HD-DVD & Blu-Ray

[Blake1214]

I have been watching Blu-Rays for almost a year now since getting the PS3. I remember, the very first time watching, I was able to tell a difference between its picture quality vs. that of normal DVD. Now, it seems harder and harder to differentiate.

I have also been watching a lot of HD channels on DirecTV. From ESPN, Discovery, to club1080. Any of those blows the Blu Ray away in terms of pictures clarity. Sometimes, you literally feel like you can touch the people on TV. I'm confused as to why that is since the HD channels offered from DirecTV are 1080i while Blu Ray are 1080P. Has anyone else experienced the same and does anyone know why?

[curtis]

What is the native resolution of your HDTV?

[Blake1214]

The TV is 1080i. I was at my friend's house this weekend and we were watching Pirates of the Carribean in Blu Ray on his HDTV which is 1080p and did not find much difference either. But yet, when we watched HD channels on his satellite (Dish Networks), it was extremely clear. I haven't calibrated my TV using DVD like AVIA but I would think this has to do with resolution rather than color calibration?

[curtis]

I am not well versed in this stuff, but I am learning. My guess it has to do with the scalers that are involved, as well as the movie itself.

HD channels are broadcast is 720p or 1080i.

[Blake1214]

Yeah, that would be my guess too. Upon further "googling" into this topic, it seems like there are others experiencing the same issues as well.

http://www.avforums.com/forums/archi.../t-488715.html

I'm pretty sure the movies are being downscaled to the 480p for some reason. The games looks awesome though. Just when playing movies..

[debo]

Take a look at the sharpness setting on the tv turn it all the way down, you might be seeing film grain.

[robruffo]

Check the settings on your PS3 - by default, they only output 480i, and must be set to allow 1080p, 1080i, etc. HD television is WAY less sharp than Blu-Ray from a PS3 - there is something wrong here. Also, you **MUST** use HDMI cables to get HD output from PS3. Good news is Monoprice.com sells them for $10, and they work as well as Monster $200 ones. Monster stands for "monstrously overpriced".

[Fantom]

Old thread, but here's 2 cents.

One reason that DVDs might be looking better is that the PS3 upconverts DVDs to 1080p (as of about a year ago). As to HDTV looking superior, robruffo is right in that Blu-ray should look far better.

HDTV is 15-17mbps mpeg-2 video @ 1280x720p or 1440x1080i.
Blu-ray is around 30-40mbps avc or vc-1 video @ 1920x1080p.

An upconverted DVD will look smooth and will interpolate the chroma subsampling (from the 4:1:1 NTSC encoding), but won't have any new real detail.

You cannot get HD from the supplied standard def PS3 cable. However, you do NOT need HDMI to get HD. You can also get the component PS3 cable (red, green, blue for video and then red, white stereo audio).

Also, there are display settings to allow 480i/p, 720p, 1080i/p. Movies, games, and the XMB (PS3 menu) all use these same settings.

A 1080i TV *MIGHT* not accept a 720p signal, which would force 720p games down to standard def 480i/p. However, a 1080p movie will playback at 1080i no problem.

As for which HDMI cable to get, there are other threads in many places around the net. I'd be warry of $10 cables if you want 1080p and are going more than 6ft (as a very general rule since the cat 1 spec only requires 1080i capabilities). But, ~$15-$25 from monoprice or bluejeans will do just fine until 50ft or so.