list your favourite HD release group

could you guys rank the quality of the HD movies released by the different groups. occasionally movies are released by multiple groups and it'd be nice to know which to go for. i've heard good things about ESiR but i'd like to hear your opinions about the rest of them.

downloading both and testing isn't a good option for me because currently my PC's only hooked up to a 19" screen. somewhere along this year i'm getting myself a 50" TV so i'm buffing up my HD storage for now.

some of the release groups:
hV - scene
CtrlHD - non-scene
ESiR - non-scene
ill - non-scene
hV - scene
SEPTiC - scene
CDDHD - scene
REVEiLLE - scene
SZ - ?????
chakra - ?????
sinners - ?????
NiX - ?????
PRiDE - ?????

thanks guys.

-NoGRP is the best HD releaser ;)

Most people agree that in the HD scene, your best bet is to use HDBits and download the often superior non-scene releases.

ctrlhd and esir. no others.

I like Saints....

well i would use HDBits if i could actually could get in but i've been unsuccessful for weeks. (subtle hint)

right now i just use hd-bits.ro & scenehd while i continue my quest in vain

anyway, keep it coming guys =)

CTU for TV, ESiR for movies.

only NsC !

NsC? i haven't come across that very often.

also, if you've got problems with any of the specific release group feel free to share as well.

CTU and ESiR

Look for non-scene releases, particularly CtrlHD, Esir and iLL. Their encodes are generally better compared to scene encodes. (But there are exceptions.) The reason is that scene groups race who would release first, thus compromising picture quality. A good rip would take hours to complete.

Among the scene groups, the decent ones (based on my experience) are those of hV and Reveille. CDDHD's rips are the worst, imo, followed by Septic. Try to avoid those ,if you can. :)

P.S. I'm just expressing my opinion. So no offense to the scene groups I've mentioned. Take it as a challenge to do better. Good luck!

CtrlHD and ESiR are the best. I always wait for ESiR's releases, don't bother to download other groups' releases especially being fan of DTS format. ;)

hv 4 me.

I prefer both CtrlHD and ESiR releases over scene groups, like GoldStoNe said, they releases are encoded better.

Quality over speed ;)

yeah definitely quality over speed for me. looks like ctlhd and esir tops everyone else. anyone able to point out which are the nonscene groups from the list in OP and which are scene? i'll stay away from the scene releases

release groups:
1) ESiR - non-scene
2) CtrlHD - non-scene
3) ill - non-scene
4) hV - scene
5) SEPTiC - scene
6) REVEiLLE - scene
7) CDDHD - scene
8) SZ - ?????
9) chakra - ?????
10) sinners - ?????
11) NiX - ?????
12) PRiDE - ?????

release groups:
1) ESiR - non-scene
2) CtrlHD - non-scene
3) ill - non-scene
4) hV - scene
5) SEPTiC - scene
6) REVEiLLE - scene
7) CDDHD - scene
8) SZ - non-scene
9) chakra - ????? <---- Don't know about this group. Probably misspelled. If chara - scene
10) sinners - scene
11) NiX - non-scene
12) PRiDE - non-scene

Here's a helpful list (From Scenehd.org):
Scene-groups
1920
2HD
4HM
aAF
AaS
BAJSKORV
BamHD
BiA
BlueTV
CDD
CDDHD
Chara
CTU
CuMBuCKeTS
DAW
DEFiNiTE
DEFiNiTiON
DHD
DIMENSION
GOTHiC
HALCYON
HDi
HDQ
hV
iaK
IGUANA
ImNaKeD
KYR
MEDiEVAL
MiND
MiNT
MiRAGETV
MOMENTUM
MsR
mV4U
mVmHD
NBS
NOVO
NSUBS
PaYxXx
PiX
PoRNDoCtOR
PORNOHOLiCS
PoTuS
PPQ
PROGRESS
PROPHETS
REFiNED
REVEiLLE
SEPTiC
SexSh0p
SFM
SiNNERS
SiTV
SYS
TERRA
TX
WANKAZ
VCDVaULT
WiDE
WiRE
WPi
XXX4U
YOUFORGOTTOREPACKTHIS

P2P-groups
AE
AW
Crow (Crowley)
CSHD
CtrlHD (DM)
DiR
disc
ESiR
fLAMEhd
FPG
Ft4U
Funner
GMoRK
GoLDSToNE
H2
HDL
iLL
JAVLiU
k2
MMI
NiX
NWO
OAS
ONYX
Prime
QDP
QXE
rabomil
Redµx
S26
SAiVERT
SLO
THOR
Thora
TM
V
VanRay
ViNYL
XSHD (IMF)
YanY
Zim'D

Hope this helps. :)

Spetic
are great!!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by benchez

hv 4 me.

