Quality Of Re-released HD Movies

[georgedingwall]

Hi all,

Please forgive me if this question is inappropriate for this forum.

I'm taking my first steps into high definition. I bought a new Sony Bravia KDL40W2000 earlier this year, I've just had Sky HD installed this week and I have a Samsung BD-UP5000 Dual Format DVD player on order.

The dvd player will not be available for a few weeks yet, so I have been browsing online dvd sellers looking at what's available in the high def formats. I see that there are lots of old movies being re-released in the two high def formats, and my question relates to the level of high def quality that these re-releases have.

Is it that these films have been made for years in high def, but are only now being released in high def version, or are they just being up-scaled to to 1080P and then sold as high def?

I have quite a large collection of SD DVDs and I'm reasonably happy with the quality I get from these disks from my Sony RDRHXD860 DVD player. I would be reluctant to buy HD versions of any of the movies I already have if there is not a significant improvement in the quality of viewing of the when played on an HD player.

So can anyone tell me if the re-leased HD versions of older movies provide a significant increase in viewing quality when view on an HD player compared to the SD version played on a good quality upscaling DVD player?

Thanks for any thoughts.

Bye for now.

[Singh400]

Well they can release the older movies, because they were filmed on 35mm film, which has a much higher resoultion than HD. So thats why they are able to offer these movies in HD now.

[bosque]

You need to compare the Hi-Def version of a film with an SD version yourself to find out if you feel the improvement is significant, some find it significant and some don't so it's all down to an individual's perception. IMHO it is significant, for example The Departed disc has a much clearer picture quality on HD-DVD/Blu-Ray.

[cost22998]

There is a very simple answer to this - find a copy of the hd-dvd of the 1938 classic The Adventures of Robin Hood. Watch this and you will see so clearly the benefit hd brings to older films. This bad boy is nearly 70 years old ! Then, when you've picked your jaw up off the floor put in the hd-dvd (or bd) of The Searchers. Then, when you finally come round after having fainted due to the sheer quality of the image, get your credit card out and buy a high def machine of either flavour to tide you over til your dual machine becomes available

Seriously, the quality of these older films in hd cannot be shouted from the rooftops enough. While I'm sure that there will be some duff hd transfers of older films (just like there are some duff sd transfers of older films), these two show just what can be done.

Hd? Brilliant .

Mark

[google]

I've only seen a few older films in HD, the latest being The Graduate and the PQ has been pretty impressive. The other 2 I've seen are Full Metal Jacket and The Deer Hunter. There not jaw dropping but a good upgrade from SD.