[tyger]

So I'm running xbmc 10.1 on a 5 year old asus laptop via VGA cable to a 42'' samsung 1080p 60hz tv. ok the question is i often download movies of 1080 and 720p resolution at only 700mb file size outside of better quality audio outside of dts and dd am i loosing alot in terms of video quality.

[Mallet21]

Yes....700mb is quite low. Download a higher bit rate encode (5gb-10gb) and see if you can tell the difference. My guess is that you will find a very noticeable difference.

[Atomic Zombie]

Its night and day. If I have it, I always rip the bluray disk, thast usualy is around 12gb for a uncompressed rip.

[tyger]

ok thanks, i will have to stick to the lower resolution then for a while then, I'm downloading movies at less than a gig/per sec so to get a higher encode it will take forever to accomplish this thanks for the needed info

[voochi]

It is counter-productive to encode 720p and 1080p movies at such small sizes, the picture quality will be much worse than if you had just encoded at say 720x304

Remember higher resolution does not mean better quality.

[Balinus]

I download at ~200kb/s and I just wait for it to complete. no need to d/l at a gb/s to have higher encoded movies.

[T800]

I get 175kb/s max, a 720p 4.5GB file takes about 7 hours to download and a blu-ray rip takes about 40-50 hours for about 35GB.
imo 700mb 720p look like garbage.

[>>X<<]

I feel your pain when it comes to broadband speed which is why mine are schedule to download through the night

If your speed is really that bad then go for P2P BDRips at just over 1.5GB they should be very good quality I say P2P rips as they use a resolution with a width of 720, scene BDRips use a slightly lower resolution but it does have an impact on PQ

[hick]

700mb is about 5x worse than watching a DVD...I cant even watch a 700mb movie on a 17" monitor.

@guy who said blu-ray is 12gb I dont think you have ever touch a blu-ray disk. I have never seen one that small. I think the smallest untouched stream I have pulled off a dvd was over 18gb, Usually over 22.

[tyger]

i would have to disagree to the 700mb is worse than dvd remark I've watched both a rip from a blu ray at 700 and a rip from a dvd at 700 and i have alot less pixelation on the bluray rips than on the dvd rips. As far as the GB/s i bet its very few people who get those types of speeds i meant mb/s it would make a heck of a difference when it comes to download time..... But it seems as if you get what u wait for. So ill get a 720p copy of the expendables tonight at about 5-8 gigs and see if i can see an extraordinary difference in picture quality

[>>X<<]

To check quality why not just download a sample or just the first one or two Rars save you wasting your time ?

On a 42" screen the ones I suggested would look good not as good as 720p but better or equal to an original dvd

[tyger]

Did a comparison with a hd tv show 176 mb avi vs 658 mb mkv of the same show .....and yes it was a huge difference the colors were a lot sharper and almost no pixelation so Im sold bigger files here I come

[BORIStheBLADE]

For stuff that I have downloaded usually SD looks ok at 700mb. With HD I have files from 4-5 gigs that look really good.

[>>X<<]

Did a comparison with a hd tv show 176 mb avi vs 658 mb mkv of the same show .....and yes it was a huge difference the colors were a lot sharper and almost no pixelation so Im sold bigger files here I come

Comparing TV rips is not the same as comparing movies when the source for the movie was originally BluRay 1080p

Of course it goes without saying HD will always look better but on 42" screens the difference isn't massive unless your sitting really close to your screen

[tyger]

yea i bet i tried to watch a 1080 movie on my acer aspire 5610 but it won't play in sync with the movie and the 720 plays just fine at 4k bitrate so ill have to stick with 720 unless i get a new laptop...... unless I'm doing something wrong the onboard graphic is an intel 945gm