grinthock.com – A World Of Opinionation

Movie Distributors and Retailers Conning Consumers into purchasing “useless” Blu-Ray movies.

Posted on January 9th, 2009 by grinthock.
Categories: Department of Film, Department of rant services., Toy Box, What's Up Department.

Recently I had a conversation with an assocaite about HDTV’s, he was telling me about his “120hz 1080p 14bgillion:1 contrast ratio hunger saving” HDTV that he purchased over boxing week.

While this was all fine and good, he also mentioned that he purchased a blu-ray player and has picked up a bunch of movie – one of which was “TOP GUN”, and he mentioned how “GREAT” it looked on his TV and how amazing TOP GUN was in 1080p.

He mentioned in the store the sales person was  telling him how “35MM Movies shot in the 80’s are already higher def, they just needed a better distribution format”.    Upon asking others, many have been told the same.  This is clearly deceptive, not to mention they are taking advantage of highly technical issues related to the product to trick the consumer knowing full well they can’t understand this stuff.

When visiting the  store recently I walked over to look at these movies – nowhere on any movie does it say what the SOURCE was, it does not mention that the movie is an upconvert, re-capture, re-digitization.  I know for a fact the movie was not shot in 1080p digital – or in any format that can provide that level of detail – yet the box clearly said the movie was in 1080p resolution.  Well i’m sorry but that a deceptive practice – sure it’s in 1080p resolution – but at the end of the day this would be no better than an upconverting DVD player in my opinion – i’ve seen both, side by side.

Bottom line – the amount of 1080p ACTUAL content out there is limited – purchasing a blu-ray player and movies right now might be a little pre-mature – even now – the content STILL isn’t there yet.   You are better off with a good quality upconverting DVD player for the time being – wait till the blu-ray’s hit $50 a walmart.

Here is a 720p capture from TopGun,  film grain clearly visible.  This is not digital compression noise, tiling or pixelation – the pixels are intact – this is film grain.

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