Picture Quality.

[Chad Varnadore]

Originally Posted by KenThompson

Superman returns was a 4.5 star rating at HD Digest. So something is not right in your set up.

The only way SR might qualify a 4.5 rating is from the perspective that the look of the disc is innate to the look of the film. It seems to be based on the theatrical experience I went to also. But, theatrical showings have all too often proven not to be the best indicators of what a films visual design is capable of. And there has been some controversy as to whether SR does look as good as it did in some digital theaters. Relative to the detail found in many other discs, SR is at best a 3.5 and that might be a little generous. I don't deduct in my reviews for grain unless it appears exaggerated by the encoding.

I won't go into my thoughts on Peter's ability to evaluate home video or the films they're derived from. Suffice it to say, I never turned to him when he was reviewing DVDs for DVDfile either. But, he can spin an eloquent yarn. Dan Ramer who still reviews there does a nice job though. We use a much more revealing and IMO reliable system in our evaluations than Peter. Based on some of Peter's reviews that I've read, it appears he still has some color decoder issues with his display in need of address or he's not feeding the display the optimal colorspace. We have made the effort to try to know the technologies involved to attempt to remove or at least understand how the components and environment may bias perception of the software being judged in the event that it's not something we can address thru calibration, as every display type has design limitations that can't be avoided or removed thru optimal calibration. But sometimes if you know enough about those limitations and are equiped with an understanding of the dynamics of the technologies at work, you can remove them from the chain temporarily for more accurate evaluation. If Peter's system and apparent knowledge base is consistent with your own, I'm sure most of what he says will seem more accurate to your own impressions though.

BTW that last bit was not intended to be in any way demeaning of yourself or your equipment.