4K UltraHD Blu-ray vs 4K Streaming | What’s the Difference?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 ก.ย. 2024
- Ok folks, let’s get a little nerdy here with some in depth talk about how 4K streaming and 4K UltraHD Blu-ray differ from each other. Which gives the better experience? Why is one better than the other? What are the limitations of streaming? Find out in this video!
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Nerd talk can also be translated to “properly informed”
For me, picture and sound quality are equally as important as the film itself so I will always choose Bluray or 4K Bluray over digital.
I have discs but I almost never watch them. I usually watch the digital copy
@@GamingandFrightened My digital copies are just a back up to my disk collection. VUDU and Movies Anywhere are probably going to fail at some point. Apple TV is the way to go for longevity.
Wow, you answered a ton of questions I had regarding streaming vs. 4k Blu-Ray. Lot's of things I was unsure about now make sense since you explained compression audio and video compression really well. Buying physical media is expensive, but I may start getting some of my movies on sales and even pre owned.
Owning the 4k or Blu Ray discs also offers the complete experience of special features, etc. A good model to follow is purchase your favourite movies or tv series on discs and then stream the rest.
☝🏾
Or stream nothing. Ever.
@@DriveupLife22 when im on the go i stream. i take my firestick with me to stream sports lol
"offers the complete experience"
FALSE (mind you, I collect 4K Blu-ray disc movies).
Example(s):
Certain Marvel/Star Wars movies on Disney+ have IMAX Enhanced aspect ratios and Dolby Vision support.
The 4K Blu-ray disc versions of those movies do NOT have those two things.
That’s what I do… 🤘🏽🤘🏽🤘🏽
Really appreciate you breaking this down with numbers! Can't argue with the superior quality. I can tell a HUGE difference in the audio quality on my home theater when I'm playing from discs. It is so much richer. I love physical media and really hope the studios keep producing it for us in the now niche market.
I stream movies when I travel. I play my physical media when I'm at home. Physical media makes your home theater investment worth the money you spent.
You can rip your discs and store them locally, you will not have to deal with streaming.
@@tinishmaheshwari6575 I do have my personal collection ripped to local HDDs. I meant I use MoviesAnywhere or Vudu to access my digital copies when I travel.
@@terryritivoy6220 well, you didn't mention that
Some of the 4K blu ray offer free digital version to download.
Streaming is to movies what mp3 was to music, sacrificing quality for the sake of convenience
You speak the truth!
MP3 320kbps is pretty good audio quality.
But services like Spotify use 96kbps and it sounds awful through proper speakers!!
So I blame streaming services over MP3
@@PickeringSamuel if you actually download the songs, you get 320 kps bitrate from spotify
PickeringSamuel . Bit rates aren't directly comparable when dealing with different compression encodings.
Sadly when consumers are forced to choose between quality and convenience, convenience ALWAYS wins.
For me, the main difference is I can't relax and enjoy 4k streaming because when the quality is good you constantly worry about it buffering and I have good internet. Plus, it's never really true 4k, it's been compressed and upscalled. Physical media will always win quality wise.
I have realised, that the Streaming Quality is more than good enough for my screen size and viewing distance. It's often more the quality of the source that holds things back.
Even FullHD Streams often look better than UHD Bluray if the Source material isn't good on the 4K disc. If the disc contains a grainy, dark, etc. movie, then all the high bitrate will be doing is showing the film grain in full, HDR enhanced glory. A properly clean, well made film will look good in the Stream as well. The only thing is, some TVs tend to show posterisation in Streams, and those are less obvious in UHD Blurays.
@@rolandrohde Amazon 4K original shows look really good on my 4K SONY BRAVIA tv, It just depends what source you are using. Some other apps don't look as impressive
I've got news for you. 4K discs are compressed too and are also upscaled in many cases.
For Streaming....We would have been better off keeping 1080 panels with a High bitrate for streaming 1080P content.
4K is it Big Marketing scheme !!
As a longtime home theater lover one of my biggest fears is that streaming will overtake physical media rendering physical media obsolete and I'll then be stuck with this compressed garbage all because the public at large doesn't know or, worse, care how inferior streaming is to a disc.
This channel is PERFECT. Can't get enough of it, I've learned so much haha
I am into Movies, I am into Home Theatre Movie experience, Subscribed.
Somthing I really like about your videos is you don't over edit and the information is so solid.
You're doing great work man.
The biggest difference is that your disc is not going to disappear from your shelf, or get edited, or any of that crap. You are not at the mercy of the provider.
