Wall-E Blu vs DVD

[Ex Accountant]

My faith has been shaken. I often tout the superiority of Blu over DVD at work, so much that a few of my friends there call me Blu-Ray (I don't want to know what the rest of them call me ). I had them over last week for a Blu-Ray night and I showed off some of my better quality Blu-Rays, including Wall-E. They were impressed; however, when we put in Wall-E on DVD, it looked much better than I anticipated. Granted the Blu version looked better, but to be honest there were a few times when I couldn't tell the difference.

I don't know. I guess I might expect this from a low-tier Blu such as House of Flying Daggers, but Wall-E? It's one of the best Blus out there and it should have blown the DVD out of the water, right?

Am I just losing it here? Has anyone else conducted such an experiment only to yield similar results? Luckily, I had the Little Mermaid DVD to put in, which looks like crap. Made me feel a little better anyway.

[ObiTrentKenobi]

i had a similar experience with The Dark Knight... Although the bluray is obviously superior, i sometimes wonder if i should have saved 10 bucks and got the single-disc dvd version.

[brettallica]

Wall•E looks phenomenal in Blu, make no mistake about it. I will say that there are spots if the movie where you're not floored by the visuals when comparing the same scene in the DVD version. If you want a scene that'll blow DVD out of the water, go to the one where Eve, Wall•E, and the captain are all in the captain's quarters. That scene looks almost three-dimensional. You don't get the same feeling when the DVD is playing that scene.

I will also say that Wall•E on a DVD that is being upscaled through a Blu-ray player is one if the best I've seen. Another great one is Bee Movie.

[Sussudio]

you guys are freaks

there may have been a few scenes in TDK where the dvd looked similar in quality (namely darker lit ones), but with Wall-E i thought it looked 100x better throughout...granted i only saw a few scenes from the dvd.

[brett_day]

bad to do comparisons on animated titles i think. Animated on dvd looks quite superb when upconverted, obviously blu is better if only for the sound difference. I watch some old disney movies that have yet to be released on blu like Lion King and it looks stunning upconverted!

[Ex Accountant]

Originally Posted by Sussudio

you guys are freaks

I'll take that as a complement

If you want a scene that'll blow DVD out of the water, go to the one where Eve, Wall•E, and the captain are all in the captain's quarters. That scene looks almost three-dimensional. You don't get the same feeling when the DVD is playing that scene.

I'll check it out. Thanks.

[Ex Accountant]

Originally Posted by brett_day

bad to do comparisons on animated titles i think. Animated on dvd looks quite superb when upconverted, obviously blu is better if only for the sound difference. I watch some old disney movies that have yet to be released on blu like Lion King and it looks stunning upconverted!

I purposefully chose Wall-E to compare because I knew it would look good on upconverted DVD. I wanted to see the best vs the best. I just didn't think it would look that good!

I'm trying to understand the science behind it. If the Wall-E DVD looks almost as good as (arguably) the best Blu, is it fair to say that the Wall-E DVD looks as good as a typical Blu? I just can't bring myself to say that at work. It would break my heart.

I will point out that, in my experience, the non-animated movies don't stand a chance. The reason I went purple was because I rented Transformers on DVD and was just pissed the whole way through that I had to watch it in standard def (ok, so I'm a diva). The high def version destroyed the DVD.

Maybe for now I'll just classify animated features as...anomalies?

[brettallica]

Originally Posted by brett_day

bad to do comparisons on animated titles i think. Animated on dvd looks quite superb when upconverted, obviously blu is better if only for the sound difference. I watch some old disney movies that have yet to be released on blu like Lion King and it looks stunning upconverted!

Yeah, I kind of agree that animated films don't always make the best comparison films.

I'd love to see Beast Wars Transformers on upconverted DVD. I don't even know if DVDs of that show exist, but I bet that would be fun.

[thedarkangel1975]

You also have to realize if you played the standard DvD on your Blu Ray, the picture was upconverted to look better.

[assydingo]

Some DVDs look so good, and even if you know it'd look better on Blu, you wonder how the hell can 480p look that good period? Honestly I don't get it.

It seems like even a iffy Blu should look way better than a really good DVD just on a mathematical basis.

Lately I feel like still buying Blu but not necessarily praising it so much and making a big deal of it.

[Monkey]

Wall is really soft looking at earth, so you don't see a lot of textural detail like you do in other movies.

