Slightly disappointed with the first time I played a BR movie on my Mitsubishi HC3000.

I just got a Sony PS3, so I went out and bought "28 days later" on BR. I watched it and at first I thought the PS3 was set to the wrong res etc, but still it was pretty jaggy compared to what I imagined it would look like.

Then I watched the making of the movie and they mentioned they used digital cameras to make the movie more inner city and gritty looking. So perhaps the problem was the way the movie was shot?

Either up scaling works 100% as advertised (because the BR looks like my DVDs) Or I bought the wrong movie.

Anyone have experience with 28 Days Later?

Lol. I just did some deeper googleing:

Review on the movie image:

"Utterly disappointing" is the only phrase that comes to mind at the moment. This Blu-ray edition of '28 Days Later' arrives with a hazy 1080p/AVC MPEG-4 transfer that's only a meager step up from the already-problematic DVD. In fact, I found the finalized image incredibly similar to the upscaled DVD presentation.

Where to start? The entire transfer is soft and host to the murkiest backgrounds I've yet to experience on either high-definition format. Actors are blurry, textures are indistinct, and fine details are frequently obscured by video noise. Shaky colors and wavering contrast combine to create a painful, two-dimensional picture -- one that is further flattened by the consistent presence of intrusive artifacts. Even worse, most shots suffer from edge halos, quick pans tend to pixelate the image, and cityscapes are smeared and shifty. Detail is the tiniest bit sharper than the DVD, but it's a minor improvement that's an inherent product of the increased resolution.

To be fair, I wasn't expecting to be blown away by the video on this release. The majority of the film was shot using a European model Canon XL-1s standard-definition camcorder at 720x576 resolution (thanks to Grubert for the info), a decision on the part of the filmmakers to give the film a rough-around-the-edges visual style. As such, it’s unrealistic to expect that '28 Days Later' would look as sharp as other high-def releases. I did, however, hope to see at least some benefit from this Blu-ray transfer.


Another:

There's a difference between a bad transfer and film that was deliberately made to look bad. The latter is the case with Danny Boyle's scary and atmospheric 28 Days Later, which uses crummy DV to complement the film's post-apocalyptic groove. Because every image in the film appears as if it's been treated in some way, colors aren't saturated, blacks aren't very deep and shadow delineation is pretty poor. Fittingly, the glorious photography of the film's final moments similarly complements the potential and hope of the human race. Cheap video equipment, yes, but there's nothing puny about the disc's aggressive Dolby Digital 5.1 surround track. Every shriek, whisper and drop of rain comes through loud and clear, and the dynamic range is truly impressive.

So one question: What movie that is adult based (not Disney etc etc) is the best one to buy when it comes to eye candy and being a bloody good movie? It took me ages to set up (paint the screen etc) and I want some base superficial satisfaction! hehe

As a previous HC3000 owner I was about to come in and tell you something must be wrong but then I see what title you were comparing ;) . Try "I-Robot" for some real live action eye candy (one of the better looking live action BD's).

"Live Free or Die Hard" is another nice live action Blu Ray disc .

Jason

Scenes from 28 Weeks Later were shot with Canon XL1 DV camera, so you can't expect a great HD image. Check the Tier threads in the blu ray forum for discs with great picture quality.

Scenes from 28 Weeks Later were shot with Canon XL1 DV camera, so you can't expect a great HD image. Check the Tier threads in the blu ray forum for discs with great picture quality.


Thanks for the advice.

Not a good choice for comparison.

Perhaps something like these Tier 0-1 PQ BRs (from the thread in the BR Software Forum area)

Kid Stuff - Kung Fu Panda, Ratatouille, Wall-E, Horton Hears a Who!
Action - I, Robot, Live Free or Die Hard, Man on Fire, Pirates of the Carribean 2 or 3
Comedy - Tropic Thunder, Ghost Town
Horror - Orphanage, The Eye, Exorcism of Emily Rose
Family - Game Plan, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Speed Racer, Chronicles of Narnia 1 or 2
Romance - Becoming Jane, Enchanted, P.S. I Love You
Drama - No Country for Old Men, Into the Wild, Secret Life of Bees, Lives of Others
Documentary - Baraka, Grand Canyon Adventure, Galapagos

A point made by your post is that MANY older films (and plenty not so old) not produced with a quality that will take advantage of B.Ray.

