Which movie genre looks best on Blu-ray ?

[CinematicExplorer]

After watching a couple of dozen of blue-ray movies on my 50 inch 1080p Panasonic Viera Plasma with my Panasonic Blue-Ray player (DMP60) so far, I found to get the most out of blue-ray from Sci-Fi/Fantasy movies like Spider-Man, The Day the Earth Stood Still and Watchmen. A very close second would be Action/Adventure movies like Pirates of Caribbean.

Comedies like Mamma Mia! did look nice on Blue-Ray, but that's primarily because of a lot of natural scenes, which generally excel on Blue-Ray (I would imagine comedies that are filmed primarily inside shouldn't look anything special)

I haven't had a chance to watch a horror movie yet, but the dramas I've watched so far, my favorite genre, underwhelmed me. I didn't find much benefit in watching HD as opposed to DVD, in all the dramas I've watched so far on Blue-Ray: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button", "Slumdog Millionaire" and "Milk"

Of course I make big generalizations here, but as a rule of thumb I guess I should really focus on watching Action & Sci-Fi movies (especially the new ones) on Blue-ray, as for other genres, unconverted DVD should suffice.

Please note that I use my headphones when watching movies (to not awake my neighbors) so I don't factor sound here, only video.

[ai3rocks57]

Sci-fi and Fantasy hands down. Because they're fantasy all types of textures and colors are used. Very beautiful.

[jk1138]

They all look good but Pixar really stands out. I voted Sci-fi as that is amazing on BD (well much of it is)

[ShelbyGT500]

None....However they all look great on Blu-ray!!

[koontz1973]

All films look great on Blu

But Sci Fi has the benefit of special effects that look better, worse if done badly.

[RyRyMcNizzy13]

i will go with action movies i suppose. i feel with too much cgi in sci-fi/fantasy it's cheating almost lol. but when an action movie is done right like crank then you can respect it alot more i think.

[GLaDOS]

Action/Adventure!

[DarkDune]

ANY Genre will look great IF the transfer is done justice!

For example, Top Gun has NO enhanced flight footage, but the footage they used was transferred well and looks quite good compared to the DVD release.

My gauge is when I notice people have freckles and I never knew they did, that is a good transfer! Also, when you can clearly distinguish facial expressions in wide shots, that is a good transfer!

Last Samauri is well done on blu due to the transfer! - Drama/Adventure
Seabiscut is well done on blu due to the transfer! - Drama
Office Space is well done on blu due to the transfer! - Comedy

All Genres

[Steve]

Even though all genres look excellent on blu-ray, I selected Sci-fi/Fantasy because this genre often involves visuals that IMO allow the format to really shine, moreso than most other genres. However, the list of options should have included animation/cg (such as Pixar). That's would have been my first choice.

[dadkins]

For live action/CGI - SciFi would have to be my pick.

Pixar still rules overall though.

[mugupo]

If you pick disney, you can't go wrong, most of their blu-ray are solid 5 stars transfer.

[CinematicExplorer]

Originally Posted by DarkDune

ANY Genre will look great IF the transfer is done justice!

My gauge is when I notice people have freckles and I never knew they did, that is a good transfer! Also, when you can clearly distinguish facial expressions in wide shots, that is a good transfer!

[....]

Seabiscut is well done on blu due to the transfer! - Drama

See that's what I was looking to see when watching dramas on blu-ray: so much high definition that you can see freckles, pimples or facial hair and other imperfections on Kate Winslet's smooth face in "Revolutionary Road" or Julia Ormond's face in "Curious Case of Benjamin Button" for example. Yet these dramas looked not much special from a DVD in terms of facial details. And they are all new, so you'd expect them to be designed for blu-ray, not as an afterthought.

I have "Seabiscut" on my rental queue so I will check and see how it looks. But I have a feeling that dramas that contain a lot of outdoor & natural footage will look best. And to really appreciate actor's micro-expressions and facial subtilities in an HD drama you need to view it through a good 1080p projector on a screen at least 90 inch diagonal. Alas my 50 inch Plasma is not big enough for me to see much benefit.

[Beta Man]

Originally Posted by CinematicExplorer

See that's what I was looking to see when watching dramas on blu-ray: so much high definition that you can see freckles, pimples or facial hair and other imperfections on Kate Winslet's smooth face in "Revolutionary Road" or Julia Ormond's face in "Curious Case of Benjamin Button" for example. Yet these dramas looked not much special from a DVD in terms of facial details. And they are all new, so you'd expect them to be designed for blu-ray, not as an afterthought.

I have "Seabiscut" on my rental queue so I will check and see how it looks. But I have a feeling that dramas that contain a lot of outdoor & natural footage will look best. And to really appreciate actor's micro-expressions and facial subtilities in an HD drama you need to view it through a good 1080p projector on a screen at least 90 inch diagonal. Alas my 50 inch Plasma is not big enough for me to see much benefit.

I'm guessing you haven't had an ISF calibration eh?

[RiseDarthVader]

Originally Posted by CinematicExplorer

See that's what I was looking to see when watching dramas on blu-ray: so much high definition that you can see freckles, pimples or facial hair and other imperfections on Kate Winslet's smooth face in "Revolutionary Road" or Julia Ormond's face in "Curious Case of Benjamin Button" for example. Yet these dramas looked not much special from a DVD in terms of facial details. And they are all new, so you'd expect them to be designed for blu-ray, not as an afterthought.

I have "Seabiscut" on my rental queue so I will check and see how it looks. But I have a feeling that dramas that contain a lot of outdoor & natural footage will look best. And to really appreciate actor's micro-expressions and facial subtilities in an HD drama you need to view it through a good 1080p projector on a screen at least 90 inch diagonal. Alas my 50 inch Plasma is not big enough for me to see much benefit.

Most movies are shot on 35mm and are designed for the cinema. Just because Blu-ray is released now doesn't mean all previous movies were shot not to be seen in HD in mind because that's what we have been viewing at cinemas the whole time. Also as a new member please don't start a random poll and call it "Blue-ray" when it should be "Blu-ray". We already have too many new members flooding the place with polls or re-making polls. Other then that welcome to Blu-ray.com!

[Duffy12]

I noticed that a lot of people mentioned Sci-fi/Fantasy because of its visuals.

Can you just imagine what 'AVATAR' is going to look like when it comes out?