There are a few old movies (1950 - 1970-ish) I’d like to buy from the iTunes store, available in SD ($9.99) and HD ($14.99), and I’m debating whether HD is worth the extra five bucks.
What do you think?
There are a few old movies (1950 - 1970-ish) I’d like to buy from the iTunes store, available in SD ($9.99) and HD ($14.99), and I’m debating whether HD is worth the extra five bucks.
What do you think?
It’s worth it. I have dozens of pre-1990 films on BR, and as along as the source was in good shape, they look amazing. A couple of them I had bought on DVD then found them on sale for under $10 on BR, and the BRs look significantly better than the DVDs.
Film is at least four times HD resolution. A good transfer of almost any film is worth it in HD, moreso if it’s from master negatives or at least a fresh print.
High res didn’t start with the 1080 era.
How big if a screen are you gonna watch these on?
I don’t think high resolution is worth it. But a new pristine digital transfer probably is.
My TV is only 32", but I can still tell the difference between SD and HD (on recently produced stuff).
My thing here is many older films were not of the best picture quality to begin with, like Texas Chainsaw Massacre for example, that I can’t imagine HD is going to look any better, and even high-quality productions still have that “old grainy film” look.
The movie is the same whether it’s high def or not: same characters, same dialog, same plot. Why pay extra for the same thing?
Watch the Blu-ray of The Wizard of Oz and if you still have that question then you really need to see your optometrist.
In many cases, it’s a stunning difference in quality. The Blu-Ray of Alien blew me away. It’s still a dark, moody, atmospheric film, but the increased quality makes it a beautiful film. The set details especially come alive.
if the original movie was good, it is absolutely worth the cost to get it in HD format. You would not believe how gorgeous the Blu-ray of Lawrence of Arabia (which was filmed in 70 mm film format) looks on a 58" high-definition TV. It blows the standard DVD away!
Because movies have a visual component in addition to the plot, dialog, characters, as well as a score and other sound. The movie is the sum of all these aspects, so the movie is **not **the same.
Undoubtedly, the visual component of some movies is not as important as others. Consider *Lawrence of Arabia *vs. *Clerks *as an extreme illustration. . . The question is whether the visual quality is worth that extra expense to you personally. But saying that there is literally no difference seems shortsighted. No pun intended.
I was actually composing my comment when **artemis **chimed in with the same example! Great minds and all that. . .
The funny thing about my example is that I discovered the difference between the standard and high-definition versions of that movie purely by chance. I already owned Lawrence of Arabia on standard DVD, and it was a good transfer from the restored film stock. I thought it looked pretty good. But the other day I was in the grocery store, and spotted the Blu-ray version in a bin for $15. I figured, “What the heck, at that price I might as well buy it.” Total impulse purchase. But when I went to play it, I was utterly blown away by just how clean and detailed the high-definition version is. It was almost as good as watching the movie in the theater, and far superior to the standard DVD print as far as the picture quality goes.
Some movies need all the picture quality you can supply, and then some. Most of David Lean’s epics are in that category.
My vote is get the HD. You have already seen the movies, so you can take your time buying them. Go for quality. You won’t regret it.
For movies from the 50s or newer it’s definitely worth it. You will notice a big difference. But ask yourself how much do you love each individual movie, how often will you watch it, and how visually stunning was it, to decide which are really worth buying on Blu-ray.
The only things that would ***never ***be worth getting on Blu-ray (and won’t ever be released on it anyway) is anything originally shot on regular videotape (i.e. TV shows from the 70s & 80s).