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me 2 :naughty::naughty:

Chakra is a scene group, I grabbed some of their releases.

wow goldstone. nice list, but i've never seen 80% of those. i guess i'm just interested in the more popular ones that're good.and er... i'm not interested in porn groups either, which makes up a substantial portion of your list =s

these are the groups i'm familiar with:
1) ESiR - non-scene
2) CtrlHD - non-scene
3) ill - non-scene
4) NiX - non-scene
5) THOR - nonscene
6) hV - scene
7) CDDHD - scene
8) SZ - ?????
9) chakra - scene
10) sinners - scene
11) SEPTiC - scene
12) PRiDE - ?????
13) REFiNED - scene
14) PROGRESS - scene
15) REVEiLLE - scene

Quote:

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Originally Posted by GoldStoNe

Look for non-scene releases, particularly CtrlHD, Esir and iLL. Their encodes are generally better compared to scene encodes. (But there are exceptions.) The reason is that scene groups race who would release first, thus compromising picture quality. A good rip would take hours to complete.

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Word, especially CtrlHD is releasing at a crazy pace for the moment (5-10 releases per day). But I'd mention Goldstone as well, because if you are the one who did the Smallville hddvd seasons, I love you for it :D

To be honest, there are quite a few single people or smaller and less popular groups over at HDBits who get the idea of quality rips and follow up with amazing results. Names? How about MMI, H2, HDL, NWO and more. Lets not forget ALANiS who are non-scene as far as I know but do the most amazing 720p rips.

While there are only very few non-scene groups known well enough (most of which release exclusively at HDBits), the concept of a highdef community works because a whole group of people is working together to maintain it and offer new stuff.

My vote goes to CtrlHD.

HDBits has some good internal encoders, thats what makes the site the best for HD content.

Daniel,
OMG I just realized it now. My nick is the same as "GoLDSToNE", one of the HD release group! Sorry to disappoint, but I'm not part of the group nor will I profess to be. I'm not worthy. Hail to the HD masters. :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Daniel

Word, especially CtrlHD is releasing at a crazy pace for the moment (5-10 releases per day). But I'd mention Goldstone as well, because if you are the one who did the Smallville hddvd seasons, I love you for it :D

To be honest, there are quite a few single people or smaller and less popular groups over at HDBits who get the idea of quality rips and follow up with amazing results. Names? How about MMI, H2, HDL, NWO and more. Lets not forget ALANiS who are non-scene as far as I know but do the most amazing 720p rips.

While there are only very few non-scene groups known well enough (most of which release exclusively at HDBits), the concept of a highdef community works because a whole group of people is working together to maintain it and offer new stuff.

---

so according to you, is CtrlHD releases of good quality? keep all my HD movies so i'm looking for the best quality available really. i'm not signed up at hdbits now, though i'd like to be, and it's a pity that these great release groups you've mentioned release there exclusively.

ps. i'm taking note of all the groups you've mentioned =] when i do eventually get on there i'll be grabbing all of it. thanks for the information!

athenaesword, non-scene groups/releasers are generally quality-conscious because they have other goals (or limitations) than scene groups.

The 720p scene rules state that standard length tv episodes (37-59 minutes) should be 1100mb in size and that doesn't cut it most of the time (the possible video bitrates of scene releases are as low as 3200kbps). Non-scene releases are typically 1500mb or 2200mb (1/3 or 1/2 dvd size) which allows ~4000kbps or ~ 6500kbps and a visible improvement in most cases.

Much of the same is true for movies because most scene released movies are made to fit on a single dvd (~4.4gb) as this is encouraged by the current scene release standards (dvd9 should be used only in cases of long movies, or high action movies). Another rule to favor the non-scene alternatives is the lack of quality control of scene releases because qualitative issues are no valid reason for a proper. What this means? Some group can hurry the process along and make a bad release of a movie and as long as there are no technical issues, this bad release is most likely the only scene release you'll ever get to see. Non-scene movies are usually a bit larger (by 1/3rd in most cases) but like with tv episodes it ensures a standard of quality that is higher than the casual viewer will ever want for.

