Profcrab said: I still think both BR and HD-DVD are going to be very minor formats for a long time. DVDs are cheaper and no less convenient. Also, many older movies just don't benefit from HD. |
I quoted the first part truth: yes DVDs will continue to dominate for a long time. And for reasons mentioned above (people don't know DVD isn't high def, don't know what Blu Ray or HD-DVD is, don't want to pay more for media, etc) DVD will continue to dominate.
However, the second part -- "older movies just don't benefit from HD" is completely untrue. Many older movies were recorded on 35mm film, which resolves a *lot* more detail than 1980x1080.
In terms of resolution, 35mm is vastly superior to 1080p. It is possible to transfer a movie well from its original format to HD discs. However, the results will depend a lot on its original production values as well as the quality of the transfer itself. It's possible to use bad film or record under terrible lighting conditions, of course. HD isn't very high resolution compared to 35mm film, though.
A review of casa blanca from 1942:
http://hddvd.highdefdigest.com/498/casablanca.html
The reviewer gave the video quality 5-stars -- sure, it's not widescreen, but it was a good transfer from the source film and it was a high production value movie. There isn't a technical reason why older movies don't have fantastic results on 1080p, especially since 1080p is such low resolution compared to the source.
They gave 4.5 stars to The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938). It's even in color!
