Downloading BattleStar – Part 1
It would probably be the height of idiocy to think that anyone from Apple reads my blog. Nevertheless, I had said in here a few weeks ago I was hoping that Apple would somehow get “Battlestar Gallactica” from the Scifi Channel and make it available for download. Today, they did just that. As I write this at 10:20 p.m. on Tuesday evening, I am downloading “Battlestar Gallactica, Miniseries”, a four part series that runs for a total of 3 hours. After that (though perhaps tomorrow), I will download the first season of the show. though I’ll hold off from getting Season 2 for now. There's only a partial season available, and I need to go back and think about whether any episodes are missing or not.
I’m downloading Gallactica not only because I love the show, but to test out and play with this new means of television delivery. I’m curious to see how expensive it is, how sustainable it is, and how easy or hard it is to move content around. I’m curious to play the shows over a TV using my iPod and measure it against delivery on a DVD. Can this replace buying a DVD set? That’s one of the questions I hope to answer.
Part 1 of my four part purchase is almost done downloading. It’s a 55 minute and 24 second piece that started downloading at 10:11 p.m. and is completing at 10:25. I’m using a high-speed cable modem connection (Earthlink via Time Warner) to do my dirty work, and Part 2 began downloading as soon as Part 1 completed. If the download speed ratio holds, it will take about 10 minutes to finish this part, 15 minutes to do the next, and 9 minutes or so to do the last. That would finish things up for me about 11 p.m. So, Season 1 will have to come tomorrow evening.
Before I started downloading, I used “Get Info” to take a look at how much hard disk space I had used and had free. I’m downloading to my iMac, and it has a 160GB hard disk in it. I’ve used 51.76GB and have 97.17 GB free. I also recorded how much space I’ve used ony my 30GB iPod Video. I have used 7.81GB and have 20.07GB free. That space holds all my music (813 songs), 5342 photos, and one music video (Fatby Slim, Weapon of Choice) also purchased from the iTunes Music Store.
Part 2 finished downloading on time, completing at 10:35.
How much space will the Battlestar video take? Normal DV video takes about 13GB per hour. I’m not sure which video format these episodes are recorded in. MPEG4? H.264? I might be able to figure it out later. For now, I simply intend to check how much hard disk space I’ve used after these downloads. That’ll give me an idea whether I continue to download to my iMac or shift those operations over to my PowerMac, which has 300GB and 250GB hard disks.
Also, will the video quality be good enough to enjoy these shows on my 17 inch iMac’s screen. The Fatboy Slim video (really the Christopher Walken “dancing bear” video) looks pretty good on it, so I am assuming that Battlestar Gallactica will look as good.
Now, if I can only get Apple to go after “The Twilight Zone”.
Based on my earlier estimate, Part 3 would complete downloading at 10:50. It’s finishing a bit faster than that, coming in at 10:47. Part 3 is the biggest of the lot with a 57:43 runtime. Part 4 has begun downloading. It is the smallest of the lot with a 31:51 runtime. I’m looking for it to finish up downloading by no later than 10:56.
It finished at 10:54.
Finder now shows 52.8 GB used on my disk with 96.13GB available. The four videos are therefore taking only 1.04GB of space. That’s for 3 hrs and 4 minutes of runtime.
Video quality while playing the video on my iMac is good with no noticeable pixilation at full screen. The picture is a tad dark however, even with the brightness on the iMac up at full. The picture does seem to be a bit brighter when played in the small window that is closer to the iPod’s native resolution.
Part 1, when copied to the iPod, caused the “used” space to jump to 8.05 GB. The video therefore took only 240MB (0.24GB) of space on the iPod. With usage that small, I went ahead and copied the other 3 parts of Battlestar (miniseries) to the iPod. The total usage at the end of this operation was 8.63GB of hard disk used.
Heh, I might be able to get the entire Season 1 on this thing, too. More on that tomorrow.
I’m downloading Gallactica not only because I love the show, but to test out and play with this new means of television delivery. I’m curious to see how expensive it is, how sustainable it is, and how easy or hard it is to move content around. I’m curious to play the shows over a TV using my iPod and measure it against delivery on a DVD. Can this replace buying a DVD set? That’s one of the questions I hope to answer.
Part 1 of my four part purchase is almost done downloading. It’s a 55 minute and 24 second piece that started downloading at 10:11 p.m. and is completing at 10:25. I’m using a high-speed cable modem connection (Earthlink via Time Warner) to do my dirty work, and Part 2 began downloading as soon as Part 1 completed. If the download speed ratio holds, it will take about 10 minutes to finish this part, 15 minutes to do the next, and 9 minutes or so to do the last. That would finish things up for me about 11 p.m. So, Season 1 will have to come tomorrow evening.
Before I started downloading, I used “Get Info” to take a look at how much hard disk space I had used and had free. I’m downloading to my iMac, and it has a 160GB hard disk in it. I’ve used 51.76GB and have 97.17 GB free. I also recorded how much space I’ve used ony my 30GB iPod Video. I have used 7.81GB and have 20.07GB free. That space holds all my music (813 songs), 5342 photos, and one music video (Fatby Slim, Weapon of Choice) also purchased from the iTunes Music Store.
Part 2 finished downloading on time, completing at 10:35.
How much space will the Battlestar video take? Normal DV video takes about 13GB per hour. I’m not sure which video format these episodes are recorded in. MPEG4? H.264? I might be able to figure it out later. For now, I simply intend to check how much hard disk space I’ve used after these downloads. That’ll give me an idea whether I continue to download to my iMac or shift those operations over to my PowerMac, which has 300GB and 250GB hard disks.
Also, will the video quality be good enough to enjoy these shows on my 17 inch iMac’s screen. The Fatboy Slim video (really the Christopher Walken “dancing bear” video) looks pretty good on it, so I am assuming that Battlestar Gallactica will look as good.
Now, if I can only get Apple to go after “The Twilight Zone”.
Based on my earlier estimate, Part 3 would complete downloading at 10:50. It’s finishing a bit faster than that, coming in at 10:47. Part 3 is the biggest of the lot with a 57:43 runtime. Part 4 has begun downloading. It is the smallest of the lot with a 31:51 runtime. I’m looking for it to finish up downloading by no later than 10:56.
It finished at 10:54.
Finder now shows 52.8 GB used on my disk with 96.13GB available. The four videos are therefore taking only 1.04GB of space. That’s for 3 hrs and 4 minutes of runtime.
Video quality while playing the video on my iMac is good with no noticeable pixilation at full screen. The picture is a tad dark however, even with the brightness on the iMac up at full. The picture does seem to be a bit brighter when played in the small window that is closer to the iPod’s native resolution.
Part 1, when copied to the iPod, caused the “used” space to jump to 8.05 GB. The video therefore took only 240MB (0.24GB) of space on the iPod. With usage that small, I went ahead and copied the other 3 parts of Battlestar (miniseries) to the iPod. The total usage at the end of this operation was 8.63GB of hard disk used.
Heh, I might be able to get the entire Season 1 on this thing, too. More on that tomorrow.
posted by Andy Foster at
11:25 PM
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