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I recently bought a multi-season DVD set of a TV series that originally aired in HD. To my disappointment, the episodes on the DVDs only had a resolution of 480p. Not surprizing, they look really horrible on my 4k TV.

In light of so many TV series only being available on DVD, is there a way to check ahead of time what the resolution on the disk is? I usually buy on eBay so the product descriptions usually lack detail.

Also, why would a studio release a TV series shot in HD and only offer a resolution of 480p (as opposed to 720p)?

Thanks for your help. I'm brand new to this as you can probably tell.

By the DVD Video specification, the maximum resolution (in North America or anywhere the NTSC TV standard is used) is 480 horizontal lines of resolution.

Regular blu-rays allow for 1080 horizontal lines of resolution.

4K UHD blu-rays allow for 2160 horizontal lines of resolution.

Despite the fact that CDs, DVDs, blu-rays, and UHDs are all about 5-inch plastic discs, the way and amount of data that can be stored on them is dramatically different. As such, on commercially produced DVDs, you're only ever going to get standard definition video (aka 480p). You have to buy blu-rays to get high definition stuff.

As for why, I can speculate. The prices on DVDs are typically lower than that of blu-rays, which is typically lower than that of 4K UHDs. Even if a show or a movie is shot at very high resolution, they'll release lower resolution versions on DVD just so it is available at a lower price point for people who don't care or can't benefit from the higher priced, higher resolution options.The unfortunate side effect is the marketplace is messy with multiple versions of the same thing that require the buyer to be able to sort out the differences.

Look for the DVD logo (_NOT_ the Blu-ray logo) and the back cover should list the DVD region/format.

Try to buy the PAL/European/Region 2 version to potentially get 96 more lines of resolution.