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BitTorrent Entertainment Network: Where's the HD?
The BitTorrent Entertainment Network just launched, and while the press release touts content form an impressive number of content partners, it only notes 40 hours of HD programming currently available. A quick look at the BitTorrent page shows our friends mariposaHD and a few documentaries from Voom. Meanwhile Superman Returns, Beerfest and Crank are only available in standard definition formats. Many of these titles are already available in HDTV formats via the Xbox Live Video Marketplace or other -- less legitimate -- torrent sources. The technology would seem to lend itself to moving large HD-quality files around easily, despite the movies being limited to DRM-restricted rentals, but so far they seem to be missing the kind of content we're looking for.
Azureus pushes HD video sharing via BitTorrent
You're probably familiar with Azureus because of its popular BitTorrent client, now they're rolling that into a digital media platform called Zudeo. As Wired points out, like Youtube, Zudeo aims to let content providers publish and showcase material easily and freely. Unlike Youtube, Zudeo is built to support high definition video and long form content. According to the CEO, it has signed deals with 12 television film and media companies, with content, pricing and DRM details forthcoming in the next couple of weeks. The site is active today, and you can already find and download some of Engadget HD's favorite content like mariposaHD and Elephant's Dream. We tested it out and had no problems with download speed or playback of the VC-1 and h.264 encoded files, but we're not sure if they're ready to rival Youtube just yet. Since it requires additional software and doesn't just play in the browser, a lot of the convenience of other video sharing sites is lost, and as traffic increases Zudeo will need to rely on its own customers to continue to seed downloaded files. We'll see if Zudeo has what it takes as HDTV and IPTV grow closer together over the next year, and face rivals at Warner, MyTVPal, Xbox Live and others.[Via Wired & PVR Wire]
mariposaHD on YouTube
So you just don't know what to think about the first HDTV show distributed via the Internet. We can understand your hesitance in expending your bandwidth to download nearly a gig (1.5GB for the 1080p flavor) just to watch something you might not like. Well, mariposaHD is now on YouTube -- kind of. The producers put a promo clip on the site so people can easily see what they are all about. The only thing is that YouTube doesn't do HD and the show is based around beauty that works oh-so-well with high-def. Even still, it is worth peeping if you're still not on the mariposaHD bandwagon.
mariposaHD joins Instant Media
It seems appropriate that the internet's first HDTV show and the internet's first high-def network should pair up so they did. Our friends at mariposaHD have announced that you can download their shows in the iHD format via the I'M player, though they will also continue to be available via BitTorrent. Not to be confused with HD DVD's iHD, Instant Media's format is designed for viewing 720p content over the internet without requiring a high-powered machine. We considered reviewing Instant Media's HD platform when it launched a few months ago, but the high-def content was so limited and boring (think QVC + your local access channel in 720p and you've pretty much got it) we couldn't bring ourselves to watch, much less write about it at the time. Hopefully this is a sign of change for the better.
Warner distributing movies via BitTorrent
No mention of resolution, although they seem to compare only to DVD so high definition is probably out of the question, but digital distribution is getting a big boost this summer when Warner joins with BitTorrent to release day-and-date with their DVDs over the internet. The bad news is that the DRM will prevent any copying to DVD.We'll see how well this works out, as BitTorrent is still very much the Wild Wild West when it comes to content. A quick search for HD on the website brought up our good friends over at mariposaHD...and lot of HDRips. Good luck with that piracy prevention Warner.Disclaimer: Time Warner is the parent company of this blog and Warner Bros. Entertainment[Via Engadget]
New episode of mariposaHD
Since HD Beat doesn't have a video podcast yet, you'll have to find other sources for high definition content on your PC. As Ben mentioned, mariposaHD is definitely one such source. They're finally back with their second episode, featuring Karo, cactus, skiing and fashion week in 720p, 1080i, or iPod video formats for your viewing pleasure.Between this and the Akihabara videos we've got women and tech covered, anyone got a good 720p feed for automobiles?
How to: get tons of HD content playing on your PC
Now that we have mastered OTA HD reception and connecting our PC's to our HDTVs it's time to bring the two together. HDTV content can come from many sources and those choices get broader and broader everyday. In the future there are going to be more options, but I am going to cover the options that are currently available.
mariposaHD: The Internet's first high definition TV show?
I must applaud the gentlemen at mariposaHD. These innovators no, pioneers, nay, heroes are (I think) the first people to produce a show in high definition for distribution over the Internet. It must be a rough life videotaping young women frolicking in South America, and I for one salute them in their efforts to spread the joy of 1080i everywhere. If you support these young men in their endeavors please donate the two gigabytes of hard drive space necessary, download and seed the torrent. I recommend uTorrent (via DownloadSquad) as an excellent BitTorrent client.The videos are made available free of charge, as WMVHD files in either 1080i, 720p or iPod video format. Sounds perfect for streaming to the Xbox 360, if you have Windows Media Center of course. Where did I put my list of reasons to envy Kevin cuz I need to add one more. I suspect that this show will require much more in depth coverge and hours and hours of long research, but if the guys at mariposaHD can make it, then it is my purpose and duty to view it (many times).Read [Via digg]
