Why do TV series DVD/BD add both 1080 and 480 and joined versions?

[RobAinscough]

I've been converting many Dr. Who's (both classic and current) and noticed the newer BDs would have duplicate sets/episodes in both 1080 and 480? Even worse, they would concatenate all the episodes into another one LONG video using a ton of DVD/BD space and obviously making MKV conversions longer ... why?

In all my older 480 DVD content I always convert to 1080 or higher with Topaz Video AI for much improved image quality, but I really don't understand why some publishers feel the need to include both 480 and 1080? I usually do a much better job of converting 480 to 1080 with Topaz Video AI than the 1080 already provided on the DVD/BD (ugh their conversion leave so much "noise" in the footage).

Rob.

[Woodstock]

DVD is limited to PAL and NTSC standards, so those are going to limit you to 525/480 lines of video. The BBC broadcast in PAL, so getting an NTSC disk from them already means their video has been modified.

To some extent, that carries over to Bluray, although the video is manipulated quite a bit to get older stuff to fit it.

A quick search came up with this old page describing a lot of the issue, with a map of which countries will likely have issues: Corel NTSC vs PAL page.

[RobAinscough]

I should clarify, the BDs have both 480 and 1080 of the same episodes, why both?

Rob.

[dcoke22]

I should clarify, the BDs have both 480 and 1080 of the same episodes, why both?

Rob.

I've never noticed that on any of my Doctor Who discs. Which seasons are this way?

[RobAinscough]

Most of the Jon Pertwee years BDs, still working on the Tom Baker BDs onwards.

[dcoke22]

Ah, from the first run of Doctor Who. I don't have those particular discs, but I suspect they're like Star Trek: The Original Series, which has two copies of each episode, one with the original special FX and one with the updated special FX. In Doctor Who's case, I suspect it is the least worst 'original' converted to 480 NTSC (from the original PAL) along with the up conversions to 1080 the BBC is doing.

[bmillham]

Even worse, they would concatenate all the episodes into another one LONG video using a ton of DVD/BD space and obviously making MKV conversions longer ... why?

That uses no extra space on the BD disc at all to have the Whovie format vs episode. It just changes how the player plays the content.

Even episodes where they added new effects do not use that much extra space on the disc. Only the scenes modified are duplicated, the remainder of the episode is the same. Again, it's the BD player picking what part of the disc to play.

When you look at it in MakeMKV, look at the segment map. You will see mostly the same segments used in both episodes, but a few different segments. Those are the ones with different effects. But if you rip both versions then you lose the sharing and get 2 complete copies.

Some of them even mix 1080 and 480... (Some of the extended versions. Vengeance on Varos extended is a good example of that).