Not impressed with Blu-ray.....

[OneBadApple]

Hello.....We recently purchased a Sony Blu-ray DVD player, a new Pioneer HDMI-capable amplifier and the best Monster HDMI cables to connect both to our 47" Vizeo HDTV (which shows spectacular HD picture quality through our regular HD cable box). We are disappointed that the video quality of the first 5 Blu-ray movies from Netflix appear no more impressive than the standard DVDs did playing through our old regular Sony DVD player (which always looked pretty good anyway). The audio does seem noticeably better, however.

Is messing with the 'contrast' and 'sharpness' my only hope for that knock-your-socks-off HD-DVD picture I keep hearing about ?? I've only monkeyed with those a little so far without seeing any difference.

Thanks for any thoughts or advice.....

[Dirk504]

1. Is your TV set at 1080p?
2. Did you play with your settings?
3. Which movies did you watch?
4. Are you sure your connections are set up correctly?

FYI - Monster HDMI cables will give you the same picture as a $5 HDMI cable from Amazon. Also, I'm not tryna play you at all, but some people on here don't believe that Vizeo's offer the best picture.

[Rob J in WNY]

Bummer your first adventure into Blu-ray has fallen below expectations. I love the format and enjoy its improved quality immensely.

I am just curious...

...What 5 Blu-ray discs did you watch? The video transfer on some discs are especially noteworthy, while others offer little better visual quality than an upconverted DVD.

[jkwest]

[starkent08]

prob ur tv i have a samsung 750 and diff is night and day

[ryoohki]

If it look like DVD, then it's you're display. Cable look like crap compared to Blu-ray even in sports, especially when it's moving fast...

[OneBadApple]

Rob....

They were The Dark Knight, The Visitor, Traitor, Nights In Rodanthe and Frozen River.

Any ideas or thoughts you may have (besides that I point and laugh at myself in the mirror) will be much appreciated.

Thanks,
Doug in FL

[brett_day]

yeah it is a shame you are questioning the quality of blu ray, i too am interested in which movies you watched. Also i am sorry that you were sold on the monster cables, they are no better then the monoprice cables which are less than $5.

Calibrating you tv will be essential to getting the best from it, also ignore the claim that it is the vizio. While they might not make the best HDTV consumers can buy you will still be able to see a huge difference from dvd to blu

[assydingo]

Try Prince Caspian?

[Dirk504]

Dude, The Dark Knight should've blown you away. I was watching TDK again last night and was still amazed at the PQ. It's probably your display. You may have to adjust some settings.

[vassillios]

I recall thinking that the dark knight was not spectacular (visually), in some scenes, on my display. I think the movie was shot with a fair amount of grain which can lend it to not have as much detail as other movies.

I have a Sony 50" rear projection and have been wowed by many bly-rays...some are just not transferred as well as others.

The visitor was a great movie by the way.

[ryoohki]

It's possible that his display is 1080i ? (depending when the OP bought the TV) in that case it's a 1368x760 display and he's getting only 540 vertical line of resolution , upscaled to the tv native resolution. In that case it, i could understand the OP disapointement.

[Grevlin]

I'm sorry to say it's probably your TV. I started with a 42" Insignia 1080P. I had blu-ray, and thought I was seeing the goods. I recently upgraded to a 40" (yes smaller) Samsung 6 series and wow

The only thing I changed at that time was the TV, and the picture was like night and day. I had to re-watch all my favorite movies.

By the way, Best Buy has some great prices now on TV's because the new models are coming in. You can get a Samsung 650 52" for $1800 (thats down $400 from a few weeks ago.) 46" are actually on clearance!

I would say pick up a 6 series and move your vizio to the bedroom...

[starkent08]

all the vizio ive seen r low in contast which affects picture u get wat u pay for

[Sonny]

There's something just not right here...I get the knock your socks off HD-DVD look from 98% of my Blu's. Maybe it's that monster cable? Did you pay more than $100 for it? That could be the problem right their, don't pay more then $3-4 for an HDMI cable.

[rlf3911]

Lol. "knock-your-socks-off HD-DVD picture I keep hearing about". troll.

Good luck witht he VizEo tv also.

[Blu As Hell]

We get one of these at least once every two weeks don't we?

[Captainhawk1]

Originally Posted by OneBadApple

Hello.....We recently purchased a Sony Blu-ray DVD player, a new Pioneer HDMI-capable amplifier and the best Monster HDMI cables to connect both to our 47" Vizeo HDTV (which shows spectacular HD picture quality through our regular HD cable box). We are disappointed that the video quality of the first 5 Blu-ray movies from Netflix appear no more impressive than the standard DVDs did playing through our old regular Sony DVD player (which always looked pretty good anyway). The audio does seem noticeably better, however.

Is messing with the 'contrast' and 'sharpness' my only hope for that knock-your-socks-off HD-DVD picture I keep hearing about ?? I've only monkeyed with those a little so far without seeing any difference.

Thanks for any thoughts or advice.....

Vizeo = Garbage... sorry.

And you also didn't mention how old your TV was if it even could handle 1080p.

Your HD Cable box pumps out at a maximum of 1080i.

[mreilly611]

Originally Posted by OneBadApple

Hello.....We recently purchased a Sony Blu-ray DVD player, a new Pioneer HDMI-capable amplifier and the best Monster HDMI cables to connect both to our 47" Vizeo HDTV (which shows spectacular HD picture quality through our regular HD cable box). We are disappointed that the video quality of the first 5 Blu-ray movies from Netflix appear no more impressive than the standard DVDs did playing through our old regular Sony DVD player (which always looked pretty good anyway). The audio does seem noticeably better, however.

Is messing with the 'contrast' and 'sharpness' my only hope for that knock-your-socks-off HD-DVD picture I keep hearing about ?? I've only monkeyed with those a little so far without seeing any difference.

Thanks for any thoughts or advice.....

Mr. Bad Apple,
Are you sure you are not a Blu Ray hater. Who buy's a new Blu Ray player and a brand new Hdmi receiver and a monster Hdmi cable. Then rents movies from Netflix to test. I can't believe you did not spend 20 bucks on a new Blu Ray movie to test system. Give us a break.

[Captainhawk1]

Originally Posted by rlf3911

Lol. "knock-your-socks-off HD-DVD picture I keep hearing about". troll.

Good luck witht he VizEo tv also.

Not necessarily. He may simply just not have decent equipment. We know that the brand is garbage and he got duped into buying a Monster cable so he's probably really not up to speed on all of this information.

The biggest hurdle, IMHO, in adoption of BD is that most people don't understand the differences between resolutions with HD and they think their upconverted DVD on their 1080i is no different than BD.

And the twits in the big box stores and warehouse stores not only don't know a damned thing about what they are selling, they usually set up the equipment wrong in store to begin with.