Video Sizes?

[Viper007Bond]

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I've been getting some suggestions to switch to 350MB/700MB rips instead of the current 175MB/350MB rips.

From what I've seen, the standard rips for TV shows are 350MB for an "hour" of TV (that's really 42 minutes of TV). Top Gear however is 60 minutes long, so by that standard, TG rips should be 500 MB. If you're burning to CD, that's 200 MB of space you'd be wasting, so you might as well go to 700 MB. Plus, we care much more about the quality of this show than we do with normal TV shows.

On the other hand, 700 MB is rather large. With both Fifth Gear and Top Gear, you'd be downloading about a gigabyte a week. Personally, I don't mind, but perhaps some of you do.

So, I'll leave it all up to you guys.

[Renesis]

current sizes, quality is good enough and bigger would be a huge waste of bandwidth and HD space, I'm already short with my 120gb HD!

[haha604]

350mb works fine for me.

[328DTM]

The current size is fine, and like what some have said, file space on the HD will be a killer for some.

[ESPNSTI]

TG rips should be 500 MB. If you're burning to CD, that's 200 MB of space you'd be wasting, so you might as well go to 700 MB.

CD burners? People still use those? How quaint.
From a DVD burner perspective, if the episodes are just under 500MB (495MB or so) then you can fit 9 episodes on a DVD.

With the current (350MB) format you can fit 12 on there, leaving almost 290 MB free.

BTW, I voted "don't care" .

[Viper007Bond]

From a DVD burner perspective, if the episodes are just under 500MB (495MB or so) then you can fit 9 episodes on a DVD.

Not a bad idea...

[justin syder]

with the current size you could fit quite a few on a dvd-rw adding bigger size is a bit ridiculous, would have longer d/l times and eat up HD space for those that use cd-rs or dont have burners.

fine the way it is. 300mb

[XPX]

the current setup (350/175) works great for me, the quality is quite good most times

[JScullin]

Honestly I was very impressed w/the video compression quality of the episode 2 weeks ago (Ferrari vs. Aston). I normally watch them on my computer (unless I take the time to encode it to VCD) and it looks great @ 1280x1024 on a 19" Trinitron (even when fullscreened). When I throw on a CD for TV viewing it looks impressive on my 32" Wega.

I'd rather see the size invested in audio quality since that's the meat & potatos of these vids. I can look at stills all day long of these. I long to hear the sound of the McLaren SLR or Carrera GT w/o having the sound hit the cutoff point (unless it does that in the show).

If they do go to 700mb I'd probably upgrade my PC to handle burning DVD's or mod an Xbox just to load them on there and watch em on TV. Either way, I can't complain because we're lucky enough to get what we do so soon after the airing. Bigger files might mean longer waits.

[justin syder]

yeah if anything worry about getting an alternate source for ripping these.

Vuk has to do 20 eps per season and they aren't easy. its not like a simple process.

then some ppl wonder why he hasn't done Hot Metal yet

we need alternate ppl ripping these vids. putting all our eggs or eps in one basket is not wise.

[mike_tseng]

NO! dont ever make it 700MB! that only makes our HDs smaller and our D/L times longer! and i dont have a DVD burner so i cant afford to waste CD-Rs

[Mazzoni]

Better quality but as long as i get it week to week Im happy, so i dont really care

[oliB]

From a DVD burner perspective, if the episodes are just under 500MB (495MB or so) then you can fit 9 episodes on a DVD.

Not a bad idea...

If you consider this it maybe an even better idea to make them a bit smaller than 500 so that one DVD can hold a whole season... (you do the maths)
Currently I have all Episodes on my HDD (at home ) but if a whole season would fit on one DVD-R I would consider burning them...
--> More room for porn!

cya
Oli

[gumshuu008]

I think the current size and quality is mighty fine as it is!

G

[justin syder]

I think the current size and quality is mighty fine as it is!

and i think the votes reflect that!

[JScullin]

Let me just add that on Suprnova I've been getting episodes of Lost that are HDTV captures. Whomever encodes them sure knows what they are doing because they look fantastic on the computer in fullscreen. I'd be right in saying they look as if they are DVD quality rips, audio is crystal clear too.

Each episode is 350mb commercial free for a 1hr show. What we may want to find is a better codec?


As for putting our eggs in one basket. Most of us here are from the States IIRC and don't have access to the show. If there were a company or method of recieving broadcasts from overseas (legally & cost-effective) I'd be all over that. Maybe what we can do is help donate any $$ or equipment that might aid in keeping this going. Old boxes & drives for storing & hosting torrents, capture equipment...I have a friend who works for Avid Cinema.... 8)

[chaos386]

The episodes take long enough to download as it is! If I had a faster connection, I'd like the larger filesize, but it takes me a couple days to d/l an episode right now. How would the seeders feel, though? It seems that increasing the filesize would lower the number of eps they can upload before they hit their bandwidth limits.

[Renesis]

phew, glad to see people are voting the right way, Viper's poll scared me...

I wouldn't be able to keep up with 1gb per week, poor 120gb HD...

[Arawyn]

I watch these on a 42inch plasma and they look/sound as good as some DVDs I have purchased
At the end of a run I can burn them all to one DVD and stick them on the shelf.

Honestly how does it get better than that?

[accord885]

matters not to me... i lovem as is.. and will still DL them if they were 20G