The Mummy comparison *PIX* - Page 3

I did the same thing about a month ago so it does suck having to rebuy movies at a higher price. There are times I miss the HD DVD player as some movies the Title/PopUp menus system was better which is a minor difference, but overall I am happy I made the switch since now I do not have to worry about being able to buy another player for an obsolete format if my old one died (sold that also)

Xylon...when theres more detail on HD DVD, it's called compression artifacts

Seriously though. If you look at the 2nd frame, where all the horses are, you can see the same effect in the sky between the sets of horses. It's evident if you look up and a little to the right of the circled scratch. Also if you follow the dust trail (to the right of the vertical scratch) to the area before the last set of horses, there is an area where the dust blob is sorta white and sandy...the same effect can be seen in that. It's subtle, but it's there.

geez if you people are actually watching these movies this close, you're going to go blind soon anyway.

For those of us that aren't insane, they look more or less equal...as I knew they would.

They're both from the same terrible master. Arguing over compression artifacts here is like arguing whether to eat the **** of someone who just had broccoli stew or someone who had banana fudge ice cream.

As far as I can tell, it's the exact same level of EE, only you can see it easier on the Blu-ray encode because it's a slightly clearer picture.

I guess the only thing left to ask is:

Is it significantly better than the DVD?

See page 1 of this thread for the answer.

thanks Xylon, you are right, the BD version in that latest shot is more smeared with less detail

now that is weird, one shot shows more detail on BD and another shows more on HD, strange!

-Gary

Welcome to the world of lossy compression.

When we dig so deep into the images as we do, we will find issues on both encodes.

Just like a visit to the dentist...

Finally a response I can understand. Thumbs up.

I own both The Mummy and The Mummy Returns on HD-DVD and personally feel that just having them both with DTS-HD MA is worth the upgrade. The HD-DVD transfer is not bad and IMHO a good improvement over the SD-DVD. But there are a number of Universal titles I am more than willing to upgrade for lossless audio. I am looking forward to having something much better than Dolby Digital Plus. That format never won me over and IMHO it was nothing more than 7.1 version of Dolby Digital. It was one of the reasons that I cut back on HD-DVD's as I am not that impressed with Dolby Digital Plus. Now PCM, Dolby True HD and DTS-HD MA are very impressive and until now I was not a big Dolby supporter. DTS was always my preference over Dolby Digital every single time. But with lossless I can live with any version of lossless as long as it is done correctly.

I will be picking up both Mummy movies along with the Scorpion King in DTS-HD MA. And I can not wait to pick up the Bourne Trilogy in DTS-HD MA as well.

The comparison pix is good enough to state that both Mummy and Mummy Returns have "Above Average Picture Quality".

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=942015

Mummy and Mummy Returns HD DVD placed in the very bottom of
"3.5-3.99 Stars Very Good - Above Average HD DVD Picture Quality"

Is this an indication that Universal would re-encode the catch up titles for Blu-ray from their putrid masters ?

Call me crazy, but I think I see more grain in the HD DVD pic on the right.

Nothing that would stop me from picking up the Blu-ray version, as I don't own HD DVD equipment anyway...

Thanks as always Xylon... quality work as usual.

DD+ is more than just 7.1 DD... I keep reading posts where people post this, but it's not entirely true. I am pretty sure DD limitation was 640kbps. DD+ can go much higher and was usually 1.5mbps on HD DVD (I think 3mbps theoretical). While it's not quite as good lossless, it was a huge step up from 448kbps DVDs. My guess is the jump from DVD DD to HD DVD DD+ is bigger than the jump from DD+ to lossless.

The HD DVD does have more grain, but I don't think it's film grain. It seems like more compression artifacting - I'm referring to the previous close-up shot. Either way, practically speaking, it seems like a wash with both releases.

While DD+ is not DD exactly, it sound basically the same and no better. I realize that DD+ has a higher bit rate but that in itself in my book does not mean anything. IMHO I still prefer lossy DTS over DD+ and the only way to get really good sound via Dolby is Dolby True HD. They say DD+ is supposed to be equal to DTS-HD HR but I do not even think it sounds better than standard DTS. Personally there are many HD discs that have DD+ that I really want to get rid of and I hope I do not have to wait to long to do that. I have spent many hours listening to DD+ tracks and I am just not impressed.

I still plan to buy:
The Mummy
The Mummy Returns
Scorpion King

I was never thrilled with DD+ either, DTS Master is just wow!!

-Gary

I found nothing wrong with DD+ especially with those from Universal at 1536kbps. Now that the bit rate nonsense difference been eliminated DTS zealots still claim superiority even with lossless or lossy but with the same bit rate. It's beyond amusing, but not unexpected for sure.

I see DNR in this Blu Ray shot, I also see more pronounced EE on the Blu Ray shots above.

As stated, they both come from a $h*t master with many scratches and blemishes. But the extra DNR and EE does not help.

I think the BRD is just resolving the EE better but it doesn't matter: they both have EE.

got both version and I say to ... BLU encoding got more DNR to it....

u can actually see it from the removed dirt ....

If they DNR a movie, it should be more apperent during the entire frame, not just a slime area.

My guess is that the missing "detail" is just compression artifacts. The encoder always tries to save bits in areas we cant see and use the saved bits in other areas that the eye would have a bigger chance to detect.

So the trick with lossy, is to make the movie look like the master without being pixel for pixel like the master. Something usually has to go.

Since we have 2 encodes done with a large timeframe between them, the 2 version of the tools could have selected 2 different frames/scenes to make some bitsavings.

And if the compressionist cant see that its anything wrong with the frame, he/her will not reencode that segment.

Of course when we zoom up stills, we can see it. But from the one that is handling the compressionist, that type of quality control isnt possible for the entire movie.

24*60*60 = 86400 frames/h. Just imagine the time it would take to manually check thoose frames.

Oversharpening the latest frame comparison sez: BD has less grain, more EE, less blocking.

MovieSwede, the DNR is present throughout the frame.

I don't mean to be rude so please don't take it that way but this is plain wrong. All Universal's DD+ rates were 1.5 compared to DTS rates of .750 for DVDs. As someone said before, the jump from DD to DD+ (1.5) is probably greater and more defined than from DD+ (1.5) to lossless. Of course, DTS (.750) is a smaller jump to DD+ but a big difference no less. Now I agree that lossless is the way to go, period! I hate to get backed into a corner defending DD+ but still it is a massive jump over DD and because so I will only be rebuying the really great action titles for lossless audio (The Bourne Trilogy, King Kong, Transformers, etc.). I haven't decided on The Mummy series yet. It's still a toss up based on Kris and other's reviews.

An appropriate analogy would be the jump from VHS to LD relative to the jump from LD to DVD. A lot of people (many of which were not even an itch in their daddy's pants when LD ruled) tend to lump LD in with VHS, when in fact the jump in PQ was much larger going from VHS to LD than the jump from LD to DVD...

Oh sure, I'm with ya. I have about 120 LDs in the bottom of my bookshelf. I used to invite friends over and "wow" them with my LDs. I remember in college packing my bedroom (living with my parents) with guys watching Braveheart...a couple shouting hurry up and flip the disc when a side was done.