Why do some upconverted DVDs look so horrible?

[rooboy78]

First off, I'm fairly new to Bluray, and when I got it I promised myself I wouldn't become a Bluray "snob". I didn't want to upgrade all my DVDs to Bluray, etc.
Well, I don't know if it's just my eyes being trained to the quality of Blu now, but when I watch some DVDs I can't even stand it. Don't get me wrong, the majority of my DVDs look fine and don't bother me in the slightest, but there are others I watch and I think "Oh god, I need to get this on Blu because it looks so damn bad."
I just don't know why the quality is so bad on some and fine on others. And these are newer movies too. For example, Star Trek and Jennifer's Body look great. Others, like Orphan, look like complete crap.
Anyone else have this problem or am I just being too picky now?

[P@t_Mtl]

I have seen that look pretty good and make's me wish very hard for them to be release in Blu-ray.

[LatinoG]

Yea I'm new to bluray as well. But I have yet to see an upconvert DVD look bad. So far I've watched Iron Man, and Michael Jackson's This is It upconverted on my blu ray player and it does look really good. It almost does look HD as well.

But in ur case I'm guessing Orphan looks bad in upconvert quality probably because it was filmed in somewhat of a dark setting if you know what I mean. So that probably played a factor.

[42041]

If any DVD looks tolerable to you, you need to sit closer to your screen

[boxterduke]

I noticed that newer movies on DVD looks very nice upconverted. Older DVDs tend to look crappy.

[LatinoG]

Originally Posted by boxterduke

I noticed that newer movies on DVD looks very nice upconverted. Older DVDs tend to look crappy.

Hmmm that may be why Iron Man, and Michael Jackson looked good upconverted....hmmm I gotta check my older DVDs lol

[rooboy78]

Yeah, I went through most of my DVDs, and most of them look fine upconverted, or at least passable. And a lot of the ones that don't look amazing I don't even love enough to justify upgrading them to Blu. But I made a list of some of my absolute favorites that I want to upgrade. Not surprisingly though, most of my faves aren't even on Blu yet (Jurassic Park, Finding Nemo, the Scream trilogy, Little Children, Goonies) so I have plenty of time to save up haha.
I said I wasn't going to replace my DVDs, yet out of the 8 Blus I have so far, only 2 are ones I didn't already own

[LatinoG]

Originally Posted by rooboy78

Yeah, I went through most of my DVDs, and most of them look fine upconverted, or at least passable. And a lot of the ones that don't look amazing I don't even love enough to justify upgrading them to Blu. But I made a list of some of my absolute favorites that I want to upgrade. Not surprisingly though, most of my faves aren't even on Blu yet (Jurassic Park, Finding Nemo, the Scream trilogy, Little Children, Goonies) so I have plenty of time to save up haha.
I said I wasn't going to replace my DVDs, yet out of the 8 Blus I have so far, only 2 are ones I didn't already own

Yeah so far, I'm planning on not upgrading ALL my movies to blu, but just the ones I REALLY like. So far, the movies I have plans on upgrading to blu soon, are Iron Man, and The Dark Knight, and MAYBE The Batman Anthology(when the price goes down a lil bit). Other than that, I'm fine with upconverted DVD. But don't get me wrong, from here on out the movies I buy will be Bluray(and DVD/digital copy since thats what Blu ray movies come with nowadays lol) but the movies I already own will stay DVD bound.

[MrHT]

Originally Posted by LatinoG

Hmmm that may be why Iron Man, and Michael Jackson looked good upconverted....hmmm I gotta check my older DVDs lol

When you watch Iron Man on Blu-ray, come back and let us know if you feel the same way.

[Lincoln6Echo]

Originally Posted by rooboy78

Yeah, I went through most of my DVDs, and most of them look fine upconverted, or at least passable. And a lot of the ones that don't look amazing I don't even love enough to justify upgrading them to Blu. But I made a list of some of my absolute favorites that I want to upgrade. Not surprisingly though, most of my faves aren't even on Blu yet (Jurassic Park, Finding Nemo, the Scream trilogy, Little Children, Goonies) so I have plenty of time to save up haha.
I said I wasn't going to replace my DVDs, yet out of the 8 Blus I have so far, only 2 are ones I didn't already own

Just curious...do you have a surround sound system? If so, that's enough reason to upgrade your favorite titles to BD because I think one of the biggest improvements over DVD is the sound. You can upconvert the picture, but you can't upconvert the audio track.

[Suntory_Times]

Originally Posted by LatinoG

Hmmm that may be why Iron Man, and Michael Jackson looked good upconverted....hmmm I gotta check my older DVDs lol

Well, you have a 32" tv. How far do you sit away from it. You don't get the full benifit of blu ray unless you go front projection imho. Dvd's have always looked bad when viewed at 1.5 screen hieghts away from the image whilst blu ray looks excellent.

