Just now realizing that not all the posts are showing up on this instance. I might be the only seeing this, or maybe I haven’t configured the federation settings properly? Does anyone know how I could get everything to sync?
EDIT: They are now showing up for me (We are federated y’all!)
Depending on what I’m encoding, I am trying as much as possible to do AV1 + Opus.
x264 kind of stands on its own. It is a legendary encoder with excellent encode times, but h264 is an ancient codec and it really shows if you don’t give it a bitrate that’s, frankly, too high. I use it most frequently these days for sharing short, low res clips of videos on Discord or through iMessage or something.
So that leaves us with with our modern choices: hevc, vp9, and AV1.
Off the bat I would say VP9 is irrelevant just because it’s way too slow to encode, and is effectively superseded by AV1. To whatever extent possible I try to use AV1, reencode into AV1, download AV1, and so forth. When done correctly it will shrink files even smaller than hevc can, it can encode relatively quickly with SVT-AV1 and is patent unencumbered so it’s actually supported in web browsers. If the video is an AV1 .webm it will play in Firefox. If I need subtitles, I can put them in a .mkv.
HEVC (with x265) is a pretty strong choice. I will not avoid downloading torrents in this format but I will avoid encoding into it. It maybe has better compatibility in certain cases, like if you have a “smart” TV (ugh) that can natively decode it. In which case that might override any decision you will make: you just want the best compatibility with your existing hardware.
As for audio, that’s Opus. Every time. It absolutely whips. For stereo audio I can do Opus at 96 or 112kbps and it is transparent. Another source with more going on (maybe loud explosions and effects and all that) could possibly benefit from 128. It’s great.
The final thing to mention about encoding is no matter which codec you use you will have to learn a bit about how to use it. You can one and done the encoders with default choices, but at minimum you do need to factor in what happens when you do things like change preset speeds. From there you can consider things like what about changing the keyframe interval (for shorter vids I will do more frequent keyframes to make seeking tolerable. For something like a full movie a keyframe every 10 seconds is probably fine. But what about scene detection? What about bit depth?). Potentially much to consider.
Are you willing to share the spreadsheet you have so far? Or maybe sticky it to your new community? It would be nice to have a way to verify/review the providers posting on the community provide what they claim.
I understand why you think that might be the case, but I’ve set up the community such that you can’t create a post unless you are approved by an admin. Approval here means that your service needs to be vetted before you can post. The whole point is to find quality providers and share reviews, if we allow anyone to post, the community would be overrun by low effort spammers in no time.
Also, see this comment on why I’m hesitant to share the spreadsheet.
I’m a little hesitant to post the spreadsheet, since most top-tier providers don’t want their information posted publicly. I reached out to each provider to ask them if they would be willing to have their service listed, what you see in the community are the providers who are comfortable posting publicly. A few more (about 6) will be posting soon, the rest have really poor quality (you can find these guys on the first page of google) and have been rejected from the community.
The community also allows providers to post updates, subscribers can discuss and give feedback, which in turn helps other folks. I think building a good quality repository of community contributions will pay off long term.
The only way I have found to get reliable IPTV services is to post on local Facebook groups. There is invariably a few middle-aged guys who can’t spell properly and who can you “mate” who will know which service works best in your area and be resellers of said service. A few 24-hour trials and you can usually figure out what suits you best.
uloz.to + FreeRapid Downloader. The baseline speed of around 1.2 GB/h is enough for 720p and some 1080p movies which FreeRapid Downloader allows me to “stream” if I enable opening unfinished files. I can get a film running on my Linux HTPC (old laptop) <3 minutes after my family agrees on one (the hardest part). Our TV is rather small and 768p so resolution is not a concern but I sit close and like to enjoy at least 576p DVD quality.
I have qBittorrent installed but I am in no private trackers (yet). I would especially welcome one that has German dubs because original & Czech ones are easy.
Theres a definite trend of people elevating the value of opinions of those they agree with. It makes any kind of intelligent discourse very hard to do.
I’d label them legends in the sense that they’re probably one of the game studios I know by name the best even though that’s all they have to show for it. Postal 2 for as bugged and edgy as it is, is an extraordinarily famous game.
Ehh… Even putting aside things like Nintendo… Let’s just say I know the names of actual developers on several small studios, including bad games, and I have no idea of a single person who made Postal
They didn't release the third game, it was done by a third party (I believe with some licensing shenanigans?), which is why they don't acknowledge Postal 3. They didn't make it. Which is why they (somewhat recently) have given the A-OK to pirate that game.
I'd assume that last part is why they say legendary.
Glad to know you never grew out of your edgy gamer bro stage. Being able to pee on things is peak gaming, amirite? /s
I’m literally saying this as one of the few people who watched the Postal movie more than once simply because it had David Foley in it and I’m okay with bad movies.
Pretty much, yeah. I don’t feel the need to posture as somehow intellectually superior to a game that is designed to be fucking stupid. I appreciate and recognise all art for exactly what it is.
It’s more that there’s actually games that rise to the level of great art that are designed to be fucking stupid, like Katamari Damacy, which leans hard into absurdism, and is often quite funny, but more importantly the gameplay is original, brilliant, and fun. The art direction in KD is also off the charts quality, especially the music, all of which was written for the game.
Look, I loved Postal 2 back in the day (I always sort of rolled my eyes at Postal, but 2 seemed less serious and more tongue-in-cheek). I might even replay it someday, but it’s not great art. Especially now it’s ugly, it’s clunky, more importantly it continues to be a buggy mess. Not even a Gary Coleman cameo could save it. They were fun games for what they were and for the time they existed in, and it’s okay to remember them for that, but it’s a little absurd to just act like the world hasn’t moved on and that they were great art to begin with. Art direction was bad, level design was bad, there was a lot of bad stuff about the game, beyond even getting into the edgelord shit.
