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Netflix PS3 streaming comparison PIX - Page 4

post #91 of 178
12/7/11 at 6:20pm
Thread Starter 
A lot of the Dark of the Moon BD shots do utilize the full resolution.

Not sure what you're asking with the Primes fighting screenshot there.
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post #92 of 178
12/8/11 at 5:21pm
well, that HDX pic with the Primes looked absolutely terrible (ton of compression artifacts and macroblocking), at least compared to bluray. But then I looked at other action pics and found out that they were equally bad... Is it just HDX, or is it something else?
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post #93 of 178
12/9/11 at 11:31am
Thread Starter 
Just how the HDX is.
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post #94 of 178
12/11/11 at 2:09pm
Thread Starter 
This was Vudu's 99-cent title several days ago.

Blu-ray: 25.91Mbps AVC (2.36:1 AR)
Vudu HDX download: 8.65GB = 69200Mbits / (2:12:08 = 7928s) = 8.729Mbps total - 0.384Mbps audio (guess) = ~8.34Mbps AVC (2.37:1 AR, with extra zooming)

All of the McClane reaction shots on the plane have always struck me as being frame-blended on the Blu-ray but I guess that's just how they are.











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post #95 of 178
12/11/11 at 6:43pm
Too bad I missed a great 99c special
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post #96 of 178
12/17/11 at 12:03pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by msgohan View Post

"Lost" Season 1, Episode 1 (HD / 5.1) - X-High vs Blu-ray

I capped this again on Nov 5. It looks like they redid the encode for some reason, like they did with Ong Bak 2.


While I'm at it here is the current High/HD version.


24: Redemption, Cobra, Pysch ep 1, and Weeds ep 1 are all the same as before (didn't bother checking any others, except Outbreak which is now SD-only Starz).

Cowboys & Aliens is 99c on PSN this weekend so I bit on that. I don't have another source to compare it to, though.
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post #97 of 178
12/17/11 at 1:04pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by msgohan View Post

This was Vudu's 99-cent title several days ago.

Blu-ray: 25.91Mbps AVC (2.36:1 AR)
Vudu HDX download: 8.65GB = 69200Mbits / (2:12:08 = 7928s) = 8.729Mbps total - 0.384Mbps audio (guess) = ~8.34Mbps AVC (2.37:1 AR, with extra zooming)

All of the McClane reaction shots on the plane have always struck me as being frame-blended on the Blu-ray but I guess that's just how they are.

It's bizarre how VUDU zooms and crops sometime by just a tiny little bit. What's the point? I wonder if they sometimes get a source different from the one on the BD.
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post #98 of 178
12/18/11 at 8:48pm
Thread Starter 
I had some sort of issue that caused my PSN download to be limited to exactly 2048MB, i.e. the first 43:06 of the film. So I didn't actually get to watch the stupid thing (and videos are limited to one download).



PSN HD download (1080p): 5606MB = 44848Mbits / (1:58:30 = 7110s) = 6.31Mbps total
Details: 6.0Mbps AVC + 256kbps AAC

Blu-ray shots from HighDefDiscNews

Vudu HDX preview on PS3 (one frame each from Theatrical and Extended, respectively)

Vudu 10 Minute Preview download on PS3: 636.0MB = 5088Mbits / (9:40 = 580s) = 8.77Mbps total (1.78:1 AR, cropped)




















The colors on the PSN copy are icky, and the Vudu versions of the movie itself are badly aliased as if some joker decided to apply a deinterlacing filter to it.

Weirdly, PSN shots 8, 9 and 10 have an extra line or two on the bottom compared to the Blu-ray but the rest don't.
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post #99 of 178
12/25/11 at 7:35pm
Would be interesting to see if you had any other itunes comparison shots. They seem to have the most tv shows to download out of the pay per episode model.
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post #100 of 178
12/26/11 at 4:33pm
Thread Starter 
My desire to compare things must be balanced with my wallet. You're probably not interested in this one since I actually found out about it thanks to your post where you mentioned checking them out.

For anyone else, Sony Pictures is offering the first 9 eps for free on all these services until January 5 as a way to boost interest before it starts airing again. It's also free on CinemaNow, which I can't access so I'm unsure whether it's in HD there.

