Addendum: Casino Royale

Addendum: I almost always review standard-definition DVDs like this one on my standard-definition player, a Sony 7700. I think it is the only fair way to assess what the average viewer is likely to expect from a disc in terms of its audiovisual quality. But in the case of "Casino Royale," I went back and watched it a second time with the Wife-O-Meter, this time upscaled on the Toshiba A1 HD-DVD player. The difference was astonishing. I have not seen the Blu-ray edition of the movie, but I cannot imagine it being too much better than the upscaled rendition I watched. Detail, color saturation, richness, and definition were all improved. Upscaled video: 10/10.

John

john,

i think i get your message now. upscaling sd-dvd to high-def res is excellent, so getting a good upscaling sd-dvd player is better than buying either an hd-dvd or a blu-ray player. (Y)

eddie

What kills me is there really isn't anything to complain about on the SD version. It looks great on my set, but then I have nothing to compare it to. And again, nothing to complain about. It's all beautiful either way you look at it.

I watched it (for the first time - I know, I'm lame) on my Tosh HD-A1. It's probably the best DVD I've ever seen. Flawless.

Excellent point, Eddie. And the Toshiba HD-DVD players right now are the best upscaling machines you can buy at the price. (I saw the A2 today priced at just a little over $300.) Plus, you get to watch HD movies on them, too! So, I'm glad you see the drift of my argument. :)

John

I've made that same point several times on this and occasionally on other forums. The A-1 upscales some new SDs so well that it's not worth buying the HD disk in some instances. So, like I said before: if I want a Sony, Disney, etc., disk, at this point I'm perfectly happy to watch it upscaled on the A-1. I watched the BD "Flyboys" on my tv with future son in law's PS3 and it was quite good. I also watched my SD of the same film on my A-1 and it was a VERY close second. Most Joe 6 Pak guys are not going to see much of a difference. If BD wins out, then I might buy a stand alone BD player, but I won't be in a rush to do it. I remember reading on some BD forum a few months back that HD DVD fans use the upscale arguement to justify not buying a BD player. Hey, maybe they're right, at least for now. I'll pick up Casino Royale SD this weekend.

Steve

john,

w w w . oppodigital . c o m

eddie

[Post edited by posters5 on Mar 21, 2007]

"but I cannot imagine it being too much better than the upscaled rendition I watched. Detail, color saturation, richness, and definition were all improved. Upscaled video: 10/10."

Hi John, I'm sure a good upscaling processor will make DVDs look better (vs a non-upscaling player) on a HDTV. However, do keep in mind that upscaling cannot add detail that isn't there. I'm confident that if you A/B the upconverted DVD and a native HD version of the movie on the same HDTV you'd probably see a huge difference in detail on the HD version.

Detail is never added if it wasn't there in the first place. But detail that is already there in a picture shows up more visibly when it is sharper and better defined.

John

Right, but I guess what I really wanted to say was that regardless of how good the DVD looks, I'm guessing the Blu-Ray version will look much more detailed assuming that they come from the same high quality master and that encoding is done properly on the Blu-Ray version.