New to this game.

[Lord_Phan]

Originally Posted by imtoast

Thank you all for the warm welcome, I feel at home now.




What is 2K or 4K is that number of lines on the screen? and then downscaled to 1080p?

I would assume that most of my DVD collection would have been filmed in 35mm and then downscaled from there. Would the Star Wars series be a 4K? and possibly worth picking it up in BD if it were released? (GL please release the series )

I do like action films, including some sci-fi or even cinematic movies with beautiful lanscapes

imtoast

1080p etc. are t.v. measurements of resolution, 2k and 4k are movies studio measurements. They have always differed on formats. 2k and 1080p are almost the same, with 2k having slightly more pixels. 4k is far above it. Film has always had very very high resolution, it's just we never had the median to bring it into the home before. DVD's don't have near the space or bitrate capability to produce a high quality high-res image. Blu-ray is technically capable of more than it's doing right now(would probably need triple layers or more to hold the data to send the bitrates it's capable of though)

[Blu boy]

Originally Posted by imtoast

OMG those are just gorgeous!! Might be the first BD purchase to date.

imtoast

you think those are great check out cars, meet the robinsons, and ratatoui

[owa]

Originally Posted by imtoast

I do like action films, including some sci-fi or even cinematic movies with beautiful lanscapes

imtoast

If you like beautiful landscapes, definitely check out the documentaries, Planet Earth (blu boy mentioned) and possibly Galapagos. They have some pretty breath-taking scenery.

[dadkins]

Originally Posted by Blu boy

you think those are great check out cars, meet the robinsons, and ratatoui

I have Cars and Meet the Robinsons... The Wild has better PQ.
Don't have Ratatouille yet... cannot say.

[Stiny-Ray2]

Ratatouille - Meet the Robinsons and Cars in that order Dinosaur is not bad either.

[Petra_Kalbrain]

As a Blu-ray reviewer myself for www.eyecravedvd.com here are my top suggestions (in order of preference in each category) from my 150+ collection.

ANIMATED
----------
1. Cars (Kick ass picture AND sound)
2. Ratatouille (Just shy of 'Cars' in picture quality, FAR BEHIND 'Cars' in audio)

DOCUMENTARY
--------------
1. GALAPAGOS (100x better picture quality than Planet Earth)
2. Planet Earth (Content in this series is far more important than the better than average picture quality)

CONCERT
---------
1. Elton John 50
2. Shakira: Oral Fixation Tour
3. Chris Botti Live
4. Dave Matthews & Time Reynolds Live
5. Queen Rock Montreal

LIVE ACTION
------------
1. Casino Royale
2. 300
3. Pirates Of The Caribbean 2 or 3 (both excellent)
4. Speed
5. The Prestige
*I only listed the top 5 because otherwise I would be here all night putting my entire collection in order of preference!*

OH, an make sure that your player is connected with an HDMI cable and that your TV settings are properly optimized! It can make all of the difference in the world!

[imtoast]

Okay to start off my BD collection, I purchased Cars and Galapagos. I put in Galapagos and was amazed at the detail of the fish, lizards and birds in the documentary, it was an interesting watch. The movie states that its 1080p, but when I check the info on my LCD the output is 1920x1080i/60hz??? I wonder if everyone else is getting the same result. I am using a PS3 and have the updated 2.10 FW so I am a little confused.

After watching Galapagos, I put in Cars and was amazed again. The PQ was just awesome and I have never seen the paint on lightning look so liquid and glossy. The output I was getting was 1920x1080p/24hz, does that mean the LCD is doing a 3:2 pulldown? or supporting it natively? I checked and searched all over the place if it supports 24hz, but I could not find any information nor the LCD manual would tell me.

I am going to pick up a few others, but I should give my DVD collection a try to see how good the upscaling is.

imtoast

[Brian Cash]

Con Air

[Beta Man]

Nobody said "sunshine" that I'm aware of.... but if you like Sci-Fi, you may like it.... I didn't care for the movie, but the PQ was great.

2001 is a great film, and really shows what can be done with Blu-Ray on such an old film.... it's simply STUNNING.

The Shining and A Clockwork Orange are great too.... Kubrick is a master at lighting, and the picture quality is amazing.... It's night and day between the DVD version.

[syncguy]

Originally Posted by imtoast

Thank you all for the warm welcome, I feel at home now.




What is 2K or 4K is that number of lines on the screen? and then downscaled to 1080p?

