I'm getting tired of seeing that damn grain. I don't care if it's supposed to be that way or not. I don't see any settings in my A3 to help with it. Either I'm missing it, or it's not there. Which model would I have to pickup to get it? I don't suppose the 360 can do it with the addon.

The XA2 has a noise reduction option. Don't think any of the last generation players too, searching Google. Your TV is more likely to have one built in.

Not that I'm telling you anything you don't already know, grain is not inherently a bad thing, and by smearing it away, you'll also be discarding a lot of the detail that makes HD DVD and Blu-ray what they are in the first place.

Only the HD-XA2 has noise reduction functions, and they are only active on standard DVDs. The edge enhancement processing is active for both SD and HD DVD, however.

Go to a theater sometime and see what movies look like there.

Not that I've seen. Samsung HL-S5087W

Yeah, if you don't want grain, don't watch anything that wasn't shot on digital video.

I have the 56" version of your set and I believe what you want to look for is DNR (Digital Noise Reduction). Of course one of the first things that is suggested is to turn it off. But it's your set and if you want to turn it on, that's your call.

If you don't like grain, then you might as well go back to SD DVD.

I hate old matted transfers more than grain, I guess. I'll just think twice about what I upgrade.

Actually, most of the HD-DVDs I've watched so far were ok (Dawn of the Dead, Troy, Bourne, Four Brothers, Face Off, Timecop, Transformers). The only ones that really annoyed me so far were Getaway (1994), 300, and Swordfish.



WTFH!?!!?!? DNR has been on all this time on the TV. It doesn't seem to do anything. The movies I listed above still look like shit to me. If they're that grainy with DNR, I'd hate to see them without.

Of course "300" had grain added to it intentionally. It's the intended look of the film.

Buying a high-definition disc and then softening the picture with DNR makes no sense to me.

or he can set his player to output no higher than 480p. That might noise reduce it enough.

Why does Pitch Black seem to look worse with the DNIe on my Samsung turned on? I was fiddling with settings and it seems to look better with DNR on but DNIe off. What exactly is the difference?

Especially 300. They PURPOSELY ADDED the grain to the movie, to achieve the look they wanted. Taking it out is like turning up the red color control because you like the color red.

DNR and DNIe are not the same thing. DNR is "Digital Noise Reduction". DNIe is "Digital Natural Image Engine".

DNR is an artificial softening filter. It reduces grain and noise, at the expense of also smoothing away real picture detail.

DNIe is the opposite. It's an artificial sharpening filter, like edge enhancement. It adds electronic ringing around high frequency detail.

If you have both turned on simultaneously, you've set the TV to first wipe away all the detail in the image and then replace it with e.e.

In case it hasn't been emphasized enough yet, you should turn all of that crap off.

Agreed.