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.

[Suntory_Times]

Originally Posted by 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.

Really depends on the tv. Generally I think you should be fine. However you'll want one that can also do 23.96 frams per second or has 2:3 pulldown (for movie watching).

[jono_0101]

monster cables, dude.....monster cables....

[Suntory_Times]

Originally Posted by jono_0101

monster cables, dude.....monster cables....

That not nice. Don't mislead (some less infomred posters may take your post as serious), Monster cables are all fine and well, but they are hugely overpriced.

[Bluubyu]

You were probably seeing it on a set like mine the A950

[Driver_King]

Originally Posted by 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.

Yes. 120hz motion processing is just an extra feature on the television. The levels are user-adjustable and vary from low to high motion processing. Off would not touch the 60hz signal.

[sfmarine]

I noticed that too in my Best Buy...the demo tv's look absolutely amazing. But that's their way of making a sale lol.

[kefrank]

Motion Plus is one of the worst things ever.

[tbizzle]

Originally Posted by kefrank

Motion Plus is one of the worst things ever.

+1, not friendly to films. I've only used it on a few fast moving PS3 games that I have

[red_5ive]

Originally Posted by kefrank

Motion Plus is one of the worst things ever.

Originally Posted by tbizzle

+1, not friendly to films. I've only used it on a few fast moving PS3 games that I have

I'm not too crazy about it, either. I do prefer it with Disney/animated flims, but otherwise it looks too "clean" to me.

[My_Two_Cents]

Originally Posted by 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.

No, it's not 120Hz, it's motion interpolation. Just because a set is 120Hz does not mean it also has motion interpolation settings. On those that do, yes, you can turn the feature on/off or vary the setting. You are NOT turning off 120Hz. That's the refresh rate of the set and does not change.

Oh, and stay away from Vizio. You can get a MUCH better set for only slightly more $$.

[Suntory_Times]

Originally Posted by Ricshoe

No, it's not 120Hz, it's motion interpolation. Just because a set is 120Hz does not mean it also has motion interpolation settings. On those that do, yes, you can turn the feature on/off or vary the setting. You are NOT turning off 120Hz. That's the refresh rate of the set and does not change.

Oh, and stay away from Vizio. You can get a MUCH better set for only slightly more $$.

Motion interpolation is super crappy and shall die a long, painful and drawn out death (suffering to my prediction that it will slowly stop being included due to lack of demand, and the demand will quickly become less and less the amount it is provided untill it finally dies and is no longer included).

[My_Two_Cents]

Originally Posted by Suntory_Times

Motion interpolation is super crappy and shall die a long, painful and drawn out death (suffering to my prediction that it will slowly stop being included due to lack of demand, and the demand will quickly become less and less the amount it is provided untill it finally dies and is no longer included).

My sentiments, exactly, though many "newbies" think this is the best thing since sliced bread. Personally, I prefer to watch a movie the way it was intended to look, and without adding FAKE data that was never there to begin with.