I purchased a few "recent" various local released DVDs (Universal, Dreamworks, Lionsgate, etc) for testing purpose. PQ is very inconsistent with VIVA Video being the worst. 
In future I will avoid this at all cost (tho the low price is tempting) 
However, those with "Imported" stickers on them have much better quality.
I got I am Legend in both SD & BD. Atty barrister is correct as the title was released in both formats simultaneously (from the same master) hence the SD PQ is very impressive! Both discs even have the same chapters. Last night I brought this disc along to Mark's HT to do some preliminary test & wow on his giant screen...it looks marvelous. Almost HD na. 
Will be interesting to see the actual SD vs HD blindtest. Mark has cooked up a few nice "surprises" for the participants...
Ya have to agree on all you said Pchin. The viva kinda suck nga. I noticed that too. However, the 275pesos viva Enchanted I bought that was priced at 750 before looked really good. I have to agree the one that says imported on the side is really good. I had a sneak peek hehe on this 983 thanks to Pchin, great hospitality. While playing some movies, I don't want to look at which player is playing just to see if I can tell which is HD. I have to tell you on some movies I was insecure to say which is which. I was SCARED to be wrong.
When you start looking at buildings and walls thats when you can tell its HD. On close ups on actors/actresses faces it is so close you can make a mistake on which is hd. So the big question. How how the carabao the below 3 1/2 star pq on these hddiscs. Is it worth the upgrade? Anyway the above is just my observation.
On another note, I also brought my pioneer dv600 for testing there and I wasn't impressed. It also failed a lot of hqv test I think. I was having picture adjustment problem with this player bec I find it too dark on factory settings. So Pchin suggested to use thx optimizer on the player setting mismo. So when I got home I adjusted the player and I have to say it is really impressive, although it failed so much on the hqv at Pchin's place. What a difference calibration makes. I mentioned before that the a35 blows this player away. I tested some james bond ultimate edition again on this pioneer and it really impressed me. I may compare it again to the A35, or I will just let you guys compare in the shootout
with more eyes. Of course its hard with only one tv. The best is two tv side by side, same settings.
Lastly, what I can't figure out is on Pchin's hqv test disc, I think this pioneer did not do good on the jaggies test (pls confirm pchin, I can't remember). However, I recently bought a P....ted hqv hd test disc (Test contents are different from pchin's) and it did good on the jaggies
. IM CONFUSED
Maybe I did something wrong or read it wrong.. Anyway just wanna share my experiences and I think its better its done on the shootout bec Im not really a pro like you guys on this. Im having hard time just to use a calibration disc and all the technical language Im already confused
. This is just based on what I see on my tv. Anyway, I think on the big screen it will really show the big difference but the real market situation (mostly people own) is a 40 to 50 inch screen which I hope we can test these players on.
