"Bad" BDs better on your 4kUHDTV?

[Bluyoda]

Have you re-watched any of your old BDs, of which you thought the transfers were rahter poor or bland on your HDTV, and thought they looked much more decent on your "new" 4k UHD TV?
To me, most BDs show their flaws much more so upscaled to 4k, and only sitting 5.2ft/16.m away (see sig) from the screen certainly doesn't help either, but there are some BDs that I had thought were pretty lousy BDs, that actually look better on my 4k TV, and all of those are the unmolested ones, such as
'National Lampoon's Vacation', 'Armed and Dangerous', as well as 'Porky's' come to mind. They look more filmic now, as opposed to all those processed transfers, where the flaws are now amplified, and some have become unwatchable (Bean: The Ultimate Disaster Movie) now.

Were you positively surprised by any old BDs of yours?
Which ones were they?

[nitin]

Originally Posted by Bluyoda

Have you re-watched any of your old BDs, of which you thought the transfers were rahter poor or bland on your HDTV, and thought they looked much more decent on your "new" 4k UHD TV?
To me, most BDs show their flaws much more so upscaled to 4k, and only sitting 5.2ft/16.m away (see sig) from the screen certainly doesn't help either, but there are some BDs that I had thought were pretty lousy BDs, that actually look better on my 4k TV, and all of those are the unmolested ones, such as
'National Lampoon's Vacation', 'Armed and Dangerous', as well as 'Porky's' come to mind. They look more filmic now, as opposed to all those processed transfers, where the flaws are now amplified, and some have become unwatchable (Bean: The Ultimate Disaster Movie) now.

Were you positively surprised by any old BDs of yours?
Which ones were they?

It will really depend on the processing quality of your UHD player and/or 4k TV.

I recently got a Sony 75x9500H and a Panasonic 820 player and I am shocked how good a lot of my DVDs look let alone some of the blu rays. I have yet to find something that looks noticeably worse than on my previous 1080p setup.

[Bluyoda]

Originally Posted by nitin

It will really depend on the processing quality of your UHD player and/or 4k TV.

I recently got a Sony 75x9500H and a Panasonic 820 player and I am shocked how good a lot of my DVDs look let alone some of the blu rays. I have yet to find something that looks noticeably worse than on my previous 1080p setup.

I am sorry, but no amount of processing can make a DVD look good on a 4k TV. How far do you sit from your TV?

[WBMakeVMarsMovieNOW]

Originally Posted by Bluyoda

Have you re-watched any of your old BDs, of which you thought the transfers were rahter poor or bland on your HDTV, and thought they looked much more decent on your "new" 4k UHD TV?
To me, most BDs show their flaws much more so upscaled to 4k, and only sitting 5.2ft/16.m away (see sig) from the screen certainly doesn't help either, but there are some BDs that I had thought were pretty lousy BDs, that actually look better on my 4k TV, and all of those are the unmolested ones, such as
'National Lampoon's Vacation', 'Armed and Dangerous', as well as 'Porky's' come to mind. They look more filmic now, as opposed to all those processed transfers, where the flaws are now amplified, and some have become unwatchable (Bean: The Ultimate Disaster Movie) now.

Were you positively surprised by any old BDs of yours?
Which ones were they?

hmm I think they all look better on 4k, the upscaling and finer pixel pitch makes everything look more film-like (although the 4k HDTV in my case being 10" larger does make the worst blus jaggies and poor pre-cooked upscaling a bit more noticeable, not a problem on the 24" 4k monitor which is same size as the old HD monitor had been)

but I feel the better the blu, the even better the improvement

[lilboyblu]

High quality equipment really does make the difference. We still have my first mid-level Samsung LCD HDTV with my wife’s cheapo (Buy a TV, get a free Blu-ray player!) LG hooked to it in a spare bedroom. Movies that are played on it look fine in that “presentable for a spare bedroom TV” kind of way, but those same discs look multiple times better on the dedicated main room setup. Better equipment, better results.

[nitin]

Originally Posted by Bluyoda

I am sorry, but no amount of processing can make a DVD look good on a 4k TV. How far do you sit from your TV?

That is just not true. The Sony 75x9500H has the best scaler in consumer tvs and the Panasonic 820 also does excellent chroma upsampling. Between the two, DVDs do look pretty good.

I am about 3m from my 75" TV and happy with that distance.

[jordan-r]

I think the worst-looking Blu-ray I own is the Choice Collection Marie Antoinette, if that even counts as one. It looks as wretched on my 4K TV as it did on my previous one.

[oddbox83]

Originally Posted by Bluyoda

Have you re-watched any of your old BDs, of which you thought the transfers were rahter poor or bland on your HDTV, and thought they looked much more decent on your "new" 4k UHD TV?
Were you positively surprised by any old BDs of yours?
Which ones were they?

Actually yes. Like you say, normally a crap transfer is a crap transfer no matter what, but my example seems to be improved by better processing in most decent 4K TVs.

Red Dwarf - Back to Earth - a poor 60i conversion from a 50i/25p master. Looked smeary and juddery on my old 1080p LED. It looks much more presentable, if still not perfect, when I watched on a 4K TV - I don't know if it was more advanced "Real Cinema" conversion unpicking the judder or what!

[HD Goofnut]

Wait, so the better equipment I have the better the stuff I watch will look?

[fredman]

Originally Posted by nitin

That is just not true. The Sony 75x9500H has the best scaler in consumer tvs and the Panasonic 820 also does excellent chroma upsampling. Between the two, DVDs do look pretty good.

Me too. I'd suffered with a cheappie Samsung BD player for a few years (my first player) and 'upgraded' to an LG UBK80 with my Sony XBR55800G. I recently popped in some Thundarr the Barbarian DVDs which were so abysmal on my old setup I felt they were write-offs - and to my surprise they looked quite watchable - if not exactly scintillating, but I had been avoiding watching older DVDs (stuff not available in blu or 4K) and am now enjoying all my discs again. So yeah, an equipment upgrade will do wonders for older discs (I really think the Sammy was the culprit as it would only play about half of my burned blurays and the LG so far plays everything).

[Bluyoda]

I'll just let these images speak for themselves (DVD->BD->UHD):

Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure - 4k/Blu-ray Comparison - YouTube

No amount of genius processing can make a DVD look great.

Prove it with screencaps, or it didn't happen.

Another good example of a BD that looks better on my new UHD TV is Grumpy Men. It's always those that don't have EE and DNR built in, and are largely left alone. Sure, it is a bit fuzzy here and there, and some blown-out highlights do occur, but it's still rather good.

BD is still great, and UHD can be, and mostly is a refinement thereof, but DVDs are junk. Only some animation can look OK.