PS3 upscaled DVD

fatherdougal

fatherdougal

fatherdougal

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320
Hi all,

post-pub last night I decided to watch the Matrix on the PS3 and was pretty underwhelmed. At times the picture was alright but at others it looked a bit pants. So far about the best job that the PS3 has done is on Casino Royale, which looked good.
What so far, disk wise, have people been impressed with and what has left them feeling a little un-impressed?
 
fatherdougal said:
Hi all,

post-pub last night I decided to watch the Matrix on the PS3 and was pretty underwhelmed. At times the picture was alright but at others it looked a bit pants. So far about the best job that the PS3 has done is on Casino Royale, which looked good.
What so far, disk wise, have people been impressed with and what has left them feeling a little un-impressed?
Click to expand...

I'm not sure what your point is. If the picture looked a bit pants in places only then thats down to the transfer itself surely and not the upscaling ?.

I assume Casino Royale was viewed on DVD as well then ?.
 
Lord of the Rings looks much better upscaled on the PS3 than on a standard DVD player (and with my new HiFi system :D). I haven't really tried many others though. Then again, The Curse of the Golden Flower did seem to look a little better not upscaled.

Anyway, when upscaling DVDs, I'm sure all that's really going on in the machine is that it's resizing the picture. It won't miraculously create more picture details than is recorded on the DVD.
 
The_morrell said:
buy them on BR I'm going to stop buying DVD's as of today
Click to expand...

I do tend to rent Blu-rays at the moment, when I can, but I find them to be stupidly expensive to buy. When you see some 5 year old rubbish film, like 'click' or some other pap for £25 in HMV it seems as though they aren't really being priced to sell...
 
fatherdougal said:
I do tend to rent Blu-rays at the moment, when I can, but I find them to be stupidly expensive to buy. When you see some 5 year old rubbish film, like 'click' or some other pap for £25 in HMV it seems as though they aren't really being priced to sell...
Click to expand...

Depends where you shop.
I've bought all of my 30 odd blurays online (and a few second hand) and most of them were £10-£12.... with some newer ones up to about £17.

V1N.
 
zhx said:
does the 360 upscale dvds? and is the upscalling on the ps3/360 as good as buying an actualy upscalling dvd player ?
Click to expand...

I have to say, it [ps3] does a better job of upscaling than the couple of upscaling DVD players I tried.
V1N.
 
Agreed, the upscale on PS3 is good, better than XBOX 360 + HD DVD drive!

However, it depends on the original film.

When I got my PS3 I watched a couple of DVDs in part on my Sony DVD drive and partly on PS3. Okay, DVD drive was running through SCART and PS3 through HDMI but the same film looks better on PS3, with the exception of very fast action in which the PS3 seemed to stutter a little.

Also as an aside I had the opportunity to want a film on Blu Ray and compare it to DVD. Played one on PS3, and DVD on DVD player simultaneously. Then flicked between channels. They were a bit out, like a few seconds, but the difference in quality is stunning!

I reckon Blu Ray or HDDVD in definitely the future, however the price is ridiculous at the moment. There is no justification to it. It costs only pence more to create Blu Ray disc over DVD yet in shops new release DVD is about £12, Blu Ray is about £25 and HDDVD is about £22. Its silly!
 
andymac said:
Also as an aside I had the opportunity to want a film on Blu Ray and compare it to DVD. Played one on PS3, and DVD on DVD player simultaneously. Then flicked between channels. They were a bit out, like a few seconds, but the difference in quality is stunning!
Click to expand...

I did a similar test with Pirates 3. I got the bluray, and a friend bought the DVD around. I watched the DVD first, through the PS3, upscaled to 1080p, just did a flick through a few chapters. Then loaded the bluray up, flicked through the same chapters, therefore watching the exact same scenes. No comparison. I could see compression noise on the DVD, and at the beginning of one of the earlier chapters, 3 I think it was, had the camera zooming in from a distance on Keira Knightly's face. On the DVD, you had to wait until the camera was quite close to make out the details of her face enough to work out who it was, the bluray, you could tell from much further back.

andymac said:
I reckon Blu Ray or HDDVD in definitely the future, however the price is ridiculous at the moment. There is no justification to it. It costs only pence more to create Blu Ray disc over DVD yet in shops new release DVD is about £12, Blu Ray is about £25 and HDDVD is about £22. Its silly!
Click to expand...

Again, just shop around. Most of the blurays I've bought have been £12 or less. New releases I pay between £15-£18. For example, I'm looking at getting The Invasion. Will be an import, as it's out this month in the States (and region free), brand new and delivered is £15.99, and that's a brand new title. We're all online in here, never hurts to check a few online stores to get good prices. I've never paid close to £25 for a bluray. Hell, I paid just £30 for the Spiderman Trilogy, and also £30.50 for Planet Earth bluray boxset.

V1N.
 
fatherdougal said:
Hi all,

post-pub last night I decided to watch the Matrix on the PS3 and was pretty underwhelmed. At times the picture was alright but at others it looked a bit pants. So far about the best job that the PS3 has done is on Casino Royale, which looked good.
What so far, disk wise, have people been impressed with and what has left them feeling a little un-impressed?
Click to expand...
Was upscaling definately set to be on full? I think it's set to off as standard, pretty sure I had to change the setting on mine anyway.

In any case it's still just a DVD, so the problem is with the format rather than the player.
 
wedgie said:
Was upscaling definately set to be on full? I think it's set to off as standard, pretty sure I had to change the setting on mine anyway.

In any case it's still just a DVD, so the problem is with the format rather than the player.
Click to expand...

I think "normal" is the best setting.
If you select "full" it stretches any 4:3 material to 16:9 stretcho-vision.

Normal does upscaling, but leaves the aspect ratio as it is, so 16:9 is 16:9, and 4:3 is pillarboxed.

V1N.
 
wedgie said:
Didn't know that, will give it a try next time I play a DVD.
Click to expand...

I try to help ;)

Furthermore, if you have a "problem" DVD that doesn't upscale very well, you can use "double" mode.

I remember having a strange effect on a DVD ages ago, where when it was upscaled, peoples eyes didn't look quite right. They had little lines going through them. It was just a cheap made, TV episode DVD.

Anyway, that particular one looked better on "double", which has a similar effect as normal overscan. It zooms up, and you loose a little bit of the edges of the frame, but the upscaling effect is better.

I only had to do this once however, and for normal usage, "normal" is best, because as I said, it maintains the aspect ratio, and doesn't chop the edge of the frame off.

V1N.
 
Jihad said:
Really? http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2088531,00.asp

I noticed my 360 seemed quite interlaced at times, if that's the correct word.
Click to expand...

The 360s DVD playback isn't as bad as that! ? :confused:

I've been around to mates places before, and watched films with them through the 360, on decent sized HDTVs, and I never noticed anything like as bad as the examples in that article. Granted, I wasn't looking close up, but if the 360s DVD playback was as poor as that, nobody would be able to watch DVDs! ?

V1N.

EDIT: Granted, just had a better read, and that was running a special benchmark DVD, to show up any flaws. Hmmm, interesting, I wonder if it's available for download anywhere. Would be interesting to test it on my own stuff. Maybe Extremetech have done a PS3 DVD playback test too?
 
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