# Image Quality Blu-Ray vs DVD



## Drfoxly (Feb 14, 2008)

I just bought the new Sony BDP-S550 Blu-Ray player & have it connected to my Sony XBR4 52''
via an HDMI cable. Here is my question. I had a older (much cheaper) Sony combo DVD/VCR player connected via component cables, my wife, son & even myself don't see a huge change in quality in the video. Am I missing something in the TV's setup to take advantage of the Blu-Ray's quality? 
I have the setup on the Blu-Ray setup to Auto. Or is it that this Sony is that good?
I Thought after buying a Blu-Ray player & a Blu-Ray disc that I would be blown away!


Any Clues?


Thanks!!


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

In the BluRay players menu under video settings there should be an output resolution setting. Make sure that it is set to output 1080p. Also are you going directly to the display from the S550 Blu-Ray player via HDMI or are you passing that through a receiver?


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## Drfoxly (Feb 14, 2008)

Straight thru


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

Do you have the other settings they way I mentioned?


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## Drfoxly (Feb 14, 2008)

I'm at work right now. I'll have to check when I get home.

Did you see the difference on your end, in quality?


Thanks for the tips.


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

Drfoxly said:


> I'm at work right now. I'll have to check when I get home.
> 
> Did you see the difference on your end, in quality?
> 
> ...


It really depends on the movie, My projector is only 720p but with some movies yes there is a huge difference between the SD DVD and the BluRay version The colors really pop and the contrast is better. Considering that most new release movies are around $23 and BluRay are about $28-33 it is not always a good deal. However the uncompressed audio is a big improvement on BluRay if you have the system to hear it.


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## Sonnie (Apr 11, 2006)

A good upconverting player like the oppo 983 can rival that of Blu-ray... it is very close. 

Some Blu-ray disc are better than others too, so it may be that you got a not so good one.


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## mechman (Feb 8, 2007)

The up-conversion of my Toshiba HD-A2 rivals that of my Blu-ray and HD-Dvd collection.

mech


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## Sonnie (Apr 11, 2006)

Yup... the XA2 I had was up there with it as well... excellent upconversion IMO.

I am thinking Tony would agree... since he has it now.


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## Mike P. (Apr 6, 2007)

I have a Panasonic DVD/VCR combo that outputs 480i and a Sony upconverting DVD player that outputs 1080p. The difference is substantial. As Tony mentioned, check your settings.


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## atledreier (Mar 2, 2007)

How far away are you from your TV? Our eyes have a limit to what resolution we can see, and most are not even close to being able to tell the difference between 720 and 1080 at 'normal' distances with a 52" screen.

The BBC did some substantial research on resolutions and visual acuity a while back, and made a pretty neat snd simple to read graph that tells you what size screen you should need for a given distance and resolution.

According to this you should be about 5 feet from your 52" to be within THX spec. A little further for the SMTP spec.

The BD vs DVD comparison is moot on a properly set up display, the difference is so huge it's beyond doupt. On less ideal setups the difference is much smaller.

http://www.carltonbale.com/2006/11/1080p-does-matter/


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## ACler (Oct 31, 2008)

In a normal living room with normal viewing distances (12+ feet), you may not see a dramatic difference on a 52" set. Like others have said, colors and blacks will be deeper and you will see better details, but it will not be a "blow you away" difference imo.

Now on a good 1080p front projector, you would be blown away (I know I am). It's a whole new level in every way. Especially on good transfers.


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

The XA2 does a great job of upconversion however I disagree that that upconversion looks as good as BluRay. It is impossible to make a SD DVD look like HD no matter how hard you try. The only difference is how many lines of video there is SD DVD has only 480 and you cant make something out of nothing. As we all know HD DVD and BluRay DVDs quality varies from movie to movie but so does SD DVDs The 5th Element is a great example of this, the Superbit SD DVD version of it is still to this day one of the best transfers of the move available and looks terrible on BluRay. 
Another example, I have the entire series of Lethal weapon on either BluRay or HD DVD and also have the first and third on SD DVD. The BluRay and HD DVD transfers are way better than the SD upconverted versions (I have done A/B comparisons).
I agree with the post above mine that BluRay blown up to an image larger than 60" would be far more noticeable than on a 42" display.