To answer your question: yes I believe CtrlHD and ESiR are the two most competent p2p release groups and I've only had to re-download one movie in all my time at HDBits. I'm talking about the latest Bourne movie where CtrlHD (or was it ESiR?) fucked up the non-English/Russian subtitles which should have been hard-coded or included at least.

ammendmend #1: you don't need an account at HDBits necessarily. Try hd-bits.ro and search for those groups, I know of at least a couple of CtrlHD and ESiR movies over there and some of them are free leech. If you have some Usenet access try the same search too, you'll wonder how much stuff is available there ;) The latest I just downloaded is the complete bluray rip of the 3rd Lost season in 720p (~53GB in 23 episodes, minus par files).

ammendmend #2: GoldStoNe, I obviously didn't read your username careful enough or I might have noticed the difference myself ;) You're right about the hail to all hd-masters though, most of my current traffic is for highdef content!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Daniel

athenaesword, non-scene groups/releasers are generally quality-conscious because they have other goals (or limitations) than scene groups.

The 720p scene rules state that standard length tv episodes (37-59 minutes) should be 1100mb in size and that doesn't cut it most of the time (the possible video bitrates of scene releases are as low as 3200kbps). Non-scene releases are typically 1500mb or 2200mb (1/3 or 1/2 dvd size) which allows ~4000kbps or ~ 6500kbps and a visible improvement in most cases.

Much of the same is true for movies because most scene released movies are made to fit on a single dvd (~4.4gb) as this is encouraged by the current scene release standards (dvd9 should be used only in cases of long movies, or high action movies). Another rule to favor the non-scene alternatives is the lack of quality control of scene releases because qualitative issues are no valid reason for a proper. What this means? Some group can hurry the process along and make a bad release of a movie and as long as there are no technical issues, this bad release is most likely the only scene release you'll ever get to see. Non-scene movies are usually a bit larger (by 1/3rd in most cases) but like with tv episodes it ensures a standard of quality that is higher than the casual viewer will ever want for.

To answer your question: yes I believe CtrlHD and ESiR are the two most competent p2p release groups and I've only had to re-download one movie in all my time at HDBits. I'm talking about the latest Bourne movie where CtrlHD (or was it ESiR?) fucked up the non-English/Russian subtitles which should have been hard-coded or included at least.

ammendmend #1: you don't need an account at HDBits necessarily. Try hd-bits.ro and search for those groups, I know of at least a couple of CtrlHD and ESiR movies over there and some of them are free leech. If you have some Usenet access try the same search too, you'll wonder how much stuff is available there ;) The latest I just downloaded is the complete bluray rip of the 3rd Lost season in 720p (~53GB in 23 episodes, minus par files).

ammendmend #2: GoldStoNe, I obviously didn't read your username careful enough or I might have noticed the difference myself ;) You're right about the hail to all hd-masters though, most of my current traffic is for highdef content!

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thanks for the informative writeup mate ^^ i'm currently using hd-bits.ro and scenehd as my main sources of HD content for now, and i'm beating myself up for not discovering HD earlier. i have literally hundreds of dvdrips and am now starting the painful process of redownloading bit by bit.

may i ask what does proper mean? sorry if it's a noob question ;)

from what you say, these better rips from nonscene groups are accompanied by a significant increase in size, which is of course understandable and not that much of a problem for me, but is size a good gauge of the quality of the rip? it's certainly not indicative for dvds but i'm still relatively new with HD.

also, if you burn these HD movies onto DVD as data DVDs, you would need a HDDVD or bluray player to play it right? (also another seemingly redundant question but i recently burnt a HD movie onto dvd and it played on my dvd player except the quality was pretty bad)

and here's thanks to all who've contributed to the thread =]

I seem to want SEPTIC releases the most. :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dunson

I seem to want SEPTIC releases the most. :D

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really? someone said they're really poor

Quote:

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Originally Posted by athenaesword

may i ask what does proper mean? sorry if it's a noob question ;)

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Proper is a term from the scene and it means that someone released a better/working version of it. It can mean that the previous release had for example an invalid serial number or a crack that wasn't working or it means an error was made in the process of encoding music, movies or tv.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by athenaesword

from what you say, these better rips from nonscene groups are accompanied by a significant increase in size, which is of course understandable and not that much of a problem for me, but is size a good gauge of the quality of the rip? it's certainly not indicative for dvds but i'm still relatively new with HD.

