I just don't know why you guys are caught up on Vudu and hulu which are just average quality streaming services. Maybe Im different, but buy based on picture quality and forget those "cheap" features
Vudu HDX is certainly not average quality service. On TVs up to 50" it matches Blu-ray quality and watching it on 100"+ it's just slightly softer (many people won't even notice - I do because I'm picky) but still retains superb details in 1080p with no artifacts.
The quality of streaming services have been improving every few months and I bet by next year it will match Blu-ray on several platforms.
People need to understand that a 1080p video and a lower bitrate can look identical as 40mbps video. I know, A SHOCKER.
And here's the proof:
Xylon is recognized enthusiast especially on AVS Forums who takes screenshots and have been doing comparisons with DVD/HD DVD/Blu-ray for some time now.
Transformers HD DVD version was 50% lower bitrate and the quality is IDENTICAL to Blu-ray version.
Transfomers HD DVD File size: 25 GB Total Bitrate (includes audio): 25.03 mbps - Video bitrate alone: 20.54mbps
Transformers BD - File size: 41.40 GB Total Bitrate (includes audio): 41.34 Mbps - Video bitrate alone: 31.43mbps
Both movies are encoded with AVC (h.264)
Reviews from High Def Digest and other renowned sites have given them identical marks in PQ as well.
Considering that HDX peaks at 20mbps, it's not hard to see how the quality might be virtually identical on TVs around 50" and below.
Anyone who claims otherwise is deluding themselves as you won't see the difference guaranteed. The fact that you want to see some difference just tells about the state of one's mind. But I guess people can believe whatever they want and if you MUST know that you have bitrate through the roof that's fine, but don't go dissing things out of bias.
And I will challenge people to recognize on "blind" PQ tests on footage with various bitrates just to prove a point that you can't see the difference.
I say this because I have movies from my Blu-ray discs encoded at around 20mbps and they look identical to originals after many tests with different personal encode settings.
My general feeling is this: if I'm going to pay this much money for a television, and for content for it, I'd like it looking as good as possible even if it's unlikely that I'd be able to tell the difference between something encoded at 20mbps and something encoded at 40mbps.
We, consumers, are paying for quality content, and we should be demanding it. As far as Xylon and the Transformers comparison goes: what was left out of that is that the HD DVD version sacrificed lossless audio (it only included Dolby Digital Plus) to up the video bitrate. I suspect if they'd included Dolby TrueHD on the HD DVD version and dropped the video bitrate to compensate we'd have seen some bigger differences in that comparison. As for Blu-ray Disc vs. streaming; I'm not buying in to something that requires me to have an ultra fast internet connection that's never busy doing other things. Unless you have network management in place to prioritize streaming over downloads or other things you'll hit hiccups in playback as soon as someone in another part of the house decides to download the latest Windows service pack (or some non-streaming movie or music).
edge, it would make sense if you could see differences. I'm not saying you shouldn't buy or have high bitrate movies. It's totally up to you, if you are fine paying for things you can't see and that occupies space that's fine. Nothing wrong with that, but I have issues when people start imagining that anything that's not pumped up bitrate looks like crap. Thats' simply not true and it's basically done out of bias.
And I compared to HD DVD cause those are the 2 highest quality versions of the same movie with same codec with different bitrates. It was just a point.
As far as audio, again, in the example of Transformers as well, lossy DD+ still holds excellent against TrueHD track on Blu-ray version. Reviewers only noted that on a specific sound system the audio was just a tad louder with TrueHD. So this tells you that even with TrueHD and DTS-MA or LPCM the audio difference is negliable and it's mostly hype. Sure the bitrate is much higher but in real life on excellent system with blind tests even people who are audiophiles couldn't distuingish DTS 1.5 and DD+ vs DTS-MA or TrueHD.
