Why is SD content still around when there's HD content?

[Ziggy]

After all this talk about saving bandwidth and speeds limits, I went to check an average movie(Dumbo) and on iTunes it says the SD version is around 2GB compared to 5GB for HD. Still 2GB is a lot for anything less than 4G speeds or anything less than real broadband speeds. I thought it might be closer to torrent rips that are sometimes as low as 650MB.

So a torrent rip is sacrificing quality to lower the file size. But if you're paying for the movie, you might not be happy getting a low quality video. 2 GB is actually pretty low considering. A single layer DVD is 4.7 GB, and any modern master of a 2 hour movie is going to fill most of that space (if not utilize a dual layer DVD). So a safe bet is that a ~2 hour movie is at least 4 GB on a DVD (sometimes more), so a 2 GB download isn't too bad at all.

Unless you're talking about the 1941 Dumbo which is only around an hour run time.

There's a lot that goes into it, that I wont even pretend to know a lot about. I mess around and do my own trial and error to see where the happy medium is for quality and file size. But there's a lot of factors. Resolution, frame rate, bit rate (including variable bit rate), and compression which might be permanent compression or how a certain codec handles compression/decompression (much like a zip file). There's "lossy" and "lossless" codecs for video, just as there are with audio (mp3 vs FLAC vs WAV for example). Point is, a torrent rip of a ~2 hour movie that is less than 1 GB definitely sacrificed something.

[Gunstar Green]

If I rent something from a streaming service and it's cheaper in SD I'll rent it in SD because I don't really care and it's less data to stream.

I also still buy DVDs sometimes (though in 2019 it tends to only be stuff I want to have for collection's sake) because they're cheap and I can pop them in my PC and watch in a small window while doing other stuff.

So SD continues to exist for weird idiots like me.

[RCBH928]

So a torrent rip is sacrificing quality to lower the file size. But if you're paying for the movie, you might not be happy getting a low quality video. 2 GB is actually pretty low considering. A single layer DVD is 4.7 GB, and any modern master of a 2 hour movie is going to fill most of that space (if not utilize a dual layer DVD). So a safe bet is that a ~2 hour movie is at least 4 GB on a DVD (sometimes more), so a 2 GB download isn't too bad at all.

Unless you're talking about the 1941 Dumbo which is only around an hour run time.

There's a lot that goes into it, that I wont even pretend to know a lot about. I mess around and do my own trial and error to see where the happy medium is for quality and file size. But there's a lot of factors. Resolution, frame rate, bit rate (including variable bit rate), and compression which might be permanent compression or how a certain codec handles compression/decompression (much like a zip file). There's "lossy" and "lossless" codecs for video, just as there are with audio (mp3 vs FLAC vs WAV for example). Point is, a torrent rip of a ~2 hour movie that is less than 1 GB definitely sacrificed something.

I figured that most movies have been probably shot at least at 1080 resolution, so any home media up until BD was released, we were always getting the lower quality version. 2GB is not bad quality wise but in this context when we use it on a slow-connection and mobile data caps(15GB/M?) its no where near comfortable download size.

fun fact: I learned most movies today are shot on 2K and upscaled to 4K. So your 4K tvs and Ultra HD 4K BD are not true 4K.

If I rent something from a streaming service and it's cheaper in SD I'll rent it in SD because I don't really care and it's less data to stream.

I also still buy DVDs sometimes (though in 2019 it tends to only be stuff I want to have for collection's sake) because they're cheap and I can pop them in my PC and watch in a small window while doing other stuff.

So SD continues to exist for weird idiots like me.

Out of curiosity I checked few prices on iTunes. On rent its just $1 difference, and in many cases there is no price difference between HD and SD copies. At most, there is a $5 more on purchased copies of HD versions, which is significant if you are a frequent buyer.

[Ziggy]

We had a pretty good discussion about DVD players with the right features back around 2013~ish.

http://www.racketboy.com/forum/viewtopi ... ead#unread

After that, I eventually found a DVD player that I really love, and still use to this day: SONY DVP-C660.


Hey Ziggy, you might dig this DVD player. It's a 5-disc changer. It plays CDs great too. It has a little LCD window, so you can turn off your TV screen when you just want to play music. It outputs Component and S-Video in addition to composite. It supports multiple simultaneous video outputs. On the audio side, we get stereo via standard RCA jacks, and we get S/PDIF via TOSLINK optical and coaxial digital audio out. This device also supports 5.1 channel DTS digital surround. You probably won't find a brand new SONY DVP-C660 on a store shelf because it was released in 2000, but I bet you should be able to find a used one on the secondhand market pretty easily.

My favorite feature is that all the buttons you need to control the device are right on the front face of the unit. There are even more buttons hidden behind a flip-down door. If you ever lose the remote, you can still control the player.

Manual:
https://www.sony.com/electronics/suppor ... 03955M.pdf

Edit: I just did a cursory search for this model number on eBay. There are multiple SONY DVP-C660 units for sale with the original remote between fifteen and forty dollars. Seems like a good deal to me.

OK, so I've decided to get a new (old) DVD player. I think I found one that hits all of my points. I have a best offer in right now, just waiting to see if the seller will except it. It was accepted! Now I'm just waiting to get it shipped!

Sony DVP-NC800H

(Pictures) https://www.crutchfield.com/S-Fr6Dto1ZZ ... tml?tp=170

(manual) https://www.sony.com/electronics/suppor ... 04010M.pdf

I'm really stoked to get this. It has a front display screen that shows more than just seek time. It's a 5 disc changer, and it can hold restore points for SIX discs! When you put in a 7th disc, it will erase the resume point for the first disc, and so on. I'm not sure the release date, but I know it's no earlier than 2007. And it has HDMI output, which is kind of important to my current setup.