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'Hobbit' Creates Big Data Challenge

Posted by timothy on from the such-a-small-creature-makes-such-a-big-difference dept.

CowboyRobot writes "In the past five years there has been an 8x increase in the amount of content being generated per every two-hour cinematic piece. Although 3D is not new, modern 3D technologies add from 100% to 200% more data per frame. In 2009, Avatar was one of the first movies to generate about a petabyte of information. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey was shot in a new digital format called High Frame Rate 3-D, which displays the movie at 48 frames per second, twice the standard 24-fps rate that's been in place for more than 80 years." But with digital storage transcending some other limitations of conventional projection techniques, it's not just framerate that directors are now able to play with more easily; it's the length of movies themselves, which stats suggest just keep getting longer.

9 of 245 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Smart play by the studios by hpacheco · · Score: 4, Funny

    :poor guys that pirated avatar.. they had to download over a petabyte:

  2. Re:Comment on Movie length by interkin3tic · · Score: 5, Funny

    Until they do bring it back, there is an app for that

  3. Re:How big was the hobbit? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    According to the torrent sites; 2.32 GB though they do use the lossy video camera conversion...

  4. Wikipedia to the rescue by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Tolkien writes that Hobbits are between two and four feet (0.61–1.22 m) tall, the average height being three feet six inches (1.07 m).

  5. Re:How big was the hobbit? by MickyTheIdiot · · Score: 2, Funny

    For some reason I find this observation hilariously funny...

  6. Re:Smart play by the studios by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I know people who are still downloading it, you insensitive clod!

  7. Re:Comment on Movie length by vurian · · Score: 3, Funny

    I had a free refill, once, in Europe. In Linkoping airport, where I was allowed to fill my coffee cup again from the can. I was so surprised... Never happened anywhere else. And given the quality of the coffee, I didn't bother in Linkoping airport either.

  8. Re:Comment on Movie length by Immerman · · Score: 3, Funny

    Yeah, but you wouldn't believe the compression algorithms necessary to let a phone replace the plastic bag..

    --
    --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
  9. Re:it's the length of movies themselves by afgam28 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Granted, the special effects were well done, but "a decent story"? All I remember was this:

    WARNING: SPOILER ALERT!!!

    Some dwarves, a hobbit and a wizard go on an "adventure". They get into trouble, and then the wizard saves them. Then they get into trouble again, and the wizard saves them again. Then they get into trouble again, and the wizard summons some really big birds to save them again.

    I still don't understand why they didn't just take the birds from the start, and all the way to the end. It would've saved a lot of trouble, not to mention hard disk space.