We cannot lose our physical media.
We cannot let them get away with "You will own nothing and you will be happy."
A great video, thank you. I wish more people understood compression. They're just sold on 4k TVs but still buying DVDs or streaming their content.
People that buy DVD's make me laugh because nowadays, most people who love watching video content own a 4K TV and therefore it baffles me that they don't take at least SOME advantage of their 4K TV by at least watching the 4K version of a movie even if it's heavily compressed streaming like Netflix.
DVD's shouldn't even exist anymore. We're talking about 480p SD resolution. 🤯🤯🤯
Doesn't the player upscale the dvd though
I watched anime on Netflix a year ago. Yesterday I watched it at blu-ray quality 10bit 1080p on my LG C9 OLED tv. I was literally blown away. It's like when watching a 360 video on TH-cam then ramping the quality to 4K. My plan for now is i will buy a high capacity hard disk to download all the movies/series/animes at blu-ray quality while still paying for the streaming services to support that industry.
Lol. The answer is night and day. It's the SOUND QUALITY. Lossless vs lossy. Compressed vs uncompressed. No comparison!!
Plus, you own the movie. 20 dollars for a movie I love, to be able to own it permanently, is a great thing.
As a movie and hard core physical media buff, found ur video extremely informative and interesting. .kudos dude..
I'm glad there was discussion of sound quality - I have a decent speaker setup and want the best quality possible being fed into them. Maybe a separate video, but I dislike streaming because of 'content control' - these services change around and you may or may not be able to migrate your stuff; even if you download there's the risk of hard drive failure. A disc will always be there.
Keith M with a new atmos setup, I appreciated this info too.
Also lossy audio has the same effect as having a compressor/limiter on the audio. So the audio will neither get too soft or too loud.
Lossless audio has full range dynamics.
It was more about audio for me during the BD days, but now with UHD & HDR, audio & picture are why I invest in physical media.
Thanks for the vid, man 👍🏽
Great video! I have a 5.2.2 home theater setup with pretty big speakers. My biggest struggle with streaming is the audio compression. The dynamic range is crushed... It's like the dialogue and the action scenes are almost at the same level. So if I get the volume where I like it for action, then the dialogue moments are way to loud.
Physical Media I love buying blu ray and 4k movies physical media forever 💯
I'm sad when they put Dolby vision on streaming but you can only get regular HDR10 on disk 😢
The Dolby vision version often looks better on my oled tv regardless of disk vs streaming... But the audio is always better on disc 🙂
Great video, Jeff! The AV quality between 4K Blu-Ray (& standard Blu-Ray) compared to streaming have been night and night day to me. Especially since I've updated my home cinema and TV recently. It's made me a HUGE fan of physical media. Plus, from what you said, it sounds like 4K & Blu-Ray discs will surpass streaming quality for the next 10-20 years, maybe more. Nevermind the advantages of owning a copy, having beautiful artwork on your shelves, etc. I love your channel! Thank you for doing what you do!
The problem is that most people have $15 a month to spend on entertainment. Most people do not have $15 to spend on every movie they want to watch
The bitrate of standard blu ray (1080p) maxes out at 40 mbps for video. Most movies on blu ray average around 25 mpbs. Its impossible for a standard blu ray to have a bitrate of 50 to 80 mbps.
Streaming quality is really good nowadays, as long you don't know the difference, or have a small/shitty display. But even if A/V quality doesn't matter all that much to you, there is still the matter of missing out on a lot of stuff besides the mainstream that will probably never be on any streaming service. Or jump around from service to service because of licensing. I started collecting physcial media again this year and complement this with Amazon Prime Video and a month of Netflix here and there for stuff that i don't have or isn't out (and maybe won't ever be) yet on disc.
Streaming quality is dependent on where you live and what service is available. And in the United States as compared to many other country we are woefully behind and will remain so because the FCC and the GOP in Congress have seen fit to basically let the telecom industry in this country run amuck and do what they want with no consequences.
Streaming is not always reliable depending on your internet, I prefer physical Disc!
Same. My internet is too unreliable between outages or dips in download speeds. I'm paying for internet that should theoretically never give me an issue so matter what I'm streaming/downloading/playing even all 3 at once, but once a week or more I'm having to deal with something.
