Are there any films you prefer watching on lower quality displays?

Spectre07 · 05-10-2008, 14:10

There are some type of films I prefer watching on my projector, a lot of Sci-Fi/fantasy, westerns, war films. There are other films I'd rather watch on a TV where for me having a bigger secreen doesn't enhance the viewing expereince low budget horror films, crime dramas and TV shows. I prefer to watch 'video nasties' on our 32" screen rather than our 36" TV, it just doesn't seem the same on the bigger screen. Anyone else prefer watching certain films on 'lower quality' displays.

Todd Tomorrow · 05-10-2008, 14:28

Not unless I'm forced to by a really bad DVD transfer. I recently watched Halloween again for the first time in over a decade because I've now got the Blu-ray and a projector to watch it on and I really enjoyed it again because it took me back to when I first saw it in the cinema in the late 70's. In recent years I haven't been able to watch it on a telly due to overfamiliarity, but the immersive experience of the "big screen" in my lounge made me really enjoy it again. I suppose it's because I was initially used to see more marginal films in repertory cinemas like The Scala in London and disliked the way anything looked on VHS, so I have no nostalgic feeling for watching films on a telly.

RomerojpgX · 05-10-2008, 14:34

None for me.

But I do move back a bit if the image quality has major problems, so in theory thats the same

as I move closer for HD.

Raigmore · 05-10-2008, 14:38

We have a 33" large 4:3 Toshiba TV to watch DVDs and VHS of older films and TV shows that are in 4:3 aspect ratio. Otherwise, we use the Home Cinema System for most things.

Livius · 05-10-2008, 14:41

I'm not one of those who needs to see things on a huge screen anyway but I do think the quality of some transfers necessitates a more modest set up. Some cheapo/PD transfers would look atrocious on bigger screens. I also think that a lot of vintage TV (The Fugitive, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, A H Presents etc.) doesn't really benefit from very large screen presentation.

Spectre07 · 05-10-2008, 15:13

I was too young to go and watch the likes of Evil Dead, The Crazies, Zombie Flesh Eaters, Dawn of the Dead etc at the cinema. We used to hire them from the video shop and watch them on a 26" 4:3 CRT. So Iguess that's why I prefer watching them on a smaller screen.

RomerojpgX · 05-10-2008, 16:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spectre07

Evil Dead, The Crazies, Zombie Flesh Eaters, Dawn of the Dead

All great looking dvds (well Crazies is a bit dodgy very old and messy), all look great on a BIG screen. Will get HD versions of all apart from Crazies, and again they will then look even better large.

As long as the transfers not trash, the bigger the better I say.

AKPiggott · 05-10-2008, 16:59

I've only watched it the once (and it was years ago) but the Blair Witch project. My mates all saw it at the cinema and said it was rubbish and not scary at all. I watched it on DVD on my own on a 21" CRT and I thought it was a rather creepy and unsettling film. Being the nature of the film (a supposedly "real" videotape from a lost camcorder that turned up), I reckon it'll lose much of its impact on a large telly/screen with surround sound.

Jorin · 05-10-2008, 17:52

I love my new 42" Toshiba LCD and Sony HDMI 1080p upscaler and, in the main, DVDs look lovely on them. But when I booted up my R1 special edition of Heat, I saw for the first time just why people were disappointed with the transfer. It's a film that's just crying out for a remaster. Seems to look better on my 36" Toshiba CRT through my Toshiba prog scan via component, for some reason.

KRW · 05-10-2008, 17:55

Yeah, I saw Blair Witch as a VHS Bootleg on a 25" TV and think it was all the better in that format. Seemed very real. Had japanese subtitles, as I recall, which made it very odd and this was well before the hype to the extent a mate leant it to me and I'd never heard of it before.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre is another one that I prefer as a bootleg. The 7th generation fuzzy/noisy copy was a much better experience than the DVD version I own now.

Perhaps a weird one, but the Sergio Leone westerns seem to me to be far more atmospheric with a couple of scratches/holes on the print and pops and crackles on the soundtrack - as though it was showing in an absolute dump of a fleapit. And anything other than slightly distorted overloud mono sound is just wrong.

JonL · 05-10-2008, 18:01

Taxi Driver should be lo fi.

AKPiggott · 05-10-2008, 18:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jorin

I love my new 42" Toshiba LCD and Sony HDMI 1080p upscaler and, in the main, DVDs look lovely on them. But when I booted up my R1 special edition of Heat, I saw for the first time just why people were disappointed with the transfer. It's a film that's just crying out for a remaster. Seems to look better on my 36" Toshiba CRT through my Toshiba prog scan via component, for some reason.

I hear ya. I sold my original one ages ago and upgraded to the special edition and was disappointed. I just hope they do a decent HD release soon. At least the sound is good.

Raigmore · 05-10-2008, 19:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jorin

I love my new 42" Toshiba LCD and Sony HDMI 1080p upscaler and, in the main, DVDs look lovely on them.

I have a 42" Panasonic Viera Plasma HDMI linked to a Panasonic upscaling DVD player as part of my Hpme Cinema system, complete with high quality Def Tec surround sound. I watch most modern films with 5.1 DD or DTS on that setup for obvious reasons. But for older classic films I prefer the aforementioned Toshiba 4:3 TV because that room is more suitable for that sort of old fashioned mood. I feel that too hi-tech a system will not jell correctly with watching a DVD of Rebecca or Casablanca.

Spectre07 · 05-10-2008, 19:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jorin

I love my new 42" Toshiba LCD and Sony HDMI 1080p upscaler and, in the main, DVDs look lovely on them. But when I booted up my R1 special edition of Heat, I saw for the first time just why people were disappointed with the transfer. It's a film that's just crying out for a remaster. Seems to look better on my 36" Toshiba CRT through my Toshiba prog scan via component, for some reason.

It's not about good or bad transfers. If there was a perfect HD transfer of a gore film like Dawn of the Dead, Evil Dead or Zombie Flesh Eaters, I still wouldn't want to watch it on my projector. I wouldn't want that emersive experience watching say the splinter in the eye scene from ZFE on a 100" screen. I'd prefer the distance a smaller screen provides.