4 ms·

Sad. Bluray sounds and looks better than any video streaming I've seen. Never look for compression artifacts, you'll never be able to enjoy highly compressed

by sliken 4y ago

Sad. Bluray sounds and looks better than any video streaming I've seen. Never look for compression artifacts, you'll never be able to enjoy highly compressed streaming again. I got a LG C1 tv, upgraded netflix to 4k streaming ... and was disappointed, until I started watching bluray.

derwiki 4y ago
Your local library might be a good option! Mine has an extensive selection of Bluray and can request from other nearby libraries.
- drewcoo 4y ago
  I miss the Seattle Public Library! They had a great collection. I could place a hold on materials for my local SPL outlet and it would be delivered there from whatever others the material was at. Wonderful! Here in the middle of nowhere, the public library's selection is slim, recent, and popular. It's hard to find classics or art house or cult film - the kind of things that nobody streams because streaming service libraries are slim, recent, and popular. I can use InterLibrary Loan to borrow up to 3 DVDs at a time. The "borrowing" time is time from request to time of return, then I can request 3 more. This works out to about 3 DVDs a month. I was doing DVD.com for another ~12 a month. Total about 15. Now that fifteen movies is become three, I may have to see if I can get a library account from the local university and also ILL through them.
wyager 4y ago
Yep - Netflix 4K compression is pretty bad. They put a fair amount of work into specifying content delivery requirements (although they have some weird requirements like asking for P3 rather than Rec.2020) but then they compress the hell out of everything so it looks bad anyway. Very frustrating to see aggressive banding, block artifacts, etc. It is in many ways a blessing to be completely oblivious to such defects, which most people seem to be. Yet another way in which streaming content providers seem to be incentivizing piracy. You can certainly pirate a full-quality blu-ray copy of a movie.
- radicaldreamer 4y ago
  Apple TV+ has the best quality/bitrate for 4k, I wish Netflix would up their bitrate a bit as quality seems pretty mediocre. The bigger problem with Netflix 4k though is that the "look" of every show is extremely uniform -- to the point that its almost like the same people made every show! This is suspected to be due to the small set of "approved" equipment Netflix requires the producers/cast/crew to use and standardized post-processing. They should allow more freedom in that respect -- many non-Netflix shows these days have a lot more personality simply because they don't have that muted/desaturated Netflix look.
  - sgt 4y ago
    Can confirm. Apple TV+ makes me want to not use Netflix. But of course with everything being spread around, you need all these different types of streaming services. Torrent is sometimes an option.
    - prmoustache 4y ago
      You don't need them per se. You want them all. That is different.
  - ksec 4y ago
    No time to look it up right now but iirc Apple TV were using anywhere from 20Mbps to 40Mbps depending on content. That is bitrate anywhere from 2x to 4x of Netflix. No idea why they don’t up the bitrate considering bandwidth is extremely cheap and they do a lot of peering. We have H.266 / VVC that is a lot better at the smaller details. Would love to see it being tested for those who are extremely sensitive to artifacts.
yamtaddle 4y ago
Can confirm, artifacts are what ruin the picture, once you're at 1080p resolution or higher. I've got a really big screen (100+") and my two seating rows are at only about 5' and 8' distance (measured to roughly where the viewer's head is), and even under those conditions, a high-quality 1080p source looks a ton better on it than a middling-quality 4K source (let alone low-quality 4k), all due to compression artifacts. You'd have to drop the alternative to high-quality 720p resolution before I'd take a middling-quality 4k over it, in how-distracting-is-the-picture-quality terms.
- sliken 4y ago
  It's pretty bad, especially with the trend for darker movies and every light has a blocky grey halo. Definitely hurts the immersion.
js2 4y ago
There's a single premium "streaming" service that I know of, but it is not cheap: https://www.kaleidescape.com/ https://www.kaleidescape.com/ It's not technically streaming because any movie that you rent first has to be fully downloaded to local storage on one of their devices. And you're talking $6K for an entry-level device, just for the privilege of being able to rent/buy movies from their store: https://www.soundandvision.com/content/kaleidescape-compact-terra-12tb-movie-server-review https://www.soundandvision.com/content/kaleidescape-compact-... However, rentals/purchases are equivalent quality (if not bit-for-bit identical) to Blu-ray media. The company was started by one of the founders of NetApp back in 2001, so it was way ahead of its time. I guess it's survived by sticking to the niche high-end audio-visual market. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaleidescape https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaleidescape
- blue_cookeh 4y ago
  presumably this is ideal for environments like boats or private jets with limited connectivity - the sort of owners of which can afford more insane pricing
  - toast0 4y ago
    Limited connectivity and limited space. If you had the space, you could just use a disc. Although, boats and jets also do deal with a lot of motion. Not sure how well discs would do in that environment.
- Mindwipe 4y ago
  There's Bravia Core for Sony titles (on Sony TV sets). That's very high bit rate, not far off UHD Blu-ray.
  - js2 4y ago
    UHD discs have a bit rate of 72, 92, 123 or 144 Mbps Core Pure Stream has a max bit rate of 80 Mbps. So yes indeed, it's comparable. This is silly though: "To enjoy at the highest speed of 80 Mbps, you need an internet speed of 115 Mbps or faster. Ethernet (wired LAN) connections are limited to 100 Mbps due to the TV's product specifications. Therefore, to enjoy 80 Mbps with the Pure Stream™ functionality, you need to connect to a Wi-Fi router that supports IEEE 802.11 ac/n (wireless LAN)." https://www.sonypicturescore.com/faq/EN/us https://www.sonypicturescore.com/faq/EN/us Why would Sony hamstring their TVs with a fast-ethernet port? Also, I wouldn't buy a Sony TV just for this service. Seems like a weird value add.
criddell 4y ago
A lot of people don’t care. More than once I changed the setting on my parent’s television to stop stretching SD channels to fill the wide screen. They didn’t care. Nor did they care that every SD channel had an HD channel and all they had to do was add 100 to the channel number (or something like that). Compression artifacts bug me as well but if I’m watching something great, I forget about them pretty quickly. Same goes for black and white movies or foreign movies with subtitles. If it’s good, that all disappears.
- masfuerte 4y ago
  More than once I've been to see a film and it's being shown in the wrong aspect ratio. I find this intolerable. The circles aren't round! Yet when I grumble to the friends I'm with they haven't even noticed. Most people will put up with any old shit.
  - dhosek 4y ago
    Yeah, it’s when the type gets distorted that I notice.
- iggldiggl 4y ago
  > More than once I changed the setting on my parent’s television to stop stretching SD channels to fill the wide screen. They didn’t care. An aunt of mine even positively preferred fullscreen, distortion be damned.
moffkalast 4y ago
Once again piracy provides the best service, and free of charge too. Gabe Newell was right.
m463 4y ago
I have one too, and a 4k UHD disc player. Some 4k movies are phenomenal - like 2001. But some are sort of unreal in a different, uncanny valley way. I think it is HDR, or maybe the digital cameras they use. Almost like low contrast.

