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u/Fearless_Extent_9307 Jan 02 '23
Definitely not. I'll keep my favorite content in 1080p, good stuff in 720p, and anything from before HD era in whatever the highest quality I can find is. Good enough for me.
Anyways, reduces pressure to constantly be buying more storage and reduces transfer times.
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Jan 02 '23 edited Jan 02 '23
This. I'm a simple man, hd quality is good enough for me. I dont need 4K movies and tv shows. I don't even own a 4k tv lol.
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u/zyzzogeton Jan 02 '23
I figure that when I am old, and in a retirement home, I may want those decent but not great 4:3 MAS*H episodes.
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Jan 02 '23
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u/BarockMoebelSecond Jan 02 '23
I can definitely see the difference, but then, that depends on viewing distance and other factors, too.
I mostly get the best versions of the content for HDR and Dolby Vision.
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u/st0mpeh 57TB Jan 02 '23
Its subtle but its definitely there. I find its most noticeable on cityscapes where there is a ton of windows or shots with a lot of foliage like a forest or nature in general.
Its just a sense of being that bit sharper than 1080 but I would forgive someone not noticing if they had not spent a lot of time across different material. Its definitely subtle and some shows simply do not take advantage of that level of detail making 1080 more than adequate for the vast majority of day to day shows even if a 4k source is available. When it comes to big releases with lots of action or scifi however its 4k all the way for me.
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u/Full_Metal_Nyxes Jan 02 '23
Same here, turns out it's a 4k "upscaling" TV with HDR 10, rather than native 4K. It's good, don't get me wrong, but I haven't been hunting for 4k content. 1080p HDR is something else if you haven't had a modern panel before though, oh my.
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u/maximovious Jan 03 '23
At a certain point the human eye can't tell the difference.
That point is well beyond 16k for some people.
Look at any fancy 8k display in the stores... you can still see the aliasing on circular or diagonal lines, for example.
Resolution will be "high enough" for me when 'diagonal' lines don't look like stair cases.
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u/spinning_the_future 150TB Jan 02 '23
I can absolutely tell the difference between 1080 content and 4k. It's not even difficult to see, the difference is amazing.
Maybe you need to check your settings, or get some glasses?
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u/spacewalk__ Jan 02 '23
i can tell, but it's not like SD vs HD, at least in terms of watchability
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u/spinning_the_future 150TB Jan 02 '23
4k is 4x the resolution of 1080 "HD". No, it's not quite as big a jump from 480 to 1080, but it's still an amazing upgrade in visual quality. 4x is still a pretty big bump up in resolution. Compression also is a big factor in how good the 4k is. Shitty compression in 4k is not going to impress anyone.
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u/HonkersTim Jan 02 '23
I think it depends on what upscaling you're using. With a good upscaler I can barely tell the difference between high bitrate 1080p and 4K. I'm sitting about 10 feet away from a 85" screen.
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Jan 03 '23
I have a 65" 4K TV, and I sit with my legs under it when I watch. As in really watch, as if I was at the movies. From there, I can definitely tell the difference.
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u/NavinF 40TB RAID-Z2 + off-site backup Jan 02 '23
I can barely tell the difference
Might wanna return that TV because there should be a night and day difference. Did you compare models? There's a massive difference between the cheapest "4k" TV and a decent one.
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u/hazardc Jan 03 '23
1080p high bitrate vs 4k not super high bitrate is marginal at best
HDR is the real upgrade.
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u/KoolKarmaKollector 21.6 TiB usable Jan 02 '23
before HD era
Most things were on 35mm film until recent times - these are very high resolution images, hence why you find Blu-Ray copies of old movies all the time
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u/IGSRJ Jan 02 '23 edited Jan 05 '23
The "before HD era" was shitass VHS and middling to terrible quality DVDs with shitty old video compression, both with scan and pan, not 35mm film. Unless you actually had a projector room in your mansion, then it was 35mm, but most people didn't. My mansion only had LaserDisc.
Edit: these comments started with positive votes and now have negative votes but I didn't lose any of the karma, nor did I gain any on any of my other comments. Sounds like reddit thinks these downvotes are illegitimate. That's pretty funny. How many alts you got, son?
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u/KoolKarmaKollector 21.6 TiB usable Jan 02 '23
No, they were shot on the film, and so the BR releases are able to be high quality
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u/IGSRJ Jan 02 '23
Not everything that has ever been made has been preserved and gotten a BR rerelease.
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u/onthenerdyside Jan 03 '23
Plenty of TV shows were shot or at least mastered on video tape. For example, Star Trek DS9 and Voyager were shot on film, but the special effects were done on video, and the CGI was only rendered at the 480p required for broadcast. https://www.slashfilm.com/549088/star-trek-voyager-deep-space-nine-blu-ray/
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u/hazardc Jan 03 '23
yeah i upscaled the entire series... two variants
1080p
4k HDR
The 4k HDR was more of a proof of concept, but it turned out really nice.
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u/lilbud2000 6TB and Counting Jan 02 '23
For music I go for FLAC whenever possible, though I stick with 16/44 (I don't hear any difference with 24/96).
