Downloading age of movies are over
 

Nowadays, more streaming sites are popping up in all kind of types. From low-quality flash-files to HDTV-quality files.
What do you prefer? High-quality, low-quality or it does not matter?

My speeds are never fast enough for direct streaming without excessive preloading, so even with most "streams" I still prefer to download to harddrive first before watching.

And I don't want my videos in uber HD-quality, but I really don't like the youtube resolutions either. It's good for videos where you don't need to see details.. or anything for that matter, but then why are you watching a video in the first place?

I have no problem with YouTube or Google Video when I'm just looking for a quick entertainment fix. I've got a number of clips from both those sources saved to my iPod.

But when dealing with my favorite tv shows, or serious-type movies, I'd rather watch a minimally compressed video in full-resolution, or the DVD.

it really depends on the show/movie of what I get. if it's something like my favorite old TV shows like Married with Children, or a movie that was so high ranking with me like the LOTR trilogy, then I have to have it on DVD. lesser stuff, I turn to limewire, it's better free

I don't really download movies that often, but when it comes to certain TV shows, I don't really care about the quality, as long as I can see it, but if I want to have the shows or movies to put on a DVD, then yes, I would like a high-quality version.

This is like my anime preference, whether I minded it in rmvb or avi... Personally, I don't care how the hell it looks. As long as I could watch it, and I could understand what they're saying, that's all that matters to me.

When it comes to a quick fix I go for Flash videos, but when it comes to watching TV shows then I prefer it to be in good quality, doesn't have to be HD quality, but it has to be good enough so that I see what is going on and can hear what is being said.

I was never into downloading movies, whether it be some cam/telesync thing or some DVD-ripped AVI file. I was and still am more interested in DVD images, and I used to download more of them from newsgroups and torrents. But for movies, I'd rather just copy a DVD.

I do download TV shows and anime very frequently though, and those should be in "nice-quality" viewable.

Flash Video is really just for a quick entertainment fix. I'm not big on those "viral videos" nor seek anything new myself. I just check out whatever links my friends send me and stuff.

Depends on what I want to be looking at. If I'm just looking for select clips or pieces of shows that friends have recommended, quality almost never matters to me, but if I'm watching an entire series or a whole movie, I prefer to see everything in at least DivX-quality. DixV compression of a typical movie to 700MB is usually good enough for me on any of my computer monitors, though seeing anything on a larger television screen I generally prefer something higher quality than that. :shrug:

I have noticed this trend, and as far I'm concerned, it really sucks. It sucks because I like to watch my videos in fullscreen mode and with decent sound quality, especially when it's piano music (details are the main purpose of having a video there).

I can do that with the stuff I buy, but what about unreleased/unavailable material? Because that's most of the stuff I downoload, as far as movies are concerned. So yeah, I'll keep complaining even if I'm getting it for free. I'd rather pay and get decent quality, but I can't.


For normal movies/anime, I don't mind. Well, YouTube is a bit (quite) small, but Dailymotion is perfect.

I usually can't stream any HD, so I just end up downloading it. I don't mind the wait, since I'm multitasking with other things as well. I can't stand myself watching some youtube links of anime. Downloading for the win.

Streaming is cool, but the buffering can be a pain, especially on a slow connection.

I prefer downloading, so that I can watch the movie off my hard drive. You get the quality and you get the control.

I prefer HD a lot. If done correctly, like most of the sites from apple.com/trailers, HD can be streamed really quickly. I've done 720p and 1080p trailers that load very quickly from apple's website and they're much better than small, standard-definition videos. It helps if you have Quicktime as it's more stable and you can control the slider while it's loading and it doesn't have an obvious buffering stage.

Granted these are trailers, but a 2 minute trailer being fully loaded in a few minutes suggests that a bigger file will be finished loading without too much downtime.

If I can plan far enough ahead, I always prefer downloading torrents, ect. for shows. The higher quality, in both video and sound, is hard to beat - specially for some high drama stuff like 24 or Lost.

Course, sometimes it's just easier to put up with the various pains of streaming (low quality, lame buffering, you know the rest) just to get the entertainment value without the wait required for downloading. Also, since I spend a good 4 hours as my work sitting in front of a computer with nothing to do, I'm forced to watch streaming. You don't loose too much on the streams, but compared to downloads, it's noticeable

I don't think it really matters, just as long as I'm going to watch that movie on my computer for free. Sure, I may be able to download the best HDTV quality, but I am just as satisfied with a low quality version, which also happens to be downloaded quicker, well I would think so.

meh, I can deal with some compression. I watch Dattebayo's fansubbed bleach episodes every time they come out with a new one. I know they're compressed to hell and back, but I can deal because it still looks good.

As long as the quality of the video os good enough for me to understand everything that is being said and is of a decent resolution, I'm fine with it.

I watch videos on YouTube and Google Video quite often, but if they aren't of good quality (for example mobile phone vids), then I don't tend to bother.