this post was submitted on 05 Oct 2026
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Video file sizes: what do I need to know? (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 1 week ago by schipelblorp@sh.itjust.works to c/piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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I'm getting back into digital collecting after pretty much exhausting the local thriftstores of any movies I wanted to watch / own.

I was thinking of burning everything to DVD but then I came to my senses and just installed Jellyfin.

Question:

  • What video file sizes do you guys download and why?

  • And what is the correlation between video size and quality? I see some wild variations in file sizes even for the same res.

  • Who are y'alls downloading 20+GB movies? Are you storing all that or are you downmixing? Are you stealing your harddrives out of the recycle bin?

  • Any shortcuts for getting rich blacks for space scenes? Do I just need to suck it up eat the bytes? (I'm thinking of going this route for BSG and can't remember if they go for video grain in space or true film black).

  • What is the obvious thing I clearly don't understand by asking these questions?

So for me, it seems for file size, about 700MB / 90 minutes is about as low as I can go, and arguably it's too low because I'm sometimes distracted by the low quality.

I'm a little confused by what's going on because I'll often watch a DVD that's being upscaled by the player and have no complaints, and I think that's base 480 or lower, but a labelled 720p can have some distractingly low res.

For my high end, 2GB at 1080p is about as high as I care to go unless it's some crazy high quality cinematographic shit like Lawrence or Dune.

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[–] veniasilente@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I recommend nothing higher than 720p, maybe 1080p in exceptional cases where you like the content very much and you expect integer scaling (up or down) to do a good enough work on whatever player will be playing. 480p can be fine for some things, even 360p (which has the advantage of integer scaling readily to 720p but the effect is only worth it for something like older animated programmes). Audio is different and lighter and you can go with higher qualities (on the same number of channels) without much issue.

Remember the basic maths: halving the target resolution and scaling down the bitrate accordingly effectively opens up a reduction in size of up to 75% (each frame saves one rectangle instead of four), but beyond that it really depends on the codec and the visual structure of the content), and the result can be replayed on the original resolution simply by doing hardware integer scaling.

As for codecs, if you are already going with Jellyfin, just pick the most efficient codec you can find. If you need compatibility just go with the classics that play even on a 2000s "smart" TV.

[–] schipelblorp@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I haven't dug into upscaling; I know my bluray does it, not sure if my TV or Jellyfin do.

Audio isn't an issue for me; don't have the money or space for a proper set up, so, heresy: I'm rocking my TV speakers, which sound way better than they should.

[–] veniasilente@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 week ago

Protip: if your TV is hi-def but can still play analog ("air signal") then it by nature does upscaling. Then again tbf, it's been nearly a decade since I last saw a TV that couldn't fake-it-till-you-make-it it.