Question about blow-up prints and 720p videos

[Mylo]

Recently I stumbled upon a 70mm blow up version of the Blade Runner movie. Quality was awesome, it had both high resolution and a little bit of noise, giving the picture it's "warmth", so to speak.

Now, few days ago, when I saw that quality, I decided to see for myself how do those super HD movies look, because to tell you the truth - I don't have blu ray player at home so I'm not that much into those high res movies.
The movie I've obtained is Road Warrior. MKV file, 720p, MPEG4 Video (H264) 1280x544, for the nerds
I must say - I am disappointed. It looks too perfect. It looks like some documentary. I don't know if it varies from movie to movie, it probably does, but this one, I don't know, really kills the feel of the movie. But, then again, maybe it's just me.

So - what is exactly a blow up? High quality? What was the purpose doing blow ups back then when they didn't have HD tv's? And can it be blown up more? If it can go from 35 to 70, can it go to 140mm? ...140 mm?

[jagabo]

Blow up:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/70_mm_film
http://www.widescreenmuseum.com/Widescreen/35-70mm.htm

Even 35mm film has higher resolution than HDTV. What you are downloading is probably 1080p Blu-ray downsized to 720p MKV.

[MysticE]

The movie I've obtained is Road Warrior. MKV file, 720p, MPEG4 Video (H264) 1280x544, for the nerds biggrin.gif
I must say - I am disappointed. It looks too perfect. It looks like some documentary.

They often discuss this in HomeTheaterMag. I grew up on film and like the look and the grain, unfortunately it's disappearing as the anti-film folks like George Lucas have taken to crystal clear video. Putting older film on Blu-Ray the studios have to choose on how much to clean up the grain so as not to offend it's younger customers. HTM had a discussion on the Patton release and how after it's cleanup it took on that "documentary/Wheel of Fortune" look and how some fine details were lost in the background. This same effect can be noticed on 120Hz LCDs. Sure they smooth out the action which is great for sports, but for movies the 'documentary' look they produce is not to my liking.