Blu-ray releases in 720p

[ps3bd_owner]

These were mostly for sports content, but I assume some movies and series in the early era of Blu-ray were 720p, too?

Can anyone give a detailed response?

Thanks.

[David M]

No, 720p on BD is very rarely used. I don't know of any releases using it as the main video for a film.

[benricci]

Even the early releases from 2006 were 1080p. I don’t know of any legit 720 releases, to be honest.

[drush9999]

Wonder if there's anything upscaled from 720p to 1080p in the early days of the format though.

[alexgilbertnz]

I am interested too! It would be interesting. I think one of them are Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny!

[oddbox83]

I don't know about 720p but know there were a few earlier slightly different resolutions. I know HDCam was 1440x1080 so anything shot on that will be upscaled to 1920x1080.

[SpaceBlackKnight]

Tons of old HD masters were at odd resolutions of 1440p and even 1035i, a format used for Hi-Vision LD and broadcast masters. Sometimes when these get upscaled/converted to 1920 dimensions for BD spec, they tend to introduce scanline and/or alasing artifacts depending on how the conversions are handled. Several early Warner Blus exhibit severe aliasing due to what looks like poor scaling from 1440p HDCam masters. Some titles such as the first Top Gun Blu and the Sony/Mill Creek releases of the Metropolis anime have a scanline field (which is different than ghosting/combing) baked in the entire image due to what looks like a poor conversion from 1080i or 1035i.

As for 720p content on Blu, that seems to be regulated to special features, mainly trailers and upscaled archival SD stuff on Umbrella Entertainment Blu-Rays. I recall a BD-R of NOTLD, put out by some no-name entity and sold on Amazon before the Criterion Blu, that was said to be a 720p upscale of a ratty VHS master. Some reviews (now probably lumped with that US made BD-R of the Happinet Blu and/or Mill Creek Criterion releases on Amazon) said it was so bad, they jokingly stated that the Mill Creek and Network UK blus were like 4k remasters compared to that horrid BD-R.

[jmb1381]

Weren't the Highlander series blus released as upscaled 720p? Don't know if that counts though.

[Mr. Chaverria]

****. I think some Hong Kong or Japanese stuff went out at 720 early on. I THINK.

[Alex32]

The Blu-Ray release of Relic Hunter is in 720p. The show was originally shot in widescreen and aired in 4:3. So they pulled the original SD widescreen transfert and digitally restored it to 720p, I have it and it looks ok. Clearly not as good as if they rescanned it in real HD but better than the dvd's.

[French Manu]

In France, Goldorak is in 576i.

[Douche_McGraw]

I have Tintin and the Lake of Sharks (Tintin et le lac aux requins), a Canadian Blu-Ray, that plays at 720p. Weird anomaly, really. 720p was such a short-lived HD resolution.