I own both formats, with the "war" still raging, I am more and more hesitant to buy HDM releases(when I can stop myself:)).

So, In your humble opinions, what SD-DVD could pass for an HDM release when upconverted.

My first pick would be Deathproof, with Snatch superbit being a close second.

Have fun with this thread and spread some info on what looks good upconverted.

I just saw Deathproof for the first time and it is as close as I have seen an upscaled DVD looking like a HDM release. It is also the reason why I started this thread. Let me know what you think of it too. PQ wise, that is.

Regards, kamspy:cool:

Err, none.

Upscaling is great, but it can't match HD. The closest example I have seen was the Incredibles DVD, which upscaled very well, because of the style the cartoon was made in.

But heck, even satellite HD looks better than upscaled DVD, let alone REAL HD.

It's sad and sounds arrogant to say it, but the best DVDs I've seen are ones that I've encoded and authored myself (for my own use). The studios and public are too content with cramming their discs full of useless "bonus" features (and filtering the main movie itself to allow for lower bitrates) for the majority of people to see what DVD is really capable of.

But since you asked: probably the Criterion Collection version of "The Rock". Not perfect, but nice and detailed for the most part all the same.

I agree that upscaled DVD can look solid -- but it is not, no way, José, as good as the real thing. If you need any convincing: Casablanca, side-by-side comparison.

Star Wars II and III are pretty impressive using the HD-XA2. Who knows what they would look like in true HD.

Star Wars II and III are pretty impressive using the HD-XA2. Who knows what they would look like in true HD.

Uhhhhh, good? hehe

Lord of the Rings Extended Editions look DAMN good when upscaled well. Spreading the movie over 2 discs was a good idea.

Star Wars II and III are pretty impressive using the HD-XA2. Who knows what they would look like in true HD.

Agreed. They don't look HD, but they look damn good. The opening space battle in III looks great.

Lord of the Rings Extended Editions look DAMN good when upscaled well. Spreading the movie over 2 discs was a good idea.

While the picture looks sharper to me, I have to say that it seemed more noticeable when forced perspective was being used. Maybe it was just me watching the dang movies for the billionth time and noticing certain things that don't seem to look right

I like Band of Brothers, it looks really nice on my A1.

Open Range

Star Wars II and III are pretty impressive using the HD-XA2. Who knows what they would look like in true HD.

There is already a noticable difference between Episode III on low bitrate HBO-HD and xeon processed upscaled DVD in the favor of HBO-HD. Upscaled from 480i cannot compare to the same master feeding at 1080p.

The very first transfer and release of Gladiator (a 2-disc special with the extras on a seperate disc) is by far my best looking DVD upscaled, it kills even the few Superbits I have.

http://www.sounds-of-schils.com/music/Glad_DVD.jpg
http://www.sounds-of-schils.com/music/Gladiator.jpg

Of course maybe soon enough it won't matter....c'mon Paramount\DW!!!!! :D

A lot of dvds hold up remarkably well when viewed from across the room. Up close is a different story.

But heck, even satellite HD looks better than upscaled DVD, let alone REAL HD.

Sorry, I strongly beg to differ with you. HDnet was running "The Great Race" which is one of the SD dvds that I have. At the time, I cued the dvd up to where it matched what HDnet was showing. Using an OPPO upconverting dvd player the DVD looked markedly better than what HDnet was showing on an A/B comparison. I was using a Hitachi 65 inch 65S700 tv for the comparison.

My vote goes to Toy Story 10th anniversary edition.

Some upconverted DVDs can look pretty darn sweet! Some DVDs I have watched upconverted lately that were exceptional:
-The Incredibles
-Monster's Inc
-Toy Story

Some that were very good but not in the same category:
-Raider's Of The Lost Arc
-Animatrix
-Heavy Metal (SB). I have this one PVR;d from when it came on my HD dish and the two are VERY similar!

My set up is a 720p 50" RP LCD TV with a Sony Upconverting DVD player.

A lot of dvds hold up remarkably well when viewed from across the room. Up close is a different story.

Cool then! That happens to be where I view my flicks from! ;)

Agree with the others, Incredibles also looks outstanding upconverted.

Crank looks awesome upscaled.

I was almost fooled that it was HD!

The very first transfer and release of Gladiator (a 2-disc special with the extras on a seperate disc) is by far my best looking DVD upscaled, it kills even the few Superbits I have.

