iTunes (etc.) vs DVD for SD video?

[Dakota A.]

I feel like iTunes video, in general, is abysmal compared to DVD and/or Blu-Rays. They're too stingy with bit-rates leaving everything looking like splotchy MPEG-1 compression. But with digital distribution being so prevalent, more stuff isn't even getting DVD/BD releases.

I would even prefer a decent quality DVD to a 1080p iTunes download. Less resolution means better bit-rate distribution, even without AVC encoding. 720/1080p iTunes videos usually have a 3-5 Mb/s average rate, that's about the same as a DVD but with double/triple the resolution to cover!

[meremortal]

Interesting comments by everyone. Haven't watched enough sd content to really make a good comparison, but I've tried to keep digital purchase to hd and 4k since it's going to potentially be even worse than physical dvd. And for the record I still like dvd and buy a lot of them at times despite the codecs being pretty archaic by today's standards. But streaming when 480p is the highest possible source element doesn't seem worth it when bitrates will put it at lower quality than the physical dvd baseline.

[KPackratt2k]

Originally Posted by Dakota A.

I feel like iTunes video, in general, is abysmal compared to DVD and/or Blu-Rays. They're too stingy with bit-rates leaving everything looking like splotchy MPEG-1 compression. But with digital distribution being so prevalent, more stuff isn't even getting DVD/BD releases.

I would even prefer a decent quality DVD to a 1080p iTunes download. Less resolution means better bit-rate distribution, even without AVC encoding. 720/1080p iTunes videos usually have a 3-5 Mb/s average rate, that's about the same as a DVD but with double/triple the resolution to cover!

It would be nice if iTunes (and for SD content, Amazon) could increase the bit rates of their downloads, especially for SD content since I've been noticing compression artifacts more often on certain SD movies (e.g. the first Zenon movie) than on HD content. I've never noticed anything wrong with their HD downloads oddly enough, then again the only content I download from iTunes is content not available on physical media. I also fear that raising the bit rates can break compatibility with certain iTunes versions since you need to be using a certain older version if you want the flexibility to play your downloads on other devices if you know what I mean.

These days I tend to prefer downloads from premium streaming services (e.g. Disney+, Paramount+, and HBO MAX) over iTunes downloads for SD content, mainly due to the fact they use a higher bit rate for SD downloads (3 Mbps for Disney+ 480p vs. 1.5 Mbps for iTunes 480p). There are a few Disney Channel movies not on Disney+ (e.g. The Jennie Project, Under Wraps, and The Other Me), so I guess iTunes SD downloads will do for those few for the time being.

[skads_187]

I had a similar question, but slightly different. How about older movies like Snow Day. A enhanced widescreen DVD vs an iTunes HD version. Are they pretty similar? I guess its hard as all digital older titles are probably a hit or miss. But was just curious if anyone has compared any? thanks

[meremortal]

Originally Posted by skads_187

I had a similar question, but slightly different. How about older movies like Snow Day. A enhanced widescreen DVD vs an iTunes HD version. Are they pretty similar? I guess its hard as all digital older titles are probably a hit or miss. But was just curious if anyone has compared any? thanks

Perhaps personal discretion, but I'd tend to favor streaming 1080p over a physical dvd unless the stream is an upscale, incorrect AR, or has bad dnr, etc. There should usually be a noticable upgrade in pq. Even the lower bitrate services like Netflix still "look HD" with 1080p material and can look reasonably close to blus. Unfortunately I rarely research these things with digital ahead of time when I probably should. However, I do often keep the dvds if there are interesting extras; it's a shame extras are usually not included and especially for catalog content. On the flipside, I've read where some claim a 4k digital stream to them is closer to a physical blu without hdr, so it's perhaps ymmv depending on your level of pickiness. But for me I've tended to want to collect digital starting at HD/hdx whereas with physical media dvds are fine and I still collect them; it seems like in theory digital sd could look better than physical dvd by using more modern codecs like AVC instead of the old MPEG-2 standard, but from the comments it doesn't appear that people are preferring digital sd over physical dvd for pq.

[skads_187]

I guess you are right! What I can try to do is see if I have something I can compare with. That would be ideal, but might be hard to do. Thanks!

Originally Posted by meremortal

Perhaps personal discretion, but I'd tend to favor streaming 1080p over a physical dvd unless the stream is an upscale, incorrect AR, or has bad dnr, etc. There should usually be a noticable upgrade in pq. Even the lower bitrate services like Netflix still "look HD" with 1080p material and can look reasonably close to blus. Unfortunately I rarely research these things with digital ahead of time when I probably should. However, I do often keep the dvds if there are interesting extras; it's a shame extras are usually not included and especially for catalog content. On the flipside, I've read where some claim a 4k digital stream to them is closer to a physical blu without hdr, so it's perhaps ymmv depending on your level of pickiness. But for me I've tended to want to collect digital starting at HD/hdx whereas with physical media dvds are fine and I still collect them; it seems like in theory digital sd could look better than physical dvd by using more modern codecs like AVC instead of the old MPEG-2 standard, but from the comments it doesn't appear that people are preferring digital sd over physical dvd for pq.

[Fiffy]

Originally Posted by skads_187

I had a similar question, but slightly different. How about older movies like Snow Day. A enhanced widescreen DVD vs an iTunes HD version. Are they pretty similar? I guess its hard as all digital older titles are probably a hit or miss. But was just curious if anyone has compared any? thanks

Good iTunes HD movies look much better than any DVD. But specific movies can look good or bad depending on the available source material. So there is no general answer to your question. Older movies tend to be more grainy than recent ones. That makes them harder to compress and iTunes often doesn't deal very well with grain. But then, neither does DVD ...