Looking Forward to Future LLVJ Downloads

[samirkharusi]

I'm in favour of that too, and would immediatly change my subscription.

You have to remember alot of people nowadays watch via projection/50" plasma etc.
Greetings,
Frank
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I have just been checking out LLVJ 16 on a 70" rear-projector. As it happens, I can easily vary the "screen size". I'd say that at normal viewing distances the video download looks "OK" (not great, but OK) at a screen size up to, say, 25" wide. Beyond that the paucity of detail starts getting annoying, but no more annoying than most broadcast news channels, especially the NTSC broadcast channels. In our part of the world we watch NTSC and PAL interchangeably without giving it a thought. Sort of makes it obvious why N.Americans are gobbling up HD with gusto. PAL channels with 625 lines always seem to be so much nicer to watch on a large screen than NTSC and some of the PAL movie channels we get by satellite are competitive with DVD movies. But DVDs also show their paucity in resolution, compared to HD. Rather than DVD-clone downloads perhaps the next generation downloads should be straight HD. Presumably the chosen codec would support 780 or 1080 lines. Since LLVJ is already shot in HD, it might be more bandwidth-efficient to video-download 780 or 1080 HD, rather than a still unsatisfactory NTSC-DVD clone, for your projector. By the way, how do you feed your projector? Burn a DVD first? Or do you use it as a PC monitor? For HD you may have to burn a Blu-Ray or an HD-DVD. I just use a memory stick in a Playstation 3. I hope the PS3 will also work for an HD download. No disc burning involved.

[Frank Doorhof]

Our screen is 2.85mtrs in width, I still use a high-end CRT projector, fed with the signals by a Crystalio II videoscaler, all very high-end stuff and gives amazing pictures on the screen.

For HD and playback of TS and videofiles I use a network player MB200 from the makers of the Crystalio II.

The problem is that in my setup alot of artifacts are made better by the VXP chipset in the Crystalio II but when I watch over de MB200 alone the picture is really not something I would watch for 2.5 hours.

DVD quality is stunning, the videojournals especially the last 2 ones were very very good for normal produced material, I would hate too lose quality and as mentioned before I'm willing to pay 15,00 for a DVD download to cover the cost for bandwidth, we can download a DVD (4.3GB) in about 40 minutes over here (the Netherlands has a very good internet network with alot of people allready on 20mb lines and some even more).
I think a choice would be wonderful.

[boku]

My personal experience has been...

1) I opted for the download swap for my subscription.
2) I am running an Apple TV device into a 46" 1080i LCD HD TV.
3) I used Quicktime Pro to convert the three available segments to Apple TV format. This step took over 8 hours on a decent system.
4) The viewing experience is acceptable, but not quite as crisp as a LLVJ DVD feed from my cheap up-converting DVD player.
5) I really want HD, but see the quandary we are in. No way would I be willing to download and trans-code HD content. I would want Blu-ray or HDDVD, then of course I would need to buy a player.
6) I guess I'm OK with the current situation, but the trans-coding step was a lot of waiting, and the viewing quality is reduced. This last point matters in the field shoot segments. I can only imagine the California segment will be compromised as a result.
7) Regardless, it beats waiting for a 1+ month delivery via mail/customs.

[marcfs]

The more forum responses I read lead me to believe that the effort, cost to download, and lower quality of LLVJ do not equal the convenience of the "late" DVD.

I don't own or use Apple TV, nor do I anticipate doing so in the near term.  

To me, the concept of the video journal is to to go to the next level of entertainment/education.  In my definition the video journal should not require buying specialized equipment beyond what I currently own, or investing a great deal of effort/time.  (I continue to be a purchaser of new technology in selected areas.)

I look forward to continuing to receive DVD's, at least in the near term.  The cost/value equation of the downloaded LLVJ, for me, is out of sync.

Thanks for listening.

Marc Schoenholz

[BlasR]

the download doing just fine in my 30" apple cinema, it's much better download them wait so long for shipping.
I'm happy.


BlasR

[Gordon Buck]

AoA DVD Creator for Windows is as about as simple as it gets - just drag and drop content into the application and burn the DVD:

http://www.aoamedia.com/dvdcreator.htm

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I tested the trial version of AoA DVD Creator today on the LLVJ #16 .mp4 files.  It was very easy to use and worked great!  Took about 1-1/2 hours to convert and burn the DVD from my laptop.  The resulting DVD works fine in my TV and looks OK on screen.  Apparently the menus are no longer usable but the DVD controls will skip to the next track.  I immediately ordered the registered version of AoA DVD Creator.

So it appears that the time, cost and effort to get a TV based DVD LLVJ for PC users is something like 1/2 hour download time, $30 for software and 1-1/2 hours conversion time.  

I have mixed feelings about all this.  If this were an entirely new offer/service; I'd feel great about it and about "converting" the .mp4 files to a TV show.  If I were Michael, I'd do exactly the same thing with the old system.  It was great to get a high quality DVD in the mail and pop it into the DVD player.  I like the 2-for-1 conversion and have already converted my subscription to download.

I don't know if I'll continue to convert to DVD and TV format but I'll continue my LLVJ subscription.