It all comes down to source and in the case of audio it's the mix and in the case of video it's the original transfer. Bitrate is absolutely less relevant. Sure, you can't expect to have
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I just don't know why you guys are caught up on Vudu and hulu which are just average quality streaming services. Maybe Im different, but buy based on picture quality and forget those "cheap" features
Vudu HDX is certainly not average quality service. On TVs up to 50" it matches Blu-ray quality and watching it on 100"+ it's just slightly softer (many people won't even notice - I do because I'm picky) but still retains superb details in 1080p with no artifacts.
The quality of streaming services have been improving every few months and I bet by next year it will match Blu-ray on several platforms.
People need to understand that a 1080p video and a lower bitrate can look identical as 40mbps video. I know, A SHOCKER.
And here's the proof:
Xylon is recognized enthusiast especially on AVS Forums who takes screenshots and have been doing comparisons with DVD/HD DVD/Blu-ray for some time now.
http://forums.highdefdigest.com/blu-ray-software-general-discussion/65214-transformers-comparison-pix.html
Transformers HD DVD version was 50% lower bitrate and the quality is IDENTICAL to Blu-ray version.
Transfomers HD DVD File size: 25 GB Total Bitrate (includes audio): 25.03 mbps - Video bitrate alone: 20.54mbps
Transformers BD - File size: 41.40 GB Total Bitrate (includes audio): 41.34 Mbps - Video bitrate alone: 31.43mbps
Both movies are encoded with AVC (h.264)
Reviews from High Def Digest and other renowned sites have given them identical marks in PQ as well.
Considering that HDX peaks at 20mbps, it's not hard to see how the quality might be virtually identical on TVs around 50" and below.
Anyone who claims otherwise is deluding themselves as you won't see the difference guaranteed. The fact that you want to see some difference just tells about the state of one's mind. But I guess people can believe whatever they want and if you MUST know that you have bitrate through the roof that's fine, but don't go dissing things out of bias.
And I will challenge people to recognize on "blind" PQ tests on footage with various bitrates just to prove a point that you can't see the difference.
I say this because I have movies from my Blu-ray discs encoded at around 20mbps and they look identical to originals after many tests with different personal encode settings.
@Bozster:
My general feeling is this: if I'm going to pay this much money for a television, and for content for it, I'd like it looking as good as possible even if it's unlikely that I'd be able to tell the difference between something encoded at 20mbps and something encoded at 40mbps.
We, consumers, are paying for quality content, and we should be demanding it. As far as Xylon and the Transformers comparison goes: what was left out of that is that the HD DVD version sacrificed lossless audio (it only included Dolby Digital Plus) to up the video bitrate. I suspect if they'd included Dolby TrueHD on the HD DVD version and dropped the video bitrate to compensate we'd have seen some bigger differences in that comparison. As for Blu-ray Disc vs. streaming; I'm not buying in to something that requires me to have an ultra fast internet connection that's never busy doing other things. Unless you have network management in place to prioritize streaming over downloads or other things you'll hit hiccups in playback as soon as someone in another part of the house decides to download the latest Windows service pack (or some non-streaming movie or music).
edge, it would make sense if you could see differences. I'm not saying you shouldn't buy or have high bitrate movies. It's totally up to you, if you are fine paying for things you can't see and that occupies space that's fine. Nothing wrong with that, but I have issues when people start imagining that anything that's not pumped up bitrate looks like crap. Thats' simply not true and it's basically done out of bias.
And I compared to HD DVD cause those are the 2 highest quality versions of the same movie with same codec with different bitrates. It was just a point.
As far as audio, again, in the example of Transformers as well, lossy DD+ still holds excellent against TrueHD track on Blu-ray version. Reviewers only noted that on a specific sound system the audio was just a tad louder with TrueHD. So this tells you that even with TrueHD and DTS-MA or LPCM the audio difference is negliable and it's mostly hype. Sure the bitrate is much higher but in real life on excellent system with blind tests even people who are audiophiles couldn't distuingish DTS 1.5 and DD+ vs DTS-MA or TrueHD.
It all comes down to source and in the case of audio it's the mix and in the case of video it's the original transfer. Bitrate is absolutely less relevant. Sure, you can't expect to have