Just being new to HD I have noticed a considerable amount of difference in the picture quality of the HD discs I own. (Blu-ray in my case). Some movies IMO are not worth the extra money if you already own them on standard DVD and may up-convert/display as well as the HD disc. Had to do a lot of searching to find out my TV set and player have the ability to properly deinterlace and display full 1080p. Some say there is no noticeable difference between 1080I and 1080P, so I have been testing (viewing from about 10 -12 feet away)with mine using 720P/1080I and 1080P modes and I can see no noticeable difference between 720P/1080I but there is clearly a difference when set to 1080P/ 24fs on some movies. Wild Hogs, Pirates of the Caribbean At Worlds End, Spider Man 3, Meet the Robinsons ect. On other movies like Black Hawk Down, Tears of the Sun and Into the Blue there was no noticeable difference between modes but the HD quality was not that great to start with IMHO. Guess this depends on how the films were re-mastered or transferred. If you have seen a High Def Movie that was awesome or just ok please state your comments and which format, which region for BD and you might save some of us that hard earned cash.
Ratings:
4: Picture Quality totally blew me away!
3: Good picture but not as good as rating # 4
2: Some areas of the film you can tell it's an HD Movie.
1: Up-conversion will probably give you the same quality and not worth buying the HD version.

Some Examples from my collection are: (Blu-Ray)
4 Rating: Meet the Robinsons.
3 Rating: King Arthur, Underworld Evolution.
2 Rating: Underworld, Blackhawk Down.
1 Rating: Stealth, Enemy of the State.

I think that the presumption that HD movies are "remastered" is a questionable one. Some are, to be sure. But many appear to be nothing more than a re-encode of the original master, which can be good or bad depending on the quality of the original master. Some were mastered in high resolution, some were not. Usually you can hope for a higher bitrate audio track, though this too is often short-changed. I doesn't take long to weed out the studios that are more likely to sell you crap.

An excellent resource for PQ ratings for HD-DVD is: AVSForums

Agreed and I seem to be spending a lot of time over at AVS latley thanks to you. However I don't like the fact that out of my 30 HD movies about 30-40% of them were not worth buying IMO. Just thought we can have our own conclusions and opnions here at CDF and they will probably vary from AVS's opinions.

It's really a question of degrees. The bulk of the HD titles fall into the middle, not hugely better but not bad either. For the perfectionist who wants the best quality possible, they may be worth it. And, let's not forget that your hardware can have a big impact on what differences you see or hear. On a smaller screen, differences will be much less than on a bigger one.

But every time I start doubting the whole HD thing, I run into a title that really sells the idea all over again. It's really no different than PQ and AQ on SD-DVDs, there's a whole range available.

Planet Earth is a 4+.

Thus far, the best differences I have found are on the pre-1990s original release films. While I concur that the newer releases will deliver the best overall quality, the contrast between older movies (ie Battle of The Bulge, Mutiny On The Bounty) on upcoverted DVD versus true HD-DVD is virtually night and day. I concur that most of the latest releases though it is a tough call in alot of cases between upconverted DVD and True HD.

Oceans Thirteen gets a big thumbs-down from me. 1.5 over-all. Many scenes with artifacts and posterization, very odd color saturation and contrast issues too. Reports are that the SD-DVD has similar issues.

Interesting! That is on HD-DVD or BD? Makes me wonder how the other format looks.
Just watched Transformers on SD-DVD because I don't have an HD-DVD player (yet) and it looked really good just up-converted. Very close to HD quality so it must look awesome in High Def.

The smallest video stream of a Blu-ray movie I've seen is around 15GB, that's *without* the audio streams, compared to DVD DL 8.5GB, I think it must have some improvements although probably our eyes barely see it.

Watched "The Untouchables". A Paramount release, this has excellent image quality, (3.5), beautifully filmed too. Also has DD-EX and DTS-ES tracks.

The Day after Tomorrow (Blu Ray) 2.5 for picture quality and audio was very good DTS HD. This is one of the Blu ray movies that will not resume from where you left off if you stop the movie. (on my BD player at least). 20th Century Fox release.

Remember the Titans. (B-Ray) Video quality suprised me on this and was very good. 3+. Good flick also. DD-5.1.
Walt Disney.

