Game of Thrones

[Luj1]

Watched nearly half of the entire season yesterday. A historical leak if I ever saw one. Thanks Pirate bay!

 

On a side note, this show has become just average. Acting is mediocre at best, with occasional peaks here and there. Such an overrated show.

Edited April 13, 2015 by Luj1

[Valsuelm]

Watched nearly half of the entire season yesterday. A historical leak if I ever saw one. Thanks Pirate bay!

 

On a side note, this show has become just average. Acting is mediocre at best, with occasional peaks here and there. Such an overrated show.

 

Ha!

 

Seems the TV industry is starting to suffer a bit of what the movie industry suffers.

 

Would be nice if they stopped this nonsense of sending screeners to incestuous advertising groupies.. errr... 'critics' in advance. They probably won't though, they'll just whine through the MPAA, RIAA, and the like.

 

 

 

For those not too familiar with the pirate seas one of the most common sources for early releases (probably the primary source by wide margin too) on to the seas are those 'critics' that companies send their screeners to, whether it be movies, TV shows, music, or video games. Pirates often get the goods first and some slimeball 'critic' is often why.

 

ie: Every year without fail DvD releases on every Oscar contender are available weeks before the Oscars. Even if that movie is months away from actually being released on DvD. Thank the screeners for this.

 

 

 

Edit: Looking at the size of those leaked GoT files, those are about the lowest quality possible screeners. Emilia Clarke's body deserves to be viewed in 1080p.

Edited April 13, 2015 by Valsuelm

[HoonDing]

gnna watch it after Black Sails II and Vikings III

[Luj1]

Edit: Looking at the size of those leaked GoT files, those are about the lowest quality possible screeners.

Not really, theyre SD (Standard quality)

Edited April 13, 2015 by Luj1

[evensong]

Literally the only story line I care about any more is Arya's. I especially don't give a **** about anything that happens in Dorne.

[Guard Dog]

The Dorne storyline won't be as interesting as the one in the books because half the characters are missing. Particularly Arianne Martel. But it's one I am looking forward to.

 

As for watching the leaked episodes, nah. If I can't watch it in 1080p on my 80" TV I'm not interested. 

[Valsuelm]

Literally the only story line I care about any more is Arya's. I especially don't give a **** about anything that happens in Dorne.

 

I recommend the books. Many of the characters' storylines are far more interesting there, including Arya's (who happens to be one of my favorite characters).

Edited April 13, 2015 by Valsuelm

[ShadySands]

I watched them all but now I have to wait even longer for new episodes

 

Is this how the people who read the books feel? I don't like it

[Zoraptor]

The people who read the books have had a very long time to get used to waiting. A very, very long time.

[Valsuelm]

 

Edit: Looking at the size of those leaked GoT files, those are about the lowest quality possible screeners.

Not really, theyre SD (Standard quality)

 

 

If you think that you're not familiar with quality encodes/rips. A ~300-400 mb encode for an hour long anything is about as low as you go without having very serious and obvious quality issues. No decent tracker would carry anything lower than this unless there was no other option, and more importantly no rational company would release a screener of lower quality. The primary reason SD quality screeners are released at all is to protect against pirates. Going back a couple of years high quality screeners were far more common. Companies didn't like that their high quality screeners were released into the pirate seas before they were available at retail so more and more of them started releasing low quality screeners.

 

SD is ok for a CRT TV or monitor, but it really suffers when watched on a modern digital screen, and only has 2 channels of audio as opposed to 6 or more. The only real advantage to such a release is if you have a very low bandwidth internet connection or a really bad CRT display and only 2 speakers where a better quality release wouldn't make much of a difference.

 

There's a number of different quality releases available for any given modern TV show or movie. At the low end of the spectrum is SD (typically 720 * 404p), which comes in around ~300-400 MB for an hour of video and stereo sound, at the high end of the spectrum (for TV) would be a very good 1920 * 1080p encode which comes in at a little over 5 GB for an hour of video and 6 channels of sound. There's a variety of options in between these two ends, both of which are available for Game of Thrones Season 5 episode 1 if you know where to look. For a show like Walking Dead the quality varies similarly. The humongous advantage to getting a pirated copy to watching it on TV is that the pirated copy has no commercials (which is why, if I watch Walking Dead at home (I usually watch it at a friends house) I download the high quality pirated version (typically available within a half hour of the show's original broadcast) and watch that even though I have AMC where I live.

 

At an even higher end of the spectrum are the Blu-Ray encodes, which is generally only used in modern movies. These also vary in quality. Using 'The Hunger Games' as a random example a remux Blu-ray encode is ~38 GBs for ~2.35 hours of video and 8 channels of sound. Which is around 16.2 GB per hour. ~45 times the data of a SD release. A very good quality non-remux encode of the same Blu-Ray is ~20 GBs (~24 times the data of an SD release). People argue whether or not remuxing is the way to go or not for high quality Blu-Rays (I'd say It's probably not worth it unless you've got the best of the best in regards to your home theater system).

 

In real terms of quality that the human eye can see and hear are the best encodes worth it? That depends on a number of factors I'd say, the primary ones being the quality and size of whatever you're viewing and listening to show X on. There certainly can be a diminishing returns aspect to it all, depending. But if you've got a really nice display and a great quality sound system, the best encodes are really really sweet.

