4k Digital vs 4k Physical

[Ryandj]

Im sure there may be a few threads on this in the past so my apologies in advance.

question for those who own both the 4k disc and digital copies- how would you honestly rate the downgrade in quality on the digital to the physical- assuming a high internet speed?

thanks so much for your opinion.

[JohnAV]

Originally Posted by Ryandj

Im sure there may be a few threads on this in the past so my apologies in advance.

question for those who own both the 4k disc and digital copies- how would you honestly rate the downgrade in quality on the digital to the physical- assuming a high internet speed?

thanks so much for your opinion.

You will see what appears some artificially sharpening with additional artifacts in very bright scenes and very dark scenes even with 25 Mbps 4K streaming (Vudu, iTunes) compared to the same video on UHD HDR BD physical media. It's the extra compression involves that creates that.

Its is perfectly watchable and in some instances the 4K streaming yields a better presentation (including artifacts) then playing a BD.

But the biggest loss for home theater types is the fact that there is no Dolby Atmos/Dolby True HD, or no DTS:X/DTS-HD-MA with 4K streams, only lossy DD+ with Atmos info if your system supports otherwise it LPCM or DD5.1.

Yeah thats streaming biggest negative.

[SethRex]

Originally Posted by JohnAV

You will see what appears some artificially sharpening with additional artifacts in very bright scenes and very dark scenes even with 25 Mbps 4K streaming (Vudu, iTunes) compared to the same video on UHD HDR BD physical media. It's the extra compression involves that creates that.

Its is perfectly watchable and in some instances the 4K streaming yields a better presentation (including artifacts) then playing a BD.

But the biggest loss for home theater types is the fact that there is no Dolby Atmos/Dolby True HD, or no DTS:X/DTS-HD-MA with 4K streams, only lossy DD+ with Atmos info if your system supports otherwise it LPCM or DD5.1.

Yeah thats streaming biggest negative.

That's actually not too big a deal. I'm never gonna have a great audio set up like a 7.1 or so, and the most I'm gonna get is a Vizio 3.1.2 Atmos soundbar. So the audio from Vudu and Amazon Instant will be fine for me.

[Torgon]

Originally Posted by JohnAV

You will see what appears some artificially sharpening with additional artifacts in very bright scenes and very dark scenes even with 25 Mbps 4K streaming (Vudu, iTunes) compared to the same video on UHD HDR BD physical media. It's the extra compression involves that creates that.

Its is perfectly watchable and in some instances the 4K streaming yields a better presentation (including artifacts) then playing a BD.

But the biggest loss for home theater types is the fact that there is no Dolby Atmos/Dolby True HD, or no DTS:X/DTS-HD-MA with 4K streams, only lossy DD+ with Atmos info if your system supports otherwise it LPCM or DD5.1.

Yeah thats streaming biggest negative.

You forgot the part about poor wi-fi connectivity or if it just goes out all together. Not everyone has high internet speeds (as mentioned above) to stream or if their router is in another room, it may not be a strong enough signal.

[Fiffy]

Here's a thorough video comparison from a well known TV reviewer (a summary starts at around 19:40 if you don't want to watch the whole thing):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbKC...outu.be&t=1183

Personally, I have a hard time seeing any difference between UHD BD and iTunes 4K movies on our 65" TV from a normal viewing distance. My current projector doesn't have a 4K panel, so I cannot compare with a large screen size.

[V2David]

Originally Posted by Fiffy

Personally, I have a hard time seeing any difference between UHD BD and iTunes 4K movies on our 65" TV from a normal viewing distance. My current projector doesn't have a 4K panel, so I cannot compare with a large screen size.

Frankly you won't see much of a difference from 1080p unless you are sitting really close to the screen. That doesn't mean there isn't a difference though. Physical media should almost always be better then digital. Whether the difference is significant enough to you or not will depend on a lot of factors.

[Fiffy]

Originally Posted by V2David

Frankly you won't see much of a difference from 1080p unless you are sitting really close to the screen.

Between 1080p BD and 4K, you can easily tell the difference if the 4K version has HDR. When comparing UHD BD and iTunes 4K, both support HDR. If your equipment supports Dolby Vision, iTunes actually has a potential advantage in this respect since it has many more DV movies than are available on disc.

That doesn't mean there isn't a difference though.

A difference you cannot see is obviously immaterial. Lossy video compression is based on this principle.

[Asdqqq]

Here's some numbers I've been trying to figure out. Those who know more than me, please chip in.

Blu-ray - video bit rate: ~20-35 Mbps, audio bit rate: ~2.5-7 Mbps
4K Blu-ray - video bit rate: ~50-70 Mbps, audio bit rate: ~2.5-7 Mbps
4K Streaming - total bit rate: ~15 Mbps, broken down this way, as far as I can tell, video bit rate: ~12Mbps, hdr bit rate: ~2.5 Mbps, audio bit rate: ~.5 Mbps.

Note that the codec used for 4K (Blu-ray and streaming) is about twice as efficient as that used for blu ray and is supposed to handle motion better. For the 4K streaming info, the 15 Mbps total comes from the engineers at Vudu, and the hdr bit rate is a rough estimate I'm making based on the reported difference in download sizes on iPad Pros between hd with and without hdr, so I could be way off base, I don't really know how that works.

Assuming I'm in the ballpark with these numbers, the video quality on 4k streaming should be as good or better than blu-ray, as it has a similar bit rate (when accounting for the improved codec) with the added benefit of HDR. Or are there other factors that will make blu-ray better, like a dynamic bit rate or not even attempting to present a 4k picture on every frame?

4K blu-ray has a vastly superior bit rate to both for video quality. But if I'm not sitting in the range where my eyes can resolve the difference between an HD and a 4k image, will I be getting much benefit from that added info?

Regarding audio, the modern compression codecs are pretty fantastic. I can tell the difference between compressed and uncompressed on my audiophile stereo speaker setup, but can't and don't miss it on the speakers I've got set up for my home theater.

[Ryandj]

thanks so much i appreciate the thoughts/feedback

[Ryandj]

can anyone help me understand bitrates/compression?

what am I looking for to tell? is it blurriness or lack of sharpness compared to the disc?

sorry for the amateur question

[ndtechie05]

Debating this one too for Jurassic Park 4k - getting the physical discs and watching since they are non-DV or using the 4k stream.