@@intense79nick Same here
I have always found the physical blu-ray to be superior for the picture quality compare to the streaming services. The bit rates ratio is the reason. Streaming is an alternative way to watch a movie and that way we can access a lot of titles and maybe we can find a movie that we will love a lot. That is when purschasing the title on Blu-ray or Blu-ray 4K will help you enjoy that title to the fullest and also owning an either 7.1 compatible Home Theater or a Dolby Atmos one also comes in line. I own only a 7.1 but when I compare my experience from streaming wich are Dolby Digital Plus (a lossly formart) I can only get a 5.1 soundtrack. When I buy a movie on blu-ray, I can get the 7.1 DTS-HD master audio or a Dolby TrueHD soundtrack with no compression. Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video and the others are for me an access to titles I can experience and then if I like them I then buy them and then I don't have to worry about a title to be deleted from any streaming service after that.
Please educate me! This video is 100% why I purchased a new Sony 4k UHD Blu-ray player! And oh my gosh even my wife is happy! I am over the moon…It’s amazing. Question- A little confused, what do I select for audio, Dolby Atmos or Dolby TrueHD? I have 7.2.2. Thank you for your time and for being amazing!
Great video. I have always thought the bitrate on discs Blu-ray and 4K will always be better than streaming. Physical Media all the way the way.
And the Hollywood studios are considering to end the production of physical media, so I’ve heard. More people are watching movies online. Picture and sound quality are not important to them. So sad.
They're my friends. They watch a GoT episode in 480p HDTV. God knows how can they watch a show with great visuals just in 480p that too HDTV. It's like an insult to the show. I downloaded them in 1080p WEBDL through torrent. Size 3 or4 gigs.
Facts.
They like money - and physical media is still a very lucrative arena.
The majority of people are ignorant. And just really don't care to know.
@@tinishmaheshwari6575 IT'S happens only in INDIA, where internet is used by many members and becomes slow. BTW I watch only downloaded High BitRate video, If its WORTH WATCHING.
Agree with you 100%. Physical Media will always beat the quality of streamed content. Bandwidth is a cost that the providers keep an eye on for profitability. So with them it comes down to how much can they compress it before the viewers start noticing the artifacts. Some of the higher end displays are getting pretty good at fixing some of the issues but you cannot make gold out of lead. If the information is not there in the first place the correction algorithm is making a best guess at what it should be. Being that physical media takes up space as you collection grows i have invested in a Kaleidescape system. It offers the same, sometimes better quality than the original BluRay or 4K disk. They are not limited by the physical disk capacity. It is not a cheap investment but has its benefits in the long run. For example if you have a BluRay movie in your system and they release a remastered 4K version with Dolby Atmos Sound. Instead of having to purchase a complete new disk. They have the option for you to download the 4K version usually at a reduced cost compared to the Physical disk. If you are serious about Home Theater movie viewing check it out. www.kaleidescape.com/
I dont't mean to take a stab, this is just my OCD talking... BUT, you're not "getting compression" because of the low bit-rate, it's the other way around; the bit-rates are low because the stream is heavily compressed. and this is directly related to the amount of data that needs to be transferred. otherwise, this video is great explanation of the differences between streaming and physical media.
I'm sorry if someone else already clarified, but you are very wrong with much of your analysis. Yes, Netflix has a much lower bandwidth for streaming than a 4K player would provide. Color banding has more to do with 8 bit vs 10 bit (or higher sources.) color space. Also, every digital video stream is compressed currently - including the 4K disc. The codec matters the most here. Using a bit rate of 15 Mb/s with a VP8 codec, versus H.265 is night and day. In other words, bit rate is just one factor. A bit rate of 20 Mb/s with H.265 is far superior to a H.264 at 40 Mb/s (Most streaming services use H.264) Also, as I mentioned before, the color space is another factor. A 10 bit color space is far superior to an 8 bit when it comes to banding. Netflix mostly uses 8 bit. The biggest reason why streaming services aren't as good (video) is partially the bit rate, but it's also the codec and the color space / bits. It's a lot more complicated than just bits per sec. Lastly, you can absolutely download files that are just as good at the 4K discs. I have dozens of 4K discs, and when I view the files, they are rarely more than 50 GB in size. Once you remove unwanted audio, they are often no more than 30-40 GB in size.
You are right Netflix and streaming services aren't as good as the native disc, but your reasons are incorrect / lacking critical details. I'm happy to help explain more if you wish. Not trying to be an ass - I like your channel and just want to make it better. Let me know if you want any more details.
I've watched a few of your videos and liked them all, but after this video I subscribed. I was in such awe of your excellent research and technical "nerdiness" information that I subscribed. My wife and I are both disabled veterans on a fixed income, a couple of months ago we started changing the living room into a budget home theater. The information in today's video confirmed what I have been suspecting regarding streaming. In the Star Wars universe I would be honored to be your Padawan and learn more from you.