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Size is no good indicator on its own but it's an important part in the calculation. What's basically important is the bandwidth available for the video and with fixed size limits, the scene releases have to take some hits here. Some animated movies can produce amazing results with relatively small sizes of 2-3GB in 720p so there are always exceptions. My personal "rule" is that 720p content below 4000kbps is not enough to satisfy me and I've seen plenty of CTU/NBS tv-rips to confirm that.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by athenaesword

also, if you burn these HD movies onto DVD as data DVDs, you would need a HDDVD or bluray player to play it right? (also another seemingly redundant question but i recently burnt a HD movie onto dvd and it played on my dvd player except the quality was pretty bad)

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It's not that easy, unfortunately. There aren't really any hardware players to support mkv files on a dvd, so you will need to find other methods of watching this stuff on your tv. When you burned the hd movie on a dvd, you most likely did a downconvert to the respective pal/ntsc resolution and reencoded the movie in the proper mpeg stream. That's a sure way of wasting quality.
There are quite a few ways out there to properly watch highdef content on your hdtv and none of that include burning on any medium (yet) and using a hardware solution for playback. Okay, that's not quite true, because there are ways to do this, take the xbox or playstation 3 for example, generally streaming is the best way to go for the moment. Other hardware players capable of mkv-hd-content are slowly starting out (see the Popcornhour Networked Media Tank for an example) but they are not perfect yet.

edit: about SEPTiC .. they have a horrible reputation among hd enthusiasts and if you compare some screens between theirs and non-scene rips you'll see the difference. Any hd movie will be better to watch than the dvd-rip in comparison but why settle for a 'cheap scene rip' if there are better alternatives out there? I don't see any reason to bitch about scene groups because they also deserve their respect for what they do - but truly, the only reason to download a scene-hd-rip is to watch it a couple of days earlier, before CtrlHD/ESiR or someone else does an encode. Because of my Usenet access I am downloading scene releases and they're fine to watch most of the time, whenever I want to 'archive' a movie though I try for a better alternative.

SEPTIC releases are the best in my opinion!!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by athenaesword

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dunson

I seem to want SEPTIC releases the most. :D

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really? someone said they're really poor

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The quality is damned good imo, but I'm not an expert. When I find an HD movie that I want, 75% of the time it was released by SEPTIC. So they're doing a good job I think.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Daniel

Proper is a term from the scene and it means that someone released a better/working version of it. It can mean that the previous release had for example an invalid serial number or a crack that wasn't working or it means an error was made in the process of encoding music, movies or tv.

Size is no good indicator on its own but it's an important part in the calculation. What's basically important is the bandwidth available for the video and with fixed size limits, the scene releases have to take some hits here. Some animated movies can produce amazing results with relatively small sizes of 2-3GB in 720p so there are always exceptions. My personal "rule" is that 720p content below 4000kbps is not enough to satisfy me and I've seen plenty of CTU/NBS tv-rips to confirm that.

It's not that easy, unfortunately. There aren't really any hardware players to support mkv files on a dvd, so you will need to find other methods of watching this stuff on your tv. When you burned the hd movie on a dvd, you most likely did a downconvert to the respective pal/ntsc resolution and reencoded the movie in the proper mpeg stream. That's a sure way of wasting quality.
There are quite a few ways out there to properly watch highdef content on your hdtv and none of that include burning on any medium (yet) and using a hardware solution for playback. Okay, that's not quite true, because there are ways to do this, take the xbox or playstation 3 for example, generally streaming is the best way to go for the moment. Other hardware players capable of mkv-hd-content are slowly starting out (see the Popcornhour Networked Media Tank for an example) but they are not perfect yet.

edit: about SEPTiC .. they have a horrible reputation among hd enthusiasts and if you compare some screens between theirs and non-scene rips you'll see the difference. Any hd movie will be better to watch than the dvd-rip in comparison but why settle for a 'cheap scene rip' if there are better alternatives out there? I don't see any reason to bitch about scene groups because they also deserve their respect for what they do - but truly, the only reason to download a scene-hd-rip is to watch it a couple of days earlier, before CtrlHD/ESiR or someone else does an encode. Because of my Usenet access I am downloading scene releases and they're fine to watch most of the time, whenever I want to 'archive' a movie though I try for a better alternative.