Amazon .wmv: 2,119,655,287 bytes / 44:09 = 6.40Mbps total

Amazon on Roku 2: 2.5Mbps AVC

iTunes: 4008kbps AVC + 384kbps AC3 5.1

PSN: 2074MB (forgot to check runtime)
Information: AVC 6.0Mbps + AAC 256kbps

Vudu HDX on PS3: 2.88GB = 23040Mbits / (44:03 = 2653s) = 8.68Mbps total

Zune 1-minute preview stream (one shot)















I'm really disappointed that these services can't get the color consistently correct across all of their content. It's not as if these are going through an analog tape step where they have to set the levels.
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post #101 of 178
12/28/11 at 9:56am
Mind explaining why amazon's download service has worse quality than it's 2.5 mbps streaming service? Is it because .wmv sucks?
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post #102 of 178
12/28/11 at 1:43pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by chachaseeds View Post

Mind explaining why amazon's download service has worse quality than it's 2.5 mbps streaming service? Is it because .wmv sucks?

The downloaded files from Amazon are encoded as VC-1 (according to MediaInfo for files which I own). VC-1 has been used as primary video encoding for many BDs.

msgohan, what's you source of information that Amazon streams are encoded in AVC? If they use VC-1 for the downloads, it's surprising that they'd use AVC for streams.
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post #103 of 178
12/28/11 at 5:52pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by chachaseeds View Post

Mind explaining why amazon's download service has worse quality than it's 2.5 mbps streaming service? Is it because .wmv sucks?

The encoder implementation and settings are always more important than the actual format. There are terrible-quality H.264 encoders, for example.

I can only speculate of course but to me it looks like Amazon cranks up the deblocking too high. That's just one factor.

Quote:
Originally Posted by michaeltscott View Post

The downloaded files from Amazon are encoded as VC-1 (according to MediaInfo for files which I own).

That's interesting. I didn't think that MediaInfo could peer into encrypted files, but I see that it also confirms the maximum bitrate being in the 9000kbps range (when audio is subtracted).

Quote:


msgohan, what's you source of information that Amazon streams are encoded in AVC? If they use VC-1 for the downloads, it's surprising that they'd use AVC for streams.

It's currently possible to download the streams on Windows using some pretty arcane software. Once obtained, the files are unprotected and can be inspected with MediaInfo, etc. The bitrates precisely match what the Rokus' debug mode reports for their highest quality 720p streams, and I also made sure they visually matched. I think I posted a screenshot of the Doctor Who preview to illustrate that.

I believe they would have to use Silverlight instead of Flash in order to utilize VC-1 for the PC streaming?
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post #104 of 178
12/28/11 at 6:01pm
Thread Starter 
Blu-ray shots from DVD Talk review (2.40:1 AR)

Vudu HDX on PS3: 6.12GB = 48960Mbits / (1:31:46 = 5506s) = 8.89Mbps total (1.78:1 AR, cropped+unmatted)

Aliasing often crops up throughout the Vudu rental. Not sure about the BD. The combination of being shot on digital video and the aspect ratio made this look like a made-for-TV movie.



I've spoiler-tagged the comparisons as they include gruesome death scenes.

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post #105 of 178
12/29/11 at 8:58pm
I had no idea you could even download tv shows in 1080p on some services. Hopefully Amazon and itunes will start to offer them as well?

Has any of these companies ever publicly said what software they use to encode these? If you've ever used x264, you know that you can get some pretty transparent encodes with high quality settings. I don't really feel like itunes and amazon encodes look all that great in comparison to the 1080p hdx encodes. itunes has too many compression artifacts, and amazon, while having a higher bitrate, seems to lack fine detail in comparison to the others. If you look at the faces on the Amazon downloads, you can't make out as much detail compared to the others, and it has a slightly blurry or smeared look.
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post #106 of 178
1/2/12 at 9:26pm
Thread Starter 
The Blu-ray screenshots are all from Cinema Squid.

Netflix on PS3 vs Netflix on WD TV Live vs Blu-ray Disc vs Vudu HDX preview stream







Netflix on PS3 vs Blu-ray









When 1080p isn't quite 1080p, but is better than 720p...
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post #107 of 178
1/2/12 at 11:38pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by msgohan View Post

The Blu-ray screenshots are all from Cinema Squid.

Netflix on PS3 vs Netflix on WD TV Live vs Blu-ray Disc vs Vudu HDX preview stream

When 1080p isn't quite 1080p, but is better than 720p...

The BD and VUDU files have suffixes but the others don't. Kind of makes it hard to tell them apart at a glance (except that the PS3 Netflix has the info overlay in the corner).

I don't know what your "not quite 1080p" comment means.
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post #108 of 178
1/3/12 at 9:55am
Thread Starter 
They do on my computer, but I guess ImageShack has a length limit.

I mean that neither of the streaming services utilize the full resolution available on these titles; they're notably softened compared to the Blu-ray.
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post #109 of 178
1/3/12 at 12:15pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by msgohan View Post

They do on my computer, but I guess ImageShack has a length limit.

