DVD's look like s#*t!

[duncan618]

Does anyone else have the problem of standard dvd's lookin like crap? So far all of the newer movies just have so much noise in the picture and all of my old movies still look fine, I've got two 46" tv's (one sony one panasonic) and both are hooked up to HD catv thru HDMI and HDMI/DVI cables respectively and play fine. The Sony tv is tied to a Panasonic upconverter DVD player (I know, I'm just not ready to choose which HD ship to jump on yet) by way of an HDMI cable and the Panasonic tv is hooked up to a standard Pioneer DVD player by way of componet cables. Are they just tryin to make me switch to high def or is it just my gear? What the fark's up? Any input would be helpful.

Thanks

 

[MDS]

How big is the screen and how far away from it do you sit? A low resolution image scaled to HD resolutions will always look less than stellar unless you sit a long way from the TV.

 

[duncan618]

Both are 46" the panny it's about 8 feet, the standard player, and the sony it's about 15 feet , the "upscaler".

 

[duncan618]

Like I said, the older movies look fine. On the Panny I put in Oceans 13 earlier and I was just pissed about how awful it looked. After the movie I grabbed Open Range and it looked fine. By noise I mean grainy, really really grainy!

 

[Joe Schmoe]

Weird. On my system (Philips direct-view HD CRT, Sony DVD player, Component), movies tend to look better the newer they are.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Weird. On my system (Philips direct-view HD CRT, Sony DVD player, Component), movies tend to look better the newer they are.

Yeah, I agree. Even regular TV shows like Smallville, The Unit, Lost, Heroes, & cable shows like Rome, The Tudors, Deadwood, The 4400, & others look absolutely fantastic on SD DVD upscaled to 1080p on my 62" DLP.

But the older DVDs do look like crap, even big budget movies like Jurrasic Park look like crap on SD DVD.

 

[ParadigmDawg]

Newer SD movies look fine on my two systems.

 

[Rock&Roll Ninja]

Film grain is supposed to be there.

Watch something digital video like the BBc's Planet Earth, if you see grain on that then theres something wrong somewhere in your system.

 

[duncan618]

Film grain is supposed to be there.

Watch something digital video like the BBc's Planet Earth, if you see grain on that then theres something wrong somewhere in your system.

Is this a DVD? Sounds like something I've seen on HDnet channel. If it's my system then what could it be? I mean I've got 2 different tv's 2 different setups and the same results. I just don't get it. I know the tv's are capable of producing an excellent pic because of the HD cable tv.

 

[markalmighty]

Tranformers and Fantastic Four SS looks great on my set up

 

[solomr2]

I've spent 4 days with my new 50" 1080p Samsung 5084 plasma, and I can tell you some of the new HD broadcasts on HDNET or MoJo are very impressive and show very few flaws on this panel. However, some of the older movies broadcast in HD definately look noisy. I'm shopping for a good upconverting DVD player currently, but I'm concerned that upconverting the older DVDs is not going to look all that great - if the content is not there, then upconversion is not going to make a 480 look like a 1080, not matter how good the conversion is.

 

[tcm5]

upscaling

What are you upscaling to with the Panasonic? Are you matching the native resolution of your display. I have a .Denon 1600 that will output 480i and 480p. I see a big difference in PQ between the 2 settings, 480i looks washed out and grainy. The 480p setting looks much better. I also have an Oppo 981HD and output at 720p into my Pany Plasma display with impressive results. No complaints there.

 

[duncan618]

What are you upscaling to with the Panasonic? Are you matching the native resolution of your display. I have a .Denon 1600 that will output 480i and 480p. I see a big difference in PQ between the 2 settings, 480i looks washed out and grainy. The 480p setting looks much better. I also have an Oppo 981HD and output at 720p into my Pany Plasma display with impressive results. No complaints there.

That's just it, it doesn't matter what is being upscaled and to what resolution, anything that looks bad on the upscale player at any resolution looks just as bad on the standard player. I swear I think it's just how the movie was produced. I've been tryin' to figure out the similarties between the discs and have got nuthin. Except maybe, possibly, Paramount Pictures make the grainy dvd's. I watched on the Pioneer "Live Free or Die Hard" (FOX)and it looked fine. Then I watched "War of the Worlds" (great bass btw) and it looked like crap. So making the possible Paramount connection I checked out "Mission Impossible 2", it was there but not as bad as the newer WOTW. My dvd collection is extremely limited so that's as far as my research could get with the Paramount movies. If anyone could help me out with a bit of research on this I'd appreciate it!

 

[duncan618]

Am I alone here? I just watched "300", looked like crap, and "Pirates of the Caribbean Worlds End", looked good. Could someone please reference these and tell me what you came up with?

 

[ParadigmDawg]

The director made the picture on '300' grainy so dont compare that to anything.

 

[duncan618]

Okay, how do you know that and why did they do that that? I mean honestly what's the purpose? BTW 86 the movie maker reference as far as who makes'em grainy, seems as though they all have a hand in it.

 

[avliner]

Tranformers and Fantastic Four SS looks great on my set up

Plus one here!

 

[ParadigmDawg]

I know it because I have read about it and it looks grainy on my set-up which is perfect

The movie was 80% green screen and was produced in a similar manner as Sin City; just the way this producer does it. You can read more about it in the DVD section of this forum or follow this link.
http://www.dvdreview.com/reviews/pages/2671.shtml

Okay, how do you know that and why did they do that that? I mean honestly what's the purpose? BTW 86 the movie maker reference as far as who makes'em grainy, seems as though they all have a hand in it.

 

[ErinH]

All I know is that Spider Man 3 on my Samsung 50" 720p with OLD Sony Progressive-Scan dvd player looks really nice.

I've also gone back and watched "The Matrix Reloaded" and was very happy.

I'm curious to see the quality difference when I get my 720p/1080i Samsung upconvert DVD player.

 

[duncan618]

Forget it, no help here!