IMO, the worst looking DVD I own is Star Wars Episode II (1 Viewer)

Its true. Do not have an extensive collection but Attack of the Clones looks very soft and muddy, almost blurry. Have heard this is one of the best, if not the best, DVD transfers out there. Have Gladiator, Fifth Element, Shrek and other great looking DVD's that look phenomenal on my HDTV Philips set and the Philips DVDQ50. Have not calibrated my TV but have used the AVIA and Video Essentials disks so DVD's and HDTV cable look very nice. Could it at all be possible the DVD is bad? It doesn't skip or pause/freeze at any point so I am not really sure what the issue can be. I'm almost tempted to purchase another copy just to see if it displays the same symptoms. Anyone care to take a stab at this?

I heard that GL purposefully softened the movie because it was filmed digitally and he wanted to make it look more filmlike. Perhaps he was unable to achieve a realistic film "effect".

Not sure what all the hype is than. Looks really bad IMO.
Worst looking DVD I own.

Sorry, should have done a search first.
Thanks

Moving to Software. You have been warned.

"I test drove a Mercedes and it was the worst car I ever drove......."

I don't know what to say other than it must be nice....

Looks great on my setup.

I agree with the initial poster. I was looking forward to the most pristine DVD experience ever when I purchased ATOC and I was dissapointed to say the least. In terms of the transfer, I can not say that it is the worst DVD that I have ever viewed as I have been collecting since 1998. However, it is definitely very soft when viewing on my 57" Toshiba.

The worst transfer I have ever seen FROM A MAJOR STUDIO was the first DVD release of Highlander.

I realize that this has probably been covered many times but for the sake of this thread I will state the following. Folks that have large progressive scan displays see so much more texture than the average viewer. I know that my HDTV has made me much more critical of anything on any televison HD or not.

The saving grace of the ATOC DVD was the audio. When I demo the Darth Sidious fight at the end of the movie my guests are always impressed. Some have even commented that they heard other HT's before and were not impressed until this demo. If not for the amazing mix I definitely would have been extremely dissapointed.

I don't think it's the worst looking DVD by far, but I think the transfer could have been better. I'm using my PS2 and a component cable hookup and during some darkly lit scenes, the fireplace scene in particular, I notice a lot of artifacting. I've seen Quicktime movies with better resolution than that particular scene. I've often wondered that since the movie was shot digitally, maybe it should have been spread over 2 discs to get the optimum picture clarity instead of putting the feature on one disc. That's my uneducated theory on the matter anyway. In some ways I think The Phantom Menace has better image quality.

Looks amazing on mine. Yeh it's soft, but have you seen some of these others movies transfers?

I mean Signs has some terrible video noise in numerous scenes. So does the phantom menance. AOTC has none of this.

Gary, the problems you're seeing in the fireplace scene are from what I've seen mostly limitations of the cameras.

Well in that case that's the particular area in which digital cameras suck and I understand why certain filmmakers like Spielberg aren't going for it. I think the process involved in the actual making of movies on celluloid lends itself much better to filming dark scenes like that compared to the digital version. Chemicals are much more foregiving when it comes to low levels of light than digital bits.

Worst DVD transfer I own of a recent movie that should look good is Scarface.

Best DVD transfer I own of a recent movie is a tie. Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring and Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie. Spiderman is no slouch either but it didn't make me marvel at the picture during any portion of it.

Now LOTR you could figure should be good. But given the general disdain MST3k: The Movie has been given (by non-fans) I was absolutely floored by how good it looked. Closest thing to hi-def I've ever seen on my HDTV.

AOTC looks fantastic on a properly calibrated digital tube TV with a top end progressive scan player. Amongst the best I've seen.

I agree with Greg. Looks incredible on my 36" XBR and RP-82. I would be willing to say in the top 2 or 3 disks I own.

Randy

Yeah, Star Wars I and Star Wars II are the worst movies ever and the worst video and audio quality ever! :rolleyes

Then you should check out The Quiet Man for a ghastly studio release.

The hands-down worst transfer ever is Magical Mystery Tour, which looks utterly miserable and other than the songs (which seem to be inserted from the album) the dialogue is completely unintelligible.

It seems some are confusing a bad looking film with a bad looking transfer/DVD.

If the DVD version accuratly represents the film, then the transfer could be said to be excellent, even if the film itself looks bad.

Does AOTC look a bit soft? Yes. But I suspect this is the way the original film looks and not the result of a "poor transfer".

As far as ATOC being the worst looking DVD, whether because of the original film or the transfer process, I do not agree. I've seen other DVDs where the original film looked bad AND the transfer was bad. ATOC may not be the absolute best, but it's far from being the worst.

Just my humble opinion.

JimmyK