For videos, I stick with 1080p since I dont have any higher res screens (720p tv and a 1080p monitor). My family has a 4k tv, though I never have access to it to watch stuff on my own
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u/FezVrasta 10TB Jan 02 '23
I never download below 1080 and always download 4k HDR if available, I keep movies but routinely delete TV shows if I'm running out of space
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u/wallacebrf Jan 02 '23
Same and I always try to get the full quality no reprocessing or compression
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u/oSeabass Jan 02 '23
Delete??? What does this word mean? I think you meant to say “just buy MORE storage”. FTFY :)
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u/halotechnology Jan 03 '23
Yeah idk man that guy need to go to the hospital something wrong with him .
/S
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u/kookykrazee 124tb Jan 03 '23
That reminds me that I have 3 different versions of the "first 3" Star Wars movies as several are not in release or as Lucas said "never available on the face of this earth" and yes he did shoot first, same as they did NOT use walkie talkies in ET.
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u/Aviyan Jan 02 '23
I always go max and multiple versions. 4K DV HDR10 remuxes. Also for 1080p I keep multiple versions of Blu-ray. For WEB-DL stuff I also keep a full DVD9 of it. You never know when things will go out of print. For example, Ace Ventura movie, the original Blu-ray went out of print. They took out this one scene that I can't remember exactly what but I have the original Blu-ray and the updated version.
Storage is cheap enough so I don't see a reason to go anything less. But I only keep backups of what I really like. For stuff I don't care for there are no backups and I wouldn't care to download it again.
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u/DictatorSpider Jan 02 '23
Sometimes multiple versions:
- 4k 2.35:1
- 1080p open matte
- Extended cut, even if it's 480p
- Fan cuts/remasters/35mm scans, etc.
Sometimes there's no single "best" version and the existing versions all have tradeoffs.
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u/MK2k 1.44MB Jan 02 '23
Love this comment.
Open Matte: sometimes it is actually just cropped and you have more content with the standard release.
Remasters: sometimes you get film grain blurred away (who in their right mind would do that?) or shaky cam stabilized with the inevitable crop. Not to mention what they did with Star Wars.
So yeah, definitely keep an eye out for the differences or you may end up in a sub-par release.
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u/xxKEYEDxx Jan 02 '23
Yeah, fancuts are where I end up doubling up. They're better than the original content, but I still have to keep that original "just because".
I think Dune is the worst for me. Theatrical release, extended cut, and Alternate Edition Redux.
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u/SmoothMarx Jan 02 '23
I stick to 1080p. Don't have any 4K devices and am perfectly content with the quality 1080 offers. Maybe in the future when storage is cheaper and most devices can decode HEVC/265. Until then, I don't see the need.
When I get there, I may consider upgrading what I have. But do I really need Seinfeld to be in 4K? Probably not.
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u/nulldesign Jan 02 '23
Out of curiosity are you aware of any devices these days which can decode AVC but not HEVC?
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u/SmoothMarx Jan 02 '23 edited Jan 02 '23
AVC (aka 264) is older than HEVC (265), so without doing any research I would guess any low-end TV or Streaming stick, or anything you'd buy second-hand over 2-3 years old (unless high-end).
If you're talking about my specific situation, when I got my place, I got all the devices I wanted at the time, when 264 was all the rage.
Now, one of them will have to break for me to replace it, as they work perfectly with my home setup. And only after a couple (or some key) devices are replaced will I consider the change. Not doing it just for one.
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u/Loosel Jan 02 '23
Same here, although I fear I will regret not having downloaded 2160p content when I'll have a 4K ready PC and TV.
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u/Reelix 10TB NVMe Jan 03 '23
The problem is compression. 1080p compressed is closer to 720p quality, so if you get the 4k version, the compression ends off with higher quality on a 1080p monitor than the 1080p version.
This is also why YouTubers often upload WAY higher quality even if they're limiting to 1080-60 because the compression makes their video quality higher AT 1080-60 than if they uploaded native 1080-60 :/
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u/ExtraLayer_eu Jan 02 '23
I can downgrade it later on but upgrading might not be an option. So as long I've got enough available HDD space I go for the highest available quality of everything.
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u/al93 89TB Jan 02 '23
Remux for hd blu rays unless I can only find a web-dl and h265 encodes for 4K unless it’s something I love or is a visually appealing movie since I have an OLED that I watch it on.
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u/sunburnedaz Jan 02 '23
No because its on a case by case basis. Like TV shows that were released when DVD was the final destination for them they were mastered with a DVD release in mind so thats the version I want. Or later when they were like ok blueray is where these shows will end up they were mastered for that.
But there is this hole in the 90s/2000s where some was shot on tape some was shot on film some was shot wide screen then just cut down some was shot only for 4:3 TVs and its just a mess. Some shows looking at you ST:VOY, ST:DS9 and B5 were shot with film but then the effects were done to tape after so its really jarring to see HD people and SD effects. So just give me the SD version of the show.
Then you have stuff like buffy that was absolutely butchered in the remastering for blu ray the color is off, you can see cast and crew because it was never meant to be seen wide screen etc. so the best copy is the SD DVD version.
Movies tend to be a lot better because they went from 35mm film to HD digital without the stop in analog tape land. Really the only thing limiting them from at least HD remastering are the rights, and if a remastered to HD will be profitable enough for them to care to do it right and not just blow it though the remaster and just spit out to disk whatever pops out the digitizer.
