I've just gotten my first Blu Ray player. It is a Sony Bravia BDP-S370 attached via HDMI to a Sony Bravia KDL-40V4100 LCD TV.

I'd read a couple of bad reviews on the player's handling of DVDs so the first thing I tried was "The Magnificent Seven". I don't know what the problem was with the reviewers since the results (reported by the TV as 1080p) blew me away. Couldn't wait to try my first Blu Ray from Netflix expecting it to be even better. "The Duchess" arrived and was great but I couldn't see any improvement over the upconverted DVD,

To make a direct comparison I went to the Library and was able to find both the Blu Ray and DVD versions of "Gran Torino". (They only had 5 Blu Rays.) I didn't spend too much time watching but about the only difference I could see was a very slight improvement in color saturation of the US Flag on Eastwood's front porch.

Either the upconversion of the player is better than anything I've read about or I've missed something in the setup. I let the player set itself since both units are Sony.

Should there be a great difference between the two?

Anything I should adjust?

FWIW the manuals are here:

[Link: esupport.sony.com]

[Link: esupport.sony.com]

Thanks,

Bob

I haven't seen the movies you're mentioning... but if you can't see the difference either some settings are wrong, or it's time to get your eyes checked. :-)

I find at this point DVDs look absolutely blurry, and that's using 3 various upconverting players as well as a previous high-end 480i player. I have a pretty large DVD/BD library (160 BDs & 450 DVDs), and I've "upgraded" a lot of my old copies. Every time I've compared the two the BD has been plainly and obviously better, from reduced noise, better shadow detail, much richer colors, and far sharper detail (even on old movies).

Thanks, Daniel.

Wish the current Sony manuals were a little more informative. While I still have the 2 test DVDs I'll start to play with the settings.

Bob

PS: 20/20 with glasses. :)

one thing to be cautious of. Not all DVDs are mastered of equal quality. Some look great, some look like junk. Same can be said for Blu Ray. One of the first blu rays I saw was Superbad. I'm not sure if they were referring to the video quality or what but can say, I've seen properly done DVD look better.

All that being said, I'd check your settings.

FWIW The best Blu Rays I have seen have been recent animated features. You might try getting one to make the comparison. That said, I have a Samsung 2500 which has a very good upconverting chip and while I can tell the difference (I am displaying on a 65 inch plasma) it is not so great that I avoid source material on DVD only.

Yes, direct digital transfers (ie. computer animation) are very, very good. Even on DVD, but even an absolutely perfect upconverted DVD can't hold a candle to even a middling BD. I haven't bought a DVD (except for TV shows that are only on DVD) since even before I had a BD player (I was buying discs for months in planning).