We often have threads that ask for recommendations of demo quality Blu-ray Discs and they tend to be dominated by animated or recent movies that are heavy on CGI. Animated movies tend to look great upscaled, so the improvement of the BD over DVD often isn't as great as it can be with well-authored BDs of conventional film-based movies and TV shows.

So, I'd like to ask for recommendations of BDs that are, in your opinion, the biggest upgrade over the upscaled DVD.

I'll start by suggesting Pride and Prejudice (1995). The DVD editions were always disappointing because the color was so washed out. For the Blu-ray Discs the authors went back to the original negative and the difference between the DVD and BD is stunning. There is also an interesting extra feature that describes the authoring process and shows some screen wipes between the two versions. This mini-series was shot on 16 mm film, so it will never look as good as a modern movie shot on 35 mm or 70 mm film, or with HD cameras, but the PQ on Blu-ray Disc is quite respectable for a 16 mm film.


I'm sure there are lots of other examples of titles put out on BD that are significant upgrades over the DVD. Your choices?

The Searchers

Die Hard with a Vengeance

the gauntlet

THIS x 1,000,000!

If you show someone who is skeptical of BD the DVD of DH3, then follow it up with the BD, and they STILL don't see the improvement, then there is really no hope for them (or they just need to get their eyes checked by a professional).....

That is probably one of the worst looking anamorphic DVD's I own. The BD was a revelation

The Dark Knight. DVD transfer is one of the ugliest I've ever seen; made more shocking by the fact that its a 2008 film!

I'm curious: why this one rather than the other DH movies? Was Die Hard with a Vengeance just an unusually crappy DVD?

It's the newest one, and the earlier ones aren't terrific PQ upgrades. I keep watching DH1 anyway.

Zulu (UK) is

Second newest.

Blade Runner

From Dusk 'till Dawn (Canadian)

Going from SD non-anamorphic to HD anamorphic was sublime!

Fight Club should be in this list too.

Bingo....

The DH3 DVD is AWFUL, with probably the thickest edge enhancement of any major studio picture released....plus it had a lot of DNR too...

The BD is a major revelation in comparison....definitely the biggest upgrade I have seen for a live action title between the two formats....

This

Out of all the 100+ Blu-ray titles I own, the only two that I can think of that aren't upgrades at all:

- Dog Soldiers
- National Lampoon's Van Wilder

Both look more like unconverted DVDs than an actual 1080p transfer.

Almost everything else has been an improvement.

I never knew that. That gives me a reason to pull it out from the Die Hard Blu-ray Box Set I bought earlier last year and give it a spin. It was never my favorite of the series, and I have not had a chance to watch it yet.

Road Warrior

North By Northwest (More Hitchcock I hope Vertigo is next!)

Yet Dvdtalk has the 2-disc sd-dvd on the the top ten? but not the blu-ray what gives?

DVDTalk is a pretty crappy website, I wouldn't bother going there.

Almost all the discs in the top two tiers of the PQ list are massive upgrades over the dvd version.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1168342

Almost all the Criterion Blu-rays are very good upgrades. The Third Man looks great and makes one forget any dvd version.

Oops. I lose track when they don't have numbers.

I'd love to see Vertigo and Rear Window, but different studio so might not be the same result. Has Universal even Blu'd their HD DVD classics?

Big Trouble in Little China