The leaked episodes have destroyed internet episode discussion

MrWalsh

The individual episode threads are getting very little traffic and the one thread to cover all 4 leaked episodes had a bit of a natter then fell quiet.

Shame really. Personally I avoided all online discussion until Id watched all 4, at which point most people who had anything to say had already said it.

But if you watched all 4 you probably are not too interested in talking about something about the first one by the time youve watched them all so now the individual threads are not attracting much attention.

So the episode leak has had a negative effect imo.

(thats not even mentioning the long wait til the next one!)

Witcher

Go over to the Westeros.org, they only allow discussion on the episodes that have aired.

MrWalsh

Strider wrote: »

Go over to the Westeros.org, they only allow discussion on the episodes that have aired.

Thats not really what Im complaining about.

I dont mind only talking about them when they have aired, but the fact is, because we got 4 at once, no one is bothering to talk about them much.

Witcher

MrWalsh wrote: »

Thats not really what Im complaining about.

I dont mind only talking about them when they have aired, but the fact is, because we got 4 at once, no one is bothering to talk about them much.

There's plenty of discussion about the episodes over there, the fact they won't allow people to discuss the unreleased eisodes until they come out means people aren't spent out talking about them.

bopper

It's had a negative effect for online discussion but certainly not for the show considering the first episode has been the most watched ever. It wouldn't surprise me if the fifth episode breaks that record when it airs.

wp_rathead

I expect the threads for episode 5 here to be bananas

I do agree that this forum very quiet in comparison to seasons past

iamanengine

Hopefully it will pick up once we reach episode 4.

podgemonster

Its unfortunate for the online banter, and dramatic things that happened in Ep1 and Ep2 are overshadowed by the later episodes people watch.

But we are half through the leaked episode and the excitement will start again and I'll go back crawling into work on Monday morning after staying up til 3am to watch an episode.

PressRun

Probably also has something to do with the fact that the first few episodes haven't exactly been a thrill a minute. Good episodes and all, but I would imagine the real exciting, discussion-provoking stuff this season is still to come.

TimeToShine

I wouldn't be surprised if the leak was deliberate. The first 4 episodes compliment each other very nicely but as a standalone product are not great. This way, book readers can't complain about the show being too slow because they've been gifted more than they should have had and everyone else will probably watch them one by one, and as we know it's generally book readers who complain. Win/win for them really, plus the last 6 episodes will probably break even more records.

Thargor

How can anyone stand watching 4 episodes then having to wait a month for more?

MrWalsh

Thargor wrote: »

How can anyone stand watching 4 episodes then having to wait a month for more?

In fairness its better than reading the books and waiting 7 years for more

PressRun

Thargor wrote: »

How can anyone stand watching 4 episodes then having to wait a month for more?

We have waited a year for the new season. I don't think one more month is going to kill anyone.

death1234567

Thargor wrote: »

How can anyone stand watching 4 episodes then having to wait a month for more?

a more sensible question would be: How can anyone sit down and watch one episode and then wait a week for the next one when they know that the next 3 are out there on the interweb begging to be downloaded?

DeVore

It will be interesting to see the bump in the viewing figures for the 5th episode for sure... could actually be a good way to combat the traditional mid-season dip

Diabhal Beag

Can't see this not being very beneficial to the ratings for the 5th ep.

Sleepy

There'll be some bump in figures.

It'll also encourage re-watching of the first 4 prior to watching the fifth. Were this a show that featured heavy product placement I'd be suspicious!

johnnyskeleton

Sleepy wrote: »

There'll be some bump in figures.

It'll also encourage re-watching of the first 4 prior to watching the fifth. Were this a show that featured heavy product placement I'd be suspicious!

"Lord Comander, grave tidings from the north. The white walkers have set up a McDonalds drive through and are feasting on cheeseburgers fornknly €2".

"Ed, fetch me a Mercedes S-Class"

Mr Velo

death1234567 wrote: »

a more sensible question would be: How can anyone sit down and watch one episode and then wait a week for the next one when they know that the next 3 are out there on the interweb begging to be downloaded?

In crappy quality

MrWalsh

Mr Velo wrote: »

In crappy quality

Id love to see other peoples tv's. The quality of the downloaded episodes was far better than any of the streams I usually watch!

Mr Velo

MrWalsh wrote: »

Id love to see other peoples tv's. The quality of the downloaded episodes was far better than any of the streams I usually watch!

In fairness mate, the quality was very poor in comparison with a regular 720p stream/download. Out of interest - downloaded the first episode once it leaked, but couldn't bring myself to watch GOT like that.
No comparison.

MrWalsh

Mr Velo wrote: »

In fairness mate, the quality was very poor in comparison with a regular 720p stream/download. Out of interest - downloaded the first episode once it leaked, but couldn't bring myself to watch GOT like that.
No comparison.

Maybe you got a bad copy, it was clear as crystal on my telly.

Mr Velo

MrWalsh wrote: »

Maybe you got a bad copy, it was clear as crystal on my telly.

No - the leaked episodes were SD only - 480p or 420p - something like that.
Me being a HD snob - i just couldn't do it

MrWalsh

Mr Velo wrote: »

No - the leaked episodes were SD only - 480p or 420p - something like that.
Me being a HD snob - i just couldn't do it

Christ I must watch streams in negative value "p" (whatever that means!)

