The VideoLAN Forums

This is probably an amateur question, in which case I'm sorry!

What produces a better HD video picture:
1)720p
or
2)1080p with 'H.264 in-loop deblocking filter' disabled?

The laptop I'm using for videos sometimes struggles with 1080p files, but the problem is usually fixed by selecting 'skip H.264 in-loop deblocking filter' in VLC player. But maybe that produces an inferior picture to just using a 720p file?

The bitrate being used does matter. A 720p @ 5 Mbps will look better than a 1080p @ 1.5 Mbps, if encoded with proper settings.
And in any case it will always look better with the deblocking filter enabled.