Movie downloads, standard and 3d

[Frank]

Hi everyone

Apologies if this has been covered before, and I feel in my bones it is possibly a stupid question.  But ask it I must!  I am considering buying a 3D TV in the UK (cheaper than here) and know that to have the best viewing experience (3D), I would need to download the films to watch as I don't have pay to view sky in France.  My question is, if my IP address is in France, are their any restrictions on downlads to either pc or Playstation (thinking of getting one just for downloads) regarding english language etc.  Many thanks in advance for any advice

Jetlag

[pachapapa]

Out  of touch with comparative prices but the last time I considered buying in UK was in the spring of 2010 before the world cup.

At that time the same models were cheaper in france.

[AnOther]

Whether you encounter location restrictions or not will depend almost entirely on from where or from whom you are downloading from but bearing in mind that, for the moment at least most such downloads will be pirate copies, it is unlikely to prove a barrier [;-)]

Remember though, size wise HD/3D downloads will be VERY VERY large, reckon 30-50gB for a download which will do justice to the TV it is to be played, on and for that you will need, as an absolute minimum, a solid and reliable 8mb connection. Even then, and as a very broad measure, flat out at a consistent 8mB it will take roughly a 1/2 hour per gB or 15-30 hours per film.

Your choice of course but FWIW from what I've seen of it so far (my son in UK has 3D and viewed it last month when I was in UK) it's is a complete and utter waste of time and I'd rather spend my money on the best HD TV I could afford as, in retrospect, he wishes he had done.

[Montybird]

Not sure about the Playstation capabilities but not long treated myself to an Xbox360 and although it has Sky and LoveFilm you can't access them here in France, just get the message "Not available in Your Area".  I googled if it was possible to hide your IP address on the XBox but all answers were in the negative. You could I guess download via your pc (using a Ex-Pat Shield or another IP address hider) and then watch via the pc with an HDMI cable but think you'd probably have to download rather than Stream unless you have a mega connection speed.

[pachapapa]

[quote user="AnOther"]Whether you encounter location restrictions or not will depend almost entirely on from where or from whom you are downloading from but bearing in mind that, for the moment at least most such downloads will be pirate copies, it is unlikely to prove a barrier [;-)]

Remember though, size wise HD/3D downloads will be VERY VERY large, reckon 30-50gB for a download which will do justice to the TV it is to be played, on and for that you will need, as an absolute minimum, a solid and reliable 8mb connection. Even then, and as a very broad measure, flat out at a consistent 8mB it will take roughly a 1/2 hour per gB or 15-30 hours per film.

Your choice of course but FWIW from what I've seen of it so far (my son in UK has 3D and viewed it last month when I was in UK) it's is a complete and utter waste of time and I'd rather spend my money on the best HD TV I could afford as, in retrospect, he wishes he had done.
[/quote]

Sorry to hear he got a lemon but even a cheap 3D set properly selected would have 1080p HD.

For example if I was currently purchasing a bog standard run of the mill 3D TV with full HD, I would go for the following offer.

http://www.lcd-compare.com/televiseur-TOS32TL838F-TOSHIBA-32TL838.htm

At € 435 plus transport costs it is not a bad deal BUT if I had bought it or buy it before the 31/12/11 then Toshiba give me € 100, bringing the price down by a tad AND on top of that Toshiba reward me with 2 pairs of 3D glasses worth at least another € 100.

Pity that the other 3D TV thread has pre selected 42".

 Offre Toshiba : 3D
• Période d'achat : 02 Novembre 2011 au 31 Décembre 2011
• Envoi des informations : 15 jours à compter de la date de votre facture
• Comment : Pour l'achat d'une TV 3D, Toshiba vous rembourse 100 Euros ains que deux paires de lunettes 3D
• Produits concernés : 32TL838, 40TL838, 46TL838, 42VL863, 47VL863, 46WL863, 55WL863, 55ZL1
• Produits offerts : Deux paires de lunettes 3D adaptées en fonction de la référence du téléviseur que vous aurez acheté
• Tous les détails de l'opération ici.

