{"id":3596,"date":"2005-12-06T16:44:49","date_gmt":"2005-12-07T00:44:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2005\/12\/06\/time-to-put-my-money-where-my-mouth-is\/"},"modified":"2019-12-19T15:13:35","modified_gmt":"2019-12-19T23:13:35","slug":"time-to-put-my-money-where-my-mouth-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2005\/12\/06\/time-to-put-my-money-where-my-mouth-is\/","title":{"rendered":"Time to put my money where my mouth is?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='__iawmlf-post-loop-links' style='display:none;' data-iawmlf-post-links='[{&quot;id&quot;:6245,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.scifi.com\\\/battlestar&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20090704044749\\\/http:\\\/\\\/www.scifi.com\\\/battlestar\\\/&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/www.syfy.com\\\/battlestar&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-04 02:09:17&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-08 19:38:48&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-16 15:44:29&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-21 09:34:23&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-30 23:13:55&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-05-05 04:06:49&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-05-05 04:06:49&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:7337,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/arstechnica.com\\\/news.ars\\\/post\\\/20051206-5692.html&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/arstechnica.com:443\\\/news.ars\\\/post\\\/20051206-5692.html&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:7338,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/phobos.apple.com\\\/WebObjects\\\/MZstore.woa\\\/wa\\\/viewTVShow?id=102790326&amp;s=143441&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;}]'><\/div>\n<p>Ten months ago, when I was trying to figure out BitTorrent so I could keep up with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.scifi.com\/battlestar\/\" title=\"Scifi.com: Battlestar Galactica\">Battlestar Galactica<\/a>, I <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2005\/02\/yeah_im_clueles.html#comment-7069\" title=\"Eclecticism: Yeah, I'm clueless about these things...\">wrote this in a comment<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\n  As it is, I\u2019d gladly pay a few dollars per episode to download high-quality versions of this show (and, theoretically, other shows that I might be interested in in the future), much like I currently do with music from the iTMS (with the caveat that I\u2019d expect any DRM to be no more restrictive than what the iTMS uses).\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>And wouldn&#8217;t you know it &#8212; <a href=\"http:\/\/arstechnica.com\/news.ars\/post\/20051206-5692.html\" title=\"Ars Technica: Apple adds new television shows to its lineup\">Battlestar Galactica is now available<\/a> through the iTunes Music Store <a href=\"http:\/\/phobos.apple.com\/WebObjects\/MZstore.woa\/wa\/viewTVShow?id=102790326&amp;s=143441\" title=\"iTMS: TV Shows: Battlestar Galactica\">at $1.99 per episode<\/a>! Very nice.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, over the past ten months I&#8217;ve become accustomed to the quality afforded through captures of HD broadcasts: the episodes I download through BitTorrent are ~350Mb each and widescreen at 624&#215;352 pixels; the episodes Apple offers are ~200Mb and shown at the &#8216;standard&#8217; (pan-and-scan? cropped?) 4:3 ratio at a much smaller 320&#215;240 pixels. Of course, there is the risk of getting a bad quality rip from BitTorrent that wouldn&#8217;t hold up to the norm, while it&#8217;s probably safe to assume that the officially sanctioned videos from Apple will be consistently good quality.<\/p>\n<p>As an experiment, I purchased the most recent episode of BSG (&#8216;Pegasus&#8217;) and compared Apple&#8217;s version to the version I downloaded via BitTorrent.<\/p>\n<table>\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th colspan=\"3\">Battlestar Galactica&#8217;s &#8216;Pegasus&#8217;<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"20%\"><\/td>\n<th width=\"40%\">iTMS<\/th>\n<th width=\"40%\">BitTorrent<sup>1<\/sup><\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>Filetype:<\/th>\n<td>.m4v<\/td>\n<td>.avi<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>Length:<\/th>\n<td>45:27.04<\/td>\n<td>44:19.03<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>Filesize:<\/th>\n<td>207.26 MB<\/td>\n<td>345.80 MB<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>Time to download:<\/th>\n<td>I didn&#8217;t immediately think to time this, roughly 20-30 minutes on my connection.<\/td>\n<td>Varies depending upon the number of active BT clients: at best speed should match the iTMS time; at worst speed could take anywhere from hours to days.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>Dimensions:<\/th>\n<td>320 x 240<\/td>\n<td>624 x 352<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>FPS:<\/th>\n<td>24.00<\/td>\n<td>23.98<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>Video encoding<sup>2<\/sup>:<\/th>\n<td>-NA-<\/td>\n<td>Generic MPEG-4<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>Audio encoding<sup>3<\/sup>:<\/th>\n<td>AVC0 Media<\/td>\n<td>MPEG Layer 3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>Data rate:<\/th>\n<td>636.72 kbits\/sec<\/td>\n<td>1106.58 kbits\/sec<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>DRM:<\/th>\n<td>Apple FairPlay v2<\/td>\n<td>None<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>Comparitive:<\/th>\n<td colspan=\"2\">At native sizes, the iTMS video is sharper but noticeably darker. The BitTorrent copy isn&#8217;t as crisp, but being a few notches brighter makes it easier to see (a situation exacerbated by my using an old 17&#8243; monitor that already has its brightness and contrast at maximum and really needs to be replaced when I can afford to do so). Even so, the iTMS video is gorgeous: darker and smaller (2\/3 the height and 1\/2 the width), but better quality &#8212; <em>at native size<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>At full screen, the smaller size, greater compression and lesser data rate of the iTMS track is very obvious. Compression artifacts not noticeable at 320 x 240 are <em>very<\/em> visible when blown up to my monitor&#8217;s standard setting of 1152 x 870. The BitTorrent video, while softer, doesn&#8217;t show nearly as much artifacting (but then, given the larger native size and widescreen ratio of the video, it&#8217;s also only being enlarged 247% as opposed to the iTMS version&#8217;s 360%).<\/p>\n<p>All in all, while the iTMS video is better quality at native size, the BitTorrent copy is far more watchable when blown up to full-screen.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tbody>\n<tfoot>\n<tr>\n<th>Notes:<\/th>\n<td colspan=\"2\">1: Due to the distributed and decentralized nature of BitTorrent, the reported statistics, while representative of the quality of most BT downloads I&#8217;ve received, are only definite for this particular copy of this episode.<br \/>2: As reported by QuickTime Player&#8217;s &#8216;Window > Show Movie Properties&#8221; window under &#8216;Sound Track&#8217;.<br \/>3: As reported by QuickTime Player&#8217;s &#8216;Window > Show Movie Properties&#8221; window under &#8216;Video Track&#8217;.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tfoot>\n<\/table>\n<p>So, now what? I did say in the original quote that I&#8217;d happily pay for &#8220;high quality&#8221; copies. At the moment, with Apple&#8217;s focus on optimizing the video for the iPod, I&#8217;m not sure that the video offerings are quite enough to tempt me away from BitTorrent on a regular basis. It&#8217;s close&#8230;but not <em>quite<\/em> there.<\/p>\n<p>Unless someone gives me an iPod video for Christmas, of course. Then I may need to re-evaluate. ;)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ten months ago, I wrote that &#8216;I\u2019d gladly pay a few dollars per episode to download high-quality versions&#8230;.&#8217; And now, wouldn&#8217;t you know it &#8212; Battlestar Galactica is available through the iTunes Music Store at $1.99 per episode! Very nice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2039,2037],"tags":[671,58,8],"class_list":["post-3596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-apple","category-tv-and-films","tag-battlestar-galactica","tag-internet","tag-television"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3596\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}