Why did TNTHD look better than my blu ray?

[SellmeyourDVD]

OK so i know that hd channels on cable are suppose to not look better than my blu ray but a couple of nights ago i got transformers and casino royale on blu ray. They looked amazing! Two of the best blu rays i've watched BY FAR. So i than pop in hellboy thinking it should look pretty amazing. To my dismay it was not. It was laking that "soap opera" look that i love about my tv. After being pretty upset about hellboy i popped in spiderman 3 (which was my fav blu until transformers) and it also was lacking the "soap opera" feel. The first time i watched spidey it blew me away, made me feel my purchase was VERY justified and looked like exaclty what i wanted it to be. So after watching spidey and not getting that feeling that i once had i turned on the cable to see if anything was on. MIB was on TNTHD so i figued what the heck i'll watch this for a second; as soon as i started watching it BAM, that "soap opera" feel was instantly there and everything looked amazing! I was astounished, how in the world could this 1080i (or was it 720p?) have a much better feeling than my blu rays? I know that on cable the tv's settings are at "standard" and on the ps3 i have it set at "movie". I have the AMP turned on high on both. Why am i seeing such a disperity with the amp? is it because of the "movie" and "standard" settings? I want that feeling of everything being right in front of me, i paid a lot of money to just want that feeling. Anyone have any advice? Do you think i should change the settings on the tv back to "standard" and watch a blu ray on that setting to see if it makes that big of a difference? I'm so frustrated right now! I want to cry!

Sorry for the long post, i'm just confused and need to be guided in the correct direction, and btw i have the sammy ln46a650.

I also have done a couple of searches regarding this and i've found a couple of people have mentioned the same things as me. I'm thinking i just need a good calibration, but i'm just trying to find out why that look is so durasticly different.

[dpomp]

Originally Posted by SellmeyourDVD

OK so i know that hd channels on cable are suppose to not look better than my blu ray but a couple of nights ago i got transformers and casino royale on blu ray. They looked amazing! Two of the best blu rays i've watched BY FAR. So i than pop in hellboy thinking it should look pretty amazing. To my dismay it was not. It was laking that "soap opera" look that i love about my tv. After being pretty upset about hellboy i popped in spiderman 3 (which was my fav blu until transformers) and it also was lacking the "soap opera" feel. The first time i watched spidey it blew me away, made me feel my purchase was VERY justified and looked like exaclty what i wanted it to be. So after watching spidey and not getting that feeling that i once had i turned on the cable to see if anything was on. MIB was on TNTHD so i figued what the heck i'll watch this for a second; as soon as i started watching it BAM, that "soap opera" feel was instantly there and everything looked amazing! I was astounished, how in the world could this 1080i (or was it 720p?) have a much better feeling than my blu rays? I know that on cable the tv's settings are at "standard" and on the ps3 i have it set at "movie". I have the AMP turned on high on both. Why am i seeing such a disperity with the amp? is it because of the "movie" and "standard" settings? I want that feeling of everything being right in front of me, i paid a lot of money to just want that feeling. Anyone have any advice? Do you think i should change the settings on the tv back to "standard" and watch a blu ray on that setting to see if it makes that big of a difference? I'm so frustrated right now! I want to cry!

Sorry for the long post, i'm just confused and need to be guided in the correct direction, and btw i have the sammy ln46a650.

I also have done a couple of searches regarding this and i've found a couple of people have mentioned the same things as me. I'm thinking i just need a good calibration, but i'm just trying to find out why that look is so durasticly different.

i think you're helping yourself

[SellmeyourDVD]

Originally Posted by dpompeo

i think you're helping yourself

yeah i'm pretty sure that's what i need, but i just figured "movie" would be closer to a calibration than what "standard" would give me, so i was pretty dumbfounded. I just wanted the actors to look like they were right infront of me, and i know the CGI looks completely fake but i think that it looks really amazing.

[arush5268d]

Don't trust those factory settings to be accurate.

Get that TV of yours calibrated - and see how those movies look then. Personally, for DirecTV viewing, I find that factory settings look really great. For movies though, I use custom settings. The Panny plasmas are normally pretty accurate with their factory-shipped settings - I just did a little tweaking.

[aramis109]

While there's potentially a calibration issue, more likely you're comparing broadcast television with a BD. One, they're not the same movies and different filmstock was used. Two, I saw the MIB broadcast and while it looks good, it's still not up to my BD. Three, I'm not sure what you mean by "soap opera look". Are you expecting it to be grain free like video? If so, you're going to be disappointed.

