HD downloads vs Blu-ray question - Blu-ray Forum

Smallville206 · 09-21-2007, 02:27 AM

What is the quality of a HD downloaded movie versus Blu ray. I'm no where near as knowledgeable as you guys and I'm in a debate on another forum with people high on downloaded videos versus disc media.

scragham · 09-21-2007, 02:30 AM

how large (or small) a screen are you watching on?

and how good (or crappy) is your audio setup?

my understanding is that for example, the stuff from xbox live is 720p and fairly compressed. and it obviously doesn't have HD audio.

Smallville206 · 09-21-2007, 02:40 AM

It's more of a general question as I have people arguing there is no noticable difference between the two and that HD is HD. I wasn't sure how much the Live stuff was compressed.

reiella · 09-21-2007, 02:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Smallville206

It's more of a general question as I have people arguing there is no noticable difference between the two and that HD is HD. I wasn't sure how much the Live stuff was compressed.

Ah that's a nature of folks failing to realize what compression does to a moving picture.

An easy way to break that myth, show them YouTube videos.

[ edit / add ]
If they still fail to see the difference, just shake your head and walk away.

Anthony P · 09-22-2007, 05:20 PM

HD is not HD. There are many flavours (720p, 1080i, 1080p -to name the most popular) (i.e. many different picture resolutions and interlaced or not).

The only (legal movies) HD downloads tend to be 720p while BD is 1080p (a lot more detail)

When you get past that it gets even more complicated. 720p or 1080p is a hell of a lot of information to pass so it becomes compressed. Compressing ruins the information (detail which is why you go to HD) and the more compressed it is the more compression artefacts there will be.

Even then (but not discussing the picture) there are other stuff like most BDs use lossless audio….

scott1256ca · 09-22-2007, 05:29 PM

Most dual layer BD's run between 30 and 40Gb. Of that I'd expect (but haven't checked) that the main feature would run between 25 and 35 Gb. These are all 1920x1080 transfers. The legal downloads that I'm aware of are 1280x720 (which is less than 1/2 the number of pixels, and are under 9Gb. While I'm sure some of these look quite good, there is no way they can compress that much without losing detail. On my system (1920x1080 projector), I can easily see the difference between a 1080 image and a 720 image, if the 1080 is sharp. Even after downrezzing to the 720p mid-def movies, compressing to 9G or less will cause artifacting that you won't (or at least shouldn't) find with a good BD disk. Those artifacts include posterization and macroblocking amongst others.

Grain may also be filtered out to make the 720 movie easier to compress. Some might think that is a bonus. I'd rather the transfer was true to the original than filtered.

jorg · 09-22-2007, 05:56 PM

haha hd is hd that funny but i gusse it is for pople who run 600$ vizo tvs dosent take a 3 grand por more tv to tell diff from 1080p from 720p and if there saying hd is hd your should say somthing like"so if i have my dvd that upscaled to 720p it looks just as good as a 720p native shoot camera, even tho 1 is technicaly 480p" and if i remember rite dont the video average somthing like 9 or 7 mbs?

aygie · 09-22-2007, 06:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anthony P

HD is not HD. There are many flavours (720p, 1080i, 1080p -to name the most popular) (i.e. many different picture resolutions and interlaced or not).

The only (legal) HD downloads tend to be 720p while BD is 1080p (a lot more detail)

When you get past that it gets even more complicated. 720p or 1080p is a hell of a lot of information to pass so it becomes compressed. Compressing ruins the information (detail which is why you go to HD) and the more compressed it is the more compression artefacts there will be.

Even then (but not discussing the picture) there are other stuff like most BDs use lossless audio….

1080p trailers from the PSN are legal.

ryoohki · 09-22-2007, 06:57 PM

HD download often have either Stereo Sound or WMAHD sound witch run about 300kbps, on the 360 for example. they are about 300kbps WMA MultiChannel and then Re-Encoded to DD at 640kbps. IF you're a sound freak BluRay is the way to go...

Anthony P · 09-22-2007, 08:04 PM

Quote:

1080p trailers from the PSN are legal.

the question was about movies and not trailers, but noted and will add it o my previous post.

WickyWoo · 09-22-2007, 08:10 PM

In my experience, the 720p downloads you get from XBox live have crazy amounts of macroblocking int them. WHile the "subject" of the shot will look good, the rest will look horrible

aygie · 09-22-2007, 09:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anthony P

the question was about movies and not trailers, but noted and will add it o my previous post.

hey, wasn't a criticism just putting it out there.