[Ex Accountant]

Originally Posted by assydingo

Some DVDs look so good, and even if you know it'd look better on Blu, you wonder how the hell can 480p look that good period? Honestly I don't get it.

It seems like even a iffy Blu should look way better than a really good DVD just on a mathematical basis.

Lately I feel like still buying Blu but not necessarily praising it so much and making a big deal of it.

Ah, so you've already experienced my dilemma. Misery loves company.
One thing I will say is even though Wall-E was a relatively close call, I realized afterward that, although the DVD's excellent PQ surprised me, it didn't dazzle me the way the Blu version does. Maybe that's something to take away from it. Frame by frame, not so much. But overall, Blu still won out.

[assydingo]

I almost feel like netflixing the dvd version of Prince Caspian or some other really impressive blu-ray just to see the difference.

The thing is I don't have many movies on both format. I did a brief comparison of Sweeney Todd and mostly I just more detail/slightly clearer picture. That's probably not a good one to test it with though.

[icyteddy]

Originally Posted by brettallica

Yeah, I kind of agree that animated films don't always make the best comparison films.

I'd love to see Beast Wars Transformers on upconverted DVD. I don't even know if DVDs of that show exist, but I bet that would be fun.

I have all 3 seasons of Beast Wars on dvd and it looks stunning upconverted!

[Travis]

I haven't replaced Batman Begins DVD yet because I thought the DVD was almost as good as the Blu-ray.

I just watched Bolt on DVD and it also looked prety good. I'm not going to buy it because I didn't like it, but if I were I'd think about the DVD. And probably end up buying the Blu-ray. Well, it is better.

All new purchases will be Blu, but replacing DVDs will be done on a disc-by-disc basis. I haven't replaced Goodfellas, Terminator 1 or 2, Rocky, A Christmas Story, etc. even though I love these movies, spending the cash on a slight upgrade is not worth it. I willl replace the DVDs when better Blu editions arrive. T2- skynet soon (if reviews are great).

Tossing VHS and replacing every single movie with DVD was easy, the difference was huge. DVD to Blu is a bit trickier. I still love ya Blu!

[assydingo]

The dvd of Pinocchio looks the same as the bluray... at least we got the HD features I guess?

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film2/DVDRe...io_blu-ray.htm

I tend to not judge with images. But I know the movie and the image is totally accurate.

I've seen other comparisons where bluray movies are noticeably better. I have to wonder if the dvd screenshots are regular or upconverted though.

[Septimus Prime]

Compare the scene where WALL-E is floating through space with the fire extinguisher. On blu you can see each discrete particle per spary; on DVD you cannot.

[assydingo]

Originally Posted by Septimus Prime

Compare the scene where WALL-E is floating through space with the fire extinguisher. On blu you can see each discrete particle per spary; on DVD you cannot.

I saw a screenshot of that and it's a huge difference. That's probably one of the more justifiable blu's to get, but maybe in some scenes more than others.

Damn... watched the Bolt trailer on the Pinocchio dvd. It looks better than I'd like it too.

[tlmaclennan]

I guarantee that if you play a DVD on a normal DVD player, no upconversion, it will noticeably be worse than the Blu-ray. When you start using players with upconversion that difference in quality is much smaller. Then you will notice that some DVDs might look quite decent, but in my experience with movie watching I have always noticed a difference.

[lucv13]

Originally Posted by Travis

I haven't replaced Batman Begins DVD yet because I thought the DVD was almost as good as the Blu-ray.

I just watched Bolt on DVD and it also looked prety good. I'm not going to buy it because I didn't like it, but if I were I'd think about the DVD. And probably end up buying the Blu-ray. Well, it is better.

All new purchases will be Blu, but replacing DVDs will be done on a disc-by-disc basis. I haven't replaced Goodfellas, Terminator 1 or 2, Rocky, A Christmas Story, etc. even though I love these movies, spending the cash on a slight upgrade is not worth it. I willl replace the DVDs when better Blu editions arrive. T2- skynet soon (if reviews are great).

Tossing VHS and replacing every single movie with DVD was easy, the difference was huge. DVD to Blu is a bit trickier. I still love ya Blu!

I agree 100% and haven't replaced pretty much the same DVDs you have listed for the same reasons. I might cave on Batman Begins soon though as the price is coming down. My Terminators are good enough on DVD for now - haven't completely made up my mind on the X-Men though coming out in May but yea a good DTS soundtrack and upconverting makes it really hard to justify purchasing the same movies again.