How to know if movie will play well on blu-ray

[bobcarla]

I got a Pansonic DMPBD10AK player yesterday and was very disappointed to play two blu-ray discs from Netflix (The last waltz and 28 Days Later) which were not near to being high definition.

I went down to Blockbuster where the clerk told me that Closer and 3:10 to Yuma would play much better and they did.

Apparently some blu-ray discs are just reformatted from standard DVD format (I am not sure whey).

Is there a way to know when ordering from Netflix or do I need to check with the recommendations onf Blu-ray.com?

Thanks
bobcarla

[crackinhedz]

look at video reviews here at

bluray.com

or

highdefdigest.com


...this will give you a pretty good idea what picture quality and audio quality are like before you rent or buy.

Unfortunately not all movies are transfered equally, which leaves some movies looking less than good.

[owa]

Check reviews. A lot of times, movies look the way they do because that's how the director wants it to look or it could be related to the equipment used to film the movie, or it could be some other factor. Below are some sites that have blu-ray reviews:

Blu-ray.com: https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/reviews.php

Home Theater Spot: http://www.hometheaterspot.com/fusio...m.php?fid/225/

High-Def Digest: http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/reviews_alpha.html

HighDefDiscNews: http://www.highdefdiscnews.com/?page_id=104

The Digital Bits: http://www.thedigitalbits.com/dvdmenu.html#hdbrd

[krazeyeyez]

lol 28 days later for your first experience with blu

and i thought i had it bad getting 300. other then 28 days later (bad quality had something to do with the camera they used during filming) the vast majority of blu's are superior to their dvd counterpart, a few are just slightly better then the dvd.....and a few are "reference" quality. opinions vary on what the reference titles are but some suggestions for movies that will impress.....

cars (disney, i hated it, but looks top notch)
lost: season 3 (if your a fan you'll love it, if not rent a disc just to see the PQ)
casino royale
superbad
black hawk down
rocky balboa (watched this last night and the final fight looked amazing)
crank

i think all these have great PQ and will probably be more on par with what you were expecting from the blu experience, hope you see something in that list that interests you. and as others said, check reviews from multiple sources before you buy.

[TK421]

thats interesting, i must do some more research now. check title BD authoring to see if it was just remasterd.

[TheRealBob]

Originally Posted by TK421

thats interesting, i must do some more research now. check title BD authoring to see if it was just remasterd.

Nobody's just upscaling DVD content to 1080p and calling it a Blu-ray. There's no epidemic here that requires constant vigilance.

28 Days Later is pretty much a one-of-a-kind situation here. The director thought the movie would seem grittier if he shot it on a standard-def camcorder. That is how it looked in theaters as well. More details are here:

https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/movie...62&show=review

Apparently the ending was shot in 35mm and so looks more like you'd expect from a BD.