[Sakai]

Watched nearly half of the entire season yesterday. A historical leak if I ever saw one. Thanks Pirate bay!

 

On a side note, this show has become just average. Acting is mediocre at best, with occasional peaks here and there. Such an overrated show.

Can't say anything about the acting, i felt it was as it always was, decent. The problem is probably that every actor just gets less and less screen time. They can't possibly do anything interesting in those few minutes they get per episode. But i agree that the show now is not that good. Just too many plot lines. And plot itself is starting to get really boring, feels like it's going nowhere. 

Edited April 13, 2015 by Sakai

[Luj1]

After the first season all went downhill

[ktchong]

I watched the leaked four episode.  The quality has indeed gone down a bit.  However, the fourth season (surprisingly)  still stays fairly close to the source material, (i.e., as close as the first four seasons were to the books.)  I had read that this season would deviate quite a bit from the books.

Edited April 14, 2015 by ktchong

[cirdanx]

The people who read the books have had a very long time to get used to waiting. A very, very long time.

Unfortunaly yes...a VERY long time. I enjoy the show a lot though, the problem with the show is, it makes me want the new book(s) even more. Damn it, finish it allready

[Valsuelm]

 

The people who read the books have had a very long time to get used to waiting. A very, very long time.

Unfortunaly yes...a VERY long time. I enjoy the show a lot though, the problem with the show is, it makes me want the new book(s) even more. Damn it, finish it allready

 

 

He's likely to die first.

 

The latest is he's trying to finish book 6 before the next TV season. So, if we're lucky we might see Winds of Winter next spring. Which puts the final book (if book seven even is the final book), at a conservative 2022 release. GRRM has obviously given up on finishing the books before the TV show beats him to it.

Edited April 14, 2015 by Valsuelm

[AGX-17]

Jorge Rafaeal Reynaldo Martinez (a.k.a. GRRM) is virtually certain to perish before finishing the books. He's beyond morbidly obese and miraculously survived into a seventieth decade of life. He's living on borrowed time. It's going to be the TV series' D. Boys who finish ASOIAF.

[ShadySands]

I'd say he looks pretty good for 700

[Luj1]

 for a 700 yo santas helper gnome you mean...

[LadyCrimson]

If he actually finishes all the books before passing, I might try reading them again (I read the 1st when it very first came out in paperback, and own the 2nd and 3rd but haven't read them, since I'd have to read the 1st all over again by now). But at this point I'm not going to try until I know there's actually an ending.

[HoonDing]

who cares if he finishes, the show is better anyway

[Valsuelm]

who cares if he finishes, the show is better anyway

 

Said no one who read and understood the books ever, save for some that might just watch the show for the T&A and couldn't care less about the plot.

[Blarghagh]

I gave up after three books, does that count? Remember that "Concerning Hobbits" part of the book where Tolkien describes the lineage and family trees of those different kinds of Hobbits? Game of Thrones is half what happens in the show, and half that. Not to mention the part where we're always reading about inconsequential characters more than any good characters. The show does that too, but much less. I can't believe fans got upset because the showrunners created that Ros characters combining the roles of several minor character, because in the books those characters have literally no reason to exist.

[Maedhros]

The books are grander, and is altogether just more a rewarding experience for me. Watching the tv-series is fun, but it can be frustrating how little time you get to spend with each character. It's definitely a dumbed down/simplified experience as opposed to the books where you really get to delve into each character's thoughts and experiences. Best example of how a character suffers from this is Loras Tyrell. In the tv-show he's pretty much just a "token gay character".

 

I don't mind learning more about the families and their members, and I like how even minor characters like Garlan Tyrell, Kevan Lannister etc all seem very fledged out with a distinct personality of their own. Then again, I'm one of those guys who loved to read about all the elven family trees in The Silmarillion, so I feel right at home when GRRM starts rambling about Tyrion's various uncles and their exploits. Makes the world seem more realistic/alive to me.

 

People got annoyed with Ros because she was an annoying character. No one minds when they make new scenes that are actually good. Such as King Robert and Cersei discussing their marriage in season 1 for example.

Edited April 15, 2015 by Thingolfin

[cirdanx]

 

 

The people who read the books have had a very long time to get used to waiting. A very, very long time.

Unfortunaly yes...a VERY long time. I enjoy the show a lot though, the problem with the show is, it makes me want the new book(s) even more. Damn it, finish it allready

 

 

He's likely to die first.

 

The latest is he's trying to finish book 6 before the next TV season. So, if we're lucky we might see Winds of Winter next spring. Which puts the final book (if book seven even is the final book), at a conservative 2022 release. GRRM has obviously given up on finishing the books before the TV show beats him to it.

 

 

Don´t say that! He isn´t allowed to die

 

I think he said he always knew the show would end before the books. I would be surprised if the show get´s more than 7 seasons. It´s very expensive and you also have the problems with the actors getting older etc. GoT changes enough to be it´s own thing, which isn´t bad. What i´m very curious about is, if the ending in the show (assuming it´s done before the last book) will be the same as in the book. (IF we ever see a last)

[CoM_Solaufein]

Never read the books, just started watching the series by buying the first and second seasons on Blu-ray. Very addictive television show.