Mp4/mkv quality question

Tom01793 · 25 Nov 2012 at 20:38

Hi all.
So I always thaught that an mkv 1080p was the the best for quality video playback of films ect I know a good mkv -080p can be like 14gb in size, but just recently I have downloaded a few 1080p films that are like 2g. And they seem to be mp4 format and he strange thing is they seem to be of much better quality it terms of picture detail why is this??
I always thaught it was the bigger the better when it came to quality is mp4 just much better or am I getting this compleatly wrong,
Ow I am playing them back thought my p. on a 50inch plasma at a res ov 1080p on my px through hdmi

f00b4r · 27 Nov 2012 at 16:16

MKV and MP4 are container formats, not actual codecs.
Usually it is H264 that is the actual codec used for compression when you come across these types of files (you can actually pretty easily and speedily remux from one container to the other e.g. to change mkv files into a MP4 container to allow for iOS native playback; some media players, such as Plex, will actually do this on the fly in order to stream fully quality natively supported video to iOS devices).
File size is often a good indication of quality but there are other factors e.g. the settings used to compress a particular video, it may be that the mkv files you have come across before are just being ripped by someone with less skill e.g. just using standard presets.

Tom01793 · 28 Nov 2012 at 21:45

Hum but still a 2gb film at say 1hour30 should be lower quality the. Stay the same film length at a mkv ov 12gb still not sure bout it

Nexus · 28 Nov 2012 at 22:00

As foob4r explained above, mkv is a container format, not a codec.

Codecs are all different and you can have some that keep a fantastic picture at a relatively low file size, H.264 being a good example. There are codecs which aren't ideal or encoded wrongly that could mean they have a huge file size, but not be any better quality.

I'd also add that your post hints at being inregards to files downloaded from illegitimate sources, in which case the quality could be in jeopardy for any number of reasons.