Loved the movie, kind of disappointed in Blu-Ray.

[Synergi]

Maybe I had my expectations set to high but the blu-ray didn't blow me away with the exceptions of the space (Ba'al's Fleet) scenes which looked awesome. However the Arctic- which is a big part of what they were boasting about, didn't blow me away. When I say blow me away, I mean in that Planet Earth so sharp and clear that it literally makes you drool kind of way.

Then on the extra's (which weren't in HD at all) they mentioned the Artic shots were shot in 16mm and not HD. Does this mean it can't be converted to HD? Maybe someone that knows more about film can answer that. Anyway it left left me disappointed. I really think I would be quite happy with the dvd upconverted to 1080p equally as well as my blu-ray purchase.

Maybe upconversions are so good, but then it makes you wonder what you need blu-ray for. Yes it can hold more, but so far most dvd's have had the same content as blu-ray, not making it worth it there either. Lord of the rings, now those were extra's!

I should point out its not all blu-ray's. Planet Earth is a prime example of how blu-ray should look. UltraViolet, with its sharp imagery and maybe Speed Racer. Movies like those I'm guessing show up really well in blu-ray. And others it makes me wonder if its a port from one format over to blu-ray just to make more money.

In case anyone asks. I have a ps3 hdmi hooked up to a 1080p lcd 47 inch.

So anyone else see the quality vary from film to film?

[VSS]

Well, I would love to be able to comment on this thread but since AMAZON hasn't delivered my COPY of THE MOVIE, I can't.

Anyone else who actually got this on the 29th or 30th of July on Blu-ray, where'd you get it? I can't get it in the local stores.

[Synergi]

Well, I would love to be able to comment on this thread but since AMAZON hasn't delivered my COPY of THE MOVIE, I can't.

Anyone else who actually got this on the 29th or 30th of July on Blu-ray, where'd you get it? I can't get it in the local stores.

I picked mine up at Best Buy right on the 29th. I'll be curious to see what you think. My comments are only for upconvert dvd's hooked up with dvi or hdml.

[g8tr]

Before you blame everything on Blu-ray, I have the regular DVD, and the movie was so dark in places I couldn't tell what was on the screen. I have two HD TV's, one a plasma flat screen, one a rear-projected, and it looked the same on both. I tried changing the brightness, and it was still dark. Very disappointed.
Pre-ordered from Amazon, arrived on the 29th!

[./freelancer]

Of course you can take SD material and turn it into HD, but it won't get any better quality. You can't magically get HD quality out of SD (why would we need HD cameras if that was the case?). Like a teacher of mine used to say; "You put crap in, you get crap out".

[Synergi]

Before you blame everything on Blu-ray, I have the regular DVD, and the movie was so dark in places I couldn't tell what was on the screen. I have two HD TV's, one a plasma flat screen, one a rear-projected, and it looked the same on both. I tried changing the brightness, and it was still dark. Very disappointed.
Pre-ordered from Amazon, arrived on the 29th!

Don't get me wrong. I'm not blaming anything on Blu-ray itself. I'm speaking of how things are actually filmed and slapped on a blu-ray disc but not be the full blu-ray quality. Like them saying they filmed the arctic scenes in 16mm because it was so cold they didn't think the HD camera's would work I think was the reason. 16mm is even worse then 32mm and since how grand and wonderful they were pushing off the arctic experience, I was expecting near Planet Earth quality when they showed it.

That was the only part I had a real problem with. Sometimes Scenic scenes are the first thing that really pop for me and is really noticable. Like Discovery channel HD. I've just been noticing, not just Stargate, but a lot of movies have been varying in quality. I expect planet earth quality everytime when I pay 30 bucks for a movie on blu-ray.

I can say I didn't have the darkness issue you had. Are you upconverting your DVD's?

[redrama9]

Maybe I had my expectations set to high but the blu-ray didn't blow me away with the exceptions of the space (Ba'al's Fleet) scenes which looked awesome. However the Arctic- which is a big part of what they were boasting about, didn't blow me away. When I say blow me away, I mean in that Planet Earth so sharp and clear that it literally makes you drool kind of way.

Then on the extra's (which weren't in HD at all) they mentioned the Artic shots were shot in 16mm and not HD. Does this mean it can't be converted to HD? Maybe someone that knows more about film can answer that. Anyway it left left me disappointed. I really think I would be quite happy with the dvd upconverted to 1080p equally as well as my blu-ray purchase.

Maybe upconversions are so good, but then it makes you wonder what you need blu-ray for. Yes it can hold more, but so far most dvd's have had the same content as blu-ray, not making it worth it there either. Lord of the rings, now those were extra's!

I should point out its not all blu-ray's. Planet Earth is a prime example of how blu-ray should look. UltraViolet, with its sharp imagery and maybe Speed Racer. Movies like those I'm guessing show up really well in blu-ray. And others it makes me wonder if its a port from one format over to blu-ray just to make more money.

In case anyone asks. I have a ps3 hdmi hooked up to a 1080p lcd 47 inch.

So anyone else see the quality vary from film to film?

Was your blue ray much better then what the DVD version would be?

[andromeda_dan]

other than the much better definition of blue ray, is the blueray version filled with more interview, out takes, etc..than the DVD version?

[Synergi]

Was your blue ray much better then what the DVD version would be?

