Why do some blu ray's have good PQ and others look bad?

[Movie shy]

Why do some blu ray's have great PQ and other blu ray's look bad? I have a Sony BDP-3200 blu ray player and a 720p HDTV. I know most of you will say it's because of my 720p HDTV but many of my blu ray's look great. For example I bought Cleopatra blu ray and the 4 movie musical collection both on blu ray. Cleopatra looks amazing on blu but The Band Wagon from the 4 movie musicals collection just doesn't look that good. I know bit rates can affect the PQ but the review on this site for The Band Wagon said the PQ was very good but not for me. I see a lot of grain in the movie and the picture doesn't look vibrant. Just wondered what people think?

[42041]

Originally Posted by Movie shy

Why do some blu ray's have great PQ and other blu ray's look bad? I have a Sony BDP-3200 blu ray player and a 720p HDTV. I know most of you will say it's because of my 720p HDTV but many of my blu ray's look great. For example I bought Cleopatra blu ray and the 4 movie musical collection both on blu ray. Cleopatra looks amazing on blu but The Band Wagon from the 4 movie musicals collection just doesn't look that good. I know bit rates can affect the PQ but the review on this site for The Band Wagon said the PQ was very good but not for me. I see a lot of grain in the movie and the picture doesn't look vibrant. Just wondered what people think?

There's a hundred different reasons. Not all movies are shot the same way, not all movies have aged the same way, not all movies have been restored or remastered with the same care.

[dallywhitty]

O beautiful for spacious skies
For amber waves of grain.

[Todd Tomorrow]

Originally Posted by Movie shy

Why do some blu ray's have great PQ and other blu ray's look bad? I have a Sony BDP-3200 blu ray player and a 720p HDTV. I know most of you will say it's because of my 720p HDTV but many of my blu ray's look great. For example I bought Cleopatra blu ray and the 4 movie musical collection both on blu ray. Cleopatra looks amazing on blu but The Band Wagon from the 4 movie musicals collection just doesn't look that good. I know bit rates can affect the PQ but the review on this site for The Band Wagon said the PQ was very good but not for me. I see a lot of grain in the movie and the picture doesn't look vibrant. Just wondered what people think?

The Band Wagon looks great and it looks just as it should. You are really complaining about why movies shot in different decades on vastly different film stock look different.

[StingingVelvet]

Originally Posted by Movie shy

Why do some blu ray's have great PQ and other blu ray's look bad? I have a Sony BDP-3200 blu ray player and a 720p HDTV. I know most of you will say it's because of my 720p HDTV but many of my blu ray's look great. For example I bought Cleopatra blu ray and the 4 movie musical collection both on blu ray. Cleopatra looks amazing on blu but The Band Wagon from the 4 movie musicals collection just doesn't look that good. I know bit rates can affect the PQ but the review on this site for The Band Wagon said the PQ was very good but not for me. I see a lot of grain in the movie and the picture doesn't look vibrant. Just wondered what people think?

Mostly boils down to how well the film was scanned and mastered for release. That's why reviews are useful when buying discs, they let you know which movies have a nice looking master and which don't. If you're a less discerning purchaser you can choose to stick with DVD for less impressive masters.

[Trax-3]

Cleopatra and Band Wagon are in no way comparable.

One is 70 mm the other ordinary spherical 35 mm.

On the other hand, lack of vibrancy is not usually something that 3-strip Technicolor films like Band Wagon are accused of. Many are considered to belong among the best looking films of all time.

But in general, films are very different, both in how they are photographed and on what. Many are not even supposed to look all that sharp by design.

Furthermore the nature and condition of the film element used for the video transfer (and the resolution of the transfer - 4k, 2k, 1080p, SD upscale) plays a huge part as well as mastering practices like presence or lack of DNR.

On top of it all there is compression. Same master encoded well for the blu-ray will probably be at least slightly sharper and more detailed than a poor encoding. And high bitrate doesn't automatically make a good encoding.

[NoirFan]

Where did the eagle come from? Why do men have souls?

[nitin]

in my experience, most people that mention grain as a negative, have the sharpness setting on their tv set too high making it look chunky and sparkly. Or have the high sharpness combined with a noise reduction setting also being turned on.

[DetroitSportsFan]

Someone feel free to post a link to a similar thread so I can merge them.

[crazyBLUE]

Originally Posted by DetroitSportsFan

Someone feel free to post a link to a similar thread so I can merge them.

Which one

[MifuneFan]

Someone buy Movie Shy a Magic 8 ball

[StingingVelvet]

Most TVs nowadays have a "movie" or "calibrated" setting that usually puts sharpness at the setting where it isn't adding or subtracting any, or adding some at least it's low enough no artifacts should be present. My newest TV's calibrated mode puts sharpness at 20 out of 100. Everyone should use their movie or calibrated setting as a start, then adjust brightness and contrast using color bars. This should be written in bold print on the front of every TV manual!

[nitin]

Originally Posted by StingingVelvet

Most TVs nowadays have a "movie" or "calibrated" setting that usually puts sharpness at the setting where it isn't adding or subtracting any, or adding some at least it's low enough no artifacts should be present. My newest TV's calibrated mode puts sharpness at 20 out of 100. Everyone should use their movie or calibrated setting as a start, then adjust brightness and contrast using color bars. This should be written in bold print on the front of every TV manual!

Nope even on 'movie' mode, a lot of the tvs still have sharpness at say '20' like you say, when it should be 0 (at least it should be on the Samsungs). Of course on other modes, it's up to '50' which is ridiculous but even '20' is too high for at least the Samsungs.

[StingingVelvet]

Originally Posted by nitin

Nope even on 'movie' mode, a lot of the tvs still have sharpness at say '20' like you say, when it should be 0 (at least it should be on the Samsungs). Of course on other modes, it's up to '50' which is ridiculous but even '20' is too high for at least the Samsungs.

There are many televisions that artificially soften the image at 0 sharpening. I know Geoff owns one, and I am 90% sure my new Vizio for the bedroom does since it's 0 setting looks much, much softer than my main calibrated TV's 0 setting. Also for most TVs a sharpness setting of 10 or 20 will not add any noticeable artifacts. This can be tested with test patterns usually.

I'm not saying 0 is never the best setting, but the whole "always put to 0!" thing is a fallacy.