It is very hard to find any "real world" comparison or telling pictures of how a Blu-Ray movie may look like compared to DVD material.
It does not only require player and identical movies in both formats - the tricky part was "how can I capture a screenshot?"
Well, I'm not going to say it was easy and of course I'm not going to say the way I decided to go is a proper one but I do hope the results may be of some use to you.
I used a Blu-Ray and a normal DVD player (without UPSCALER!), used two movies on Blu-Ray as well as DVD and put my digital SLR camera on a tripod for the "screenshots".
The following was used:
TV:
- LG 42" lcd - 42lg5000
Player:
- Samsung BD 1500
(borrowed this player and was amazed that this model was able to do way more than it was supposed to in terms of what the manufacturer says in the manual AND the homepage infos!
This BD 1500 WAS able to play avi files although manual and pdf say it was NOT able to.
This BD 1500 was able to play DVD+R / DVD+RW although a sticker on top of the player said that it was NOT able to [sticker did not specify wether DVD+R referred to blank media or book type so i tested all and it played all *g*
so it is all in all a matter of latest firmware update for the BD 1500!)
- LG DVX 276
Movies:
- Kung Fu Panda Blu-Ray
- Kung Fu Panda DVD
- Mutant Chronicles Blu-Ray
- Mutant Chronicles DVD
- Mamma Mia DVD
Screenshots :
- Canon EOS 30d
- Canon EF 100 mm macro
- Benro tripod
Please keep in mind that the movies were paused and of course a "still" image is different to what you are able to recognice when 24-30 frames per second move by on your TV screen.
My visual impression is this:
- you spot more details with blu-ray material on the tv but NOT as much as you will be able to see in the fololwing still images!
- you still get a very good image when playing NORMAL DVDs on a proper player; dont let the industry tell you blu-ray is out of this world as opposed to dvd!
- dvd material played with a player which has an UPSCALER makes a big difference when using a larger tv
- the sound formats TrueHD and DTS-Master are NOT that much better than good 5.1 DD or DTS signals - they are hardly more than uncompressed formats and imho no reason at all to change your system or buy a certain product just because of these features
(i do have 8 speakers connected to my onkyo btw so i'm not talking about the sound that may come from the tv)
keep in mind that when you look at these full resolution pix of my camera in 100% full format on your monitor you will see way more details and therefore differences compared to watching a moving images on a 42" or so tv.
with a full format picture like these you should and would normally have a much larger viewing distance and then those details will NOT be as clearly visible any more!
or does anyone sit in front of a 42" tv with a viewing distance of only 2 m or less?
i hope not
++++
the file names will tell you if it was dvd or blu-ray material on either the samsung blu-ray bd 1500 or the normal dvd lg w/out upscaler
It does not only require player and identical movies in both formats - the tricky part was "how can I capture a screenshot?"
Well, I'm not going to say it was easy and of course I'm not going to say the way I decided to go is a proper one but I do hope the results may be of some use to you.
I used a Blu-Ray and a normal DVD player (without UPSCALER!), used two movies on Blu-Ray as well as DVD and put my digital SLR camera on a tripod for the "screenshots".
The following was used:
TV:
- LG 42" lcd - 42lg5000
Player:
- Samsung BD 1500
(borrowed this player and was amazed that this model was able to do way more than it was supposed to in terms of what the manufacturer says in the manual AND the homepage infos!
This BD 1500 WAS able to play avi files although manual and pdf say it was NOT able to.
This BD 1500 was able to play DVD+R / DVD+RW although a sticker on top of the player said that it was NOT able to [sticker did not specify wether DVD+R referred to blank media or book type so i tested all and it played all *g*
so it is all in all a matter of latest firmware update for the BD 1500!)
- LG DVX 276
Movies:
- Kung Fu Panda Blu-Ray
- Kung Fu Panda DVD
- Mutant Chronicles Blu-Ray
- Mutant Chronicles DVD
- Mamma Mia DVD
Screenshots :
- Canon EOS 30d
- Canon EF 100 mm macro
- Benro tripod
Please keep in mind that the movies were paused and of course a "still" image is different to what you are able to recognice when 24-30 frames per second move by on your TV screen.
My visual impression is this:
- you spot more details with blu-ray material on the tv but NOT as much as you will be able to see in the fololwing still images!
- you still get a very good image when playing NORMAL DVDs on a proper player; dont let the industry tell you blu-ray is out of this world as opposed to dvd!
- dvd material played with a player which has an UPSCALER makes a big difference when using a larger tv
- the sound formats TrueHD and DTS-Master are NOT that much better than good 5.1 DD or DTS signals - they are hardly more than uncompressed formats and imho no reason at all to change your system or buy a certain product just because of these features
(i do have 8 speakers connected to my onkyo btw so i'm not talking about the sound that may come from the tv)
keep in mind that when you look at these full resolution pix of my camera in 100% full format on your monitor you will see way more details and therefore differences compared to watching a moving images on a 42" or so tv.
with a full format picture like these you should and would normally have a much larger viewing distance and then those details will NOT be as clearly visible any more!
or does anyone sit in front of a 42" tv with a viewing distance of only 2 m or less?
i hope not
++++
the file names will tell you if it was dvd or blu-ray material on either the samsung blu-ray bd 1500 or the normal dvd lg w/out upscaler
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