Video file size?

[Cream Soda]

Basically, when I'm looking at options options for downloading anime, I'll see two 1080p uploads of the same show, and one being 400mb and the other 550+;

Any reason for this? I'd opt for the lower file size, but I don't want to be sacrificing any quality.

Could someone just explain the rundown a bit for me so I have a better understanding (as I know that file size doesn't necessarily = better quality at the same time)

[Deadgye]

It was encoded differently. There's really so many choices and options when it comes to encoding that short of downloading both and comparing them there's no way to know which one is better.

[The Stig]

The quality of the video will most likely be the same (face it, there's pretty much only 1 or 2 ways to properly encode a movie into something everyone will take), but the sound will be in a flac-similar format, whatever the movie version of it is called.

Probably the reason why YIFY movies are so small, whereas some uploader somewhere would've uploaded a 15gb version of the same movie.

[Icarian]

Are anime TV shows true 1080p yet? I remember downloading a couple episodes two years ago or so at 1080p and comparing them to the 720p versions and I couldn't spot a difference, they were just upscaled to 1080p and not native 1080p.

[hey]

It really depends. Could be just higher quality audio, as mentioned, or it could be 10 bit vs 8 bit (10 bit is higher quality AND smaller file size), or one could be compressed more to save space (at the cost of quality).

face it, there's pretty much only 1 or 2 ways to properly encode a movie into something everyone will take

That's not true at all.

[The Stig]

I acknowledge there's a lot out there, but what I am also saying is unless you can tell the difference in a blind test all these minute details are moot and probably don't matter. There will never be an agreement on a perfectly encoded file and I just beeline for the common formats with the common compression that is H.264. As long as it's not horribly done i.e. with noticable lines everywhere or colour is bad then it's probably acceptable.

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Example, YIFY's Iron Man 3. 264 compression, 92kbs AAC-LC (2CH) audio. 720p - 925mb; Probably acceptable for most of the population, hence it's popularity. High end equipment people (superior speakers) will spit and shit at it.

Contrast, another uploader - same as compression and 720p as above with but with 3232 kbps audio... comes just under 3gb.


Maybe one day when I own a proper home cinema I might care a little.

[Niya]

Oh the endless encoding options... H264 is pretty much a standard today, but you can still vary the bitrate and use 10bit instead of 8bit, and of course tinker around with the other encoder options.
The most variety is with audio tracks, from 2.0 to 7.1, AC3, AAC, FLAC, multi-audio... All of these combinations can lead to vast file size differences ^^ A typical ~25min anime episode in 720p can vary from about 150 to 600+ MB.

Are anime TV shows true 1080p yet? I remember downloading a couple episodes two years ago or so at 1080p and comparing them to the 720p versions and I couldn't spot a difference, they were just upscaled to 1080p and not native 1080p.

As long as you have the recommended distance to your screen (1.5-2x inch value) you'll probably NEVER spot a difference between 720p and 1080p as long as both are decent encodes. But yes, there are plenty of "true" 1080 anime. My favourite anime tracker has very high quality standards and never accepts upscales, and they have ~300 series/movies/OVA in 1080 listed.