According to a handful of sources the BD max. video bitrate is 40 Mbps (some say 48) + audio (56 Mbps as a total), not 60-80 Mbps. And video on UHD-BD is 100 Mbps + audio.
All video has compression. Blu-ray’s increased data rate does not necessarily equal “multiple times better quality.” Less noise in demanding scenes yes, but have realistic expectations for potential quality gains from physical media.
I stream 4k when watching Amazon (no 4k upcharge) and the biggest difference from a Blu-ray to 4k streaming is the benefits of HDR. I still notice the upgrade in depth and color.
Dont exaggerate the numbers effect on quality....7 or 10 times the bit rate will not transfer into an experience that is 7 or 10 times better.....just like how we are approaching a resolution on tvs with diminishing return. Also about color banding that will still be there depending on your tv no matter if you use disc or streaming....I know The Martian has it in the skyline depending on your set this is a processing limitation not just bandwidth.
You have a shitty tv. No banding on my Sony Z9D with 4K blu ray with The Martian.
I have a 100mb/s connection and I always prefer my Oppo 205 and discs over streaming.
most people cannot hear the difference in audio, most people don't have a really sophisticated sound system to utilized the lossless audio track on bluray. even people who have a great sound system usually need a great ear to hear the difference in audio quality difference. same with picture, most people dont have a really amazing tv with amazing picture quality. although picture quality is easier to tell... there is a point where you can't tell the difference between a REALLY GOOD LOSSY and lossless video.
Exactly. Not all compression is created equally
Thanks very much for these videos. I've always stated the fact that the audio from Netflix is very weak. I would say audio with Amazon Prime video is so much better and dynamic.
I always just bought movies on Blu-ray discs that are worthy of watching over again. I haven't upgraded to a 4K player yet....what I'm saying is just buy your favorite movies on physical media it's not necessary to watch everything 4k discs or in 4k streaming...1080p HD is just fine for shows movies...
I'm glad he threw in the info about Digital Copies towards the end; I was gonna ask about whether that would possibly be identical quality to a physical disc.
Fellow information geek here... Thanks for this video. These videos you do have gotten me to lean far heavier towards physical media when it comes to 4k. Keep them coming. 👍👍
For movies I’ve gone mostly streaming from iTunes. For 4K films I get deals thru codes and wait for sales and never pay more than 10. Watch via my 4K Apple TV. I just bought Red Heat in 4K for $5. Good flick but would never pay $25 for it. Are the disks better sure, but I’m running out of room, still buy TV shows on disk and have a big collection. Pretty confident Apples not going anywhere and now there’s movie anywhere.
finally, someone brings up room...
if I was going to buy digital movies in 4k 4K I wouldn't pay more than than 3-5. You're getting a lower quality picture and you can't even sell the thing.
I prefer blu ray. Reliability and the knowledge of knowing it is never going away. It's mine to keep forever. Not having to worry about services taking films off, or not worrying about Internet connection. Personally I still like standard dvds too. Quality matters to me, but my eyes can adjust to dvd quality after a while
I buy the 4K disc if I really love the movie and want the highest quality but I’d like to see side by side comparisons or a blind test where you don’t know whether you’re watching Apple TV 4K or a 4K disc. HDTV guy did a good comparison.
Your presentation skills are excellent and so lucid!.. I subbed now. Thanks for sharing valuable information. A new fan from India
I have a friend who chides me because I still buy physical media because he can get pretty much anything for free and upload it on Plex. But at the same time, his jaw drops when he comes over and hears and sees my system which takes full advantage of that extra clarity you get from physical media. Considering I get most of my 4K discs for $15-$20, it's a no brainer. Let alone regular Blu-Ray which are often around $5-$10.
The issue is people dont want to pay 15-20 for 4k blu ray when they can stream/rent a movie for $3-5
@@leecaldwell1029 I get that. For the normies out there who don't like to repeat view movies or aren't overly demanding about picture/sound quality, streaming makes more sense. Assuming you always have a good download speed connection of course.
@@norwegianblue2017 agreed. I collect all the movies I love and still have a movie rental brick and mortar in my town. I picked up 4K zombieland and zombie land 2. New release 4K taxi driver. Movies I will watch once and not purchase.
@@leecaldwell1029 I love that there are still brick and mortar movie rental places around.
