Bit-hdtv | 720p vs 1080p Web-DL?

[Atreides]

 

There are still many people who can't decide which of these two resolution are the best. Some says 1080p becouse it's double while other people prefer the 720p all the time. Let's see how this works.

Video Resolution & Quality: 1080p is Higher & Better than 720p

As suggested from the number, 1080p which refers to video resolution of 1920x1080, will apparently presents better video quality than 720p that refers to a resolution of 1280x720 only. Theoretically, 1920x1080 means 2.25 times as many pixels as 1280x720. That's to say, the image quality of 1080p movies is much sharper and smoother than 720p and will definitely bring more visual enjoyment to you while watching the movies. 

File Size & Storage: 1080p is Bigger than 720p

From a file size point of view, a 1080p HD movie download is expected to be approximately 50% larger than the 720p counterpart. For example, if the file size of a 1080p HD movie on iTunes is 1GB, the 720p version of it would probably be around 700MB. And at mean time, a bigger file size always requires more storage of your computer or devices. So you'd better take the file size into consideration to decide whether download 1080p or 720p movies according to your situation. 

Conclusion & Suggestion

There is no absolute statement or clarification to prove whether 1080p or 720 is better. What you should keep in mind is that the most right option will always be the one that meets you needs better. If you prefer a more direct way to look at the difference between 720p and 1080p HD movies, you can simply download a movie with both 720p and 1080p to compare by yourself. 

To remember:

* The main factor is bitrate and the encoding scheme. Generally a very high bitrate is better. The skinny of it is blu-ray comes with high-bit rates while web-dl generally use a better encoding scheme.

* 720p web-dl is almost always better than 1080p whenever the 1080p is less, equal or just slightly larger in size and bitrate then the web-dl. The bit-rate for 1080p web-dl is too low.

Take a look:

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/66521

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/57365

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/57368

In first two 720p wins, in the 3th exaple the 1080p wins, even though the comparison is taken from the same TV episode!

PS: Anyway, you will always (99%) get better quality from 720p scene rips than on those web-dl releases. I never seen any example where a web-dl surpass the blu-ray quality. Personally, Im always for 720p when I can't wait for the bluray source.