by sliken 4y ago

derwiki 4y ago

Your local library might be a good option! Mine has an extensive selection of Bluray and can request from other nearby libraries.

drewcoo 4y ago
I miss the Seattle Public Library! They had a great collection. I could place a hold on materials for my local SPL outlet and it would be delivered there from whatever others the material was at. Wonderful! Here in the middle of nowhere, the public library's selection is slim, recent, and popular. It's hard to find classics or art house or cult film - the kind of things that nobody streams because streaming service libraries are slim, recent, and popular. I can use InterLibrary Loan to borrow up to 3 DVDs at a time. The "borrowing" time is time from request to time of return, then I can request 3 more. This works out to about 3 DVDs a month. I was doing DVD.com for another ~12 a month. Total about 15. Now that fifteen movies is become three, I may have to see if I can get a library account from the local university and also ILL through them.

wyager 4y ago

Yep - Netflix 4K compression is pretty bad. They put a fair amount of work into specifying content delivery requirements (although they have some weird requirements like asking for P3 rather than Rec.2020) but then they compress the hell out of everything so it looks bad anyway. Very frustrating to see aggressive banding, block artifacts, etc. It is in many ways a blessing to be completely oblivious to such defects, which most people seem to be. Yet another way in which streaming content providers seem to be incentivizing piracy. You can certainly pirate a full-quality blu-ray copy of a movie.

radicaldreamer 4y ago
Apple TV+ has the best quality/bitrate for 4k, I wish Netflix would up their bitrate a bit as quality seems pretty mediocre. The bigger problem with Netflix 4k though is that the "look" of every show is extremely uniform -- to the point that its almost like the same people made every show! This is suspected to be due to the small set of "approved" equipment Netflix requires the producers/cast/crew to use and standardized post-processing. They should allow more freedom in that respect -- many non-Netflix shows these days have a lot more personality simply because they don't have that muted/desaturated Netflix look.
- sgt 4y ago
  Can confirm. Apple TV+ makes me want to not use Netflix. But of course with everything being spread around, you need all these different types of streaming services. Torrent is sometimes an option.
  - prmoustache 4y ago
    You don't need them per se. You want them all. That is different.
- ksec 4y ago
  No time to look it up right now but iirc Apple TV were using anywhere from 20Mbps to 40Mbps depending on content. That is bitrate anywhere from 2x to 4x of Netflix. No idea why they don’t up the bitrate considering bandwidth is extremely cheap and they do a lot of peering. We have H.266 / VVC that is a lot better at the smaller details. Would love to see it being tested for those who are extremely sensitive to artifacts.

