Does anyone still buy and collect DVDs?

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by php111, Sep 25, 2014.

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  1. Tim Lookingbill

    Tim Lookingbill Alfalfa Male

    Location:
    New Braunfels, TX
    You don't address the edge contrast roll off on the sunlit side of her face. That image was taken of the DVD freeze frame on my calibrated LG that I"ve processed thousands of Raw files and get quite accurate prints from even off the shelf Epson All In One and Walmart Fuji Frontier printers so there's no inaccuracies that are so off that it would change the soft edge contrast roll off on the edge of Prudence's sunlit jaw line and shoulder.

    Doesn't matter anyway because last night I compared the DVD vs the BD on my 32in. 720p eyeball calibrated Samsung and at 3 ft away I can see the same soft edge contrast roll off of the 480 rez DVD vs the 1080 rez BD. The BD is REALLY more sharper and detailed especially in strands of hair.

    I was beginning to think the Apple DVD player was doing something to the DVD but it's just a matter of distance viewed that makes DVD's look softer on a computer display viewed at 2ft away. But the "Prestige" DVD does look slightly sharper even on the Samsung.
     
  2. SandAndGlass

    SandAndGlass Twilight Forum Resident

    My post was about the lower contrast give to this scene, which was necessary to avoid the left side of her face from being washed out and the right side of her face completely in shadow.

    My point is that because this is specifically a low contrast frame, it would not be representative of the rest of the movie when under conventional lighting.

    You would need to have a normal balanced shot, from a lighting perspective form this movie and a shot from Prestige that would be shot under the same lighting conditions to make a fair comparison between the two movies, lighting and contrast wise.

    The reduction in contrast of this shot has nothing to do with the DVD vs. the BD version, as far as contrast ratio's go.

    The BD version would be sharper due to increased resolution.

    See above.
     
  3. Tim Lookingbill

    Tim Lookingbill Alfalfa Male

    Location:
    New Braunfels, TX
    That's a high contrast daylight lit shot which would deliver the best edge contrast available. That's just basic photography exposure 101. Don't view that shot in the white field of the browser. That also affects perceived sharpness and makes movies appear too dark and low contrast because movies are shot in a linear or LogC contrast grade where mid gray is in the middle between black & white.

    Here's the entire letter boxed shot of the 480p DVD viewed from 7ft. away on my 27in 1080 LG computer display. Smaller screen laptops will make DVD's look sharper as well. But the bigger the screen the farther back you have to get.

    Note how the hair near her forehead looks like it has cobwebs in it. That's an artifact from low rez DVD's. The BD doesn't have this even when viewed on my 780p 32in. Samsung.

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: May 3, 2019
  4. SandAndGlass

    SandAndGlass Twilight Forum Resident

    Yes it is a high contrast shot, which would normally yield the best edge contrast available.

    But, not in this case.

    They intentionally lowered the contrast of the shot. Otherwise, the left side of her face would be overly bright and the highlight detail would be washed out. Similarly, the right side of her face would fall into complete shadow and loose detail.

    By intentionally lowering the contrast (and loosing sharpness), you can see both the highlights on the left side of her face, together with shadow with detail on the right side of her face.

    I am simply saying, that this shot is not a good example of how the film is lit in general.

    A shot with more even lighting would be a better example of the overall contrast and detail in the movie.
     
  5. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    Firmware update. Disc not playing ?
     
    SandAndGlass likes this.
  6. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    Films /Rarities

    • I seen a oxfam selling Return Of A Man Called Horse DVD for 17.99.
     
  7. SandAndGlass

    SandAndGlass Twilight Forum Resident

    I bought my 203's after they announced that Oppo was shutting down player manufacturing.

    I imagine the these machines had their latest firmware.

    Tech support did not suggest doing a firmware update when I had contacted them.
     
  8. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    Well I bought my Panasonic BD500 I thought it had the latest firmware 1.53...turns out the last firmware was 6 months later 1.63..wondering why it was freezing on the odd Blu Ray disc, hassel getting it updated ( for me at least ).
     
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  9. SandAndGlass

    SandAndGlass Twilight Forum Resident

    The Oppo's were very recent runs, since they were shuttering the doors.

    If there were some technical issues, in just playing a movie, they would have either fixed the issues by this point in time or tech support would have been advising a software upgrade.

    I never even did a software upgrade in the BDP-93, which was my two generation old previous player.
     
