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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.'"
When I'm watching something I enjoy, that happens to have good video quality, one of the things always in the back of my mind is the desire for better video quality. It may be that I'm more of a visual person but I really don't have patience for poor video quality. Obviously, if I don't have a choice I can tolerate it when I'm watching something I actually want to see. But even then, I'm not willing to put up with it too long. And of course, it also depends on what level of quality we're talking about.
Most people seem to have fairly low standards. Haven't there been studies that have demonstrated that most young people actually prefer the crappy audio quality present with compressed audio? That's another thing I can't stand.
if you show someone crappy NTSC video that looks like it is a third hand copy from a dirty VCR from the 1980s, but with high fidelity stunning THX quality sound, the technical quality of the movie overall is rated highly
but if you show someone something better than IMAX resolution video with perfect clarity and lighting and editting... but with tinny, monaural or badly editted or badly recorded sound with hums and hisses, the technical quality of the movie overall is rated poorly
in other words, the human mind seems to have a built-in intolerant and strict bias about audio quality, but is very forgiving when it comes to video quality (as this story confirms)
budding filmmakers: don't fuss that much about your lighting, camera quality, etc. but make damn sure you get good audio. video artifacts and glitches can be explained away as aesthetic quirks but apparently you will be severely punished by your audience's perceptions if your audio sucks
the human mind has a high tolerance for poor video quality, but audio quality is something it is very attentive to and picky about subconsciously
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
I think Wii sales proved that a long time ago.
Not really, because:
The Wii sold because it was cheap, not because the games are any good.
... and then they built the supercollider.
The only reason to get married is if you feel that your partner is the person you want to be with for your whole life.
Sorry, but I and many other people will disagree about that. Lots of people get married so that they can stay legally in a country, either with a girlfriend or on their own. Other people get married to people they barely know, just because they are told to do so by their parents based on cultural traditions. Other people get married because their girlfriend got pregnant and she doesn't want to become a mom without marrying. In my personal situation, I got married because I love my wife, I wanna pay less taxes, and in the country where I live (Germany) it makes it easier with kids when you are married. It has nothing to do with "the person of your whole life". If you believe that marrying will correlate to "whole life" you should read some statistics about divorce rates.
I don't mean to troll and I'm sure you are a very romantic person. But please let's realize that not everyone believes in the myth of marriage.