Thread: A snaptastic comparison of video encodes – from DVD XVid rips to 1080p formats

(CAUTION : Pictures will take time to load if you are on a slow connection.)

Three factors primarily responsible for the quality of video we grab are

- our bandwidth and HDD space (size of files matter!),
- our monitor size (smaller screens showcase lower resolutions better; lower resolutions suck on bigger screens)
- and our knowledge/appreciation of the encodes (dvdrips or blu ray rips or blu ray untouched?)

There are varieties of video encodes available on trackers today, from the omnipresent 700mb xvids to specialized 720p blu ray rips that range from 2 – 4 GB in size. You’ll find here presented in ascending order of quality :

- snapshots of selective prints from various encodes
- the bare requisite technical details of these selected prints

This is just to give you a visual and technical comparison of various encodes available today on one page. Mug shots have been taken since they make gauging and comparison of the various prints easier.

10) Dvdrip Xvid (700 mb)




Sonny Corleone’s (James Caan’s) mug from Misery (624 x 336)

Quality Stats :




9) Dvdrip Xvid (700 mb)




Keira Knightly’s mug from Bend it like Beckham (576 x 320)


Quality Stats :





8) Dvdrip XVid (1.45 GB)




Radha Mitchell’s mug from Pitch Black (640 x 272)

Quality Stats :




7) HQRip (DVD/BR source) (x264) (700 – 900mb)




Jennifer Morrison’s mug from Big Stan (848 x 464)

Quality Stats :




6) H264 BR/BDRip (800mb – 1.4GB)




Franka Potente’s mug from Lola Rennt (848 x 448)

Quality Stats :





5) DVDRip x264 (1 – 2 GB)




Kare Hedebrant’s mug from Låt den rätte komma in (720 x 368)

Quality Stats :





4) BRRip 480p (1.4 – 1.8 GB)




That Dude who Invented Parkour (David Belle) ‘s mug from District 13B Ultimatum (720 x 304)

Quality Stats :





3) m-HD (micro HD 720p) (1 – 2 GB)




Philippe Petit’s mug from Man on Wire (1280 x 688)

Quality Stats :




2) BRRip 720p (2 – 4.5 GB)





Justine Waddell’s mug shots from The Fall (1280 x 688)

Quality Stats :




1) Blu Ray 1080p (7GB +)




1920 x 808



Note:



1) The file sizes given in brackets () are the average sizes of files of the particular encode/format

2) The technical details like video resolution, audio, format etc. are of the video files the snapshots have been taken from. This can be used as an approximation to judge the quality of similarly named encodes. The software used for these details and snapshots are of MediaInfo.

3) Camrips (CAM), telesync (TS), R5s (R5/R5 LINE) and screeners (DVDSCR), m-HD (480p), HD DVD and DVD-Rs are common formats/release tags that have been excluded from this list. Lesser known formats also haven't been considered.

4) The 1080p screenshot is from a movie trailer of ‘the Expendables’ since I don’t have a 1080p print in hand.

Approved........ btw jenna... WHY AM I DOING IT XD

What happened to the editors XD

wow very good comparison

im just curious, why there isnt a bitrate shown on some of the quality stats, and what the bitrate is there (the BRRip 480p (1.4 – 1.8 GB) and m-HD (micro HD 720p) (1 – 2 GB) )

The B-rip/Dvdrip to xvid are just fine for me.. 700mb or 1.46gb are just perfect. I don`t own a Blue ray player nor a LCD tv, still the old standard flat screen TV and monitor for my PC.

I`m watching movies on TV from my pc with RGB cables ;)




Low level Hi-Fi heh.. or old school tech.


Thanks for images Eschaton.

Originally Posted by qwerty

wow very good comparison

im just curious, why there isnt a bitrate shown on some of the quality stats, and what the bitrate is there (the BRRip 480p (1.4 – 1.8 GB) and m-HD (micro HD 720p) (1 – 2 GB) )

Hey sorry I screwed up with the BRRip media info snap, re-posted the HQRip snap here. Tinypic confusion I guess.

There isn't an edit option so please find below the true media info snap, 480p files are generally 720 x 300 odd resolution.



Coming to your question qwerty - codec recognition software don't generally give the audio bitrate of AAC codecs because AAC usually has lower bitrates; it's generally 128k or lower.

@ Veritas - The beauty of blu ray rips is that you can burn them on good ol' dvds and watch them on any dvd player. I haven't tried it myself, but if you can try doing so I would love to know if there is any noticeable difference in quality on your flatscreen!

Originally Posted by Veritas

I`m watching movies on TV from my pc with RGB cables ;)

That's a component cable(s), not composite. "RGB" implies composite, which would just be a single yellow RCA connector as opposed to red, blue and green.
In component cables the video signal is usually transmitted in the YPbPr colour space.
Not sure why I felt the urge to post here just to correct you haha, sorry.

@OP, Nice work on the comparison I guess, in my opinion it would have made more sense to download multiple formats of the same popular movie from some tracker and take screenshots of the same moment, in fact if you feel like it I'd happily do that myself and send you the images + mediainfo output for each.

-Andrew

I really don't enjoy groaning, but that really was an unhelpful post. RGB does not imply composite, RGB is an analogue component video, much as is yipper. They are both component video signals, just different. Composite is three channel, which are brightness, hue and saturation. Not red, green, and blue.

It's always hilarious to see the encoders pass something like 1920 x 808 as if it was "true 1080p". they are never "true 1080p" or "true 720p"

"true 1080p" would be 1920 x 1080. and "true 720p" would be 1280x720 :|

but isnt that because they crop it to remove bars or something ethicks?