Movies like Hellboy, Spidey 3, and the others you mentioned are at the top of my PQ list, personally. They all look fantastic. They also have varying degrees of film grain, which is a natural part of the image.

Broadcast HD many times is cropping or zooming the image to fit a 16:9 set. They sometimes use a different master and upscale it. There's any of a number of things as to why they aren't preferrable and don't look as good as the BD.

If by soap opera look you mean the motion enhancement, while it's a neat gimmick that some people like, this was never the intent of the filmmaker. As such, some things are going to look better than others.

You've listed some of the top tier discs available on BD right now, so I'm not sure why you'd have any complaints. It could be calibration issues, or you have misplaced expectations due to expecting to see a video-like presentation rather than a film-like presentation.

[SellmeyourDVD]

Originally Posted by aramis109

While there's potentially a calibration issue, more likely you're comparing broadcast television with a BD. One, they're not the same movies and different filmstock was used. Two, I saw the MIB broadcast and while it looks good, it's still not up to my BD. Three, I'm not sure what you mean by "soap opera look". Are you expecting it to be grain free like video? If so, you're going to be disappointed.

Movies like Hellboy, Spidey 3, and the others you mentioned are at the top of my PQ list, personally. They all look fantastic. They also have varying degrees of film grain, which is a natural part of the image.

Broadcast HD many times is cropping or zooming the image to fit a 16:9 set. They sometimes use a different master and upscale it. There's any of a number of things as to why they aren't preferrable and don't look as good as the BD.

If by soap opera look you mean the motion enhancement, while it's a neat gimmick that some people like, this was never the intent of the filmmaker. As such, some things are going to look better than others.

You've listed some of the top tier discs available on BD right now, so I'm not sure why you'd have any complaints. It could be calibration issues, or you have misplaced expectations due to expecting to see a video-like presentation rather than a film-like presentation.

The soap opera look seems to be the universal definition of the motion enhancements and yes that is what i'm talking about. I was wondering if it was just a difference of movie to movie or if it was a calibration issue, but man, i love that auto motion plus. I know it isn't "suppose" to look like that, but it made me want an hdtv.

EDIT: and you maybe right on the dot, that i'm expecting a video like presentation rather than a film like presentation. That sounds more like my problem. I kept telling myself that, but after watching blus that i've seen before and feeling that the PQ was different, i told myself it might not be that problem.

[aramis109]

Since film is still the media of choice for most filmmakers, it's something you're probably going to have to get used to. Personally, I love flicks that have a little grain- it adds to the "cinema" feel to me. Since blu-ray is meant to accurately reproduce the original, it'll be there if it was there in the source.

There are methods of Digital Noise Reduction that can reduce grain and noise, but they also can take away fine detail along with it. With HD video cameras and such, it's not an issue, but then it's more like broadcast TV than a film, and many folks don't like that.

Try out a couple flicks that are shot digitally and see what you think. Apocalypto and Crank are a couple I can think of off the top of my head. Compare that to say... Payback which is a very gritty and grainy movie (which I love).

Different styles are going to be prevalent with movie making so there will always be movies which appear differently. Hellboy however I felt had a very light grain structure. Penton-Man mentioned that it had received the DNR treatment and to me it looks fabulous. I think there's definitely a balance to be struck between a "clean" image and a detailed image.

[SellmeyourDVD]

Originally Posted by aramis109

Since film is still the media of choice for most filmmakers, it's something you're probably going to have to get used to. Personally, I love flicks that have a little grain- it adds to the "cinema" feel to me. Since blu-ray is meant to accurately reproduce the original, it'll be there if it was there in the source.

There are methods of Digital Noise Reduction that can reduce grain and noise, but they also can take away fine detail along with it. With HD video cameras and such, it's not an issue, but then it's more like broadcast TV than a film, and many folks don't like that.

Try out a couple flicks that are shot digitally and see what you think. Apocalypto and Crank are a couple I can think of off the top of my head. Compare that to say... Payback which is a very gritty and grainy movie (which I love).

Different styles are going to be prevalent with movie making so there will always be movies which appear differently. Hellboy however I felt had a very light grain structure. Penton-Man mentioned that it had received the DNR treatment and to me it looks fabulous. I think there's definitely a balance to be struck between a "clean" image and a detailed image.

