Blu-Ray equal to Progressive Scan DVD?

Rhys

Rhys

Rhys

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You have to look at how fundamentally compelling the difference is between a progressive scan DVD player and the picture that it can produce and what you get on a high-definition player. The reality is there is some difference, but most people look at it and say, "I am not going to pay extra for that.

Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft's entertainment and devices division
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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/06/08/BUPF11383J.DTL

Interesting Comment.
 
It's not interesting, it's stupid; and it's from Microsoft who after messing about with HD-DVD really want people to use their download service which has some crap quality HD material.
 
What a load of tosh :)

As good as my upscaling DVD player is it can't touch BR in terms of detail or clarity, especially given that I have an LCD screen the difference is night and day.
 
I thought it was a bit odd that the hi-fi magazines are saying this kind of stuff when it's clear to anyone that blu-ray will beat upscaled DVD (given the same source material and the source being good quality to start with etc.) Then it struck me - it's just another thing to get people to buy DVD players as they are on their way out.

I noticed a hi-fi shop trying to flog me a £800 dvd player the other week claiming it'd compete with the best blu-ray players and provide amazing scaling. Doubt it'd be any better than my HTPC running ffdshow etc. but then this was the same shop that tried selling my dad an £80 HDMI cable
 
He has a point, the only reason I have a Blu-Ray player is because of my PS3, I wouldn't pay £200 odd for a standalone player, no chance in hell.

Joe public won't care too much, my Mum doesn't see the fuss either.
 
I've had quite a few people tell me they are not impressed with HD and that DVD looks perfect anyway. Most people are not concerned with resolution and compression artifacts. I have to admit that sometimes HD can detract from the content of a movie because you can become blinded by the detail of the image. It's hard to get immersed in a film when you're staring at the wrinkle lines on some A-lister's forehead!
 
M$ trying to make out that blu-ray is tosh. Well done M$ carry on digging, next you will be reinventaing the cassette and telling us it is the next big thing.

Go back to repairing your silly consoles bill ;)
 
Energize said:
Probably because they have a 20" tv and sit 10ft away from it.
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I guarantee that if you demo a well mastered DVD on a random sample of non ethusiasts, you could quite easily convince them it is HD. Conversely, you could give them a 1080p demo and they would have no idea it is not a DVD. The concepts of resolution, encoding, bitrate and interface mean nothing to most people. Only those who have bought a tv recently and spent some time researching (the majority will have just bought whatever old models were on sale at Argos) will know what these things mean .

Case in point, I once found my dad watching Casino Royal Royale on Virgin Media when I had left the Blu Ray version lying right on the sofa! When I switched the source over he agreed that it looked a little better but he wouldnt have noticed unless it was pointed out. This is on a 42" 1080p LCD.

For us the difference is night and day but you shouldn't assume that it is the same for the average person.
 
sparkey196 said:
I guarantee that if you demo a well mastered DVD on a random sample of non ethusiasts, you could quite easily convince them it is HD. Conversely, you could give them a 1080p demo and they would have no idea it is not a DVD. The concepts of resolution, encoding, bitrate and interface mean nothing to most people. Only those who have bought a tv recently and spent some time researching (the majority will have just bought whatever old models were on sale at Argos) will know what these things mean .

Case in point, I once found my dad watching Casino Royal Royale on Virgin Media when I had left the Blu Ray version lying right on the sofa! When I switched the source over he agreed that it looked a little better but he wouldnt have noticed unless it was pointed out. This is on a 42" 1080p LCD.

For us the difference is night and day but you shouldn't assume that it is the same for the average person.
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It depends - if it was a blind test one at a time you may well be right

In a side by side test where you move slightly to see the 2nd screen (especially if each screen was optimised for either format) it would be easily noticable - especially if you were playing back on a 40 " + screen, scalers do a good job but it clearly evident on a well mastered HD disc which is better even to non-techies
 
sparkey196 said:
Case in point, I once found my dad watching Casino Royal Royale on Virgin Media when I had left the Blu Ray version lying right on the sofa! When I switched the source over he agreed that it looked a little better but he wouldnt have noticed unless it was pointed out. This is on a 42" 1080p LCD.