[Dart16]

There are many blogs about connecting your xbox360 via a VPN to access country restricted media. There are two basic ways, if your router has wrt firmware then you can setup the vpn at the router and all nodes connected to that router will access the VPN, or you can connect your xbox360 to a pc running the VPN software via a cross-over cable to its local network port. (you might need to add a second NIC). This should allow you to stream the media in real time..

http://www.bestvpnservice.com/blog/ps3-vpn-xbox-360-vpn

[pachapapa]

[quote user="Montybird"]Not sure about the Playstation capabilities but not long treated myself to an Xbox360 and although it has Sky and LoveFilm you can't access them here in France, just get the message "Not available in Your Area".  I googled if it was possible to hide your IP address on the XBox but all answers were in the negative. You could I guess download via your pc (using a Ex-Pat Shield or another IP address hider) and then watch via the pc with an HDMI cable but think you'd probably have to download rather than Stream unless you have a mega connection speed.
[/quote]

A family I visit have a PS3 and an Xbox with Kinect.

The PS3 with full HDMI 1.4 3D Blu Ray Disc capability is always used for watching films.

[pachapapa]

If the source is a 3D Blu Ray 1080p then DVDFab whilst ripping has the option of 720p and that will "grosso modo" halve the file size.

Personally I wouldn't download anything as blatant as Avatar via the net in france; HADOPI is a serious threat. 

[Frank]

Hi everyone

Many thanks for all replies and advice.  I think a bit more research is needed before we take the plunge!!  Thanks again

Jetlag

[Quillan]

If your going to use any games console then use and X-Box. The reason is that it is designed to be a media extender to Windows. This means you can download, rip or copy photo's on to your PC and with the X-Box connected to the PC view them on your telly. One point however with X-Box or any other device you need a hard wire for speed if you want to view High Def or 3D. Wireless links just won't cut it. Too learn more about this click HERE to start your research.

I wouldn't worry about Hadopi too much. The only people they seem to have been caught so far doing something illegal is their own staff in the Ministry of Culture, a total of 261 illegal downloads over the last two months including loads of films. (Source). This was found by an internal audit as it is so difficult to work out who is downloading and from whom over the Internet especially if your using Bit-torrent because the download is coming in 'nibbles' from multiple sites. If you want to use something like this then there is Vuze which is good but you need to be careful NOT to download something that is copyrighted by another person etc as it would be illegal to do so.

As a suggestion why not get a Sky HD box (all Sky HD box's are 3D ready) registered at a friend or families house and pay for it via your UK credit card or bank account. I assume that if you bring it to France it will work OK unless it needs to be connected to a phone socket (required for Box Office Movies so you can't have them but don't know about 3D) but others know more about this than me.

[crossy67]

I have an X-box and a PS3, the PS3 wipes the floor with the X-box for watching films, in fact that's all it's used for.  My X-box refuses to read some DVD's I create my self but the PS3 reads them with no problem.  I watch TV via my PC using the VGA cable and a splitter so I don't have to swap and change cables.  You can get HDMI graphics cards really cheap now if you want to go down that route, this might be my next purchase.

DVD Fab 8 is the newest version I have and it will rip Bluray, compress from DV9 to DV5 it does the lot but you have to buy it for anything more than the ripper and it's about £70 if I recall.

[Quillan]

[quote user="crossy67"]I have an X-box and a PS3, the PS3 wipes the floor with the X-box for watching films, in fact that's all it's used for.  My X-box refuses to read some DVD's I create my self but the PS3 reads them with no problem.  I watch TV via my PC using the VGA cable and a splitter so I don't have to swap and change cables.  You can get HDMI graphics cards really cheap now if you want to go down that route, this might be my next purchase.

