Have your say & ask the experts

Having read on another post that some Blu ray films are just produced from the original DVD recording this concerns me, having yet to purchase a Blu ray title,resulting in quality little or any better than the DVD version.

If this is correct I find it disguting, bearing in mind the cost of Blu ray discs compared to DVD and as usual poor old "Joe Public" gets ripped off.

Putting that aside, is there anyway you can tell from the cover if the disc is only an upscaled DVD.Are there any key points to look out for.

There's no sure-fire way of telling, sadly - and thankfully there aren't too many around (though any is too many) - but it's always wise to look out for phrases like 'totally remastered for Blu-ray" and "restored for HD" on the box, as they'll typically indicate some thought's gone into the process.

We had this with DVD - some of the first releases were truly shocking (look how long it took to get a decent copy of Blade Runner) before the studios hit on the idea of 'special editions' that were remastered.

It's one of the reasons i"m still buying very few Blu-rays  - I rent from Lovefilm, instead. 

Having said all that, when you get a great Blu-ray - for example, I watched 3:10 from Yuma recently; awesome picture, 7.1 PCM sound - it takes home cinema to a totally new level of excellence. 

The cost of Blu Ray discs will come down in time, as the market increases, just like CD's and DVD's .All the discs that I have bought look fantastic , all the discs that I have rented from the video shop have also been fantastic.

Are you saying that you have bought blu ray discs and you cannot see the difference ?

It's not always the case that a film can be transferred to something like BD from the original or subsequent masters due to some having been lost or destroyed. I know the Region 1 DVD release of Army Of Darkness had an awful picture as it was taken from VHS (so I heard), but a later release of it on Region 3 had a far better looking picture as it was taken from some master that had been found at the time.

Even if a BD is made from an upscaled DVD master, there is far more compression used for the DVD than there is on the BD, hence the difference in background detail on EVERY BluRay disc. People should explain this fully rather than making people think that a BD is JUST an upscaled DVD.

No one said they were worse than DVD - just that the poorer discs aren't the step up in quality they should be.

And leaving cult titles like Army of Darkness aside,  there is NO excuse why big-budget movies from major studios should emerge in less-than-pristine BD format.

When it's done well, as said, Blu-ray is awesome - it's a shame that someone's first impression of the format could be marred by a shoddy release. 

I think it's still fair to say that if the movie is released on blueray regardless whether it's remastered version or the proper 1080p blueray version it's the best version of that movie you can get at that point in time.

I would assume that producers have better upscalers that an individual can afford.

Clare Newsome:

There's no sure-fire way of telling, sadly - and thankfully there aren't too many around (though any is too many) - but it's always wise to look out for phrases like 'totally remastered for Blu-ray" and "restored for HD" on the box, as they'll typically indicate some thought's gone into the process.

We had this with DVD - some of the first releases were truly shocking (look how long it took to get a decent copy of Blade Runner) before the studios hit on the idea of 'special editions' that were remastered.

It's one of the reasons i"m still buying very few Blu-rays  - I rent from Lovefilm, instead. 

Having said all that, when you get a great Blu-ray - for example, I watched 3:10 from Yuma recently; awesome picture, 7.1 PCM sound - it takes home cinema to a totally new level of excellence. 

I  watched 3:10 from Yuma on Sky recently and really enjoyed the film,but only on SD as I do not have SKY HD yet.

Sounds as this may be a good one to start with for my Blu ray collection.

STEVENM1000:

watched 3:10 from Yuma on Sky recently and really enjoyed the film,but only on SD as I do not have SKY HD yet. Sounds as this may be a good one to start with for my Blu ray collection.

FuzzyinLondon:

And anything from Pixar.