HD vs. SD videos on the iPad

[MikeD]

Obviously there's a huge difference between 720p and 480p on a big TV, but what about on a 9.7 inch screen? Is the difference noticeable?

 

[STi]

Yes.

 

[Jake872]

There is a very noticeable difference, and I have screenshots to prove it. Yes, you are right that the difference on a big TV is much more visible than on a smaller screen, but HD videos on the iPad are definitely worth it.

I have season 3 of The Big Bang Theory on DVD and Blu-ray, ripped both, and put the episodes on my iPad. The DVD was ripped in 480p and the Blu-ray was ripped in 720p. I took two screenshots of each file, one with the black bars and the other zoomed in.

EDIT - I didn't realize the pictures would be this small, but here they are, in this order: 720p zoomed, 480p zoomed, 720p wide, 480p wide.

 

[Tinman]

Obviously there's a huge difference between 720p and 480p on a big TV, but what about on a 9.7 inch screen? Is the difference noticeable?

As others have stated, yes it is noticeable.

You are probably seeing a bigger "screen" when holding your iPhone at normal viewing distances than you are that big screen TV. Perspective and all that.



Michael

 

[kierandill]

The pics are good, but a bit of an apples/oranges comparison. That is really useful if you are starting from an HD source like BluRay. But if you ripped a DVD at both 480p and 720p, there should be no difference, since either way you are upscaling.

 

[Jake872]

The pics are good, but a bit of an apples/oranges comparison. That is really useful if you are starting from an HD source like BluRay. But if you ripped a DVD at both 480p and 720p, there should be no difference, since either way you are upscaling.

I ripped a DVD in 480p, and a Blu-ray in 720p. They were different sources.

 

[Hasty]

Huge difference in file size too.

 

[Tinman]

Huge difference in file size too.

If there wasn't I suspect this thread wouldn't exist.



Michael

 

[Sonny Burnett]

Huge difference in size too.

There could be another remark here but I will hold my tongue on this one.

 

[DewWorm]

I found that movies purchased from iTunes made little difference in SD or HD, but old VHS tapes that I was able to convert to .mp4 files did show differently. The old VHS converts were much better in HD due to greater pixilation in SD. I guess the critical difference is the quality of the source data (duhhh?).

This iPad is my first Apple product purchase, and I absolutely love it!