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Video Quality Matters Less If You Enjoy the Show

An anonymous reader writes "Rice University researchers say new studies show that if you like what you're watching, you're less likely to notice the difference in video quality of the TV show, Internet video or mobile movie clip, putting a lie to some of the more extravagant marketing claims of electronics manufacturers. 'If you're at home watching and enjoying a movie, we found that you're probably not going to notice or even concern yourself with how many pixels the video is or if the data is being compressed,' said the lead researcher. 'This strong relationship holds across a wide range of encoding levels and movie content when that content is viewed under longer and more naturalistic viewing conditions.'"

4 of 366 comments (clear)

  1. Re:And yet Hollywood... by Midnight's+Shadow · · Score: 4, Informative

    seems to favors special effects over storyline!

    Well yea, it is cheaper and easier to blow something up compared to writing something good. It is also easier to sell a 5 sec clip of special effects then a 5 sec clip of storyline. It would also say that it is harder to appreciate special effects with really crappy resolution while the story usually doesn't suffer.

    --
    "God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh. " -Voltaire
  2. Re:In other news by Abstrackt · · Score: 4, Informative

    Honestly, sex is the second most overrated thing in our cultural landscape

    Sounds like you're not having very good sex!

    I concur and offer the following solution: fuck.

    Making love is good and important in a steady relationship, mutual respect and trust and all that, but sometimes you should just let instinct take over. Literally rip off her clothes, bend her over the dresser and take her from behind. Let her drag you into the shower and make you go down on her. Involve anything but other people and things outside either one of your comfort zones. Watch some porn, buy some toys, just discuss your limits beforehand and respect them. And have fun. ;)

    --
    They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it's not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance. - Terry Pratchett
  3. Re:The xkcd Principle by natehoy · · Score: 4, Informative

    In honor of your 4-digit UID, I'll summarize it for you:

    Dude #1: [pointing to big shiny on the wall]"Check out my new 1080p HDTV."

    Dude #2: "1080p? Why, that's over TWICE the horizontal pixel count of my cell phone, and it almost beats the LCD monitor I got in 2004."

    Since you have (I hope) enjoyed it in complete plaintext, I presume that's sufficient proof that the story is more important than the resolution at which it is displayed?

    With the obvious exception of movies that have very little story, and the special effects are what you want to watch.

    In other words, this article is true except for almost all movies released in mainstream theaters in the last decade.

    But the majority is simply the exception that proves the rule, in this case... Umm. I guess.

    --
    "This post contains words, known to the State of California to cause thought. Wash brain thoroughly after reading."
  4. Re:I think this is a crock of pooh.... by FreonTrip · · Score: 5, Informative

    One dirty but fairly open secret of HD On Demand services is that the providers compress the hell out of the stream to save on bandwidth costs. What you noticed were edge cases where this practice aggressively breaks down. It's proof that high-resolution doesn't mean much if the actual bitrate is too low to take advantage of it. You're unlikely to notice this on a Blu-Ray disc unless it's been horrifically mastered - I'd go far enough to say that a Blu-Ray disc exhibiting this kind of visual anomaly would probably be subject to a recall. That is, unless it's a $6 bootleg advertising "THREE NEW HOLLYWOOD MOVIES ON ONE DISC"...