DVDGamer

I've just recently bought the Toshiba D2 player, which has an excellent HD Upconverter (in my opinion). My dvds look so much better than ever, and I would say the picture quality comes close to what I see with HD movies on TV. I've also rented a few HD-DVDs, and though they certain look great, I also do not see that big of a leap/difference with DVDs upconverted with the player.

I am a newbie in this regard, and right now I find that I do not see a compelling reason to upgrade my quite large DVD collection. I do find a lot of people building up their HD-DVD collection. What is your advise/opinion on building an HD-DVD collection? If this also has been discussed elsewhere, do give me a reference so I can read through these discussions as well. Tx.

Supermallet

Make sure you buy a disc to calibrate your setup for HD. Then test out titles like King Kong, Batman Begins, and The Corpse Bride.

Numes

Personally, I only upgrade a DVD title to HD DVD or Blu-Ray if any of the following are true:

1. New Special Features
2. DVD release was non-anamorphic (or god forbid full screen/pan&scan/not OAR... I think I weeded those out a while ago)
3. DVD Transfer was horrendous. i.e. Road Warrior (although there are new special features, so that also falls into category 1)

About a year and a half ago, I stopped buying SD DVDs and just putting all of those releases in a separate list that I would wait for them to be released in HD. The exception being TV shows that were were shot 4x3. i.e. Seinfeld, most any cartoon release, older 70's/80's/early 90's TV shows, etc...

The only other exceptions would be TV shows that may only have 1 season left or something like that. I.e. Stargate SG-1. I already own the first 9 seasons, I will probably just buy the 10th season on DVD instead of waiting for a High Def release (unless I know it's coming soon).

fryinpan1

In my opinion, if the movie is not worth upgrading, it is not worth owning to begin with.

DVD Josh

This is fairly true for me as well, with some additions:

4. I don't already own the movie
5. It's a personal favorite
6. The movie will benefit from the HD format (Matrix, Batman, etc.). Although it's one of my favorite comedies, do I need to own Liar Liar in HD?

Th0r S1mpson

I will only purchase new movies in HD unless the original transfer was terrible. 12 Monkeys is one I am thinking about replacing with an HD copy.

There is no way I would consider replacing my entire collection. I waited for player prices to drop an extra hundred bucks, making it a $300 upgrade to a new system. If I bought all of my movies again it would be a $6,000+ upgrade. No thanks. The movies are still well overpriced as it stands any way.

I have no problem even buying a new movie in SD for $10 less if it's not a "top title" for me that I think will really benefit from the HD transfer over upconversion. I realize the purists will hyperventilate over this concept.

fryinpan1

I own around 30 HD DVDs and 28 were movies that I already owned on standard DVD. All 28 of the HD DVDs look better than the DVDs. I realize that most people do not want to rebuy movies they already own, but I think it is worth it to own the best home video presentation for most if not all of the titles in my collection.

gryffinmaster

There ya go.

That's pretty much what I was coming in to post. Maybe an upgrade for hardcore science-fiction and action films that'll benefit from the HQ A/V can be merited - but, like you said, I'm not going to update my copy of, oh, say Ghost World in HD.

Flynn

I think I'll be much more selective with what HD films I buy considering I have almost 800 Dvds... I'll upgrade my favorites and truly ENJOY the other DVDs I have that upconvert!

Josh Z

Why would you think that only sci-fi and action movies benefit from High Definition? Ghost World has nice photography and would look very good in HD.

Scarlett Johansson in HD is always worth it.

clappj

The opening moments of Lost In Translation are certainly a testament to that statement!

gryffinmaster

Well, that's the way the pecking order starts, at least. Ghost World does have some excellent shots, but probably nothing that would see marked improvements on an HD disc (improved certainly, but nothing drastic worth another purchase). Plus, the audio presentation wouldn't receive much more strength, either. I mentioned action and sci-fi primarily as the "essentials" that would look and sound much more prominent. Course, as the years go by and "blurry vision" starts to kick in, I'm certain that even the upscaled DVDs will start to show their age.

Of course, EVERYTHING benefits to degrees being in HD ... it's just a matter of cost benefit. Now, when you can pick up Ghost World for ~$7.50 in HD, then it might be worth the scrape-up for another dip.

I also had a blurb in my post about beautifully photographed dramas that should have stayed in. Don't know why that escaped. Films like American Beauty, Magnolia, and The Painted Veil, all boasting incredible soundtracks, would pour through beautifully in HD both visually and aurally.

Oh, and Lost In Translation in HD =

sbelli

Well, I finally got an upconverting DVD player (since my Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on won't upconvert over component) and I have to say that I'm excited about the difference it's making on my SD discs. No, it's not as good as an HD DVD, but it makes me feel better about watching Blu-Ray exclusive discs on standard DVD. I was stunned by how good "Casino Royale" looked (pretty darn close to HD DVD quality). Little, if any noise as well as great clarity, color and blacks.

But it's all in the transfer. A bad transfer may look a little worse on an upscaling player because it seems to magnify the flaws with the HD resolution.

Just got thru watching "Apocalypto" and it too looked very nice. A few comedies, however, were less than stellar.

So if I'm happy with the DVD transfer and it looks great thru the upconversion, then I'll stick with it. If it's a crappy transfer or major action-type favorite, I'll get the HD DVD (if I can afford it).

Supermallet

The Bus

That doesn't make any sense. I spent $10-$15 on some of the movies I could upgrade. You're saying I should spend another $25 on them?

By that logic, any movie buying is worth paying $40 for.

GreenMonkey

I see a very large improvement from SD-DVD to HD-DVD on my 115".

