Killing time while watching some HD sports. I surfed around and noticed lots of HD content in MKV format and I was curious how many people choose to get these rather than wait for the AU version of the movie.

I noticed some classics (HDTV caps) of start wars @ 40-50gb (~1080p) or 30 for 720p.and no sign of BR or other release.

Have your resorted to these as alternatives?
Aside from the fact if I got them it would be 2 months of ISP quota and a good size HDD

I am getting the samples to see how good they are.

BSG and other TV shows sometimes.
Movies never.

I enjoy the TV shows in HD but I am more interested in the show rather than the PQ/SQ they are rarely long enough. If I were to get the boxed set ala B5 and supernatural then there is (for me) some merit in HD versions.

But for me I enjoy watching HD movies.

I recently (before release) wanted to see ID4 so I downloaded it in 720p (big qas it was) enjoyed it and heaps better than the SD then I got the BR which is a step up again. But for Movies not likely to see BR release this side of the apocalypse then for me it is a viable alternative.

I generally haven't bothered to get HDTV captures as the quality improvement isn't really there for me to justify downloading 5+ GB. However, MKVs that have been sourced from a HD disc are generally extremely good quality. HDD size isn't really a problem these days, a TB drive (or the equivalent of ~150 720p films) costs only $250. ISP costs are also minimal when compared to the cost of buying the films when they are eventually released here.

My TV is only 720p anyway so I doubt I would be able to tell the difference between the Bluray and the 720p download.

Well I just finished converting the mkv to vob files for ep1 of SW and the quality is impressive it is 1920x900 proper AR and it is nice.

I may try the 720p version no point in getting an 8gb file if the 3gb version is nearly as good.

So is the question of this thread "Should one pirate and steal movies or to wait until they are on blu-ray because the DVD's aren't good enough"?

No, MKV is a viable alternative format, which could be used for other HD content legally as can MP4.

Bearing in mind FTA broadcasts can be recorded as is with little concern of legal problems. This has been tested in court.

If C10/C7 decided to show the HD version of SW then people with a PVR recorded it so long as there is no distribution of it then it is legal.

In fact I would then convert it to an MKV and save it away until such time as a BR came out.

Surely the release of movies given the existence of a HD source should be quicker.

downloading and burning doesn't sound to legal to me.

Do you have a link to this court decision? Even the changes to legislation recently to enable "fair use" copy excluded video content.

I was referring to recording of FTA programs. with PVR's its one step from converting and storing onto a more convenient format.
(as we used to do with chs tapes)

No you weren't. You specifically said in one example you downloaded ID4.

Yes I did
and I also said 'Bearing in mind FTA broadcasts can be recorded as is with little concern of legal problems. This has been tested in court. '

COULD BE used, not IS used.

MKVs of copyright media off the internet are illegal. Just because plenty of people do it, doesn't mean plenty of people don't get sued when caught. You can legally record shows off the air for timeshifting purposes. You're unlikely to be in trouble for taking your recording and converting it to a H.264 video + AAC audio package (provided you own legal encoders, which 90% of the people using DD 5.1 audio don't). Letting someone else do all that hard work and then copying the result off them is clear piracy.

pc9630 boasting about doing it on a public forum is a tad foolish, to say the least.

You are right Ian. The recent "fair use" legislation was very specific. Video content recorded off FTA can only be used for timeshifting purposes (including watching later on) and must be deleted once watched. You can't even watch it a second time without breaching the law.

Downloading it is 100% illegal.

What is being discussed in this thread is illegal no matter how you want to suger coat it or pretend a court has said it's ok (which it hasn't).

It's these sorts of practices that lead to high prices and restrictive DRM on legally obtained material.

Which only serves to push people towards the "pirated" alternative. Catch 22 really isn't it?

Does anyone ever consider that the only people subjected to restrictive DRM and annoying ads about piracy are the people who actually paid full price for the product? Isn't it somewhat ironic that trying to do the right thing is the only way to be guranteed the most difficult and least use friendly version of the product?

I totally agree ajm.

I never D/L HD movies but always get the 720p mkv of the TV show Weeds

Well, I would have to disagree here.

This is because a lot of the laws are yet to be tested - I’m sure not too many want to be the test case though….

