Not only that, but DVD compressed movies. I ask because of the increasing bandwidth of a lot of users. It's not difficult to download full dvds, even dvd9 with a decent newsfeed. So this begs the question, is it even worth it to compress movies anymore - initially to dvd5, and onward to mpeg4 (xvid etc).

I ask because my own habits favour dvd9, yet i still feel the need to release movies with some sort of compression. But what's the point (rhetorical) - are we all moving to the next level, will mpeg4 die a natural death in the next 12 months, will dvd9 pale in comparison to hd-dvd/blue-ray.

I do try to keep up with the ways and why-fors of xvid and compression techniques, but when it's easier to simply grab "the latest movie" at dvd9 I fail to see the diminishing reason for compression. emule isn't the best at releasing dvd5/dvd9 abd lesser so for HD, so what is it's future. I use it less and less these days, when I can grab a dvd in a few hours.

I don't know really? I feel changes coming.

"a lot of users" meaning everyone but me then? I still have 2mb down
Although hopefully on 24mbps in marchish, although i doubt that fast or that soon

Irrespective, my 2 cents:

MPEG4 will always be a superior form of compression and irrespective of the DVD size, i will always continue to compress the movies to the point where its indistinguishable from the DVD on modern displays (ie. i'll slowly be upping the filesize most likely, but not downgrading a codec). You save 1/2 of the bloat of mpeg2 by use of xvid compression. It will get to the point where i'll switch from Xvid to x264 too. However, i think i'll only ever be upgrading, not downgrading. I just don't see the point of doing a DVD9 unless your a scene group or its a movie that's rare or not available.

The advanced mpeg4 codecs completely outclass XviD in pretty much every department (although at extremely high bitrates tehy all kind of merge on the indistinguishable), you'll see hdtv where the waste caused by antequated codecs is astronomical, and you'll get DVDr sized avis.

I don't see any point of downgrading for the sake of inferior playback hardware though, so no.

Short: no, i'm never going to release a DVD5/9

Same for me, I don't see the point in releasing mpeg2 cause it's clearly inferior. I might update to a newer mpeg4 codec in the future but for now I love my XviD codec.

Also keep in mind that a lot of people have aymetric lines with much less upstream than downstream. For me it's 3000/512 now and 6000/640 sometime in January. But uploading those large DVD5/9 files on that kind of upload bandwith isn't really an option, especially when you can get the same quality with half the filesize using mpeg4.

I'm happy with xvid for the simple reason i can fit a minimum of 3 films on a dvd-r.

I just wouldn't have space if every single film had one disc.

Maybe i just down too much shit

by that i mean releasing so other people can rip, kind of like they do on newgroups. Just read it back and it didn't sound right

I think in 2-3 yrs time we'll all be downing BR/HDDVD rips where "the Scene" filesize will likely to be set as 1 DVD9 gig in whatever codec will rule then.

I come to this conclusion , that whenever you expect man to make a great leap of evolution , he just end up doing pretty much the same thing albeit slightly adapted.

I don't see drastic changes within 3 years.

Ed2k will still be around if that's what you're wondering.Probably with new features to remain attractive...

5-10 years.... well.. Still don't see the warp drive invented if you know what I mean. But the relevant industries slowly do start to get organized ; not to say that piracy, eh sharing, will die , but things will get trickier for beginners ; no more simple Kazaa's , click what you want.
Leaving it there for now.

Who with and how much?

I agree with these comments of course. And thanks all for your input. I was just contemplating how things are going to turn out in the next year and beyond.

Spud I too would never release in DVD format either, but then again I do download both DVD5 and 9 (sometimes) - never in emule though. But as you say with advanced codecs, higher bitrate compression loses it's advantage, so where does that leave HD?

I think Geezus got it about right with how things will evolve. Then again in 5 years from now, who knows - may be we will have fuckin' ipods implanted in our brains?

I do wonder about the future of ed2k though and increasing filesizes, not only for movies, but other things like games?

Be* and under <£30 from what they claim. Its ADSL2 so it falls pretty heavily the further away from your exchange you are.



alt.binaries.dvdr too huh?

Yeah i download many, but either its because there's not a decent rip, its nuked or i just can't be arsed looking for a link. Its a nzb thing though, i'd never do that with



Higher bitrate but collosal resolution mate

you get about 8mbps on DVD at 720x576, but then you use about 10mbps on 1080i... DVD relatively has a higher bits/pixel

If you want a modern comparison you'll have bumped into, see the difference between the look of a 4:3 rip and a 16:9, relative to the bitrate. At a higher bitrate, given the larger number of pixels, 4:3 will look worse than 16:9 and its why it pushes encoding resolution right down.

HD is exactly the same, you've got a much higher resolution meaning that advanced codecs like x264 are far more important than they are now since they can better cope with the encode. MPEG2 is used on standalones because of how easy it is to decode. You can put a cheap ass cpu in there, and as soon as the advanced profile stuff comes in, its why the cheap players just fall over.

So mpeg4 is even more important with HD

Upstream?

apparantly

Damn, that's 10 mbits.

Got a link to their website? (I'm lazy). My exchange distance is in metres, rather than kilometres so I should be OK.

AFAIK, it's only ADSLMax enabled though.

http://www.bethere.co.uk

I said I'm lazy.

Not available in my area.

Holy shit Spud

Awesome line you'll be having, I hope that means more releases

September 2007.

wow, i thought my exchange was shitty... maybe its not.

Then again it says Expected March... its more than likely that won't happen

Fair and acceptable usage policy

What about excessive network usage?
Be lite members have up to 4 gig monthly network usage (total upload and download usage) and automatically pay for additional usage if the 4 gig limit is exceeded in any month (purchased in 5 gig incremental bundles at the then additional gig usage rate). If it’s felt that any Be unlimited or office member’s Internet activities are so excessive that other members are detrimentally affected, Be may give the member generating the excessive web traffic a written warning (by email or otherwise). In extreme circumstances, should the levels of activity not immediately decrease after the warning, Be may terminate that member’s services.

Toucan suckered me on a very similar fair usage policy, throttling me to 5k, yes 5k between 6pm & midnight for 1 month, complaining I'd downloaded 16gig in 1month.

Problem is that theres no specific amount & its open to interpretation & they have you by the balls. When youre trapped in a 12 month contract the specifics are the critical part of the final decision.

But... 24mb sounds incredible

Well, that's dismal

Hopefully there's a shakeup on the horizon in the UK, ISP's are being / will be targeted over misleading advertising (not to mention out and out lies) regarding speeds and usage limits.

Our ISPs are without exception shit, the entire market is built on lies and incompetance.

Let's hope ofcom are a bit more effective this time.