Worst BD upgrades from DVD

[notops]

Originally Posted by DoctorShazbot

I still love the movie, and I watch it frequently, but Strange Brew on Blu-ray did not look very good at all. It's definitely better than previous releases, but it's really not great looking, and the audio seems to be untouched from what I've found from the past. I suppose it would be difficult to make it look much better though, it's my understanding it was pretty low budget.

Not sure what you're looking for in a transfer. Strange brew looks incredibly film-like.

[HD Goofnut]

Surprised no one has mentioned Fast Times at Ridgemont High. It looks almost as bad as Weird Science.

[DR Herbert West]

Originally Posted by HD Goofnut

Surprised no one has mentioned Fast Times at Ridgemont High. It looks almost as bad as Weird Science.

Yep, that's one of the worst.

[Mystic]

The BD of the Mephisto Waltz features an old worn looking transfer where there's little visible difference betwen that and the older DVD.

[marblearch]

Sony are usually reliable but the Spanish blu ray of The Breach is terrible. Awful PQ and standard audio. The dvd looks amazing in comparison. Real shame , this great spy thriller has not been released anywhere else.

[THX.]

Another Blu-Ray with heavy handed DNR is 'The Longest Day', it looks like Predator-Ultimate Hunter. Really waxy, cartoonish even.

[Ernest Rister]

When they use the same master as the DVD, all you're getting is the same master, just upscaled.

[stonesfan129]

Face/Off Blu-ray looks horrible.

[marblearch]

Originally Posted by THX.

Another Blu-Ray with heavy handed DNR is 'The Longest Day', it looks like Predator-Ultimate Hunter. Really waxy, cartoonish even.

The German blu ray of Paul Newman drama Where the Money Is, has to be seen to be believed. It's the world leader in DNR.

[Ernest Rister]

Originally Posted by marblearch

The German blu ray of Paul Newman drama Where the Money Is, has to be seen to be believed. It's the world leader in DNR.

The Sword in the Stone in competition. Un Freaking Believable.

[CrazyBlu-RayFan]

Originally Posted by rocknblues81

48hrs
Scream 1 and 2
Puppet Master
Dog Soldiers

Um... What's wrong with Scream 1 & 2, I noticed no issues and most people that has talked about it haven't brought up issues either.

[notops]

Originally Posted by CrazyBlu-RayFan

Um... What's wrong with Scream 1 & 2, I noticed no issues and most people that has talked about it haven't brought up issues either.

Scream looks extraordinairily soft, barely a notch above a DVD upscale. Add atrocious EE to Scream 2's similar transfer and you have an idea of what they're talking about.

[chronoclast]

Blue Submarine No. 6. Discotek were forced to use an extremely DNR'd and warp sharpened upscaled master from the Japanese BDs that make it look like an oil painting, it looks hideous. The lossless audio is superior to the DVDs but it's not worth it with the video quality being so poor.

The two DVD releases from Discotek however were sourced from the significantly better quality Japanese "Blue Fleet" DVD masters and are excellent with no DNR or sharpening.

[dickdarlington]

National Lampoon’s Van Wilder was one of the first Blu-rays I bought a decade ago and my first thought was, “This looks exactly like the DVD.”

It’s a shame Lionsgate couldn’t put out a remastered Blu-ray with the release of the film in 4K UHD since all the reviews of the audio/picture quality are favorable.

[bigbadwoppet]

Originally Posted by 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.

I have upgraded most of my hitchcock titles in spite of how disappointing they are. The problem lies in universal not bothering to use better elements for the transfer. The man who knew too much was scanned from a print with heavy colour fluctuation and marnie has awful issues as well but when compared to the dvd's, it is evident these are new scans (they show more information on all four sides, as well as more vivid colours).

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.

x

[bigbadwoppet]

Originally Posted by 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.

goldeneye is a real disappointment but even then it's an improvement of sorts. When mgm commissioned the ultimate edition, the team in charge of goldeneye and a view to a kill took the decision of zooming in on the image and desaturating the colours. For all its dnr, at least the blu-ray of goldeneye goes back to the original vivid colour timing it had when i saw it at the cinema.



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).

x

[StingingVelvet]

Originally Posted by CrazyBlu-RayFan

Um... What's wrong with Scream 1 & 2, I noticed no issues and most people that has talked about it haven't brought up issues either.

The sharpening/edge-enhancement is some of the worst on the format. They look terrible.

[GeoffOliver]

I’ve said this before, but I really fail to see anything wrong with the original Scream films on Blu-ray. Yeah, they’re probably older masters, but they’re more than watchable. The video even scored a 4/5 for Scream and 4.5/5 for Scream 2 on this site. It doesn’t help that my only other experience with the films on home video were Buena Vista’s non-anamorphic DVDs from the 90s, but it really was an incredible upgrade.

As an aside, I remember Ellen Degeneres promoting those releases on her show, which is unheard of for almost any other catalog release. Lionsgate isn’t the best distributor, but it looks like they took these films somewhat seriously, probably because they were timed for Scream 4.

[Jobla]

THE 300 SPARTANS looks exactly like the older DVD, so I presume that it's just an upscale. The BD isn't terrible, but it's no better than the DVD.

[bigbadwoppet]

The worst in my collection is RAVENOUS. It is not upscaled but clearly a very old HD master. Regardless, it is an improvement over the region 1 dvd, which was not anamorphic and the region 2, which ran at PAL speed.