noob HD video file question

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spazz

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#20216 17-Mar-2008 00:06

Hey guys,

Long have I been confused by the (legal, of course!) torrents I download with "HDTV" or "720p" in the filename, only to find they output in decidedly average quality on my computer or HDTV (I chuck them on a usb stick and play it through my PS3).

What gives? Is it something I'm doing wrong, or is it simply a misleading filename?

Thanks in advance!

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BarTender

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#117063 17-Mar-2008 07:49

It's probably because the Torrent / video file was compressed to .... so if you are downloading a 100MB 2 hour long DVD movie then you can't expect too much.

Normally when you go looking for torrents of TV shows / movies, look for the largest (within reason) one you can find. ~700MB for a full movie DIVX is about right, and a 1 hour show ~300MB.

spazz

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#117064 17-Mar-2008 07:56

Oh I do, they're roundabout the sizes in question (350mb / hour)... yet it's just like watching normal TV, not HD. I don't get it :(

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sbiddle

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#117066 17-Mar-2008 08:01

Most torrents labelled as HDTV are generally from a HDTV source and then reencoded.

Generally HD files are typically encoded with x264 and have a .mkv suffix.

spazz

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#117068 17-Mar-2008 08:20

Oh ok, thanks for that! Do you know if .mkv files play on a PS3? I'm guessing not... I guess I could re-encode them to a compatible format, but that kinda defeats the purpose, huh...

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munchkin

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#117103 17-Mar-2008 09:54

sbiddle: Most torrents labelled as HDTV are generally from a HDTV source and then reencoded.

Generally HD files are typically encoded with x264 and have a .mkv suffix.

And size up around 1GB/hour.

@Spazz: Some .mkv files will play simply by renaming them so the file extension is .mp4, otherwise you can use this program (free) to change the container so that the PS3 can read it.

lchiu7

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#117110 17-Mar-2008 11:17

I find this program very fast (and free) to convert those mkv files (which essentially are avc and ac-3 files in the mkv container) to play on the PS3

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=131782

Usually takes about 5-10minutes to convert a file which is reasonable

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