High Def Forum - Your High Definition Community & High Definition Resource - View Single Post - Blue Ray may not be worth it for it for me.

strawberry · 07-09-2005, 11:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sole_Survivor

Hey I really appreciate your help,
But I just found something out ... OK, you're going to laugh, but it will make you realize I was telling the truth about the difference in DVD quality.
I was guessing, but I was wrong when I said if the show was originally shot in HD .... what I found out is that ... the DVD that I saw that I said upscaled to high definition are called anamorphic widescreen DVD's. Through my research last night, I found that out.
Now you guys probably already know what I'm going to say, but I found out that when the anamorphic DVD is played on a widescreen TV, it releases all of the pixels, in contrast to it being matted which was using around half the pixels, anyway here is the article.

I knew I wasn't seeing things...

http://www.audiolinks.nl/anamorphic/anamorphic.htm

I had to do some research and find out why this CSI Miami first season was a true 720p on my set, it blew me the #%$& away guys really.
All I can say is for sure that I now know why, & if all these anamorphic widescreen DVD's upconvert like this CSI Miami, and if this is the way they are going to be made, I will not be getting Blue Ray. Believe me guys I know that HD look, I watch CSI Miami every week with no box, just an antenna and my TV, maybe it's the set up I have because you all enlightened me with the fact that upscalers work with fixed pixel or fixed panel resolution and that's what I have as well as you just telling me the fact that my set has a 720 up scaling chip.
So maybe it's the fixed pixel, the player, the chip in the TV, & the anamorphic DVD all working together, if that's the case, I wouldn't want anyone reading this thinking all they have to do is buy this DVD player and they have a 720 picture.
All I know I'm getting HD going this route.

Believe me you see that picture of the alien I have in the upper left hand corner, that was me watching the CSI Miami box set.

OK- you still have some ideas out of whack here. First of all- anamorphic DVD's are very common, and DO NOT require upscaling players in order to be anamorphic. You can watch any anamorphic WS DVD on your new TV with a regular old progressive-scan DVD player (any DVD player for that matter) and it's still going to be presented in the exact same aspect. Also- there is no increased pixel count with anamorphic DVD's. The difference is that a regular pixel on a non-anamorphic DVD is at a .9 ratio- almost square. A pixel in an anamorphically encoded file is at 1.2, which is much more rectangular. The end result is that each individual pixel is fatter or wider, so when you play the anamorphic signal back on a widescreen TV (assuming your DVD player is set for 16:9 output) the picture will be in native widescreen. The overall pixel count, however, is still the same- you still have 480 lines one direction, and 720 in the other.

The advantage to anamorphic DVD's is that non-anamorphic DVD's have to waste actual pixel space on black bars that go on the top and bottom of the screen in order to present themselves at 16:9, this is probably why you came across some articles that told you the pixel count is higher in anamorphic material. The truth is, though, that the pixel count is the same- it's just that anamorphic WS DVD's don't waste pixels on black bars.

As I said before- upscaling players don't do anything different than standard players with regard to anamorphically encoded DVD's. They use the exact same process, and the resolution of the source file on the DVD is exactly the same no matter what player you put it in. For the manufacturers to call upscaling players 'HD' is nothing but hype, IMO. They give you the advantage of using a digital connection, and the ability to match the native res. of your HD display- but the benefits stop there. 720X480 is 720X480 is 720X480.