Streaming quality will never beat a 4K disc with HDR.
never knows, because when was the era of photo cameras a guy told me that a phone will never get to the same level with a professional camera. Now Samsung Note 10 plus has a camera like a pro camera! lool
Of course it will eventually
Disney+ just got busted. Their 4K is upconverted 2K and their HDR is fake.
@@pauljackson1359 They still manufacture new turntables. As long as there is demand for physical movies there will be a market for disc players.
@@gabtand physical cameras are still better than phones, the highest quality camera is a camera, not a phone
Thanks for expanding on this issue.
I had a TH-camr argue with me that the sound quality for streaming is the same as dvd and Blu-ray disc
I work in film and I bet you have movies in your collection I've worked on. I just want to say you're right and wrong about some of your information. You're kind of comparing apples and oranges. Blu-rays and 4K Blu-rays use the H.264 codec for compression and for over a year now Netflix (not sure about the others) stream H.265. H.265 is a far superior codec to H.264. H.265 does not have the macro blocking issues of H.264. The H.265 codec is more efficient. The same movie in H.264 is visually equivalent to H.265 at 1/3 the bitrate. Long sorry short is yes you are correct that Blu-rays and 4K Blu-rays are better quality than streaming, but it's not 8x better like you eluded to. It more like 2-3x better.
Actually, the codec used on 4K (UHD) Blu-ray discs is exclusively the H.265 codec. It's a requirement of the UHD disc standard.
You will never find H.264 video on a 4K / UHD disc.
1080p Blu-ray discs, on the other hand, ONLY use the H.264 codec.
www.digitaltrends.com/home-theater/ultra-hd-blu-ray-specs-dates-and-titles/
"Ultra HD Blu-ray discs are encoded using the relatively new HEVC (also known as H.265) codec."
www.videosolo.com/tutorials/dvd-vs-bluray-vs-4k.html
Long live physical media!!!
Great video. One thing though: you may want to invest in a better/beefier router. I get easily 280 Mbps on WiFi, but that was only after I bought a router, connected it via ethernet to the Comcast modem, and then my speeds skyrocketed. Of course, it will depend on how far your SmartTV or Apple TV is from the router as well... (Your receiving end also needs to support the newest WiFi technologies as well...)
I really enjoyed this video. I started buying 4K on Amazon for a number of reasons, but for my fav movies I will continue purchasing disks. Thank you!
This video definitely helped me understand things, I got the LG 65-inch Nano cell 9-series which is a really nice TV and I stream with the Roku Ultra hardwired to my modem and the HDMI cable to the TV obviously for HDR it sucks I have the best internet speed and they're still artifacting and distortion, definitely going to use it for just general streaming in HD but going to go and buy a 4K Blu-ray player and start collecting DVDs again
I set up streaming services for people for a living
I always recommend ethernet over power line adaptors and chromecast ultras, it works sooo much better then wifi
the streaming quality will improve with technology, with higher bandwidth of internet, bitrate will increase, audio codecs will improve, that's just common sense. what will never change with streaming, is, you will never get to "own" it, you can never decide to sell your disc, trade it, gift it, or throw it into a firepit if you so desire.
The cool thing for me about Blu Rays besides the obvious. Is that it comes with a digital copy of it. It's just nice to have the option. I just got the 4k Blu Ray steelbook of The Shining. I already owned it digitally so now I can give that code to one of my friends. Beauty of physical media.
True. They can also delete it from your library whenever they choose to (due to licensing issues, bankruptcy, etc) which has happened to many people.
"the streaming quality will improve with technology, with higher bandwidth of internet" And your estimation of when this big even will happen for most people in this couple including the millions who have nothing but crap ISP's delivering slop bandwithd?
You need to go into your router and split your WiFi service (2.4 and 5 Ghz networks. The 2.4 Ghz goes farther, but you only get between 25-30 on the down on a good wireless device. The 5 Ghz is faster but does travel as far - walls and other radio frequencies will interfere with it. If you have a docis 3.1 modem and pay for the gig speed you can get 875 and up on the down load. I would use Speakeasy speed test, because it use HTML and can read the speeds.
I already knew that streams were lower quality but this is a nice video that breaks down exactly how much lower they are.
Apple TV 4K is pretty close in quality to a UHD disc, Netflix is laughable but man I just got an Apple TV 4K and with the higher bit rate it shows how good it is. I am very Impressed watching it on my lg oled, and with my fast internet speed there’s no hick ups. Still disc will always be better but I’m amazed how good streaming quality is getting.
It wasnt no were near close enough for me , and i have to notch internet and the atmos on the apple tv was horrible , i gave the apple tv to a friend.