Bad art is okay. I love B-movies, but we don’t have to pretend they’re anything other than what they are: B-movies.
I’m sorry but that is exactly why postal 2 is good. Unpretentious, offensive, provocative, unpolished raw art designed to generate chaos - whilst simultaneously having that certain charm which is impossible to put into words (hence the cult following) - which is exactly what it did. All of that without punching down (OK there was a bit of dodgy stuff, but for the time period it isn’t too bad). Truly one of the greats and you can’t change my mind, so we’ll have to agree to disagree.
Just my opinion, but that was an intentionally outrageous caricature of the narrative being served by the US government, and in fact the way many americans viewed Muslims at the time. Or it could be outright racism/sectarianism but idk I haven’t looked into it at all. Thats the beauty of postal 2 I guess
but that was an intentionally outrageous caricature of the narrative being served by the US government
I actually agree with you here, but I had a serious experience years later that changed my mind on the whole thing. It’s perfectly fine for folks like us who have any kind of media literacy to understand that it’s maybe not meant to be making fun of Muslims, but rather America, but…
GTA 5 has this torture scene, right? It hit me like a brick wall one day when I met people who read that scene way, way, way differently than I did. I had read it as an indictment of torture. The problem is, there’s way too many people who think that scene is cool as fuck and want to do that kind of shit in real life. It’s like the people who look up to Scarface from the movie Scarface. Like these characters aren’t good people or people to look up to, but because America is full of violent uneducated fucking yokels you had a bunch of absolute fucking idiots taking the exact opposite message from it. ( I mean, just look at Trump voters…)
You can’t control how others interpret your art, and if you’re not clear enough, you might end up in a similar position as the people behind Postal 2 and GTA 5, where you have a lot of folks totally misinterpreting what you’re trying to say, and then deciding it means vile, horrible things are not just okay, but cool.
It’s actually something I worry about a lot in life, because I’ve had so many times where I thought I was teaching a person one thing, but it turned out I was accidentally teaching them something horrible. In a country with basically no media literacy and an average 7th grade reading level, we can’t actually take it for granted that absolute fucking morons might misunderstand us.
The problem in particular with Postal 2’s caricature of the views of Muslims in America is that functionally, most Americans who played the game never understood that intent or cared. So when it came down to it, they further entrenched those ideas in the American consciousness, instead of them being read by most people as a critique. Was that their intent? No. Does it matter that the opposite happened? Yes.
That’s a valid take, and actually explains why a large number of people will never understand the nuances or even primary message of art. For example, conservatives discovering the true meaning of “killing in the name of” by rage against the machine.
I suppose RWS knew the consequences of this, which reveals the nihilistic backbone of the game’s theme.
I’m not sure they knew the consequences, I think at the time, like me, they actually had more faith that the majority of Americans would read it as what it was. As a young person, I definitely thought there were more thoughtful people.
It’s easier to critique now, 20 years on, because we’re not experiencing the same things the video game industry was at the time. From the insufferable Jack Thompson to Hillary Clinton wanting to ban GTA over the leaked Hot Coffee code that wasn’t in the main game, but locked away in files inaccessible to most, the industry was under attack and being blamed for all Americas ills. Several games, but mostly GTA and Postal, were holding up a mirror to American society and saying things similar to what I said in my last comment: “America has a bunch of ignorant violent gun-toting people living in it, and they were there before video games were, it’s a violent consumer and celebrity obsessed society, so America maybe you need to sort your problems first before blaming us.” At the time, a fair stance to take, but 20 years on, a decision that lead to a lot of negativity and more mixed feelings on the legacy of the game due to it.
It was easy to think back then that acceptance of gaming in the mainstream wasn’t a given, but games now out-profit movies, and some of the biggest “blockbusters” are games. We were honestly probably worried over nothing.
While I’m not fond of the company, and perhaps legendary is a bit excessive, they’re still a big name that made remarkable videogames. With Postal 2 they nailed it, can’t say about the other 3 because I’ve never played them.
Denuvo is the apex of a long history of bad choices.
Maybe actually sell us the games in a way we really own it, without any sort of online activation/account/telemetry/data-gathering like when we could buy a disc and just use it, and it should all be ok.
I feel like a dinosaur every-time I think this nowadays, but what is so problematic with the “own as in physically own” that is so hard to implement? If they want to provide a service, sell a service.
In the past I used pirate versions of games I bought just to be able to play them offline, or because I did not agree with the terms of service. It is so much for our info, it goes beyond just knowing you are the real owner of the software copy: it comes to the point where it looks like it’s to guarantee we are not its’ owner.
Now some DRMs even destroy gaming performance and its just faster to use 'ked versions. I hope it changes somehow.
Is it really possible to own them properly? If in almost all cases we lack the source code and there are even proprietary requirements for both software and hardware, what chance do they have of working halfway well in a few decades?
And the sign said anybody caught trespassing
Would be shot on sight.
So I jumped over the fence and I yelled at the house,
"Hey, what gives you the right
To put up a fence to keep me out
Or to keep mother nature in?"
If God was here he'd tell you to your face
"Man, you're some kind of sinner!"
But most of the providers have been operating on discord/telegram for a while and are unwilling to make the shift. They have their reasons too, I guess.
piracy
Najstarsze
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