Of course maybe soon enough it won't matter....c'mon Paramount\DW!!!!! :D

I have this version of the film, and it does look impressive played from my XA2.

does "upconverted" need to be in the title? is it possible for a tier 2 pre-upconverted title to look better than a tier 1 pre-upconverted title after both had been upconverted?

and if we are comparing upconverted titles vs hi-def, it's no contest.

Sin City looks awesome. I really like the movie and the SD looks so good, I wouldn't buy the HD DVD if it were released. Freddy

any friggin pixar movie looks the bomb!

I'm positive that this thread doesn't belong here.

I agree that the first 10 minutes of Revenge of the Sith look very nice upconverted.

The very first transfer and release of Gladiator (a 2-disc special with the extras on a seperate disc) is by far my best looking DVD upscaled, it kills even the few Superbits I have.

http://www.sounds-of-schils.com/music/Glad_DVD.jpg
http://www.sounds-of-schils.com/music/Gladiator.jpg

Of course maybe soon enough it won't matter....c'mon Paramount\DW!!!!! :D

I think DVD reached its peak with this disc. It had amazing picture, sound and the 2nd disc was all extras. A great disc. I love the opening sequence to this film. His hand going through the cornfields look near HD.

I think everyone is forgetting the low hanging fruit - namely 2D animation.

I recently watched Renaissance (Frank Miller-esque black and white CGI) and Doctor Strange (modern 2D cell animation) on SD-DVD upconverted through a PS3 and both looked superb. The latter (Dr. Strange) is actually available on BD, but I have a hard time believing that the PQ could actually be any better.

Why don't you check the Reference DVD thread? Lots of good ideas for excellent DVDs.

But as stated before, won't hold a candle to decently done HD.

another vote for Star Wars Episode 2
the best looking DVD of the series - IMO
and the best SD upconversion I've seen at home

another vote for Star Wars Episode 2
the best looking DVD of the series - IMO
and the best SD upconversion I've seen at home

Yes, it looks good.

Doesn't escape the fact the movie itself was unwatchable dross though.

I would nominate Casino Royale a very good upscaled movie.

DVD's look fine when I put them into my XA2, as long as that's the first thing I've watched that day. However, after watching an HD-DVD or even HD cable, it's very difficult to switch to regular upscaled DVD's even with the REON...soft and blurry.

DVD's look fine when I put them into my XA2, as long as that's the first thing I've watched that day. However, after watching an HD-DVD or even HD cable, it's very difficult to switch to regular upscaled DVD's even with the REON...soft and blurry.

I agree.

Best upconverted SD DVD? Anime! Specifically, 2D animation that's digitally coloured and transfered. Why? Because cell-shaded character animation has no textures to show loss-of-detail. And a good scaler literally re-draws hard edges, almost like fitting a spline curve, so inked lines appear smooth and, on a Faroudja scaler, nearly HD-sharp! The only significant weakness in upconverted 2D animation is in the background art, which does contain textures.

My favourite upconverted 2D animation:
The Place Promised in Our Early Days (ADV) The encoding is excellent, the line art is crisp and smooth, the scenes are filled with deep saturated colours making full use of the NTSC color gamet, and the art style doesn't have too many textures that are lost in SD resolution.
Last Exile (Pioneer) The CG effects and backgrounds appear rich but done in a style where not a lot of detail is lost in SD resolution. Upconverted, this tv show looks better than most animated feature film DVDs!
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (Bandai Visual) I give this one props only because, in the special edition, Bandai included two discs for each episode - one for the DTS audio version and one for the regular audio version - which keeps the bitrate up.

Disappointing upconverted 2D animation (movies that should look great upconverted but don't):
Steam Boy (Sony) The encoding does not make proper use of the full dynamic range of the color space that's available on DVD - Scarlett's red costume elements should pop but instead they look almost dirty, and the scene in the atrium should dazzle but looks flat. It's a real shame.
Princess Mononoke (Disney) This is just plain poor encoding, upconverting brings out all the compression artifacts.
Metropolis (Tri Star) The movie was digitally coloured, but the DVD looks like it was transfered from a film copy.

It's funny that the best encodings are ADV, Pioneer, and Bandai, while the worst encodings are Sony, Disney, and TriStar!

House of the Flying Daggers is a beautiful upconverted SD DVD.

Most all Criterion SD DVD's have an excellent pic.

