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Disappointed with HD movies

post #1 of 16
1/2/07 at 6:34am
Thread Starter 
I seriously considered not posting this at all, but I just had to see if I am the only one out there who thinks this.

I got the 360 HD-DVD player. I am kind of unimpressed. Don't get me wrong, the movies generally look better. The consensus from my friends and family from doing A/B comparisons was that they were a "bit sharper".

Some transfers are a joke. For instance, Fast Times at Ridgemont High looks so bad I had to make sure that it was in fact HD because there are many SD disk that I own that look much better than it does. It is a dual HD/SD disk. When you put in the SD side it tells you that the other side is the HD side.

I know that a lot of it has to do with the quality of source material. Bad source material will look worse in some ways on HD than in SD because the defects become very apparent.

Don't get me wrong, HD is better than SD. It is just not the great leap forward that I was hoping for. Am I the only one that thinks this?

By the way, this is not at all a bluray/hd-dvd thing because under ideal circumstances both are capable of producing an equally good experience.
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post #2 of 16
1/2/07 at 6:52am
i was dissappointed with a few movies in pq but sound quality is just amazing. im happy just for that aspect alone.
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post #3 of 16
1/2/07 at 7:01am
What displays are being used?
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post #4 of 16
1/2/07 at 7:06am
Thread Starter 
I am using an Hitachi HDPJ52 projecting on a 106" Dalite High Power Screen.

For some reason, HD content from Xbox marketplace seems much more impressive to me.
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post #5 of 16
1/2/07 at 7:09am
The same thing that is occuring with HD OAR and cable is what we call HD lite. Some of the movies are scanned in 4000 lines instead of the usual 2000 lines. Even though your TV can only resolve up to 1080, it can still reveal the noticable difference in quality 4000 redendering more resolution. Thus older movies especially that are not scanned at a higher rate tend to suffer from this WoW factor. Like everything else it comes down to how much are companies willing to invest in cleaning up these older movies. Some newer movies may also suffer from the lower scanned but at a lesser rate.

I do agree that some movies are not much better than standard DVD's.
The Italian Job and Full Metal Jacket are just two examples of an older and newer
movie not up to par. On the other hand Blazzing Saddles and Seabiscut reveal
what All HD movies should aspire to look like.
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post #6 of 16
1/2/07 at 7:55am
I think people are hoping that they'll see the type of jump in quality that we saw in SD TV compared to HD TV. I definitely did not see that jump, especially since I've been using a upconverting DVD player for a couple of years. However, the jump in quality is still significant enough that I prefer to view my movies in HD.

Not to mention all titles are not equal in PQ....especially not a 25 year old title like Ridgemont.
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post #7 of 16
1/2/07 at 8:09am
We watched The Searchers (HD-DVD) last night, and the experience was no less than breathtaking. Grand Prix and Forbidden Planet are two more "oldies" that
really look great. If you don't find this to be the case with these titles, I would take a serious look at the display system.

I have realized the same results with these titles on both of my systems:

1: HD-A1 ( 1.2 Firmware) via HDMI>DVI to a 60" Sony Grand Wega. Denon receiver for audio.

2: HD-A1 (2.0 Firmware) via HDMI to a BenQ DLP projector and a 120" Firehawk screen.
Krell components for audio.

And another point of interest is how well the HD A1 units upscale SD DVDs. Many casual viewers watching a movie on a Toshiba would not notice a major difference between an upscaled DVD and a HD DVD. This is especially true with many titles that did not have great source material to begin with.
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post #8 of 16
1/2/07 at 8:24am
If Blu-ray or HD-DVD hit the quality of OTA Broadcast HD with no sub feeds running, then that is all you can really ask for here.

Beyond that I really can't imagine what people were expecting here. If you feel existing DVD approaches this quality, then for sure HD-DVD or Blu-ray is only going to be seen as a small increase in quality.
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post #9 of 16
1/2/07 at 8:26am
I have to admit, I've picked 3 of the first (only) 4 HD DVD titles I've got purely for picture quality based on what I've read here, just to see what it could do. Given that, PQ is even better than I'd anticipated. While there are, and will be, bad transfers and inferior source material (especially in the format's infancy as we are), the potential for the format as seen in "King Kong" is nothing short of stunning.
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post #10 of 16
1/2/07 at 9:10am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lawguy View Post

I seriously considered not posting this at all, but I just had to see if I am the only one out there who thinks this.

I got the 360 HD-DVD player. I am kind of unimpressed. Don't get me wrong, the movies generally look better. The consensus from my friends and family from doing A/B comparisons was that they were a "bit sharper".

