i "upgraded" a few movies and wish i hadn't cuz the upscaled sd dvd looked almost as good. these were:

Sleepy Hollow
Slither
Army of Darkness
Christmas Story
The Grinch
The Thing

have you come across others that you feel weren't much of an upgrade?

I'd also add in Bone Collector. I was a little disappointed with the HD version. :(

I'd also add in Bone Collector. I was a little disappointed with the HD version. :(

i was disappointed with that whole movie! i traded it in the weekend after i bought it.

i "upgraded" a few movies and wish i hadn't cuz the upscaled sd dvd looked almost as good. these were:

Sleepy Hollow
Slither
Army of Darkness
Christmas Story
The Grinch
The Thing

have you come across others that you feel weren't much of an upgrade?

What size screen are you viewing on? Is it 720 or 1080?

I watched the SD version of The Thing just yesterday. On SD it sure has a lot of debri on the film, like dust, and hairs, or whatever those white specks are. Surely the HD version is much better than that.

i watyched them on 1080i

pincho, look at some hd dvd reviews of the thing.

I don't have info to share... I just wanted to say I think this thread is a great idea.

As we all move forward, it will be good to know which high-def transfers really are worth the expenditure of buying yet another copy of a title.

And this is good for us all, because the sooner the studios realize that we are selective in buying hd content for true PQ upgrade, they'll refine and focus on transfers that will truely highlight the format.

just my @.02. So let's keep this thread alive! Great idea.

Eric

I agree with the ones listed by the OP except The Grinch, I thought that one looked exceptionaly better then the sd dvd version. I'd add American Werewolf from London too

Yeah, from your list, I've got Sleepy Hollow, The Thing and Army of Darkness. Sleepy Hollow looks great, but I don't remember how the SD-DVD looked.

The Thing looks considerably better than the SD-DVD (both the first release and the 16x9 re-release). Army of Darkness looks great! I know there are lots of detractors out there that started complaining as soon as this title was released, but for my money, it's a GREAT improvement over all the many, many DVDs that were released. Anchor Bay mastered a lot of those releases from VHS tapes! Yes, most of the film is dark and grainy, but the daylight scenes shine, and I've seen this film so many times, that this is a much welcome release.

i "upgraded" a few movies and wish i hadn't cuz the upscaled sd dvd looked almost as good. these were:

Sleepy Hollow
Slither
Army of Darkness
Christmas Story
The Grinch
The Thing

have you come across others that you feel weren't much of an upgrade?


The Thing? The HD DVD blows away the DVD.

I recently bought the SD Rocky based on the weak reviews for the BD version, figured (hoped) someday it may show on HD and if not, the upsaled version is pretty darned nice for $9. =)

I may keep some of the cheesier titles I've got that also clean up/upscale pretty decently, stuff like the first couple of Cheech and Chong flicks, History of the World, etc...

i watyched them on 1080i

pincho, look at some hd dvd reviews of the thing.


http://hddvd.highdefdigest.com/thing1982.html

4.5 out of 5 stars for PQ...I thought it was fantastic

keep in mind, they all look somehwta better than sd dvd, but how many are of actual hd quality?

really, i wan't very impressed with the thing. still looked somewhat grainy to me and the audio was no big enhancement.

sleepy hollow is such a grainy movie that hd just shows you HOW grainy it actually is.

keep in mind, they all look somehwta better than sd dvd, but how many are of actual hd quality?

really, i wan't very impressed with the thing. still looked somewhat grainy to me and the audio was no big enhancement.

sleepy hollow is such a grainy movie that hd just shows you HOW grainy it actually is.
So, you think if you see any grain, they are not HD quality?
J

Clerks II

http://hddvd.highdefdigest.com/thing1982.html

4.5 out of 5 stars for PQ...I thought it was fantastic

I concur. The HD DVD surpasses even the anamorphic SD DVD out of the water on every level.

I'm on the fence with a couple of others, the SD versions of 'em I have are pretty bad, but I see that they are not rated very highly on the tier rating list either, not sure if they'd be worth it, but I may stick with the SD/upscaled versions of Caddyshack and Fast Times at Ridgemont...that is unless someone here has them and can testify they are really worth it....

I can't speak for the titles listed by the OP, but so far all of the catalog titles I have seen to date on both formats which is only a few since I've just had my players for a few weeks (Termintor I and II, Rocky, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Superman: The Movie) have been clear improvements over the SD DVD in every area: 1) no compression artifacts (just real film grain), 2) better detail/resolution, 3) more natural color production, 4) an overall better "filmlike" look.