You should shorten the rest of the title--"futureramebendersgame" is a bit much .
Quote:
I mean that neither of the streaming services utilize the full resolution available on these titles; they're notably softened compared to the Blu-ray.

Oh--I thought that maybe you were making some new observation . If you don't wait until you can get 3 bars, we don't know how good the VUDU image could be.
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post #110 of 178
1/3/12 at 3:36pm
Thread Starter 
Wish I could, I just don't have the bandwidth to stream 3 bars usually. I can say that there was no difference in sharpness between the first two levels, just less compression artifacts.
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post #111 of 178
1/4/12 at 4:15am
Can you get a better connection? 8mbps seems a bit slow these days.....
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post #112 of 178
1/4/12 at 10:22am
Thread Starter 
My ISP does offer faster plans but they would be 4-5 times more expensive. When I first signed up with them this was their second-fastest option and they were offering it for a ridiculously low price for a year. For some reason they decided to extend it another year, so I don't have any intention of switching yet.
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post #113 of 178
1/10/12 at 10:00pm
Thread Starter 
Cable TV: 17.2Mbps 1080i MPEG-2
Netflix on PS3











The Netflix encode smushes a lot of the higher-frequency grain away, blurgh.
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post #114 of 178
1/15/12 at 1:16pm
Thread Starter 
Another SD comparison, this time including DVD. This is being removed from Netflix in a week.

Amz 1196kbps AVC vs Nflx 1.75Mbps AVC vs Criterion 6.5Mbps MPEG-2





The Amazon stream was 640x480 before being resized, so the AR squish wasn't my mistake.
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post #115 of 178
2/6/12 at 5:55pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by ack_bk View Post

But that is the problem with Netflix. The vast majority of movies are in SD with 2.0 sound and do look closer to VHS than they do Blu-Ray.

Hard to complain about Netflix pricing, but the vast majority of their content looks pretty bad on a larger 100-120" screen. .

Which less than 1% of people have.
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post #116 of 178
2/7/12 at 3:48pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by msgohan View Post

This was Vudu's 99-cent title several days ago.

Blu-ray: 25.91Mbps AVC (2.36:1 AR)
Vudu HDX download: 8.65GB = 69200Mbits / (2:12:08 = 7928s) = 8.729Mbps total - 0.384Mbps audio (guess) = ~8.34Mbps AVC (2.37:1 AR, with extra zooming)

All of the McClane reaction shots on the plane have always struck me as being frame-blended on the Blu-ray but I guess that's just how they are.












Crap old badly made master in bad master shocker...
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post #117 of 178
2/12/12 at 4:32pm
Thread Starter 
Vudu HDX download on PS3: 662.6MB / 10:04 = 8.78Mbps
Zune Marketplace HD download on Xbox 360: 762.17MB / 10:16 = 9.90Mbps (1080p with 5.1)
Zune preview stream (5 shots)
Blu-ray shot from DoBlu

Videos on the Xbox 360 are currently washed out when the UI is output at correct levels. I included histograms to see whether using RGB Expanded output is a decent workaround for Zune videos (with a "display" that expects 16-235 input).














Somewhere there were blog posts noting what format the Zune videos are in. Anyone remember?
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post #118 of 178
2/16/12 at 11:01pm
Thread Starter 
This is currently free on a bunch of services but costs 3 bucks on Amazon.

iTunes HD download: 4.09Mbps AVC
PSN HD download: 4020MB / 1:24:55 = 6.31Mbps total
Vudu HDX download: 5.62GB / 1:24:55 = 8.82Mbps total
Zune HD download: 6.2GB / 1:24:57 = 9.73Mbps total











Zune's 1-minute preview videos aren't an accurate reflection of the download quality.




I've also updated the Pan Am post with one shot from Zune's preview video.
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post #119 of 178
3/2/12 at 7:13pm
Thread Starter 
This was free for a few weeks. Seems pretty terrible even by child sitcom standards.

Amazon AVC stream: 2.5Mbps
Amazon WMV download: 1,121,056,474 bytes / 23:44 = 6298kbps total - 256kbps stereo = ~6.0Mbps
iTunes: 4.27Mbps AVC
Vudu: 1.54GB / 23:44 = 8.65Mbps total
Zune: 1.7GB / 23:44 = 9.55Mbps total






(The iTunes version uses a shortened title card instead of the opening credits.)

Zune vs Zune preview:


Also adding Zune preview shots to the Fast Five post.
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post #120 of 178
3/11/12 at 1:33pm
Do you think Zune quality is better than Vudu?
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