What i don't like about streaming you get you get you cant customize the picture settings to you want i took my oppo 203 to friends house and we customized the picture settings , after we done we video switch to comparison's he was blown away how much much better the picture quality. You don't get the different color spaces. So he bought a Panasonic 4k player with killer feature HDr optimizer which is a little better than my oppo with that turned on and leaps and bounds above apple tv.
@@ajmhobby Your right most don't care most people got a fire shit stick , what i have been doing is ripping all my Ultra Hd movies to mass hardrives, Using MKV 4k passthrough and Mp4 passthrough with dolby vision i can also rip the into HDR 10+. And 8k.
hold my Apple TV the app came out for LG OLEDs 😂 HDR 4K looking glorious on the C9
Physical decisively wins on quality.
But i love the convenience and content available online for stuff I will only watch once.
For reference, showcase or my favourite classics I am happy to purchase the physical disc.
I have an Atmos sound system and I find the biggest downside to streaming is the compressed audio.
Love your video you have the best movie reviews and you should consider to do unboxing blu rays and 4k movies love your commentary.
Upgrade your router/access point. My Ubiquiti Edge router x with two access points, I can get 340 Mbs, about what my connection allows. Agree though, try to hardwire all devices with CAT.
Man keep it up don't stop your videos are helpful and joyful
I'm a little late to this video, but I compared the first few minutes of 4k UHD Bluray Star Wars (A New Hope) to Disney+ the other day. Just the first 10 minutes. I think everyone instinctively knows the blu-ray will be better, but the question is 'How much and should I care.' Here's what I noticed, and I've tried to put it in less technical terms than the video because while I understand the difference between bitrates, there is a point of diminishing returns.
(Note, I don't have a Dolby Vision TV, so I viewed this in HDR10 on Disney+, same with the Blu-ray):
1) If you pause on the same frame with the blu-ray vs Disney, you might be able to tell the difference. If you get really close the TV you'll notice more detail on the blu-ray of course, but there's no denying that the stream does a really good job with it's limited bandwidth. This similarity extends to scenes without much motion.
2) If there is motion in the scene then this is where the blu-ray really pulled ahead. A scene with rebel soldiers running down a hall while the camera panned stayed pretty clean on the blu-ray, but was quite blurred on the stream. So if you're getting movies with lots of motion then this will really make the difference. If it's a fairly static drama or something then I honestly think the streaming is of sufficient quality.
Note: I've said motion, instead of action, because some action can actually be quite static from a frame-to-frame point of view, but I think the majority of cases you can equate action to motion.
3) Sound. Yes. Everyone loves to talk sound with these things. I noticed that the UHD seemed louder at the start of the stream. To those un-aware the human ear instinctively perceives 'louder' as 'better' (within reason). To account for this I upped the volume on the stream. A few minutes later the stream was louder than the blu-ray. Ultimately the stream simply had less dynamic range (difference between loudest and softest parts) compared to the blu-ray, and just... flattened everything.
Now: An important note on audio. You are definitely not going to hear the difference in quality on a pair of iPhone headphones. I doubt you'll hear the difference on most soundbars, but if you've got a receiver and at least a semi-decent set of speakers (read: more expensive than a sound bar), Even without heights/atmos, then you'll definitely appreciate the difference. Of course - you already know that because you have a receiver and semi-decent speakers that cost more than a soundbar and about the same as a car :P
People will always choose convenience over quality. Those people will ruin it for the rest of us who have standards.
I have a very hard time seeing any visual difference between 4K HDR streaming vs 4K Blu-Ray unless I’m pixel peeping. Even then, the difference is small. Where I do see a HUGE difference between streaming and blu-ray is in the audio. Listening to the dynamics of a lossless blu-ray soundtrack is noticeably better than its streaming counterpart. That’s where I see the real difference, in the audio rather than the visual
The audio bitrate of 1080p blu-rays tends to be about the same as the VIDEO bitrate of a stream.
Could not agree more with this comment. I just upgraded the home theatre and I'm buying 4k Blu ray purely for the audio. I find even atmos tracks underwhelming from all of the streaming services
I also notice audio issues with streaming over playing from a disc. My system very much has the issues with voices being too quiet, but action/music being too loud with streaming as well as overall a lot less depth, with streaming that I don't experience when gaming or watching from a disc.