Last night I watched Fast Times and I was very impressed. I've seen this movie many times and saw details I never knew existed. I think the disappointment some people are having is unrealistic expectations that every catalog title will be "Teir 0 or 1."

Also, Clerks II is a significant improvement over the SD DVD, as well.

And, my display is only 57" at 1080i.

Spartacus. Yuck.

Last night I watched Fast Times and I was very impressed. I've seen this movie many times and saw details I never knew existed. I think the disappointment some people are having is unrealistic expectations that every catalog title will be "Teir 0 or 1."


Thanks for that input, I never really expected certain movies to reach that level, but then again, stuff like Blazing Saddles and Goodfellas 'came into their own' really well on HD, was kinda hoping the same for Caddy and Fast Times, I may just have to get Fast Times someday now considering what you've said. Thanks again. =)

Oh yeah, add Goodfellas and Apollo 13 to my list too.

I'll be watching 12 Monkeys tonight.

I recently bought the SD Rocky based on the weak reviews for the BD version, figured (hoped) someday it may show on HD and if not, the upsaled version is pretty darned nice for $9. =)

I may keep some of the cheesier titles I've got that also clean up/upscale pretty decently, stuff like the first couple of Cheech and Chong flicks, History of the World, etc...


The last Rocky SD DVD release from the Anthology set is superb. The Blu-Ray version is a VERY minor step-up. However, the sound on the Blu-Ray version is a major upgrade.

keep in mind, they all look somehwta better than sd dvd, but how many are of actual hd quality?

really, i wan't very impressed with the thing. still looked somewhat grainy to me and the audio was no big enhancement.

sleepy hollow is such a grainy movie that hd just shows you HOW grainy it actually is.


HD quality is HD resolution, regardless of how you feel the film should look.

I can't speak for the titles listed by the OP, but so far all of the catalog titles I have seen to date on both formats which is only a few since I've just had my players for a few weeks (Termintor I and II, Rocky, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Superman: The Movie) have been clear improvements over the SD DVD in every area: 1) no compression artifacts (just real film grain), 2) better detail/resolution, 3) more natural color production, 4) an overall better "filmlike" look.

Last night I watched Fast Times and I was very impressed. I've seen this movie many times and saw details I never knew existed. I think the disappointment some people are having is unrealistic expectations that every catalog title will be "Teir 0 or 1."

Also, Clerks II is a significant improvement over the SD DVD, as well.

And, my display is only 57" at 1080i.

I'll agree with you on all of them except Rocky.

I didn't have A Christmas Story prior to receiving it as a gift on HD DVD, and had I known the softness of the picture I probably would have just grabbed the SD version. Oh well, I guess it'll fit better on my shelf when the eventual shift to HD comes.

I watched the Thing for the first time ever on Sunday evening, and I thought it looked really good on HD DVD. Those special effects hold up really well after twenty-five years, even in HD.

Great thread topic :)

From my own collection I have listed the titles below that I feel Do/Do Not warrant an upgrade from the SD version. I also listed a few as Personal Choice as the Picture/Sound/Features may be minor upgrades that would be worth it to some individuals and not to others and alot of those specific titles are offered as a DVD/HD-DVD Combo. So, it may not be worth upgrading if you already own the SD DVD but, the combo gives you both versions if its a first time purchase.

The Thing: Upgrade to HD-DVD
Apollo 13: Upgrade to HD-DVD
American Werewolf in London: Keep SD DVD
Serenity: Upgrade to HD-DVD
Last Samurai: Upgrade to HD-DVD
Phantom of the Opera: Upgrade to HD-DVD
Pitch Black: Upgrade to HD-DVD
Chronicles of Riddick: Upgrade to HD-DVD
Backdraft: Upgrade to HD-DVD
Bourne Supremacy: Upgrade to HD-DVD
Constantine: Upgrade to HD-DVD
Batman Begins: Upgrade to HD-DVD
King Kong: Upgrade to HD-DVD
Superman The Movie: Personal Choice
Superman 2 (DC): Personal Choice
Superman Returns: Personal Choice
Sleepy Hollow: Personal Choice
The Fugitive: Keep SD DVD
Slither: Personal Choice
Army of Darkness: Keep SD DVD
Goodfellas: Upgrade to HD-DVD
Casino: Upgrade to HD-DVD
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang: Personal Choice
Dune: Upgrade to HD-DVD
The Mummy: Upgrade to HD-DVD

i \"upgraded\" a few movies and wish i hadn\'t cuz the upscaled sd dvd looked almost as good. these were:

Sleepy Hollow
Slither
Army of Darkness
Christmas Story
The Grinch
The Thing

have you come across others that you feel weren\'t much of an upgrade?

ive seen slither and army of darkness and grinch

they both are not close to upscaled sd how do i nkow cause their combos and ive watched both sides of all those movies and the dark scenes where horrible the colors werent the same sharness just wasnt their

but yes not a huge improvement


me the only movie i think looks close to dvd is meet the parents but heh i didnt own the dvd

i "upgraded" a few movies and wish i hadn't cuz the upscaled sd dvd looked almost as good. these were:

Sleepy Hollow
Slither
Army of Darkness
Christmas Story
The Grinch
The Thing

have you come across others that you feel weren't much of an upgrade?

No worry here. None of that I have in SD anyway.

To some degree it's going to be hard agreement, too many factors go into what we see on our displays. The obvious one is size of screen and all the others like external scaler vs internal upconversion etc. (Thought I think the AX2 closed the gap on the last one).

Ron

This is a great thread! I have been disappointed with a couple of "upgrades". The Mummy was iffy and The Fugitive was hardly any improvement. I will be careful going forward in respect to replacing movies that I already have. Btw, I have the XA2 and it does a spectacular job of upconverting my SD titles.

I didn't upgrade to "AWIL" because of reviews and "Sky Captain" is so close, I feel I wasted my money on that one.

I DIDN'T WASTE MY MONEY ON "FORBIDDEN PLANET!!!"

i "upgraded" a few movies and wish i hadn't cuz the upscaled sd dvd looked almost as good. these were:

Sleepy Hollow
Slither
Army of Darkness
Christmas Story
The Grinch
The Thing

have you come across others that you feel weren't much of an upgrade?
Why did you buy the SD DVD of Slither when the HD DVD was a combo that came out on the same day?

I DIDN'T WASTE MY MONEY ON "FORBIDDEN PLANET!!!"
Er... you should have. :)

Mine would be "Full Metal Jacket" (sorry, Kube).

I keep the SD if it has extras(significant ones) that don't make it on the HD version. This is a more a problem with BR discs than HD which seems to be providing the same extras(luckily).

House of Wax, I had originally bought Wolf Creek but it had audio issues(would skip) and the making of wouldn't play on my 360 add on. I returned it and decided I wanted to get a horror title to replace WC and so I picked HOW. Not much of an improvement over the sd version.

I DIDN'T WASTE MY MONEY ON "FORBIDDEN PLANET!!!"
Are you kidding me? Its MUCH better than the SD DVD.
J

None, all my HD DVD versions far exceede the SD DVD editions i owned.

King Kong, and only because HD makes the CG look that much more fake. Takes me out of the movie and forces me to notice it. Same thing happened when I watched the Wizard of OZ in HD when it was on TV a few years ago... I could see all of the tricks that they used (like painting the yellow brick road on a wall) and it just took me out of the experience.

For me....The Brothers Grimm ...SD.....looks amazing on my XA-2!!

I am well pleased with the upscaling ability of the XA-2...and with a collection of almost 500 SD DVDs...I never stop being amazed at the PQ...Some of course,because of good or bad transfers,look better than others.....but all in all....I am a very happy and delighted camper.. :)

Sahara SD would be a close 2nd. to "The Bros"..

The Thing? The HD DVD blows away the DVD.

Agree completely. I was just scrolling down to say this and youve already said it.
Even the new anamorphic remaster on SD is full of edge enhacement and film marks. The HD may not be as good as more modern films in HD but it is still MUCH better than the SD.

Lethal Weapon 1 and 2

Those I really should have kept the directors cut DVDs. The 1st one is barely an upgrade, while part 2 has a few 3D moments, most of it has jagged edges. Viewed on a 120in screen with CRT projector(1080i). The other 63 titles have been nice upgrades(well some I never bought on DVD, new releases mostly, held out).

maybe it's just because i'm using a front projection system (120"), but every HD-DVD i've seen has been a dramatic improvement over the DVD, even if the HD-DVD isn't particularly the best by HD standards. and this is only a 720 display.

from this perspective, seeing people say titles like the thing, sleepy hollow, house of wax etc is not much better than the HD-DVD is really bizarre.

even the ones graded very lowly like christmas vacation is still much better than the DVD.

all i can say is that if this is the experience some of you are getting from HD-DVD (or HD in general), then you're really missing out.

