Technology DVD vs Blu-Ray and upscaling

[THEV1LL4N]

So it got me thinking. Full HD is 1080p and Blu-rays come in 720p (in reference to the 720p rips i find online).

I'm getting a blu-ray player soon and was wondering if it is worth getting Blu-ray DVDs or just save money and go for the DVDs which will be upscaled to 1080p.

I'm assuming that the Blu-ray movies have 1080p and 720p resolutions. The blu-ray movies also have more extras and online content than the DVDs do.

Any technical stuff i should know about? ive done some basic research - im just thinking of whether or not i should download 720p movies and save them onto an external 2.5" Hard Drive to play via the Blu-ray player's USB port (if that works).

 

[THEV1LL4N]

ok, for anyone that's interested...i found these and it partially answers my post:

Blu-ray vs. DVD - Blu-ray: CNET's Quick Guide - CNET Reviews

Upconverting HDMI DVD players: Fact vs. fiction - CNET Reviews

 

[Cooper]

An upscaled dvd is nowhere near the quality of a bluray. Download everything in 1080p cos it looks awesome.

 

[masta247]

with low resolution source if you upscale a pixel you will get slightly sharper image but 8 (for example) pixels that look alike (or have an impact on surrounding pixels depending on the algorithm used) so it still doesn't look sharp and good.
With 1080p material each pixel looks different and usually contains less compression. That's in short, the latter option is better.
Some blu-ray movies will be 720P because the source is 720p. It will still look better than a DVD upscaled to 1080p.

Also, upscaling is what your full hd tv does to any analogue material by default. You can see that it doesn't look great and it often looks far inferior to a CRT monitor that doesn't upscale.

 

[Preach]

I would have gone for Blu-Ray due to backwards compatibility since it's the higher quality medium. Like those articles already told you (and your internal logic probably agrees when you think about it), upscaled DVDs use software algorithms to compute all the pixels that aren't there. It can be compared to digitally restoring a compressed photo (JPEG for example), or digitally remastering an MP3. In both examples, you take a compressed format and use software algorithms to create the illusion of a fuller sound, or richer colors. In reality, you are distorting the original data.

Like Jokerman I'm serial about the fidelity of my audio (and video). Do you travel economy or business class? Do you put one or two slices of cheese on your bread? Regular or supersize? This is a similar choice so it should come down to how much do you care about the fidelity. If you really do, easy choice - Blu-Ray. If you are okay with settling for less because it just isn't that important to you, I'm sure Blu-Ray won't be that long-lived. You can however bet that any new disc format will be backwards compatible with both DVD and BD, so your BD collection should last you long. Maybe a low-end BD player is the right way to go if you can't decide. Those aren't that pricey anyway.

 

[Prize Gotti]

To be perfectly honest, my anime DVDs look fucking amazing on my upscaling dvd player, the lines are so sharp and the colors are flawless, much better than on my normal dvd player. I can't compare normal movies because I rarely buy them on DVD any more.

 

[masta247]

Yeah animated graphics look much better upscaled than films taken in 'real life'. Any piece of art will look better because of higher image clarity. It would still look better with 1080p source. Especially things like fonts or curved lines.

 

[Pittsey]

I am suprised by this thread.

Upscaled DVD is no where near Bluray.

 

[Rukas]

Yeah, seriously, wtf.

 

[S O F I]

Depends a bit on what kind of movies you watch. If you'd watch Transformers over, let's say, The King's Speech, then yea. I prefer a well-told story over fancy graphics so, since my Internet connection is a bit slow, I settle for DVD Rips as opposed to Blu-Ray rips. I wouldn't buy Blu-Rays at this point, they're so expensive still.

 

[Pittsey]

^^

I DL a 1080 for something like Terminator. And a 720 for something with less effects, such as The King's Speech.

The lowest I'll go is DVD quality. If it is only available as a 800mb AVI, I'll wait, buy it, or leave it.

 

[THEV1LL4N]

okay so im currently downloading a 720p HDTVrip of the Lion King. I just played the sample video and the picture quality looks amazing - and my monitor is a standard LCD one (although i have a HD graphics card).

My question this time is... If i was going to download a Disney-Pixar film (i.e. Toy Story type films, not the 2D animations like Lion King and Aladdin) - would those be better in 1080p or would those (as animations) look better in the 720p format. Thanks.

 

[Pittsey]

How big is your monitor?

I am guessing you probably won't see much of an improvement over 720p with a 1080p rip.

On my TV there is a noticeable difference. But all pixar movies look fantastic anyway.

 

[THEV1LL4N]

How big is your monitor?

I am guessing you probably won't see much of an improvement over 720p with a 1080p rip.

On my TV there is a noticeable difference. But all pixar movies look fantastic anyway.

I will be viewing it on a 46" Full HD 1080p Sony Bravia TV.

 

[Pittsey]

Then a 1080p should look pretty nice. And there should be a noticeable difference. Although animation films look great even in dvd quality.

 

[masta247]

1080p is always better than 720p but the file size is bigger obviously and sometimes the quality difference is small (like with animated movies). It also depends on your distance from your TV. The further away you are from your TV the less differences you will see. I'd say for 46inch I wouldn't see a difference at 2,5m. At that point compression makes bigger difference (blu-ray disk can afford very little compression meaning awesome quality, blu-ray rips found on the net are a bit worse, youtube 1080p is compressed beyond help and frame rates are lower).

 

[THEV1LL4N]

Thanks. I think i'll get Toy Story in 720p then. Just getting some Disney movies so that those kids who visit can be seated and not run around like wild rascals wrecking my mums living room lol. Plus... I havent seen Toy Story 3 yet.

 

[Pittsey]

^^

I get all my pixar rips in 1080. I get movies that are ripped using mpeg4 part 10. Works out about 8 gig a movie.

720's are about half that.

Black Swan I watched in 720. Most of the TV shows I watch are 720.

I know people who won't settle for less than 1080. But like Masta says.... Sometimes you won't see a difference. I only go for 1080 if it's a film that will make use of it.

 

[THEV1LL4N]

Thanks Pittsey. That's exactly the kind of thing i'm taking into account. I'm thinking about effects (i.e. films like Transformers would be best in 1080p whereas most others would be fine in 720p).

 

[THEV1LL4N]

So what Bli-ray players would you recommend? I have a Sony Bravia TV, so Sony would be nice for the Bravia Link;

I have this in mind which i can get for £93 brand new:

SONY BDPS370 BLU-RAY DISC PLAYER Wireless LAN ready 1080p DTS

http://www.totaldigital.biz/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=114_44&products_id=3507