[Brian Buckstead]

I recently purchased a 65" Hitachi XWX HDTV, and I've been watching OTA HDTV. The quality is amazing, even to the point where when I watch DVD's, it's disappointing. I used to think DVD's looked great, but after HD, a lot of DVD movies look fuzzy, out of focus, grainy, etc. Some DVD's still look great, like the Toy Story films and other animated movies, but others, like Star Wars Ep. I just don't look very good. I guess it depends on the source and the transfer to disc. Is anyone else experiencing this? I have a very good new progressive scan DVD player, the Denon DVD 1600, which is connected through component cables. I'm quite sure everything is connected correctly. Are there any live action movies whose picture quality will restore my confidence in the DVD format? I guess I'll just have to live with it and wait for HD-DVD. I am considering D-VHS though.


I've been spoiled by high definition.


Brian

 

[Thik]

Did you mention this under the Home Theater Forum?

 

[CupertinoSlim]

One thing that's generally better on DVDs than OTA is sound. For action movies, certainly, the 480p images plus dts 5.1 sound can make a very compelling experience. For slow-moving, even static images, the 1080i of OTA is glorious.

 

[Larry Davis]

No offense, but what did you expect? If the HDTV you watch has higher resolution and higher quality colors, I expect it would look "better" than DVD. I mean, after you bought a DVD player, was it "disappointing" to watch VHS? It would be nice if all movies and programming was in HD, but it's not. So I think DVD has quite a few more miles to go before it needs to be retired. By the way, switch to DVD's viewed through an HTPC and you may modify your opinion on DVD. New HTPC software and hardware can produce an exquisitely beautiful image with DVD's. And the best of the new NTSC transfers are stunning. By all means watch HD versions of movies when they're available. But DVD's are still a great substitute when HD is not available.

 

[RichUF]

Brian (and others):


I'm glad you asked this question because after watching my new 65XWX all weekend I have similar questions. Mine is the reverse of your experience, however. I'm using the internal tuner to watch HD on an outside OTA antenna. The picture that I am getting on recorded shows such as The Practice and Leno to me are soft, dark, and sometimes grainy. The only exception so far has been CSI (decent, still not jaw-dropping ). Live broadcasts in general such as CBS's college football look great...crisp, clear, bright. This is leading me to believe that the shows are shot this way on purpose and I'm not impressed. Also, what's up with ABC's football e.g. Florida vs. Florida State (digital, not HD

)...yack! Why so bad? I'm assuming ABC is just lame in general as it looks bad on satellite, cable, AND ota analog and digital. Is this possibly just my local affiliates messing all of this up?


As far as DVD goes, I have an interlaced player with component cables and good dvd's (like Star Wars Ep. II) look great. Is there something wrong with my set? Since (CBS) football looks so good, I'm betting not.


One more thing...I have done the "red push adjustment" and used VE at this point and am struggling with sharpness. I have it down at around 30 and I think I'm still trying to get used to the huge set. My questions is with velocity scan modulation...to me everything seems out of focus with it off, but I know it must be doing bad things to the picture when on. Can anyone elaborate? Basically what I'm asking is why is my picture out of focus? (my vision is fine )


Thanks...sorry so long.

Rich

 

[ThomC]

Quote:

Originally posted by RichUF Brian (and others): ....I think I'm still trying to get used to the huge set. ....Can anyone elaborate? Basically what I'm asking is why is my picture out of focus? (my vision is fine ) Thanks...sorry so long. Rich

Rich,

FYI, after I bought my 60" Sony Grand Wega, it took me about a month or two to

A - get used to the color, blacks & sharpness of a properly calibrated set

B - get used to the size of the set (a happy adjustment!)

C - get used to the ability to see the flaws in source material

D - get over it!


Going to an actual quality theater for reference will probably help.

(For me, The Zeigfeld in Manhattan). There you will see that some movies are very sharp and bright (even shadows) and some are not. Good Luck and might I suggest one of the hardware forums also in your quest

 

[hob]

I have had Digital choice from the oldest cable company in America and their output is simply stunning. I have all the HBO and /Cinemax channels they offer for a total of $38.67 a month, plus basic cable.




