Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Oppo BD 93/95

question, how big is your tv catbrat?

I'm another one that finds netflix to be meh, nothing really to be excited about. I have a good internet connection too, able to watch VUDU in the highest resolution no problem. I was actually really disappointed in netflix, I was expecting something better and it was basically a regualr DVD quality with no upscaling. Its not bad if you are on a 32" TV, but sitting relatively close (9 feet) to a 58" you tend to see the quality differences.

Currently only a 37 inch (50 inch in the works), but I sit 2-3 feet away when I'm looking for flaws, etc.

I think I read somewhere that at around 32", its almost pointless to get 1080p, but I think that was at normal viewing distances and not super close up. Once you get your new TV it would be good to revisit your experiments on video quality between upscaled 720p and 1080p. It would also be good to see newer movies, maybe like the dark knight or transformers where the movie was intended to be seen in high def and has IMAX parts. I've always wondered whats the point with blurays of old movies, when they were never intended to be seen at high resolution. I do buy them simply for the uncompressed soundtrack though.

I've replaced a LOT of my older DVD's with blu-rays. There is usually a big difference in quality. I visited that comparison last night with the movies AI and X-men United. One of the biggest differences I noticed last night was the DVD had a ghost image around objects that were only visible when you were looking for them. Like just next to the face and ears of someone's head. It was very near the object which makes it harder to see, unless you were friendly and up close. This is one of the things that makes the DVD images a little blurrier. On blu-ray, these ghost images were not there.

Ah I get that. I wonder it that ghost imaging is the cause from going from 480p which is the native resolution and upscaling it to 1080p, almost like stretching it too thin. Thats probably why the OPPO is so highly regarded is that its able to do this quite well, but maybe some DVDs just cant handle it. I've also had blurays where the image just wasnt up to snuff, but maybe because of the techniques used to make the image to 1080p, but I really don't know, I just remember going huh, thats not as good as I thought it was going to be.

I think I've proven, to me, that the upscaling ability of the OPPO is overrated. It didn't seem to do any better with this DVD image than the cheaper players can do.

Now, I didn't see any such degradation with VUDU's image. I'm not sure why. It seems that some form of upscaling would be applied to those images as well. When VUDU was processing the 720, I looked closely at the image and didn't see anything that looked like a 720 TV image with the visible dots. It upscaled it to a 1080 and looked very good, like I've said previously.

Be thankful you are in the US and have options. Our choices here in Canada are very limited outside of regular sat or cable companies.

I would also say to refrain final judgement until your new shiny, bigger, tv arrives. I have seen the difference on a 42" seem like nothing, but when put on a 58" TV become noticable. Then again, that 42" TV was a 720p/1080i tv and did not have 1080p capabilities. I have seen VUDU's 1080p streaming movies and they are quite good.

I'm not sure why everyone is so surprised about the quality of Netflix streaming. The service is very convenient but quality wise it's NOT bluray. The vast majority of their customers don't care. VUDU is way more expensive in comparison.

Ya I don't remember if you have to be paying for it as I have been for a couple years now. I do know the Android app can select normal or high quality which is why I was curious about how that's handled in other appliances. It just seemed like the best way to explain how one player would sound so much better than another.