How much better?

[Tarog]

I m new to this Forum Hi all, anyway i just got 2 questions

1. (we will use The Fugitive as an ex) since its an old movie how much better can they make it, i mean is the blu ray version much superior to the Dvd version if so how, because its such an old movie how much can they make it better?

2. Should i wait out and see who wins the Format war or am i alright to blow all my money on Blu ray movies?

Thanks in Advance Guys

[Freis968]

Originally Posted by Tarog

I m new to this Forum Hi all, anyway i just got 2 questions

1. (we will use The Fugitive as an ex) since its an old movie how much better can they make it, i mean is the blu ray version much superior to the Dvd version if so how, because its such an old movie how much can they make it better?

2. Should i wait out and see who wins the Format war or am i alright to blow all my money on Blu ray movies?

Thanks in Advance Guys

1. I don't have it, nor will I buy it, since people here who have purchased the Fugitive on BD says that is SUCKS! in terms of transfer. I do really like the movie, but the picture quality was not cleaned up or remastered for BluRay apparently. I guess they just took the VHS or DVD and copied it onto a BluRay disc...

2. Blu Ray, as you will find here and statistically, has as of the beginning of 2007, sold around 1.6 million discs so far as opposed to HD-DVD having only sold around 795,000 discs. I choose BluRay as my preferred HD format...why not do yourself a favor and do the same...come join the FAMILY...

Article on current sales figures of BD vs HD-DVD
http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/Hard-Bl...-unveiled.html

[BStecke]

Contrary to what many on this forum have said, The Fugitive got a decent review on High Def Digest. I haven't seen it, so I don't know first hand, though. But . . . it'd be pretty hard for a movie to look worse than its DVD counterpart, considering many of them come from the same master, and the Blu-ray uses more information from said master.

[foots]

1) Most movies old and new are shot on film which has a resolution much higher than 1080 so all movies are capable of being presented on blu-ray at a much higher resolution than DVD. Just like with DVD however the quality can still vary depending on how much care the studio put into transferring the film to blu-ray. The title you chose, The Fugitive, is a movie that "can" look much better on blu-ray but doesn't look that much better due to the quality of the source. If you'd like to see how good an older movie can look I'd advise you to check out The Searchers or Blazing Saddles. Both look ALOT better than their DVD counterparts.

2) I'll let someone else answer this one. Personally I've stopped buying DVD and am stocking up on Blu-ray but that is just me.

[statikcat]

Enter the Dragon is also an older movie that looks really great.

[zombieking]

Originally Posted by Tarog

I m new to this Forum Hi all, anyway i just got 2 questions

1. (we will use The Fugitive as an ex) since its an old movie how much better can they make it, i mean is the blu ray version much superior to the Dvd version if so how, because its such an old movie how much can they make it better?

2. Should i wait out and see who wins the Format war or am i alright to blow all my money on Blu ray movies?

Thanks in Advance Guys

They can look a lot better! The Fugitive(from what I've read) is unfortunately a bad transfer, but there are movies with great PQ about the same age and older. 2 titles IMO that come to mind is Coming to America(which I own, and looks great for its age) and Blazing Saddles, which I haven't seen but a lot of the members rave about the great PQ. I've even had that mentality, saying to myself -- really how much better can it get? And then when I watched my first blu-ray, I knew. The jump in PQ really is another VHS-DVD comparison. When you watch more and more blu-rays you'll have a difficult time going back to dvd.

I'm not going to tell whether to wait or not, but the way the format war is developing right now, blu-ray is the safer choice. Right now only 2 movie studios are HD-DVD exclusive -- Weinstein Company and Universal, neither of which has the blockbuster hits(Spiderman1-3, POTC 1-3, Transformers, Disney Pixar films will all be blu exclusives!)
So if you didn't want to wait, which would you rather choose?

[erowe83]

First Blood and Road Warrior look great for old films too.

[darkpoet25]

There are only a few titles right now on hd dvd that some people are anticipating being the Bourne trilogy, Heros, and the recently announced Battlestar Gallactica(the Sci-Fi channel version). I personally chose Blu Ray due to the major studio and independent studio support. Some are exclusive and others like Paramount, Warner Brothers and couple I can't think of right now are nuetral. I can't wait to pick up Halloween, Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, and more that are Blu exclusive. Welcome home!

