Blu-Ray Gripes - it's not all that it's being marketed as!

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#309256 19-Mar-2010 19:55

joker97: or if you've been buying the right titles, your equipment is of the wrong type!

+many!

I have about 60 or so BD titles and about 30 HD-DVD(if people remember those now). I have been impressed with the PQ on all of them and of course some are better than others.

The other night I was playing Up on DVD (on an upscaling DVD player) going to my 1080P PJ on a 100" screen. It looked surprisingly good. Then I rented the BD and played that. What a difference! And of course added to that DTS HD Master audio versus the DD on the DVD.

My view is, all of your problems are equipment or setup related. If you can't see the difference between DVD and BD then you wasted your money with the gear and titles.

It would be interesting to see a list of titles you are not happy with.

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Kiwipixter

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#309257 19-Mar-2010 19:56

@login

The bluray camp hasn't misled you anything. Blame the movie makers for black bars, not bluray marketers. You can also try this projection solution if you don't like black bars, http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/2798.

Regarding high prices, yes, bluray is high in price but thats coming down. JB hifi prices are very good at the moment. You can always import from overseas for much cheaper. Granted, bluray prices may never be same as DVD but it will be close.

cheers

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#309259 19-Mar-2010 20:00

black bars: some players and some tvs can "zoom" ie chop off the sides to make a 16:9 image. i really want that back, because neither my player (PS3) nor tv (samsung) has that 'hero' ability.

my neighbour's 50" panasonic plasma can chop things into 16:9 without distorting ... yeah i have to agree with you on that one. i pay a lot of money for my tv i dont want to see back lines on it! most other GZ'ers will slam us for this but hey!

lchiu7

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#309263 19-Mar-2010 20:19

Kiwipixter: @login

The bluray camp hasn't misled you anything. Blame the movie makers for black bars, not bluray marketers.

Why do you blame the movie makers? We want to go to the movies and have a wide screen experience so scope aspect ratio is what does that (2.25:1 or something close to that). When they decided to produce wide screen TV's they chose 16:9 (so about 1.78:1) which means most movies will have black bars at the top or bottom.

I think more people would complain if they cropped a scope movie to 16:9 than provide us with original aspect ratio. (As an aside I just rented Sherlock Holmes and it's one of the few movies I have seen recently that was shot 16:9. I thought I had a setup error when I first put it on!).

Of course many directors these days choose to shoot Super35 and if they want to, could in the mastering for DVD and BD produce a 16:9 version that actually had more content that was shown in the theatre. But most don't do that since it's a challenge to frame a picture for both theatrical presentation (2.25:1) and then home video (16:9).

I don't mind the black bars. On a 100" screen it hardly makes too much difference :-)

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Dunnersfella

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#309272 19-Mar-2010 20:51

Two things.
1: Robinhood Prince of Thieves is not a Blu Ray movie, it's an abomination.
Kudos for admitting to own it though :)

2: The return of Philips TV's would be worse. Ewwwww.

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#309273 19-Mar-2010 20:52

Thanks to sbiddle. I found an obscure aspect ratio setting on my TV that eliminated the black bands and reduced the 21:9 image to 16:9 by chopping a small amount off both sides of the image. I have to set the TV *manually* each time I play a 21:9 blu ray disk but at least it gives me the desired result - no black bars! The TV also switches back automatically to 16:9 when I switch back to another piece of equipment, so that's good. Unfortunately it means I now have to manually select aspect ratios once again, which I have not had to do since I went all-HDMI ages ago. I would have preferred a setting on my BD player that output the video in the desired format so I am not faced with this problem, but none is available I'm afraid.
In reply to a number of comments made by others. The video definition quality problem is simply one of the blu-ray disk manufacturers who are placing SD content on some BDs instead of HD content. Then they sell it as a blue ray disk. For those who want to know which ones are affected, see my original post as I have identified two of them there. For those who suggest I am buying the wrong titles or wrong equipment, sorry you are on the wrong track here. I expect HD content from a blu-ray disk or as is otherwise clearly stated on the label. If the movie is a Humphrey Bogart title from the 1930s I don't expect it to be on BD in HD but what I do expect is that it is clearly marked on the disk as SD. We as customers are not always getting what we are paying for.

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#309277 19-Mar-2010 21:05

Dunnersfella: Two things.
1: Robinhood Prince of Thieves is not a Blu Ray movie, it's an abomination.
Kudos for admitting to own it though :)

2: The return of Philips TV's would be worse. Ewwwww.

Yes, nice comments.

