Why do my Blu-rays look like soap operas now??

[Preeminent]

Hey guys,
Great site. I just jumped into Blu ray. I recently bought a new LG player with netflix/youtube streaming and love it! While at Best Buy, I walked into their home theater room and they had Pirates of the Caribbean Blu Ray playing on about a 50/55 inch 1080p LCD screen. It looks insane! Super crisp and clear. Every little detail is visible. Like you are actually on set watching them act out the movie. My question is this though: I only have a small 22 inch 720p Lcd screen(with HDMI for both audio and video) and it when watching Blu Ray-We Were Soldiers, it obviously doesn't look like that. I mean it looks good but really doesn't look that much better than regular dvd. Is it because Pirates was such a great transfer or is it because I only have a 720p tv?

[JJ]

You probably saw the old Motion-Plus processing that some Sony/Samsung TVs have - a feature that gives film that video look that makes it look super-smooth...what some people confuse as 120 or 240 Hz processing.

Well, Pirates is also an INCREDIBLE transfer, as well. Blu-ray movie quality differs from movie to movie - i.e., Defiance looks fantastic, but Terminator 1 looks so-so.

Has little to do with the whole 720/1080 thing.

[dolphinc]

Originally Posted by Preeminent

Hey guys,
Great site. I just jumped into Blu ray. I recently bought a new LG player with netflix/youtube streaming and love it! While at Best Buy, I walked into their home theater room and they had Pirates of the Caribbean Blu Ray playing on about a 50/55 inch 1080p LCD screen. It looks insane! Super crisp and clear. Every little detail is visible. Like you are actually on set watching them act out the movie. My question is this though: I only have a small 22 inch 720p Lcd screen(with HDMI for both audio and video) and it when watching Blu Ray-We Were Soldiers, it obviously doesn't look like that. I mean it looks good but really doesn't look that much better than regular dvd. Is it because Pirates was such a great transfer or is it because I only have a 720p tv?

A couple of things to consider, they definetly calibrate their TV's correctly so you are seeing things like sharpness, color temp, brightness and contrast the way is should be in that semi dark room. The second thing is that you might have been looking at a motion plus LCD which really makes the image pop off the screen.

Back in Feb I was walking through the now defunked Circuit City and I saw Dark Knight playing on a 52" Motion plus Samsung LN750 TV. I was blown away how the image looked. I bought the TV right there and took the remote from the demo tv and wrote down all the calibration settings so I could duplicate the image at home.

You might have been biten by the same LCD bug that I was back then.

[Preeminent]

Thanks for the replies! Sorry about posting in the wrong section.

[SlmShdy1]

Originally Posted by dolphinc

A couple of things to consider, they definetly calibrate their TV's correctly so you are seeing things like sharpness, color temp, brightness and contrast the way is should be in that semi dark room.

Far from it. Stores like Best Buy set their TV sets to Vivid or leave them on their factory default, which is Vivid mode as well. Vivid basically sets the contrast and sharpness all the way to the max, it oversaturates the color, and the backlight is turned all the way up. Far from being calibrated or set to ideal settings. That's why it looks so eye popping in the stores. They jack up all the settings. Also, with the whole motion enhancement feature on 120Hz TV's, it's supposed to grab your attention that much more.

[Suntory_Times]

Originally Posted by SlmShdy1

Far from it. Stores like Best Buy set their TV sets to Vivid or leave them on their factory default, which is Vivid mode as well. Vivid basically sets the contrast and sharpness all the way to the max, it oversaturates the color, and the backlight is turned all the way up. Far from being calibrated or set to ideal settings. That's why it looks so eye popping in the stores. They jack up all the settings. Also, with the whole motion enhancement feature on 120Hz TV's, it's supposed to grab your attention that much more.

To me all those things just make them look super crappy. But that an arbitrary little thing (though technically correct).