@@intense79nick I agree with this too mate. I tend to have to use the receiver's dynamic eq and dynamic volume with streaming sources that compromises dynamic range, but normalises the volume and frequency response across all channels so it's not so loud/soft and easier to hear. Give it a whirl. It tends to fill it in. I don't need it on disc though.
Go see an Optometrist IMMEDIATELY.
Game of thrones until recently became available in 4k stream so how did you stream it in 4k 3 years ago?
Bro you need to upgrade your router if you are getting such a low speed.
And the Apple 4k does have an ethernet connection.
I’m gonna chime in here with my 2cents. I’ve been a audio video geek since the mid 80s. Back then we were using laserdiscs and HIFI stereo VCRs as sources. I purchased thousands of movies on every format and upgraded from laser to DVD and then to Digital VHS. Then Blu-ray and HD-DVD came out and I bought both players as I was reviewing movies for both formats for Hometheaterspot.com which is now defunct. I also upgraded my audio as needed to keep up with the technology. I currently own a ultra HD Blu-ray player and an Apple TV 4K. I own about 100 movies in the new format but I also own about 200 on Apple TV. Whenever I wanted to upgrade my picture before I had to purchase a new player. Apple updated my standard HD movies to 4K free of charge. The sound on my 4K discs is almost indistinguishable from my discs and the picture is pretty damn close. Now I have rooms full of movies covered in dust that I will never play again. I keep them for nostalgias sake. I was always a huge proponent for physical media but I could care a less about it now. I haven’t touched my ultra HD Blu-ray player in almost a year. I have incredibly fast internet and buffering is never an issue. I took all of my discs and added the digital copy to my library and now I have no reason to put them in the machine anymore.
If you think there is no difference - you are an “A/V GEEK” in name only.
Only a layman would take that stand. Numbers don’t lie.
If you think there is no visual difference between 150 mbps and 15 mbps bitrates, you are insane.
C.C. 95 anot saying there isn’t a difference. I’m saying the difference isn’t worth it. Unless you are using a front projector you aren’t going to see much of a difference. I am 9 feet away from a 77 inch oled and I can see a difference. Is it worth buying a bunch of movies on disc to see? I don’t think so. As someone who has worked for AV websites and also installed hometheater since the late 80s I’d say I am definitely an av geek.
I have five ways to stream movies and I still play discs. There's no way in hell I'm going to upgrade them to digital. that would be a waste of money. especially with the downgrade in quality but it is cool that they upgraded your movies for free since basically they should because why else would you buy digital media if there's no benefit.
@@MentalDeviant amen
I popped in a 4K UHD this weekend and halfway through the movie the message that the ethernet to my tv disconnected. My tv is hooked up to my router via ethernet instead of wifi for better streaming. But this message pops up when my internet goes out every now and then. And all I could think at the time, while my movie kept playing, was “thank God I have physical disk movies”. My internet is not 100% stable and I will not go digital until completely reliable zero chance of disconnecting internet is a reality.
The reality is compression really sucks and the majority of content consumers do not care about top quality they care about convenience. That is why I am so thankful that their is still a video store near me to rent physical Blu Ray and 4k UHD discs. It is hard for people to justify the cost of purchasing a disc at 15-20 per movie. When they used to be able to rent it for $5 at the local rental store. Shame that streaming has killed rental stores.
You are amazing, you really change my mentality about home teacher. Greetings from Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦
Great video. But one major thing that was missing was the different codecs that streaming uses to provide similar audio and video quality despite having a lot lower bit rate. Now, the fact that Blu-rays and physical media is still superior. But I do think that is a critical aspect. As this video makes it sound like video streaming is complete trash when it's not as bad as you made it sound. But physical media is still superior.
There was a time when you could rent a movie in physical format, it doesn't exist anymore, does it? Even in the 90s and early 2000s, it was probably most common for people to rent the film not to buy film. Then of course there were people who downloaded movies as well
I live in a small town where I can only get 10mbs from my ISP, it sometimes struggles with 1080p. It would die with a 4k stream. There is a faster ISP in my town but will not put a cable down buy my house for thousands of dollars. Plus I still like to open the Blueray package and seeing the movie's main menu.
I don't consider myself to be a videophile or an audiophile, but that's not to say that I don't recognize & appreciate quality video & audio. I consider myself to be an avid enthusiast, & what discuss on your channel is greatly appreciated.
For the life of me I could never understand why so many people I know who enjoy films only pay attention to the visual, & often disregard the audio. When I spend time at my sister's house I cringe when she invites me to watch a film on her 4k TV with God awful audio. I finally convinced her to buy any (even a cheapo) soundbar. Well I'm glad to say she took my advice & bought a very good soundbar $1k+, & now I can't wait for our next movie night.
