD really makes it better. I plan on watching GoT in HD.
 
SD is fine if it's viewed on something that scales it well. Majority of TVs don't and it looks horrible though, and it doesn't help when Sky/VM SD feeds look gimped in comparison to the corresponding HD channels (compare a football match on Sky Sports in SD vs HD for example).
 
In a way this is like asking whether people like going to the theatre with or without their spectacles.

Given the choice of course people are going to want to see things in higher quality. The quotes in the OP were in regard to watching something in a low bitrate SD file now or waiting until last night for the first episode in HD and the next few weeks for the rest. It's not like it was a case of it was never ever going being in HD so refused to watch it at all.
 
Doesn't bother me what it looks like. Always nice to have HD but if it's a good film, it isn't going to take too much away from the viewing experience.

Some of the films we watch on Netflix even have two thick black borders to the right and left of the screen. The films are still good to watch though.
 
It's just more enjoyable with a good picture.
That said, I have HD and such but quite often sit watching TV without my glasses on thus negating HD anyway.

Side Note - I have Batman TDK on DVD and the picture quality is astounding, much better than most for some unknown reason.
 
Bitrate > resolution

I can happily watch something in SD as long as the bit rate isn't in the gutter, and I won't happily watch "HD" content if the bitrate is in the gutter.

High bit rate SD can and does look better than low bitrate HD a lot of the time as some people are just chasing resolution.
 
Quality wouldn't stop me watching something I enjoy/want to watch.

I'd rather watch something in 4k then 1080p then SD (Obviously) and would pay more/wait longer for it to be available in said quality.
 
Personally for me, i seek to find the film in HD as that was the way the director intend it to be watched

Look at it this way, if he was ok with DVD quality then he would have filmed it in a SD video camera. No, he filmed it on 35mm film and the closest we have to that is 1080p right now. For most older grainier films 1080p tops out the picture quality and wouldn't benefit too much from 4K unless it was filmed in 70mm.

Anything post year 2000 then 4K would be great but that a little way off yet
 
What I always find hilarious is the Directors who use the latest and greatest '4Dx10 MegaMegaPixelUltraHyperDefinition 27K 1000fps' or whatever the latest 'fad' is nowadays and then film everything with it in shaky/blur/overdone photographic effects/sepia-vision/atmosphere shot etc. etc. which completely ruins it. :D
 
It's simple.

Watch blocky, smudge like picture or one with clarity.
I like it when you're able to read text on things in films where otherwise you couldn't.
 
I prefer HD but SD on my TV looks OK too. The only real issue I have is with old grainy-vision footage from the 80's and 90's.

I think there is a noticeable difference between the two. We definitely noticed that Avatar on the DVD was not as vibrant or as well defined as the blu-ray version.

One of my all time favourite films for 'beauty' is House of Flying Daggers. I only have it on DVD but it still looks wonderful. OK it could look better but dayum, what a glorious use of colour :)
 
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