[Al_The_Strange]

A lot of factors go into the varying quality of DVDs. They are all inherently limited by their lower resolution and higher compression, but some have better transfers than others, so details and coloring vary depending on the title. Some DVDs have heavy noise and grain that can smudge up an image; I noticed that the DVDs for "The Birds" and "Guns of Navarone" look hideous because of that. Newer DVDs probably look better because they use the disc and image space more efficiently, and have more pristine masters.

TV size and viewing distance also factor into it. Sitting five inches in front of my parents' 50" TV, I can see lots of hideous compression, pixilation, noise, etc. Sitting twenty feet away from my 32" TV makes any bad-looking movie look marvelous.

I found that any Blu-Ray, even those coming from weaker transfers, often offer improved sharpness, which in turn boosts the contrast. Add on improved sound and extras, and I find most movies worthwhile upgrading. If not, then I'll at least compliment my DVDs with a BD copy.

Originally Posted by dahoover

I also can't stand non-anamorphic DVD's such as Good Will Hunting, Armageddon (which I still haven't upgraded) and True Lies. I will upgrade a non-anamorphic dvd instantly because they look so bad.

Absolutely! I think those are the worst, because they don't make good use of the frame; so much wasted space. Details get scrunched and smurred. And of course, on the PS3 they automatically become surrounded by black bars on all sides, so I have to turn the upconvert off and watch a blown-up fuzzy image. Blech.

I will want to replace those ones the most (especially good ones like "The Abyss" (I don't know if newer DVD editions were enhanced for 16x9, but I got the older one that's not)).

[LatinoG]

Originally Posted by 42041

If any DVD looks tolerable to you, you need to sit closer to your screen

Um, dude I'm new to blu ray, which means I'm still DVD bound. I understand there's a lot of people here that have gone FULL BD and I accept that and respect that. But for me, Blu Ray does look awesome, but I'm still perfectly comfortable with DVD.

[Lincoln6Echo]

Originally Posted by LatinoG

Um, dude I'm new to blu ray, which means I'm still DVD bound. I understand there's a lot of people here that have gone FULL BD and I accept that and respect that. But for me, Blu Ray does look awesome, but I'm still perfectly comfortable with DVD.

No, what he's saying is that is if you still think DVD is tolerable, even the newer titles, walk up closer to your screen. Sometimes, even a foot or two closer makes a difference, depending on the size of your screen.

Even when upconverted, it's still just the player using an algorithm to uprez the lower rez 720x480 (345K pixel) DVD image compared to a 1920x1080 (2M) pixel BD image.

If you've got it, pop in the "We Were Soldiers" DVD. I thought that disc used to look pretty good. Now, it's practically unwatchable.

[rooboy78]

Some up converted DVDS looks nice and crisp...others have like really jagged edges around the picture and it just looks messy. That's what other people are seeing too right?

[nycomet]

Originally Posted by 42041

If any DVD looks tolerable to you, you need to sit closer to your screen

No true. The only way a DVD might look descent on your screen is if you sit as far away from the screen as possible -- perhaps in the next State.

[Blu-Benny]

i gotta say, saving private ryan on dvd looked terrible on my ps3!!

[DetroitSportsFan]

Originally Posted by rooboy78

First off, I'm fairly new to Bluray, and when I got it I promised myself I wouldn't become a Bluray "snob". I didn't want to upgrade all my DVDs to Bluray, etc.

That's what they all say at first.

[dahoover]

I have the same issue with some of my dvd's. I upgrade my favorite movies and the movies I think will benefit the most from bluray (such as Saving Private Ryan, Casino Royale, and Bad Boys 2 if it ever comes out).

I also can't stand non-anamorphic DVD's such as Good Will Hunting, Armageddon (which I still haven't upgraded) and True Lies. I will upgrade a non-anamorphic dvd instantly because they look so bad.

[Lincoln6Echo]

Originally Posted by dahoover

I have the same issue with some of my dvd's. I upgrade my favorite movies and the movies I think will benefit the most from bluray (such as Saving Private Ryan, Casino Royale, and Bad Boys 2 if it ever comes out).

I also can't stand non-anamorphic DVD's such as Good Will Hunting, Armageddon (which I still haven't upgraded) and True Lies. I will upgrade a non-anamorphic dvd instantly because they look so bad.

Definately grab that Armaggedon BD...it's got some great PQ. Facial detail is superb. Billy Bob Thorton never looked better...or worse, depending on your POV.