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So youtube is renting movies now for $3.99, right? We just watched The Cove and for some reason, the video had difficulty loading at 360p and at 480p (long periods of buffering per ~10 seconds of play) but no issues at all in 720p HD. This seems backwards to me. Explanations?

That doesn't seem like a problem.

Tunco wrote:That doesn't seem like a problem.

It's very obviously a point of discussion.

I know nothing on the subject, so all you're going to get from me is ill-informed speculation. Even still, I'd think that they might be using different codecs or compression methods for higher-quality videos, perhaps?

Drathmoore wrote:I know nothing on the subject, so all you're going to get from me is ill-informed speculation. Even still, I'd think that they might be using different codecs or compression methods for higher-quality videos, perhaps?

I'm not exactly an expert either. The only thing I can think of is that the original movie file itself is in 720p, and requesting to view it in anything lower than that requires a downgrading/conversion process.

heatwave wrote:I'm not exactly an expert either. The only thing I can think of is that the original movie file itself is in 720p, and requesting to view it in anything lower than that requires a downgrading/conversion process.

I doubt very much that YouTube does its encoding on the fly. That's atypical of the way that Google does their thing and it would be wasteful. It's possible that the higher quality video is simply stored on a higher priority server.

rennaT wrote:It's possible that the higher quality video is simply stored on a higher priority server.

That's pretty much what I was thinking. I don't think it's unreasonable to assume that most people don't have HD sets and therefore order the lower quality videos, which in turn puts greater strain on the lower quality servers.

Well, I guess that's the end of Netflix.

I dunno, Netflix is more of a brand in this area. I think interested parties would go to Netflix before Youtube.

SlappyMcGee wrote:I dunno, Netflix is more of a brand in this area. I think interested parties would go to Netflix before Youtube.

Yeah, for the time being, I'd use Netflix over YouTube because I have a slow and spotty connection.
On the other hand, buying movies through YouTube will definitely streamline the pirating process.

Not to mention that there are only five videos available.

Netflix's video streaming service is fantastic, too. I have an LG BD390 player that supports NetFlix streaming, and you can get a dedicated box for it for as little as $99 (Roku). if you have fast enough internet, I can't recommend it enough. I can't wait until they start streaming in 5.1 surround later this year.

Of course, I still have to have actual blu-ray discs mailed if I want full HD.

jean-luc wrote:Netflix's video streaming service is fantastic, too. I have an LG BD390 player that supports NetFlix streaming, and you can get a dedicated box for it for as little as $99 (Roku). if you have fast enough internet, I can't recommend it enough. I can't wait until they start streaming in 5.1 surround later this year.

Of course, I still have to have actual blu-ray discs mailed if I want full HD.

And a PS3 also streams video like that, so it's a pretty boss package.

SlappyMcGee wrote:
And a PS3 also streams video like that, so it's a pretty boss package.

Are the PS3 streams in HD? Just wondering.

As far as I know, I wouldn't be able to tell you for certain though as Sony is still determined to fuck PAL customers up the ass and we still don't have anything nice like that, we have to buy or rent videos on the PSN itself (And it's cheaper to actually buy them new or go to a rental store).


PS3, great console, stupid company.