None, all my HD DVD versions far exceede the SD DVD editions i owned.
Agreed. Then again I still have all of my SD DVD to watch whenever I want. The titles that I do have on both The Mummy, Lethal Weapon and a few others all look better then the SD counterparts.

Spartacus. Yuck.

Hear Hear...

MEC2

I have The Thing & Army of Darkness and the HD-DVD versions are way better than the SD versions. I have a 9" CRT projector. It really does depend a lot on your sources.

Agreed. Then again I still have all of my SD DVD to watch whenever I want. The titles that I do have on both The Mummy, Lethal Weapon and a few others all look better then the SD counterparts.

I agree too. They ALL look bettter than SD. Some look better then others for sure, but it's all good. What else should you expect, it's HD! :eek:

Agreed. Then again I still have all of my SD DVD to watch whenever I want. The titles that I do have on both The Mummy, Lethal Weapon and a few others all look better then the SD counterparts.

I agree. I think the OP is just venting because he is a Blu-Ray fan.
J

Only watched the first 12 minutes, but Italian Job wasn't a great upgrade from my dvdshrink'd 4gb copy - ouch.

Why did you buy the SD DVD of Slither when the HD DVD was a combo that came out on the same day?

you are correct. actually i was going to buy the sd version instead of the stupid $40 combo but i was trying to impress my neice and so i bought the HD combo. later, just to test it, we flipped the disc to without looking and played it to see if we could tell which was the sd version and which was the hd version. we couldn't tell. :o

don't tell me The Mummy was weak, i just ordered the damn thing today!

i still think The Thing could have looked better.

There seems to be so many variables involved with different setups. I wonder how many setups are really accurate?

I guess if I had to pick one it would have to be Excalibur.
This transfer has lots of issues, but I still think that the HD version still makes my heart race, while the SD was just so so.
Funny thing, I have upgraded Pitch Black and Chronicles of Riddick, but I cannot bear to part with the SD versions. Nostalgia I guess.....

SD DVDs owned : Too many to count.
HD DVDs owned : 44

I don't think Terminator 3 is much of an improvement over the SD version.

Are you kidding me? Its MUCH better than the SD DVD.
J

I meant to say I wasted my money on "Sky Captain," when there wasn't that much difference between the Sd and HD.

Clearly "FP" HD is beautiful next to the SD. That's why I said," I didn't waste my money on FB!!!"

I hope that makes it clearer.

Of the 52 I own, I am most disapointed in 12 Monkeys.

The Thing? By most all accounts this one is one you have to get if you are a big fan of this movie. Ok, I admit I may be the biggest fan of this movie period. :)

It is like the next title I had planned to buy until I read the OP's post here.

keep in mind, they all look somehwta better than sd dvd, but how many are of actual hd quality?

really, i wan't very impressed with the thing. still looked somewhat grainy to me and the audio was no big enhancement.

sleepy hollow is such a grainy movie that hd just shows you HOW grainy it actually is.

I agree there are probably HD video discs that provide a relatively small improvement over SD and one could conceivably forgo the purchase (depending on the individual of course). However, I'm concerned about what is actually being compared in generating this list.

The only way this list makes any sense is if in each case, the HD and SD versions are directly compared, and on a large enough screen to allow comparison to be meaningful. If this just ends up as an inverted "Tier" thread where people cite films that don't meet their "HD" expectations, then it will be entirely valueless.

"HD" is NOT what a high definition football game looks like and it's NOT what Fettastic's Tier Thread level 0 or 1 look like.

HD is just a format, and its purpose when applied to video disc is to allow the film to look as close to the way it's supposed to look as currently practical (given the limitations of the mastering of course).

So comparison between the SD and HD DVD versions has to compare how the actual film renditions themselves appear, not how either compares to one's personal conception of how "HD" appears. Any other form of comparison is absolutely meaningless -- no useful purpose served.

None :)

Although I think Universal should have given "The Sting" alot more love than it received, it still looks better than the standard DVD.

I don't have info to share... I just wanted to say I think this thread is a great idea.

As we all move forward, it will be good to know which high-def transfers really are worth the expenditure of buying yet another copy of a title.

