Topic: Good vs Bad DVDs in terms of PQ vs price

[antikryst]

hi. just jumped in the dvd bandwagon now as i just got a 32" lcd and a new pio upscaling dvd player. no surround system yet so my basis for good vs bad dvds as of the moment are with PQ and not SQ.

just as a background..i bought a lot of dvds lately..all in widescreen format. i just read that there are a lot of complaints against watered down dvds with low bit rates...but most of these comments are quite old. dvd prices are constantly dropping for a fact...so i just want to know what is the baseline for a good dvd. what i mean is...how much would a good dvd cost at todays price?

bought dvds at full price (ie: 300) and at budget prices (150 pesos). also bought titanic and braveheart at 299 each. now im worried that these might be dvd 5s as these are 3 hour long movies (not watched yet)!

also bought pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Mans Chest for 299 and it was a good dvd in terms of PQ and it was just 299! (didnt bother checking the extras yet) Alexander was good also in PQ (299 pesos for 2 discs).

Got some dvds on the 3 for 600 rack...some were good some were not that clear in encoding. but all were widescreen.

"the big hit" (3 for 600 rack) was not so good in PQ but this is also an old movie. saw a superbit version selling for way more but my budget version had the superbit logo showing before the movie. closer budget version (3 for 600 widescreen 5.1 DD) any different from the more expensive version in terms of PQ apart from the extras?

any feedback would be great for everyone i guess.

should we expect dvd5s and bad encoding on the sale racks? 150 pesos? 300 pesos? or are these items old stock (old encoding also) or just non moving items put on sale.

hmmmm?

[Mr. Hankey]

A practical guide of tips that address your concerns is listed on this thread.

[antikryst]

thanks mr hankey.

would you know how much of a movie can a dvd5 of good PQ fill up? some movies are short so i guess its just logical to put them on dvd5s. unless they cram it with a lot of features of course.

[Mr. Hankey]

would you know how much of a movie can a dvd5 of good PQ fill up? some movies are short so i guess its just logical to put them on dvd5s. unless they cram it with a lot of features of course.

When DVDs first came out, it was written in the manual of my very first Pioneer DVD player that a DVD-5 holds no more than 133 minutes. We all know DVD5s can hold a lot more than that, but I still use that as a rough guide.

[antikryst]

well i guess a good quality movie can indeed fit on a dvd5. its just that we lose out on special features.

[techdude]

It can depend on a lot of variables.  The source material, the software used to fit the movie into a DVD (even on a DVD9, the PQ is being downgraded, hence the rise of High Def), the director's intent, etc.

If you are new to the DVD game, familiarize yourself with the distributors and their products.  That will be a good gauge whenever you come across a new title.

[antikryst]

just got through reading a lot from the forums. also just watched alexander released by c interactive and the PQ was good. its just that they got a lot of bad feedback around these boards.

but yes it was a dvd5 (just checked) and it was pretty clear. (movie was bad though lol...not my type even if i love oliver stone). ended up figuring out that some other cheap dvds i got were by c interactive as well...havnt watched those though.

the 3 for 600 and 2 for 600 sony ones were dvd9s...hmmm.

[John E.]

just got through reading a lot from the forums. also just watched alexander released by c interactive and the PQ was good. its just that they got a lot of bad feedback around these boards.

but yes it was a dvd5 (just checked) and it was pretty clear. (movie was bad though lol...not my type even if i love oliver stone). ended up figuring out that some other cheap dvds i got were by c interactive as well...havnt watched those though.

the 3 for 600 and 2 for 600 sony ones were dvd9s...hmmm.

not all of them...there are labelled dvd 9's but when opened it showed dvd 5 on the disc!

another falsely misplayed marketing strat to get rid of these dvds.

kainis lang kasi i only found out upon opening these after a couple of months na.