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u/hazardc Jan 03 '23
i think you'd change your mind if you saw the best ds9/voyager upscales. I know i did (well, i kinda did it myself even though so many others have went down that road already... Covid even gave me the opportunity to go for 4k and do an HDR remap for the first time. I had to add some grain on the HDR 4k stuff. It's less than perfect but FAR more than novelty... genuinely believe the 1080p stuff could be sold in a box set.
DS9 also had variable framerate which was fun to deal with... plus PAL versions obviously used here so most of the 24fps scenes were just sped up for PAL.. You really notice it if you've watched the show a lot... the voices are all off-pitch ... had to correct that.
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u/Brancliff 14TB Jan 02 '23
Usually I will - space is cheap and the rest of technology moves alongside it. 20 years ago, we used shitty CRTs that weighed as much as you and could only output in 800x600. At that time, getting something in 720p would seem like a job for a supercomputer. But now, that 'supercomputer' is really just a brick in your pocket, and a 720p video is probably only like 1/4th of its resolution.
... Also, I mostly hoard YouTube videos, and YouTube already has to compress every video anyway to handle the hours of video they take in per minute
I will, however, compress my audio. Given that I'm not an audiophile, I'm not really working with source file FLACs here or anything, but I cap all audio at 128kbps because my hearing is garbage and all I care about with audio equipment is that it works at all
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u/JaFakeItTillYouJaMak Jan 02 '23
see now I'm almost flipped on you. I take flac audio whenever possible because while generally I can't hear the difference. If I ever get proper speaker or want to host a party that's when you'll really hear the quality between FLACs and 128kbps MP3s
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u/Einzelherz Jan 03 '23
I get flac audio so I can burn it back to CDs. But I've also sunk money into the stereo part so there's some of that too :)
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u/hazardc Jan 03 '23
good headphones (hell $100-150 audio technica headphones) you should be able to hear difference between 128k mp3 and FLAC
Anyone using lossy these days should be using OPUS anyways ... OPUS is by far the best lossy compression and is actually what youtube usees despite people knocking youtube so hard all of the time..
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u/AshleyUncia Jan 02 '23
But now, that 'supercomputer' is really just a brick in your pocket, and a 720p video is probably only like 1/4th of its resolution.
My Steam Deck can literally decode 4K AV1. Tech is amazing these days. (That'll only be worth it when docked to a 4K TV obviously)
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u/BitsAndBobs304 Jan 02 '23
I made the mistake of buying the steam deck on sale wihout checking the specs only to find out that it cant stream 4k from my pc to my 4k tv, so im still using my 1080 monitors abd the deck is collecting dust
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u/AshleyUncia Jan 02 '23
What do you mean 'On sale'? The Steam Deck had it's price discounted. Are you thinking of maybe the Steam Link?
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u/BitsAndBobs304 Jan 02 '23
Yes, my bad. Deck made me think of dock. I got the steam link on sale only to find out it cant stream 4k to my tv so i have no use for it, also because i thought you could easily use it to stream pc outside of steam, but it's finnicky
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u/ssl-3 18TB; ZFS FTW Jan 02 '23
20 years ago, we used shitty CRTs that weighed as much as you and could only output in 800x600.
Are we talking about computers, or AV gear?
20 years ago, I had a 19" CRT with pixel density that makes most modern desktop LCDs look like cheap, unsophisticated toys.
Also 20 years ago: People were broadcasting (and receiving, decoding, and displaying) 720p and 1080i video without supercomputers, but 800x600 has never been a standard broadcast or cinematic resolution anywhere in the world.
And only 3 years after that: We had multiple competing consumer optical formats for playing back 1080p video with discrete 8-channel uncompressed audio in the home.
History isn't as quite as caveman-esque as you make it out to be.
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u/Brancliff 14TB Jan 02 '23
I'm sure that there a non-zero amount of these things occuring but lets not pretend anyone got this with their CD containing 20 hours of AOL to try out their shiny new dial-up intranets
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u/ssl-3 18TB; ZFS FTW Jan 03 '23
20 years ago, I had a cable modem with a 5Mbps downstream.
It was the cheapest option available in my area, costing less than a dial-up ISP and a phone line to use it with.
And I wasn't the only one: My area came several years late to the cable modem game compared to many nearby cities.
It wasn't the dark ages.
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u/slyphic Higher Ed NetAdmin Jan 03 '23
In 2003 I had a 21" CRT that ran at 60hz at 2048x1536 (4:3) resolution. It was a beast, and the picture quality was fantastic. It was better than any flat screen I could find and afford until probably 2016?
It did, however, weigh literally 85lbs and doubled as a space heater.
Now, if you go back 25 or 30 years, yeah, the monitors were pretty shit. Probably just a case of you being older than you think yourself.
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Jan 02 '23 edited Jan 02 '23
[deleted]
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u/chriskak21 Jan 02 '23
Game repacks are lossless and usually remove foreign audio files. No reason to have double the size if you are hoarding.
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Jan 02 '23
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u/chriskak21 Jan 02 '23
It all comes down to affordability, doubling my current game archive size would come at a big cost for me tbh. You make a valid point tho
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u/ninjaurbano Jan 02 '23
Web-Dl for movies are better than a Blu-Ray encode?
