From a Friend: Which Movies to get from iTunes?

[bendermac]

A friend asked me which movies he should get from iTunes, that aren't available on Blu-ray.
I honestly have no idea. He told me that he already asked on another board, but his question didn't get much attention.
So I'm asking you guys to help him get some goodies for us all

[bendermac]

Almost one week has past and not a single suggestion?

What am I supposed to say, I have no idea.

I have no other idea than that there might be open matte versions of: Fun With Dick and Jane (2005) & Point Break (1991). Don't know if anyone's interested.

[bendermac]

I got Fun with Dick and Jane as 1080p iTunes release. It's aspect ratio is 1.85:1.
Point Break looks to be 2.35:1, judging from the preview clip on iTunes.

Anyway... he got some movies nonetheless:

Terminator 2 - He was hoping for the original theatrical colors, but they look like the Home Video colors
Se7en - It's said to contain the original look of the movie
Alamo (2003) - not available in HD or on BD
Brewster's Millions - not available in HD or on BD
Hard Eight - not available in HD or on BD
See No Evil, Hear No Evil - not available in HD or on BD
Antz - not available in HD or on BD
Girl, Interrupted - not available in HD or on BD
Little Woman - not available in HD or on BD

Some of them are available for download, but links are either dead, low-res (720p while 1080p would've been a good option, due to higher bitrate) or behind private trackers.
So he got them directly from iTunes. He said it was less hassle that way.

[Stamper]

Some 720p are actually better encoded in iTunes than 1080p. I suspect they only encode at 720p with care, and just mass encode the 1080p versions without checking.

Good place to start:

http://notonbluray.com/blog/

Also depends if he like classic movies (say pre-80s at this point) since there are a lot of those on itunes.

[bendermac]

Some 720p are actually better encoded in iTunes than 1080p. I suspect they only encode at 720p with care, and just mass encode the 1080p versions without checking.

Not true!

720p movies are encoded at 4mbps
1080p movies are encoded at 5mbps

but some studios use the same bitrate for 1080p as for 720p.
Also they use the same presets from Compressor you can use, if you have the software.

If the higher bitrate is used, you get the bit more bang for your buck.
Of course it's not comparable with a proper Blu-ray encode

How to check if 1080p movies have the higher bitrate:

in iTunes preferences -> Store -> uncheck "Download full-size HD videos" -> reload Movie page (MAC: cmd + r / PC: ctrl + r)
if the filesize has changed around 1GB for a 2hr movie, then you can get the 1080p version

Well

720p at 4mbps is 4mbps for 920 thousand pixels
1080p at 5mbps is 5mbps for 2 million pixels

2 times more pixels, 1/4 greater bitrate. Doesn't seem like a good idea to me.

[Stamper]

I checked some TV shows and the 1080p was not looking better. I think some people posted comparisons there and there. In most case, the 1080p looks like the 720p upscaled with less precise pixels.