Home Video Asylum

TVs, VCRs, DVD players, Home Theater systems and more.

A theoretical answer

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I did some research after posting this and found the following on http://www.cs.tut.fi/~leopold/Ld/FAQ/Introduction.html -

" Here are some reasons why DVD is superior to LD:

* Horizontal resolution. NTSC DVD has a resolution of 500 lines against NTSC LDs 420 lines. This is a 19% improvement.

* Vertical resolution. While the vertical resolution of a 4:3 transfer is the same for both of the systems, an anamorphic transfer of a widescreen film on DVD has a 33% higher vertical resolution than its LD counterpart.

* Component picture. While laserdiscs are recorded in the composite domain, DVDs are not. Thus using a DVD player with Y/C or component connections avoid the need to use comb filters, greatly improving picture quality both in pureness and resolution.

* Chroma resolution. On NTSC LD, chroma resolution is 10% of the luma resolution horizontally, and 100% vertically (actually less because of comb filtering). In DVD chroma resolution is 50% of luma in both directions. Also, chroma noise is a non-issue with DVD. It simply doesn't exist.

* Luma dynamic range. DVD has a slightly higher dynamic range than LD. This makes blacks richer. This is however a small point compared to the previous ones.

The result of this is that the difference between LD and DVD is quite clear with good equipment. It is not quite as big as the difference between VHS and LD, but there is a definite distinction: I've not found one person yet who wasn't able to tell the difference between DVD and LD versions of the same title in just a few seconds. This includes several non-technical people."

So, in line with those who replied, another DVD player seems to be the answer. When does this merry go round stop?

John


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