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DVD can still deliver!

I disagree with Mark Craven on the quality of the DVD picture (Digital Copy, HCC #340). I have a JVC N5 4K projector aimed at an 8ft-wide CinemaScope screen with a viewing distance of 11ft and a 4K Panasonic player.

I was concerned that my old DVDs would look terrible upscaled to 4K but the majority look fine and some look even better than on my last HD-only projector, in particular my Thunderbirds boxset and a lot of BFI's British Transport Films. The 4:3 pictures are about 4ft 6ins wide. One revelation is the 1961 Rock Hudson film Come September, shown at full 8ft-wide CinemaScope ratio - it outperforms some of my Blu-rays for detail and clarity.

Admittedly, the DVDs are never going to look as good as a UHD disc but I certainly will not be getting rid of them, particularly as most are not available in HD.
David Simpson

Mark Craven replies: I didn't want that column to come across as a take-down of the entire DVD format, as a) when it first launched, it was brilliant, and b) my DVD copy of Brewster's Millions of course isn't indicative of the quality of DVDs in general. As with Blu-rays and 4K Blu-rays, image quality varies from disc to disc.

However, times have changed and improvements in encoding, resolution, dynamic range and colour handling are beginning to make my DVD collection which I've been slowly trimming down - look long in the tooth.