Wetlook World Forum

Message # 2573.2.1.2.1

Subject: Re: Re: Are they downloadable?

Date: Tue 04/03/03 09:04:57 GMT

Name: Kev

Email: kev.styx@ntlworld.com

Website:

By Kev - kev.styx@ntlworld.com Tue 04/03/03 09:01:10 GMT

Website: www.styxwetworld.com

All the MPEG's are what are known as "white book compatible" which means that they have been encoded so they can be downloaded and written to media such as DVD's and CD's. This enables you, for example, to write Video CD's which can then be read on most domestic DVD players and viewed on a TV.

Software such as Nero can burn a video cd using it's inbuilt settings.

A single CD should hold around 60-70 minutes of good quality movies, a DVD would hold over 4 hours.

2 caveats (must be honest)

1) The format is MPEG1- which gives a quality similar to VHS tape, so it's not as good as a DVD which is encoded in MPEG2 and is equivalent to Super VHS tape.

2) Being a British site, the video is encoded as PAL, that means NTSC users either have to convert the footage using some free software (I can tell you where to download it), alternatively I understand PAL/NTSC DVD players are available in North America for around $100.

If we had sufficient feed back from the North American (and Japanese) users we might well offer the movies as downloadable in NTSC format too, which would remove the need for further processing or buying additional machines.

In addition, you still have the option of burning the MPEG directly to a CD/DVD so you can view it on your desktop machine or laptop, so you can view it anywhere.

Finally, MPEG1 was chosen because it is pretty well cross platform compatible (can be played on virtually any computer), doesn't require unusual codecs, can be played on fairly low spec machines (mpeg2 and DIVX can be very "processor intensive" when converting to VGA format). Quite simply if you can play MP3's on your machine, it  should cope with MPEG1- it uses effectively the same compression methods.

By Anonymous - Tue 04/03/03 08:30:59 GMT

Website:

By Kev - kev.styx@ntlworld.com Tue 04/03/03 07:38:28 GMT

Website: www.styxwetworld.com

We should be just about approaching 6 hours of MPEGS's with this week' updates. This  amounts to over 20 or so complete movies (which is pretty substantial in only 4 months). The site averages around one complete movie per week.

The shortest movie is about 5 minutes, but on average they are between 15-25 minutes long. The longer ones get broken down into 5-8 minute clips, which can easily be re-combined into the full length movie.

The long term aim is deliver all movie content via the internet rather than by tape or DVD, which we see has having little future- refecting the changes that have been brought about with MP3's and the sale of audio CD's. The idea is that people can either join on a long term basis and see everything we produce, alternatively someone can join for a month (and once the archive has built up sufficiently) download 6 or 7 movies they particularly like (for example denim, or suits, etc) and effectively produce their own "custom feature" of what they enjoy most- at about half the cost of buying a tape. So people can put together something that really suits them, for example; all outdoor, all soaping and hairwashing, all suits, or it could be "model specific", etc.

The other advantage to this is that included within the price is the availabilty of stills pictures too- something you don't get when buying tapes.

By the end of the year, as the site develops more and more, there will be around 12 hours of video and maybe 60 different movies so there will be plenty of choice.

By The wettest - Tue 04/03/03 07:05:52 GMT

Website:

Thanks