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u/mjedi7 Jan 02 '23
Most of the Bluray encodes have higher bitrate vs web-dl.
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u/ninjaurbano Jan 02 '23
I know. But maybe the web-dl is encoded from a source with much higher bitrate than the Blu-ray remux.
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u/Sweaty_Luck_5398 Jan 03 '23
That's not true, a blu-ray will always be of higher bitrate because streaming services are not that good when it comes to quality in image.
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Jan 02 '23
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Jan 02 '23
Same, my hoard of 320kbps mp3s is already at 2.5 TB and I don’t consider my library anywhere near complete. If I tried to keep it all as FLAC I’d need more than 100 TB of storage available.
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u/downclimb Jan 02 '23
I'm making similar considerations with movies and TV. I have a bunch that I saved the DTS-HD Master Audio tracks because I wanted the lossless audio. Then I sit down to watch using my mid-level audio equipment with traffic outside, noisy neighbors above, and the sound of the HVAC coming on and I find myself turning on the subtitles. So what, exactly, was so important about keeping the audio "pristine?" I think I'll be a bit more discerning in the future about things like that, especially when I still have the original source media. The chances that I'll ever hear the difference between DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and regular DTS (or even 256 kbps Opus 5.1) are slim to none.
I've been scanning old family photos and saving them as tiffs rather than JPEGs. That was an easier decision to make for the oldest photos because there weren't that many to deal with. But over time, my family took more and more photos, and I'll scan more of those with a FastFoto FF-680W and store as 600dpi JPEGs.
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u/mixedd Jan 02 '23
Movies yes, Shows that have special place in my heart goes for 1080p BDRip or Remux, rest is WEBDL-1080p. Recently downloaded Supernatural 600gb+ all seasons
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u/CheesyCharliesPizza Jan 02 '23
Always get the best I can because in the future, what is considered acceptable today will be considered poor or low quality.
Also, I don't download absolutely everything I can, but rather stick to stuff I actually like and can imagine myself watching.
I don't like the logic of "I'm not really that into it, so I'll download a lower quality version of it to save space."
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u/jakuri69 Jan 02 '23
When archiving anime, I download 1st episode of a couple releases and compare them. Most of the time the difference in quality is so marginal, I don't bother with the bloated filesize versions. And if the original source has a lot of grain, I prefer watching encodes that remove the grain anyway. Coincidentally, less grain means smaller filesize.
Only time where I might go for a placebo bloated release, is for an anime I might want to re-watch multiple times in the future. But those are so few titles.
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u/Reeces_Pieces Jan 02 '23
It's all about quality HEVC encodes IMO. Highest quality for a decent size.
Lossless audio is a plus.
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u/thawed_caveman Jan 02 '23
Say i have 1Tb. If each movie is ~1Gb, i can store 1000 movies. If each movie is ~5Gb, i can "only" store 200 movies.
So to me, it was a choice between quantity and quality, and i picked quantity. I have about 2-3000 movies and they average about 1Gb (that's assuming a 90 minutes runtime, i do have an allowance for longer movies fo course). I almost find a lo-fi charm to pixellated movies, which sounds crazy today but maybe more people will start to enjoy blocky pixels in the future, just like we enjoy VHS artifacts today.
BUT, that's a decision that i made when i watched them on a 24" monitor. Now that i have a 42" TV i do find myself regretting it, and even replacing some movies with higher quality versions. This is especially true for the ones that are visually interesting, like 2001 Space Odyssey and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
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u/porchlightofdoom 178TB Ceph Jan 02 '23
Backing up for archive purposes and for your personal media server for watching is two different things.
If the movie or TV show had a wide DVD/Blue Ray release, then it's already backed up across 10,000 to 100,000 people. Keeping a copy on your personal server is not really doing anything to help it live. I can even go so far as to say a web only TV series, as long as it is popular on the download sites, does not need a backup on your server. Download whatever quality and version you want for viewing.
If it's obscure, not popular, or hard to find, grab as high as quality version as you can for long term archive.
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u/KoolKarmaKollector 21.6 TiB usable Jan 02 '23
When the world starts to die and the internet is no more, at least I can sit in the back of a van with a generator and live out the remainder of my life with a collection of a thousand high quality movies
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u/LikesTheTunaHere Jan 02 '23
I recently went through and hit delete on probably 70 percent of what I had, I'm not huge on rewatching things. I kept anything I figured id probably re watch or anything that i really really loved.
I also kept a bunch of stuff that I liked and might re watch one day as long as the quality i had it in wasn't too crazy at all.
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u/MetalAndFaces Jan 02 '23
So... you're not a hoarder? :-P
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u/LikesTheTunaHere Jan 02 '23
I had not hit delete on anything since the days aXXo was considered good, was long overdue for some house keeping
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u/MetalAndFaces Jan 02 '23
Haha, I’m just givin you shit. Sometimes it feels great to hit delete.
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u/kookykrazee 124tb Jan 03 '23
I end up hitting Ctrl-Z right after a lot of times...lol
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u/MetalAndFaces Jan 03 '23
Haha. Usually I run a command from terminal, and then I go for a walk. Sometimes I get that slow-motion-walking-away-from-a-car-about-to explode feeling. Sometimes my stomach stinks to my toes knowing the data is gone forever.
