I'm sure someone will weigh in with more technical information for you.

On a purely subjective note, some of the porn from my early years of collecting is stuff I want to have in my collection so if I can only get it in 480p I will. Hell, I have stuff in lower resolutions than that because I like it so much.

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If you don't mind sharing, what is the film you plan to purchase? Most sales site should have a preview of the digital download where you see the specs and gauge the quality. Also note that different sales websites often have digital downloads of the same scene but in differing quality. (i.e A digital download purchased though AEBN may be of different resolution or bitrate compared to the same scene bought via Adultdvdempire.)

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If 480p is the max resolution for the digital version you might want to double check the overall running time of the DVD you're interested in.

Most porn DVDs are on a DVD-9 which is a dual layer disc that can hold 8.5 GB (rounded up to 9 which is where the name comes from)

Some companies choose to utilize the full 4 hours of disc space but IMO they usually don't look so good and that's assuming there are no glitches because of bad compression and no quality control checks.

To give an example a DVD made well under 2 hours can have a bitrate in the 8 mbps (8000 kbps) range. An overstuffed disc would drop to around the 3 mbps (3000 kbps) range.

Most 1080p scenes are in the 6000 kbps range with better studios in the 12000 kbps range.

Makes you miss Blu-ray disc which if made well could give us 1080p scenes in the 30000 kbps range.

If 2.5 hours or less the DVD is probably better looking. If more than that the 480p digital copy is likely better looking.

I could be wrong though. Depending on the studio they might prefer smaller file sizes (lower bitrates) for their stream/download content and don't offer a better version to other sellers.

Also if the footage source is solid a good Blu-ray player can upscale a DVD to look better than a 480p web version.

Edited by - Big_Tits_Addict on 11/15/2022 4:30:57 PM

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Be well

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Someone asked, which DVD? There are several on my list, but one for example is Finally Legal 5 (link).

Maybe what I'll do is buy a scene download to test and look at the encoding settings (bit rate, etc). I don't know enough to judge those, but I imagine I could look up what optimal settings should be for a DVD transfer and then make the call. It would be great if the download quality meets or exceeds the original release quality.

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Also it's worth mentioning that high resolution and high bitrate is in no way a guarantee for high quality, as any shitty source can be recoded with high resolution and high bitrate. But a really high quality source can be encoded with medium resolution and bitrate, and still look pretty good.

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I have found that videos from ~2000ish is still only in mediocre streaming quality, where the quality of the DVD was better.
And if you look at sites like bang.com, they even put in their watermark on all those old scenes... ugh.

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Be well

Edited by - snufish on 11/16/2022 7:27:22 PM

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I'd consider buying the DVD, if I can find a copy, and seeing for myself what the visual difference is, if any.

EDIT: Wow, those DVD prices. I emailed Metro video instead with the question. I can report back if customer service has a useful answer.

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Here's the reply:

".about the movie "Finally Legal 5." I was advised that this movie's video files were taken from and encoded from the DVD. I hope this information is helpful. Please check out movie and scene previews on the website before purchasing to ensure the movie is of the quality you want. Due to our extensive catalog, we constantly work with studios to remaster older movies, but this process is slow. If you have any questions, please reach out. I am always happy to help."

Edited by - zingerbrook on 11/17/2022 2:48:09 PM

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DVDs were encoded with the much older MPEG2 codec, where I wouldn't go below 8000kbps for acceptable 480i quality.

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Be well

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