Ideal DVD Setup?

[heavy88]

I guess i'm going to start buying DVDs again because of the state of physical releases. It seems like DVD will be the peak.

I personally find DVDs unwatchable on a 4k TV. They look pretty good on a 1080 plasma I have. Is this about the best setup?

I was thinking a 720 projector might be better, but I can't find a lot of info on that. Not sure how it would work since most players seem to upscale to 1080. Anyone got something to say about this?

[oddbox83]

A 4K TV shouldn't make DVDs look worse.

It's either been a bad 4K TV or a bad scaler. Some TVs have terrible scalers and really make a hash of SD content with undefeatable DNR and stuff. Ditto some players.

[rexcrk]

Originally Posted by heavy88

I guess i'm going to start buying DVDs again because of the state of physical releases. It seems like DVD will be the peak.

What makes you say this?

[benricci]

Originally Posted by heavy88

I guess i'm going to start buying DVDs again because of the state of physical releases.

What does that even mean?

[Buster Friendly]

Originally Posted by benricci

What does that even mean?

He might be living in a territory where many local releases are DVD only. Australia is a good example - lots of stuff is now only released there on DVD even though it's available on BR overseas. It's quite frustrating to have to pay all that extra shipping to import a BR copy yourself.

[Warm Gun]

I suspect that, like old video games, they're best played on CRT 640x480 TVs.

[smithb]

Originally Posted by Warm Gun

I suspect that, like old video games, they're best played on CRT 640x480 TVs.

Yes, but CRT's have their own issues when they get too large, or you get too close. I never bought into rear projection, so back in the mid-90's I went with a Mits 40" CRT. It was fine at 12' back but when sitting 10' or closer you could actually see the space between scan lines.

In 2004 I setup a front projection system. I never had any issues with DVD on a 720p or 1080p watching 14' back of a 92" screen. None of what you portray in those images. Obviously, I was happy to move up to Blu-ray but i still watched DVDs with no issue that weren't upgraded yet.

[Roonan]

Originally Posted by smithb

Yes,

Actually no, DVDs being playing on a CRT offer no advantage over being played on a LED TV. The comparison with old videogames doesn't even make sense. It's apples and oranges.

[Eidolon]

Originally Posted by CWCprime

I had to get one of my Atari 2600s modded with an internal composite/S-video/component adapter because as far as I'm aware, all 2600s have RF output only, which looked terrible on my flatscreen.

I still have an Atari VCS as well, which is hooked up to the old CRT set in my front room. I'm glad I can still keep it going this was, as I'd rather not have to have it modded, and it looks great on this TV.
However, it's an old PAL only TV, and the new release of Mr Run and Jump won't work on it, which has irritated me no end, it only seems to run in NTSC 30fps for some reason. I don't get this, I have other NTSC cartridges, and they work but with the colour palette just being a bit different, so they work under each system. Atari seemed to be at a loss when I tried to get info from them on why this new game won't work on my TV.

Originally Posted by Roonan

Actually no, DVDs being playing on a CRT offer no advantage over being played on a LED TV. The comparison with old videogames doesn't even make sense. It's apples and oranges.

As someone who still has two CRT sets in different rooms for different reasons, I can assure you there is a difference. dVDs are primarily aimed that that tech, even although it's defunct now.

The main difference will depend on how well the dvd has been encoded. Some will still look decent on a good set up (good upscaling player and a good TV), but others will look a lot worse.

I can give the Anchor Bay Sleepaway Camp box set as an example.
All three look fine on a CRT set, but put them on a flatscreen of any type, and the first one looks dreadful, whereas both the sequels seem to upscale fairly well. The difference? A different company encoded and authored the disc for the first film, and it made a hell of a difference when transferring it to even a good LED set.

One of the issues is that upscaling will also upscale and amplify any shortcomings in an encode, thereby making things look worse. Surprisingly, I've found that THX approved dvds are often amongst the ones that tend to upscale badly.

Last night was watching the dvd of Muppets Christmas Carol, and that upscaled well enough.

I have a machine that upscales VHS, which works surprisingly well, as long as it's set to 720p output. Any higher than that and it shows scanlines. This is a bit of a godsend as I still have an extensive VHS library.

[Roonan]

Originally Posted by Eidolon

As someone who still has two CRT sets in different rooms for different reasons, I can assure you there is a difference. dVDs are primarily aimed that that tech, even although it's defunct now.

The main difference will depend on how well the dvd has been encoded. Some will still look decent on a good set up (good upscaling player and a good TV), but others will look a lot worse.

I can give the Anchor Bay Sleepaway Camp box set as an example.
All three look fine on a CRT set, but put them on a flatscreen of any type, and the first one looks dreadful, whereas both the sequels seem to upscale fairly well. The difference? A different company encoded and authored the disc for the first film, and it made a hell of a difference when transferring it to even a good LED set.

One of the issues is that upscaling will also upscale and amplify any shortcomings in an encode, thereby making things look worse. Surprisingly, I've found that THX approved dvds are often amongst the ones that tend to upscale badly.

Last night was watching the dvd of Muppets Christmas Carol, and that upscaled well enough.