Vex Willems

MrWalsh wrote: »

Christ I must watch streams in negative value "p" (whatever that means!)

Your just not progressive enough MrWalsh!

MrWalsh

Vex Willems wrote: »

Your just not progressive enough MrWalsh!

Its probably just my eyesight isnt good enough to notice the difference.

DeVore

Depends on your telly. Old Non-HD tellys display at 578(?ish) ... think of the numbers as "dots of light per inch", its not quite accurate but it will give you an idea. More is better basically.

HD-Ready TV's tend to display at 720. Genuine HD tellys at 1080p and modern computer screens at 1920p So yes, a computer display is much much more defined than old tellys or even new tellys.

Another thing to consider is ... how is the signal getting to your display. If you are putting a big shiny HD tv on a standard signal what you will get is a very highly defined picture of how crap your signal is. (TV's work to get around this but it still basically happens). Hence the push by UPC etc to flog HD set top boxes. Your HD tv is crap without it. Ironically, since the human eye fills in blanks and smears dots into images, an old tv showing a standar signal will look BETTER than a HD tv showing the same signal...

All of this is going through copper and fibre and connections too, all of which lose signal quality. A computer doesn't have nearly so many connections and they are all tuned to not lose signal quality (1's and 0's being very important to computers!). So, a file played on a TV could look a million miles off the same file played on a computer screen. A bad file will look much worse on the computer as you will see every flaw and it will have to be stretched quite a bit too, a good file will look glorious on computer while on a TV it may not look any better than normal.


So there you are!

iamanengine

DeVore wrote: »

Depends on your telly. Old Non-HD tellys display at 578(?ish) ... think of the numbers as "dots of light per inch", its not quite accurate but it will give you an idea. More is better basically.

HD-Ready TV's tend to display at 720. Genuine HD tellys at 1080p and modern computer screens at 1920p So yes, a computer display is much much more defined than old tellys or even new tellys.

Another thing to consider is ... how is the signal getting to your display. If you are putting a big shiny HD tv on a standard signal what you will get is a very highly defined picture of how crap your signal is. (TV's work to get around this but it still basically happens). Hence the push by UPC etc to flog HD set top boxes. Your HD tv is crap without it. Ironically, since the human eye fills in blanks and smears dots into images, an old tv showing a standar signal will look BETTER than a HD tv showing the same signal...

All of this is going through copper and fibre and connections too, all of which lose signal quality. A computer doesn't have nearly so many connections and they are all tuned to not lose signal quality (1's and 0's being very important to computers!). So, a file played on a TV could look a million miles off the same file played on a computer screen. A bad file will look much worse on the computer as you will see every flaw and it will have to be stretched quite a bit too, a good file will look glorious on computer while on a TV it may not look any better than normal.


So there you are!

TIL. That's pretty cool.

MrWalsh

DeVore wrote: »

Ironically, since the human eye fills in blanks and smears dots into images, an old tv showing a standar signal will look BETTER than a HD tv showing the same signal...

That must be me so!

DeVore

Well, now they are programming the TV's to do the same smearing and some very clever up-scaling but still... if the information isn't there to be shown in the first place, its hard to create it out of thin air!

The worst is 360p (standard def) files scaled up to be shown on a 1920p screen (monitor). you can see all the artifacts (big blocky squares of colour) that normally are lost in the noise and smearing and low res, especially in anything black (shadows, night etc).

Wolverine359

...hmm, I think HD resolution discussion has destroyed internet episode discussion :pac:

FloatingVoter

We'll all be back come Sunday / Monday week. I might give episode 4 a rewatch on Monday to remind me where I'm at.

Sleepy

Myself and Mrs Sleepy are planning to re-watch all 4 leaked episodes again prior to episode 5. Going to go for HD versions this time

MrWalsh

Sleepy wrote: »

Myself and Mrs Sleepy are planning to re-watch all 4 leaked episodes again prior to episode 5. Going to go for HD versions this time

Ive already watched episode 1 twice and plan to watch the next 3 over the next couple of weekends also. I always miss bits when I watch first time around so I enjoy a rewatch.

DoYouEvenLift

This'll build excitement for the fifth episode onwards. I'm not even watching the show until all episodes are up but it is strange noticing how little excitement there is for this season so far. Every other year I couldn't go on most sites between Sunday and Tuesday to avoid spoilers.

Yakuza

I did get all 4 at once, but ditched them when I found out they were SD. Also, the missus and I watch them and she prefers the subtitles (English not her first language) so I wait until they appear and then watch it in glorious 720p (the difference between file size and image quality isn't worth it to go to 1080p, IMHO). If / when the series ends, I will buy the lot on BluRay in some collector's case and watch it from start to finish in whatever is the de rigeur resolution (4k probably?) at the time.

@Devore: Great explanation of the whole SD / HD on old/new tellys.

golfball37

Ser barristan is a guest on Thronecast next week, very apt for those who have seen episode 4 although I'm sure he'll not be able to confirm the knights health on the show.

iamanengine

Spoilers :O