Video Quality Matters Less If You Enjoy the Show 366
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.'"
Re:And yet Hollywood... (Score:5, 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.
Re:Applicable to games? (Score:2, Informative)
Woah there partner. I think you're entering the trolling territory of claiming that Wii games have better gameplay than 360 or PS3 games - and ignoring the part that the Wii targets a different audience completely.
Don't get me wrong, I think we're all in agreeance about gameplay > graphics - but I don't think the Wii is the perfect indicator of it at all. (About 30% of wii games I see on the shelf are for lack of a better word: bad)
Re:In other news (Score:5, 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. ;)
Re:The xkcd Principle (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.
Re:The xkcd Principle (Score:2, Informative)
This is more appropriate. [xkcd.com]
Re:I think this is a crock of pooh.... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Applicable to games? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:I think this is a crock of pooh.... (Score:4, Informative)
Ya happens all the time on HDTV. During fast action and high motions scenes, like a camera moving around while a fire rages in the background, everything breaks down and the 16x16 blocks are clearly visible. When things settle down it gets better again.
As you say, discs don't have that problem since they've got bandwidth to spare. I Robot is one of the few I've got but it is crystal clear the whole movie through, and is encoded H.264 @ 25mbps. In fact the actual limiting visual factor is the transfer. You can see film artifacts and noise at a low level, in particular if you pause. They needed to do a better quality transfer and clean it up to truly use the resolution completely.
With TV it is always likely to be a problem. Consider that a single 6MHz channel is good for 38mbps max. Now that would be fine for 1080p high motion stuff... Except that would give very few channels. If each digital channel actually used an entire 6MHz analog channel you'd have a total potential of only 165 channels, and then only if you eliminated cable modems and analogue channels. With the 0-600MHz spectrum taken up with analogue and probably at least 4 channels for cable modems you would be talking 62 total channels.
Clearly, they are packing way more in there. What that means is lower bitrates.
Just how it'll go. Eliminating the analogue lineup will help, though who knows when, if ever, that'll happen but unless the cable system is expanded past 1GHz, you have to juggle the bandwidth needs of a number of services. The data part is taking up more and more too.
Re:Applicable to games? (Score:3, Informative)
Or that price rules supreme in a race to the bottom. The Wii basically sucks for any game not explicitly designed for it, and many that are.
It's hard to beat a $200 flat fee babysitter though.
Re:The xkcd Principle (Score:4, Informative)
Re:In other news (Score:3, Informative)
If you're having it, you know that it's really not that special after all. Honestly, sex is the second most overrated thing in our cultural landscape.
However, if you're not having it, it starts becoming pretty damn special and important.
Just like if you're getting a steady supply of oxygen, you think it's pretty overrated, until it gets cut off.