Are most movies at their best possible quality in 1080p and on Blu-ray?

[joliefan]

Originally Posted by vpt360

I'm not here to start another thread about format wars or double-dipping. Rather, I'm more interested in learning a little about the maximum resolution that most (not all) movies are presented in.

In other words, if I buy a Blu-Ray of a movie today and it has true 1080p HD, then am I really viewing it in its best possible resolution (regardless of home-media or theater formats)? Or is it just the best that Blu-Ray can hold? For example, let's say that there is a 1440p version of a movie out there but it currently won't fit on Blu-Ray so the studio offers 1080p. Then is there a chance that down the line they will re-release it at 1440p or some other "higher HD" form?

Obviously many big-budget blockbusters of recent ('Avengers', 'Dark Knight Rises', etc.) are filmed in ridiculously high definition and clearly go beyond 1080p HD, but what about the majority of movies currently out there? Be it a classic from the 50's or an Oscar Winner from the 90's--are they available in their best possible viewing with 1080p?

I'm still kind of new on these boards and have been curious about this for a long time so I hope it's not too much to ask.

1080p is the best way to watch a movie till now but in the future like everyone has told you there will be another format which is 2160p 4K ULTRA HIGH DEF

4 times the resolution of 1080p

[pro-bassoonist]

Originally Posted by lobosrul

Point being only a small percentage of movies will even look better on 4k, and even then I can't imagine my enjoyment of them being any less even on a huge TV/screen.

Actually...the greatest benefits when transitioning to 4K will be in two key areas:

1. Eliminating all of the banding/aliasing/downsampling anomalies.

2. Color depth.

But as I mentioned elsewhere, you are more than future-proofing your collection with Blu-ray. No need to worry at all.

Pro-B

[Canada]

Yes in regards to current TV Sizes you probably can't notice a whole lot more detail with 4K. Although with a projector you might start noticing the advantages of 4K.

[krazeyeyez]

Originally Posted by Canada

Yes in regards to current TV Sizes you probably can't notice a whole lot more detail with 4K. Although with a projector you might start noticing the advantages of 4K.

Same thing was and still is being said about blu-ray, if thats any indication i think you are seriously underestimating 4k.

[ahmedreda]

I would say it depends on your screen size / viewing distance. I think for most TVs , 4K may not introduce much of an improvement.
I have a 130" screen and my viewing distance is around 12'. 1080P looks pretty good and I would think 4K would look a tad better. I may upgrade to it when it becomes the norm as in when most projectors available are 4K capable. I don't think the difference will be significant enough for me to replace my Bluray library like what I am doing to my DVDs.

[krazeyeyez]

i notice the difference between dvd and blu on a 30" screen, your talking compression, colors, transfers etc... not just lines of resolution. That of course is throwing out improvements in sound and features as well. Now if you just go by an eye chart that says you start losing resolution at this distance and this size, i can see why some would assume 4k would be for projectors only. Also consider the growing size of the average tv in a home these days. Its not just projectors that go big and 4k isn't even out yet.

[vpt360]

Excellent and intriguing discussion continues. Thanks for all of the great feedback, guys.

Any more thoughts on this? I wonder if it deserves its own topic on this board...

[Anthony P]

Originally Posted by krazeyeyez

Same thing was and still is being said about blu-ray, if thats any indication i think you are seriously underestimating 4k.

I agree. I can't say for sure about 4k but I have watched grainy BDs and seen the grain, since a grain on a BD is 1 pixel big, that means that I can clearly resolve a pixel that is 1080p size from where I sit be it in the HT or on one of my TVs.

But if someone can honestly not tell the difference between BD and DVD then they are siting way too far from a display that is way too small.

[Nyle]

Originally Posted by pro-bassoonist

This is not a guarantee at all - not in this (poor) global economy. And not even 10 years from now.

To address an earlier question, without a shadow of a doubt 4K content will make it to the market. There is already 4K content as demo material, 4K players, etc.

This said, when 4K content makes it to the market, it will be compressed. So one should not expect that the 4K content one gets is the 4K data stored on a studio master. Just like at the moment you could get some streaming 1080p content that is so compressed that it looks worse than uncompressed 720p data, 4K content will be compressed. It is the only way the studios will sell it.

Building a 1080p library of films, with Blu-ray, is very much future-proof. When the 4K players come out, they will also upscale 1080p to 4K, and this upscaling process is an entirely different game, nothing like standard definition (DVD) to high-definition upscalling.

In the future, 4K will probably be used a lot with higher capacity interactive TV sets, with full-contact visuals, etc. But this is the future.

Specifically as far as films are concerned, many, many films will be maxed out at 1080p, which is Blu-ray.

Pro-B

Please explain