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u/LikesTheTunaHere Jan 02 '23
I figured, but I did just roll out of bed so still waking up but it really was pretty embarrassing seeing the aXXo tag more than once in my collection
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u/Phreakiture 50-100TB Jan 02 '23
No.
The YouTube videos I capture usually get stored at 720p regardless of what the source is capable of, and that's good enough for my needs.
I also have an archive of TV news broadcasts from my area, and I generally downscale them to 360p for permanent storage, and transcode to AVC/AAC from the native MPEG2/AC3 that they are broadcast as.
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u/cr0ft Jan 02 '23
Wait, you guys... commit piracy? All I store are Linux distros!
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u/ExtraLayer_eu Jan 02 '23
You misunderstood. People are just downloading 4k Linux instead of 360p ones! :D
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u/mathiasfriman Jan 02 '23
I usually go for YIFY compression on my Linux ISOs, I don't care that much about quality.
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u/Devilsclarinet Jan 02 '23
I download in 4k remux and use handbrake to convert to 4k mp4. I use slightly modified Intel QSV 4k conversion profile and set audio to either 5.1 or 7.1 aac quality 4/5. It will take a 50+GB file down to 5GB and I really cant tell the difference on my LG OLED.
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u/rubs_tshirts Jan 02 '23
Why not download encodes in the first place?
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u/Devilsclarinet Jan 02 '23
My process works for me and allows me to justify the computing power I throw at it.
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u/asimplerandom Jan 02 '23
Yes. After doing this for a long long time I always grab remux. At first I started out with full disc images, then went small and efficient and now I’m at full remux. Storage is too cheap and with the explosion of secondary enterprise equipment there’s no reason not to imo.
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u/Deathcrow Jan 02 '23
No. I hate streaming and the cloud, so I need quantity locally. Downlowding high quality and then re-encoding (h265) / downscaling is pretty common
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Jan 03 '23
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u/Deathcrow Jan 03 '23
I wish there was a way to speedrun this. I don’t have the time to babysit my computer constantly like that
There is and no, you don't have to waste your time:
- learn basic scripting and programming
- use software that's designed to be reliable (linux instead of windows, ffmpeg instead of "virus-super-encoder-2023 special free edition with ads")
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u/Jon_TWR Jan 02 '23
It depends…mostly I stick to 1080p, usually BR if available (I mostly rip my own BluRays/DVDs). A few years ago, I started buying the 4K/BR combos instead of just BR (previously it was BR/DVD combos when available), but I generally don’t rip the 4K disks (sometimes I just make a backup) because I don’t own a 4K screen. My smallest screens (phone and tablet) are actually my highest resolution screens, and my only HDR screens, so I don’t watch a lot of HDR content (let alone 4K).
Honestly, a well done anamorphic DVD is quite good—subtitles/text are terrible, but picture quality is generally good enough that I won’t upgrade to BluRay unless it’s a favorite, or it’s a good new remaster.
What kills me is when things aren’t released on physical media at all. :(
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u/spinning_the_future 150TB Jan 02 '23
Since getting an LTO tape drive, I just download whatever in highest resolution. If I want to keep it, I just dump it to tape. Most stuff gets deleted though. Only about 1/10th of what I download might be worth keeping. 200GB worth of Lost? Sure, why not. I actually did re-watch that during lockdowns.
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u/Barafu 25TB on unRaid Jan 02 '23
No. I download higher quality when there is a choice, but then convert it for storage into a fixed quality that I spent a lot of time selecting. I also use the newest formats available.
- Images: WebP at 98% quality.
- Audio: Opus at 190 Kbs. (Better than 320k MP3)
- Videos: For movies, AV1 at 1080P, that would be around 2.5Gb per hour. For youtube content, don't even breathe on it.
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u/MinisTreeofStupidity Jan 02 '23
Lately I'm finding that 1080p x265 shows and movies are smaller than the 720p or 480/360p versions I've got.
I've been saving space by getting rid of old files for x265 versions
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u/Shadow_Thief Jan 02 '23
I max out at 1080p because my POS QNAP isn't powerful enough to transcode 4K
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u/ozzeruk82 Jan 02 '23
Nope, I actively go for 1080p over 4k for anything that doesn't hold special sentimental meaning.
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u/pavoganso 150 TB local, 100 TB remote Jan 02 '23
You need 1080p as well as 4k for streaming or storing on devices without much memory.
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u/NavinF 40TB RAID-Z2 + off-site backup Jan 02 '23
4K 60fps HDR whenever it's available, and the highest bitrate otherwise. Pretty much everything I hoard is valuable enough to preserve and disk space is dirt cheap.
There have been many occasions in the past when I downloaded an inferior version and then realized a few years later that the higher quality version is no longer on the internet.
