Varying Blu-ray quality - my set up or the discs themselves?

admin_exported

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Hi. First post. I have a Sony KDL-40V4000 with PS3 as my hi-def source. Most blu-rays I watch on it are excellent. All newly released films are good (assume they were originally shot in hi-def) i.e. Ironman, Transformers. Also some older films also very good quality - Close Encounters, Unforgiven.

Then there are some that are shocking to the point of almost being unwatchable - lots of blur and/or can't handle dark scenes. "Goodfellas" and "I am Legend" for example.

I am aware that my TV being a 50hz LCD will not handle fast motion aswell as I higher spec'd one but I want to know if a dedicated blu-ray player and higher spec TV will render all my blu-rays as super watchable or there really is a difference in quality in blu-ray discs themselves.

Hope someone can help.
 
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Anonymous

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The quality of discs vary immensely, some are really appalling and frankly shouldn't be on Blu at all. It's all about the fast buck on a new format.

I usually do research before buying and there are plenty of sites to check. I am Legend was okay from memory but as I've got shot of it I can't re-test it.

I wouldn't worry about the 100hz issue either, it's not always important and 'may' make things worse on some sets.

R
 

professorhat

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Initially, I would say It's definitely more likely the quality of the disk except you mention "I Am Legend". In my mind, this was a really good Blu-Ray transfer - certainly the picture was awesome and the TrueHD soundtrack was also fantastic.
Did you just judge the quality of the film based on how you liked it, or did you take the time to actually look at the difference between standard DVD and this feature and really judge it? Because if you weren't happy with the picture, you either got a pirate version or you need glasses. Frankly.
 
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Anonymous

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Woah little bit cheeky there mate. It was a new original version of "I am Legend". The majority of the film was very good and better than standard DVD quality. However the scene where the dog runs into the dark building was very,very poor. Lots of blur. It was so poor as to be almost unwatchable and spoilt my viewing of the film. Which makes me wonder - as in my original post - is it my set-up or the disc itself. And you two fellas are saying the disks you have seen are fine.
 
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Anonymous

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Cheers. What blu-ray review sites would you recommend?
 

The_Lhc

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eddieknocker:Woah little bit cheeky there mate. It was a new original version of "I am Legend". The majority of the film was very good and better than standard DVD quality. However the scene where the dog runs into the dark building was very,very poor. Lots of blur. It was so poor as to be almost unwatchable and spoilt my viewing of the film. Which makes me wonder - as in my original post - is it my set-up or the disc itself. And you two fellas are saying the disks you have seen are fine.

From memory that scene is VERY dark isn't it? That's not the sort of thing that LCDs traditionally handle very well, how old is your Sony? The new ones are supposed to have good blacks but perhaps yours isn't quite as capable in that respect? It's possible the screen isn't 24p capable either, although I believe that normally causes judder rather than blur.
 

professorhat

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eddieknocker:Woah little bit cheeky there mate.
Apologies - I've tried to ban myself from coming on here after a few down the pub but unfortunately I just don't seem to listen...

Personally, I use review siteshttp://bluray.highdefdigest.com/reviews.html to look at picture and sound quality of a Blu-Ray. Unless I'm very confident I'll like the film, I also hire through Lovefilm first before buying.
 

Clare Newsome

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the_lhc:
From memory that scene is VERY dark isn't it? That's not the sort of thing that LCDs traditionally handle very well, how old is your Sony? The new ones are supposed to have good blacks but perhaps yours isn't quite as capable in that respect? It's possible the screen isn't 24p capable either, although I believe that normally causes judder rather than blur.

The V4000 is 24fps capable. And no, it doesn't offer the deepest of blacks compared to the best (far, far pricier) sets around, but it is better than many LCDs, and shouldn't be bad enough to spoil your enjoyment of a film.

Have you calibrated your set, including taking the backlight down and turning off any unnecessary picture modes? This can increase contrast and reduce 'noise' (eg on-screen fizz) quite considerably. More in our How to Make More of your TV video.
 
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Anonymous

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Thanks for all the replies. I haven't calibrated the set as such but have adjusted the settings quite a bit as out of the box the picture was shocking with SD . Got some settings off the interweb. Now it's only ok - roll on January when my Sky HD arrives - a 6 week wait from ordering because they say they haven't got enough boxes. Bet if I was a new customer they would have...anyway

I probably will have another go just to try and crack "the dark scene" action as I've only noticed it in this one film with this one particular scene.
 

ElectroMan

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One website reckons there's a bug in the V4000, such that if you set sharpness to minimum it actually sets it to the maximum!

This would result in a 'shocking' SD picture. But that wouldn't really explain why Blu-rays should look poor.

Have you tried setting pixel mapping on 1080p to 1:1 (probably in the Set-up/Screen Settings menu), turning off all noise reduction, etc?

Also it's worth trying the THX Optimiser test screens if you've got them somewhere on a THX-Certified disc).
 
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Anonymous

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The two movies you mention "I am Legend" and "Goodfellas" are both WB who have about the worst rep at the moment for both their PQ & SQ. That is not to say some of their releases have been brilliant.
 
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Anonymous

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I would have to suggest the discs are at fault. I've ony got a few Blu-Ray discs, but they do vary a bit in quality. Planet Earth is awesome almost all the way through, I am legend is absolutely fine (the dark scene you point out causes my Samsung LCD no problems at all), but I also got Predator recently and the quality of that is very poor - worse than my 8-year-old American DVD version, amazingly. As an earlier person suggested, it would appear that some companies are going down the route of early DVD releases and shovelling their back catalogue stuff onto Blu-Ray as quickly as possible to cash in without spending too much time or money on proper encoding - only to re-release 'Collectors Editions' in a year or so.
 

pete321

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I got some professional calibration settings for my Pioneer from another site, but I also bought a DVD by Monster 'HDTV Callibration Wizard'. Most of the DVD is a waste of time, but there are some useful videos for setting the brightness, contrast and colour which are also used in Windows Media Center.

After using the DVD I ended up with the same basic settings as the ISF calibration recommendations I got from another site.

Make sure you have the sharpness at 0 and the backlight no higher than 3.
 
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Anonymous

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Thanks again dudes. Must be the blu-rays themselves as most are awesome and the two I mentioned aren't. Just finished watching Planet Earth - amazing - even the obviously SD parts and the dark scenes in the Deep Ocean episode were excellent with no blurring at all.
 

lastcoyote

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pete321:

I got some professional calibration settings for my Pioneer from another site, but I also bought a DVD by Monster 'HDTV Callibration Wizard'. Most of the DVD is a waste of time, but there are some useful videos for setting the brightness, contrast and colour which are also used in Windows Media Center.

After using the DVD I ended up with the same basic settings as the ISF calibration recommendations I got from another site.

Make sure you have the sharpness at 0 and the backlight no higher than 3.

Hi Pete321,

I've just got my Pioneer LX5090. Would really appreciate it if you could point me towards the ISF calibration settings that you found and used for your LX5090.

Cheers.
 
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Anonymous

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errr... if anyones interested turned the digital noise reduction off and its much better! Loving it!
 
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Anonymous

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Always the first thing you should do mate, turn off all the added tweaks and see how she looks. Then work backwards turning things on and off and check the picture again. Who knows 'maybe' one day a supposed picture enhancement mode might actually work!! 8)
 

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