Originally Posted by
Cradle
LOL more than half the people posting in this thread dont seem to know the first thing about picture quality.
There are two things you have to consider, standard definition and high def.
SD:
Obviously a DVDR would be the best quality, since its an exact replica of the original source. After that comes encodes, generally SD encodes are mostly xvid, though there are some P2P/home encodes that you can get in x264. GENERALLY, the rule of thumb is, the greater the filesize, the better quality (larger filesize usually represents a higher bitrate etc)
HD:
With HD, obviously a full bluray is the best quality, again since they are exact replicas of the original source (but ridiculus in filesize). After that comes your encodes, two types, 1080p and 720p. You have to understand that higher resolution (1080p) isnt ALWAYS better than 720p, its just more pixels. Again, you have to consider the bitrate (which usually can be judged from the filesize), the higher the better. With HD rips, you have to consider both resolution and bitrate to find the best rip. And you'll find that HD rips are always encoded using the x264 codec.
When downloading, you need to consider the following:
1) Are you going to be viewing your films on a HDTV or not?
2) What is your harddrive capacity and/or bandwidth limitations? Obviously if you have a bandwith limit, or are low on hdd space (and cant afford a new one), you may have to form a compromise).
Me, I generally go for HD movies, roughly 4-5gb 720p for your average movie and 8-10gb for action movies which i KNOW are brilliant and worth getting in the best quality.
Hope that clears things up.
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