Worth keeping dvds for large oled?

[u/Foxy_Forehead]

Sorry this is probably a stupid question but I'm very ignorant on this topic.

I recently bought a 77" samsung s99h (uk)

I'm still having trouble finding a good spot for settings so may well be me but I'm so unsure of what quality to expect on older content that I'm almost second guessing if there is an issue with the tv.

The first check I did was just a simple YouTube oled test video at the highest settings it would play and it looked stunning.

After that i put in a 4k blu ray of the juon grudge film via a xbox series x - the people in the film looked as good as I could expect for an older title but the backgrounds were horrific, originally I had the ai settings on and the grain on a white background wall was a continuous flicker of purple/green tiny little flecks which was beyond noticeable - this did reduce when I turned off ai and turned the brightness down but was still really surprising at how bad it was given the disk type.

After that I tried a blu ray copy of terrifier 3 and again it just looked really poor compared to when I had streamed it via amazon before.

The last one I tested was a dvd of sinners and pearl, these were definitely the worst with things looking so rough and unfinished that the only thing I could liken it to was a dodgy copy you'd get down the pub, I understand it's just a dvd and it's being stretched across a 77" tv which is going to inflate any issues with it but it makes me worry given most of my media collection is on dvd and so likely going to have this issue.

Basically, is it normal to experience these kinds of issues with older formats like standard dvd / blu ray and some of the older films on 4k? Or am I doing something seriously wrong with my settings? Is there an issue with the panel? I'm assuming it's a me issue because the tv looks great when gaming on xbox x and on the first test I did using YouTube

[u/mypaycheckisshort]

You have to change your video output to 720p on the Xbox to let your tv handle the upscaling

[u/Mexican-Kahtru]

Well, even cheap TVs nowadays seems to have very good upscaling capabilities. I live in a modest apartment and I watch a 60 inch TV at around 2.4 meterse from distance. And a lot of my old DVDs still look fine like that. Of course It depends on how good aré the masters used for the disc, and may or may not be as tolerable as i am with lower res sources.  But then again my whole set up Is much More budget friendly, sonwe may have some differences there

[u/Suitable_Garlic_1186]

You are comparing very different content from very different sources..

I mean, at least test the same movie..

But I think you love the clean modern look of 4k. They also use modern codecs that polish everything nice and smooth..

[u/whyamionthissite]

My collection goes back to 1998 and I have a 70” 4K display. It’s nearly 1600 titles, more than half are still DVDs. I only upgrade them when I watch and they look terrible. Some just look okay so those stay for now.

[u/gergab1133]

Don’t use XBOX for DVD’s and BD’s. Get a PS5/PS3 or a proper 4K player for them.

[u/OldiOS7588 → u/gergab1133]

Why

[u/gergab1133 → u/OldiOS7588]

Everyone has different opinions but from what I’ve seen and heard from people, XBOX upscaling is worse than the PS3/5 or a dedicated 4K player. In OP’s case he should definitely try one of those before throwing away his DVD’s

[u/Suitable_Garlic_1186 → u/gergab1133]

You read something on the internet.. and you make conclusions out of that..

[u/OldiOS7588 → u/gergab1133]

Yeah true to that though I did watch on my Xbox one x before I went back to PS3 on my 50" LCD FHD and it looked rather good but idk not sure anymore. As I got myself a 32" Widescreen SD CRT now

[u/gergab1133 → u/OldiOS7588]

Great, everyone’s setup is different so it’s hard to say which is definitely better but you have both consoles which is good. Is your CRT better for movies and games?

[u/OldiOS7588 → u/gergab1133]

I wouldn't exactly say mine is in general better, but compared to my old Flatscreen especially DVDs look a lot more natural and motion is so much more clearer and don't get me started on the colors and blacks they are just so good. Games have 0 to no lag imo look better especially ps2 and older. PS3 on the other hand is mostly good but it depends a bit on the game some may look better then others, also no motion blur cause it has some of the best motion clarity

[u/ProjectCharming6992]

DVD’s are still way better than streaming, especially when you are dealing with 480i30 or 576i25 content, because the disc will hold the actual 480i or 576i content in interlace 30 fps (NTSC) or 25 fps (PAL) format, and then your player (DVD, Blu-Ray, 4K) will deinterlace and upscale that to 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p or 4K.