09-21-2007, 02:27 AM	#1
Smallville206 Active Member Member since:Dec 2006 Location:Seattle, Washington	HD downloads vs Blu-ray question What is the quality of a HD downloaded movie versus Blu ray. I'm no where near as knowledgeable as you guys and I'm in a debate on another forum with people high on downloaded videos versus disc media.

09-22-2007, 05:20 PM	#5
Anthony P Blu-ray Count Member since:Jul 2007 Location:Montreal, Canada	HD is not HD. There are many flavours (720p, 1080i, 1080p -to name the most popular) (i.e. many different picture resolutions and interlaced or not). The only (legal movies) HD downloads tend to be 720p while BD is 1080p (a lot more detail) When you get past that it gets even more complicated. 720p or 1080p is a hell of a lot of information to pass so it becomes compressed. Compressing ruins the information (detail which is why you go to HD) and the more compressed it is the more compression artefacts there will be. Even then (but not discussing the picture) there are other stuff like most BDs use lossless audio…. Last edited by Anthony P; 09-22-2007 at 08:06 PM. Reason: changed to legal movies, like Aygie pointed out there is other legal content that is 1080p like some trailers

Similar Threads
thread	Forum	Thread Starter	Replies	Last Post
Blu-ray Preferred 10-1 Over Downloads	Blu-ray Technology and Future Technology	jeevez	22	11-15-2008 10:34 PM
Blu Ray destroyed by downloads?	Blu-ray Movies - North America	Antirock	51	10-29-2008 04:48 AM
Blu-ray vs Digital Downloads	Blu-ray Movies - North America	mdtulp	25	01-23-2008 06:30 PM
Downloads: NOT a threat to Blu-Ray	Blu-ray Technology and Future Technology	photorebel	48	01-18-2008 06:05 PM

09-21-2007, 02:30 AM	#2
scragham Expert Member Member since:Jul 2007	how large (or small) a screen are you watching on? and how good (or crappy) is your audio setup? my understanding is that for example, the stuff from xbox live is 720p and fairly compressed. and it obviously doesn't have HD audio.

09-21-2007, 02:40 AM	#3
Smallville206 Active Member Member since:Dec 2006 Location:Seattle, Washington	It's more of a general question as I have people arguing there is no noticable difference between the two and that HD is HD. I wasn't sure how much the Live stuff was compressed.

09-22-2007, 05:29 PM	#6
scott1256ca Active Member Member since:Oct 2006	Most dual layer BD's run between 30 and 40Gb. Of that I'd expect (but haven't checked) that the main feature would run between 25 and 35 Gb. These are all 1920x1080 transfers. The legal downloads that I'm aware of are 1280x720 (which is less than 1/2 the number of pixels, and are under 9Gb. While I'm sure some of these look quite good, there is no way they can compress that much without losing detail. On my system (1920x1080 projector), I can easily see the difference between a 1080 image and a 720 image, if the 1080 is sharp. Even after downrezzing to the 720p mid-def movies, compressing to 9G or less will cause artifacting that you won't (or at least shouldn't) find with a good BD disk. Those artifacts include posterization and macroblocking amongst others. Grain may also be filtered out to make the 720 movie easier to compress. Some might think that is a bonus. I'd rather the transfer was true to the original than filtered.

09-22-2007, 05:56 PM	#7
jorg Power Member Member since:Dec 2006 Location:Ontario, Canada Home Theater Gallery:2	haha hd is hd that funny but i gusse it is for pople who run 600$ vizo tvs dosent take a 3 grand por more tv to tell diff from 1080p from 720p and if there saying hd is hd your should say somthing like"so if i have my dvd that upscaled to 720p it looks just as good as a 720p native shoot camera, even tho 1 is technicaly 480p" and if i remember rite dont the video average somthing like 9 or 7 mbs?

09-22-2007, 06:57 PM	#9
ryoohki Blu-ray Samurai Member since:May 2007 Home Theater Gallery:6 Blu-ray collection:6 Blu-ray reviews:8 Trading Score:5	HD download often have either Stereo Sound or WMAHD sound witch run about 300kbps, on the 360 for example. they are about 300kbps WMA MultiChannel and then Re-Encoded to DD at 640kbps. IF you're a sound freak BluRay is the way to go...

09-22-2007, 08:10 PM	#11
WickyWoo Blu-ray Champion Member since:May 2007 Trading Score:2	In my experience, the 720p downloads you get from XBox live have crazy amounts of macroblocking int them. WHile the "subject" of the shot will look good, the rest will look horrible

Best Blu-ray Movie Deals