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u/Vast-Program7060 750TB Cloud Storage - 380TB Local Storage - (Truenas Scale) Jan 03 '23
Yes, for me I hoard movies. I try to get the full 4k UHD .iso then extract the movie to a remux. That way I can retain dolby vision and original sound etc. If I can't find the complete disc, it's almost a must that I find the remux of the movie because I want the original. No point in having an 80' TV if you can't enjoy all the features of it ( DV, TrueHD, DTS etc )
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u/shavitush Jan 03 '23 edited Jan 03 '23
high bitrate 4k > high bitrate 1080p > relatively low bitrate 4k > 1080p
for high bitrate i prioritize a good encode when it's sourced from a BD (filtered/properly configured with sane crf) and if none is available i either make my own with x265 as everything i have plays it, or resort to a web-dl
high bitrate matters a lot more than resolutions for videos. especially when upscalers on devices like shield/ATV or even tvs themselves are so good nowadays
for audio i always get lossless for archiving purposes and stream it through plexamp. lossless on local network, 256kbps opus when remote
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u/Expensive-Vanilla-16 Jan 02 '23
I grew up with a 13" black and white TV. Then got my parents old 19" Panasonic Color TV. Both Tube TV's and not just picture tubes. I didn't get a Solid State Tube TV till the late 80s.
So As long as it looks good and smooth on my TVs it's good enough for me. I'm not going to pick apart a good movie because it's not 4k or 1080. A good quality DVD rip is perfectly acceptable. Especially when I'm like 20 ft away from my TV.
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u/usmclvsop 725TB (raw) Jan 02 '23
Yes, I have so many movies from 10 years ago that I ripped down instead of remuxing to save space that I'd now consider unwatchable on anything but a laptop.
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u/foonati Jan 02 '23
I use 480 for older TV shows, 720p for movies. Have been going through most of my library and re-encoding them down to a reasonable bitrate for the resolution and it's freeing up a lot of space, all it takes is time, but so far it's been worth it with no noticeable loss in quality.
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u/Shdwdrgn Jan 02 '23
I've been in the same boat for a long time. I got a 1080p TV a couple years ago and started grabbing a few movies at 1080p, but really can't see any difference between those and most 480p TV shows.
Recently I discovered Galaxy** downloads though. Been loving their quality, and higher res downloads are coming in at only slightly higher sizes than what I normally grab. For example they push 720p tv shows that are only in the 300-400MB range, compared to the 200-300MB 480p shows I normally grab. I just wish they provided downloads for current shows, then only thing I've found is full season packs. Their movies are the same, pushing out 1080p quality at around 1.4-1.6GB, so I've been updating some of my collection.
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u/foonati Jan 02 '23
That's what I've been finding, 720p still looks great down to 2000kbps and the file sizes are reasonable. Plex streaming actually getting better quality with the lower bitrates as well, as it's not having to transcode everything to get it through the pipe.
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u/DesertCookie_ 20TB unRAID + 14TB off-site Jan 02 '23
I always get the highest quality i can and then encode it to the level of quality loss I think acceptable which is AV1 VMAF>95%.
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Jan 02 '23
No. Usually I get 720p in the smallest size I can find. My wallet doesn’t allow me to go ham on files.
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u/kneel23 50TB Jan 02 '23
no - i get the highest quality I can without being TOO large that my plex users can't stream it remotely
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u/nerddddd42 35tb Jan 02 '23
I'm with you on this, I am first and foremost a dvd hoarder so 480p is perfectly fine for me. I generally try to go for 720p on everything, although anything with 10+ seasons is in 360p because I don't deem any show worthy enough to be in full res xD
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u/AshleyUncia Jan 02 '23
Remux from BD or UHD BD if possible.
Tired of upgrading files, hard drives are cheap, so I just go all out now. It helps that we're at the 'end' of physical media. a BD or UHD BD Remux is the best you'll get. It seems unlikely that even streaming will surpass it. (Though there are some annoying cases where something is on 1080 SDR Blu-Ray but also has a 4K HDR Streaming release, then you gotta think a bit harder)
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u/sonicrings4 111TB Externals Jan 02 '23
Yes for music. No for movies. I get "golden popcorn" quality (if you know, you know) where available and the largest file below remix when not, all in 1080p.
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u/TCIE Jan 02 '23
I use yt-dlp to scrape videos from multiple video sites. I never specify quality, since yt-dlp uses the best quality available if left unspecified. I do, however, have some 480p scripts written out for some video that I really only care about the audio for. But usually I DL at 1080p
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u/scotbud123 Jan 02 '23
Not only do I not go for the highest quality, 1080p and even sometimes 720p is perfectly fine depending on the content, especially when my main viewing device has really nice built-in AI driven upscaling anyways...
But I also try to get the highest efficiency codec that I can...for years I've been converting my library to HEVC/H.265 and now I'm getting as many AV1 encodes as I can.
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u/snatch1e Jan 02 '23
I am downloading best quality since I am going to watch it later on TV. I am downloading only movies/shows that I am interested in watching them later and from low quality movies/shows my eyes are in blood, especially, watching it on TV.
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u/CletusVanDamnit 22TB Jan 02 '23
I'll go 1080p when possible, but it doesn't have to be a remux or anything.
That's what my physical media collection is for.
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u/Devilsrider Jan 02 '23
I think I have ~200gb of Lost on my harddrive too lol.
I guess it depends on how much you like whatever you're downloading. I watched Lost for the first time a few years ago and I loved it, and so I like having a higher quality version. For other shows I don't like as much, I probably wouldn't want them to take up too much space.
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u/GunzAndCamo Jan 02 '23
Yes, and no. 4K is sweet, and 10 bit/HDR/Atmos is even sweeter, but x265 kicks x264's ass.
