A few days ago the second trailer for the long-awaited new film adaptation of Dune came out, a three-and-a-half-minute preview that would give us a hunch of something more than just one of the movies. the most anticipated of the year. for science fiction enthusiasts.
The news first reached me via my mobile and then on my computer, as I was browsing YouTube, where dozens of different videos appeared with the new trailer. In these cases, and to avoid possible alterations, I generally try to get the best possible quality by going to the distributor’s channel, in this case Warner Bros., more than enough if you want to see it on the small screen of the smartphone, tablet or laptop. .
But if your intention is to see the trailer in all its glory on the big screen, then it is more advisable to go to an unknown site maintained by Apple under the name “iTunes Movie Trailers” which has become my go-to site. these last years. .when I want to access movie trailers and trailers with the best possible AV quality.
The first time I used the service was in the early 2000s to see the trailer for “Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace” at a glorious resolution that I think I remember was 640p and d. ‘a size of at least 20MB than my modem at the time, it took an hour to get it down.
Since then, a few times a year I use this free website to watch movie trailers that I might be interested in, especially if I want to do it on the big TV or the projector. Why, what difference does it make?
The example of Dune
Left: iTunes movie trailers; Right: YouTube
Well, it’s basically a question of audiovisual quality. On the Apple site, they apply the minimum possible compression while maintaining an excellent quality-resolution ratio that you cannot find, for example, on YouTube. Let’s take a look at this second Dune trailer from a few days ago.
Left: iTunes movie trailers; Right: YouTube
The same trailer encoded on both sites with 1080p resolution, on YouTube offers a bitrate of 1,077 Kbps on the H.264 codec versus 9,425 Kbps on the Apple website with the AVC codec, both with 128 Kbps AAC stereo sound.
Left: iTunes movie trailers; Right: YouTube
This gives us sizes for digital files of around 30MB in the case of YouTube and 243MB in the case of Apple.
Left: Apple trailers; Right: YouTube
The result is that with this higher bit rate we come very close to what is offered by classic Blu-ray and the original picture structure is maintained by reducing compression artifacts, macroblocks and now the microdetails in the textures.
Left: iTunes movie trailers; Right: YouTube
For example, in the sample images that you can see in the article (I recommend that you click on the gallery to see them with the original resolution), it is possible to notice how the faces retain the wrinkles, freckles and skin texture, but also there is much less pixelation and even colors in more complex scenes such as backlit explosions, the colors are kept purer and with better contrast.
Is it worth seeing all the trailers on this site? Well, like I mentioned at the start, I think in the case of some specific titles yes, especially if you plan to do this on a projector, a large monitor sitting nearby, or a TV over 55 inches and that you want to enjoy the picture quality to the fullest.
Official site | ITunes Movie Trailers