Now in the US (and this is the Law) you are legally allowed to use DVR device to download television shows and falls under the same protection as using a video cassette recorder (VCR). An example would be the TiVo in the US which saves TV shows in its own format – coincidently soon to be released here and, as luck would have it, promoted as being able to file share in your own home and with friends by the 7 network itself!!

Further to the above US law the user agrees - not to distribute the recorded material commercially, and all viewing is to take place in a private home.

So what is the definition of ‘commercially’ - is file sharing commercial? It is peer to peer, person to person – hardly commercial and will in all probability be watched in their own home in private – so has anyone broken the law? – hard to say and it is currently not being touched in the US by networks because of the perceived consumer backlash.

What if someone in Australia downloads the US TV show? They are probably safe enough under US law (as mentioned above) and it may never ever be broadcast in Australia (ie an Asian Language TV show) so what law has been broken here in Australia? If some law has been broken who is going to prosecute? These are mums, dads and kids who are downloading FTA tv shows form other countries for private use!! Can you imagine the public outcry if poor Mrs Jones and her kids were prosecuted for this?

Currently very very grey stuff if you ask me.

Rubbish!


Pre-recorded music or movies (CDs or DVDs) well that’s a completely different matter.

tsd

Not at all. Otherwise, by your argument, people would just claim that the music was recorded off radio, and the DVD off a movie channel.

It's illegal. Even if everyone does it.

I tend to download the TV shows but very rarely movies, and any movies I do download I ALWAYS buy it in a HDM format anyway, as soon as its available. I like to have something tangible in my hands.

I do this too.
I have no qualms about it as I WILL buy the BR content when it is available so I am not ripping anyone off. I am uncomfortable in buying online especially with the region encoding issues we face. In reality BR content will use 1 month of quota anyway and it is far cheaper to buy the disk when it is available. I just wish things wouldnt take so long here.

ppl have been prosecuted for downloading music but not tv shows. Until such time as someone is then it is a grey area.

a ripped dvd is a fair bit different to a tv show with a watermark and ads.

No-one has been sued for downloading Batman: The Dark Knight yet. I wonder if that's a special case, too?

There is absolutely nothing different about the copyright nature of a work intended for theatrical release to one which goes straight to TV. The only 'grey' thing about TV shows is that SO FAR people are getting away with it.

And when was the last time you downloaded a show that still had the adverts in?

I thought a lot of the American Broadcasters had put out TV Episodes Online because so many people were doing what we do getting Lost etc. online one week before they they show on TV. ( Or in the USA one day between East and West Coast.).Plus its handy if you happen to miss an episode.

Some are free some on subscription I believe but not 100% sure.

A lot of that stuff u need a US IP address but thats not hard to organise.


A lot of Asian tv shows.

Battlestar Galactica is a classic example as it aired in UK 3 months b4 the US and was instantly online after the UK airing. They say that due to its popularity through the downloads and the web hype the overall number of viewers when it did air in the US increased.

I think you got that the wrong way around. They lost so many viewers to downloads, the UK was banned from viewing the final episode until after the US had aired it.

Your right .
In the UK we have Sky TV which has the rights to Lost and they show them 1 week after the US,and BBC which now have the rights to Heroes Season 3 which will show 1 week after the US.All to kill the downloads.Hope this happens with Prison Break and 24 when they are back on.
This then has an effect on the HD/Blu release date as they are released at similar times.
neuty

Not sure of the logic behind all that.

I downloaded Lost in 720p MkV a week before it aired on 7 so I could watch it it my leisure ( the weekend ) -adverts so as not having to be in front of the TV at 21:30 or 22:30 on a Thursday night. ++ you have to watch Lost episodes 2 or 3 times to catch all the hidden clues

Yes I have a PVR but downloads are much easier to manage than editiing out the crap on FTA TV which never runs on time.

Agree also a valid point.You need to watch lost more than once just to get it,i know i have.
I will probably still download so to watch in HD
neuty

Well acording to the number of places they say it improved the viewing ratings for Season One in the US but pissed the yanks off cause they didnt get it first.
Maybe the US downloaders didnt like the 'SkyOne excluisive' watermark plastered on it either...