[i JACK o]

another solution is if you get best buy to calibrate your tv then they make it the best possible performance of course this is a more expensive option at 100$

[Preeminent]

Thanks for all the replies. Yep the 120hz thing is exactly what I was talking about. Thanks for clearing that up for me. I actually just saw a Vizio 120hz 42inch tv with Transformers playing at Walmart and it looked insane. Here's another question though: In your experiences, do these televisions have the option to display in 60hz as well? I would like to have the option to choose depending on what I was watching.

[Q?]

Originally Posted by Preeminent

Hey guys,
Great site. I just jumped into Blu ray. I recently bought a new LG player with netflix/youtube streaming and love it! While at Best Buy, I walked into their home theater room and they had Pirates of the Caribbean Blu Ray playing on about a 50/55 inch 1080p LCD screen. It looks insane! Super crisp and clear. Every little detail is visible. Like you are actually on set watching them act out the movie. My question is this though: I only have a small 22 inch 720p Lcd screen(with HDMI for both audio and video) and it when watching Blu Ray-We Were Soldiers, it obviously doesn't look like that. I mean it looks good but really doesn't look that much better than regular dvd. Is it because Pirates was such a great transfer or is it because I only have a 720p tv?

Maybe that has a lot to do with it... I mean, It has everything to do with it.
It really doesn't matter if it's 720p or 1080p or just a really good TV when the tv is so small...
My advise to you is to get at least a 46 inch high def tv.
42 is good enough too, like mine

[BluLobsta]

Well, I walked into Best Buy this morning with the intention of just looking around to see what the latest TVs looked like. I saw the KURO Elite PRO-111FD (wow!!), the new XBR9s, the Sammys, Pannys, etc. Well, I should have known better than to walk into Best Buy with the intention of 'just' looking, obviously. Once I saw the Samsung UN46B6000 I kept walking back by and checking it out. One thing led to another and the salesman ended up with my Best Buy card, how I don't know

So now I'm home having a religious experience with my new Sammy. It's an LED TV @ 120 Hz and I have to be honest, the difference between this TV and my old 1080i LG is not even close. The clearness of the picture and vivid, I mean vivid, colors is one of the biggest differences I've ever seen in a purchase other than a car, maybe...

Question is (after all this rambling) is all my Blus look like videos now. I watched the first half of Master and Commander last night and put it on for a test when I got home with the new TV and it looks like a soap opera now, like it was shot with video not film. Even HBO is like this. I thought I was watching a British TV series production, but it wasn't, it was a movie. Does 120Hz make THIS big of a difference?? Do I have a digital noise filter on or something?? I looked at the menus briefly, but all I want to do is watch the TV lol. They sure have made some HUGE gains in picture quality just in the past couple of years. This is pretty wild....

[Deciazulado]

Because displays now are interpolating motion to a higher frame rate 24 -> 60 -> 120, etc, and "Soap Operas" and live shows are shot at 60 for the "live" look. (24 frames per second doesn't look "live".)

[AKORIS]

do you have it in CINEMA or THEATRE mode?

this mode basically strips away all of the "pop" that you are talking about
making the PQ very dull....

[Suntory_Times]

Both of the above are probably the reason, with a bit more emphasis on making sure you have no motion interpolation on.

[csyoung]

Sounds like "amp" setting is on high or medium. Go into menu
first option is mode, go into that. Scroll down to picture options
scroll all the way down to you see auto motion plus. Go into that
and turn to low or off. See if that helps. I have an 850 and get same effect
if I turn to med or high. Let me know if that works.

[BluLobsta]

Originally Posted by AKORIS

do you have it in CINEMA or THEATRE mode?

this mode basically strips away all of the "pop" that you are talking about
making the PQ very dull....

Nah, there's 2 'Film' modes but I don't think they would have an effect. I'll check these out tomorrow....

[BluLobsta]

Originally Posted by AKORIS

do you have it in CINEMA or THEATRE mode?

this mode basically strips away all of the "pop" that you are talking about
making the PQ very dull....

Nope, I checked the 2 'Film' modes and they don't make any difference. I think it's this motion interpolation feature everyone is talking about, which is called 'Auto Motion Plus 120 Hz" on my TV....thanks anyway