Tim Glover
Senior HTF Member
That might sound snobbish or elitist...but truthfully, HD looks so good I now notice flaws and tech issues I used to overlook when watching a standard def disc.
My XA-1 upconverts rather well too.
What I am finding and folks who have Blu-ray probably feel the same: Most, (not all) standard def dvds look kind of murky and soft. Compared to HD, they can look almost like someone needs to refocus the camera. Ok, that might be a bit too much there ...but not too far from reality.
I know HD DVD fans like to point out how good the upconversion is on these players, especially the new XA-2, but nothing I've seen upconverted looks anywhere close to HD.
I could list several examples. Just tonight I popped in the sd of Deja Vu. Edge halos galore, soft/sharpness inconsistencies....kind of pulled me out the film. I actually really liked this one too. I then pulled out The Italian Job HD DVD. Considered to be a good, but not great HD disc. It looks fabulous compared. It's like someone came over with a spray bottle of windex and cleaned off your screen, refocused, and said-Done. It's that good. With now nearly a year of HD media, these "flaws" distract me. I do realize there are some HD stinkers. (Traffic, Kiss of the Dragon)
Yes, I've checked all my signal paths etc...and did some calibrating. Got a pretty capable setup.
One of my fears is not being able to own one of my favorites on any HD format. When I got my then new nice progressive scan dvd player years ago, suddenly, those "elite" laserdiscs looked bad. The audio was still better but the image was just about unbearable. Especially on a 108 inch projector.
I certainly don't want to offend those who are content with sd dvd. I really haven't felt like a snob until now.
When I read reports of how good the Blu-rays for Chicago, Open Season, & Crank are...and see for myself how wonderful HD DVDs for The Bourne Supremacy, Seabiscuit & Batman Begins look...how can one really go back?
There's really nothing to solve this issue as it will take several years for some of the big guns to come out in HD.
Just curious how others felt about this after living with HD for a year.
What I am finding and folks who have Blu-ray probably feel the same: Most, (not all) standard def dvds look kind of murky and soft. Compared to HD, they can look almost like someone needs to refocus the camera. Ok, that might be a bit too much there ...but not too far from reality.
I know HD DVD fans like to point out how good the upconversion is on these players, especially the new XA-2, but nothing I've seen upconverted looks anywhere close to HD.
I could list several examples. Just tonight I popped in the sd of Deja Vu. Edge halos galore, soft/sharpness inconsistencies....kind of pulled me out the film. I actually really liked this one too. I then pulled out The Italian Job HD DVD. Considered to be a good, but not great HD disc. It looks fabulous compared. It's like someone came over with a spray bottle of windex and cleaned off your screen, refocused, and said-Done. It's that good. With now nearly a year of HD media, these "flaws" distract me. I do realize there are some HD stinkers. (Traffic, Kiss of the Dragon)
Yes, I've checked all my signal paths etc...and did some calibrating. Got a pretty capable setup.
One of my fears is not being able to own one of my favorites on any HD format. When I got my then new nice progressive scan dvd player years ago, suddenly, those "elite" laserdiscs looked bad. The audio was still better but the image was just about unbearable. Especially on a 108 inch projector.
I certainly don't want to offend those who are content with sd dvd. I really haven't felt like a snob until now.
When I read reports of how good the Blu-rays for Chicago, Open Season, & Crank are...and see for myself how wonderful HD DVDs for The Bourne Supremacy, Seabiscuit & Batman Begins look...how can one really go back?
There's really nothing to solve this issue as it will take several years for some of the big guns to come out in HD.
Just curious how others felt about this after living with HD for a year.