Downloading of HD movies

I'm not sure if this was discussed before on other threads but thought of posting a new one since I can't find any in the archive.

I used to buy DVDs but have since resorted to downloading movies off the internet lately. I usually go to isohunt.com to download torrent files.

The size of torrent files ranges from 600MB to >5GB. For casual movie watching on a laptop, a movie file size of about 600MB to 1.3GB will usually suffice. When playing a movie through a bigger monitor, a larger file size would be necessary since picture quality would come up poor if blown up on a larger screen.

Usually what is the size of a full HD movie of approximately 2 hours duration? I guess more than 5GB? I have downloaded two movies "Fast Five" and "127 hours" and the size of both these movies are larger than 6GB, although I have not tried playing these movies on a big screen yet. The picture quality on these higher-resolution movies is certainly better.

Are there any other good sites for movie downloading apart from isohunt.com? Free or chargeable. Any advice appreciated.

Why don't you just buy the 'softcopies' of the movies you like ? They are going for very reasonable prices now. The original BR movies are all around 20-30GB, some even larger. It is really impractical to download the original full-rez version. I understand some sites delete most of the soundtracks leaving the main one in order to reduce the size. But the main movie itself is still huge, definitely much more than 15GB I think.

Even on a reasonable sized 42inch plasma, it is still possible to see the artifacts of the compressions necessary to keep the size to manageable portions for downloading. In fact, even those BD-ROM 25GB version which often had unnecessary elements removed, they are still often compressed in order to meet the 25GB limit. Most BR are really almost always over 25GB in size. I have given up downloading, or buying BD-ROMs - the dual-layer 50G ones are way too expensive and am now buying original BRs or the 'softcopies'. For those things I really like, I actually spend the extra to buy the original BRs nowadays.

Thanks for the response. I surmise there are 3 versions available, dual layer 50G, original BR and "softcopies". Not too sure what are dual layer 50G and "softcopies", and what are the differences between these 3. Will do some research.

Yes, agreed it is not too practical to download the original full version of BR movies(don't know how to go about it anyway). Even a torrent movie size of 6GB will take about 2-3 days to download. Nonetheless I heard about direct download but subscription to upload servers will be necessary.

Sorry for the mystery but this is a rather touchy topic as it is not considered legal. Basically there are five main sources for your HD movies. You have your downloaded versions which are almost always compressed, usually with only 1 soundtrack and 1 subtitle intact (usually we don't want the others anyway) and the feature removed. These are quite common nowadays and I know some places which gives you a package of such movies for every media player you buy. Then there are the traditional 'ahem' versions, i.e. copies of BR into BD-ROM discs, There are two versions of BD-ROM discs, single layer which are 25GB capacity and dual-layers which are 50GB. The issue is most modern BRs are over 25GB in size, some like Avatar over 40GB. So most modern movies won't fit into the single layer BR-ROMs. Usually what they do is, like the downloads, they first try to remove the not necessary things like the spacial features, and then the alternate soundtracks and the subtitles. Unfortunately in many movies, this still don't bring the size down to 25GB so they start compressing the movies itself. This compression, eventhough lesser than what is done with downloaded movies, is still visible as I found out from Harry Potter Half Blood Prince. I bought the original and my stupid Samsung player wouldn't play it so I bought the 25GB BD-ROM and was unsatisfied with the picture.

Lately dual layer BDROMs have started to appear. These have 50GB capacity and thus will be able to hold any BRs. They are pricey and not that popular yet.

The 'softcopies' are RIPS. Using a software, the entire BR is ripped into softcopy form (in a directory structure) and you then play them off a HDD, usually 1, 1.5 or even 2TB in size. These are available from some places now.

Eventhough they are pricey, for me I also invest to purchase original Blu-Rays of my favourite movies. Sometimes I just want the originals, somehow there is a satisfaction to owning the original, especially of a movie I especially like. Other times, they are not available in any other form. For e.g. recently I spent almost RM600 to buy the entire HD re-issue of Star Trek TOS TV episodes. Even if they come out as rips, I think I still would have spent the money. There is really no other way a ST-TOS Trekkie will have our TV series.

Transferring 50GB into some portable HDD does take numerous minutes.

Anyway, acquiring movies virtually FOC without legally paying is piracy...period!

Personally I always leave this question to the individual. The issue is if we are all going to be absolute angels, many of us won't have much movies to enjoy and the industry in Malaysia will still die anyway. And along with it, the AV/HT marketplace will die as well because no-one will be buying HD TVs or Marantz/Onkyo/Denon AV receivers, etc, and many people will be out of business/cannot make a living. Because for a fact, I know I will NOT buy original BRs of movies like 'Green Lantern', or 'Captain America', etc. But at least several people has bought the original to do the rips.

Even when I buy my originals, unfortunately the dealers here still won't get my business because they almost always don't stock what I want so I usually end up buying from overseas anyway.

Thanks for the information. Now I have a clearer idea of the situation.

WongKN wrote:
Even when I buy my originals, unfortunately the dealers here still won't get my business because they almost always don't stock what I want so I usually end up buying from overseas anyway.

Wong, Black Friday is approaching. This is the time to "sapu" all the BR with attractive price. Just prepare your cards! I picked up many titles last year. I grabbed LOTR @ USD7 a disc as collection. You must be quick if not your fav title may snap up in minutes. The price will keep changing and can go as low as $5!

This is the website where BR are sold and reviewed.


http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/


Good luck.

Wahlau, you are the man la Mikapoh. OK so I will get myself ready for the "big-grab" (of BRs I mean) !

Any shop in KL that provide copying of HD movie ? Meaning you bring your media (thumbdrive or hard disk) over to copy the movie ? HD World of Ipoh providing this service at RM10 per movie.