I have a machine that upscales VHS, which works surprisingly well, as long as it's set to 720p output. Any higher than that and it shows scanlines. This is a bit of a godsend as I still have an extensive VHS library.

You're talking about good vs bad encodes, which has nothing to do with where the content is displayed. Displaying a DVD in a CRT TV doesn't give you better quality. Where it's displayed might help mask certain faults/limitations or make them more glaring, but that's a problem of the source, not the output method. It would be like saying increasing your viewing distance gives it better picture quality.

A good DVD is a good DVD, and a bad DVD is a bad DVD. One's experience of viewing the former can be affected by screen size, resolution, upscaling method, viewing distance, etc, but it doesn't change the content (and respective quality) of the DVD.

[robairreg]

Oh boy, this is going to be a thread.

[CarbonUnitM78]

I still have a few CRT televisions. A 32", 27" and a 20". They are great for watching VHS tapes and for classic game consoles! Also for laserdisc and DVD.

[MrOnyxWolf]

Why not just get a Sharp Aquos LCD T.V. ? I'm planning on buying one in the event that my JVC SD CRT T.V. bites the dust and/or gets busted somehow. Just the 2002-2003 era models.

My mom's friend owned one and my DVD movies looked fine on it. Plus, it's easily small enough for me take anywhere. Otherwise, I wouldn't have to put my 13'inch in storage...

[heavy88]

Originally Posted by rexcrk

What makes you say this?

Originally Posted by benricci

What does that even mean?

Originally Posted by oddbox83

A 4K TV shouldn't make DVDs look worse.

It's either been a bad 4K TV or a bad scaler. Some TVs have terrible scalers and really make a hash of SD content with undefeatable DNR and stuff. Ditto some players.

4k TVs make DVDs awful. I don't know how this is an argument. I think some people have awful vision. a dvd is native 720x480. not only is the pixel count an order of magnitude higher, but the pixels don't upscale evenly; which, compounds the problem with upscaling.

I don't know what's confusing about the poor quality and expense of recent physical releases. You can't even find a lot of physical discs is retail stores anymore. There are still movies that have no blu-ray release and probably never will.

[Region_unlocked]

Originally Posted by heavy88

4k TVs make DVDs awful. I don't know how this is an argument. I think some people have awful vision. a dvd is native 720x480. not only is the pixel count an order of magnitude higher, but the pixels don't upscale evenly; which, compounds the problem with upscaling.

I don't know what's confusing about the poor quality and expense of recent physical releases. You can't even find a lot of physical discs is retail stores anymore. There are still movies that have no blu-ray release and probably never will.

They don't so much make them look worse so much as they better show them for what they are. So you're seeing low quality encoding, artifacts and such more clearly. Older or lower resolution TVs aren't as good at showing this detail so it just kinda smudges together in what you seem to feel is a more pleasing way. It looks like you're looking for image filtering not necessarily a new TV.

[CWCprime]

I've also been disappointed with DVDs on my 4KTV, not sure if it is the resolution or if the TV just has bad upscaling (maybe a mixture of both). Anyway, I bought a new DVD player with component-out a couple of months ago and hooked it up to my RetroTINK-5X upscaler. It's geared more towards retro games, but I found some of the CRT masks you can display with it really helps to make DVDs very watchable on my 4KTV, where they really weren't before. I'd love to try the RetroTINK-4K, but can't justify the $700+ asking price. The 5X is good enough.

[heavy88]

Originally Posted by CWCprime

I've also been disappointed with DVDs on my 4KTV, not sure if it is the resolution or if the TV just has bad upscaling (maybe a mixture of both). Anyway, I bought a new DVD player with component-out a couple of months ago and hooked it up to my RetroTINK-5X upscaler. It's geared more towards retro games, but I found some of the CRT masks you can display with it really helps to make DVDs very watchable on my 4KTV, where they really weren't before. I'd love to try the RetroTINK-4K, but can't justify the $700+ asking price. The 5X is good enough.

interesting. I'm not gonna spend that kind of money to watch DVDs though. Would be interesting to compare to my 1080 plasma.

[CWCprime]

Originally Posted by heavy88

interesting. I'm not gonna spend that kind of money to watch DVDs though. Would be interesting to compare to my 1080 plasma.

If I were you, I don't know that I would either. Since I already had a RetroTINK-5X in my set up, it was no additional investment on my part (aside from the DVD player to hook up to it).

A similar effect can be achieved with the FFMPEG core in the RetroArch emulator. Not sure if it can read DVDs directly from a drive, but you can rip the DVDs to a video file and play them that way. More hassle though.

[Vilya]

I have no problems watching DVDs on my 4K TVs. I find most of them to look fairly good, but a few of the very earliest DVDs can look a little rough.

I primarily watch movies on my calibrated 85" 4K Sony Bravia 9 TV at a distance of about 8.5 feet. My preferred disc player is my Oppo 203 set to source direct, but I also get great results with my Sony BDP S6700.

In my office, I use my older 60" 4K 3D TV LG UH8500 and my Oppo 93.

My corrected vision is 20/20, too.

Also, I buy my discs online; there's no shortage of them there and the selection is great.

[heavy88]

I'm just going to leave this here, and not argue with anyone with poor eyesight.