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## bobgpsr (Apr 20, 2006)

When I finally sell my house and move, I will get a new display. It looks like a 57" diagonal 1080 LCD will give full 1920x1080 resolution goodness at a 7.5 ft viewing distance.

I used this viewing distance calculator.

Otherwise I have to sit way too close to my current 34" direct view CRT to really tell the difference between over the air ATSC broadcasts 720P (ABC, FOX, ESPN) versus 1080i (NBC, CBS, PBS).

I really appreciate 1080p downstairs sitting at the computer table with a 24" Acer LCD monitor (at a 2 ft viewing distance).


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## Drfoxly (Feb 14, 2008)

Thanks to All!

I didn't have the The Sony's HDMI input setup correctly.
Now when the Blu-Ray turns on it says 1080P/24

I have three Blu-Ray movies
Get Smart
Journey to the Center of the Earth
And of all things Wall-E

I'm still not blow away, maybe it's the movies I own?


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

None of those movies have what I call excellent image quality on BluRay. Give one of these a look the Waterhorse, Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium, August Rush or The Spiderwick Chronicles. All of these have very good video quality in my opinion.


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## atledreier (Mar 2, 2007)

What's you viewing distance?


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

You know, I forgot. One of the best BluRay experiences is the "Planet earth" series. It is stunning to say the least.


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## Drfoxly (Feb 14, 2008)

My viewing distance is a little over 14 feet & some change.


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## deacongreg (Jul 29, 2008)

Listen, I have seen some excellent up converting DVD`s, but when set up properly, (TV calibrated, etc.) nothing is better than a Blu-Ray picture. Don`t want to start a debate, but with the proper codecs in place, calibration, that is it. Blu-Ray looks and sounds terrific. SD DVD`s can not match it!!


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## Sonnie (Apr 11, 2006)

yeah... there are definitely some pro's who would debate you on that one... or they would tell you SD-DVD can get to 95% of BD, which you would be correct... it would not match it.


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## deacongreg (Jul 29, 2008)

Sonnie said:


> yeah... there are definitely some pro's who would debate you on that one... or they would tell you SD-DVD can get to 95% of BD, which you would be correct... it would not match it.


Yes Sir.


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## redduck21502 (Oct 23, 2008)

Drfoxly said:


> My viewing distance is a little over 14 feet & some change.


At that distance, you may not see much difference and be blown away. I sit around 16 feet from my 42" because of the size of my living room, and it looks great but really isn't noticeably different than up converted DVDs nor the 1080i signal from my Dish. I think to really see the difference you have to get really close. Anytime that I wanted to see how good the quality, I get 2' from the screen and take a look. Then it is simply amazing to see the 1080p Blu-Ray.


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## TwistaHSH (Dec 12, 2008)

I thought the same...I have transformers, I am legend, and Planet Earth...transformers and I am legend looks pretty similar to the 1080 upconversion...I will try the Planet Earth to see if there is a difference.


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## SteveCallas (Apr 29, 2006)

I sit 6' from my 1080p 42", and while most HD DVDs I've watched don't look too terribly different than a good upconverted DVD, Transformers and Planet Earth definitely stood out as a notch above in picture quality. I'll be switching to a 52" while staying at 6', but I think it will still come down to specific discs and how well each one was handled.

Some examples have already been mentioned - Clockwork Orange is another. The HD DVD has a lot of artifacts and jaggies that the SD version doesn't. The SD version with a good upconverter is the one to choose in that case.


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## weeZ (Sep 10, 2006)

Watched Open Range last night upcoverted through a ps3 and the the pq rivaled a few blu discs. The thing I've noticed most when comparing the two formats is low light scenes, the dark shots really show the difference. Another is the details, little things get lost with compression. 

