Standard DVD vs HD or Blue-ray
 

Are older movies (say pre-2000) and TV shows on DVD going to benefit significanlty from one of the high definition formats?

I can understand how newer material would benefit but would the older stuff have even but made in HD quality.

I suppose you could take older material and use computer enhancement to make it better than the original but at what expense.

when i was new to DVD, i was also wondering the same about how the classics would look like on DVD.... i mean would the technoology just expose how 'old' these films look and sound?

and then came companies like Criterion and later on the other major studios who released some great classics looking better than ever on DVD as we know them today.

i am sure that something like that would happen in future also with the next technology.

Even at its highest resolution, HDTV (whether broadcast or stored on a disc) only contains about 1/5th the resolution of 35mm film. Any film, even one made 70 years ago, has the potential to look dramatically better in HD.

Now, as far as older television shows that were shot on non-HD video (as opposed to film), that's another story. There will be little to be gained by releasing those programs in an HD format.

RoboDad is right. While the difference probably won't look as dramatic as between VHS and DVD it will be even sharper and clearer.