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Blu-Ray and Hi Def can look pretty damn awful

So I’m in Best Buy the other day, buying discounted copies of Wanted and Taken, sweet deal, and I start watching one of their Blu-Ray Disk (BD) and high-definition TV setups. It was playing U-571, a film that resides in my DVD collection. Awesome, thought I.

Only it wasn’t.

It was awful. Everything had this gloss and sheen to it. It was so sharp that it stopped being film. It looked exactly like “quality” video. Yes, it was high-quality video, but it looked like video nonetheless. And it was, as said, awful.

I don’t think anything was out of adjustment because it looked so damn sharp. It’s just that the end product came out looking terrible. Another demo setup was showing Spider-Man 2 and it looked just as bad.

I know this isn’t an across the board result of BD + hi-def. My son has a BD setup (though the TV is only 720P) and we watched the BD version of The Dark Knight on it. Nonetheless, it seems like a distinct possibility if the film isn’t treated right when it gets recorded on BD.

But it’s a cautionary note. Some of your DVD’s will look better on that BD/hi-def combo if you don’t buy a BD version. Stick with the DVD until it melts from overuse.

Comments

Andrew K. said…
that does suck. i wonder what's the point of the whole blu ray revolution in the long run.
August 2, 2009 at 11:03 AM
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