At 14ft viewing distance and 52" display it will be difficult to see a big difference, now move forward 7ft and you'll see how good or bad the the pq can be.

The reason I like hidef is the uncompressed audio. When I watch dvd's now it sounds like I'm listening through cotton balls, a lot of the discrete sounds are not there.


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## Blaser (Aug 28, 2006)

I watch 106" from 10.5 ft. As you found out, to see a definite difference between BD and DVD, it is imperative to have a huge screen. Higher resolutions enable you to go big and still enjoy a great picture. Lower resolutions won't.

I'm Talking about 36 degree angle view and more here ...


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## atledreier (Mar 2, 2007)

Just watched 'The Dark Knight' last night on BD. I just wondered about something. In one sequence in the film, the Joker is in an interrogation room, and you get a fairly good look at his shirt. I would like to have some DVD-users tell me how many different patterns his shirt has. This sort of thing show the intricacies of the Joker's madness, and such details, for me anyway, really show craftmanship from the creators, and depth of character.


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## imbeaujp (Oct 20, 2007)

Sorry to say that but for the "average" consumer with a 50 inches screen, listening 10 feet from the TV, HD format is not a BIG advantage over the standard DVD with upscaler (like the oppo or toshiba).

HD player is 300$, HD media are 20$ or more.
DTD player are 50$, STD media are 5$...

Does it makes sense to upgrade ? to pay 5 times more ?

Yes if you have a 100" screen. If not ???


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## atledreier (Mar 2, 2007)

For those that take the time and effort to use HD media for a while, going back is not an option.

It's a classic case of J6P not knowing what he's got until it's gone. 

Some of it is media hype. People expect a huge increase in picture quality, and although they get it, they don't realize they are not using the full potential of that brand new, FullHD 42" plasma and blame the format. I say blame the display dealers for not telling their customers the simple fact that for a 40" display you need to be at about 5' to take advantage of FullHD and the new formats. I don't know what J6P is expecting, but he's not getting it, unfortunately.


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## imbeaujp (Oct 20, 2007)

Hello, you say the same thing as me : To get the HD benefits you must seat 5 feet from your 42 screen. Does it makes sense from the average consumer ? What is your room configuration, in my house, as many many houses, the tv is 10 or 12 feets from seats. So to get the benefits of full HD you must buy a 70 inches screen ? 

If not, a few can see a real diffrence between STD DVD upconverted, form a BluRay.. Except from some verry rare movies that takes all advantages of the new format.

Of course, with a background in the broadcast industries, I can see a diffrence, but not all the peoples !


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## Blaser (Aug 28, 2006)

It really depends on the material that is watched. I have seen a Blu-ray demo on a sony 50" SXRD screen in a showroom and no SD material can match it for sure regardless of the distance you're watching from :whistling:

But again, I haven't met this kind of quality in any material...


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

The Planet earth series on BluRay is just that quality. Fantastic!


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## redduck21502 (Oct 23, 2008)

PQ is only half of the reason to go to Blu-Ray. keep in mind that you can upconvert DVD to a better picture, but you cannot get around the compressed audio of DVD. Some of my Blu-Ray discs with uncompressed PCM 5.1 and my Narnia: Prince Caspian with DTS HD-MA 7.1 are all incredible sounding compared to plain old Dolby Digital from my DVDs.


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## atledreier (Mar 2, 2007)

As well as less motion artefacts, better colour gamut, less macroblocking.. The list goes on...


