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!
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!