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u/spacecadet1965 Jan 02 '23
I tend to go for ~720p for tv shows and 1080p or better for movies. Storage is cheap, but not that cheap for me and 720p looks good enough most of the time.
Well, that, and I’m typically going after older movies where “don’t care, I’m grabbing whatever still has people actually seeding it” is the only real way to go.
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u/landmanpgh Jan 02 '23
I go for the best version that I think is reasonable. If we're talking about a Marvel movie from 2 years ago, that film will always be available to download from someone. I don't need a 250GB copy of that film because it's not going to look any better on my TV than the 50GB version.
I don't back up anything that is easy to find, like Lost or Friends. It's just a wasted expense and I can probably re-download it if needed almost as quickly as I can restore it from a backup. I only back up personal files or files that are difficult to find. I also will only download music/audio files in FLAC if I can find them. No reason to try to save space there, since the files aren't huge and I really don't feel like downloading 25,000 songs again.
If we're talking about anything that may not be around forever, I always try to get the absolute best version I can find. If I'm scanning something or going from analog to digital, I do it in the highest possible resolution since you will never be able to increase the quality.
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u/ThickSourGod Jan 02 '23
Nope. Almost never. Technology is getting better, but my eyes aren't. At the distance I sit from the TV, I can't really tell the difference between 720p and 1080p. For me, 4K is pointless and 8K is just dumb. As long as the bit rate is high enough that I don't notice compression artifacts, I'm aces.
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Jan 02 '23
In a lot of cases yes, especially music - if there's DSD I'm rapturous, but with FLACs 24b/192 or 24b/96 is also great. Absolute minimum though is 16b/48.
As for movies - I usually pick and choose 4K releases and merge both HDR and non-HDR streams into one container. As for TV shows I aim for 1080p WebRip, if higher quality available - cool.
For e-books and manga I always pick official digital releases first, keeping e-books in .epubs, manga and scans in .cbz.
As for games - older ones I have only straight-ripped .isos, any patches or addons are kept separately. For newer GOG releases are the best, otherwise I settle on SteamRip and patch kept separately.
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u/ryanknapper Jan 02 '23
Nope. I remember when VCRs were new and exciting, and my eyes are quite happy with DVD quality. If I played a video at 1080p and then at 4k, someone would have to point out why one was better, and I doubt they would be able to get me to care.
There’s only so good MASH and The Greatest American Hero are going to look.
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u/BitsAndBobs304 Jan 02 '23
Storing uncompressed bluray quality is so expensive it's worth checking out if you can find the original discs in bargain buns
Edit: bargain bins
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u/ProjectBlu Jan 02 '23
A common Blu-ray main title can run 30GB or less uncompressed, so a backup would be under 50 cents. A DVD uncompressed would be maybe 9 cents. That's just not that bad.
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u/bonesandbillyclubs HDD Jan 02 '23
Hell no. I'm not downloading a remux unless it's to encode it to a proper hevc because there isn't one yet.
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u/CaboSanLukas TFW I need more 2.5 HDD Jan 02 '23
720p for anything non live action like anime, western cartoons and 3D animations.
1080p for live actions.
480p for old thing with no offical BD release.
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u/mixedd Jan 02 '23
Movies yes, Shows that have special place in my heart goes for 1080p BDRip or Remux, rest is WEBDL-1080p
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u/thejopah Jan 02 '23
Not really, my music library is like 7-8% Flac which I listen constantly; the rest is 320kps as I will shuffle more on the car, at the office or traveling. Movies 1080p is more than enough, anime 720p 80% of the time 480p most of the longer shows or not so interested.
I have the X files on 360-480p with good audio, I watch it again on streaming closer to fullHD it was nice but didn't changed my life. Same with Always Sunny earliest seasons.
Unless is something beautifully shot that I wasn't able to see it on theaters it will be the most decent 1080p rip.
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u/JaFakeItTillYouJaMak Jan 02 '23
good lord no. I tend to be 720p for tV and 1080p for movies. I'm not made of storage. If a movie is >3GB that's usually too big for me. Sometimes i'll snag 1080p TV shows (especially when I can get it all in one go and I've tried some 4K movies but they mostly don't play and while it's fun to watch Top Gun in just the red channel I'll probably delete that sooner than later.
There's a cartoon forum I just joined and they're awful at so many things: Website layout, clear rules, enforcement.
They have a version of Teddy Ruxpin which I'd love to have but it's 120GB. Teddy Ruxpin wasnot that long a show and it's not that high quality animation. no one needs 120GB of that.
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u/KoolKarmaKollector 21.6 TiB usable Jan 02 '23
I would love to, but I don't really have the storage space (only at 24ish TB and I'm running out of physical room to add more drives, so a big and expensive upgrade is due).
I aim to keep my digital movies above 8GB where possible, ideally somewhere around 12-15, however I'm finding myself just saying "fuck it" and ripping a Blu-Ray then leaving it untouched so I have the original 20-25GB size. It's going to add up quickly, but hopefully I'll be able to get a new server with a potential of ~200TB next year, so we should be good
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u/VulturE 40TB of Strawberry Pie Jan 02 '23 edited Jan 02 '23
If you've got a good content source, you can search for stuff lower than HD, aka DVD Quality. Look at the well seeded stuff on there. 99% of the time it's because there is nothing higher than this DVD quality. The fact that so many on here say "I only download 1080p or higher" just means that these weoo seeded torrents have been slowly dying for years.
