What the Toy Story BD's show me is.. (1 Viewer)

[mattCR]

There are of course a lot of reviews of the Toy Story blueray discs. How good the quality is, the look, and the experience. Great films.
But as I spent the weekend with the blurays, going through the special features, I come back to an argument I've had for sometime.
Many of the "Special Features" on the Toy Story discs are presented in 1080P, with original audio as present on their DVD Counterparts. Despite the fact they are the same as their DVD counterparts, they still look better.
How is that possible? It's the same resolution, no retouching or extra work was done to these. Why do they look better?


The biggest reason is that Bluray uses a newer, more accurate and efficient CODEC. But also because they can occupy full space without being recompressed.

Which brings me back to what I've argued all along, and why I don't understand why studios won't take key properties.. and make money. Many older DVD TV titles of very popular shows can be improved, without any extra work, by simply using them as they exist (480P) and using better CODECs at a higher bit rate to result in a better output.

There are several targets for discs in this category that quite frankly would sell by an audience who has repeatedly proven their willingness to double, triple, and quadruple dip.
I'm talking:



Star Trek (all new series)
Buffy / Angel

And quite a few others.

Even if there is a later "redone for BD edition" these would still be the definitive "as they were originally prepared to be seen, at the highest bitrate usable" or whatever.

This seems like such a no-brainer, with limited extra work needed, which means low upfront studio cost and quick turnarounds.
So, what the heck is the hold up?

 

[TonyD]

What was the question again?

 

[mattCR]

If they re-released DVD material in 480P on blueray but at a higher bitrate. Would you be interested/consider purchasing.

 

[Brian Borst]

Is the difference really that noticeable? I've never really checked, I assumed that they were simply upscaled.
If the supplements are in SD, I don't really care. Look at the Gone With the Wind BD, for example. That has a second Blu-ray filled with SD extras. The advantage you have there is that there are about 8.5 hours of extras on that second disc. Much more than could fit on a DVD, and probably in slightly better quality too.

The question that has to be asked is whether Blu-ray should be used for HD content only (again, not the supplements) or just a medium to store things on? I wouldn't mind having a single season on a disc, but the prices won't get any lower than they are on DVD, just because it can fit onto a single disc.

 

[mattCR]

I'm saying, just because the content is composed at a certain rate doesn't mean a much better encoding with a newer CODEC doesn't by default improve it.
Look at how Black in say, Buffy or anyTNG looks.. you get mosquito effect, even on the best DVD/BD player (noticable even on my Oppo83). But the original was set for a native broadcast at 480P, which yes, low end, but redone without the MPEG compression artifacts would look considerably better by default.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

I guess I'd go for something like that on a case by case basis. It'll depend on whether it's really a fave title, if the quality of the existing DVD is all that bad, and if there's much likelihood of a quality HD re-dip in the forseeable future.

I'd probably treat it not much differently than a very mediocre 1080p BD release (or one that's sourced from SD quality content like 28 Days Later).

I think though that part of the problem is the studios may not want the potential consumer/market "confusion" (and possible backlash) from this. It may make perfect sense to (some of) us enthusiasts, but we're in a small minority in the grand scheme of things.

_Man_

 

[Adam Gregorich]

I would want the feature to be in 1080. Extras ported in 480 is fine.

 

[Arild]

I would say, "Hell no!". Once you go down that road, it opens the door for studios to put out all sorts of cheap releases of material that would otherwise get better treatment. "Hey, people buy BD's that aren't even HD? Cool, we don't have to do remasters now, just use the old LD transfer we used on the DVD...".

It would happen.

 

[Andrew Pierce]

Look at how Black in say, Buffy or any TNG looks

Both Buffy and ST:TNG were shot on film, so no thank you, I most definitely don't want an upsampled or 480p blu-ray of either of these series to get an ever so slightly better image. No doubt it would look a touch better, but I want them rescanned in true high definition. And if the content was shot on 480p video it ain't gonna look great no matter what so, no there too.

 

[Brian Borst]

Originally Posted by Arild

I would say, "Hell no!". Once you go down that road, it opens the door for studios to put out all sorts of cheap releases of material that would otherwise get better treatment. "Hey, people buy BD's that aren't even HD? Cool, we don't have to do remasters now, just use the old LD transfer we used on the DVD...".

It would happen.

It's already happening. Here we have a company that uses Blu-ray for long documentaries and miniseries in SD, so it can fit on one or two discs. I can understand that when the material is in SD. Of course, when there's HD material available, that has to be used without a question.