for all the ranting i do about how much better the quality of hd-dvd is than regular dvd, it’s pretty difficult to tell the difference when they’re not compared side-by-side. since i recently bought the top gun hd-dvd, and already had the standard dvd version, i decided to take some comparison shots.

click through to see the results.

top gun wasn’t filmed in digital, so this comparison is good to see how the formats compare when converted from regular film which can resolve up to 6,000 lines (about 6x current HD resolution). i was somewhat surprised at the results. there was little noticeable difference between the 480p and 1080i upconvert on the regular dvd in this example, but very noticeable differences when compared to the hd-dvd. all of these pictures were taken with my canon rebel xt, and are all 100% crops:

Regular DVD played off of my xbox 360 @ 480p (i have an older xbox that doesn’t upconvert like the new hdmi ones):

the detail in the device on the wall in the upper left corner is difficult to make out, and the writing on the hat can’t be read. overall this crop is pretty fuzzy.

regular dvd upconverted on my phillips dvp5960 dvd player:

you can see a little more detail of the device on the wall in the upper left corner, and the writing on the hat is slightly more clear, but not by much. the overall image also seems to be a bit brighter than the previous one and washes out the picture a little.

hd-dvd on my toshiba HD-A2:

much clearer ridge detail on the device on the wall, and the writing on the hat can easily be read. the colors are also less washed out and richer.

you can view the full 3 scenes side-by-side-by-side here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kentomatic/2063594272/

click on “all sizes” to see it at it’s original resolution.