I have given up on because I hate to watch 20 out every 60 minutes of a hour are commercials. I record digital movies overnight to see if I want to buy the disc then erase them.

 

[pcold]

I second Larry's advise on looking into an HTPC. I love the DVD video quality from mine...

 

[Savageone79]

Also to be fair Star Wars EP1 is a very bad DVD. It has some of the worst Picture quality of any recent big release.

 

[TSHA222]

This is all just natural in the world of Home Theater. Several years ago I watched movies in my theater on a 10 foot wide screen with an early LCD projector fed by a laserdisc player. This was living! Then came DVD, then a DILA projector. After having DVD around for a while I popped in a LD of Star Wars and I thought something was wrong with my player. I had never noticed the noise in the picture. Then HD, DVD's didn't look as good as they once had. But, like others have mentioned here, with a quality scaler (I am going SDI into a scaler) DVD can look darn good. I even still watch an occasional LD (Although I now have a Pioneer LD-S9 which greatly improves the LD picture). I imagine one day I will wonder how I ever was happy with 1080i

 

[ramick]

DVD can look almost HD:

HTPC using ZoomPlayer, Sonic video filter, PowerDVD audio filter, ffdshow filter.


You also have to have a good source - Superbit 5th Element, Gladiator, LOTR come to mind...

 

[kevin j]

band of brothers on dvd's darn good looking too btw

 

[letMeIn]

can you upconvert DVDs to 720P ?? ( or whatever 7xx p is ) ?? using HTPC and Dvi??

 

[Bill]

Take a look at "Death to Smoochy" DVD. It is outstanding and shows what all DVDs should look like. HD is not being done in most cases at its full potential yet either however at its worst it still is as good as the best DVD .

 

[Thik]

I assume that after we are exposed to HD-DVD, DVD will disappoint us.

 

[William]

Quote:

Originally posted by letMeIn can you upconvert DVDs to 720P ?? ( or whatever 7xx p is ) ?? using HTPC and Dvi??

You can up convert to about any resolution you want. I up convert to 1360x1024p for my DILA.

 

[tm22721]

Sorry to disappoint you, but DVDs are just fine on my 106" screen.


And if they're OK for me, then 99% of the public, with much smaller screens, will be OK too.


HD-DVD will at most be a niche offering (ala D-VHS) and the studios know it.


So don't hold your breath (unless you want to turn blue in the face).

 

[Bill]

There will be HD-DVD. It gives the studios the ability to sell all their movies yet again.

 

[MikeM]

Quote:

Originally posted by Bill There will be HD-DVD. It gives the studios the ability to sell all their movies yet again.

That depends solely on the progress made relevant to the penetration of HD tv's into US households. Right now, it's only 3 million (being generous), but as prices lower you can expect more HD sets to be sold.


On another note, I'm glad there are many in this thread that agree with my philosophy about well scaled DVDs looking almost as good as HD. I get burned for that opinion repeatedly on the HD Recorder forum. I have a JVC 30000 and watch 1080i movies on a 10' screen with a 9" CRT (Sony G90). There's no question about the difference with respect to additional detail, sharper imaging, less anomaly and wider color spectrum. However, DVDs processed through a well calibrated system that remain in the digital domain via an HTPC with resolutions projected at 960 p or 1080 p look damn good.


You don't worry that an HD version is better, you just sit back an enjoy a film-like appearance, get swallowed up in the story if it's a good flick and enjoy yourself. The bottom line for movie collectors is that if you begin to get disappointed by DVD, you're in for a rough ride because HD content, in the short term anyway, will never amount to many significant titles. If you're taping off HBO and Showtime's HD channels you can create a 1,000 HD title film library over time, but 90% of those films will be useless dreck that you never dreamed of watching were it not to solely admire the HD format. To me that's insane. My time is too valuable to waste it admiring pixels rather than enjoying the movie. I love HD and will seek out an HD title from time to time because it happens to be a movie I truly enjoyed. For the most part however, I continue to relish in the latest DVDs and my library gets bigger with titles I want rather than titles I don't.

 

[Kipp Jones]

Wait until you see D-Theater. U-571-Ice Age....wow!