Superbit movies on TNT HD ?

[johnnnybrauvo]

I've noticed that TNT HD usually looks crappy when watching normal series . Like..the Pretender or The Lost World ( yeah..I know..old shows... )

But I was suprised when I saw the PQ of 'The Fifth Element' one day .

It was by far the best looking movie , or for that matter , the best looking ANYTHING I've seen on TNT HD .

Ever.

But Ive also noticed that all the movies they show are all titles that are available in Superbit.

The Mask of Zorro
The Fifth Element ( awesome looking )
The Patriot

Well..I guess its just those three...


I was just wondering if anyone knew if they we're playing these movies in Superbit quality ?

Hmmm..I guess that'd be a hard thing to find out .

 

[SatinKzo]

I think more has to due with how those films were orginally recorded. All the movies you listed are newer.

As for superbit, I wish more DVD's were released this way. Starship Troopers has amazing quality in Superbit. Oh I can't wait for HD-DVD's.

 

[SimpleSimon]

Remember, folks. Movies shot on real film have a much higher resolution than even HD - so if a "real" film looks bad, it's because someone screwed up in the conversion.

 

[long_time_DNC]

Very true. Real film is what, 4k lines of resoultion? That would be amazing to see.

 

[BFG]

superbit coincidence means nothing.

 

[SatinKzo]

Remember, folks. Movies shot on real film have a much higher resolution than even HD - so if a "real" film looks bad, it's because someone screwed up in the conversion.

Isn't it CBS that has been using real film for years and basically almost everything they have produced will show nicely when shown on HD sets? Like I said though, it all has to do with initial recording. No amount of manipulation after the fact is going to look as nice. As my old boss used to say "You can't polish a turd"

 

[Jordan420]

I was just wondering if anyone knew if they we're playing these movies in Superbit quality ?

Hmmm..I guess that'd be a hard thing to find out .

It would not be a hard thing to find out, there would be a HUGE out cry of horrible pic quality.

DVD (superbit or not) has a resolution of 720x480, which is way below 1920x1080i & 1280x720P. If any channel was trying to pass that off as HD you would hear many complaints.

Superbit is just a marketing term sony uses, where more disc space is devoted to video.

As an example, Panic Room superbit does not have that great of pic quality, there are many movies from other studios that have much better pic quality that are not superbit titles.

 

[SatinKzo]

Good point. Superbit doesn't look good at all on a Up-converting DVD player (checked it last night on a friends system) it looks really grainy. But normal DVD's look fine.

Superbit isn't HD, but no one claimed it was. Just a DVD with all the frills taken out and as much disc space alloted to the movie as possible. Some Superbit movies look really nice and some are horrible on certain sets. example I have seen, Don't buy a pan/scan superbit and show it on a widescreen TV.

Overall, I do prefer superbit DVD's that I have compared to the normal releases. Really one of the best features of a superbit dvd is the absolute seamless change between layers on the DVD that is so noticeable (to me) on other DVD's.

 

[Rocker74]

It seems to me that the only movies on tnt hd that look good are the ones that premiered on their saturday night movie of the week thing. I saw gladiater and the patriot and they looked great. I caught a little bit of a few good men a few weeks ago, and it looked awful. Looked like all they did was stretch it to fit the screen, which seems to be what the do with the majority of their content.

 

[long_time_DNC]

Not all Superbits are created equal. As SatinKzo said, "you can't polish a turd". If the source elements aren't in very good condition, the Superbit disc results aren't going to be that impressive. "A Few Good Men" is a good example. The lack of compression and the maximizing of bandwidth are what make Superbit discs so spectacular compared to their original release. But as others have mentioned, and I agree, I have seen "standard" releases that are every bit as amazing as a Superbit re-release...

 

[DarrellP]

Good point. Superbit doesn't look good at all on a Up-converting DVD player (checked it last night on a friends system) it looks really grainy. But normal DVD's look fine.

This is not the case with my player, The Fifth Element rocks with upconversion, as does all the rest of my Superbit titles. They look a bit better through upconversion than through my DVD player at 480p, but there's only so much milk you can suck out of a cow. I don't get the grainy picture you mention, I can discern a bit more detail with the upconversion.

 

[SatinKzo]

This is not the case with my player, The Fifth Element rocks with upconversion, as does all the rest of my Superbit titles. They look a bit better through upconversion than through my DVD player at 480p, but there's only so much milk you can suck out of a cow. I don't get the grainy picture you mention, I can discern a bit more detail with the upconversion.

I think this is where it starts to get real subjective. My friends wife thought the picture looked great, but he and I both saw a really grainy picture. So to each his own and as long as it looks good to you, then that is all that really matters.

Given the choice, I will buy (or uhm copy) superbit everytime.

 

[long_time_DNC]

This is not the case with my player, The Fifth Element rocks with upconversion, as does all the rest of my Superbit titles. They look a bit better through upconversion than through my DVD player at 480p, but there's only so much milk you can suck out of a cow. I don't get the grainy picture you mention, I can discern a bit more detail with the upconversion.

Same with my upconverting DVD player. In 1080i mode, Superbit titles (most of the ones I own anyway) look almost as good as HD and I don't notice any grain, unless it's in the film itself. I think Vertical Limit and The Fifth Element look simply astounding in 1080i mode.

 

[CWS_kahuna]

Here is a nice little article on Superbit Movies.

I have quite a few Superbit movies myself. I like the idea behind them because I typically could care less about extras on most movies and if I can squeeze out a tiny bit more quality on the picture and sound I am all for it. There really is no reason for a Superbit title to look bad on an upconverting player, it actually should look better. The only thing Superbit does is encode the movies to run at a higher bit rate. Sony decided to market some (not nearly enough) movies in this "better" format. There are non-Superbit movies that do the same thing though, a good example is the Lord of the Rings Extended Edition DVDs. I would certainly like to see Sony continue to put out more Superbit titles, Recently the movie Closer was added to the format and the next Superbit coming out in the USA is a title called The Brown Bunny.

 

[dfergie]

I have the Fifth Element on my 921 , I am going to burn to my Panny E-30 at XP (the fastest and highest bit rate) on a Ram disc, then compare with my regular dvd of it...

 

[SatinKzo]

Here is a nice little article on Superbit Movies.

I have quite a few Superbit movies myself. I like the idea behind them because I typically could care less about extras on most movies and if I can squeeze out a tiny bit more quality on the picture and sound I am all for it. There really is no reason for a Superbit title to look bad on an upconverting player, it actually should look better. The only thing Superbit does is encode the movies to run at a higher bit rate. Sony decided to market some (not nearly enough) movies in this "better" format. There are non-Superbit movies that do the same thing though, a good example is the Lord of the Rings Extended Edition DVDs. I would certainly like to see Sony continue to put out more Superbit titles, Recently the movie Closer was added to the format and the next Superbit coming out in the USA is a title called The Brown Bunny.

Well, having seen parts of The Brown Bunny, it is probably best left in non-superbit format

 

[long_time_DNC]

That's one of the things that should be considered in doing a movie in the Superbit series: the story quality of the movie, not just the image quality. Some Superbit titles look great, but the story is not all that great.

 

[dfergie]

I have the Fifth Element on my 921 , I am going to burn to my Panny E-30 at XP (the fastest and highest bit rate) on a Ram disc, then compare with my regular dvd of it...

Here is a screenshot at about 9.2 bitrate...