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HD undermining quality of DVD

HD43

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The quality of recent DVD releases is seriously being undermined by the promise of HD's higher resolution. A quick examination of recent DVD releases (Bandidas, Crank, The Descent) and more, reveals these movies to be less than 3.5 GBs! The quality is noticeably degraded due to the small file size even though movie transfer methods have improved (HD masters etc.).

DVD movie sizes have always been 6 - 7 GBs for a 2 hour movie. What these smaller 3.5 GB files sizes does is degrade the quality of our 480p DVDs.

This leads us to believe that the HD release of a movie to be FAR superior - depending on whether the HD release has been newly remastered from the film negative in HD or simply "up-rezzed" from the 480p master to HD (which is basically what the HD movie channels do on most HD broadcasts via cable and dish).

The latest DVD releases are in an inferior, smaller-than-normal file size that erodes quality.

This is EXACTY what the record companies did in the early 80's when CD's first hit the market, and exactly what happened when DVD started to replace VHS. Prior to CD, vinyl discs and magnetic cassette tapes were at their highest quality - excellent magnetic tape stock and thick vinyl discs. The quality of these went down the toilet when CD came out - low quality magnetic tape with hiss and drop-out, and thin, flimsy vinyl discs that had static crackle and pop and easy to scratch surfaces. The quality of later VHS, even though they were supposed to be from digital masters, was clearly inferior to VHS at its peak - drop-out and quality reduction was abundant due to cheap tape stock and lower quality transfers. I often had to return VHS tapes due to image drop-out.

This gave the impression that DVD was vastly superior to VHS.

The same is happening today with the reduction in DVD movie file sizes.

It gives the impression that HD is vastly superior to DVD.

Why should we accept lower image quality of our recent DVD titles just so we are "persuaded" to purchase, at great cost, HD movies that we have purchased probably twice already on VHS and DVD!
 
I have not noticed this personally but now I want to go back and check these discs... I would not put it past the MPAA/Movie Industry.
 
I have not noticed this personally but now I want to go back and check these discs... I would not put it past the MPAA/Movie Industry.

Well, the Crank DVD was pretty stupid. They put two full-length versions on the DVD. One version was the theatrical release and the other one had balloon popups with the directors commentary if I'm remember right. What a freakin' waste of space on a DVD to do it this way. I've run across similar methods lately. :(
 
Is there a way in CloneDVD to see how big the Main Movie is?

Also what options would I choose to just copy the Main Movie?
 
Is there a way in CloneDVD to see how big the Main Movie is?

Also what options would I choose to just copy the Main Movie?

Um, they were the same exact length but the difference w/o having sound in CloneDVD2 was seeing the balloons popup if you previewed the chapter.

Title 1 is the theatrical release. Title 2 is the directors' commentary. Both titles are 1:27:40 in length but if I remember right Shrink showed a slight difference in the length. Regardless, in CloneDVD2 they are identical in length. I have no idea what the actual size of Title 1 is offhand.
 
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HD undermining of DVD quality questions for HD43

These are serious problems. I was forced to move from BETA to VHS, from Laserdisk to DVD, from vinyl to CD.
Each move was very unsatisfactory in the beginning.
I did not know that the lack of quality was intentional. Forewarned is forearmed.
I swore that I would not upgrade to DVD HD or BluRay. There is no good
reason too if the studios do not use the extra bytes to drastically improve the
sound quality by using much less compression.
DTS on a Laserdisk was 1.5 megabytes/sec and DTS on a DVD is only 750 Kilobytes/sec. DVD is one more level of compression and a great deal of reduction in the sound quality.
Interestingly, AC3 is around 375 kilobytes on both Laserdisk and DVD.
AC3 is a decidedly inferior format, so will AC3 improve with more bytes available?
How can we say NO to the HD producers? What do you advocate?
If we banded together and acted together, they might have no choice but
to improve quality.
 
I truly believe that when I buy a DVD it now belongs to me and is no longer the property of the movie indrusty or the retailer. I feel that I have the right to make personal copies and or modification for my personal use any way I feel fit.

But in giving that everyone has the right to change or modify anything that belongs to them. The movie indrusty has the right to produce or not produce what is their property in anyway they see fit.

I believe that the next stage in movies is going to be 3D HD that you don't need to wear colored glasses or set in the sweet spot to enjoy. But you can be sure that they won't release anything in that format untill they have made as much money as possible from the HD fromat.

The point is if you don't want to buy into the new systems then don't. Just sit back and enjoy the system you already own. You don't have to upgrade any more than you ever have to buy a new car. Just keep the old one running. I drive a 1951 Ford F2 pickup and I won't have one of these new computerised plastic bubbles. The point is things are going to change and if you don't like it then don't change. But you are never going to stop it or control its direction.
 
The same is happening today with the reduction in DVD movie file sizes. It gives the impression that HD is vastly superior to DVD.
You have to be effin' kidding, right? HD is vastly superior to DVD, and no matter how much bitrate (the ceiling is 10mbit/s anyway) they use, 480p simply can't compete with 1080p. That's a fact, and anyone saying differently needs to see a eye doctor.
 
You have to be effin' kidding, right? HD is vastly superior to DVD, and no matter how much bitrate (the ceiling is 10mbit/s anyway) they use, 480p simply can't compete with 1080p. That's a fact, and anyone saying differently needs to see a eye doctor.

I didn't think the OP was saying that HD wasn't superior. What I gathered he was saying was they were lowering the quality of recent DVDs to make the difference even greater or at least more noticeable.
 
Exactly.

Of course HD is vastly superior to DVD, but DVD is starting to look terrible on newer releases.

If a 2 hour movie easily fits on 1 disc without further compression, there is a problem. This never used to be the case.
 
You have to be effin' kidding, right? HD is vastly superior to DVD, and no matter how much bitrate (the ceiling is 10mbit/s anyway) they use, 480p simply can't compete with 1080p. That's a fact, and anyone saying differently needs to see a eye doctor.

Of course it's better, but I think the intent of the original poster was to say that the attention HD-DVD and Blu-Ray are receiving is starting to negatively affect the quality of conventional DVD releases, resulting in less-than-optimal quality, even for ED.

That aside, yes 1080p is wonderful. However, considering that the vast majority of HDTVs currently in homes aren't capable of 1080-anything, I don't see that it matters. 1366x768 is better, but not all that much better than a DVD on an EDTV display. Also, even a resolution as high as 1080p only looks good on screns of a certain size. If you ask me, the current obscenely large displays exceeding 42"-44" are pushing it as far as maintaining a good image with only 1920x1080 pixels.
 
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