Remastered DVD in HD

That is the question!!!
The bit-rate for the various possible picture quality levels, even in a regular DVD is hard to know.
The regular DVD standard allows a LOT of variables in the picture quality via different bit rates, etc
aka "SUPERBIT" releases and others.
Some DVDs (thankfully very few) were clearly just a VHS copy.
Some decent, and others really, really good.
For HD-DVD or even Blu-ray they are not really doing much more than they did for standard DVD. That is, some are top notch, some just rehashed DVD with a little better bit rate, some NO BETTER than regular DVD.
Since no-one knows what bit rate each individual disc is using, or the quality of the master used, buying HD-DVD and BluRay is a crapshoot. If you got it on DVD, you are only MAYBE gonna see an improvement.
I have a personal bet going that the 'new' formats are gonna flop.
And I put my money into a Denon DVD-5910 just this last month because it will give me fantastic nice images for years, without worrying about which new format to buy... until the dust settles, and they actually DO make HD top quality releases all the time on the ONE FORMAT that wins the war.
With a great poerline conditioner, a fine Plasma, and a great upscaling DVD player, I can have it all now.
Until then, screw HD formats.
Sorry to rant in your post, but the way they have done this so-called upgrade sucks.

Hi Avraj,

The DVD format's spec is based on the NTSC format. Therefore, all source material (be it film or video) is converted to the 480i NTSC video format to be encoded on the DVD during the telecine process. The telecine machine converts the source and encodes it as a 480i video signal to the DVD master. The care and quality control in the mastering process, how much or how little of the DVD's capacity is alotted towards the picture and sound (as Elizabeth mentioned), and the quality of the source all determine the quality of the finished product. Done right, DVD can and does look very good to fanastic, but the format has it's limitations (MPEG compression artifacts, etc.)

However, there is now a more powerful and sophisticated generation of ultra-high resolution telecine machines being used to convert the source film to digital, which can include any of the several flavors of ATSC format High Definition (usually 720p or 1080i). In addition, some films are now being mastered to digital using telecine machines capable of converting the source film at over FOUR TIMES the density of the 1080i HD format. This new telecine process is "archival quality" and is being used to gradually digitize both new and classic films for preservation. We're talking in terms of several terabytes of data required to store a single movie. (Blu-ray, eat your heart out!)

I suspect the newer or re-release movies you mention in your post have been mastered from film to a high-def (or higher) format for HD broadcast and then down-converted to the 480i DVD format for the masses. These discs are not high-definition, but can look very, very good due the clean source master used to create them.

I can tell you from experience, a DVD picture, as much as I love it, cannot match the quality of the HD format. I have done direct side-by-side shootouts between the DVD and the over-the-air HD broadcast of several movies (such as The Mask of Zorro and Dinosaur) on my 34" Sony XBR widescreen tube and the difference was not subtle. The benefit is even greater on a larger tv or projector system.

I agree with Elizabeth in that I'm in no hurry to run out and buy a new blu-ray or HD-DVD player, but that won't stop me from enjoying movies in HD from the networks or DirecTV as a special treat!

Excellent posts Elizabeth and John z.On my new Marantz 1900, I actually prefer many movies on it rather than on HD cable.I just finished watching King Kong and also The Mexican and all I can say is,"WOW!".When the original program is recored in HD,then it does look much better.And this on my Fujitsu 50".

Actually I have the Marantz DV9600.:)

Thanks for the explanation Elizaberth and John. I have another question. Is it better to buy the remastered DVDs, for example, the Patriot. Will studios re-release such title in the newer format? Once again thanks for the response.