MNET way behind...

[feo]

Vensters..it was more of a rant than anything else at the lack of a single HD channel here in SA. I watch series both downloaded and on TV but Id cut the download part if I knew I could catch it on mnet in HD goodness, albeit a little late. And yeah I know the 350MB hd rips are not high def..

 

[Natas]

Mnet are lucky that more people don't have adsl. If the penetration was as high as ti was like in teh states.....by the time they aired something, half their subscribers would have already watched the stuff.

I download stuff because I refuse to wait. I woul dbe willing to wait a week for each episode, but I am not willing to wait months before a particular series starts.

Busy watching heroes at the momment....pretty fcukin awesome series. Once I am done with that, I will start on 24 season 6. Mnet has made no mention of either of these series'es'es...how long do they want us to wait.

I heard that one of the otehr hopeful TV licensees have purchased the rights to Heroes and that they are holding back the series until they get their license. This is an rumour but why else would nobody have cottoned onto teh series yet. I heard they plan to air it next year...after everybody has bought the DVD box set and video stores have it to rent!!?!?!

 

[chiskop]

There is another option.

I don't have Mnet/DSTV. When a series comes out that we want to watch we buy the series DVD. Then we can watch a series, at our own pace and convenience. Sure, we have to wait, even 'til after Mnet shows it but we're not racing anybody to watch it, and are not OCD so that doesn't matter to us.

I'm haven't done the sums, but I'd be surprised if downloading a series wasn't more expensive than buying the boxed set, and I get the set with all the extra's etc. I pay for what I watch, and not for all the other crap on Mnet that I'm not interested in.

<adopts flame-proof stance>
You can justify downloading however you want. As someone who has worked in the creative industries, I feel uncomfortable taking something without paying (for the product).

 

[antowan]

I doubt Heroes will be released on DVD in SA if it hasn't shown on TV yet. The rights business doesn't work like that AFAIK.

 

[Natas]

I doubt Heroes will be released on DVD in SA if it hasn't shown on TV yet. The rights business doesn't work like that AFAIK.

yeah usually the distribution companies are aware of this and don't allow for retail distribution until they have sold the right to air and it HAS actually aired.

However, many people will buy it on Ebay and also some videostores have copies of some movies to rent before the loca distribution of the series. I rent DVD's from that place in craighall park, cant remember the name, but a really good dvd rental place, anyways, they had the wire for rental before teh series aired here. When it started airing, they took it off the shelf..... they did that with somehting else too.

HOwever, there is also the slight possibility of parallel imports. The distribution company will never allow a series to go on sale before it has aired on TV. But if you buy the dvd's from someone else in the states and import them, then you can sell them. There are ways in which they can stop your from selling grey goods, ie as in the TDK case (assigning the copyright), but the chance of this is slim.

 

[Random717]

Prison break season 1 started in August in the US, I remember stumbling on episode 2 on the net.. Mnet only started showing it in the last week of January. The midseason break in the US lasted until March (16 weeks), which allowed Mnet to be around 4-5 episodes off towards the end of the series.
Season 2 is a different story, as there was only an 8 week break and Mnet hasn't even started advertising it yet.. so they're already on episode 16 in the US and, after the current one week break, they will air till episode 20 which appears to be the last episode.
I don't know if Mnet would have started showing it by then? (March 19th)

 

[telkomsuig]

There are valid reasons for some of the shows being delayed I think. In the US shows are aired shortly after it is produced. This results in some of the more popular shows having "holiday breaks" ie Prison Break and Lost. Don't think Sa viewers are accustomed to having series interupted.

 

[Rex Regis]

We are not that far behind and generally Mnet cannot air at the same time as the US there are some laws restricting that, trust me there are countries that are much further behind than we are like Germany, they basically get things after us almost, because of the dubbing. Generally I prefer to just order the dvd's of things that I like purely to cut out all the annoying add breaks, keep our dstv purely for the sport

 

[Telkomisaloser]

MNET's like a history channel... It shows stuff from decades ago

 

[bwana]

There are valid reasons for some of the shows being delayed I think. In the US shows are aired shortly after it is produced. This results in some of the more popular shows having "holiday breaks" ie Prison Break and Lost. Don't think Sa viewers are accustomed to having series interupted.

Shows in the states work on seasons - fall (September) being the big one. After the long summer hiatus of re-runs people are itching for the new stuff.

24 episodes will also only stretch so far and these poor hardworking actors need a break The holiday breaks are also for special holiday programming, especially sports.

 

[hj2k_x]

We are not that far behind and generally Mnet cannot air at the same time as the US there are some laws restricting that, trust me there are countries that are much further behind than we are like Germany, they basically get things after us almost, because of the dubbing. Generally I prefer to just order the dvd's of things that I like purely to cut out all the annoying add breaks, keep our dstv purely for the sport

This is the sad thing. R450 a month for the odd movie and the sports channels is excessive, but it is what people in SA have to put up with. Bring on the competition!