    Last edited: May 5, 2019
    alexpop likes this.
  10. The Hud

    The Hud Breath of the Kingdom, Tears of the Wild

    They are still putting out firmware updates. I believe they plan to keep putting out updates for 2 years.
     
    SandAndGlass likes this.
  11. Django

    Django Forum Resident

    Location:
    Dublin, Ireland
    I bought Bladerunner 2049 on DVD yesterday.
    Its been a lot time since I bought one.
     
  12. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    A really big + if you switch off player ( doing something else) when you turn on player it automatically goes to the scene you were viewing last. Only a few blu ray discs do that ..the ones that don’t a royal pita.
     
  13. stepeanut

    stepeanut The gloves are off

    The vast majority of my 1,000+ BDs have continued playback. Or maybe it’s my Sony player. Either way, it’s not an issue for me.
     
    SandAndGlass likes this.
  14. James Slattery

    James Slattery Forum Resident

    Location:
    Long Island
    Yes, and I will continue to buy DVDs. I couldn't care less about theatrical films. I collect TV shows and TV movies. I have no interest in streaming and even if I did, those things come and go. I want to own something, not be at the whims of some entity making it available and taking it away at any time.
     
    Grand_Ennui, Regginold31, Jrr and 2 others like this.
  15. SandAndGlass

    SandAndGlass Twilight Forum Resident

    I don't think that it has anything to do with the disk, it has to do with the player.

    People stop player's to do other things and then the player automatically shuts off after a period of time.

    People want to be able to turn their player's back on and continue to watch the movie from the point that they left off.

    That is the whole idea of doing it.
     
  16. stepeanut

    stepeanut The gloves are off

    I’ve definitely got a few BDs that don’t do this, but, as I say, the vast majority take up from where I left off. I always assumed it is the player, but some discs must be encoded differently.
     
    SandAndGlass likes this.
  17. fabre

    fabre Forum Resident

    Location:
    Germany
    Could be some kind of "User operation Prohibition".
    User operation prohibition - Wikipedia

    I still have my first DVD Player, a Pioneer DV 757ai. There was a nice plug mod developed in Switzerland which disabled annoying features like the UOP and made the player region free. It wasn't cheap but it was totally worth it.
    https://www.highdefinition.ch/pioneer_advanced_plug_mod.html
     
  18. LilacTeardrop

    LilacTeardrop "Roll It Over My Soul...and Leave Me Here"

    Location:
    U.S.
    I don't collect them, per se, although that's what it does end up being.
    However, many have been viewed over & over.
    I do still purchase & recently have been getting BBC/ITV shows as U.S. programming continues to
    deteriorate.
    I also like having the physical format, which has come in very handily the past 2 days as L.R. cable is out.
    Other boxes work fine. Definitely box or cable line, as remote batteries fresh & TV works, b/c have viewed DVD's fine on TV. Cable's not available for service visit for another 2 days; ripe example of why it's a good idea to have at least some hard copy entertainment on hand.
    Have noticed, lately, there are manufacturer defects on some asian manufactured discs...non-playable, when advertised/labelled as NTSC (US machine) format & universal or region 1 codes.
     
    Eric_Generic and alexpop like this.
  19. Rocker

    Rocker Senior Member

    Location:
    Ontario, Canada
    On a related note... it was announced recently that the cataloging site Film Aficianado (formerly DVD Aficianado) would be shutting down in June, which would have been a huge loss for collectors like myself. (I've been using the site for 15+ years). Thankfully though, a kind soul over at DVDcompare.net offered to take over the site, and so now it will be remaining active. Anyone else use it?
     
    Dave112 likes this.
  20. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    Find DVDs serve that purpose for me. Blu ray discs maybe my Panasonic bd player needs a firmware update to fix that issue.
     
  21. BILLONEEG

    BILLONEEG Senior Member

    Location:
    New Jersey
    "Paper Moon" - I found this
    yesterday at B&N. Great film!
    [​IMG]
     
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  22. Dave112

    Dave112 Forum Resident

    Location:
    South Carolina
    I've never used it but I will check it out. Thanks for the information.
     
  23. Bingo Bongo

    Bingo Bongo Music gives me Eargasms

    Location:
    Ottawa, Canada
    Constantly see them at the curb. Always stop to check them out, but usually leave empty handed. :shrug:
     
  24. It also has to do with whether or not the disc is Java encoded as I recall.
     
  25. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    Yes, I still buy and collect them....even more now..
     
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