Anyone who uses both Amazon and iTunes for 1080p HD movies know which of the two services has the better bitrate for movies, or are tey both similar? iTunes lists the file size in the description but Amazon doesn't. I've watched an older movie on Amazon and the PQ was really good almost blu-ray quality. If I switched to iTunes would it be equally good quality?
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iTunes VS Amazon Video bitrate
- Thread starter Gulfam
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Hi Gulfam, oh gosh yes, I've ALWAYS found iTunes HD films to be of an incredibly high picture quality. I've never ever had one even on super old films where i've thought 'Ouch that is poor quality'. In fact I once saw a Amazon TV series in HD and it was so bad, to me, it looked like 480p!!!
Here in the UK, IMO, Apple iTunes is of the highest picture quality.
When Apple moved from 720 to 1080p, the file size increased only a small amount and i think I remember that the bit rate was reduced. I remember thinking that although the resolution was higher, the image wasn't always as good on the two versions of the same film. Having said that itunes movies are very well encoded and I do buy them. I haven't tried an iTunes 4k movie yet.
I think the USA have very low internet speeds on average compared to us in Europe and we pay a bit of a quality price so they can stream the higher resolution. Also I imagine Tim wants small files for streaming.
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Vincent Teoh did a comparison of 4k Blu Ray and 4K iTunes and Apple came out very good.
I think the USA have very low internet speeds on average compared to us in Europe and we pay a bit of a quality price so they can stream the higher resolution. Also I imagine Tim wants small files for streaming.
[doublepost=1510614542][/doublepost]
Vincent Teoh did a comparison of 4k Blu Ray and 4K iTunes and Apple came out very good.
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Don't get too hung up on the bitrate. It also depends on how the movie is encoded and what codec is being used. Apple is already streaming H.265-encoded streams in 4K and 1080p HDR. It's very well possible that they will start (or already have started?) streaming regular 1080p content in H.265 as well, which is far more efficient than H.264 (which is commonly used today for 1080p content).
In other words, instead of being fixated on numbers, trust your own eyes.
In other words, instead of being fixated on numbers, trust your own eyes.
iTunes 1080p - Gone With the Wind (1939): 4932 kbps
iTunes 1080p - Casablanca (1942): 4307 kbps
iTunes 1080p - The Godfather (1972): The Coppola Restoration: 5507 kbps
iTunes 1080p - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 (2010): 5400 kbps
iTunes 1080p - Casablanca (1942): 4307 kbps
iTunes 1080p - The Godfather (1972): The Coppola Restoration: 5507 kbps
iTunes 1080p - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 (2010): 5400 kbps
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Bitrate varies quite a bit based on the content and when it was encoded.
As for the US vs EU thing, Apple doesn’t care about where you live. They care about the sustained bandwidth to a device as analyzed near real time. If they can get the top tier data to you, that’s what they send. That said there are a lot of possible bottlenecks. For example cable broadband has your bandwidth shared amongst your neighbors. During peek hours you may see issues. Point to point service, like fiber, are less susceptible to this issue, but you may still have other bottlenecks in the path.
As for the US vs EU thing, Apple doesn’t care about where you live. They care about the sustained bandwidth to a device as analyzed near real time. If they can get the top tier data to you, that’s what they send. That said there are a lot of possible bottlenecks. For example cable broadband has your bandwidth shared amongst your neighbors. During peek hours you may see issues. Point to point service, like fiber, are less susceptible to this issue, but you may still have other bottlenecks in the path.
If that was the case I would get a higher quality encode than the current highest, one which is equivalent to Blu Ray.
They set their top tier at a specific level.
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What bitrate are you currently getting?
For the time to come, they will not be sending BluRay-class bitrates (up to 60Mbps for FullHD and up to 100Mbps for UHD BluRays).
Haven't checked the FHD streams of iTunes Store, but the UHD streams seem to max out at around 30 Mbps currently (see the "aTV 4K is a scam..." thread for HUD screenshots). They indeed use an adaptive streaming method.
Of course the top tier is a specific level. And Apple’s top tier is far lower than a native BluRay. My argument was that Apple does not adjust their top tier regionally.
But for the sake of argument let’s say it was the same as a physical disk. Why do you think you would get that level to your home? Having a fat pipe at the last mile is only a small fraction of the path rom their server (or cache) to your Apple TV.