Internet Movie downloads typical encoding method?

[geniv]

Recently got DSL working and downloaded Scary Movie and NOt another Teen movie.

it seems like alot of internet movie d/ls are like 2 files around 160megs each. about 340megs for the entire movie.

My questions is how do they encodes those movies to such small file size and yet maintain a acceptable quality?

can anyone tell me the specfics?

Video: codec, Bitrate, setting, resolutions, single or 2 pass encoding?
audio: codec, bitrate, setting?

I have some old movies and shows in VHS that I want to capture and encode. It would be great to be able to get it to the small filesize and ok quality of what I saw in those movie downloads.

thanks in advance.

[Ceronian]

Originally posted by geniv
it seems like alot of internet movie d/ls are like 2 files around 160megs each. about 340megs for the entire movie.

My questions is how do they encodes those movies to such small file size and yet maintain a acceptable quality?

I'm sure you're using Kaaza, right? Doesn't matter...

Acceptable quality? You must be blind!

[geniv]

yupe kazaa, for me the relatively small size of the movie is a factor I'm willing to take for the quality of the audio/video in the movie.

(of course this is for stuff that I don't mind but for movies I really care about I would do high bitrate encoding)

[Hanty]

That sounds like SMR movies. You'll have to ask cuffs about them, he's their head encoder. ;)

[Teegedeck]

Use a low resolution. And I mean very low.

[TheWEF]

Originally posted by Hanty
... he's their head encoder. ;)
yea, and Hanty was his teacher! :D

[theReal]

geniv, unfortunately the better and cleaner your source material, the lower the bitrate you can use. If you have some old tv shows captured from VHS, you're going to have a harder time encoding them at acceptable quality with a very small bitrate.

Is SMR still doing these small rips?
None of them around in Direct Connect... (more and more 1.1 GB movies there, on whatever media that may fit...)

[UHT]

i guess it comes down the whole beauty is in the eye of the beholder thing, but all the small rips look like carp to me

[Hanty]

TheWEF

Yup, I'm Obi-wan and he's Anakin in that sad tale of falling from grace.

Cuffs: Is 1/2 CD encodes stronger?

Hanty: No . . . no . . . no. Quicker, easier, more seductive.

Cuffs: But how am I to know the good side from the bad?

Hanty: You will know. When you are calm, at peace. Passive. An encoder uses vdub for knowledge and perfection, never for being the first at Isonews and have lots of people leeching off you at Kazaa.

[PeterTheMaster]

SMR? dont they make these stupid 20fps videos?
20fps sucks really bad, looks really choppy to me.

[Jacker]

I used to use Kazaa to find movies, but once I downloaded the one from Walt Disney (Atlantis) and it was good size so I thought that I could give it a try.

But when I played it :scared: They had encoded it like it was 4:3 when it was 16:9 and well, you could only see the central part of the movie. From that day on I promised never to download anything else and did it myself.

I hope everyone that thinks that really small sizes are ok learn from my mistakes.

PS:
Sorry for my English.

[TheWEF]

Originally posted by Hanty
No . . . no . . . no. Quicker, easier, more seductive....
lol - smr, the dark side! :D

[kxy]

cuff=nero-x? doubt it...

I was with smr for a while back when I was in the dark side. Till nandub first came out, and them being unwilling to change. :P

[Hanty]

I wouldn't admit being in smr if I had. ;b

[geniv]

True what u said about a good source making a good smallbitrate encode.

damn, this encoding business is talking alot of my time. and it's like an artform that u have to try alot to get a feel of the codecs etc.. and u get better overtime :)

[cofferscuffs]

Originally posted by Hanty
I wouldn't admit being in smr if I had. ;b

lololololol

SMR/nAVI is basically MSMPEG4V3 (or V2 - i cant remember atm) unlocked (in laymens terms an ASF file with an AVI extension), with WMA audio (not v7 or v8 of course ;))

All encodes of it would be CBR (maybe now they use nandub with it? lol) so it's all 1-pass crap.

So how do they wreck a decent looking movie into a pile of crap? Well the first thing you should know is that they're all re-encodes. The second thing is that they keep the resolution as low as possible to increase compressablility (less detail -> less bits needed).

I suppose it's ok watching them if you have cateracts in both eyes, but I don't and I'd rather download a 3cd *cough*Centropy*Centropy* release 5 days before a crappy SMR re-encode of it.

[theReal]

From that day on I promised never to download anything else and did it myself.

For me, it was the other way round. When I first saw a good SBC movie by dominion, 2 hours on one cd, better looking than my first 2-CD attempts, I knew that I was doing something wrong. Finally, I ended up here :)

[jmonfm]

Not having a broadband connection - I have no access to the films:mad: - but I know that a friend of mine has spent a long time downloading films via Broadband only to find that it was a muppet in the back of the cinema with a cam-corder!!!!!:angry:
Its a shame you can't preview before download.

[theReal]

Its a shame you can't preview before download.

You can (not really before download, but after a few megabytes)
Just download a bit, copy this part to another place while the downloading continues, rebuild the index of the copied piece with either VDub or DivFix, then watch it.

[yingx2]

Originally posted by theReal


You can (not really before download, but after a few megabytes)
Just download a bit, copy this part to another place while the downloading continues, rebuild the index of the copied piece with either VDub or DivFix, then watch it.


I do this all the time since there are always so many fake Friends episodes over the net with descriptions like "it's real" or "the newest one, please share".

The real thing never has to claim that it is real, the one thing I learned.

[theReal]

Just like those spam-mails that tell you to get the only, real software for copying dvds on cd. With one click. Just 39.99. LOL

[Mac Sidewinder]

$39.99?? I'm in the process of d/l it right now - hmmmm maybe I should preview it first to make its the REAL thing?

Mac

[diji1]

yingx2 : The real thing never has to claim that it is real, the one thing I learned.

... so where does that leave theReal then, lol :D ?