720p HD

[Night457]

We should make clear, that the 720p files are not true HD, just upscales.

Very true, but then I always assume that for 720p.

I have a dumb question that I should probably make another thread for, but I won't:

When are 720p files ever NOT an upscale? When they are a downscale instead?

DVD goes up to 576p, and Blu-ray is 1080p. HD television can be 720p, but I can't believe the source for their footage was actually that. They either upscaled a SD source or downscaled a FHD source to take less broadcast / streaming power. What kind of film owner would provide a half-assed 720p remaster? I don't understand.

[orangelamp]

You're right, no film company masters in 720p. 720p is nearly always a downscale unless it's older content that was either shot on video or never had an HD film scan. It's possible there are some rare outliers from the very early days of HD video that produced true 720p masters, but unlikely.

[ghost]

When are 720p files ever NOT an upscale? When they are a downscale instead?

I would say: just view it in full screen and trust your eyes. If it still looks like SD, it's just upscaled to a bigger resolution (maybe with some sharpening and noise reduction).

TV companies won't do much work on a movie if they broadcast it. Just scale it up to HD.

[Night457]

trust your eyes

That's just the problem, I can sadly no longer do that.

just upscaled to a bigger resolution (maybe with some sharpening and noise reduction)

Aha! At least now I understand the distinction you are making. I totally get that just making a video bigger does not really accomplish much.

TV companies won't do much work on a movie if they broadcast it. Just scale it up to HD.

That is what I assumed they were doing for 720p broadcasts: either scaling up a Standard Def source, or bit-starving a 1080p source. Because they are cheap and want their audience to think they are getting something better when it is not nearly as good as it COULD be. Because most people are not technical experts, nor do they have a refined aesthetic sense ... or their eyesight has gone to crap like mine. When my 4k TV died I did not replace it, I just went back to a lower resolution one. I figured I was physically incapable of really appreciating the money spent!

But I take what I can get, and to a certain extent I can still see improvements in a 720p upscale from DVD versus, say, a VHSrip. My eyes are at least good enough for that.

[David32441]

trust your eyes

That's just the problem, I can sadly no longer do that.

just upscaled to a bigger resolution (maybe with some sharpening and noise reduction)

Aha! At least now I understand the distinction you are making. I totally get that just making a video bigger does not really accomplish much.

TV companies won't do much work on a movie if they broadcast it. Just scale it up to HD.

That is what I assumed they were doing for 720p broadcasts: either scaling up a Standard Def source, or bit-starving a 1080p source. Because they are cheap and want their audience to think they are getting something better when it is not nearly as good as it COULD be. Because most people are not technical experts, nor do they have a refined aesthetic sense ... or their eyesight has gone to crap like mine. When my 4k TV died I did not replace it, I just went back to a lower resolution one. I figured I was physically incapable of really appreciating the money spent!

But I take what I can get, and to a certain extent I can still see improvements in a 720p upscale from DVD versus, say, a VHSrip. My eyes are at least good enough for that.

A few European satellite tv channels were broadcasting 720p and calling it HD. HD was defined as anything 720p and above. 720p takes up about 60% of the bandwidth of 1080p. But generally the higher the bitrate the lower the quality you can get away with. ie. a common handbrake setting for average quality encoding is "20" for 720p and 22 for 1080p. Where 0 is lossless and anything below 10 is as good as unnoticable. 35-40 is macro block party, and at 24 you're going to see 8x8 blocks of the same colour if you look closely in flattish coloured areas - especially on the "fast" encoder settings.
1280x720p is quite a big improvement on 720x576 and on my 4k capable tv I was happy to go with 720p Netflix which is a few Euros cheaper than 1080p Netflix

[Night457]

Oh yes, 720p is definitely better than the old low "standard def" so I am not dismissing it. But if 1080p is "high def" then maybe 720p shoud have been called "medium def" just to be honest?

When I had a 4k TV I watched VHS on it on rare occasions. Because, why should I have a different TV hooked up for every resolution?

[Night457]

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