Yes. One man's trash is another man's treasure and vice-versa.

Verb, would you say DVDs are in anyway superior to Bluray or HDDVD?

Just curious, no ulterior motive in this question.

DVDs are superior if all you have is a DVD player. They're also superior if you're making a film set in a time where Blu-rays don't exist yet, and you want to maintain a level of authenticity. They're also cheaper, and some movies were filmed with DVD-quality formats in mind. If you watch something like Pearl Harbor on Blu-ray, it's gonna look like dogshit, because the film wasn't made when that technology was available.

What about movies like Alien where the remaster process makes the BD superior to the original DVD format?

and some movies were filmed with DVD-quality formats in mind. If you watch something like Pearl Harbor on Blu-ray, it's gonna look like dogshit, because the film wasn't made when that technology was available.

What about movies like Alien where the remaster process makes the BD superior to the original DVD format?

Superior in what way?

Resolution, makes the film look more crisp which makes darker scenes keep their tone while making out what wasn't there before. The Space Jockey being seated in his seat near the beginning of the film was apparent but the higher resolution makes the burst chest on him more apparent (something that was important to note).

Superior in what way?

Um....that goes into territory of cut footage instead of one on video quality. The original theatrical release had cut footage, there's a director's cut that has all footage intended for the film. However even the cut footage not shown is considered canonical so there's no controversy over "which cut is superior". Most people simply watch the original theatrical cut, but in terms of quality, there's nothing that would make the film better in lower resolution; most of the technological achievements of the film were of practical on set props and improvisations instead of special effects.

I haven't seen Alien, but is it inconceivable that someone may have a reason to prefer the original?

I too like then authenticity of film grain, and even with modern technology it's still in our movies. My copy of Shin Godzilla was shot in CinemaScope, IMAX, and 4K and there's still some traces of film grain in the BD release. It gives a movie a more theatrical feel at home. I tend to only prefer remasters that touch up problem areas (such as the Space Jockey scene mentioned earlier) and when they adjust the ratio to 16:9 because personally I feel pillar-boxing is really ugly and letter-boxing is useful for individuals who want subtitles on.

I have the Alien Anthology on Bluray, I'll probably watch it tomorrow and see how much of the grain has remained. I wasn't in particular watching for it my first viewing since I got in on BD, but I do recall the DVD master from the Alien Quadrilogy DVD boxset I have was riddled with grain and the movie was almost unwatchable. Part of that was because it also had a greenish tint in very very dark scenes, I obviously was never able to see the film in theaters but I would hope that the tint wasn't there as it really brought down the quality of the movie.

I tend to prefer film grain and other imperfections because it takes me back to the time period.