Quote:
Originally Posted by Ryuou
Thanks for replying to this topic. Hmm...so it is only higher picture quality. I don't know, I haven't examined them intently, but from a quick look at the Blu-Ray files I downloaded for comparisons, it looks crisper but not by very much. It doesn’t seem to be a “damn I gotta get this version” amount higher. But, I guess maybe it's not the same as watching the real Blu-Ray disk on a Blu-Ray player. Is that the case?
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Well, I can't speak for the downloads, because I have no idea what they were like. But are you comparing the Blu-Rays to the
DVDs or to the HDTV broadcast (fansubs)? The DVDs, to me, always felt soft/blurry. Even the credits were obviously scaled down from the HD source and so didn't look sharp at all. There wasn't really any problems with artifacting, but the show just seemed to lack some of the sparkle I remembered when watching originally. And then I got the Blu-Ray box and played them on my HDTV, and that was definitely what the show was missing to me. It looks great in 1080p; everything is sharp and crisp, and all the little details come shining right through. One telling scene for me is the OP scene where you see the wagon way off in the distance -- it's tiny, but every detail is there as it moves along the vast landscape. That's sort of what's lost at DVD resolution.
In any case, though, I feel like this one of those "can you really tell the difference with HD" / "are DVDs good enough" questions. This is like my sister who always watches TV shows in SD even though we have an HD tuner box and HD channels because she just doesn't care. It may just be one of those "if I have to explain to you why native HD shows look better in HD, then you probably won't get it" sorts of things. Maybe you either see it or you don't. To me, it was really obvious.
Edit:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Vexx
I just don't know that Spice&Wolf had the "eyeglitter" that would make Blu-ray very noticeable.
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I guess, to me, the "eyeglitter" was in the backgrounds. Some of those were really brought to life in HD, whereas I felt they just looked flat and boring in SD when all the little details got blurred over. But I can see why that might be subtle for some. To me, I think HD is just part of this show's aesthetic.
Of course, all this is really talking about the first season, so I should probably move it to the other thread... I guess we'll leave it at this for now, but we can carry on the conversation over in the Merchandise thread.