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## redduck21502 (Oct 23, 2008)

I was one of those that didn't believe I needed to move to Blu-ray with the upconverting of DVDs. I even noticed in a post (maybe this one), I said I was going to put it on hold. Then I got my Blu-ray player and it does make a difference. Now I find myself replacing some of my favorite movies, mostly the newer ones that were made during the Blu-ray revolution. I did by Top Gun because it was the classic Laserdisc demo movie and the reviews of the Blu-ray version indicated that it was better; I have to agree. In a case such as Top Gun, I don't believe that they just took the DVD version and popped it over to Blu-Ray, I imagine they went back to some of the original prints. I know that the detail on some of the F-14's is incredible compared to the DVD version that I previously had. You cold see panels and rivets on Blu-ray that you just would not get on an upconverted DVD. The Dolby TrueHD 5.1 was a better too (it does DTS-HD-MA 6.1, but I only have 5.1 anyway). For a 20+ year old movie on Blu-ray, Top Gun really shows the difference between upconverted DVD and Blu-ray. Newer movies may not show as much difference, but I still think there is enough difference between the two formats.


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## Blaser (Aug 28, 2006)

Guys,

Everytime I watch a BD followed by DVD, I can most of the time tell there is a lot of difference mainly in:

- *Sharpness*
- *Color saturation*
- Color Gamut
- Contrast Ratio 
- Motion artifacts

But again I have a big screen with 1080p native resolution. Whatever good the upconverting might be, it simply cannot match 50 Gb content... DVDs can't look as good as Blu-ray and they shouldn't 

P.S.:I do not buy any DVDs at all even at 1/4 price... I have more than 100 DVDs I like in my collection and I am seriously considering replacing them... but that's a lot of money:hissyfit:


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## MatrixDweller (Jul 24, 2007)

I should add to note that the Sony's XBR4 line has a pretty good scaler built in. 

As others have mentioned you will see slight improvements in:

*Color Gamut, Color saturation and Contrast Ratio*
These could be grouped into one pile sort of. The contrast ratio is not just the black levels but also the ability of the LCD to display minute changes in the color pallet. This in turn is dependant of the gamut of colors the LCD can display. Where I notice the differences is that the vibrance of color is much better on Bluray and a lot of DVD (when comparing the same movie) tend to appear slightly duller. Black levels are also much better with a Bluray source. With DVD upconversion you can also sometimes see chromatic aberrations between two extreme colors like on a dark edge where it mights a light edge. Instead of a clean transition it could appear as if the one edge had been blended or bled into the other.

*Sharpness*
You won't see much improvement with simple pictures (like in animation) but when you view a very complex image, like that of a forest canopy, you will see an improvement. An other thing that can occur is moire. Moire occurs when you have lots of thin stripes close together. It causes sort of a shimmering effect. To overcome this the scaler might add noise or reduce the sharpness. One movie I can think of that showed excellent detail is Gone Baby Gone. There is a scene where Casey Afflek has a striped dress shirt on. The stripes are very thin and on Bluray they are crisp and clear and you can almost see weave pattern in the shirt. On DVD they blend together (you still know it's a striped shirt but the detail is not the same).

*Motion artifacts*
Most high end scalers do a pretty good job and you shouldn't notice much of this if any. You would see more of it if going from a non-progressive source to a progressive display or vise versa.

*Improved film transfer*
More in question when dealing with older movies. Some DVD transfers were just horrible, although they were an improvement over VHS. A lot of BD transfers have gone back and used the original film footage and applied advanced processing and clean up technologies that were previously either unavailable or too costly. There are some horrible BD transfers though (eg: Army of Darkness) where it looks like they just took the DVD and unconverted it using inferior technology.

*Suggestions and Further Insight*
You may want to borrow or buy a HD calibration disc like Avia or Digital Video Essentials. You should find that when you adjust your display to optimum quality that Bluray will look better than SD. Remember too that some of the picture quality is movie specific. Some BD movies are very sharp and crisp where as others are poor transfers and/or exhibit the original film grain. Take a copy of the same movie on DVD and Bluray and compare them.

Another thing is that you are probably not noticing the fine details and artifacts of upsampled DVD vs Bluray. All of your senses have a psychological aspect to them and vision is no different. Hearing is another big one and it separates the audiophile from the non. The killer is that once you start noticing artifacts, you'll see them everywhere.


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