It's sad and sounds arrogant to say it, but the best DVDs I've seen are ones that I've encoded and authored myself (for my own use). The studios and public are too content with cramming their discs full of useless "bonus" features (and filtering the main movie itself to allow for lower bitrates) for the majority of people to see what DVD is really capable of.

But since you asked: probably the Criterion Collection version of "The Rock". Not perfect, but nice and detailed for the most part all the same.

Agreed. The best thing was when Superbits were being made with little Bonus features.

The very first transfer and release of Gladiator (a 2-disc special with the extras on a seperate disc) is by far my best looking DVD upscaled, it kills even the few Superbits I have.

http://www.sounds-of-schils.com/music/Glad_DVD.jpg
http://www.sounds-of-schils.com/music/Gladiator.jpg

Of course maybe soon enough it won't matter....c'mon Paramount\DW!!!!! :D:D

Yes, it looks good.

Yeah, Gladiator upscaled looks great. Riddick, Das Boot, 5th Element (blu-ray of course is better), Lion King, etc. I can't wait to hear Gladiator with a lossless track, that would be something to hear the Hans Zimmer score!

"Originally Posted by Schils
The very first transfer and release of Gladiator (a 2-disc special with the extras on a seperate disc) is by far my best looking DVD upscaled, it kills even the few Superbits I have."

Man, I miss my old 65" CRT Hitachi Ultravision. Probably the best PQ I ever had, I prefer it to the SXRD in terms of color, contrast, etc etc. I'm sure the SXRD has more resolution and if I had the Hitachi it wouldn't fit where my 55" SXRD is now.

^ It's the nicest picture\display I've been lucky enough to own thus far, bought it brand new towards the end of '06, it is a beast, no doubt, but fortunately I have the room for it, and if you break down and dedicate an entire wall to it and dress up the area with all the other stuff, it looks great IMO, hardly a sacrifice for the PQ it delivers anyway!

Swordfish looks dam good, one of the best.

Its funny how I thought that was the best video could look....till I saw Blu-Ray. Now its funny how bad DVD looks after watching HD stuff. Although not quite the difference of vhs to dvd. Man did VHS suck..

Agreed. I had to sale mine when I sold my old place that had a much bigger family room.

Old setup: Upconverted Lion King on the Zenith 318, not a verygood pic as you know in person a fanastic picture.
http://www.geocities.com/briankmonkey/DSC00049.JPG

Maybe one day these DLP's, Lcos, Plasma's, LCD's etc will be able to match in PQ. Oled perhaps but those are going to be insanely priced for a long time.

Sorry, I strongly beg to differ with you. HDnet was running "The Great Race" which is one of the SD dvds that I have. At the time, I cued the dvd up to where it matched what HDnet was showing. Using an OPPO upconverting dvd player the DVD looked markedly better than what HDnet was showing on an A/B comparison. I was using a Hitachi 65 inch 65S700 tv for the comparison.

WOW. Do you have DirecTV? My Dish HDNet is head and shoulders better than upscaled dvd.

Oh yeah, looked nice! :)

I removed the glare screen from mine, that was a big deal, really improved the look (nice little project, have to re-focus, calibrate, etc - but tis worth it). It may be native 1080i, but the A2 and it make a perfect pairing, not even gonna think about upgrading to 1080p (both, display and HD player) for a couple of years, not a significant enough deal to warrant it, by then, the prices will be friendlier anyway. =)

I borrowed "The Green Mile" from my dad and it looked amazing. 188 minutes spread over 2 discs. Without a doubt the best looking SD movie I've seen.

Oh yeah, looked nice! :)

I removed the glare screen from mine, that was a big deal, really improved the look (nice little project, have to re-focus, calibrate, etc - but tis worth it). It may be native 1080i, but the A2 and it make a perfect pairing, not even gonna think about upgrading to 1080p (both, display and HD player) for a couple of years, not a significant enough deal to warrant it, by then, the prices will be friendlier anyway. =)

Your setup looks great, I see no reason to upgrade IMO. Yeah, I remember reading about that mod but was too nervous to do it with. The calibration options on that set are awesome. Not sure if your is the same but my ex (65T500) has some kind of virtual 1080p. Though I know the resolution wasn't really that high it didn't flicker like standard def CRT tube sets.

Thanks. Mine is the 65F710 - it does have the virtual 'p' chip in it: LINK (http://www.tvauthority.com/Rear-Projection-HDTV/Hitachi-65F710-write-review.asp)

I just want the Episode I pod race in 1080p24 HD with 24 bit 7.1 TrueHD.

