Jay G.

The more efficient video codec and higher video bitrates also help with image quality.

JimRochester

I'd love to see some of those old WB titles in snapper cases be released in hi-def. Remember those with full screen on one side and ws on the other? I'll take some UHD of something like Tin Cup which I love.

Wasn't one of the early criticisms of BR the fact that older movies would have limited resolution due to how they were originally filmed?

Jay G.

If it was an argument, it was typically born of ignorance of how older movies were filmed. 35mm tends to have greater detail than even 1080p can fully resolve, and can look even better in UHD. It does depend on the quality of film stock used, and the care in the storage/preservation/restoration, so quality can vary from film to film, and even from shot to shot within a film.

ironically, it's only the films from the past decade and a half, where the movies were edited and finished in 2K instead of being shot, cut, and finished on film, where the UHD upgrade is questionable in terms of detail. But those seem to be the movies studios are most eager to release, as the older a title gets, the less popular it tends to be, aside from major classics like ET, Blade Runner, etc.

Adam Tyner

That's really cool to hear. There's a Family Video not too far from me -- the only video rental place still around in my neck of the woods, AFAIK -- so I'll have to swing by and see if it's the same story here.

melasnus

Buying much less disks than I once was.

Because I have so many of my back catalog favs on decent BDs right now, I only buy a few here and there.
Much more likely to buy UHDs of new movies or super-duper back catalog favorites.

JOE29

I went from VHS (remember that? ) to DVD to Bluray ( on a lot of selected titles ) I did upgrade to blu, not everything, but a lot. .and i'm still doing it.. But from Blu to UHD?
I just can't, it's too much. How many times do I have to re-purchase the same movies?. I have to stop somewhere. I guess it's with Bluray.

dvd-4-life

You don't want too watch the 50th time re-mastered Fifth Element?

fumanstan

I only have a handful of UHD's, the only ones I've actually repurchased that I already owned on blu-ray has been The Dark Knight trilogy. Any major new release going forward that I want to buy will be UHD's though, but i'm now waiting for deals rather then spending $25+ on them.

Coral

I've been very slowly ditching some of my small collection of roughly 40+ BDs - but only the Criterions.

With Criterions I can get very close to what I paid for them (less than half of store prices), and they're the only ones that have a market - Criterion nuts who have BD (niche of a niche). It's taking forever to sell them.

Non-Criterions I'm keeping because if anyone was interested, I'd only get $2 for them.
I'll continue to buy BDs for around the $5 range - otherwise not interested.

Will I upgrade them to UHD-BD? Not at the ridiculous prices they're at.
But it's a moot point anyway since not a single title I already own or am interested in owning is available on the format.

Eddie W

I never understand why people think an upgrade means they have to re-buy everything. They are still going to make new movies & all disc formats are backwards compatible. I consider it just a continuation of my collection in a better format. I get to watch new releases in best quality possible & maintain my old collection, which looks just fine.

dex14

Trust me... some DVDs do not look “just fine” on my 75 inch TV. The bigger the screen, the more noticeably bad some of those transfers are.

orangerunner

I guess it's psychological that once you start buying the next format, you become discontent with how the previous format looks and sounds.

What you were previously happy with and raving about suddenly becomes inferior.

A big part of it is screen size, as every gets into 65"+ screens the picture quality gets worse and worse, especially for DVD.

I guess the question is a bigger TV always the best choice? Does the bigger screen just cause one to feel they have to re-purchase old titles over and over again?

Even watching 35mm film in a theatre; you can sit in the front row and get a huge screen but the picture quality was crap. When you sit half-way back, the picture quality would improve considerably. "Smaller" screen, yes, but it looks better.

PerryD

Blu-ray looks great on my 10 foot screen, but I can't wait to upgrade my projector to a 4K model. I can definitely see the flaws in the Blu-ray image, not necessarily resolution, but the banding during fades, sunrises, bright objects on a dark background, etc. 4K deep color will get rid of all of that.

Right now, I have just over 100 4K titles.

JimRochester

There were some pretty lousy quality DVD's and BR put out. I have been replacing my HD DVD. I see a significant difference in quality and the audio is superb. Absolutely worth upgrading Serenity, Apollo 13, The Mummy(s) and Transformers.

Adam Tyner

Beyond that too, standards and expectations change, and also the memory you have in your head about the way something looks doesn't always reflect reality.

I've sugarcoated discs in my head that wind up looking disappointing when revisited, especially quite a few years down the road. Try reading some Blu-ray reviews from, say, 2007 or 2008 and see if you agree with those opinions when you watch those discs again now, even if you thought those discs looked amazing when they first came out.

Alan Smithee

But point is, you don't have to replace every movie with the same one on a newer format unless you WANT to. I can still watch my Beta and VHS tapes which are now approaching 40 years old, and they might not look "just fine" compared to newer formats but they certainly look as good as they always have.

rjh_54

Being in my 20s, my VHS collection was relatively small, so the upgrade to DVD was pretty easy and a no-brainer.

My upgrade to Blu was very slow - I didn't get a Blu-Ray player until 2012 as I was content with most of my DVD collection, only upgrading my absolute favorites and (obviously) buying current releases on BD. Last year I did an almost complete overhaul of my collection, selling pretty much all DVDs I had that were also available on BD. Lots of them were catalogue titles so I brought them to FYE and used the credit I had and was able to upgrade to BDs for what I wanted and spending very little out of pocket, especially since the price of older BDs have gone way down.

As for UHD discs, I'm on the fence. I don't have a UHD TV or player yet (broke college student), but probably will when I get my own place within the year. I did pick up the new Pirates on 4k when it was on sale at Best Buy for Black Friday.

It's weird though. I feel like Blu-Ray never really caught on with the general public, so I imagine UHD discs will be even more of a niche thing. I guess I'm really waiting to see if UHD discs will last, since so much is digital now. This may sound weird, but I think I'd be more inclined to take to UHD discs if they included a DVD copy in addition to the BD.

JOE29

I see your point.