Image quality of HD Rips

[psychotropic]

I've never seen HD rips (such as those in the .mkv format) and I was curious to know how they compared to the original Blu-ray. Is the difference similar to the difference between DivX and DVD, or is it larger/smaller? I am mentally debating between getting a blu-ray player and an HD player like the Xtreamer or WDTV Live, but I am not much of a geek and much prefer playing physical discs so I was much more inclined towards a blu-ray player.

But I would also like to know the difference between the HD rips and the real mccoy....is it a really small one that can be ignored, or a significant one like with DivX?

 

[ashishkesarwani]

The difference is not huge and if you will buy a Media player like Xtreamer or WD Live Tv then I am sure that it won't be much of a disappointment in terms of quality between a BD Rip and the Actual Bd playback. I also thought of starting this debate that is it worth spending on BD harware at this point of time when the comparison Quality in the Picture is not much. But in terms of sound quality alone I can comment that the difference is huge and this could tempt anyone in inclining towards the other.
Sometime back I conducted an experiment with the BD of Dark Knight and a HD rip of the same played through NMT media player. The first noticble difference which I spotted was the Gainy Picture quality in comparison to the actual BD also there was a difference in the colour saturation as well as the Detailing which was a bit lacking in the Rip, but at the end after looking at the price difference of the hardware and the cost of media, I would say that you won't be disappointed with the Rip either.

 

[longshanks]

HD rips are good and the quality really depends upon the bit rate. for a 1080p anything above 12Mbps is good and for 720p anything above 8Mbps is good. although its quite hard to find the difference between a good quality high bit rate rip and a BLU-RAY , the quality of the BLU-RAY ia always superior and differences can be spotted if your TV or Monitor is really good.

DIVX and DVD has very big difference in terms of quality but the same cant be said for HD rips and BLU-RAY. HD rips are available in many containers these days and they have their own advantages.Certain HD rips could be the same size of a blu-ray or 70% the size and these offer pretty good pic quality.The size of your tv also plays a major role in spotting the difference.

 

[psychotropic]

I guess the other factor to consider is that there are no HD rips available legally or easily. Of course some people might consider downloading torrents an easy option, but I frankly find renting a disc much easier. I almost never buy movies because i rarely watch a movie more than once. If I like it a lot I buy it. I still think for sheer convenience and quality, renting a blu-ray would be preferable for me personally, as compared to downloading and watching on an HD media player. The differences are not so significant any more, with the BD60 available on 20north for under 10k, the hardware cost is the same.

Once BD rental picks up (there are already a few places in Chennai renting them for 50 bucks...which is what we used to pay to rent DVDs till some time back) BD should be a pretty compelling option...especially when people like Bigflix jump in. My chief outstanding concern with BD of course is region coding. A chip-based region mod requires some skill to carry out, which I don't possess.

If quality is perceptibly better then I don't think I'll be happy with the compromise solution, no matter what. Anyway, I'll try and see if i can do a comparison myself, although I can't imagine how.

 

[vinay]

I would say just rush for the hd rips, buying a blue ray DVD and the player is like buying a thermocal factory, it is better to buy the thermocal glass, use and throw. The picture quality is any day better then the dvd quality, sound is good in blue ray, but then one has to have the high profile av receiver and related, and then just for the sound to buy a thermocal factory viz blue ray disc? To do the comparison is no big deal, there will be members in banglore, who can give you a demo. Finally as you see less movies, all the more you should not even think of a blue ray player.

 

[teky]

Well doesn't it depend on what you appreciate. Average bit rate of BD can go up to 50Mbps in some cases, So technically we should be able to tell the difference on bigger screens when seated at correct distance. The 1080p rips don't go more than 12Mbps most of the times as someone else had pointed.

So if you don't watch movies over & over and as there isn't a legal download option yet - wouldn't renting be the best option to appreciate? Correct to me if I'm wrong

 

[psychotropic]

hey vinay, let me correct myself i watch a fair number of movies....i love movies, but i rarely watch one movie more than once. When I do like a movie enough to watch it more than once, I buy the DVD.

