Better than DVD?

[Paff]

Earlier this week, I was digging through some unopened LDs, and came across Dragon Inn...a Hong Kong flick with Brigitte Lin and Maggie Cheung that was a "throw-in" from an auction that had Fist of Legend. I already had the new Tai Seng re-mastered DVD, so I never bothered opening the LD (it was still sealed).

Well, I was watching it, and for a goof, I threw in the DVD and cued them to the same point. A few A-B comparisons, and it was readily apparent which version looked better: the Laserdisc!!! Sure, it's a little fuzzier in detail compared to the DVD, but the colors are rich and vibrant. The DVD is practically black and white!

I was wondering if anyone else noticed other Lasers that look better than their DVD counterparts (and how the hell can that even happen?).

Reservoir Dogs is another that comes to mind, except the LD has one of the WORST side flips (middle of Nice Guy Eddie's phone conversation) in the history of the format. But I still think the laser looks better.

This is why I'll never give up the format, as long as my player holds out.

[KR~!]

sometimes... VHS might look better than DVD as well, but that doesn't mean it is better. It is really a case by case matter.

Sometimes studios do some weird stuff to their films while remastering them and transfering them to DVD, making them look worst!

[speanroc]

if u use professional industrial equipment,(panasonic ag-1980) some vhs look comparible to some dvds, but yes some laserdisc(which is the TRUE collectors media), looks better than some , especially the laserdics released in japan...........

[horrorlover]

Laserdisc don't compress the video like dvd's do isn't that right? I never watched a laserdisc, but from the way that makes it sound, it seems like laserdisc if given a good transfer would be better than dvd.

The Demolitionist, it's an uncut special edition to boot

[KR~!]

Originally Posted by horrorlover

Laserdisc don't compress the video like dvd's do isn't that right? I never watched a laserdisc, but from the way that makes it sound, it seems like laserdisc if given a good transfer would be better than dvd.

no, the best DVD will still look better than the best LD.

[JeffCostello]

My Japanese "Dellamorte Dellamore" laser looks and sounds great (it's definitely better than the crappy German DVD). I don't feel the need to upgrade to the upcoming AB disk, "Cemetary Man" is such a trashy title.

My Japanese "Phenomena" laser looks better than my DVD, caus' it's signed by Dario.

[Paff]

Originally Posted by KR~!

no, the best DVD will still look better than the best LD.

Yeah, that's my point. It sucks that I go to an old outmoded format, with a disc produced more than 10 years ago, and the video outperforms the current format. No reason for that.

There's a definite decrease in resolution with LD, as limited by the format. But when I see a DVD that has distinctly less rich and vibrant colors than it's LD counterpart, I'm kind of scratching my head...

[KR~!]

Originally Posted by Paff

Yeah, that's my point. It sucks that I go to an old outmoded format, with a disc produced more than 10 years ago, and the video outperforms the current format. No reason for that.

There's a definite decrease in resolution with LD, as limited by the format. But when I see a DVD that has distinctly less rich and vibrant colors than it's LD counterpart, I'm kind of scratching my head...

as is everyone else, or at least they should be!

Add the Widescreen Laserdisc of NEMESIS, although I'm not sure if it's the director's cut that apparently came out as a limited edition VHS the picture is much better than the DVD

[Sam]

I used to find quite a few titles better than DVD on an older 52" big screen analog CRT tube set. Those same gems unfortunately don't hold up too well on HDTV, even with a good deinterlacer like the Faroudja. I must say that B&W movies hold up very well on LD, as do animated movies. B&W more so -- it's just a really nice, smooth image and since sharpness isn't a concern I don't notice the flaws as much and can concentrate on the movie more.

[bigdaddyhorse]

Originally Posted by patmcgahern

The Demolitionist, it's an uncut special edition to boot

Yeah the dvd for that is crap all around, probably mastered from vhs. Glad I found that laser for cheap and should just get rid of my dvd as it's worthless when compared.


I think the CAV side (2) of Crierion's Sid and Nancy looked a bit better than the Criterion dvd when I compared them way back.
On pause it definitly did, probably about even when playing.

[indiephantom]

Most of my 80+ LD's do not look as good as their DVD counterpoints, but there are certainly a few that give them a run for the money. However, in terms of 5.1 DD audio...I have a few titles that seem to sound richer and with deeper bass. I don't have and DTS LD's (or a player capable of utilizing them) but I had heard that the lack of compression made many of them superior to the DVD versions.

[Yowie]

If one has only a TV set with no fancy sound system connected, LD will sound a lot better than DVD. The sound is fuller with better bass, DVD is thin sounding like a CD. In this case, bigger is better.

[Fistfuck]

Paff, richer and more vibrant colors are not always a sign of better image quality, only different. The only way to truly distinguish what looks best is to sit down with the movie's director of photography and have him give his approval or disapproval. When an older movie is transferred, especially without input from the filmmakers, the new master can be struck from a number of different sources, the camera negative, the interpositive, the internegative, a release print, all of which have different color and contrast characteristics from one step to the next. Not to mention if a custom process was applied to any of the steps (bleach bypass, ENR, ECN, cross-processing), that information may be missing depending on what the new master was struck from. That's why it's so difficult to say with any great certainty that one release on any format is better than another. A good way to check if a lot of coloring was done after the fact by a company without the blessing of the image maker is to look for noise in the chroma areas. This is a sign of colors being pushed electronically in one way or another and not photochemically as most films are.