iTunes Video Content Quality

[TrackZ]

Hello all. Was wondering if Apple had done something recently (maybe in the last couple years even) to change the encoding approach or quality of content on iTunes?

I think that some time ago, video content file sizes were fairly variable and perhaps a little smaller in most cases than now. It seems now like files are fairly consistent. ~5GB for ~2 hours of video. The size differences in movies look fairly linear compared to the 5GB/2 hours ratio depending on the movie length.

Hopefully with the announcement of HEVC, they take advantage of that and reencode the whole content set again still targeting the same file size to realize a quality bump. I really wish they had a size tier on par with or closer to Blu-ray bit rates for audio and video.

 

[Rigby]

They typically use a video bandwidth of 5Mbps. This hasn't changed in recent years, but I noticed that they periodically make new encodes (you can see the encoding date by scanning downloaded iTunes files with Mediainfo or similar tools). Presumably this is to take advantage of improvements in their encoder software. They are also now streaming some movies in Dolby Digital Plus, which allows them to use 7.1 surround sound instead of just 5.1 (but this requires an ATV4).