I am in the minority of optomists that believe that Up Scaling/Up Converting technology will continue to evolve to a point where most any video file can be processed into 1080p or better and maybe even make 2D into decent 3D.

We are so happy with up conversion that we are in no rush to jump into B.Ray and so making our giant movie collection obsolete.

So, enjoy your B.Ray but continue to enjoy Up Conversion - next thing on my list is not B.Ray - probably a Edge video processor.

A point made by your post is that MANY older films (and plenty not so old) not produced with a quality that will take advantage of B.Ray.
I am in the minority of optimists that believe that Up Scaling/Up Converting technology will continue to evolve to a point where most any video file can be processed into 1080p or better and maybe even make 2D into decent 3D.
We are so happy with up conversion that we are in no rush to jump into B.Ray and so making our giant movie collection obsolete.
So, enjoy your B.Ray but continue to enjoy Up Conversion - next thing on my list is not B.Ray - probably a Edge video processor.
I agree that many films will not benefit very much from a Blu-ray version compared to up-sampled DVD. An investment in a really good processor makes sense to improve the quality of an existing DVD library. There's no need to replace all your existing DVDs with Blu-ray. But I would suggest that buying new titles in Blu-ray versus DVD is the sensible way to go. Good Blu-ray players are available at reasonable prices

I know you must have felt disappointed in the video quality you witnessed expecting so much more.

Go this http://bluray.highdefdigest.com to find reviews on blu-ray - They rate all aspects of the movie.

"28 Days later received 1.5 stars for video quality"
http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/1085/28dayslater.html

You can sort by options at this link
http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/reviews.html

Hope this helps!

I am surprised at the amount of people who hang on to up conversion and put off Blu-ray. Bluray player prices are falling and they still play dvds so it will not make your collection obsolete. It will make you want to only watch blurays from that point forward, but that is a good thing. The argument that getting bluray would make you dvd collection obsolete is basically saying "I will like it too much and the leap in quality it provides will make me never want to go back." It doesn't make any sense to me. Spend extra money on scalers and processors and refuse to spend the $150-200 on a bluray player that will provide a much greater leap in quality than any scaler could.

Sorry that is a little off topic, but it is an opinion I hear a lot and it just doesn't make any sense to me.

If you want a good example of a movie that is supposed to look crappy, but still is amazing on bluray, rent Cloverfield. The video and audio quality are remarkable and still give you the impression that it was shot on a cheap handheld camera.

Pmac

I am surprised at the amount of people who hang on to up conversion and put off Blu-ray. Bluray player prices are falling and they still play dvds so it will not make your collection obsolete. It will make you want to only watch blurays from that point forward, but that is a good thing. The argument that getting bluray would make you dvd collection obsolete is basically saying "I will like it too much and the leap in quality it provides will make me never want to go back." It doesn't make any sense to me. Spend extra money on scalers and processors and refuse to spend the $150-200 on a bluray player that will provide a much greater leap in quality than any scaler could.

Sorry that is a little off topic, but it is an opinion I hear a lot and it just doesn't make any sense to me.

If you want a good example of a movie that is supposed to look crappy, but still is amazing on bluray, rent Cloverfield. The video and audio quality are remarkable and still give you the impression that it was shot on a cheap handheld camera.

Pmac

I agree with you 100% on every aspect. In fact, I would dare to say that the difference between upscaling a dvd and blu ray is not only enormous in terms of image clarity, contrast, color saturation, etc. it's down right puzzling that we still see people with high end home cinemas still getting regular dvds.

I never looked back, the difference is night and day... on most releases (wink wink at the thread starter)

I will chime in here with the complete opposite of everything everyone else is saying. If upscaled DVD looks good to you don't ever buy a blu-ray! Keep watching standard dvd's upscaled. Your wallet will be much happier! Seriously, I am not trying to be a smart a$$, this is a terrible money sucking hobby we are in! If you are happy now, stay that way!
Best,
Chris

HOLY CRAP!!!!

What a picture! I rented let the right one in on Netflix.

Breathtaking picture. :cool:

Happy days! All that work paid off painting the screen, hanging it, planning etc etc. Best movie I have seen since Aliens.

CCONKLIN1

Too late they got another one :D.

CCONKLIN1

Too late they got another one :D.

Haha. I won't be buying any, but Netflix is going to get a hammering for sure!:p