[Tarog]

Thanks for the help guys, i might just do what i thought from the start, with older movies just buy them on dvd & and with New movies 2000 onwards buy them on Blu ray.
So are older movies got much better PQ than There dvd versions?

Thanks Guys

[electricstormz]

1. I would hold off on The Fugitive, because I too heard that it was a bad transfer. More often then not though, the high definition versions of the older dvds tends to do the film justice. I am very satisfied with my Terminator blu-ray, as well as Terminator 2, which isn't that old, but still.

2. Based on everything that I have heard, Blu-Ray seems to be in control long term. I may still pick up an HD-A2 because I'm impatient and want some of the Universal films that are already out. I don't like to have to choose or wait and HD-A2 is rather affordable now. If not the HD-A2 I may just grab the Xbox 360 add on. However, long term, Blu-Ray is the way to go. I am absolutely satisfied with my Playstation 3 Blu-Ray player. I have purchased about 25 blu-rays already. They are very addicting.

[gand41f]

I'd rent to check out the movie before buying. Some old movies look really good (Battle of the Bulge, The Untouchables, Seven Years in Tibet to name a few) so they are definetely worth BD purchases.

Personally I don't buy DVDs anymore. It's either BD or none. But that's just me.

enjoy
gandalf

[HDJK]

Well, Blood Diamond got a 3 star rating for PQ and I was really pleased with it nevertheless. It's true that The Fugitive has some issues, but it's still an upgrade to the DVD. It might not impress your friends like some of the real demo stuff out there but personally I don't see why I should buy an SD DVD of an older film when the BD is available too. But that's just me

[Icemage]

There's a small handful of titles out there that are really really bad, but the only title that comes to mind on either format that literally has no improvement over the DVD version would be the HD DVD of Traffic.

Blu-rays are like the reverse of wine; the newer the release is, the higher the tendency of a good experience. This is not to say that older (or even extremely old) titles can't look great; they most certainly can. The trick is that older films tend not to have aged well with their master film elements; typically it takes a lot of cleanup and restoration for a lot of older content.

Some older material was shot on lower-resolution film which can't really produce enough detail to support HD as well, which is a shame (a lot of old television shows are subject to this; even some relatively recent shows, such as Star Trek: The Next Generation cannot benefit from a high definition transfer because of this).

Newer titles don't experience as much of the aging problem, and titles that are completely digital (CGI titles like TMNT for instance) are extremely sharp and pleasant.

[ground chuck]

what i can still buy dvd's?

[dadkins]

Originally Posted by ground chuck

what i can still buy dvd's?

Pretty sure we can still play them too!

[tron3]

Originally Posted by Tarog

...

2. Should i wait out and see who wins the Format war or am i alright to blow all my money on Blu ray movies?

Thanks in Advance Guys

That is a loaded question to ask around here. Anyone who says HD-DVD is trolling. Gasp, I said the "H" word.

Seriously, look at the stats. I hear blu-ray leads in sales. Currently 1.9 million to about 800,000 for Hard heaD-DVD Most of the really good titles I want are on blu-ray. If you are like most of us, welcome to the blu-bloods. See my signature line to join.

[CptGreedle]

I got Blazing Saddles wondering the same thing. But since they made the BD version from the original film (not the DVD or TV releases), it had some restoration work and a lot better quality. in fact, it was an amazing transfer. I never saw it so sharp or crisp or detailed before.
It still looked aged, and you can see more of the film qualities of the age in it (like scratches, etc) but that adds to the realism of what you are watching, almost like you have it on 35 mm.

Also, buying Blu-ray matters more now than it will when a format is decided... Once it is decided, there will be no real importance of supporting the format since it is already strong, like DVD.
In fact, by buying Blu-ray now, you are helping to support the already more powerful format, giving it more power and influence on the studios. It is people like us who decide (or at least greatly influence) the results of the war.

Fight on Blu-ray fighters! Fight on!

[groovyone]

If you are uncertain you can rent it from Netflix or Blockbuster first. I have checked out a few movies that way before buying to see if it was worthupgrading from DVD.

[haushausman]

The Untouchables is the best PQ as far as older movies go IMO.

[KenThompson]

The Patriot is an older movie as well and it looks stellar. Also got great reviews.