yamtaddle 4y ago

Can confirm, artifacts are what ruin the picture, once you're at 1080p resolution or higher. I've got a really big screen (100+") and my two seating rows are at only about 5' and 8' distance (measured to roughly where the viewer's head is), and even under those conditions, a high-quality 1080p source looks a ton better on it than a middling-quality 4K source (let alone low-quality 4k), all due to compression artifacts. You'd have to drop the alternative to high-quality 720p resolution before I'd take a middling-quality 4k over it, in how-distracting-is-the-picture-quality terms.

sliken 4y ago
It's pretty bad, especially with the trend for darker movies and every light has a blocky grey halo. Definitely hurts the immersion.

js2 4y ago

There's a single premium "streaming" service that I know of, but it is not cheap: https://www.kaleidescape.com/ https://www.kaleidescape.com/ It's not technically streaming because any movie that you rent first has to be fully downloaded to local storage on one of their devices. And you're talking $6K for an entry-level device, just for the privilege of being able to rent/buy movies from their store: https://www.soundandvision.com/content/kaleidescape-compact-terra-12tb-movie-server-review https://www.soundandvision.com/content/kaleidescape-compact-... However, rentals/purchases are equivalent quality (if not bit-for-bit identical) to Blu-ray media. The company was started by one of the founders of NetApp back in 2001, so it was way ahead of its time. I guess it's survived by sticking to the niche high-end audio-visual market. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaleidescape https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaleidescape

blue_cookeh 4y ago
presumably this is ideal for environments like boats or private jets with limited connectivity - the sort of owners of which can afford more insane pricing
- toast0 4y ago
  Limited connectivity and limited space. If you had the space, you could just use a disc. Although, boats and jets also do deal with a lot of motion. Not sure how well discs would do in that environment.
Mindwipe 4y ago
There's Bravia Core for Sony titles (on Sony TV sets). That's very high bit rate, not far off UHD Blu-ray.
- js2 4y ago
  UHD discs have a bit rate of 72, 92, 123 or 144 Mbps Core Pure Stream has a max bit rate of 80 Mbps. So yes indeed, it's comparable. This is silly though: "To enjoy at the highest speed of 80 Mbps, you need an internet speed of 115 Mbps or faster. Ethernet (wired LAN) connections are limited to 100 Mbps due to the TV's product specifications. Therefore, to enjoy 80 Mbps with the Pure Stream™ functionality, you need to connect to a Wi-Fi router that supports IEEE 802.11 ac/n (wireless LAN)." https://www.sonypicturescore.com/faq/EN/us https://www.sonypicturescore.com/faq/EN/us Why would Sony hamstring their TVs with a fast-ethernet port? Also, I wouldn't buy a Sony TV just for this service. Seems like a weird value add.

criddell 4y ago

A lot of people don’t care. More than once I changed the setting on my parent’s television to stop stretching SD channels to fill the wide screen. They didn’t care. Nor did they care that every SD channel had an HD channel and all they had to do was add 100 to the channel number (or something like that). Compression artifacts bug me as well but if I’m watching something great, I forget about them pretty quickly. Same goes for black and white movies or foreign movies with subtitles. If it’s good, that all disappears.

masfuerte 4y ago
More than once I've been to see a film and it's being shown in the wrong aspect ratio. I find this intolerable. The circles aren't round! Yet when I grumble to the friends I'm with they haven't even noticed. Most people will put up with any old shit.
- dhosek 4y ago
  Yeah, it’s when the type gets distorted that I notice.
iggldiggl 4y ago
> More than once I changed the setting on my parent’s television to stop stretching SD channels to fill the wide screen. They didn’t care. An aunt of mine even positively preferred fullscreen, distortion be damned.

moffkalast 4y ago

Once again piracy provides the best service, and free of charge too. Gabe Newell was right.

m463 4y ago

I have one too, and a 4k UHD disc player. Some 4k movies are phenomenal - like 2001. But some are sort of unreal in a different, uncanny valley way. I think it is HDR, or maybe the digital cameras they use. Almost like low contrast.