'Hobbit' Creates Big Data Challenge

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.

Comments

How big was the hobbit?

[iONiUM]

I read TFA, and nowhere does it say how big The Hobbit was.. only that Avatar was about a Petabyte. Why isn't this stated anywhere? It's very frustrating, and also makes the article less useful, since its entire premise is that "The Hobbit creates big data challenge" with no specificity.

Re:How big was the hobbit?

[Anonymous Coward]

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

Bring back the intermission.

[Naatach]

It was so classy. I'm sure it would help with the theater owners concession sales as well.

Re:Comment on Movie length

[interkin3tic]

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

Wikipedia to the rescue

[Anonymous Coward]

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).

Re:Smart play by the studios

[Anonymous Coward]

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

Not a Big Data Problem

[ranton]

How does this have anything to do with Big Data? Storing large amount of data isn't the important part, it is being able to analyze that data. You do not analyze a movie's data file. You just load and display the movie, which can easy be stored in one large continous file. A Big Data problem would be Netflix trying to determine what kinds of movies to recommend, not storing and then displaying a long movie to users.