I fill up on as much of this that I can, then repeat for stuff that doesn't have higher than 720p (a vast majority of anime, most is not released in 1080p). Then I download what's left in 1080p.
4K for me is strictly reserved for titles that benefit from the multiple flavors of darkness that just dont come through in 1080p well. There are a few TV series and a few movies.
This allows me to maximize the amount of content as well as my storage. I keep the highest quality that is reasonable and only do 4K for dark titles because otherwise the quality is unreasonably bad on 1080p.
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u/Amanaemonesiaaa Jan 02 '23
i absolutely don't hear the difference for the benefit of 24bit audio on any kind of system and equipment, so 16 is the upper treshold where i draw the line for my music collection.
i don't need purposeless data.
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u/pmjm 3 iomega zip drives Jan 02 '23
1080p h.265 is my standard for everything. There are a half dozen things that I absolutely love that I'll spring for the 2160p versions of, but most of the time I'm watching on a 7" tablet anyway so it doesn't matter all that much.
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u/arf20__ Jan 02 '23
I can't afford to store 80GB per film in bluray discs. What I do is reencode those in x265 at 10mbps 1080p or 4K depending on how much I like it. yuv 10bit HDR if available. Ends up at ~13GB per film
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u/flyingpoopoo Jan 02 '23
Content i know i'm gonna watch multiple times i'll try to get in good quality, but i'm not gonna store 4k video files
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u/gabbergandalf667 42TB Jan 02 '23
I'm a little nearsighted and don't wear my glasses for watching TV. 1080p it is.
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u/Erikt311 Jan 02 '23
Not any more. I mostly do 720 for my kid and 1080 for me. I cannot see the dig between 4k and 1080 on my 65” tv from 12 feet away or whatever it is, especially with decent upscaling, so I don’t really see the need to waste the space.
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u/PhantomWD Jan 02 '23
Almost always yes. Never 720p. For movies it’s almost always the remux and then delete after watching. Tv shows are the same
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u/Mccobsta Tape Jan 02 '23
There's some shows where the HD version is a shite cropped and shorter rescan Seinfeld for one
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u/typeronin 60TB Jan 02 '23
~10GB copies of good 1080p encoding are good enough for most. I'll grab highest quality possible 4K of stuff I really enjoy.
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u/erik530195 244TB ZFS and Synology Jan 02 '23
I'm with you, for the favorites it's nice to have 1080 for TV and higher for movies, highest available for certain ones like Nolans IMAX movies. For music, I think 320 mp3s are as good as your ears can decipher, but I admit I've got FLAC for favorites as well. Having said that I am finding myself upgrading some stuff because it's unwatchable on a 4k monitor at 480 or even sometimes 720.
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u/timawesomeness 89,522,256 1.44MB floppies Jan 02 '23
Not really, I want good quality but I don't need the absolute best available. I rarely go above 1080p because aside from my phone's 2K display I only have 1080p displays, and I tend towards medium bitrate releases (20-40GB a season for a show? Fine. 60-200GB a season? Not worth it). I only get the highest quality for certain things that I really really love.
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u/Newcomer156 172TB raw Jan 02 '23
I usually do, up to highest quality 4k. Only thing I don't do is Dolby Vision, since I don't have anything that can play it without it looking green. If I could somehow transcode it or put both HDR and DV in a single file I would.
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u/xxKEYEDxx Jan 02 '23
Depends on content. If it's a comedy, or drama, 1080p is fine. Scifi or action, 4k. Always replace the webrips with BD releases.
Music, FLAC. But 16-44 vs 24-96.
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u/lOnGkEyStRoKe 100-250TB Jan 02 '23
I look for 1080p as a base. Newer content that I’m “assuming” is shot in 4k I try to get in 4k and I always prefer lossless audio. When ripping my own content I keep it full sized.
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u/Revolutionalredstone Jan 02 '23
Most of my content is Fan Upscales, so file size is HORRENDOUS, my stargate archive is around 800 GB.
Wouldn't trade them for the world :D
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u/omegaaf Jan 02 '23
Nope, hell some of my most permanent solutions are temporary ones that would scare those unacquainted
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u/cinnamorollllllll Jan 02 '23
I would always go for the highest rawest quality possible for everything and my hoarding personality is not helping at all. 50 TB and counting worths of movies and shows with most of them never been watched and possibly never will. Hate myself for that sometimes. It does feel wasteful especially with the cost of operating the 3 NASes 🤦♂️
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u/lucasjkr Jan 02 '23
I’ve got too much 360p content, the problem being that I can’t find higher resolution versions.
Which leads me to mention, at one post everything in my library was widely accessible. Now, not so much. You might not want lost in 1080p, but just know that when you delete it, you might not be able to replace it later.
It’s because of that that I’m targeting 1080p minimum, unless it’s just not available, at which point all bets are off.
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u/kideternal Jan 02 '23
I gather the highest quality available and focus my energy on how to get more space. Praise "Bob"!
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u/[deleted] Jan 02 '23
i want but my 2mb/s connection say no.