Figure this out: codec, resolution, bitrate

Plex Media Server
1

H264 vs H265
1080p vs 4K
bitrate and Gigabyte

What are the parameters that determine the best video quality? What is the best quality that my playback devices can serve? The more gigabytes necessarily leads to the better quality? I wanted to ask for help to orient myself on the topic of “best useful quality”. “Useful” in the sense: do I really need a 20Gb film if I watch it on the tablet?

For example, most of the time, I use Plex to play videos on TV (my bad 4k) or on the projector (fullhd) that read movies from the local server via wifi (5 GHz). Which kind of movies do I download? All in 1080p! and the more gigabyte they have the better they are! This was my first answer, then I saw that for the same gigabyte, the 265 codec is better than the 264, and then I also noticed that my HDDs filled inexorably and unnecessarily. I also saw some movies, perhaps in 4K or 1080p 15Gb, but very very noisy…
I imagine that many of you have already made these reflections and I wanted to know what conclusions you have reached. In particular I am interested to know: how can I know the maximum quality of a video (in terms of codec + resolution + bitrare - which I believe consequently define, together with the duration of the movie, the file size) that I can reproduce without loss in my TV ?

2

You are looking for a simple formula to follow.
But I have to tell you: there is no such thing, unfortunately.

The final deciding instance are your eyes. So go with whatever quality compromises you can live with.
Matters are complicated by the the facts that

  • not all devices can handle HEVC video
  • there are bitrate limits on some playback devices
  • subtitles (when necessary) can introduce the need for transcoding on the server during playback.
    Depending on whether the particular playback device can handle them natively or not (which in turn further depends on the format of the subtitles).
    And: transcoding HEVC/H.265 is way more demanding than transcoding AVC/H.264.

Experience is what you want and need.
Download/transcode different file formats and bitrates and put them to the test on your biggest screen.

And be aware that all that experience might be offset by that new, big 8K TV set or laser projector you might be buying in 2 – 3 years… :smiley:

3

This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.