Many Blu-rays no better than DVDs

For me a great site for looking at video/audio quality plus extra features and a review is blu-ray.com

[Hello Josh, we just edited your comment as it read a bit like spam. Thanks for the recommendation, but next time it would be great to see an opinion about the Conversation as well!]

They all look better than the DVD counterpart and most importantly, they sound much better. Lossless audio is just as important as image quality.

I own about 60 BDs and all look amaizing, including some old movies like The Godfather. But I bought one that really let me down, and the shocking part is that its a CG animation: Final Fantasy VII Advent Children. This movie is in SD quality same as the DVD version but the Blu-ray cover says “Full HD”, so now I’m more carefull before I buy a BD and not just assume that if it’s a BD then it must be better than the DVD. Though I could say that this movie comes from Square-Enix, which is a studio that has gone down the toilet pretty badly 🙁

Some transfers are ****** yes, but did they forget that 50% of the enjoyment of watching a movie is from sound?

I don’t think DVDs can ever match Blu-ray sound.

One of the main problems with Blu-ray is that studios are using the same HD Masters they used for DVD releases for their Blu-ray releases. Duplicating from a master that has the same resolution as your target media is never going to give good results. This was the case with the Gladiator Blu-ray release.

A master should always be a step or two steps above the resolution you are duplicating. Budgetary constraints / small market demand are often why transfers are poor or not even done in the first place.

A good example is Bladerunner that had a 4K transfer for the Blu-ray disc.

I’ve never seen a Blue Ray disc, and this article hasn’t really made me any more disposed to! I think I will stick with my DVD collection for now at least 🙂

I’d agree with Andrew, Lovefilm et al are a godsend.

Ben

There are of course many variables in determining the quality of Blu Ray video but the the primary concern should be as stated in the review, is it better than the DVD. If for example you are into Asian films then you should steer clear of most Blu Rays as they seem the original masters have not been kept in good condition never mind the reproduction on to Blu Ray.

The argument about what makes a good Blu Ray, sharp vs realistic etc is a lot more difficult and one that will not help the average consumer. However, its not too difficult to get a reasonable idea of how good or bad a Blu Ray is by looking at the online reviews. Check out multiple sites to be sure that you are getting an all round picture (no pun intended) as to how good or otherwise a disk is.

I agree that there are some Blu-Rays that are not full HD, like some of the older Warner Brothers Blu-Rays are clearly directly copied from the HD-DVD’s which was to me almost but not quite HD which is why I always favored Blu-Ray as it looked truly HD to me compared to HD-DVD and warner should have done a better job transferring them over. I work in an entertainment store and I have had people returning “True Romance” and “Goodfellas” as they weren’t satisfied with the HD quality and after seeing the Blu-Ray of “Goodfellas” I agree. But some smaller studios also don’t deliver alot of the time. Optimum is one that struggles to get decent HD Blu-Rays, all three Optimum films I have purchased were not HD, 20th Century Fox have been lazy in the past but are getting better, compare the original “Predator” release to the newer one and you’l see that they are finally taking Blu-Ray seriously. Disney are by far the best Blu-Ray makers out there, all there releases on Blu-Ray have looked stunning, no one has come up 100% right on there releases other than Disney in my opinion as they are constantly cleaning up there films and re-mastering them, especially as they are constantly re-releasing their films. Universal and good on the mark as well. If in doubt read reviews before you purchase and don’t let this put you off buying a Blu-Ray player as the quality is top notch (well, every now & then). Also, they are called Blu-Rays, not Blu-Ray DVD’s! There I said it, lol.

This is an interesting article,personally I can’t tell the difference between Blu-Ray and DVD,but then again I don’t have a massive screen and top notch equipment,I have a 27 inch HD Monitor and PS3,I think you need a £1000.00 Blu-Ray Player and a £1000.00 plus TV that’s over 40 inches corner to corner with expensive HDMI Cables then you need to sit no more than 4 feet from the screen,but the thing is the difference is so slight it isn’t worth it especially as Blu-Ray costs 3 to 5 times more than DVD’S,I just think it’s a big con to get more money out of the general public,then in the future once everybody’s been conned into buying this over hyped format they’ll be another one to replace it promising even better quality.

some examples of bad transfers I have seen in my collection are Frankenstein, bride of Frankenstein., the dvd versions of these films are hands down better than bd. I think its a crime to be aware of a inferior product and charge a higher pric e tag for it, they surely must know the quality of the product before they mass produce it. wheres quality control. although these 2 films are very old, I could stilllog dozens of films of th 70s, 80, and 90s that look better on dvd. there., ive had my rant.