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rickeames

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Mar 12, 2008
389
71
I have a ten hour flight and want to fill my iPad with entertainment from the iTunes store. How big of a visual diff is there between sd and HD versions on this thing? I have seen an sd (assuming that is the same as the digital copy I get with my blurays) but have not seen HD yet.
 

pondie84

macrumors 6502a
Jan 28, 2008
592
0
Are you happy with the SD quality? It's completely personal.

I'm completely fine with SD but a lot of people aren't. I'm personally not willing to pay more and waste more of my download limit per month for something I barely notice.
 

billyzenme

macrumors member
Dec 21, 2009
80
0
There's quite a difference. SD from iTunes is slightly lower than DVD resolution. and HD from iTunes is like around 1/8th of the bitrate of Blu-Ray. Either way, HD from iTunes is drastically better than watching in SD.

Go with HD. The IPS display of iPad may not be widescreen resolution, but the quality of the colors (popping out) (if you don't have those anti-glare screen protectors that takes away the contrast) and the pixels of it are built for HD content.
 

Chupa Chupa

macrumors G5
Jul 16, 2002
14,835
7,396
Watching on an iPad the difference between SD and HD is going to be marginal & not worth the extra money. P.S. the iPad doesn't have an HD screen.
 

jeffkempster

macrumors member
Oct 31, 2008
94
3
I have a ten hour flight and want to fill my iPad with entertainment from the iTunes store. How big of a visual diff is there between sd and HD versions on this thing? I have seen an sd (assuming that is the same as the digital copy I get with my blurays) but have not seen HD yet.

I tested this by downloading a free TV show. I think it was V. It was available in HD and SD. I transfered one to the ipad and then the other to compare. You have to click a setting in itunes to get the SD version to copy over. It is in the Summary tab in itunes for your ipad.
 

rickeames

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Mar 12, 2008
389
71
I tested this by downloading a free TV show. I think it was V. It was available in HD and SD. I transfered one to the ipad and then the other to compare. You have to click a setting in itunes to get the SD version to copy over. It is in the Summary tab in itunes for your ipad.

And your take was....?
 

Shank2001

macrumors newbie
May 2, 2010
26
5
First a matter of definition. The iPad is most certainly HD. In fact, the resolution of the ipad screen is the first one listed in the HD resolutions table as an industry standard. It is an industry standard resolution for HD, just not widescreen HD.

Well I have tried it myself on the V TV show mentioned above as well as my own Blu Ray rip of UP in both 720P and DVD sizes. The TV show was not as huge a difference as the Blu Ray rip, but there is no doubt the difference is obvious. HD is definitely better.

As for saving time downloading, I don't see the point. It took less than 10 minutes for the HD version and about 4 minutes for the SD version. Not enough difference to worry about, given it is worth having the better quality to me. Especially when they both can begin streaming to my iPad almost immediately if I choose to stream rather than download first.

Not to mention having the HD version is nice for viewing on other HD devices.

But, to each their own.
 
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