Anybody else underwhelmed by Blu Ray ???

[redgtxdi]

Bought my first Blu Ray player last night (Panasonic BDT210) and rented Resident Evil:Afterlife on BR to enjoy. Well, it definitely looked good & sounded great (honestly, I was more impressed with the audio than the video)....BUT......the video by itself definitely left me unimpressed.

Sure, it looks good, but if my wife had swapped our upscaling 1080P DVD player & hadn't told me, I wouldn't have known I was watching Blu Ray. My TV's as good as it can get (Vizio XVT3D474SV with the glossy screen, 1080P, 480hz, full-array LED backlit, etc. etc.) so no issues there. And the player works simply enough. (I did get the wifi hooked up & did the firmware update to make sure I was up to snuff).

I know if I watch any Pixar movie I'm supposed to fall down or something, but I can already say that about my old upscaling DVD player. The Pixar stuff looks great on almost any HD set of good quality.

Anybody else underwhelmed by Blu Ray??

 

[JackBurton]

Did you seriously say my "TV is as good as it gets" and then follow it up with Vizio?

If you want to check out what a reference BD looks like, check out Avatar.

 

[redgtxdi]

Did you seriously say my "TV is as good as it gets" and then follow it up with Vizio? Seriously?

Without going into a long dissertation about the XVT series of TV's, the 3D subset and the 4SV subset of that.....I'll have to ask you to just entertain the thought for now.

If you want to check out what a reference BD looks like, check out Avatar.

Thanks for that, though I still have to wonder.........would it look that much better than my Avatar DVD upscaled to 1080P? (Again, after watching 2 hours of RE:AL I've got a pretty good idea of what BR can produce & while it's good, it's just not all I expected)

 

[smitbret]

Did you seriously say my "TV is as good as it gets" and then follow it up with Vizio?

If you want to check out what a reference BD looks like, check out Avatar.

I love it when brand whores speak without knowing what they are talking about. People like that are the reason that Volkswagen can sell a Dodge Grand Caravan with a VW badge, name it the Routon and make an extra $3000 on the deal.

Your tv is awesome, redgtxdi. Ignore that last guy. Have you calibrated your tv? Also, it's a 47" tv, how far away are you sitting from it?

 

[The-Noid]

Yes, Blu-ray is a gigantic step up when you have a 123" screen. Watching it on my 60" Pioneer elite it is a big step up, watching it on a 50" TV in our living room it is a step up and watching it on our 46" bedroom tv it is a marginal step up.

See what I did there?

 

[jtvang125]

You can't judge the entire blu-ray tech on just one title. Just like dvds, there are blu-rays with bad transfers so they won't look much better than the upscale dvd. Try a few reference titles before making a final judgement.

Personally I can't go back to standard def anymore.

 

[Tiamat]

Size of screen vs how far you are seated from the tv are major factors for getting the most out of native hd content. Too small of a tv for your intended seating distance will demolish the benefits of native hd content in comparison to scaling content to 1080p

 

[alcoholbob]

I love it when brand whores speak without knowing what they are talking about.

It's true, there's only a handful of panel manufacturers but a lot of vendors; it's the same with a lot of industries these days.

Cost of business/litigation/labor is too high to be building your own stuff, even for the largest corporations.

 

[MagickMan]

Resident Evil: Afterlife

Mediocre transfer, try Avatar or Dark Knight.

 

[redgtxdi]

Noid. I'll take that to heart. I hope Afterlife was just a "so-so" BR and I'll see some better stuff as the titles go. (And maybe titles will get more 1080P - friendly as time marches on) The 474SV is a 47" set but my family room's pretty small & I'm only about 5 to 6 feet from the set so it's definitely plenty of size for me. I can imagine how it would matter, the larger you go but I still hope for to see more.

I'll try a few more titles & reply back here to see what's up. I figure I know the Panny's a good buy as it does load quite fast and ranks as the best BR player so far in 2011 from Cnet so I'm definitely gonna retire the upscaling dvd player to the bedroom, but I hope I can appreciate BR more as I go.

 

[zerocool84]

Mediocre transfer, try Avatar or Dark Knight.

As much as I dislike Avatar as a movie, the visuals on the Blu-ray are awesome. One of the best ways to show off a new TV.

OP, check out this AVSforum link. It'll show you what Blu-rays are the best quality. Resident Evil Afterlife is much lower quality (Silver) than something like Avatar (Blue).

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1168342

 

[velillen]

My TV's as good as it can get (Vizio XVT3D474SV

Thats definitely not as good as it CAN get But still i'd glady take that set! At that price i actually do like that Vizio and am considering it myself. If i had an extra 2-3k theres definitely better out there.

As for bluray a good place to start might just be this thread over on AVS (warning large pictures
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=811102

Gives you an idea on a side by side comparison of the dvd vs blurays.

As for me Tron Legacy looked amazingly well done in my opinion. The audio was awesome and the visuals were amazing even on my 720p set. I personally like it a bit more than avatar just due to the audio. it has a great LFE channel



if you have some dvd's though one thing might be just to rent or borrow the bluray version. Watch a scene in SD then switch and watch a scene in bluray.

