Watching US BDs on a UK TV

[mikematt101]

Hi. Can anyone tell me whether there is any noticeable difference between watching a US Blu Ray disc vs a UK Blu Ray on a UK TV? I appreciate that Hi Def has the same resolution in both the US and Europe, but I understand that the US still uses a 60Hz refresh rate vs 50Hz in Europe, and I'd also be interested to know whether SD special features on a US BD look less sharp than on a UK disc due to the lower SD resolution in the US (480 vs 576)? US Blu Rays always seem to come in better packaging, but if the trade-off is less good PQ then I'm not sure it's worth it.

 

[simonlewis]

Their is no difference so you'll be fine, just watch the region coding though.

 

[mikematt101]

Thanks Simon - so SD special features are generally the same res on both US and UK discs? Understood re region coding!

 

[bigboss]

Movies are 24Hz on blu rays, regardless of UK or US origin. Quality will be the same.

 

[mikematt101]

Thanks - understood re movies but what about SD special features?

 

[7760]

Thanks - understood re movies but what about SD special features?

They are mostly (unfortunately) in 480 regardless of area of release. You can look this up, as well as region coding, on www. blu-ray .com (as long as a film/release has been reviewed, if it doesn't state the resolution on the case).

 

[mikematt101]

Thanks, I use blu-ray.com's reviews quite a lot but wasn't sure whether the specs they quote are just for the US releases. So in general if they state that extras are in 480 then that applies to both the US and UK releases? ..... I'm asking because I have the US edition of the Alien Anthology set and the PQ on some of the extras is disappointing in places, especially captions and titles, and I'm talking about recently-made documentaries rather than ancient recycled footage. So just wanted to find out whether the UK version has the same SD resolution.

 

[simonlewis]

Standard definition will allways look a bit ropey compared to high definition which ever country the disc comes from.