"Meet Joe Black". (HD-DVD) Very high quality video, 3.5.

Blade Runner, the complete collector's edition 5 disc set. (HD-DVD and BluRay). This set has 4 different HD versions of the film, and all are absolutely perfect. 4+ picture quality. This will be a reference quality example for a long time to come. Considering it was made before CGFx, the visuals are amazing.

just from what I'm reading here (granted it's a handful of titles), it appears I'll be best served just getting a good upconvert to HD player with a good HD TV (whenever I decide to fork out for that). Unless I'll see 'wow' all the way around, I don't see the point for me to pay more $$$ unless it's going to knock me out of my chair and through a wall or two.

There's no such thing as "upconvert to HD". It's either SD or HD. That said, the very best upscaling SD-DVD players cost as much or more than a Toshiba HD-DVD player, and the Toshibas are as good or better at upscaling SD-DVDs. I got my A3 for less than an Oppo upscaling player, and by all accounts it's every bit as good at upscaling.

So the real question is: Why waste money on an upscaling SD-DVD player? My hunch is that in a year or 2, they won't even exist.

True!

The OPPO DV-981HD upconverter is $225 http://www.oppodigital.com/dv981hd/dv981hd_index.html

Toshiba HD-A3 (1080i) = $181 or if you really want 1080p, Toshiba HD-A30 $244, both with 10 free HD-DVD movies.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.htm...82111&plpage=1

ok, then I'll need an upscaling player or a Toshiba HD-A3. (I don't mind being corrected.) But I do wonder, then--why does the product description say 'upconvert' or 'upconversion'? Anyway, I see this is backwards compatible with my DVD collection and would upscale that as well. I'll bookmark it, and so when I'm able to 'step up' to a decent HDTV, I'll know to get this one.

Anyone care to recommend one, that you might happen to know about, that would currently be an excellent one, but not break the bank, say from $500-750? I don't need a huge screen, and I have seen that some 27"-32" are in this range. I realize most would possibly be LCD, but I wouldn't care. Hope it's not too off topic, but since I seem to have Zevia and CDan here (and you guys know your stuff), I'd like to see what you guys think in terms of a recommendation.

True enough that the terms "upconverting" and "upscaling" are bandied about and used incorrectly more often than not. Let's not even mention the player sellers who like to state "converts DVD to HD".

With respect to any upscaling player, be aware that they will not upscale over component outputs, only through HDMI, on CSS encrypted DVDs.

In the $500-750 price range, you will likely get 1024x768 resolution in either plasma or LCD. Up to 42" in size, so the 768/720 limitation won't be noticeable at all. Here's a pretty good deal: CLICK I have no idea who makes that set or how good it is. Do your homework on the benefits and shortcomings of plasma and LCD.

I'll do my homework, CDan and thx for the recommendation. I originally was thinking all I could get in that price range was an LCD, because I was a little worried about plasma with the 'burn in' thing (which I don't fully understand). I'd seen an LG LCD TV I was impressed with and IIRC, it was a 32" and I don't know all of what I should have been comparing it against, although I didn't notice any motion blur with it (the only thing I remembered to look for with an LCD). Since I'm not really leaning one way or the other, I'll keep my options open and research as time allows, since I'm not going to rush out and buy one tomorrow.

Plasma burn-in problems have been solved in later models with a feature called "pixel-shift". It does what it sounds like, it shifts a static image back and forth one pixel. You may not see this in cheaper models, you'd have to check that. In any case, burn-in is easy enough to avoid.

Quema, how about Panasonic 42" Plasma $855 at Sears.
http://www.slickdeals.net/?permadeal...ect_deal_11154

Transformers HD-DVD. Very good quality. Have to give this a 4.

Picked this up yesterday in HD-DVD and it's like you say. Amazing!

The many hours of extras are fun too, and have seriously re-invigorated the debate over whether Deckard is a replicant. (In the extras, R Scott says he is)

Actually this is incorrect. There are two company's that provide upscaling via component output.


The Helios H4000, this company is relatively unknown and has not had the best reviews.

The other is LG

Model LDA-531
Model LDA-831

Both of these units both upscale via component (480i/480p/720p/1080i/1080p)

I currently have a LG LDA-831 and use it on my one TV's that does not have HDMI inputs.