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other than ESiR and CtrlHD what other non scene groups are worth taking a look at. a previous poster mentioned iLL. if ESiR and ctrlhd ripped every HD and bluray movie there is to rip i'd be more than happy to download everything from them but unfortunately some of the movies aren't released by them.

i'm cool with waiting for non scene rips, so my downloads will be prioritised in that direction from now on. i'm not even a 0day kinda guy, and most of it is for archiving purposes anyway, since i've watched majority of these movies on dvdrips already.

would you consider hdtv rips worthy of downloading? i've heard people say that they're vastly inferior to true hddvd or bluray rips, but they're usually the same size, so are they truly so poor? one thing i don't like about them is the aspect ratio, but i'm inquiring about the image quality.

and i get what you said about the dvds. guess i'll stick to watching stuff on my computer till technology catches up or becomes affordable.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by athenaesword

other than ESiR and CtrlHD what other non scene groups are worth taking a look at. a previous poster mentioned iLL. if ESiR and ctrlhd ripped every HD and bluray movie there is to rip i'd be more than happy to download everything from them but unfortunately some of the movies aren't released by them.

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My suggestion, don't limit yourself to a few groups because you will miss out on some good things but both ESiR and CtrlHD are a good place to start. If we're talking about HDBits, you should see the screenshots for yourself (sometimes you get direct comparisons to the scene-release) or read the existing comments. Just because you don't know the person or group who released something doesn't mean it's bad quality.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by athenaesword

would you consider hdtv rips worthy of downloading? i've heard people say that they're vastly inferior to true hddvd or bluray rips, but they're usually the same size, so are they truly so poor? one thing i don't like about them is the aspect ratio, but i'm inquiring about the image quality.

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There are almost 700 torrents on HDBits that fit the search "hdtv 720p" for example and some of them are worth checking out because there's literally no other alternative available. One of the most important examples: The Lord of The Rings trilogy in HD. Here is a link to a screencap of the 1080p encode of The Two Towers. While HDTV rips are generally not up to par with BluRay/HDDVD rips, any highdef encode is worth downloading if there is no other alternative to choose. hdlover (HDL) is someone I can reccomend, he's probably using the German pay-tv channel PremiereHD to create his hdtv-rips and uses the English audio track from a DVD to complete his rip.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by athenaesword

and i get what you said about the dvds. guess i'll stick to watching stuff on my computer till technology catches up or becomes affordable.

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I didn't say that watching hd movies on your hdtv is impossible because it isn't, but the way you went about it negated all advantages of those hd movies. The most important thing is the video codec - dvd's simply aren't efficient enough with their old mpeg codec anymore. The best way is to build a HTPC box to stream the video content, because it offers you the most freedom and because of it's system based either on Linux or Windows it offers you compatibility like no other solution. On top of that it allows you to store data in a reasonably cheap way on conventional hard drives.

I really need that LOTR in HD. :drools:

CTU, CtrlHD, & ESiR

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Daniel

My suggestion, don't limit yourself to a few groups because you will miss out on some good things but both ESiR and CtrlHD are a good place to start. If we're talking about HDBits, you should see the screenshots for yourself (sometimes you get direct comparisons to the scene-release) or read the existing comments. Just because you don't know the person or group who released something doesn't mean it's bad quality.

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that's great advice. only thing is the sources that i'm getting from now the comments are usually just thanksx50 and there aren't any screenshots to talk about. but i will keep them in mind for later =)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Daniel

There are almost 700 torrents on HDBits that fit the search "hdtv 720p" for example and some of them are worth checking out because there's literally no other alternative available. One of the most important examples: The Lord of The Rings trilogy in HD. Here is a link to a screencap of the 1080p encode of The Two Towers. While HDTV rips are generally not up to par with BluRay/HDDVD rips, any highdef encode is worth downloading if there is no other alternative to choose. hdlover (HDL) is someone I can reccomend, he's probably using the German pay-tv channel PremiereHD to create his hdtv-rips and uses the English audio track from a DVD to complete his rip.

