24 S06E13 720p HDTV X264-DIMENSION

why is the size of this file bigger than most of the other single episodes of
24? is this better quality or an extended edition?

this is a high-quality rip of an hd broadcast. 720 progressive is higher than
dvd quality, if that gives you some idea- dvd is only 480p at the most. it's
still compressed to xvid or something, but i imagine it looks pretty amazing.

can vlc player open mkv files? i've never heard of mkv files. or do i need
another video playing program.

yes it will - vlc plays next to anything. while they look pretty damn good,
these 720p encodes for the most part(i haven't watched this particular one
yet..) could look better. it is pretty hard not to notice the extreme
"macroblocking" in some places. it isn't the x264 codec's fault tho, i
believe that the release groups aren't cranking the codec settings high enough
or using 3 passes to encode the video. x264 is pretty damn slow @ encoding @
some of those crazier settings, *sigh*. damn oneupmanship and ppl trying to
beat every1 else to the punch to get a release out :/ still leagues better
than the 350 or 700 mb xvid rips tho =d

i must say that i agree with wickerman. i'm the darder scenes, and there are
quite a few, there is massive macroblocking. though i do think that 3 passes
would be unfeasable due to the strong incentive to up the release before any
other group. if they cranked up the settings and did 3 (or even 4) passes, it
would be upped some hours later than it is now.

if you want perfect quality, then wait for the blu-ray or hd-dvds to be released.

the release groups rock!

just want to add that 24 is one of the lowest picture quality things fox puts
out. they always use a natural light and pump up the grain.

also: if you are watching this on a regular television set, you probably won't
be able to tell any difference between this and the 700mb version.

i am not one to slam of what others do for free and i am quite happy with the
great quality on my 40" lcd tv. rock on!!

oh. definitely. i compared one of these to my actual 720p recordings that's
~5gb and i did screenshots. my own .ts recording is better, and even though
it's through comcast qam meaning comcast compresses it, minimal encoding on my
end makes it turn out pretty damn good. that said, these 720p recordings
aren't bad at all, and at least these can fit on a dvd. fox here uses ~15mbps
streams so it's just a tad too large for a dvd.

sorry for the noob question, but what are you guys doing to play these files on
your tv? would simply connecting the computer and tv together via dvi/s-video
cable work fine?

yeah, i just use a vga cable and connect to my digital tv. some tvs only have
dvi now, which i would use except i have a laptop.

obviously, dvi or vga is recommended but s-video would look ok (if one doesn't
have a digital tv), just use vlc and full screen it (make sure you set your
output resolution to the native resolution of your tv for best results if you're
using a digital tv)