[QUESTION] Finding best quality

[-] [deleted] | 7 points | Oct 25 2016 17:33:12

[deleted]

[-] R3a1ityCheque | 6 points | Oct 25 2016 17:38:24

................................................................................................................................................................................... > CAM

[-] We1etu1n | 3 points | Oct 25 2016 17:38:42

I'd say it's a bit more like

Bluray > 1080p Amazon WEBRip > 1080i HDTV (if not upscaled) > 720p WEB-DL > 720p Hulu WEBRip > 720p HDTV > 1080p WEB-DL > Good Re-Encodes > DVDrip > 480p WEB-DL, 480p WEBRip > Netflix WEBCap > Bad Re-Encodes > x265/HEVC Encodes (such as Joy)

[-] [deleted] | 1 points | Oct 25 2016 17:48:10

[deleted]

[-] We1etu1n | 1 points | Oct 25 2016 17:54:13

I usually watch cartoons and 1080p WEB-DL looks great, but I know for live action, 720p looks considerably better. Good re-encodes is also pretty ambiguous, so I put the 1080p WEB-DL higher than good re-encodes for those reasons.

[-] jodorowsthesky | 2 points | Oct 26 2016 14:41:01

what makes you think 720p 'looks considerably better' than 1080p.And what's with the hate for HEVC?

[-] We1etu1n | 2 points | Oct 26 2016 17:14:10

Most HEVC encoders starve videos way too much from bitrate to the point 720p has more detail than them. Good HEVC encoding would fall under good re-encodes.

iTunes' bitrate for 1080p (5100k) is not enough to keep 1080p from looking blocky in high motion. iTunes also has noise issues, bad audio encoding sometimes, and the 1076p glitch. I always prefer real Amazon 1080p WEBRips (not WEBCaps) over the 1080p WEB-DL.

[-] justacasual | 1 points | Oct 26 2016 08:43:51

480 are better than joy encodes?

[-] We1etu1n | 1 points | Oct 26 2016 17:14:35

anything is better than joy.

[-] Falxifer | 4 points | Oct 25 2016 16:31:36

You can do a boolean search: I usually google something like

name.of.show.S01E01 1080p x264 -torrent

the minus symbol removes torrent links; you can add filehost names you use also (rapidgator, mega etc.)

[-] TJHookerWithAPenis | 3 points | Oct 26 2016 06:57:43

It depends on the resolution and bitrate. 1080p is supposed to mean 1080 pixels high but in ripped files usually means 1080 pixels across and like 800 pixels high, which is more like 720p. If a "720p" rip is only 720 pixels across, it's closer to 480p in height.

But larger resolution doesn't necessarily mean better quality unless it has a higher bitrate. If given the choice between a 720p rip and a 1080p rip where both are the same bitrate, the 720p will have more color and contrast data for fewer pixels (and thus a better picture, if not blown up huge) while the 1080p will have less robust picture data spread out over many more pixels.

If you full screen a 720 it will need to scale up more to fill a large display so it will lose clarity. Compared to a good quality 1080 it probably won't look as good, however it could be on par or better than a low quality 1080. On a smaller notebook display the 720 would likely be good enough since the 1080's benefits might not be as apparent.

Sometimes you can infer picture quality by file size, like say a 10GB 1080p rip vs a 3GB 720p, but when the file sizes are closer things like high quality 6 channel sound and/or a second audio track (commentary, another language...) will count against the data available to the picture and could make a significant difference.

Something like Steven Universe (more basic color pallette and higher contrast) is likely not going to benefit a whole lot from a ton of picture data, while something like Prisoners (lots of night scenes with more subtle and nuanced colors and audio) is going to benefit a lot.

This is why torrents usually have encoder settings in the .nfo file, so you can compare and pick the one most likely to suit your needs.

[-] seanwc09 | 1 points | Oct 26 2016 15:44:41

I check it is 1920 x 800 for most recent movies. 1920 horizontal and 800 vertical.

[-] TJHookerWithAPenis | 1 points | Oct 26 2016 22:26:24

Yeah. Not sure why that is. Maybe because it's letterbox format and 2592 x 1080 would be closer to the correct vertical resolution. Displays aren't typically that wide so films are downscaled to fit.

[-] micycle1 | 1 points | Oct 25 2016 19:20:12

Search it on a torrent site and organise by size.

[-] thenicob | 0 points | Oct 25 2016 16:30:23

i'd say the bigger the file the better the quality?!

[-] Daamus | 6 points | Oct 25 2016 21:40:27

thats not always true though. it mostly depends on the source material. 3 gig blu ray rip is going to have better quality than a 3 gig cam, just an example

[-] thenicob | 0 points | Oct 25 2016 22:26:53

i've never seen a cam rip higher than ~800 mb tbh..