Which DVD is considered to be THE reference as far a picture quality is concerned? (1 Viewer)

[kevin_asai]

Spy Game
Fight Club
The Fifth Element

 

[Brajesh Upadhyay]

- The Fifth Element: SuperBit

- North By Northwest

- Vertical Limit

- Starship Troopers (can't wait to view the new SE)

- Desperado: SuperBit

 

[JeremySt]

On a 61" Runco Plasma:

SEVEN: Platinum

GLADIATOR

NORTH BY NORTHWEST

SPEEDWAY:MACH II SE

FIFTH ELEMENT: SB

Moulin Rouge, Pearl Harbor, and The Mummy suffer from compression artifacts. (could be the CG heavy effects, too)

 

[Jim A. Banville]

Ok, this obscure in the extreme, but I saw a Sony demo disc, not available to the public(?), that was unbelievable. It was viewed on the very VPL11HT projecting onto a 104" screen, that was reviewed in Widescreen Review, and at the reviewer's house. The system was very capable.I think this DVD came closer to Hi-Def than any available.

You've hit the nail on the head as far as what it is I'm looking for. I could care less if it just clips of nature, etc. (but I want it to be longer than the "montage of images" on Video Essentials, which may no longer considered to be "reference" material, and possibly have a theme or story). I want to try to get ahold of a DVD that is considered to have THE BEST picture available on the DVD medium. I ruled out animation, not because the newest films weren't transferred from film, but because animation doesn't consist of "real" images (I hope none of you guy's live in a cartoon ). I would assume that since some of the best looking HDTV was sourced from video vs. film, perhaps some material that was shot on video and recorded straight to a DVD master would have the most natural and unprocessed look, no?

 

[DaViD Boulet]

I just thought of something. Many "music video" DVDs (of performances, not MTV music videos) are shot with live video-cameras. Many of them were even shot with HD camera and then downconverted to SD res for DVD.

Some of them really push the limits of the DVD format for this reason. One I'm thinking of is Bruice Springsteen's Live 2-disc concert. This transfer is very dark and really demanding of a display with good shadow detail (it's a concert in a dark arena lit for the stage)--so it may not be the *best* demo material depending on the display. But if you want a 16x9 WS reference "live" looking image that has AMAZING resolution and image purity you can't go much further.

I'm sure there are some other reference "live" shot musical performances as well. Ones that was filmed in HD and then downconverted will probaly look better and most likely be 16x9 (not always though, the Barbra Striesand concert was cropped 4x3 for the DVD...grrrr)

 

[Jim A. Banville]

Has anyone come across any DVD's that would fit into my criteria of the theoretically perfect looking DVD?

 

[ShawnCoghill]

I thought Fight Club looked Great,Moulin Rouge,Star Wars Ep 1,Gladiator,and Se7en. I have close to 900 Dvds and I am only Unhappy with very few.

 

[ShawnCoghill]

oh Btw thats what I thought of them on a 65' Toshiba RP Widescreen. I saw Moulin Rouge on my 27' sony,and it looked great there too,as did Fight Club,the others were great as well,but for some reason these two stand out

 

[Mark H]

- The Thin Red Line

- Any Given Sunday

- Swordfish (impeccable)

- The Insider

- Titan A.E.

 

[Wes C]

Am I the only person who noticed the bad EE on Star Wars: episode one. I have seen quite a few people mention it as being perfect. I dont know if have ever seen a non-animation DVD that does not have a single flaw.

 

[Kwang Suh]

Am I the only person who noticed the bad EE on Star Wars: episode one.

Do a search, you'll find lots of threads

 

[ShawnCoghill]

i agree with mark as well

The Thin Red Line looked Great

 

[Steve_Ch]

I am always interested in this type of threads, as the technology is moving so fast now, I like to see what's "holding up" well. It looks like in so far as longitivity is concerned, Fifth Element is still the champion, granted that most people are nominating the SB version now.

What is equally interesting is DVDs that are no longer on the list, Matrix, in it's early days (along with Fifth Element, Titanic) was often mentioned as reference, but one hardly see that anymore (and I think that's correct).

 

[Matt_P]

The Thin Red Line (any version) is still the best transfer I've seen.

Here's hoping we get a 5-star edition with Malick's original cut, 6 hour cut and 3 1/4 hour cut via seemless branching!!!

Sorry for the aside...:b

 

[Sean Oneil]

"The Terminator" Special Edition (the holographic cover)

"Antitrust"

"The Way Of The Gun"

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Just watched scenes from Star Wars Ep I last night on my friend's Sharp 9000 16x9 DLP projector. So much ringing/EE in some scenes it was shocking. The worst seemed to be horiztonal hard-lines (like mountains along the horizon). OH MY GOSH. I just can't believe that Fox/THX dare defend this transfer as having "no EE applied". It's just silly. If any of you saw these types of halos in the theater I can assure you that you'd stop wonder what was going wrong. On a big screen they are glaring.

Now, to the best transfer *I've* seen of late...

Training Day.

No EE of any kind. Just a perfect transfer with so much detail/resolution It *almost* looks like hi-def on a big screen. In fact, it looked as good as many hi-def images that are transfered from film. AMAZING TRANSFER. PURE REFERENCE.

 

[Gruson]

The Rock.
I for one LOVE the movie. Bruckheimer rules!

 

[Roland Wandinger]

The DVD with the best Transfer of them all is the UK R2 BOUND from Pathé!

 

[Mark H]

Matt_P,
I agree - would love to see the original cut of this movie. I remember seeing this in the cinema, a bunch of girls were seated behind me, over here Clooney had top billing alongside Sean Penn, needless to say I never heard language like that in a long time from a member of the opposite sex after the revelation of Clooney's screen time in Thin Red Line!!!
"3 f*****g hours and thats it!!!!"

 

[Morgan Jolley]

I thought Final Fantasy's picture quality was pretty good. A lot of people complained of grain, but as I saw it, that was either added into the movie or was just dust particles done in CGI that looked like grain.