And this is good for us all, because the sooner the studios realize that we are selective in buying hd content for true PQ upgrade, they'll refine and focus on transfers that will truely highlight the format.

just my @.02. So let's keep this thread alive! Great idea.

Eric

I find my position right in line with Eric's. I want the full monty also.

Traffic (it looks as if an SD master was used for HD-DVD)

I watched the SD version of The Thing just yesterday. On SD it sure has a lot of debri on the film, like dust, and hairs, or whatever those white specks are. Surely the HD version is much better than that.

Totally agree. The Thing on HD-DVD is as good as this movie gets. It wasn't until I picked up the HD version that I noticed the nose ring on Doc. The OP is wrong on this one IMHO.

As for my biggest disappointment, not because it's not much of an improvement over DVD, but because it deserves a much better treatment. That movie has to be Goodfellows. A classic picture and definitely worthy for extra care in putting out a definitive HD-DVD version. The master they selected was not up to par. There was dirt, hair, scratch lines, and other defects that should have been cleaned up. Casino looked so much better and it's a shame that GF isn't in that class, it's the better movie. IMHO, Goodfellows is better than the Departed and should have won Best Picture/Director. Marty will likely win finally this year for the Departed, but his better pictures were Goodfellows and Ragging Bull and GF deserves to be a top notch HD-DVD release. It wasn't. :(

Goodfellas. NOT Goodfellows. Just sayin'.

however much of an improvement it may be, The Thing still has that fluctuating blue tinge goin on. look at any bright scene and you will see a slight blue tinge come over the picture, go away, and cycle back again. it goes on throughout the whole movie. not a high hd dvd trait!

First there are to many variables to consider in your setup to determine which is better.

Second IMO people believe that movies purchased will look like Discovery HD. Broadcast HD is all over the map in terms of quality i.e. the softness of GMA or CSI Vegas or the overblown image of CSI Miami.

With feature films you also have to deal with artistic vision (M Vice).

Lastly as technology advances the transfers will get better the same thing as SDDVD, just find one your first dvds such as the first Blade Runner and compare to a recent title.

i "upgraded" a few movies and wish i hadn't cuz the upscaled sd dvd looked almost as good. these were:

Sleepy Hollow
Slither
Army of Darkness
Christmas Story
The Grinch
The Thing

have you come across others that you feel weren't much of an upgrade?

Army of Darkness I can agree with, the outdoor scenes are exceptional however the source material varies from scene to scene and thus the quality is all over the board with the majority of the film offereing little improvement.

The Grinch and especially The Thing offered significant improvement over their SD counterparts. The Thing to me looked simply amazing in a side by side comparision. Seriously, I had no idea Doc had a nose ring before.

First there are to many variables to consider in your setup to determine which is better.

Second IMO people believe that movies purchased will look like Discovery HD. Broadcast HD is all over the map in terms of quality i.e. the softness of GMA or CSI Vegas or the overblown image of CSI Miami.

With feature films you also have to deal with artistic vision (M Vice).

Lastly as technology advances the transfers will get better the same thing as SDDVD, just find one your first dvds such as the first Blade Runner and compare to a recent title.

How is the GMA/CSI thing a quality issue? That is how those programs are intended to look. Consider movies like Ultraviolet and War of the Worlds (Spoiledberg), both don't have one frame that hasn't been altered in post. There are movies like Dune that have flaws in the originals that have made it to the HD-DVD and Grand Prix, which can't actually look that good. Without access to the films they were tranfered from, we have no idea what they actually look like.

scratch quality from the sentence.

Totally agree. The Thing on HD-DVD is as good as this movie gets. It wasn't until I picked up the HD version that I noticed the nose ring on Doc. The OP is wrong on this one IMHO.

It's so funny you said that. I just bought The Thing in HD last week and watched it today. As I was watching, all of a sudden I went "Doc has a nose ring!". I've watched the movie 20+ times before and I never saw that. :)

Which movies should you have kept on SD dvd?

Absolutely non of them.

I'm consistanely pleased with every HDDVD i buy - even the ones in "teir 3".

I put a lot of restraint into not buying a big DVD catalog - managed to keep it sub 100 titles, because i always knew HD DVD was comming and boy am i glad i waited.

Watched some of those hd-dvds on a 92'screen the HD-DVDS are still improvements to the dvd, big screen you really notice the difference. Slither Looked great on HD I thought

i ALWAYS saw doc had a nose ring! you guys just need to be more observant.

and again, the thing in hd still has that fluctuating blue tint.