For us the difference is night and day but you shouldn't assume that it is the same for the average person.
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My case in point is starship Troopers.
A mate came over and saw i had a PS3, saw i had a bluray copy of Starship troopers as well as a DVD.
He started to laugh and ask why i had the same film twice, i put the DVD on and he said it looked great on my swanky new TV, then i put it on Bluray and his jaw hit the floor.
He couldnt believe the difference.
 
Secret_Window said:
lol the females in my house know the difference and prefer HD, as hard as that is to imagine.
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My Mother is a total technophobe, and although she understands that I love my toys, she doesn't always "get it"

When I first got my PS3 and 40w2000, she was gobsmacked when I put a bluray on, and saw the immediate difference. On the projector, of course it's even more night and day. I find upscaled DVDs look fine, I'm not saying they're unwatchable, but bluray adds almost a 3D effect to the film.
Things that are close up are pretty sharp and look good.
As you go into the background though, DVDs show their lack of definition. IT looks almost as though it's focus, the further back you go, the less you can see. Put a bluray on, and you can see right back into the difference. Any panoramic shots just look stunning. Even after over a year of buying blurays, I still get wowwed by it.

I also had a girl back here one evening (but less about that) and when she saw my set up, she said that she thought this whole High Definition thing was a "load of bunkum"

We watched a film. She was stunned. She even noticed during the film that the little things, like writing on a wall, and other little details were all visible, which you'd normally not see on DVD.

Hell, my Mother even wanted to go back to my Step-Father, and ask if they could get the kit to get HD... what a turnaround ;)

As has been mentioned in the past, a lot of it is to do with screen size/quality.

On a 20" monitor, you really aren't going to get a massive amount of benefit.
Hell, on a PC screen, 350mb Divx files still look pretty good. Put them on a bigger display though, and you really see how lacking they are.

I do personally find bluray to be a lot better than DVD. That's not to say DVD suddenly becomes carp and unwatchable, but I do notice when I put a DVD on, the lack of detail in the background, and those panoramic shots just lack depth, and that wow factor.

Vin.
 
I do find it amusing that in an industry which has all kinds of quackery - where they promote the idea of spending fortune on cables which apparently make a difference (never known to be proven in A/B/X testing) - that you also get the same people claiming high definition isn't much different to upscaled DVD. lol
 
V1N said:
When I first got my PS3 and 40w2000, she was gobsmacked when I put a bluray on, and saw the immediate difference.
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distance? :D

V1N said:
I do personally find bluray to be a lot better than DVD. That's not to say DVD suddenly becomes carp and unwatchable, but I do notice when I put a DVD on, the lack of detail in the background, and those panoramic shots just lack depth, and that wow factor.

Vin.
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I completely agree - I still watch a lot of DVD's, mostly series though that havent been released on BR (like Boston Legal which I watched last night on my ps3)

On the other hand I dont have nearly 150 BR's and about 60+ HD-DVD's for nothing, the majority of them are absolutely stunning (obviously some are still released with little to no work done on them since the dvd release and they can look just as carp as the dvd)
 
FrankJH said:
On the other hand I dont have nearly 150 BR's and about 60+ HD-DVD's for nothing, the majority of them are absolutely stunning (obviously some are still released with little to no work done on them since the dvd release and they can look just as carp as the dvd)
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You've found that many worth watching????

I haven't found that many that are worth getting - although there are a fair few i wouldnt buy yet because i have them on DVD
 
oli collett said:
You've found that many worth watching????

I haven't found that many that are worth getting - although there are a fair few i wouldnt buy yet because i have them on DVD
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50% to 2/3 are imported region free titles but yes I have :D

About 10-20 where real impulse buys that I doubt I will watch again, so will sell when I get round to it (BR's that is) - the rest though I have probably watched 2 or 3 times (and some I have possibly watched 5 or 6)

Sad I know lol
 
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