I would assume that most of my DVD collection would have been filmed in 35mm and then downscaled from there. Would the Star Wars series be a 4K? and possibly worth picking it up in BD if it were released? (GL please release the series )

I do like action films, including some sci-fi or even cinematic movies with beautiful lanscapes

imtoast

2K is 2048x1536 and 4K is 4096x3072 as opposed to 1920x1080 for Full HD. These are super HD resolutions used in movie industry when creating a Digital Intermediate master. I don't think this step is mandatory in movie making. If this was done, the DI would be used to downscale for the 1080P blu-ray release.

[bds59]

I do not think anyone has mentioned Blade Runner either, for a movie that is 25 years old it looks awesome in Blu! I agree with Sunshine, Casino Rayale, and what about 3:10 to Yuma?

[adamkang]

yes blade runner has awsome picture quality for a film 25 years old, its isnt entirely consistent though, alot of noise in some shots. id recommend you get the 5 disc if your a fan, or like the film a little

[space-monkey]

Originally Posted by imtoast

The PQ was just awesome and I have never seen the paint on lightning look so liquid and glossy. The output I was getting was 1920x1080p/24hz, does that mean the LCD is doing a 3:2 pulldown? or supporting it natively? I checked and searched all over the place if it supports 24hz, but I could not find any information nor the LCD manual would tell me.
imtoast

If you hadn't said your TV was 1080p, I would have said that it sounds like you have a native 720p HDTV that can output in 1080i, but not 1080p. To be honest, the difference between 1080i/p is almost indiscernible for screens under 70".

What I would do is check your BD player output in the settings section of your player. I would imagine you will need to stop BD playback first, then hit settings on your remote, or something similar. Tool around for video output until you find 1080p. That's all the help I can be there.

As for one of your first questions, film (and now, HD movie cameras) have resolutions far beyond any HDTV on the market. In fact, film doesn't have a resolution at all, simply tons and tons of information. If you've ever seen an old movie on film, you'll pop. Jaws looks like it was shot today on film.

Anyway, that's how DVDs and BDs can look so different from the same source material: the source is superior to both. However, many BDs actually end up looking better than their film counterparts due to having the same detail level with increased sharpness. It's pretty remarkable.

This is especially true on Apocalypto, which I recommend as a must-have if you don't mind violence. I still think it's the best film of the decade, and is a BD demo disc to boot.

Congratulations and welcome!

[Anthony P]

1) I don't understand how a previously released move on DVD would then be released on BD. Does the film source have plenty of detail to put on BD or do they create the extra information for BD. I would like to know if I should replace my existing DVD collection with BD or just purchase a select choice on BD?

film has a lot more detail then DVD and depending on the film and its condition it can even have a lot more detail then BD.

2) What BD movies would you recommend or reference BD that would show off the technology at at its best?

go with movies you like, it is better to ask is X worth it then just a list of titles.

3) When BD is recorded is it in a specific resolution and then upscaled? or is it true native 1080p?

the answer is all of the above. Most will be 1080p others will be scanned at a higher resolution and then down scaled. On the other hand nothing forces a movie to be 1080p, so if it was not 1080p before (like some stuff filmed on digital camcorders that are 1080i) then they usually just put it on disk as is. So if a movie is 1080p on the disk then chances are that it was >=1080p before the compression

[Anthony P]

LOL!! Would animated or CG movies be a good choice? I liked Cars especially Mater

yes

[Anthony P]

What is 2K or 4K is that number of lines on the screen? and then downscaled to 1080p?

it is short hand for roughly 2k or 4k columns.

In the old days of CRT TVs an electron beam would move continuously in a straight line, so there was no real horizontal resolution but at the end of the line it would go back to the start of the next line, so the vertical resolution was very well subdivided and so for TV resolution the tradition was to discuss lines of resolution. Now CRTs skipped every second line so when we went digital we kept the same and called it 480i (i.e. 480 lines that are interlaced (all the odd lines and even lines are segregated) and the same nomenclature was applied to progressive where they are not segregated.


1080p is 1080 x 1920 since movies tend to be wider then 16:9 and so you end up with black bars below and above, the movie does not actually have 1080 lines of details but depending on its aspect ratio it will be a number<=1080.

So for scans the convention is to use resolution in width instead of height. So 2k tends to be short hand for resolutions where the width has roughly 2k columns of information so 1080p can be considered the same as 2k

[chasarms]

If you don't currently have a surround sound system, install one and watch Cars again. It really gets interesting then.

[syncguy]

Originally Posted by chasarms

If you don't currently have a surround sound system, install one and watch Cars again. It really gets interesting then.

Yes, fully agree. Surround sound will add another dimension to your viewing experience. IMO, surround audio is almost half of the movie.