In the case of blu-ray since I can rent one for 50 bucks (i'd guess that i'd watch on an average 6 - 10 movies in a month, so that is about 300-500 rupees a month....and probably will get cheaper when bigflix steps in) and there is (as per the feedback on this thread) a perceptible improvement in the quality of the image in a blu-ray as opposed to an HD rip, generally speaking blu-ray wins the battle for me.

The obstacle is region coding. BDPs in India are expensive as hell, whereas you can get a really nice Panasonic BD-80 from 20north for 11k (or s BD-60 for 9k). These would work perfectly for region free BDs and region A BDs but would struggle with regard to Region C ones. But then again let me ask this question, is anyone selling Region C only BDs in India? has anyone come across those?

If it turns out that region coding is not a significant obstacle (as venkateshsmart) seems to suggest, then it's slam dunk for the blu-ray player, as far as i am concerned.

Once I sort out all these issues I have to start working on my wife to convince her to get me a BDP (or a WDTV Live) as a christmas + birthday present

I would say just rush for the hd rips, buying a blue ray DVD and the player is like buying a thermocal factory, it is better to buy the thermocal glass, use and throw. The picture quality is any day better then the dvd quality, sound is good in blue ray, but then one has to have the high profile av receiver and related, and then just for the sound to buy a thermocal factory viz blue ray disc? To do the comparison is no big deal, there will be members in banglore, who can give you a demo. Finally as you see less movies, all the more you should not even think of a blue ray player.

 

[teky]

Once I sort out all these issues I have to start working on my wife to convince her to get me a BDP (or a WDTV Live) as a christmas + birthday present

Good Luck with this , We need to discuss on the tactics of convincing really. As I read somewhere else within the forum - A senior audiphile was actually kept changing his equipment without his OH's knowledge by replacing it with the same manufacturer's as the face plate of remains the kind of same. :lol:

Oh here it is

A good friend of mine - 'serious & quite a senior audiophile' for almost the last 2 decades is an aficionado of Audio Research electronics, i.e. Amps, Preamp & digital. Being curious, I asked him as to why does he stick to this particular brand when for that kind of money, he could look at numerous other options?

His reply was simple: He asked me if most of the Audio Research components by their front faceplate visual look somewhat similar? I said "yes, indeed" esp if they are all in Silver finish.

He said: my friend, how do you think I went from SP-9 to LS-3, then LS-16, then Ref-3 and similarly for the CDP and the power amps without my wife ever asking a question or complaining a thing on this hobby of mine? Because she couldn't ever figure out that new components were constantly being added as they all look the same. That's why I stick to Audio Research. :lol:

 

[thexfactor]

Like teky said it depends on the quality/bitrate of the encode, apart from that it also depends on the screen size and the viewing distance, for me there isn't a significant difference between a good quality BDRip and a Blue Ray Disc on my 40" LCD @ 8ft distance.

 

[thevortex]

Psychotropic - suffice it to say that the picture quality difference is not night and day. However, with HD rips you have got to ensure that the sound is not compromised upon. Typical rips, in a bid to reduce file download size, cut down on sound quality.

 

[spirovious]

Hi psychotropic- HD rip are not as good as Bluray unless they are 10GB+.
I have few shared by Vinay & Hemantwaghe & few are very good & others are OK.OK ie.sharp,better ,but may not be close to original when colours are concerned.

I have seen BD demos & am comparing them with rips.
Just like DVD ripped to Divx,you can compre HD rips.

 

[aneelr]

Hi,

HD rips are definitely lower in terms of PQ as opposed to that of an original Bluray. You can clearly make out the bandings, specially in the skin tone, sky colors etc. Original Bluray is the ultimate quality. HD rips can only approximate to it to about 80%. And the PQ difference is visible to naked eye.


cheers.