Polar Special 1080p Rip is out!

[FinalGear]

So, you're interested in downloading the 1080p HD version of the Top Gear Polar Challenge Special? Then this thread is for you. But before you go and download it, there's a few things you must know first.


What kind of quality video is this?

Check out this screenshot:




What kind of computer is needed to play 1080p videos?

A pretty powerful one! If your PC is older than a couple years old, then it probably won't be able to play it. A dual core processor is recommended. 1080p videos are VERY hard on a system's processor.


Well, before I go and download a 7 gigabyte video, do you have a test file I could play?

Try this test video: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=ONXZR7XH


What software do I need to playback these videos?

• Media Player Classic as a player (screw Windows Media Player, etc.)
• AC3Filter for audio
• ffdshow for video (you may already have this for normal Xvid playback)
• Haali Media Splitter for the container (i.e. for you computer to understand the .mkv container file)

Dang, my computer can't play that test video smoothly and with the audio in sync. What can I do?

Get a new computer, or better, download the 720p rip. It's still AWESOME quality, but able to by played by a much slower computer.


(the following image is NOT not at 100% scale, but gives you an idea of the sizes we're talking about)





Original news post:

Yup, the 1080p HDTV version is out now. It is 7GB, so please remember that it will take a while to download.

A 720p version will be out later this evening for those with less powerful computers.


Posted By: Quiky
Link: http://www.finalgear.com/news/2007/0...0p-rip-is-out/

[Buba]

Too bad its on a public...

[Steve Levin]

Question...who actually broadcasts in 1080p? In the US everything is 1080i or 720p that is broadcast -- only HD-DVD and game consoles are actually in 1080p.

Steve

[CyberMonkey]

"those with less powerful computers". Not many people have computer monitors or televisions able to show full HD, so I guess most people should download the 720p version

[Steve Levin]

Actually, the cost of 22-24" monitors that can do 1920x1200 (1080p) is under $500 these days...

Steve

[Buba]

Tell that to the 283 people who are on it. Who is pushing it out? Had pretty good speeds when I connected to the initial seeder before... I guess, its gonna be done until tomorrow by the latest...

And concerning who does 1080p: Pretty much everybody... Films and shows don't get shot in 1080i, but are after editing and post processing..
The US has just chosen 1080i back in the day when the chips in the TVs weren't fast enough for p ...

[Flashman2003]

Hi I think I saw somewhere that BBC HD is broadcasted in 1080i not 1080p (i'm not living in the UK). And I'm already downloading this episode in Hd from the usenet. It is also 7.something gigabytes. Is it the same file or the torrent version is from another source? The version from usenet is a .ts file thus a raw recording thus better quality right?

[Buba]

ts = transport stream, comes from the satellite, doesn't say anything about quality, but is the raw from in which it is broadcasted, basically (check here for more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_stream)
mkv = container for files, not a codec or filter or indicator for quality
In this case the video and audio from the ts have been demuxed (aka separated into a h.264 video file and the ac3 track) and then muxed into the mkv container. No video conversion happened... Will look the same, but as long as you've got the mkv pack installed, it'll just play and the .ts may need to be associated with a player... So no biggie either way...

[Jonax]

Probably a stupid question to ask - But is the 1080p version worth getting for on a 1680x1050 resolution monitor over the 720p version?

The size of the download isn't an issue - Just wondering if the 1080p is worth getting for those without 1920x1200 monitors.

[Sir Stiggington]

Yeah, I'm not sure if it's worth it...I have the same issue...

[campank]

Just as an FYI, BBC HD broadcasts in 1080i, not 1080p. While I'm sure the captured video has been deinterlaced, it is still from a native 1080i stream and shouldn't really be referred to as a 1080p. If nothing more, just because the quality of a deinterlaced 1080i stream does not match the quality of native 1080p such as would be found on Blu-ray and HD-DVD discs. Sorry for the rant, it's just that the '1080p' term has been abused over the last few years, so it's kind of a pet peeve.

With that being said, thanks for finding this, I'm stoked to see that TG is being broadcast in HD and I'm looking forward to checking out the quality of the video!

[Viper007Bond]

Originally Posted by campank

Just as an FYI, BBC HD broadcasts in 1080i, not 1080p.

Progressive source though, so while it's broadcast in 1080i, there's none of that weird interlacing line break crap.

[Flashman2003]

Another thing that makes me wonder is that the native resolution of the video seems to be 1440*1080 and not 1920*1080... But the screenshot in this post is 1920*1080 thus this is either recorded from another source (satellite or cable?) or it's been recompressed at the higher resolution. I'm just trying to understand I don't care about the size of the download but I don't want to download twice

Here's the nfo content from the usenet release:

Top Gear - Polar Special

In Top Gear's most ambitious and arduous challenge to date Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond attempt to race from Northern Canada to the North Pole, 450 miles away. The terrain in between is some of the toughest on earth - a mix of mountainous land masses and jagged sea ice where temperatures can drop to a mind-numbing minus 65 degrees Celcius. Jeremy and James will be driving a specially adapted pick up truck whilst Richard will be travelling on something a little less high tech - a sled pulled by a team of ten Canadian Inuit Dogs.

Size: 7.31GB, Time: 01:02:02

Video; 1440x1080/25 h264 ~16.34Mbit/s
Audio; AC3 2.0 ~384Kbit/s

File Size Processed: 7.31 GB, Play Time: 01h:02m:02s
25.00 FPS (Average), 16.00 Mbps (Average).
AC3 Audio: 2/0 Channels (L, R), 48.0 kHz, 384 kbps.
Dialog Normalization: -23.0 dB
1 of 116313 audio frames found with errors.
0.032000 seconds of audio timestamp gaps.

[Buba]

DVDs in PAL are 720x568, which is 4:3 as well, but still they are perfectly fine 16:9. Anamorphic is the keyword.

Fucked up public tracker... Still only @26% Can't remember the last time I dled stuff that slow... Viper, we need a private forum tracker for stuff like that!

[Quiky]

Chill out, I am seeding at a full 100mbit..

There may be a private location later. We will have to see.

[un-dee]

Actually the BBC does broadcasts in h264 with MBAFF which is a mix between 1080p and 1080i, but the results are no different to 1080p so it should be considered 1080p. Premiere HD broadcasts the same way.

[Steve Levin]

Can you go into a bit more detail? I'm just curious; I didn't know there was a third option -- I thought it was either interlaced or progressive.

Thanks!

Steve

[Theresonlyone]

I have an intel imac 2.16ghz will i be able to play it in front row or should i stick with the standard definiton rip. Because i can play HD trailers for games and other stuff but im not sure if thats 1080p.

[ESPNSTI]

Originally Posted by Theresonlyone

I have an intel imac 2.16ghz will i be able to play it in front row or should i stick with the standard definiton rip. Because i can play HD trailers for games and other stuff but im not sure if thats 1080p.

Apple's website has a number of 1080p h.264 trailers that you could try first to see if it will work for you.

I downloaded this one (the 255 MB one) a while ago for example to check my PC:
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/guide...esixright.html

It's probably not a foolproof test, but it should be good enough.

[Flashman2003]

OK It's clear now: both the torrent and the usenet releases are in 1440*1080 (I could preview the torrent with vlc even if it's not 100% yet) so for the torrent the guys took the original video and audio in the TS file and remuxed them into the mkv file.
And the program used to read the file extends the video to 1920*1080 a bit like anamorphic dvd. So it's not full HD like on blu ray or hd dvd but still the few seconds I saw are just amazing!