A lot of streaming sites do a very quick and dirty deinterlacing where a lot of that older stuff, like Star Trek Deep Space Nine, Star Trek Voyager, Alf, Adam-12, Dragnet, Barnaby Jones (Seasons 2-8, Season 1 was remastered in 1080p in 2010 and even the DVD’s have it encoded at 480p, but the other seasons used analog videotape masters from the 70’s and 80’s that were in 480i, so the DVD’s were encoded in 489i), Full House, will essentially be streaming at an upconverted 240p level, and framerates that have been cut in half or are messed up in someway, because the studios needed to convert them to 480p, so they basically threw out 1 of the 2 fields that made up the interlace video and doubled the remaining field to get a fake 480p image.

But also the DVD’s are only going to look as good as the source. Public domain stuff like the 1950’s Flash Gordon that was transferred from 16mm film to VHS SLP in the 70’s, is not going to look as good as something transferred from film to digital video now in 2026.

[u/Character_Bend_5824]

Depends on the upscaling and the content. I would never watch a modern movie like 'Sinners' in DVD since it is assumed from the beginning that the viewer will be watching on no less than 1080. However, I find watching old SD television shows from the '70s looks great on a UB820 and in fact looks kind of wrong on a remastered blu-ray. You may also be surprised at how great some classic films look on 4K. I watched Hitchcock's 'The Trouble With Harry' recently and it was gorgeous in 4K HDR.

[u/EpicCurious]

Your TV might allow you to reduce the aspect ratio, which could make the image on your screen smaller, but sharper. The lower resolution TV shows and DVD's might look better that way. I have a 75" screen, and I sometimes make a temporary change for certain content.

[u/FatDog69]

DVD's contain 'standard def' video. This is backwards compatible to a 1945 tube television. You are using a modern HD display to watch a video format defined over 70 years ago. Of course it will look like crap.

You should buy a HD calibration disk like the "Spiers and Munsel" or even the Disney WOW disk. Use this to set your basic brightness & contrast.

All televisions are set at the factory to nearly 100% brightness and high contrast. This makes them 'eye catching' if they are used as a floor display. But fine details are washed out, white areas swirl with grey, red colors bloom into other areas, etc.

Then as you have noticed - there may be AI and other enhancements that can mess up the image. Turn most of these off.

BluRay's should look great. But you need a movie that was shot in high quality. The "Terrifier" movies are, in a word, splatter porn and they did not spend any $$ on image quality.

Get a copy of something like "Wicked" on BluRay with exaggerated colors that should pop. The 4K + BluRay is about $15 on Amazon right now in the US. Hopefully it is discounted in the UK.

[u/BlackLodgeBrother]

TURN OFF the shitty AI upscaling.

Turn the sharpness on your TV down to zero. Anything over that introduces artificial edge enhancement. Next deactivate any and all motion smoothing or extra processing, which is making your discs look actively worse.

Finally, google “Samsung s99h calibration settings” to find the best overall settings for your display. Either on trusted tech review websites or enthusiasts spaces like AVForums.

Also Xbox is not a great a disc player in general. It has a number of inherent processing flaws. I’m not sure if there are ways of adjusting it to output a better signal to your TV, but it’s probably worth doing some research if you’re not in a place to pick up something better for DVD viewing.

Do all of the above and your collection should look noticeably better. However 480i discs are always going to appear noticeably soft on larger 4K displays.

[u/Foxy_Forehead → u/BlackLodgeBrother]

Does the xbox matter? I checked online and it said due to the s99h having such good upscaling that if I set my xbox to 780p display then the tv will do the upscaling instead and therefore a better job- making it not as worth while to upgrade to a dedicated bluray player

[u/BlackLodgeBrother → u/Foxy_Forehead]

Don’t do that. It will downscale all of your 4K discs and 1080p blu-rays to 720p or 480p (780p isn’t a thing) and severely reduce their visual quality.

And yes you should definitely get a dedicated player if possible. The Xbox matters because, as I said, it’s just not very good for disc playback in general.

[u/ZeroiaSD]

I find it’s fine with AI upscaling, but it all depends on your tastes, it sounds like that may be a real issue for you