So I'm about to archive off all my blurays, only the ones i've watched, and compress them to DVD5 size for storage on the MC and playback with XBMC. I want to do DVD5 size so I can later dump them to disc if I want to.
Any preference, given the same bitrate/filesize as a target, whether to use 720p or 1080p? Technically and objectively... I have 1080p TV and use HDMI.
I would convert the same movie twice and compare but the PC wasnt built for that and takes 18 hrs to do one movie!
A good 720p encode looks better than a not-so-good 1080p encode, imho.
Some people can't tell the difference between a scene standard sized 720p movie an a 1gB 1080p 3 hour movie... a surprisingly low proportion of those people are in fact not blind. That being said, you should take a demo clip (maybe something with a lot of motion in it) and encode it with various settings, and see what you like best. If you don't want to do that, I'd use the suggested settings:
2.13) Video bitrate should be as follows:
2.13.1) 720p - Minimum 4000 kbit, maximum 8000 kbit. Minimum bitrate for animation is 2300 kbit.
2.13.2) 1080p - Minimum 8000 kbit, maximum 14000 kbit, though not more than source-2000kbit. Minimum bitrate for animation is 5000 kbit.
[ Suggested encode settings for 720p ]
3.1) First pass:
x264.exe --pass 1 --profile high --stats movie.stats --bitrate 4000 --preset slow -o NUL movie.avs
3.2) Second pass:
x264.exe --pass 2 --profile high --stats movie.stats --bitrate 4000 --preset slow --ref 5 --subme 7 --analyse all --no-fast-pskip -o movie.mkv movie.avs
It's also worth considering whether you'd actually notice any difference when watching it on your TV. Unless you have a very big TV, or sit very close then you might not even be able to tell the difference between 720p and 1080p.
Consult this chart for more info
http://hd.engadget.com/2006/12/09/1080p-...reen-size/
Cool, thats a handy chart, and i sit in the 1080p starts to become visible region.
However the general assumption, I think, is that 1080p will also be a higher bitrate.
What I'm more interested in is an equivalent bit rate at different resolutions. i.e I would expect less artefacts in 720@5000kbps than 1080@5000kbps, however the image has to still be stretched by the TV or PC to fill 1080 resolution, so what ends up better? Also how about 1080i@5000kbps?
You are right I do need to test some sample, but I was wondering if there is a general consensus or technical reason to choose one over the other.
Its kind of a no brainer if you ask me go for 720p
You might get away with 1080p at DVD5 sizes with some movies but any with fast detailed scenes are going to suffer
thats the kind of authorative answer I'm after!
I've compared a few movies at the two sizes 720p and 1080p and found it really difficult to see a difference that's on a pretty good 50" 1080p screen of course that's just my personal opinion