Prompted by the blue ray thread: too real looking???

[Bayou_Brawler]

OK so hear me out...

i watched my first blue ray movie when i went home for christmas....

my old little mother decided to get a 54' samsung 1080p, a blue ray player, and all the bells and whistles...

so i'm watched a few movies and HD tv.....

sports and action movies look amazing...i liked it a lot

however more drama type flicks (people standing around talking) looked weird to me....almost too real and clear....it was like watching a play and you see all the awkwardness of acting....i mean it looked brialliant...but i kinda didnt like watching drama movies or tv shows....

am i making sense? anyone with me?

[Bryan R. Tyler]

That's the biggest problem I've had with horror movies the past couple of decades. The higher-definition film and/or TVs you view them on make them seem far more removed, like you're not watching actual people. Movies from the 70s to the early 80s had that realness to them because of the lower-quality film put you closer to the characters, which made them far scarier. People aren't in high-definition, so watching them in hi-def will definitely look less "real."

[tplyons]

Yes, I've noticed it with a few evening dramas that are broadcast in HD, the movement seems almost clunky. Frankly, the only thing I watch in HD is sports. Everything else I pretty much watch on the regular definition channels.

[MJ5150]

Originally Posted by tplyons

...the only thing I watch in HD is sports.

I do mostly the same. Or actually, the only thing I care about in HD is sports. I watch the other channels in HD since we are paying extra $$ to have them.

-Mike

[tplyons]

Originally Posted by MJ5150

I do mostly the same. Or actually, the only thing I care about in HD is sports. I watch the other channels in HD since we are paying extra $$ to have them.

-Mike

HD is free with our provider, but we only get something like 30 channels. Either way, I get my hockey in HD, can read the names and actually tell where the puck is.

[MakiSupaStar]

Golf and Basketball in HD is teh win. My Name Is Earl, not so much.

[sarcastro83]

Give me hockey in HD, and I'm fine. As far as movies go, I don't see any real "improvement" in my movie watching experience. Movies are supposed to have a "look" to them... what's the point of watching something like Grindhouse in HD?

[Jeremy Crockett]

I noticed the same thing at Circuit City. They had the full-blown Blu-ray set up and Transformers the movie was playing. It did look more like watching a live television show being taped rather than something on film. Yeah, it was a bit weird to say the least.

[Lucky Strike]

All the critics can send me their Blue Ray players if it ruins your watching pleasure.

[Bayou_Brawler]

Originally Posted by Lucky Strike

All the critics can send me their Blue Ray players if it ruins your watching pleasure.

haha i'm not saying it's "bad"....just different and maybe kinda weird at first for some people..

[FreaqyFrequency]

I can see where you're coming from, but I think the awkwardness/"overrealisticality" is more than justified by how much better it looks and sounds over SD.

[Philbiker]

I would suggest calibrating your display using something like this: http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Video-.../dp/B000V6LST0 .

[Chriss62]

Originally Posted by Bryan R. Tyler

...People aren't in high-definition...

Yes they are!

A 120hz refresh rate greatly exacerbates this wierdness.

[FreaqyFrequency]

Originally Posted by Bryan R. Tyler

People aren't in high-definition

I always thought people are pretty much in as high a definition as is possible.

[Asa Samuel]

I always preferred older recordings of pretty much everything.

music videos, for example: guns n roses - the garden

tv comedy shows: father ted, men behaving badly.

films, die hard, lethal weapon, trainspotting.

Sure, watching things in hi-def are alright but I like old grainy stuff.

[bongomania]

This reminds me very much of back when drum machines and samplers went (over a fairly short period of like two years) from 8 bit samples to 12 bit and then to 16 bit. Each improvement had people raving about the increased detail and realism, but then there was a backlash of people saying the low bit resolution samples had a warmer, more organic sound to them compared to the supposedly more accurate 16 bit. So then people started buying up the older machines. Then Keyboard magazine had an April 1st issue where they reviewed a 4 bit drum machine with the richest, fattest, warmest, most organic drum machine sounds they'd ever heard. After that they got dozens of letters from people begging to find out where they could buy it.

[MakiSupaStar]

I wouldn't recommend watching pron on Blue Ray then.

[billjr]

I replaced an older 720 HD TV with a same size 1080 HD TV and noticed a substantial difference in the picture quality. It made movies look more like the older TV shows, as the characters looked more real and lifelike, as if it was a live broadcast. My wife hated it, but I liked it OK. Now, after about five months, I don't notice it, everything just looks clearer.

While I love sports on HDTV, there is another type of show that I watch now more than ever, NATURE SHOWS. Man, they are absolutely amazing in HDTV. I really like the shows that are filmed from the space shuttle and show parts of the Earth in HD. Those are breathtaking.

[chrisisnotevil]

i wach blu ray all day, every day at work, (currently i'm being treated to elton john's 60th birthday concert and mamma mia.) i'm pretty meh about it, but go get yourselves the bbc series "planet earth" on blu ray and be amazed...

[thobbinghotrod]

Try watching Star Trek from the sixties on HD. You can see the plywood and duct tape that the sets are made from. And, I just remembered, the fake rocks and things when they go down to the planets.