Better Blu Ray Quality coming???

[jeffthe13th]

I've had blue ray for about half a year now... and the more movies I watch, the more I begin to notice something- Some movie transfers are just NOT up to par.

While some movies showcase Blu Ray's amazing abilities, other movies are really lacking. For instance Apocalypto and Live Free Or Die Hard are perfect examples of Blu Ray's amazing technology. These movies look Crystal Clear in Hi-Def and really show off the format...
Then there are movies like Terminator 2 (a favorite movie of mine) that should look a LOT better on Blu Ray. Sure, the movie is from the early 90's... but it was a BIG budget movie and there should be a pristine print out there to make a nice high def master. The Blu Ray version that's available right now isn't a huge improvement over the DVD.

The Shining was released in 1980 and the Blu Ray transfer on this movie looks phenomenal! I absolutely love The Shining, but I want to know Why does The Shining (which is like 11 years older than T2 and on a much smaller budget) look so much better on Blu Ray than Terminator 2?? You can't tell me that T2 can't look just as good.

Well, I understand that Blu Ray is still relatively new and T2 was one of the first available titles... but there really needs to be an acceptable quality before any release.

[3560freak]

I believe that T2 was encoded in MPEG2 vs the other movies that you listed being encoded an VC-1 (a much nicer looking codec with much better compression) T2 will surely get 1 or 2 more pressings with newer encodes and more features, etc, etc. Its called the double dip

[Kratos3]

There are almost as many versions of T2 out there as there are versions of Evil Dead. There will be another one. T2 was one of the earliest titles and I think we all know the track record for the early discs. Not many of the launch titles were very impressive. Also, if I remember correctly T2 was filmed with a film stock that is known to be fairly grainy. Not everything is going to look pristine. One thing that Blu-ray does is show the imperfections that you couldn't see with DVD because of the increased resolution of Blu-ray. I think T2 looks pretty darn good, but it will be interesting to see if they crank it up for a future release, a la The Fifth Element.

[Blu As Hell]

T2 is one of the earlier Blu-ray titles and the transfer on those weren't up to par with subsequent releases. T2 does look horrible as well as the first Fifth Element release and others. The studios caught hell for those early releases, and are now taking the time to get it right. Mpeg 2 or VC-1 have absolutely nothing to do with how a movie looks, I like to point out "Kingdom of Heaven", it's mpeg 2 and it's still considered a "reference" disc for PQ. As for VC-1, take a look at "Deja Vu", the aforementioned "The Shining" and New Line's releases of Shoot'Em Up and Pan's Labyrinth. It's all about how you let those bitrates fly!!!! I feel that at some point there will be a "double dip" for T2, being that we are actually pretty close to it's 20th anniversary, Be patient it will happen. In the meantime keep enjoying Blu-ray!!!!

[richard lichtenfelt]

^Excellent answer. I would like to point out, though, that The Fifth Element was remastered and released on July 17, 2007 and it is now really stellar.
http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/fift...emastered.html