I'm wondering, how do SuperBit DVDs on an upconvert player compare to High Def discs? Can an upconverted SuperBit disc come near the quality of HD? On a scale of 1-10 (1=SD disc on a SD player/10=HD disc on HD player) around where would you rate a SuperBit upconvert? Thanks.

SD is still SD. No comparison IMHO, regardless of what fancy marketing name is on the package.

I use the Spider-Man 1 Superbit to demo SD upscaling, I think it looks tremendous... but it's still not HD. I can't wait to retire it later this year when the BD boxset comes out.

superbit = marketing of bare-bones DVDs.

Give me a Warner Brothers DVD over a Superbit any day.

Superbit = Snake Oil.

Of course, "bare-bones" releases with high picture quality are heavily defended nowadays. So I guess the market still exists

But seriously, I've wondered this too. Barring BD/HD discs, what are some good SDDVD titles to use for upconversion demo material?

Any Pixar disc, easily.

If the transfer for the HD version is poor then an HD disc can look as bad as an upconverted standard DVD. However a good HD disc is a night and day difference when compared to the standard DVD version. Superbit or not.

Using animation as a reference disc is not well-regarded. Too much playing with the color palette and hides things like EE and noise.

Here is The Fifth Element BD vs Superbit

Link

That's not BD vs. Superbit DVD, it's old BD vs. new BD

Here's new BD v.s Superbit:
http://hd-discs.mbmg.de/thefifthelem...emastered.html

Monsters Inc specifically. I was floored and this was before I got into HD and Blu-ray.

There is no comparison between a properly done HiDef disc and any SD disc. Superbit never really impressed me that much anyways.

Sorry to sidetrack this, but I don't really believe that SuperBits were that high picture quality. There were pretty good, but they were marketed as high picture quality. A lot of the early SuperBit titles were just reworks of really poor DVDs and the later ones were so redundant (except for, I guess the DTS track) that the whole series was just eliminated.

Exactly. Superbits were what the original releases should have been, only more expensive and providing less.

I thought POTC - Dead Man's Chest looked great upconverted as did The Office Season 2 on my HDA2.

Superbits are just Sony's pet name for higher video bitrates. Many discs have high quality video without a marketing gimmick. But DVD simply doesn't have the space for the higher bitrates and extras together. You pick and choose what's important. Or hope for a SB Deluxe with the 2nd disc for extras.

But they do not necessarily get rid of inherent issues (ie, on the film masters) with older releases. SB doesn't mean they did a huge digital remastering, unfortunately. That colors these conversations quite a bit when people start comparing different movies against each other willy-nilly. It still comes down to making a good digital copy.

Here's some good SD discs:

LOTR: EE
Pixar (but that's not really a good example, not enough detail to matter)
Man on Fire (way more than you ever wanted to know about Denzel's face)
Fifth Element UE ("missing" the Superbit moniker)

What's striking is in that link above, comparing the UE and the MPEG2 BD of Fifth Element. Virtually identical, and those are screenshots, no camera or anything to change the facts. (obviously, the "real" BD version is superior no matter how you look at it) Now, your DVD player electronics will matter for getting this on a TV screen, as well. But it's pretty clear, HD resolution on the new formats doesn't automatically make it great, or even better than SD. Somebody still has to show up at work and do it right.

Universal has gone out of their way to prove this on many of their recent catalog releases. Many are about the same quality as an upconverted DVD. When no effort is put in HD discs can look terrible.

this is a very interesting thread. i never got into superbits and am now glad that i did not

If anyone's interested, here's a comparison review of the Superbit and BluRay of The Fifth Element:

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film2/DVDRe...nt_blu-ray.htm

While not aggressively marketed as one, the Fifth Element Ultimate Edition does have the SuperBit logo on the back of the packaging and on the disc art itself.

I think people tend to forget just how blurry DVD looks in comparison to even mediocre HD. It's easy to say, "That looks no better than upconverted SD", until you actually compare the same movie in upconverted SD, and realize how wrong you were.

I agree when you scrutinize, but from a normal sitting distance I had a hard time telling The Meaning of Life in HD from the DVD on a 52" display. That one is really as bad as I've seen on HD DVD.

I will grant that mediocre stuff I have watched like The Jerk, Smokey and the Bandit and The Frighteners did at least look HD, however, the upgrade was so minor I would never consider actually buying these if I already owned the DVD.

I expect a certain level of quality when shelling out the upgrade cost for the HD DVD and a large number of Universal titles come no where close to the quality you expect on HD DVD. Especially the films loaded with edge enhancement. 70's era Universal seems to guarantee crap transfer as well and this is disturbing considering how amazing the Warriors looked from Paramount.