GRcade

Only part 1 though, no sign of the other two mini-series that followed.

This is brilliant. BRILLIANT. Only watched the pilot so far, but Spacey is incredible.

Mogster wrote:

smurphy wrote:I hope this somehow forces HBO to get their shows out in the UK in a better way. There's literally no way to watch them online (legally), is there? I'm kind of moving off buying DVDs, and who can be strawberry floated watching stuff week to week with ads if it eventually does get broadcast over here? The only way I'm getting to see Game of Thrones S2 is if I pirate it.

Well there's Sky Atlantic, which has been showing HBO stuff pretty close to the US air dates including GoT. The problem is you need to pay Sky's ridiculous fees and get a dish installed for the privilege. And then enjoy adverts on top of everything else!

I've been buying the GoT Blu-Rays because it's ace, but I have no qualms about downloading the episodes from Usenet as they air.

You don't need a dish, you can just get a standard Sky Go subscription for £15 per month which includes Atlantic.

4 episodes in now. This is incredible television.

Zoe, and that other Congressman's secretary/girlfriend would get it so hard.

Mafro wrote:

Mogster wrote:

smurphy wrote:I hope this somehow forces HBO to get their shows out in the UK in a better way. There's literally no way to watch them online (legally), is there? I'm kind of moving off buying DVDs, and who can be strawberry floated watching stuff week to week with ads if it eventually does get broadcast over here? The only way I'm getting to see Game of Thrones S2 is if I pirate it.

Well there's Sky Atlantic, which has been showing HBO stuff pretty close to the US air dates including GoT. The problem is you need to pay Sky's ridiculous fees and get a dish installed for the privilege. And then enjoy adverts on top of everything else!

I've been buying the GoT Blu-Rays because it's ace, but I have no qualms about downloading the episodes from Usenet as they air.

You don't need a dish, you can just get a standard Sky Go subscription for £15 per month which includes Atlantic.

I didn't know you could get that on its own now, but still, £15 a month for the sake of one channel? With adverts presumably too.

I understand the reasoning, in that that £15 pays for the channels you don't watch that others do (along with the adverts again), but it's hardly great value.

The daft thing is that the only thing even vaguely tempting about that Sky sub is HBO's stuff. I'd much rather just pay them for it directly if they offered a good service, but I understand that even in the US you need to be a traditional HBO subscriber to get access to their online stuff.

It's not just those channels, there's a lot of on-demand stuff on Sky Go as well. I guess it just depends on what you want to watch and whether it's worth that to you.

Is Sky Go streaming quality as good as through the satellite? Obviously the resolution will be the same, but bitrate will presumably be lower and more compressed? If it is more compressed than via satellite, is the HD stream at least higher quality than any of the USTV 720P rips?

And am I right in thinking that Netflix on the web browser/PC, laptop only offers 1080P for Windows 8 users?

Sky are obviously a successful business and will probably continue to do so for many years but I can't help but think £36.75 is way too much to get entertainment extra + the HD channels, really it's crazy that in 2013 they still charge extra for the regular HD channels. That £10 extra per month for it is bullshit and hopefully with Netflix and similar getting bigger, it'll force Sky to rethink their pricing structures.

Back to House of Cards, the 720P webrip quality on usenet looks lower quality to my eyes than any broadcast 720P USTV show on usenet. Just flicked through the first few minutes to judge that, gonna actually watch it shortly.

Grumpy David wrote:And am I right in thinking that Netflix on the web browser/PC, laptop only offers 1080P for Windows 8 users?

If that's the case then it's probably just a matter of them not updating the website yet. The Windows 8 app offers "Super HD" along with the various TV/console options, but the website doesn't give you any more options than it used to yet no matter what you're on. Incidentally it looks gorgeous through the PS3 in 1080p.

I forgot that Sky charge you extra for the HD channels. Bearing in mind you get a bunch of them through Freeview for free, that's bonkers.

I'd be shocked if Spacey isn't a favourite come award season.

Really enjoyed the first episode. Great performance from Spacey. Found the breaking the fourth wall a little strange at first in a serious drama but it works. The little SFX with the text message message popping up on screen rather than the camera showing you the phone screen itself was pretty cool.

It's interesting to note that the episode is around 55 minutes long and weights in at 665MB in 720P whilst the similar length Spartacus in 720P is 1.25GB in size. The scene groups either compress it less (because they aren't paying for servers and so can keep quality higher) or Netflix can compress more effectively and keep the quality higher. That said, Spartacus looks cleaner and less compressed to me. Addtionally, the file size is slightly larger because Spartacus along with every other USTV show rip is actually 1280x720, whilst House of Cards appears to be 1280x640. If the web browser Netflix supported full HD I'd sign up to the 1 month free trial and watch it that way, but it seems like they've gone for a slightly wider than 16:9 aspect ratio for filming which is unusual for a TV show.

Just watched epissode 5. This is really gripping stuff.

Need a gif of Zoe getting undressed.

End of Episode 7.

Last ten minutes of Episode 5 were outstanding.

Can't see any other new show this year topping this.

aayl1 wrote:End of Episode 7.

Pure unadulterated creepy.

That's as far as I've got. Really gripping show so far but one that hasn't quite shaken off the shackles of the traditions of television.

I've only got another 2 to watch.

gooseberry fool really hits the fan around Episode 10.

Wondering if it goes the same places the original did.

Nah, it's all in America I think.

Funny

It still annoys me that the visual quality of this on Netflix is lower than the quality on 720P USTV pirate rips. Hurry up and offer 1080P + less compressed signal on the browser ffs (strawberry floating Windows 8 app!), I have it set to best quality and it just doesn't look as good as I would expect.

Episode 3:

The lady turning down a 6 figure job at Google because she would have hated it is hard to believe (and that Google would hire her or anyone as a token filling a quota, they get the best they can hire), I can hardly think of a more fun work environment! Also affirmative action is.

So, just finished this.

Pretty great stuff, but the ending isn't as satisfying as I would have expected. You're just left with a (not actual spoilers, just being careful) suggestion of what will happen, rather than actually seeing it. A lot of build up without the pay off..