Re: 5 Things AppleTV needs to be a MUST BUY by Apple Gazette

[LuKreme]

On 6-Apr-2007, at 17:06, Scott Anguish wrote:
> On Apr 6, 2007, at 6:49 PM, Lawrence Sica wrote:
>> On Apr 6, 2007, at 6:38 PM, Scott Anguish wrote:
>>> On Apr 6, 2007, at 5:57 PM, Lawrence Sica wrote:
>>>> #5 would be nice, but is easily overcome.  You can easily rip  
>>>> the dvd.  It would be nice to chuck the dvd player though as well.
>>>    sorry, this isn't simple, or a solution at all really.
>>>    you have to rip and re-encode... and that's lossy.
>> Loss varies, most of the stuff I have ripped, the quality is good  
>> enough.
> 	(rant, in general) This attitude (and it is wide spread) is not  
> helping us get better quality content from people.

Don't care.  I think I speak for the majority when I say that by in  
large, HD content has simply no appeal for me at all.

> 	'good enough' quality simply isn't.  DirecTV uses this excuse to  
> ramp up compression.  Studios use it to produce crappy transfers to  
> DVD.

There's a difference between a crappy transfer and good enough.  A  
crappy transfer is not good enough.  a 1200kbps xvid ffmpeg encode on  
practically any movie out on DVD is good enough that you will be hard  
pressed to tell in a 'blind' test which is the DVD and which is the  
encode. In fact, a 1000kps encode is good enough for practically any  
movie, and is what I rip at (well, 1024 actually, but that's just  
geek-chic).

There are very few movies that benefit from a 1500kbs or higher  
encode, and you know which movies these are (the ones with lots and  
lots of digital special effects, the mega summer blockbusters, or  
something like Pan's Labyrinth where the film is quite dark.  That  
said, the DVD Screener encode of Pan's Labyrinth I saw was better  
than the print I saw in the theatre).

> 	Studios could use it to ramp up compression on iTunes downloads.
>
> 	If I have the original content on DVD, and I've paid for it, I  
> don't want it at a lesser quality.

DVDs are not HD, or anywhere near HD.

A decent DVD (anamorphic widescreen if appropriate) is good enough  
for me.  I don't need 720p or 1080i, much less 1080p.  I am not  
impressed.

-- 
There are strange things done in the midnight sun/By the men who moil  
for gold;
The Arctic trails have their secret tales/That would make your blood  
run cold;
The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,/But the queerest they  
ever did see
Was the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge/I cremated Sam McGee