I do
What's your thoughts on using your Xbox One X as your 4K dvd player? It's the highest console from Xbox in regards to 4k
Audio difference between streaming and bluray is night-and-day. Bluray obviously is vastly superior. Just to the naked-eye, the video between the two is debatable. Most people don't sit close enough to the tv to see a discernible difference.
Loved the video. Thanks for doing this topic.
What is up with your wifi speeds man?! That’s tragic. I’m on a 50/20 connection & get ~45 over wifi.
You shouldn’t be losing much over A/C wifi connection?
No reason to get that loss I agree, I get 50mb, I can sit next to my router and get 50mb on my phone.
I can walk 15m away and still get 45mb
I love physical media just like you and I own lost of blu-rays and dvds, but there's a point I think you didnt mention: the evolution of codecs. We have to consider what the codecs today can do with lower bitrate. I can give you a real example: I own a Dvd that the movie file on the disc is 6GB total size. This movie was not released on HD in my country (Brazil). Than I got a 1080p blu-ray rip of the movie and the file size is 5 GB. See the point? The bluray rip, smaller file size (and, of course, lower bitrate), has better picture and sound quality. The h264 codec performs better than the old mpeg2 with the same or lower bitrate.
I don't recall last time i was very interested on a video. man you rock! I thought a good internet could compete a little bit with physical 4k, but I guess is a question of common sense, that anything on air is not 100% pure and we will lose audio or video quality. At the end, it's a question of which movies really worth to buy and which ones on streaming.
Great video.. Just a quick correction.. Netflix's atmos core is only Dolby digital plus. Not even dd truehd.
In short the most notable difference is bitrate. Streaming has lower bitrate because... it’s on the Internet duh. And in order to able to stream 4K footage online, it has to be compressed, so you loose definition, color, and dynamic range (which is the contrast between the darks and Brights of the picture.
.Got clarity about the audio bit Rate from u man.. Streaming hands down.. Disc is the real winner.. Suggest a very good high end 4K player tat u admire..
100 percent true , i had the apple tv tried some 4k movies isnt the same 4k bluray and also regular bluray upscaled to 4k from my oppo 203 kills apple tv ,Netflix and Amazon .
Thanks for this video! I’ve been toying with the idea of converting my Blu-ray collection to a digital format. This made the decision easy. I’ll stick with converting the DVDs.
You can still convert them to digital without losing quality. Just buy a USB 4K disc drive for you PC and rip them.
@@adriannn3720 What ripping software do you think is the best?
Y’all need to learn about plex. Best of both worlds. Physical ownership (digital copies at full disc quality) with the convenience of streaming. Don’t let the copyright pigs scare you.
If you're only getting 26Mbos from WiFi you need to upgrade sounds like you are stuck on 2.4Ghz.
Upgrade or switch to 5Ghz I usually hit between 200 - 300 Mbps on WiFi although I still use hardwired when possible.
Also having 100x bitrate does not equal 100x quality improvement because you hit a point of diminishing returns.
TrueHD and DTS-HD MA is still compressed but it's lossless
The measurements when taken by 'Fast' site do not show Wi-Fi speed or ISP link.. but usable bandwidth to the site.. you should try it.
@@absolutium I get full speed to fast im on 350Mbps and usually get somewhere around 380Mbps via fast on a bad day it might be 360Mbps but its always over my internet plan (Its normal here to get higher than my plan because my ISP allocates extra so on my 350Mb play my modem gets capped at 400Mbps)
Dolby Atmos does NOT equal Dolby True HD. You can have standard, compressed Dolby Digital that is encoded in Dolby Atmos! Atmos is metadata that is placed over the original signal, be it Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital+, or Dolby True HD!
It doesn't have to be "nerd talk", knowledge is awesome! It doesn't have to be a negative thing. Great video!
For music Spotify with mp3 is the same. I bought cd and vinyl, the audio quality is completely different.
Streaming is fast food compared to a 4K Blu Ray sit down dinner. Quality wins out for me every time.
So are DVDs higher quality then Netflix?
4K streaming looks like a regular 1080p blu ray at best. I have 1GB per second internet, and 4K blu ray still looks better.
Physical > Streaming
If Netflix is that low a bitrate , can you imagine what's done to terrestrial TV. Don't want to even think about it.
Actually, some terrestrial TV broadcasts also look better than streaming. A 1080i broadcast of a 1080i source can have more data in it that a stream.