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so issit safe to say that the best hdtv rips would be subpar or at most equivalent to hddvd/bluray rips of the same size?

one of the things that've been bugging me recently is the difference between 720p and 1080p. someone mentioned to me before that a good 720p encode is better than a poor 1080p encode. is that true? i mean would a 6gb 720p encode be possibly better than an 8gb 1080p encode? since we're talking about quality anyway, do you prefer to download 720p for the size or 1080p?

edit: btw regarding that lotr encode i heard it's not the extended version. i'm not so keen on it yet since i recently downloaded the 88gb dvd extended lol.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Daniel

I didn't say that watching hd movies on your hdtv is impossible because it isn't, but the way you went about it negated all advantages of those hd movies. The most important thing is the video codec - dvd's simply aren't efficient enough with their old mpeg codec anymore. The best way is to build a HTPC box to stream the video content, because it offers you the most freedom and because of it's system based either on Linux or Windows it offers you compatibility like no other solution. On top of that it allows you to store data in a reasonably cheap way on conventional hard drives.

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i'll try to find out more information on that by reading up elsewhere first cus i dont' wanna bore you with explaining that whole system from scratch. but i'd like to know though, how much would it cost to set up one? let's say i'm using a 500gb conventional harddisk.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by athenaesword

so issit safe to say that the best hdtv rips would be subpar or at most equivalent to hddvd/bluray rips of the same size?

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It is safe to say that hddvd/bluray are the best possible source and while a good hdtv source (which is by no means to be expected) can come close, the level of detail is just not there. This is partly due to the simple fact that most tv stations are limited to smaller bandwidths than would be adviseable.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by athenaesword

one of the things that've been bugging me recently is the difference between 720p and 1080p. someone mentioned to me before that a good 720p encode is better than a poor 1080p encode. is that true? i mean would a 6gb 720p encode be possibly better than an 8gb 1080p encode? since we're talking about quality anyway, do you prefer to download 720p for the size or 1080p?

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It highly depends on your equipment, is your tv only hd-ready or fully capable for hd? Full HD means 1920x1080 and while I'm not trying to start a philosophical discussion here, this resolution is only worth it with the proper tv appliance. Those "small" 37" full HD products may be nice but the true advantage of the higher quality and resolution can only be shown with larger screens, from 47" upwards in my opinion. Those aren't cheap however and you'll have to think about parting with $2000 for one of those.

To make a long explanation short: if you don't have the proper hardware to support this resolution, then you won't NEED the 1080 rips. I know a couple of friends who own some smaller screens and they have no complaints about a little bit of upconverting.

The issue between 720p and 1080 is about the promise for the future. The trend is clearly leading to full HD screens but those are still too expensive for the average consumer - and the BluRay/HDDVD war doesn't help to invest in new technology either. While 1080 rips are larger in size (up to 2-3x larger than their 720p equivalent) and will demand more CPU time to decode, they come with a guarantee for the future whenever that may be ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by athenaesword

edit: btw regarding that lotr encode i heard it's not the extended version. i'm not so keen on it yet since i recently downloaded the 88gb dvd extended lol.

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88gb? :O The Two Towers Extended Edt aired in HDTV, the other two are only available with upconverted parts cut in. That is obviously less than perfect but I still prefer 3/4 of a movie to be hd than not at all! For anyone who wants the extended editions in a reasonable size, I'd suggest the XTSF release (Lord.Of.The.Rings.Trilogy.Extended.Edition.DVDRip.x264-XTSF) who have done a nice x264 dvdrip in 13gb for all 3 movies - those are also way better than any xvid dvdrip I've ever seen.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by athenaesword

i'll try to find out more information on that by reading up elsewhere first cus i dont' wanna bore you with explaining that whole system from scratch. but i'd like to know though, how much would it cost to set up one? let's say i'm using a 500gb conventional harddisk.

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A HTPC is technically like any other personal computer but (ideally) with some optimizations in noise reduction and with a couple of limitations. That means you won't get one of those for a bargain prize and it'll likely cost you several hundred Euros/dollars. The by far better bargain are external tools like the Media Tank I linked to earlier. I prefer (and recommend) a HTPC because it's been working amazingly well for me, my whole music collection is controlled through my media station, I have a digital tv receiver, I can record tv programs on it, I can watch everything from DVD to BluRay with it and I store content on harddrives that can be exchanged in a matter of 20 seconds. So you see that there are some real strengths to this solution but if you do not or cannot use them, a HTPC will likely be an over-expensive gadget to you.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Daniel

It highly depends on your equipment, is your tv only hd-ready or fully capable for hd? Full HD means 1920x1080 and while I'm not trying to start a philosophical discussion here, this resolution is only worth it with the proper tv appliance. Those "small" 37" full HD products may be nice but the true advantage of the higher quality and resolution can only be shown with larger screens, from 47" upwards in my opinion. Those aren't cheap however and you'll have to think about parting with $2000 for one of those.

