Worst BD upgrades from DVD

[jtu128]

I’ve always wanted to “upgrade” Wedding Crashers but have heard it’s bad???

[MegaWeapon]

Originally Posted by handcraftedbits

It's definitely not gonna win any awards but the DVD looked much worse and wasn't even anamorphic widescreen. A little perspective, please .

Point taken. I hadn't seen the movie since before TVs were 16x9 so my review is purely gut level response probably caused by watching Fury Road too recently.

[James Luckard]

HELP! looks absolutely wretched on BD. It's the exact same transfer as the DVD, looks nearly identical, has awful edge enhancement, and adds a weird smoothing element that people commented on in the thread:

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.p...&postcount=200

It's tied with THAT THING YOU DO! as the most hideous-looking BD I own.

[rocknblues81]

48hrs
Scream 1 and 2
Puppet Master
Dog Soldiers

[danny24]

Worst one I have scene so far is Wing Commander but it's still slightly better than the DVD. I would not call it an upgrade from the DVD though.

Originally Posted by ramboraph

Honestly? The Moontrap Blu-Ray is worse than the VHS. And I'm not exaggerating about that.

Never seen the film but looked at the screenshots from the review and this looks way worse than Wing Commander.

Originally Posted by rocknblues81

48hrs

It's not that bad, could it be better sure. It's still an upgrade from the DVD.

[lilant2248]

For me it's Screwballs.

[DukeTogo84]

Originally Posted by MegaWeapon

Recently watched the Chow Yun-Fat movie The Killer... whooo boy.. that was a bad BD

While it won't win any awards for PQ, it was much better than the previous DVD's by far. Those DVD's looked horrible.

[The Mad Kiwi]

The Sword in the Stone and The King and I, otherwise known to me on Blu as The Smear in the Stone and The King of Cyan. Sword in the Stone has the worst DNR I've ever seen. It's like someone put a watercolor Photoshop filter over the whole thing. The DVD upscaled looks much better (and if you look hard enough, you can find HD digital copies sourced from that master online).

As for King and I, the missing red element that makes most of the movie look teal and brown makes for a rather gnarly visual experience. The DVD admittedly went in the opposite direction and pushed the red a touch too much, but it's far more pleasing to the eye. Fox has since corrected the BD restoration on both digial copies and theatrical DCPs, and while the revised image is a big improvement, I keep waiting for it to come to Blu. This is as worthy of an exchange program as any other title I've seen.

[captainsolo]

The US BD of The Killer takes the best DVD release worldwide, the German DVD and bumps it up to 1080i in a horrid mess of a transfer. So the German PAL DVD is better.

[dkelly26666]

The Color of Money

The Osterman Weekend

MoonTrap

Stay As You Are

There was an Asian blu ray for "Kundun" that is absolutely unwatchable. I am SO glad that KL are finally doing that.

[Batman1980]

28 hours later

[Aclea]

Originally Posted by thatguamguy

The reviews for "The Osterman Weekend" blu were so bad that I have never bothered to upgrade from the DVD.

It's a must for every collection if you like purple. Especially purple skintones.

[Al_The_Strange]

Some of the worst transfers I've seen are:

• Atilla (German edition, I suspect it's an upscale)
• Carrie (original MGM release)
• Dog Soldiers (original release)
• Escape from New York (UK release, a DVD upscale)
• The Fog (UK release, DVD upscale)
• Ichi the Killer (original release)
• Machine Girl
• Rabid Granies
• Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky (US edition)
• Silent Night, Deadly Night (original release)
• Spartacus (original release)
• Weird Science

Lost track of the DNR'ed releases, there's been way too many. Predator (Ultimate Hunter Edition), The Longest Day, Zulu (the UK release), Patton (the original release), Downfall, The Last Starfighter, a bunch of the Star Trek films, GoldenEye, Near Dark, Gladiator (the first printing), Gangs of NY (first printing), Ronin (original release), the Man With No Name trilogy (all the first releases), Dagon, and I forget what else--they've all been pretty unsightly. Been grateful for the rereleases that fix the transfers, but we need more.

Originally Posted by Batman1980

28 hours later

You mean 28 Days Later?

Can't do much to fix that one unfortunately. All but the last scenes were shot and finished in SD.

Dancer in the Dark is probably in the same boat. I have the German Blu-Ray for it, but haven't viewed it yet. Won't look much better than a DVD given the source material. For films like these, the only upgrade in quality would be in sound (and maybe extras).

[Rzzzz]

Blu rays I own/owned where I have actually done my own comparisons....

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (looks the same as the DVD including stray hairs, but it is actually worse because they brightened the night scenes too much).

Hatari! (worst transfer EVER)

The Graduate (Looked exactly like the DVD before Criterion rescued it)

[Acer2010]

SOPHIE'S CHOICE (1982)

Even though I've never seen the whole movie (but still want to), I wish it would have gotten a better transfer (from a 2K or 4K scan).

[shinobipopcorn]

Originally Posted by The Mad Kiwi

The Sword in the Stone and The King and I, otherwise known to me on Blu as The Smear in the Stone and The King of Cyan. Sword in the Stone has the worst DNR I've ever seen. It's like someone put a watercolor Photoshop filter over the whole thing. The DVD upscaled looks much better (and if you look hard enough, you can find HD digital copies sourced from that master online).

Even the official iTunes digital copy is better than that mess. I don't know about Movies Anywhere because I refuse to buy that movie until they fix it, but they have to know they've butchered it.

I've heard Robin Hood has some light smearing too, so I bought the DVD.

[ramboraph]

Scream Factory's Dog Soldiers. It looks like a crappy 'Grindhouse flick' and looks more 'white'...I prefer the look of it on DVD.

[Partyslammer]

The Japanese Blu-ray release of Frankenstein: The True Story. By a large margin the worst looking transfer of a film I have ever seen on Blu-ray.

[Leeon0]

Sex and the Emperor (HK film)--Upscaled and piss-poor at that.

[GeoffOliver]

Perfect (with Jamie Lee Curtis and John Travolta)'s Mill Creek release looks atrocious, but what do you expect for a film that shares a $5 set with three other films? The other three films look passable though.

Weird Science looks godawful. It's just hideous. I'd be very surprised if this master isn't 20 years old easily. Same with Family Plot. Actually, most of Universal's Hitchcock titles look passable at best.

Heathers also desperately needed a fresh scan with its 2008 Anchor Bay and 2014 barebones Image releases aging very poorly. I'm very happy Arrow is doing a new 4K scan for their UK release, but we still need that here in the US...

Halloween H20's original Blu-ray from Echo Bridge is pretty unforgivable with the wrong aspect ratio, downgraded soundtrack, dull/muddy transfer, and no bonus features. Disney/Buena Vista's 1999 DVD looks better. Anchor Bay/Scream Factory's disc in the boxset looks alright, though the film desperately needs a fresh scan.

Marie Antoinette is probably Sony's worst transfer.

Plenty of digitally animated anime don't upgrade well to Blu-ray. Shakugan no Shana Seasons 1-2 come to mind for me. Last Exile and Slayers Revolution/Evolution-R aren't big improvements from their DVDs either. For most TV anime from the 2000s, just watching the DVDs upscaled on a BD player is about as good as they can possibly look. Cel-animated shows from the 90s and before can be rescanned since they were shot on film (albeit usually 16mm), and shows from this decade are usually native digital HD.