I guess that is why we have "demo" disks. I have 28 weeks later and that movie is really grainy, but from what i've read the director intended it to be that way which is understandalbe for that type of movie. I just want that affect of the actors being right infront of me. It's why i bought my tv and started parting out my dvd's for blu rays. I've been pleased half the time, but i hope that with some minor adjustments that number will go up.

[tommyboy81]

Originally Posted by arush5268d

Don't trust those factory settings to be accurate.

Get that TV of yours calibrated - and see how those movies look then. Personally, for DirecTV viewing, I find that factory settings look really great. For movies though, I use custom settings. The Panny plasmas are normally pretty accurate with their factory-shipped settings - I just did a little tweaking.

How? is there a disc? Yes I'm dumb

[saprano]

Your talking about 120hz right?

[jkwest]

Originally Posted by tommyboy81

How? is there a disc? Yes I'm dumb

http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Video-Essentials-Basics-Blu-ray/dp/B000V6LST0/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1222213489&sr=8-1

or, if you are cheap...go over to AVSforums and search for your exact TV...there should be a thread for it that is solely for "tweaking the settings"...you can grab someone elses settings that they posted and it will at least get you in a better place than factory default.

sometimes people even get theirs calibrated and then post the numbers...now, some will argue that every setting is different due to lighting and placement, but, you will be better off and it will save you some dough.

[jkwest]

Originally Posted by saprano

Your talking about 120hz right?

it sounds like it...

surprisingly..I turn it off for my set...unless I am watching Planet Earth or something in that genre..

[SellmeyourDVD]

Originally Posted by jkwest

it sounds like it...

surprisingly..I turn it off for my set...unless I am watching Planet Earth or something in that genre..

actually i'm talking about auto motion plus (which i believe is very different from 120hz, but i could be wrong). I thought that 120hz was to reduce judder.

[aramis109]

Originally Posted by SellmeyourDVD

actually i'm talking about auto motion plus (which i believe is very different from 120hz, but i could be wrong). I thought that 120hz was to reduce judder.

Ding ding! Give the man a cigar! People get that mixed up all the time.

Also, jk's suggestion is a solid one. It's how I calibrated mine. I have messed with DVD Essentials in the past and honestly, this was just as easy and then I tweaked it to where I wanted it.

[SellmeyourDVD]

Originally Posted by aramis109

Ding ding! Give the man a cigar! People get that mixed up all the time.

Also, jk's suggestion is a solid one. It's how I calibrated mine. I have messed with DVD Essentials in the past and honestly, this was just as easy and then I tweaked it to where I wanted it.

I do have the DVE disk and i'm going to use it this weekend to see if i like its adjustments. I do like the AMP, i like it on high at all times becuase i just think it gives it this incredibly realistic picture. I think i really do just need to play with my settings to get them to my liking. I am going to have some fun toying with the tv this weekend; either that or i'm going to get so frustrated i want to throw it out the window, but we'll see

[radagast]

Originally Posted by SellmeyourDVD

OK so i know that hd channels on cable are suppose to not look better than my blu ray but a couple of nights ago i got transformers and casino royale on blu ray. They looked amazing! Two of the best blu rays i've watched BY FAR. So i than pop in hellboy thinking it should look pretty amazing. To my dismay it was not. It was laking that "soap opera" look that i love about my tv. After being pretty upset about hellboy i popped in spiderman 3 (which was my fav blu until transformers) and it also was lacking the "soap opera" feel. The first time i watched spidey it blew me away, made me feel my purchase was VERY justified and looked like exaclty what i wanted it to be. So after watching spidey and not getting that feeling that i once had i turned on the cable to see if anything was on. MIB was on TNTHD so i figued what the heck i'll watch this for a second; as soon as i started watching it BAM, that "soap opera" feel was instantly there and everything looked amazing!

What do you mean by "soap opera" feel?

[SellmeyourDVD]

Originally Posted by radagast

What do you mean by "soap opera" feel?

it seems like only some people use that refernce apparently, i thought everyone used it, apparently i'm very wrong lol.

The look i'm refering to is when it seems like the actors are right infront of you. Like you are sitting right next to the camera man while they are filming the movie. That is what i love about my TV and it only appears to be that way with some movies. I just didn't get that feeling at all with Hellboy. Nor did i get that feeling the second time around with spidey 3 or night at the meuseum.

My finacee thinks that i'm expecting it now, and since i'm expecting it i'm not getting the same illusion since i've seen it already. I think it's becuase my settings. I'll find out tonight since i actually get to go home tonight! yippeee!