Some transfers are a joke. For instance, Fast Times at Ridgemont High looks so bad I had to make sure that it was in fact HD because there are many SD disk that I own that look much better than it does. It is a dual HD/SD disk. When you put in the SD side it tells you that the other side is the HD side.

I know that a lot of it has to do with the quality of source material. Bad source material will look worse in some ways on HD than in SD because the defects become very apparent.

Don't get me wrong, HD is better than SD. It is just not the great leap forward that I was hoping for. Am I the only one that thinks this?

By the way, this is not at all a bluray/hd-dvd thing because under ideal circumstances both are capable of producing an equally good experience.

Well you have the same Resolution that i have, we have both 720p projector with really big screen. To appreciate 1080p, you have to have a 1080p display. I saw one in a friend house and i was floored by it, it look so much better (in detail) than mine..

going from 720x480 to 1280x720 is way less forgiving than 1920x1080 to 1280x720. and there's a big chance that you,re projector is doing

1920x540 to 1280x720, like mine does (easy test, play a movie, press pause, if you don't see jaggies it's doing 1920x540 to 1280x720). It's like any photo in photoshop, when you go from 3200x2000 to 1280x1024, you loose all the detail and have to use UnmaskSharpen to bring them up again, despite the apparition of Edge Enhancement.

But i have many HD DVD that are way better then DVD, the HD DVD PQ is so stable compared to DVD (less noise, mpeg arterfact etc)..
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post #11 of 16
1/2/07 at 9:11am
Kinda makes you wanna wait in purchasing some of these earlier transfers in case they "redo" them a year from now. They occasionally do this on the DVD side and probably will on the more popular titles. I hope the reason for some of the big (good) movies not being out yet is because they're really taking their time on the transfer quality. Like the Matrix series and LOTR series.
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post #12 of 16
1/2/07 at 9:21am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lawguy View Post

I seriously considered not posting this at all, but I just had to see if I am the only one out there who thinks this.

I got the 360 HD-DVD player. I am kind of unimpressed. Don't get me wrong, the movies generally look better. The consensus from my friends and family from doing A/B comparisons was that they were a "bit sharper".

Some transfers are a joke. For instance, Fast Times at Ridgemont High looks so bad I had to make sure that it was in fact HD because there are many SD disk that I own that look much better than it does. It is a dual HD/SD disk. When you put in the SD side it tells you that the other side is the HD side.

I know that a lot of it has to do with the quality of source material. Bad source material will look worse in some ways on HD than in SD because the defects become very apparent.

Don't get me wrong, HD is better than SD. It is just not the great leap forward that I was hoping for. Am I the only one that thinks this?

By the way, this is not at all a bluray/hd-dvd thing because under ideal circumstances both are capable of producing an equally good experience.


Well that would be correct, the image will be sharper and clearer, also the larger the screen size the more you'll notice this. Think of it this way. Convert a DVD over to a 320x240 Divx file. On your Ipod ot looks sharp and clear, on your monitor it gets all fuzzy. Move up to a 640x480 file, on your Ipod clear, on the monitor it's a bit sharper. It's the same way with Hi Def at 1080i or P it will be quite a bit sharper than a 480p image at higher screen size.
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post #13 of 16
1/2/07 at 9:39am
What size is your screen?

On a big screen (say 92"+) the difference is clear.

But, yes, I'm disappointed to some degree. I wish every movie looked as good as Corpse Bride or some of the live TV shot with HD video cameras. But it is hard to get transfers from film that look this good--such is the nature of the beast.

Dave
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post #14 of 16
1/2/07 at 10:06am
First HD-DVD disc I ever bought was POTO, and noticed the high-definition PQ right away on my Panasonic plasma set on 1080. Btw, setting below 1080 (720p) will not show that POP on HD movies.
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post #15 of 16
1/2/07 at 10:37am
Quote:
Originally Posted by P. Anthony View Post

First HD-DVD disc I ever bought was POTO, and noticed the high-definition PQ right away on my Panasonic plasma set on 1080. Btw, setting below 1080 (720p) will not show that POP on HD movies.

I have a 50inch 720p DLP and the upgrade from DVD is huge. The film like experience from HD DVD can not be matched by my cable HD. The idea that you need a 1080p set up to fully enjoy HD is false and is more dependant on screen size and distance to screen.
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post #16 of 16
1/2/07 at 10:49am
Quote:


The idea that you need a 1080p set up to fully enjoy HD is false and is more dependant on screen size and distance to screen.

Of course. To say nothing of non-resolution image atttributes, which get forgotten in these discussions. Color, etc., are immediately noticeable compared to DVD over my A2/AE900. Even on 2.35 stuff, on which I'm only viewing ~544 vertical lines, this is true. Of course, the jump from ~300 2.35 vertical on DVD is pretty obvious, too.
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