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Ahem, courtesy of google:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.ph p?p=4916582#post4916582
http://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/strangerthanfict ion.php
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=200704 05071706AA5ai4P

The problem is widespread, and lo-and-behold software is available that lets a PC not only play it, but rip it.

Killer

Getting the picture yet? Yuk yuk. The bottom line is that you get radically better performance out of H.264 than MPEG-2 at similar bitrates. So a ~45 minute TV episode weighing in at 400MB for a total combined audio/video bitrate of around 1250 kbps gets nearly identical quality to a 2500 kbps MPEG-2 bitstream. Of course on DVD you get goodies like the 5.1 surround audio track, so it's still a better deal, but Apple's done a lot to close the gap.

I agree that H.264 can cut your required bandwidth by half to acheive the same quality, but you've missed a key fact in your numbers: 2.5 Mbps MPEG2 (standard-def) looks like crap.

The typical video bitrate of most DVDs is 4-5 Mbps. Most action movies hit the magic 6 Mbps, and most Superbit editions target 7 Mbps! H.264 is amazing, but it cannot make-up for a 4:1, let-alone a 6:1 bitrate ratio. What I've perrsonally seen backs this up: H.264 standard-def content doesn't start looking REALLY good until you approach 2 Mbps.

Here's an example of how important bitrate is: a comparison of Crouching Tiger's standard release versus Superbit. Even thought the original releases uses the DVD Forum recommended video bitrate of around 5 Mbps, the quality of the original pales in comparison to the Superbit (around 7Mbps). There are other movies listed on the same page to give you an idea of the average bitrate of GOOD action transfers to DVD.

If you really think H.264 can work miracles over MPEG2 with just 1/6th of that bitrate, I want to try whatever you're smoking, because it's obviously good shit :D

I run a site that reviews films on DVD, and I don't see any of my site's reviews among the results. How is Google deciding what is a review, and how are they parsing it for scores?

It's hard to convince advertisers that they're paying for mindshare instead of results, because the internet tends to be so result-driven (search for something, get exactly what you want; click on something, have it take you to what you expected). We tried this sort of advertising model on DVD Verdict, and are still trying. We got one fairly well-known television network to buy ad space, which they wanted to use to drive traffic to their own online store. At the end of the trial month, they were upset that the thousands of impressions only resulted in one sale on their site. Perhaps if their ad had been geared toward making people remember that they *had* an online store, perhaps with exclusive content, then maybe it would've been effective in the long term. But alas, all they cared about were raw sales in the short term.

Per Inquery or Per Order are really the only ways to sell advertising on the net. The big guy doesn't get ripped off, and the little guy doesn't get run over.

The problem is the amount of labor it takes to track this. There has to be a way for both the advertiser and the advertising firm to track the sales and or actual product inqueries, in a manner that both can trust.

But what you're really describing are affiliate programs. I use Amazon's program on my site, and it works very well. Amazon is happy because they get advertising for the products they sell. I'm happy because I get revenue. Visitors are happy because the "advertising" is unobtrusive and they actually get something out of it. I also use AdSense in a limited fashion, mostly because it's too difficult to ensure that the ads are going to be relevant (not to mention poach potential buyers away from the Amazon links) and the revenue potential is much lower than Amazon.

I'd love to see the affiliate advertising model applied in other area, but you pointed out all the problems with it - mostly it's a lot of hassle to track. Perhaps Amazon should leverate A9.com and/or Alexa and provide context-sensitive links to products? I don't think they offer anything like that yet in a friendly package like Google has with their AdSense ad codes. One could roll their own, but most webmasters don't want to go to the effort.

They're so bad they're past good and enter the territory of the head-scratchingly bizarre (emphasis mine)

You mean like Mamoru Oshii's Talking Head or one of the other films in his Cinema Trilogy?

Ja!

--
Hanz and Franz

You mean, like that guy in Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey? I always wondered what his deal was.

Read a fairly accurate review of the movie.

I don't care how much storage/memory someone wants to carry with them.

I don't cherish the thought of having to reboot my brain, or memory, whether for a hardware upgrade or software crash...

I am not opposed to use for artificial limbs, etc., as has been discussed before on (/. - Data Glove That Turns Gestures Into Commands, just don't try to make my brain work faster...

Not only should the samples be quarantined, but it might be a good idea to have some Slim Whitman CD's on hand as well.