 

[Rex Regis]

This is the sad thing. R450 a month for the odd movie and the sports channels is excessive, but it is what people in SA have to put up with. Bring on the competition!

Yeah and DSTV knows this, I mean they other boquets they offer they make sure they give you all the crap channels and like 1 sports channel!

 

[DigitalSoldier]

afaik Australia is a bit more behind than Mnet wrt some shows like the O.C

And theres also great shows not even showing on Mnet like Psych.

 

[ipodmusicman]

Looking at lifestyles, us for one, during the week don't really go out. Yeah, we might go and see a movie once in a while or go to a friend for a visit, but most of the times, in the evenings, we sit in front of the TV while eating dinner and relaxing after the day's work.

For us waiting for a new season of a series to reach M-Net makes a bit more sense since we'd hate to sit in front of our TV and wondering what to watch if we've spent the last few months watching the series as they come out in the US.

The temptation to watch Prison Break, etc before it airs on M-Net is huge, but had to tell myself "what are you going to watch when it comes on M-Net?". I made an exception for Lost since I just cannot wait until it gets to M-Net in March. Although I hated having to wait 2-3 months for ep 7 in season 3 to come out, I would of been far off better seeing it on M-Net watching each ep week by week.

It depends on your viewing habits and if you are still staying at home, your parents watch other programs than what you do, so sitting in your bedroom watching your fave series makes so much more sense.

I don't think we'll ever get to see a series on M-Net or any other channel a week or two after it is aired in the US. Scheduling, broadcast rights, etc make that a hurdle and I would hate to see how South Africans will react when their favourite show goes on hiatus for a month until it resumes again. That is not the TV culture that we have grown up with at all.

 

[Ekhaatvensters]

350mb rips of prison break season 2 are around 624x352 pixels ripped form a progressive hd signal

the maximum pal resolution from a dvd is 720x576...that is for progressive...i doubt mnet would broadcast at that resolution

as tv is broadcast interlaced, you have to halve the horizontal resolution

so you get 720x288 at best possible quality, best case scenario, when watching live tv on mnet.

one last thing..the actual rips taken from usa broadcast tv are with ATSC high definition digital signals. so even if you rip the mnet signal on your pc it wouldnt compare to the downloaded rips, as the mnet signal would be from an analogue source and would thus contain enough noise to make it unwatchable on large tv's (by my standards), and even if you are watching it directly, you arent using dvi or hdmi to hook it up to your tv, so you still have an analogue path (which lessens the quality)

when it comes down to it, the 350mb download is a better quality than you get over the air (i record prison break series 2 on analogue tv tuner here in the UK and it doesnt compare to the hdtv rips)

The thing is I have Prison Break season 2 350mb HD rips on my computer, I also have the first season which is the same quality.

And it definitely isn't as good as watching them on MNet. The quality just isn't as good when you watch it full screen on even a 17" monitor.

I wasn't really talking about ripping the episodes from MNEt, just watching it live, I'm pretty sure it looks better than a 350mb rip.

 

[bwana]

The thing is I have Prison Break season 2 350mb HD rips on my computer, I also have the first season which is the same quality.

And it definitely isn't as good as watching them on MNet. The quality just isn't as good when you watch it full screen on even a 17" monitor.

I wasn't really talking about ripping the episodes from MNEt, just watching it live, I'm pretty sure it looks better than a 350mb rip.

You might want to check your codecs because the 350mb xvid rips look as good as the mnet broadcast on my end.

 

[Pitbull]

You might want to check your codecs because the 350mb xvid rips look as good as the mnet broadcast on my end.

I second that. Heroes is also Xvid. HD and it work prefectly.

Even Riped to DVD dics it's more than perfect. Might just be U.

 

[noxibox]

Most downloads are near DVD quality. Fortunately the people that make them are slowly starting to get it into their heads that there is no reason to stick to 350Mb any longer so the quality is getting better.

If a series comes my way, then I'll watch it, but I don't download due to lack of bandwidth. I wouldn't watch on TV anyway because I want to watch the episodes as close together as possible and without any advertising. I only start watching a series once I have all episodes of a season on hand.

Broadcast TV does not generally use all the lines available. There are probably only about 300, maybe 400, lines of picture in a TV broadcast signal. I forget the technical reasons why, and maybe this has been improved.

 

[Random717]

and there are HDTV rips out there, 700mb per episode..
can't find a copy now but the resolution is around 736 X 400

 

[springbokkie]

So not many wait for the episodes? Well I rather watch it on the pc. Then no one can spoil it for me.