Tests Show Many Blu-rays No Better Than DVDs

Which? Convo: Is high-definition all it’s cracked up to be? Not on many Blu-ray movies as it turns out. Despite the routine claims that Blu-ray delivers ‘the maximum HD experience’ some barely look better than their DVD counterparts following our vigorous lab tests.

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darklordzor3799d ago

Hmmm....I wonder about these tests. I've never experienced blu-ray that wasn't great. While they may not all be the top HD quality they advertise, they are all better than DVDs. Just the nature of the storage space and not having to filter down the resolution for a smaller capacity makes the quality better.

Sunny_D3799d ago

I believe the high budget movies always have amazing quality since they know it will sell well.. But, I think lesser known movies don't try to hard to make the quality as great since they think no one will buy it.

techie3798d ago

Well the test was done by comparing side by side...

darklordzor3798d ago

Even so, compression plays the biggest factor. Just eliminating the compression needed for a DVD automatically enhances the quality. Not saying it's HD, but it should be clearer. I'm just not buying their tests.

techie3797d ago

This is how they did it: "Our expert viewing panel watched a selection of 17 films from a variety of studios, both made before and after the advent of the Blu-ray format. Each title was viewed simultaneously on DVD and Blu-ray disc on two identical Full-HD Sony TVs and played back on two identical Sony Blu-ray players (Blu-ray players can play both high-definition and regular DVD discs).

"When watching a DVD movie on a player connected to an HDTV via HDMI you have the option to adjust the settings and ‘up-scale’ the picture. For comparisons sake we left the 'up-scaling' option off, so the DVD was watched in its regular 576p resolution setting."

blur993799d ago (Edited 3799d ago )

Maybe its just the conversion to HD that is poorly done. HD on big screen really stands out to me. The newer films are the bests ones in HD.

Soldierone3799d ago

The only issue is there really isn't a "conversion" needed. Movies are shot in "HD" and downsized through the differnt formats. For example they are brought down for theater, then brought down again for DVD/Blu-ray, then brought down even further for TV broadcasts. The original is still HD and thats the one they use to make Blu-ray copies.

At least from my understanding thats what they do. I dont think they actually convert DVD quality into Blu-ray.

blur993798d ago

I was referring to older movies. The ones made prior to High-def. For example Star Wars. I know everything is film with HD camera currently. I see the cameras with the "HD" symbol a lot during sports broadcasts.

So the older films were filmed in HD?

darklordzor3798d ago

I think what Soldier One is trying to say, is that all films are shot on a format that's by it's nature high quality. Not necessarily shot with HD cameras, but the older 35mm film cameras had great picture quality.

When those are compressed however, that quality suffers. So blu-rays allowing them to be uncompressed gives a better picture.

However those older films have to be touched up.

namyrb3798d ago

Actually, movies are shot above HD resolution. 35mm films usually transfers to around 5.3k resolution... so movies are actually "brought down" to HD. Also, theaters have been using 35mm copies of the films (although they're starting to move towards digital prjection) so they aren't really brought down for the theater. So your chain would actually look like this: Theater-Blu-Ray-HDTV-DVD in terms of quality.

Soldierone3799d ago

Doesnt make sense to me. The industry by no means could throw a new format out there and have people eat it up if there was no benefit from it.

I have a good Blu-ray collection and honestly I didn't care until I got my new HDTV. Once you get one of those or watch a Blu-ray on a bigger HDTV you realize just how amazing the technology is. ITs a bigs step up with bigger Hollywood movies, and its still a good step up for average movies.

Even if you don't think the screen quality is better, then the added features they include should be a good selling point.

-Mezzo-3798d ago

I think Blu-Ray does come out on top, i have a huge DVD collection & about 60 Blu-Rays, you have to a good TV in order to fully enjoy the BluRay experience.

darklordzor3798d ago

That's the heart of the matter right there. You have to have the right set up and TV for the difference to be apparent. If you watch blu-rays on a regular TV then you won't notice an improvement and they'll look the same.