Sad indictment of the local FTA when u have to download to get HD.

The guys at my work have literally downloaded terabytes worth of these HD MKV's.

I prefer to wait for the blu ray release though. The quality of the MKV's is near but still noticeably worse than the real deal.

(although i have seen the star wars one's and they look amazing)

Which SW ones specifically?
There are a few around, all from HDTV source, I got the samples of the 1080p/i ones and they looked good. But 31gb will take me months to download and I am not that interested I would prefer a BR release. It is obvious there is a HD source available for them.

I guess the difference is like a DVD rip in divx form (slightly less than SD) compared to the proper DVD. It is different.

Also if you are passed caring then it problem isnt worthwhile bothering with HD MKVs

I am wondering about converting Blu-ray disc's to mkv files so I can play them on my popcorn hour. I have ordered 3 Blu-ray movies and as yet don't have a Blu-ray player. I will wait a bit longer for more options and prices to come down before I buy a player. I will have to buy a Blu-ray drive for my computer to convert them though. Has anyone done this and if so, what is the best way to go about it?

I wrote a short tutorial here, it's fairly complicated and can be time consuming.

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=1018696

Thanks, I will have to give it a go when I buy a Blu-ray drive. I might wait till the end of August, I hear that the 8X burners are coming out in August so that might be worth waiting for.

I have no qualms about downloading something like the Star Wars movies in MKV format. Lucas has had enough money out of me over the years with all the different editions that I won't feel guilty about keeping copies of the movies in HD until the Blu-Ray versions come out...which I will buy straight away.

Did you notice the date stamp on the previous post?

Who can download BD. 50 Gbytes for one movie. Sheesh.

The only shows I download are the ones that I think may or may not come to Oz like "The Dollhouse" and "Sanctuary",or if they do it'll probably be shown at some obscure hour,for example I never really got into Stargate at all due to the stupid hours that it was aired on,however after buying the boxset I realised what a wonderful show it was.This is when I realised my t.v viewing wont be dictated by what the free to air channels deem us worthy to watch,but rather what I want to watch and when I want to watch it.
Recently I've converted all my blu rays and hd dvd's (200 or so) to mkv's via eac3to and mkvmerge.I can tell you that there is no difference in video or audio quality.

Did you go via iso or direct?

Direct

Dollhouse is going to run on FOX8, Sanctuary on SCI-FI ... which is only of interest if you have pay TV of course. Neither in HD (needless to say!).

Oh really? thanks for pointing that out btw. I gave up on pay tv years ago. I watch Dollhouse and sanctuary in HD BTW and they look great downloaded,not as good as blu ray but better than dvd.

Would you mind elaborating on that? I've started to convert mine as well, leaving just the main audio and video, but still ends up around 30Gb sometimes. Are you re-encoding the video, or leaving it, and how much HDD space did 200 movies take up?

That's about right.

200 x 30 is 6,000 Gbytes.

Forgot about this thread.
As Lyle pointed out,you are on the mark. With chapters,main audio and video my mkv's are anywhere from 12 to 30 gig in size.I have close to 200 blu ray and hddvd rips on 4* 1.5 terrabyte drives and I need more drives to accommodated all my doco's and scifi series approx 2 terrabytes worth,so will be getting an e-sata docking station.

So are you re-encoding the video, or leaving it? Just the single audio track, or commentary as well? What player you using to view them?

Sorry for all the questions, but I've started playing with this, and as you are aware, it's a real time sink to learn what's involved.

No re encoding,just straight video rip and single audio track,I could care less for extra's and audio commentary,besides I need the space
I use MPCHC for playback and it works fine,I love the option of being able to position sub's outside of the black bars within MPCHC.

I'm not the most p.c savvy guy here and I know there are much more knowledgable people here who can certainly be of more assistance,but I'll do my best to assist.

Pirates of the DTVion part 3.3

Please explain to me why backing up a copy I legally bought is pirating?

if anyone has any tv shows or movies in 720p mkv files send me a message i want to buy some i find it too long to dl them cheers

lol, looks like u will have to wait for Kev's NBN FTTP. Dollhouse, Sanctuary, BSG etc all worth watching in HD.