I like to watch TV shows in the background where I’m not going to be watching the screen obsessively, so I have several shows in 480P or sub-480P. There are also some shows where the “official” HD versions are just awful (most 90s sitcoms) or the show was made for 4:3 and has a different feel converted to 16:9 (MASH, The Wire).

Going beyond that though, I spent years on a really limited connection (2.6m down/400k up) and my instinct for saving bandwidth and storage space is still there, along with my need to pay it forward since I ain’t no leech. I’ve become fond of making what I call “Bonsai Encodes”, where the files are small enough to be sent over damn near anything. With mono Opus and VP9 video you can cram 45 minutes of perfectly watchable content into a sub-25mb file that’ll play in Discord, with VTT subtitles even (though those won’t play in Discord itself). Looks a bit like watching it on an old tube TV, but it’s watchable.

I prefer 720, both for file/bandwidth reasons and for quality reasons. Once you start getting into higher quality, it starts looking like you’re actually there in the room with the actors, and I don’t like that. It’s unsettling. I want my TV and movies to look like TV and movies.

@VitabytesDev

You aren’t alone. I prefer 360 or 480 p
Because:

1. It’s faster and not much difference I still get the content/knowledge
2. It reduces my carbon footprint

You’re not alone, I definitely spent the majority of my time on 720p rips. I couldn’t tell the difference between them and 1080. Though these days, actually just recently, I’ve switched over to 1080, and I can tell when it’s lower.

But most my collection is still 720 and I feel no need to go back through and update everything. Maybe when I get arr set up I’ll let it go through and do it for me 🤷‍♂️

Well, 480p sucks

Depends on the media.
Minimum it has to be web-dl and 1080p.

For media that needs it or I want to (e.g. Interstellar), I will search high bitrate web-dl/bluray or a remux.
If it’s something I will for certain only watch once, I’ll be fine with a regular 1080p mid bitrate file.

Maybe you’re not noticing the difference between 720p to 1080p is due to the decoding used. The rips with a lower file size often get there by means of compression, and some uploaders (such as YIFY) heavily compress the videos to where I don’t even notice much of a difference, however I’m going to assume you’re not downloading the 3GB (average size for HQ) 1080p film.
Then again eyesight plays a role along with display.

I wouldn’t bother with 4K usually, however once I upgraded to a 1440 monitor downscaling from 4K actually provides a fair bump in overall sharpness and detail (some films more than others), however the file size is usually over 10GB per film.

You don’t really prefer a lower resolution, you just work within the limitations you have.

Also, I don’t notice much of a difference between 1080p and 720p

Either your display is really shitty or you need (better) glasses. This isn’t like the difference between 60 and 144hz where its barely visible for untrained eyes.

I don’t often go for the full 4K Blu-ray Remux releases, since they’re massive and I can’t really tell the difference over a 10-15GB rip, at least visually. Just a webrip is fine, depending on the source. Plus even my nVidia Shield Pro struggles with them at times.

That’s less of an opinion and more of a hardware restriction, isn’t it?

If I had a 5 Mbps connection or no display that can display 4k, I also would not download in 4k.

I usually go for 720p to 1080p, as my monitor is at 1080p. I wouldn’t really compromise quality further. But even if I had a 4k screen, I probably wouldn’t go for 4k cuz downloads take too long. What I’m saying is I like balance

I have to ration disk space and internet here is typically not amazing

I am in same boat

Nope. Most of my stuff is 720p because I won’t be watching it again. My library has significantly dwindled in size. Only my absolute favorites are stored in high quality. Everything else is SD and quite a bit has been deleted.

Let’s be honest, most stuff is shit and forgettable / not watching again. They are just remakes of readaptations of sequels. You know that by the time you want to watch it again, there will be a remake just as bad.

Anti Commercial-AI license

1080p is way better if you have a screen that is a good size. Also if you are into surround sound (I am) there is a lower chance to get it on 720p rips.