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i have a 50" plasma tv downstairs. i'm not sure if it's full HD or HD ready i only know my dad bought it early last year or late 06 =s what's the difference?
i'm relatively content with collecting the HD movies for now, and downloading/building ratio with them is alot more tedious a process compared to buying the other equipment i need if i want to watch them on the tv in the future.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Daniel

88gb? :O The Two Towers Extended Edt aired in HDTV, the other two are only available with upconverted parts cut in. That is obviously less than perfect but I still prefer 3/4 of a movie to be hd than not at all! For anyone who wants the extended editions in a reasonable size, I'd suggest the XTSF release (Lord.Of.The.Rings.Trilogy.Extended.Edition.DVDRip.x264-XTSF) who have done a nice x264 dvdrip in 13gb for all 3 movies - those are also way better than any xvid dvdrip I've ever seen.

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yeah 88gb lol i'm an lotr fiend. it's the full dvd rips of the extended versions. which is basically 2dvd/movie + 2dvd worth of extras/movie. so that's like 12 uncompressed dvd rips. got it off demonoid before it died. i'm okay with waiting for the actual extended hddvds/blurays for this come out before i jump on it.

anyway, a huge thanks to you for explaining all these things, and in such a clear manner at that ;) i'll be sure to hit you up if i got any other hd related questions if you don't mind ^^

otherwise, the thread's still opened to anyone who wishes to contribute regarding the various release groups. just throw in whatever you think. for all you know, it could be a good reference for anyone who's thinking twice about downloading a certain rip.

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Originally Posted by athenaesword

i have a 50" plasma tv downstairs. i'm not sure if it's full HD or HD ready i only know my dad bought it early last year or late 06 =s what's the difference?

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The difference lies in the resolution and therefore the possible details to be displayed. It's likely that a 50" plasma bought in '06 is not capable of full HD but has a WXGA resolution of 1366x768 because they are common like that. If cou can, please check that and if I'm wrong about it, let me know. Now what has to be done to display 720p (1280x720) or 1080p (1920x1080) on your plasma? The source has to be either up- or downconverted which - in general terms - means losing quality for a down-convert and losing sharpness for an upconvert. It has to be noted though that there isn't much to upconvert anyway because we're talking about a resize of 6.7% which has noticeably less impact on the visible picture than an upconvert to a full HD resolution (+50%).

I have little to no experience with this particular setup but a colleague of mine has a 37" lcd with that resolution and he's very happy with the 720p rips I supply him with from time to time.

Note: it's important that you know one thing: the results between up- and downconversion can vary because of the hardware used, the techniques used for conversion and the ergonomic setup in your home (viewing distance). A comment not related to the current topic: I've had some terrible results with a HD-receiver and a full HD screen run with a suboptimal configuration which caused the whole setup to reconvert the stream twice and it came out looking like that too!

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Originally Posted by athenaesword

i'm relatively content with collecting the HD movies for now, and downloading/building ratio with them is alot more tedious a process compared to buying the other equipment i need if i want to watch them on the tv in the future.

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Seeing as you have a undoubtedly a very fine screen you won't buy another one this expensive, or will you? Full HD capable plasmas in 50" start at about $2500 (European prizes & Euro>USD conversion) and that's likely a waste of money to update in the near future.
I'd suggest you try to download one 1080p encode in a very good quality (the 100mb sample should suffice) and if it doesn't bring noticeably better results in connection with your plasma (which it likely won't), then you're good to go with 720p releases for the next couple of years. On a completely different matter: you'd be surprised how many movies from the past two decades have such a limited quality that there is no advantage at all in looking for a 1080p encode because even the video source doesn't warrant that ;) Buying the respective BluRay/HDDVD discs is like downloading a R5 xvid rip (those cheap Russian pre-releases which often lack quality) over a true R1/R2 DVDR. If you're ever in HDBits you should read comments (and forum posts) about that too because a part of current highdef releases are pre-2000 and each of them is a candidate for 720p.

NoGRP is the best HD releaser