The entire problem with the prequels is that they just didn't tell Anikin's story very well. If they had his turning point to joining the dark side being the murder of Jar Jar, I think it would have been much more believable. Heck, I think Jar Jar could make Yoda turn to the dark side. :D

Nice, you got HDMI. I had DVI but never used it.

I just want the Episode I pod race in 1080p24 HD with 24 bit 7.1 TrueHD.

The entire problem with the prequels is that they just didn't tell Anikin's story very well. If they had his turning point to joining the dark side being the murder of Jar Jar, I think it would have been much more believable. Heck, I think Jar Jar could make Yoda turn to the dark side. :D


Haha, that would be great. All that rage from Jar Jar, who stole his slutty girl ;)

Swordfish looks dam good, one of the best.



Yes it is. I've had that movie for years and decided to pop it in a while, out of curiosity, and was shocked at how great it looks.

Terminator 2: Extreme DVD looks truly outstanding as well. Certainly not HD, but truly extraordinary.

Certain episodes, or rather scenes, from the Battlestar Galactica DVD's are truly astounding as well. Some shots are so amazing, it's hard to imagine what they could look like in HD. C'mon Dec 4'th!:)

WOW. Do you have DirecTV? My Dish HDNet is head and shoulders better than upscaled dvd.


I have HD NET here in Canada on Bell Express Vu (a satellite carrier up here). Movies etc on HD NET are phenomenal and have really made me realize how great HDM will be on my system. The format "war", firmware updates, DRM issues set are keeping me on the sidelines for now. I will wait until gen 3-4 and see where things are. A lot of upconverted DVDs look great; but great HD like HD NET shows the difference. Lousy HD is often little better than upconverted DVD...

Oh, and to stay on topic I watched Titan A.E. upconverted earlier today. Looked awesome! If HDM can make this title look even better then count me in!:eek:

Open Range

Pretty much any animation looks very good upscaled. I've yet to see any upscaled live action content look as good as upscaled animation.

So, In your humble opinions, what SD-DVD could pass for an HDM release when upconverted.
Regards, kamspy:cool:


I am going to make this big because this is the one DVD that made me actually say WOW

Final Fantasy Advent Children

If you have not seen this it will be an eye opener. Before HDM came out I used this as the demo disk to end all. You will be amazed if you watch this title because you will not believe it is only a DVD.

Dont believe me, go watch.

I am going to make this big because this is the one DVD that made me actually say WOW

Final Fantasy Advent Children

If you have not seen this it will be an eye opener. Before HDM came out I used this as the demo disk to end all. You will be amazed if you watch this title because you will not believe it is only a DVD.

Dont believe me, go watch.

+1
Fight Club is pretty good too

'deja vu' looked real good on my 108" diy screen w s77 set to 1080i.

anyone else have any sd-dvd secrets to share?

I never really bought many sd-dvds and didn't really get into setting up a HT for movies.
As a music lover I have always had a great audio set up, but I didn't even get a 16x9 display until this year (up to 3).

So I really missed out on the whole DVD era, I would catch what I wanted in theaters and maybe rent one twice a month.

Not until I bought a PS3 and started experimenting with BR's (all HDM sounds so good) did I really invest time, money, and research into all of this. The Gladiator tip was great and I agree with the Casino Royale pick as it was one of the few DVDs I owned before I really felt that HT's could captivate me(also a product of HDM).

But since I have started to establish a movie library, I have found that I have no clue what I am getting when I am shopping for a DVD. I do new releases on HD and still pick up new DVDs that I don't see getting the HD makeover (Grindhouse, now what would be the point in that?),

So please anyone who knows of a great SD-DVD, picture AND audio included, of a title that is not available on BR or HDDVD, please share.

Cars looks amazing upscaled on my A2 and has one of the best sound mixes I have heard on SD-DVD.

How does the Godfather trilogy add up on SD-DVD. Been really holding back on pulling the trigger on that one. Tell me it's got anamorphic and good dts and it's mine.

I think DVD reached its peak with this disc. It had amazing picture, sound and the 2nd disc was all extras. A great disc. I love the opening sequence to this film. His hand going through the cornfields look near HD.

I have to agree, Gladiator holds up very well when watched upscaled on a 50 inch HDTV or smaller. This movie has lots of closeups which always give the illusion of a higher def picture...