Honestly I've found the upconverts to do very little to the SD-DVD PQ on my projector as it has a good scaler. But the upconverters make SD-DVDs look way better on my Olevia with its cheaper deinterlacer/scaler, so maybe folks have been staring at SD-DVDs looking yucky more than I do.

HD-DVDs are much better that SD on either display...but honestly not that much better on the 37", I can barely tell the difference at 10-12ft.

On the projector, HD-DVD is way better and that's where it shines. I can't see people buying HD for smaller sub 42" displays unless they are sitting close. It makes me wonder about the future of HD discs in general.

That said I'm not double-dipping SD to HD. Not worth it IMO. I did the Matrix with the A2 deal and that's it. My wife did a couple for me for Father's Day though knowing I wouldn't buy them (one of which is Eternal Sunshine, my 2nd favorite movie). The improvement isn't worth the extra $ to me, my budget is tight.

Josh H

Like others, it's enough to keep me from upgrading most discs. I'll just replace ones that:

1. Are absolute favorites that get watched a ton.
2. Favorites that are eye candy heavy and would gain the most.
3. Any that have poor transfers on the DVD I have.

Otherwise, upconverted DVD looks damn good to my non-videophile eyes. Still waiting on some further price drops, and more clarity on which format has the most movies I want before making the HD-DVD/Blu Ray jump anyway.

Paul_SD

It probably comes down to your display. It sounds like right now you might have something under 50", or as another poster suggested, something with a weak internal scaler.
If you don't anticipate upgrading to a larger display anytime soon, then spending money to upgrade your sources (the discs) might not be the best use of your resources.

On the other hand, the early days of dvd we're filled with a lot of people who couldn't make use of the anamorphic enhancement on discs and therefore never let the lack of 16:9 enhancement stop them from making a purchase. Years later when they did upgrade to a larger widescreen display, they realized how poorly these 4:3 lbx discs held up, and then had to re-buy favorites all over again.

It's quite possible, by the time you have a display that will easily show you the difference between a good sd upconverted and a decent HDM, a specific title you like may have gone out of print.

that last point is really the only thing I would be concerned about.
So to answer your question- if there is a title that you consider an 'essential' for your personal collection, I would go ahead and upgrade- even if you don't see the difference today. Even with titles that have gotten poor reviews from various critics, I have not found one that wasn't a big step up from its sd counterpart. And that goes just as much for non sci-fi eye candy spectacles - every movie presentation benefits from better res and less of sd dvds lower bandwidth, lower capacity compromises.

Josh H

But on the other hand, if it doesn't go out of print it will be much cheaper in the future probably, as one would have to think disc prices will come down.

They may not hit DVD lows as they new formats likely won't get to that level of market saturation any time soon, if ever. But I still can't see the price staying $25-30 for ever, especially not for titles that have been out for a year or two (when we get to that point).

Paul_SD

yeah, that is certainly true too. I would expect the prices on these first year of titles to go down in another year or two, before they ever went out of print.
But if they ever do go out of print, and the formats are still a niche- it may be a long time before they ever go back in print.

But I think you are right, the most likely progression will be a price drop first.

SeanValen

This upscaling existing dvds is a great thing.

Obivously High Definition is noticed more the bigger your screen is, the whole point of HD really is to appreciate the detail, and those serious into it, willl be cinema minded people.

The beauty of these players/format, is for tv shows or films you want the best audio/picture presentation, you have it, and if there are dvds that may or may never reach hd territory, you have the combination of both formats to use, they complement each other.

I think not every dvd collector would have sold his collection off, but they would of solid titles they are expecting on hd in the future, but keeping dvds that may not see the light of day on HD, or not too fussy about getting in hd.

I have sold many dvds off for various reasons, if I had the money to spare, I wouldn't of sold off so many, we all have to make comprimises perhaps for our budgets, some don't, and I have big plans for a HD collection, but within that collection will be many dvds that I would enjoy seeing upscaled and improved by these new players, which is a direct result of the high definition upsurge.

The range of titles out there on both formats is cool. They complment each other.

Living Dead

Having only owned an HD player for a week, I will say that the difference is significant, but not vast. I mean, the leap from VHS to DVD was enormous, but the leap to HD DVD is much less so. Don't get me wrong, I love HD and have already bought a couple titles, but like many here have said, it is not a significant enough differecne that I will update every title in my collection, as I did when selling off my VHS for SD DVD.

JIF

I agree with you. Unless it's a visually stunning film, I wouldn't consider buying the Blu-ray version of a movie.

In addition, I plan to read reviews prior to buying HD movies to ensure that it's worth buying - otherwise I'll opt for the DVD version.

The only Blu-ray movies I plan on buying this year so far are: Spider-man 3 and Blade Runner.

And, oh yeah, I don't plan on upgrading my DVD library. I did double dip with The Road Warrior on Blu-ray, but that was mostly for the George Miller commentary.

JIF

Getting back on topic, I have the BDP-S1 and its upconverting performance is magnificent for DVDs that have high quality transfers.

Movies such as Sin City, The Incredibles and Revenge of the Sith look like HD titles themselves. I can't see how much an improvement there would be in double dipping.

Surprisingly, the Superman Returns and The Phantom Menace DVDs looked grainy and not as sharp. Maybe buying their HD counterparts would be worth it, but, personally, I'll pass.

Josh Z

Superman Returns is grainy, flat, mushy, and ugly by design. It isn't much more impressive in High-Def.

The Phantom Meance DVD is notorious for its obscene amounts of edge enhancement. Just a lousy transfer there.