Those 1-2 gig rips are compressed and the quality is low
The 8-14 gigs rips are compressed too but the quality is excellent, plus most of those rips have uncompressed DTS audio
You can also download the uncompressed full bluray rips...those are usually anywhere between 25-50 gigs but they are full bluray rips(the exact same as the retail blurays you buy at the store)
I usally download the mid tier rips(the 8-14 gig rips usually from publichd) except for visual movies like pacific rim,life of pi, etc. I'll grabbed the full bluray(or 3D) rip