Playing Disney Blu-Rays on a NON-HDTV

[TVC15]

I am thinking about buying a Blu-Ray player this week and purchasing a HD-TV in about 6-9 months. How will my Blu-Rays look on my NON-HDTV? Do the colors bleed, etc. or will have I have a slightly better viewing experience?

Many thanks!

[goofystitch]

I don't have experience with hooking up a Blu-Ray player to a standard definition TV, but my guess is that it will just look like a DVD since it can't output in HD. I can't see why any other problems should arise.

[Rudy Matt]

I purchased a Blu-Ray player before I purchased an HDTV, and I can tell you (as can many a PS3 owner) that the difference between DVD and Blu-Ray is eye-popping, even on a standard television.

Granted, to get the full benefit, you need an HD set someday, but titles like Cars, Ratatouille, Walt's Mars and Beyond (on the Roving Mars BRD), Pixar Short Films collection, and Enchanted all looked amazing on my standard non-digital TV. The colors are eye-popping and the image is stable and rock solid. You can even see the difference in detail.

So don't hesitate if you want to take the plunge. You won't regret it (just make sure you're getting a Blu-Ray player that is at least Profile 1.1, preferably profile 2.0). And make sure the player you're getting has ports to connect to your TV, obviously.

[Rudy Matt]

I don't have experience with hooking up a Blu-Ray player to a standard definition TV, but my guess is that it will just look like a DVD since it can't output in HD. I can't see why any other problems should arise.

It doesn't looks like a DVD.

Let me try and explain it this way -- as I'm sure you're aware, you have to compress a movie to fit on a DVD, just as you have to compress the same movie to appear on a Blu-Ray. Because of the increased storage capacity of Blu-Ray, the compression issues are less severe (though by no means eliminated). The result is the ability to present a film with greater detail, truer colors, a more stable image...watching a Blu-Ray on a standard TV does not look like a DVD. It looks like a Blu-ray -- sharper than any DVD you've ever seen, with your TV doing all it can to present that image to you.

My wife and I were watching Narnia: TLTWTW on Blu-Ray, and she asked if it looked different than the DVD. So, I popped the DVD of the same title in the DVD player and synched it up with the Blu-Ray and just toggled back and forth. The difference was dramatic -- again, not even using a HDTV.

[DarthPrime]

I don't have experience with hooking up a Blu-Ray player to a standard definition TV, but my guess is that it will just look like a DVD since it can't output in HD. I can't see why any other problems should arise.

It doesn't looks like a DVD.

Let me try and explain it this way -- as I'm sure you're aware, you have to compress a movie to fit on a DVD, just as you have to compress the same movie to appear on a Blu-Ray. Because of the increased storage capacity of Blu-Ray, the compression issues are less severe (though by no means eliminated). The result is the ability to present a film with greater detail, truer colors, a more stable image...watching a Blu-Ray on a standard TV does not look like a DVD. It looks like a Blu-ray -- sharper than any DVD you've ever seen, with your TV doing all it can to present that image to you.

My wife and I were watching Narnia: TLTWTW on Blu-Ray, and she asked if it looked different than the DVD. So, I popped the DVD of the same title in the DVD player and synched it up with the Blu-Ray and just toggled back and forth. The difference was dramatic -- again, not even using a HDTV.

Like you said it should look a little better than a DVD. However it will look a lot better once you get your HDTV.

Also just like with a HDTV how much of a difference is going to depend on your connection to your TV, the size of the screen, and your viewing distance.

[Rudy Matt]

[/quote]Like you said it should look a little better than a DVD.[/quote]

It should look a LOT better than a DVD. There was no comparison between Narnia and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Blu-Ray won, hands down, and this from a 14 year old 20" TV, without RGB connections.

Now sure, the 1080p set I now own makes the former set obviously inferior, but you will see am obvious and impressive difference between a Blu-Ray release and a DVD release even on a non-HDTV. Not a little better. A lot better.

[gardener14]

May I ask a related question here? Manufacturers hype the concept that Blu-Ray players are backwards compatible with standard dvd's and that they "upconvert them to near HD quality, so can someone describe the difference in watching a Blu-Ray and standard image on a Blu-Ray player? In practice, are standard dvd's acceptible or even improved when watched through Blu-Ray, or does the experience render the standard discs somehow undesirable?

[TVC15]

Thank you for your comments! I'm off to find a Blu-Ray. Any recommendations? I was looking at a Panasonic 2.0

[Rudy Matt]

Blu-Ray players and upconverting DVD players output the image of a standard DVD in up to 1080 lines of resolution...however, in my experience, this does not mean a standard DVD will suddenly look like an HD image (say from broadcast or a BRD). All it means is that your standard DVDs will look as good as possible on your HDTV. For an extreme example, I recently purchased Zorro: Season 1 from the Disney Movie Club, along with other titles like The Story of Robin Hood and his Merrie Men, Fighting Prince of Donegal, Kidnapped, etc. Well, the image quality on these titles (especially Robin Hood and Zorro) is severely poor. Watching them upconverted to 1080 on my HDTV makes them look as good as they can, but they still look like garbage.

[Rudy Matt]

For a demonstration of a guy photographic his own TV showing the same exact frame of Spider-Man 2 (DVD, UpConverted DVD, Blu-Ray), go to this thread, 2nd page.

http://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php ... ost1335698

You'll see what I mean. Upconverted = better, but in no way competes with an HD image.

Now, granted, shooting an image of your own TV isn't the most accurate way to compare and contrast images, but this resembles my experience with Narnia: TLTW&TW to a T.

[PixarFan2006]

I did not notice much difference between a DVD and a Blu-Ray Disc on my SDTV. Maybe I should do a comparison later.