Or you could just be like my mom who could careless and claims to not really see a difference in HD vs SD. She normally just watches SD channels just cause she knows the channel number instead of the HD channel

 

[MagickMan]

As much as I dislike Avatar as a movie, the visuals on the Blu-ray are awesome. One of the best ways to show off a new TV.

Exactly, it's so beautiful, both video and audio, it almost makes you forget the crappy plot.

 

[Auric]

Also try some good quality nature documentaries such as from BBC. Then you are essentially only judging loss from reality rather than trying to compare fictional images. Although, since much of the footage is of things or from perspectives we never see either it often seems otherworldly anyway.

 

[vi edit]

I shared your opinion at one point. Then I slowly started noticing the difference over time. You don't realize how good it is until you watch a couple BR's back to back and then go to a DVD. It's color, sharpness and just overally PQ is dull and lifeless in comparison.

And it literally is night and day when you move up to larger screens...80"+ in size.

 

[JackBurton]

I'll try a few more titles & reply back here to see what's up. I figure I know the Panny's a good buy as it does load quite fast and ranks as the best BR player so far in 2011 from Cnet so I'm definitely gonna retire the upscaling dvd player to the bedroom, but I hope I can appreciate BR more as I go.

The best ranked BD player reviewed by Cnet is different than saying "it is the best BR player." Cnet is not a great site if you are looking for the best of anything. Just saying...

 

[JackBurton]

I love it when brand whores speak without knowing what they are talking about. People like that are the reason that Volkswagen can sell a Dodge Grand Caravan with a VW badge, name it the Routon and make an extra $3000 on the deal.

Your tv is awesome, redgtxdi. Ignore that last guy. Have you calibrated your tv? Also, it's a 47" tv, how far away are you sitting from it?

It's not a matter of being a brand whore, it's about facts. I never said he has a bad set, it's just not "as good as it gets."

 

[JackBurton]

Thats definitely not as good as it CAN get But still i'd glady take that set! At that price i actually do like that Vizio and am considering it myself. If i had an extra 2-3k theres definitely better out there.

As for bluray a good place to start might just be this thread over on AVS (warning large pictures
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=811102

Gives you an idea on a side by side comparison of the dvd vs blurays.

As for me Tron Legacy looked amazingly well done in my opinion. The audio was awesome and the visuals were amazing even on my 720p set. I personally like it a bit more than avatar just due to the audio. it has a great LFE channel



if you have some dvd's though one thing might be just to rent or borrow the bluray version. Watch a scene in SD then switch and watch a scene in bluray.

Or you could just be like my mom who could careless and claims to not really see a difference in HD vs SD. She normally just watches SD channels just cause she knows the channel number instead of the HD channel

Yep, I forgot about Tron Legacy. Absolutely a reference BD! STUNNING video AND audio. I believe that BD scored a perfect 100 (audio and video) on AVSForum's review.

OP, if you want to see the difference between DVD and perfectly transferred BD movie, get the Tron Legacy combo pack which includes the BD and DVD of the movie.

 

[ManBearPig]

Yep, I forgot about Tron Legacy. Absolutely a reference BD! STUNNING video AND audio. I believe that BD scored a perfect 100 (audio and video) on AVSForum's review.

OP, if you want to see the difference between DVD and perfectly transferred BD movie, get the Tron Legacy combo pack which includes the BD and DVD of the movie.

I will never watch DVD if I have the option to watch BR. Tron legacy was sweet, I like the matrix a lot too.

 

[Anubis]

watch anything out of Tier 0 and come back

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1168342

 

[Sephire]

Search for Xylon's comparison threads.

 

[gorb]

Yeah, you definitely need to watch higher quality transfers...and the Vizio XVT series is a very nice set of displays

 

[Anubis]

and the Vizio XVT series is a very nice set of displays

Ill support this, we have last years XVT 55 3SV or whatever the exact model num is. BRs look great on it. im not sure you can get better PQ out of a TV at its price from any other LCD

 

[redgtxdi]

Thanks guys, I do remember seeing Xylon's threads over on AVS, but I am of the belief that screen captures are awesome comparos in still and in theory, but translate a little less into reality when watching a motion picture at the moment.

The Tier list is what I had been searching for 2 nights ago & couldn't find. Thanks for that link!!!

And, aside from the new Sony HX929.......and despite the fact that I know Vizio's reputation over the years...........I would not trade the PQ on my 474sv for any other TV (notice I'm comparing to another full-array LED) and that might even include Samsung's mighty D8000 (avs forums problems abound). The PQ is truly top notch!

 

[vi edit]

You don't appreciate Blu Ray until you watch them for a while and get used to it. And then go back to DVD. They look dull and colorless in comparison.

Just putting one in and trying to expect it to be night and day different on a smaller screen (which a 47" I'm assuming you are using, is).

And then if you have a properly equipped sound system the LFE tracks and rear channel effects are much more pronounced than many DVD's are.