Linux & Video

Sidereel.com and Megavideo, my favorite source of boot-leg video, are disappointing. As it has been, Sidereel provides a long list of web addresses for most any show I want to watch. However, for some shows, every one of those web addresses is a dead end. Someone has started checking up on the pirates. But not all shows, just some.

Sidereel has also got some sponsors, which is good for them, but they are putting up these huge mouse-over pop-ups, so in order to use the site, you have to watch where you slide your mouse, or you will spend all your time closing these stupid pop-ups and you will get nowhere.

Xfinity is making some shows available over the net, but you still have to wait for the same amount of ad playing time as you would if you were watching it off of cable or over the air. Most of the ads are for other TV shows and they will get played two or three times every commercial break. The video quality is watchable, but not really all that great.

iTunes offers most of the shows I want, but they want $3 an episode to watch, $3.50 if you want to download it. The video is supposed to be 720p, which should be pretty good.

Broadcast at 1080p seems to be the gold standard, so now it looks like I need a tuner, but I am not sure I have a connection point on the Zbox that can handle that big a stream of data.

 YouTube has started putting video quality rating/selector on some of their videos. I think 240p is prettty typical for your average YouTube video.

Standard DVD's operate at 480p. The numbers (240, 480, 720, 1080) refer to the number of horizontal lines in the image. The p means progressive, which means each frame is complete. If there is no p, then there should be an i, which means interleaved, which is what the old analog CRT televsions used, which basically means each frame only gives you have a picture. The first frame gives you all the odd lines and the next frame gives you all the even lines.

Note these "standards" don't say anything about how wide the picture is. And then there's the compression method they use. All this video that is getting transmitted over the air or over the net has been compressed. About the only place where it isn't compressed is the HDMI cable from the set top box to your TV.

I really don't want to download any movies or TV shows. I don't want to keep a copy around. There are probably a couple of hundred DVD's floating around the house that we have accumulated over the last 20 years. Some of them have never been watched. Most of them were bought for the kids, and a few of them have been watched more than once.

I enjoy watching movies and TV dramas, but only if I have someone to watch them with. There are very few things I can watch by myself. Top Gear is the only one these day's, and I often skip over the interview with the star.