Best example of Blu-ray/HD

So, turns out my shiny new work laptop has both a Blu-Ray drive and an HDMI port (as well as like a gajillion other things I don't really need but which are quite cool). I've no other HD television sources at all (no XBox, no PS3, no Freesat or Sky/Virgin), but have a nice 32" Bravia HDTV. So if you were going to recommend one single Blu-Ray disk to show how just how awesome HDTV is, which would it be?

When DVDs were first coming around, I was round at a friends and he was playing The Matrix side-by-side with a VHS version and marvelling at the quality. To the point at which he was right up close to his 19" monitor at the dojo going "Nah, I can still see imperfections", which, when quizzed closer, we realised he meant the dust motes in the air in the scene. So I'm tempted to watch that, just for the sense of completion.

 

Planet Earth

 

2001: A Space Odyssey.

 

Second that.

 

Football.

Sure HD TV and movies look a lot lot better but viewing football and rugby league in HD is awesome.

Can't wait for Top Gear HD though!

 

second Planet Earth. some of the shots in that make me wonder what the fuck kind of smeary mess i'd be looking at if i saw the DVD version...

Dark Knight is a good one too, at least in places - certain parts of that film were actually shot with an IMAX camera (which is quite rare, as there are hardly any in existence), which means some of the source material was a scrillion times more detailed than most live action films can even dream of.

Of course, disney pixar films are a top choice. some of the city scenes from the remastered blu-ray disc of Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children are amazing too.

 

Baraka.

 

Blade Runner

 

Why do people recommend movies that have just been remastered in HD? None are as good as properly shot HD and Planet Earth will show off all those lovely bravia colors (the ad's will have you believe) too.

 

planet earth is good,

some others are -

Ratatouille (this is stunning...)

Pirates of the Carribean

and quite a few others, just google reference bluray discs

 

These days, movies shot on 35mm-film are typically scanned at 4K resolution using 12 bits per colour channel. (ie around 20 megapixel). Digital cameras are rapidly getting better, but they are not yet that good.

Remastering usually means removing dirt and scratches from older film, re-scanning the movie if previously it was scanned at DVD resolutions, or redoing the transfer if the previous version was poorly done / over compressed. A properly scanned and cleaned up movie shot on film can easily compete with the best material shot on HD video.

 

Nothing else comes close.

Apart from the Pixar movies. But seconded.

 

Because things that are shot on film have a higher resolution than either HD or SD. 2001, which I recommended earlier, was shot on *70mm* film. It's still going to look stunning once TVs are four times the resolution they are now.

 

Another one for Planet Earth.

The Matrix does look good on Blu-Ray.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix has a lot of detail that shows what the extra resolution brings.

Star Trek, The Original Series was shot on film and looks good in HD. They have redone a lot of the special effects so that they stand up at that resolution.

Blad Runner is an interesting one, especially if you get the American 5-disc set. Then you can see what a straight HD print looks like with the earlier cuts, and compare it with the Final Cut which has been remastered.

Children of Men, Dark City and Band Of Brothers are some other excellent Blu-Rays.

 

Wall-E looks good too.

And how come, when watching Sky HD some stuff looks amazing (like the footy, Discovery HD and National Geographic HD) but the movie channels never look as good? Nor do the other HD channels, even when they're showing something that is supposed to be HD.

 

SD transmissions can be awful if given very low bandwidth or poor compression. I'm expect the same happens to HD.

I noticed that a lot of films on Sky HD are not available on Blu-Ray. I wonder if many of them are quick scans without much care, or if they are SD files upscaled at source (as some programmes on Sky One HD are).