The sharpness varies. most scenes are awesome, its mostly the arctic scenes I'm speaking of. I would say the blu-ray is slightly better. Using an convert dvd player on a tv under 50 inches, I don't think you'll notice a difference worthy of 10. I know some will say get your eyes checked and I wonder are they convincing themselves its that much better then an up convert dvd. Don't get me wrong, like I said, it really looks great save for the arctic scenes and the extras. The extra's were SD and looked terrible on 1080p..

other than the much better definition of blue ray, is the blueray version filled with more interview, out takes, etc..than the DVD version?

No they have the same extra's as the dvd.

[Bee11]

In case anyone asks. I have a ps3 hdmi hooked up to a 1080p lcd 47 inch.

So anyone else see the quality vary from film to film?

i THINK i could be wrong but i think the lead you use to connect the ps3 to the tv makes a difference
my boyfriend insisted on getting a gold plated one rather than a cheap average one and his tv it pretty impressive

[Synergi]

i THINK i could be wrong but i think the lead you use to connect the ps3 to the tv makes a difference
my boyfriend insisted on getting a gold plated one rather than a cheap average one and his tv it pretty impressive

Thanks for the advice Bee. I'll have to check to see what I have back there. I'm finding it really varies film to film. Like Animation movies make your eyes bleed its so detail and the movie 300 is so grainy I would stick to dvd. Contiuum was sharp except again for the arctic scenes. I've without a doubt seen tons better right on discover channel hd.

[g8tr]

I can say I didn't have the darkness issue you had. Are you upconverting your DVD's?

I'm not the smartest with technology stuff, and would really appreciate help if I can see this movie better! But from what folks are writing, are these DVDs not high-def? Only the blu-ray are hi def? My DVD players both say "digital out" with the DTS symbol. So, that's not SD, right?

I watched AoT from the satellite video on demand, and that was good, and the HD tv stations are good. Oddly enough, the only other DVD that I recall being dark was the one with the "Solitudes" episode, but it was just that one ep, and it was a low-light thing, I figured. Still, not as bad as this movie, which is dark throughout, and really bad during the "extraction" scenes and all of the ones in the storage hold on the ship, which was dark anyway.

I recall that when we got the satellite dish, my husband went to an electronics store and bought "better" cabeling to connect everything up, too, so there must be something to that.

[Synergi]

I'm not the smartest with technology stuff, and would really appreciate help if I can see this movie better! But from what folks are writing, are these DVDs not high-def? Only the blu-ray are hi def? My DVD players both say "digital out" with the DTS symbol. So, that's not SD, right?
.

There are quite a few dark scenes in the movie but none of them were so dark that I had to adjust the set to see anything. When I say upconverting, you need a dvd player that does upconversion. Best thing to do is to look at the player. A lot of times they will say upconvert/upconversion right on the machine. If it doesn't, the next step is to get the model number and look it up on the net. I'll be happy to help you search if you post the model. A dvd thats not upconvert is not going to be very sharp. A good upconvert dvd player can make it really hard to tell on movies what is HD and what isn't.HD really shines with high detail animations.

Let me know what you find out about the player. I don't think digital out (dvd's are digital) is going to matter if the player doesn't upconvert the signal.

[Ugly Pig]

I'm not the smartest with technology stuff, and would really appreciate help if I can see this movie better! But from what folks are writing, are these DVDs not high-def? Only the blu-ray are hi def?

There's no such thing as a DVD with high-def video. If you want your disc to have HD video, you have to go Blu (or HD DVD, except that format is long dead now).

My DVD players both say "digital out" with the DTS symbol. So, that's not SD, right?

That has nothing to do with the video, only the output of the audio.

[hisg1fans]

I have a 50" Pioneer Elite with upconversion to 1080 (HDMI cables). I have a Toshiba HD DVD player (yes it sucks losing a technology war ), so I've just been buying SD DVDs and enjoying the upconversion. Sometimes I could notice big differences on HD DVDs, sometimes I couldn't. My Yamaha sound system handles most any sound, so that is good. I just wish they would have standardized the sound on TV/DVD like they did video.

I was extremely disappointed in the Arctic scenes as well. After reading stories about filming up north, I was expecting to see Discovery HD type scenes too. Even scenery on upconverted movies is usually astounding. From what I could see, they could have CGI'd the whole arctic thing to look like what I was seeing. I was hoping to hear the Blu-Ray was much better as I'm trying to decide if I want to buy one or just do the upconvert thing for a while. Sounds like it wasn't any better. Good to know.

Many scenes were very dark. There is one scene where the 1939 sailor gets shot, falls to the ground and supposedly you can see blood oozing out onto the deck. The only reason I know this is because MW talked about it on the commentary. I never did see any blood and I rewound several times to try and find the blood. There were two or three other things mentioned on the commentary that were supposed to look great in 'high-def' that I couldn't see. Maybe I'm spoiled now that I've only watch HD for over two years and can't tell the difference any more. But, not all of the 'dark' scenes had mentions like this. Don't understand the dark. BW did mention he liked Sam, Cam and Daniel standing in the dark so you couldn't see their faces coming into the President's bunker. Maybe the dark was a style thing.

I noticed in Ark of Truth, the lighting seemed much harsher than normal, many times totally garish and distracting, and I wondered if it had something to do with using different cameras/equipment to make the movie. I didn't notice the harsh lighting on Continuum, just the disappointing Arctic and darkness.