Old DVDs - How bad are they?

[El Hefe]

Hi all,
I was in the mood of watching a mafia movie so I put on one of my very first dvd purchased in 1998/99, The Goodfellas. At that time, dvd just hit the UK market if I am not mistaken and the disc still required to be flipped over in the middle of the movie. I remembered that the picture of the disc was jaw-dropping. However, cant say the same thing last night.
Picture quality was very poor, very grainy and lifeless. Tried playing around with the settings on the TV but there were too many options on the tv to be meddled with - gamma, contrast, brightness, backlight etc but still could not get a decent picture.

Worried that it could be my tv, swapped with another newish dvd and the picture was totally different. Much better.

Were the early production of dvds that bad? Or something wrong with my tv/dvd player?

 

[Nyorker]

Assuming your tv set is relatively new - it's probably the movie itself. I know the early dvd's were indeed of not-great quality...(I think there were several editions of "Goodfellas" alone). It took a while for studios to really master the format...

 

[El Hefe]

My tv is new about 3 months ago. Is it because its an LED? My dvd player also upscaled it to 1080p.

 

[professorhat]

Reading the review for Goodfellas Blu-Ray on high def digest, it makes specific reference to the "antiquated flipper" disc DVD version of the film and specifically states how "the transfer was quite poor, marred by heavy grain, an overly dark appearance and muddy colours".

So in the same way as we now get poor Blu-Ray transfers, you also got poor DVD transfers. Incidentally, the Blu-Ray version is quite a step up in quality, being given 4 stars out of 5 for the picture alone.

 

[Clare Newsome]

Oh yeah, the early Goodfellas 'flipper' DVDs weren't great - though remember, we were typically watching them on smaller-screened, much-lower resolution CRT TVs back then, which would not expose the flaws in the same way as a big-'ole HD flatscreen!

Still a brilliant movie, though - i'd rather watch a poor transfer of that than a pristine Blu-ray of a dreadful movie

 

[El Hefe]

Clare Newsome:
Oh yeah, the early Goodfellas 'flipper' DVDs weren't great - though remember, we were typically watching them on smaller-screened, much-lower resolution CRT TVs back then, which would not expose the flaws in the same way as a big-'ole HD flatscreen!

Still a brilliant movie, though - i'd rather watch a poor transfer of that than a pristine Blu-ray of a dreadful movie

totally agree with u Clare. I still watched the whole movie despite the poor quality of picture. In fact, there was this black line over robert de niro's face during the scene where he and paulie visited ray's apartment to remind him to go back and visit his wife. In a way, it felt like it was taken directly from a cinema reel and stamped onto a dvd.
You are right, I was only using a 21" crt tv in 98.

 

[Anonymous]

I would rather watch a bad movie on blu-ray than a good movie on rubbish dvd. After the blu-ray experinec, I cannot go back to dvds.

 

[professorhat]

How strange...

 

[chudleighpaul]

If I remember correctly (a bit difficult these days) Goodfellers was widecreen letterboxed format and was not anamorphic. At that time the studios rushed out a number of titles on DVD and were too lazy to format them properly, so to view the movie the TV goes into Zoom mode making it look worse still. I have a whole lot of early titles which I replaced with newer anamorphic versions.

U.S. Region 1 discs were particularly likely to be non-anormorphic.

My first purchases were Tomorrow Never Dies (R2) and Deep Blue Sea (R1), both still look very good.

 

[Anonymous]

professorhat:
How strange...

With the evolution of blu-ray from dvd in terms of picture and sound quality, I would say I feel the same too.

 

[chudleighpaul]

How many of you bought "Superbit" versions?

Even now when played on a good upscaling player these look almost Blueray quality.

 

[The_Lhc]

chudleighpaul:How many of you bought "Superbit" versions?

Even now when played on a good upscaling player these look almost Blueray quality.

I used to buy them, where available, I haven't watched any of them since I got the blu-ray player and big screen.

 

[El Hefe]

I am not into buying bluray for older movies just yet. I rather spend the money on new movies on bluray. Especially that i have not purchased my dream Yamaha RXV1065 receiver.

Other flipper dvds i have are Sleepers, Face Off and Con Air. Will try them tomorrow.

 

[professorhat]

ValianTX:professorhat:
How strange...

With the evolution of blu-ray from dvd in terms of picture and sound quality, I would say I feel the same too.

Fair enough, but I still find it strange. As I've pointed out a few times, I'm a big fan of Blu-Ray and also struggle to watch a DVD if I know a better transfer exists on Blu-Ray.

On the other hand though, I'd much rather watch Star Wars on VHS than watch something awful like Meet the Spartans on Blu-Ray...

 

[Nyorker]

professorhat:ValianTX:professorhat:
How strange...

With the evolution of blu-ray from dvd in terms of picture and sound quality, I would say I feel the same too.

Fair enough, but I still find it strange. As I've pointed out a few times, I'm a big fan of Blu-Ray and also struggle to watch a DVD if I know a better transfer exists on Blu-Ray.

On the other hand though, I'd much rather watch Star Wars on VHS than watch something awful like Meet the Spartans on Blu-Ray...

Unfortunately I caught a few minutes of an HD broadcast of Meet the Spartans - can't believe they actually allow these types of movies to be made... THIS - IS - STUPID!!

I still have my first DVD film - the first Harry Potter. In a blue case - ironic...?

 

[Anonymous]

Nearly all of my DVD collection have stood the test of time, the only dodgy one I have is Heat, Pacino/DeNiro rubbish picture and sounds even worse (5.1), two I have are even in the clear, hard plastic cases with the covers on the inside before the standard ones took over, Notting Hill and The Game, still very good picture/sound. Albeit they're not HD quality but not really worth replacing at BD prices.

The best bar none, is my Superbit version of Das Boot, will give the HD version a run for it's money.

It's just a shame that studios still feel the need to rush out certain BD for the sake of it without paying much attention to the transfer, one of which was Hitman, bad picture and sound.

 

[laserman16]

professorhat:ValianTX:professorhat:

How strange...

With the evolution of blu-ray from dvd in terms of picture and sound quality, I would say I feel the same too.

Fair enough, but I still find it strange. As I've pointed out a few times, I'm a big fan of Blu-Ray and also struggle to watch a DVD if I know a better transfer exists on Blu-Ray.

On the other hand though, I'd much rather watch Star Wars on VHS than watch something awful like Meet the Spartans on Blu-Ray...

Must admit I like to watch a good well made film that encompasses a good story and I dont mind watching a good one on DVD.

Watched "The Reader" the other night on DVD, very enjoyable.

 

[nws56]

Much as I would always prefer the blu option , often there just isn't one . Or the DVD is just too cheap to pass up .....like the copy of My Fair Lady I found in the bargain bin for two quid . 46 years old and the luscious picture quality still leaves some of my recent blu rentals looking washed out and dull . Sharp yes , but lacking the 3D pop and richness of that ancient film . I love getting surprises like this from plain old DVD .

 

[ElectroMan]

And in a few years' time with super HD or whatever, we'll probably be wondering how we thought Blu-ray looked good!

(Especially in old-fashioned 3D)

 

[El Hefe]

IMHO, not all movies warrants me to watch it on blu ray especially if its just an ordinary girly movie or a romantic one. I usually only buy bluray for action or movies with a lot of special effects. Well, at least until they drop the bluray price to under 8 pounds.