DVD Fab 8 is the newest version I have and it will rip Bluray, compress from DV9 to DV5 it does the lot but you have to buy it for anything more than the ripper and it's about £70 if I recall.
[/quote]

Have you tried using the Xbox as a media extender? It should load whatever codex's you have on your PC. If your version of Windows does not have media server with it you can use Serviio (also works with Mac and Linux machines) one of the best server software products (and it's free). You won't have to store your own video's on CD or DVD, you can leave them on your PC and use the X-box as the extender. If your not wanting HD it will work OK wireless as well.

Try googling "using an Xbox as an extender" there is loads of stuff on the Microsoft website and others about how to set it up. Typically it takes no more than 10 minutes.

[crossy67]

I have no idea how to but to be honest the way I have everything setup now with a 2tb hard drive works great.  Nero Showtime will play anything you throw at it[8-|]. 

[pachapapa]

[quote user="Quillan"]

[quote user="crossy67"]I have an X-box and a PS3, the PS3 wipes the floor with the X-box for watching films, in fact that's all it's used for.  My X-box refuses to read some DVD's I create my self but the PS3 reads them with no problem.  I watch TV via my PC using the VGA cable and a splitter so I don't have to swap and change cables.  You can get HDMI graphics cards really cheap now if you want to go down that route, this might be my next purchase.

DVD Fab 8 is the newest version I have and it will rip Bluray, compress from DV9 to DV5 it does the lot but you have to buy it for anything more than the ripper and it's about £70 if I recall.
[/quote]

Have you tried using the Xbox as a media extender? It should load whatever codex's you have on your PC. If your version of Windows does not have media server with it you can use Serviio (also works with Mac and Linux machines) one of the best server software products (and it's free). You won't have to store your own video's on CD or DVD, you can leave them on your PC and use the X-box as the extender. If your not wanting HD it will work OK wireless as well.

Try googling "using an Xbox as an extender" there is loads of stuff on the Microsoft website and others about how to set it up. Typically it takes no more than 10 minutes.

[/quote]

I do not have an Xbox 360 and have no intention of getting one EVER. I appreciate that you have stone age TV set with a CRT screen that has extremely limited capabilities. But I live in a 21 st century world with a proper TV; all I have to do is press the Media Play button on my remote control and everything connected to the TV will appear as Icons on the screen; hard discs, USB flash memory, SD cards, PC hard disc partitions, etc ; then navigate to an icon to access files and display them on the screen.

If I want to record from satellite or TNT then I just press the magic record button and away it goes no DRM problems at all, unless I change the mother-board on the TV.

All this convoluted jumping through hoops is not necessary.

Take your TV to the "déchetterie". [:)]

[crossy67]

My TV's only about 2 years old and as such is about 4 years out of date lol.  We have a Barco CRT projector strapped to the ceiling for watching films and gaming on, the Kinnect is awesome fun on it. 

Funny really, when exactly did I get left behind by technology?  I used to be the man to program friends and family's vcr's, now I have trouble getting the cooker to work.

[Quillan]

[quote user="crossy67"]My TV's only about 2 years old and as such is about 4 years out of date lol.  We have a Barco CRT projector strapped to the ceiling for watching films and gaming on, the Kinnect is awesome fun on it. 

Funny really, when exactly did I get left behind by technology?  I used to be the man to program friends and family's vcr's, now I have trouble getting the cooker to work.
[/quote]

Funny enough I bought a new cooker when I replaced the kitchen. The manual is about an inch thick and that's before you get to the recipe bit. I mean for God's sake it's only a blinking cooker, two ovens and 5 gas rings, it's not rocket science. There's about ten pages devoted to setting the clock and programing the oven for timed cooking. All you do is set the start time and say how long. Why it needs ten pages I don't have a clue. Perhaps it's a sad example of the level of education in schools or something. People have lost the ability to think and work it out for themselves. Mind you the best one is the manual for my Casio watch, it's like a miniature brick, throw that at somebody end they would end up in hospital.