Thread: Full Blu-Ray vs 1080p x264 vs 720p x264

Hi there.

I am wondering about some differences in quality between certain rips.

For example I saw Avatar on a tracker as a full Blu-Ray at 46 gb I believe. I've also seen The X-Men trilogy available as a 1080p x264 rip but about 26gb for the set the 3 movies. There is also a Lord of the Rings Trilogy torrent at 720P x264 at 24 gb for all 3 movies.

I am just wondering how much the quality differs. I have a 60 inch 720p TV. Would there be any noticeable difference between them? If I did have a 1080p TV would there big a big gap between any of them? I have my mind set that the full blu-ray would be better, but I admit I don't fully understand the technology.

Thanks in advance!

Bluray Full seems that is the untouched Bluray disc. The others are the BDrip. It's the same as DVD-r and dvdrip.
I prefer the BDrip because Bluray full you have to burn it in a Bluraydisc and play on a bluray player.

The full disc image is essentially the untouched video straight from the bluray. Typically the protection has been removed and the actual video file will be the m2ts container. You don't have to burn them to play it, VLC/XBMC/MPC-HC all play these files (well they played them for me). These will look pretty much exactly like what the physical Bluray disk would. The rips are essentially encodes of this source (like DVD-R to dvdrip, as Lotr123 mentioned). Since pretty much all Blurays are 1080p, so the 1080p rips are closer to the original, while the 720p rips have been downscaled.

It's not just resolution though, bitrate plays a vital role. For example the 1080p rips I have hover around 15 Mbits/s, whicle most of my 720 rips are at 5-8kbits/s. This is pretty standard, as 1080p has around double the number of pixels than 720p. However, it is important to check the bitrate, anything much lower than these values will start to give a noticeable drop in quality!

I actually got the avatar full disc (45gb) and then recently got a 23gb 1080p x264 encode of it - I am hard pressed to see a noticeable different, even on my 42" 1080p TV. Yes the full rip is slightly better, but by so little it doesn't make a difference to me - so its not worth double the download size (and storage space!)

If you have a 720p TV, getting 1080p films is near pointless - you will not see any better quality just because it is a higher resolution. You may even see worse quality - depending how your player/tv/computer fits the 1080p image to the 720p screen, but its unlikely you will notice it. If you got a 1080p TV, then 1080p rips should look better on it.

The 720p rips are what I usually go for anyway, even for my 1080p TV. A good quality 720p rip rivals a so-so 1080p rip in many cases, although it ultimately depends on the film itself and the encoder.

An old film, which was never designed for HD, will look fine at 720p. Newer films (like avatar and lotr trilogy) will gain more from a 1080p rip, more detail and clarity in my opinion. As for the encoder, there are loads out there, scene and otherwise. I personally prefer a lot of the non-scene encoders, they seem to be a more consistent quality.

In the end, I stick with 720p rips from quality encoders for most films. If it is a film I enjoy more than most, I will probably splash out for the 1080p rip. The full discs, now that I have seen them, are not worth the extra download in my opinion. Note that this is just my opinion, I may just not be able to notice the quality differences as much as other people! Would be interested to know what other people go for as well, and why.

(sorry the post is a bit long and rambling, just ask if you want me to clarify anything!)

Hey Tony1234,

In addition to the really nice summary from marvin_00 above, you might want to check out this thread: Primer on Video Formats?. The_pwn really helped me make sense of the alphabet soup of video formats.

Much thanks Rellik and marvin_00. That is the type of thread I was looking for but didn't search for the proper key words.

Just one piece for clarification since you took the time to reply marvin_00. Would a 720p rip at say 8gb per file look any different than a full 1080p dvd at 45gb? Keep in mind my tv is 720p. I assume the full 1080p dvd gets downscaled to a 720p equivalent making the difference almost negligible?

I would say you would be hard pressed to notice much difference between those two on your TV. Even if you got the 1080p version, as you say, when you play it either the player or the tv or something (I don't know your setup) would have to convert that 1080p to 720p anyway.

I am pretty much new with the HD quality and I also find that I prefer downloading 720p b/c my computer can't handle 1080p. I have DL both and can't really tell much difference b/w them. My friends prefer internal rip than the scene rip. Too many choice to make from... :/

How good are your eyes?

There are always going to be differences when you start reducing the size since there will be less information stored about each frame. But unless the encoder did a terrible job, your not going to notice.

I run 720p's on my 1080p capable TV since I'm balancing a monthly quota and quality. I can't see the difference and I don't think I would ever be able to unless I go out of my way to see it, side by side, sitting with my face 10cm from the screen, magnifying glass etc etc.

I think I'll grab a scene from Avatar when I get home and have it in each resolution and seriously see if I can see anything. RAW, 1080p and 720p.

Wonder what the law says about providing snippets for testing. Wonder if there is a Blu-Ray/RAW version of Big Buck Bunny out there. Maybe they would be of some use to you.

The only way your going to know for sure it to see it for yourself in your environment on your equipment.

Q