Just how sharp is your eye for detail? Have you ever wondered just how much detail difference there is in all the supposed next-generation home video technology? The iLounge wanted to find out, so they gathered together Blu-ray, Apple TV HD, On Demand HD from the cable company, a normal DVD, and an Apple TV SD rental of the same movie: Live Free or Die Hard. Check out the full review and commentary.

When you read the review, they talk as though there’s a lot of difference, but to my untrained eyes the difference is negligible at best. Yeah, you can see in the cropped scenes that the Blu-ray and Apple TV HD images are richer than the On Demand HD, but in the full scenes the difference between the various screen caps is barely noticeable. The Apple TV SD is fuzzier than the DVD, and the On Demand is brighter in color than the others, but I’m not sure if it’s something you’d notice unless you were absolutely looking for it.

The Apple TV SD is the clear loser, if only because it’s the blurriest format. The On Demand cable has some nasty artifacting as well, so it pales in comparison to Blu-ray, Apple TV HD, and DVD. Sure Blu-ray gives you insane detail levels on the cropped images, but how often are you going to do extreme close-ups of Bruce Willis’s face? I don’t think the $10 difference between a normal DVD (which all upscale and look great on HD TVs) and a Blu-ray DVD is worth being able to count Justin Long’s blackheads.

If I’m going to pay the $25 Amazon price and my choice is between the standard Blu-ray release and the Unrated 2-disc Special Edition DVD, give me the extra features (and extra violence) any day. I want special features, not extra dots per inch.

Tags: blu-ray, high definition television, video on demand, apple tv, dvd, image quality comparison, high definition

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