My... The Thing's visual quality

I bought The Thing on HD DVD, on recommendation from a good friend that it's a good flick (and it was). But I could not help but notice that it looked like crap (when compared to all my other HD DVDs and Blu-Rays). It wasn't messed up at all, but it was grainy and not very HD looking. I'd even go as far to say that if I walked in on the film running and was asked "HD DVD or DVD upscaled?", I would not have been confident in my response.

I looked it up today on your site and the reviewer had only great things to say about its HD transfer quality and clarity. So now I don't know what to make of it. I thought maybe it doesn't stack up because it's a much older film, but then I recalled how great my 2001 HD DVD looked (not to mention the old Star Trek Season 1 HD DVDs).

Does anybody else here have The Thing? How does your's stack up?

Well randycruel... you also don't reveal your system's playback and/or setup. Are you watching the film with 1080p, or 1080i/720p? do you watch on a nice plasma or front-projection system, or on an LCD (which doesn't provide the same quality black levels and as deep a contrast as plasma). These things can be a factor, although some HD-DVD movies (and Blu-ray), depending on the budget and how well it was photographed (and the MASTERING quality) will not look near as good as more recently-filmed movies, and those produced with a greater budget and more skill. These too are factors.

-JIMI (the Voodoo Child)

I have a Toshiba HD-A30 set to 1080p-24/fps setting which matches the TV's native resolution (a Toshiba Regza 42LZ196).

I read that the HD-A30 when set to just plain 1080p does not look as good as the 1080p-24fps (when your TV also uses the 1080p-24fps setting, which mine does).

But with all of that said, my other HD DVDs look perfect with my current settings(as do my Blu-Rays with my PS3). This left me with the conclusion it was in fact The Thing and not the settings of the player or the TV.

[Post edited by randycruel on Feb 20, 2008]

"The Thing" was an early HD DVD, and my review was based largely on how much better the HD DVD looked than the standard-defintion DVD. I also saw the movie in a theater when it came out. It was a John Carpenter film, meaning that while it was a big-budget film for him, it was not a very big-budget affair by typical Hollywood standards. The film is dark, and it's got a lot of fine grain present, which can show up even more clearly in high def. So, it's probably not the TV's fault if it doesn't look as good as some other HD DVDs. It's mostly the fault of the original print.

John

I dont know. Ihave a 1080p display, I'm playing it, out of curiosity, its certainly not as crisp as 2001, which had an excellent transfer. It's a solid picture, not extraordinary.

So amongst the early HD DVD releases, it looked good, but now with some of the amazing looking HDs and BRs (Kong...Casino Royale etc.), it looks less impressive. That makes sense...thanks.

Sweet film though. I loved the way it ends. I probably shouldn't go any further with that in case somebody hasn't seen the film yet.

Although this movie transfer came from the same old DVD master, I wasn't disappointed. But of course my expectations weren't as high as a completely remastered older movie like Blade Runner. I have The Thing on standard DVD as well, and this HD DVD is definitely worlds above it in detail and shadow delination.

Reviewers gave its PQ high marks probably for 3 reasons:

1. It really isn't that bad of an HD transfer.
2. This came out fairly early in HD DVD, and reviewers didn't have much to compare it to.
3. Reviewers tend to give a little extra slack for older catalog titles than shiny new, digitally mastered releases.

Anyway, it's all relative. Give "Cat People" HD DVD a rent, then watch "The Thing" again. You'll be amazed at the transfer!