I cannot help but wonder at the IQ level of a manufacturer who thinks that putting out a 21:9 TV is going to advance the state of the entertainment world one iota. Yet another aspect ratio. Manually switching between the different formats was largely solved when HDMI became readily available and we could afford to replace our older analogue eqipment. Did it take a decade from the original inception of the problem? That's how long it took me to replace everything. That will likely mean another decade at least until we recover from the introduction of yet another format. 2020 here we come!
I won't be buying a 21:9 TV anytime soon. My solution is to manufacture a TV with a circular screen. In that way any aspect ratio can be displayed without any problem. They all will have black bars it's just that the size of the black bars will vary depending on the aspect ratio of the picture.

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lchiu7

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#309281 19-Mar-2010 21:29

.. I expect HD content from a blu-ray disk or as is otherwise clearly stated on the label. If the movie is a Humphrey Bogart title from the 1930s I don't expect it to be on BD in HD but what I do expect is that it is clearly marked on the disk as SD. We as customers are not always getting what we are paying for.

Then you haven't seen the Wizard of Oz in BluRay also released in 1939. The PQ is outstanding since the original Technicolor IB prints far exceed the resolution of BluRay.

Film has far greater resolution that 1920x1080. Lousy BluRays are usually due to poor source (second or third generation away from the original camera negative for older films or some crappy 2K IP). It has nothing to do with older films versus films of today. In fact in many instances the older films have far superior PQ since they were shot by craftman using very high quality films stock, none of the modern Super35 shooting technique which wastes a fair bit of the 35mm negative or digitally captured.

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sbiddle

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#309288 19-Mar-2010 21:41

login: In reply to a number of comments made by others. The video definition quality problem is simply one of the blu-ray disk manufacturers who are placing SD content on some BDs instead of HD content. Then they sell it as a blue ray disk.

I have yet to really see any Blu Ray discs that I believe are not HD.

You have to rememver that film is a far greater resolution than even a Full HD 1920x1080, you could argue that virtually every mainstream film made within the past 40 years is actually HD.

The quality of the transfer from film to digital varies with some content being a lot softer than others. Not everything looks like CSI Miami or NCIS Los Angeles does at 1080i on TV3 however this does not mean it's not HD.

ZollyMonsta

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#309307 19-Mar-2010 23:12

Bluray when done right looks fantastic. Not all bluray movies are created equal. I personally won't go anywhere near DVD hire anymore.. Bluray's only for me from now on.

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Paulthagerous

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#309320 20-Mar-2010 07:25

ZollyMonsta: Bluray when done right looks fantastic. Not all bluray movies are created equal. I personally won't go anywhere near DVD hire anymore.. Bluray's only for me from now on.

+1. My (relatively small) collection of blurays are all awesome. When I was looking at tv's I had Casino Royale playing on Bluray on one 1080P tv, and paying on DVD on the TV next to it (exactly same but had Freeview|HD built in). No comparison at all for me, bluray all the way.

old3eyes

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#309328 20-Mar-2010 09:53

Dunnersfella: Two things.
1: Robinhood Prince of Thieves is not a Blu Ray movie, it's an abomination.
Kudos for admitting to own it though :)

2: The return of Philips TV's would be worse. Ewwwww.

Unless it's this one http://www.gadgetguy.com.au/philips-gives-good-girth-with-cinema-21-9-article-9108-1.html

Regards,

Old3eyes

butlerboy

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#309330 20-Mar-2010 10:03

can't say i've ever bought or seen a blu-ray that isn't a vast improvement over the dvd version.

wmoore

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#309337 20-Mar-2010 10:33

The problem is login is that you don't have a $400 HDMI cable connecting everything.

Re. the big Phillips, has got great reviews in some mags here in the UK.

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#309340 20-Mar-2010 10:46

butlerboy: can't say i've ever bought or seen a blu-ray that isn't a vast improvement over the dvd version.

OK, for the record let me recommend these titles:

1. Robin Hood Price of Thieves (barcode 9325336047422)
The packaging says it is presented in 1080p High Definition 16:9. It's not. It's presented in a poor immitation of even SD. A good story but save yourself a bad BD experience and buy the standard DVD version.

2. Live in Dublin Bruce Spingsteen with the Sessions Band (barcode 0886970987394)
The packaging says "the concert was filmed in High Definition (HD)". A pity it didn't occur to them to include the HD content on the blu-ray disk. This has to be about the worst video quality I have yet to see on blu-ray capped off with poor lighting that makes it look as if the entire concert was filmed in the dark. My recommendation - give this one a miss unless you wait to see the worst that technology can dish up.

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