Yeah i agree, non paying members should at least get 480p. But i don't really get the point that 360p might scare away new people. When the site started we had shitty quality video, but the content was fantastic. If people on youtube like the site then they might just give it a chance. I know i did.
I definitely would appreciate a higher quality video, though that's what subscribers payed for so I can understand them not changing quality. But it really only bothers me when it's trailers and whatnot that I can watch on other sites. I don't mind giving WM my views but when I know its easy to find trailers and content WM didn't make in HD I watch it elsewhere and usually watch an ad, when I'd happily do that here.
I agree that HD video should be available to everyone, if not onsite video then atleast 720p on YouTube.
As for the 360p issue on YouTube, I did a check with a few Quick Looks that have a lot of small text, from what I can see "High" quality on WM player looks identical to 360p on Youtube,
Here's a comparison between the youtube version and WM's player on high resolution:
The Youtube is on the left and the WM player is on the right:
I think they look almost identical, in fact the youtube looks slightly sharper.
As a paying member I wouldn't mind if they uploaded the youtube version in HD. Just saying the 360p isn't really a downgrade of quality.
Here they are zoomed in:
I actually noticed things looked a lot better on this QL specifically. So Youtube's compression or whatever only seems to negatively affect some videos. Although there wasn't a lot of difference in the QL you posted screens of, some videos look noticeably worse. I mean, the most recent ILM is clearly much worse than before. The small thumbnail of Ryan's face in the corner is really lacking in detail. In many videos, WM's 360p >>>>> YouTube's 360p, so getting a downgrade sucks.
Here's a comparison between the youtube version and WM's player on high resolution:
The Youtube is on the left and the WM player is on the right:
I think they look almost identical, in fact the youtube looks slightly sharper.
As a paying member I wouldn't mind if they uploaded the youtube version in HD. Just saying the 360p isn't really a downgrade of quality.
Here they are zoomed in:
I actually noticed things looked a lot better on this QL specifically. So Youtube's compression or whatever only seems to negatively affect some videos. Although there wasn't a lot of difference in the QL you posted screens of, some videos look noticeably worse. I mean, the most recent ILM is clearly much worse than before. The small thumbnail of Ryan's face in the corner is really lacking in detail. In many videos, WM's 360p >>>>> YouTube's 360p, so getting a downgrade sucks.
@RollingZeppelin: I disagree. The YT shot you're showing is much worse than the WM one. The problem is that the image is much blurry, Can you read what's written in red inside the brown box (the player's name I suppose)? It's quite easy on the left, it's impossible on the right.
Add to this that even the slight downgrade in image quality gets much worse in motion. I appreciate your "scientific" approach to the issue, actually going and see if the image quality is effectively worse doing a comparison. But everyone here is saying that videos are worse, and it's quite difficult that all the people here got fooled collectively, moreover I think your last shot confirms thatthe quality is clearly lacks the quality to be a comfortable view.
I stress that the majority here is not pretending anything, what most users are saying here is that going public on youtube with this quality won't get any new visitors, let alone new paying members. Replying "just pay" is not a proper answer....
The reason they change for HD is because it's the only features they are charging for that makes people like me do it. I can't watch their videos in less than 720p personally so I pay for it. If they had HD videos for all, I would no longer pay for GiantBomb.
If you think that the biggest value proposition of paying for a membership is getting more p's in your video, there has to be something wrong with the content being put out in itself.
The way you get people to subscibe is pumping out more high quality premium content. Shoving shit quality video down peoples' throats to force them to put money down will just bite Whiskey in the ass in the long run. New people are less likely to stick around if all of your content looks like it came straight out of 2005 when competing sites give an option to watch in HD without even having to log in. Couple that with the fact that cost of bandwidth is now completely out of the equation, I'm finding that I'm visiting Whiskey sites less and less just because the video looks fucking atrocious on a high resolution panel. I don't really feel there's enough premium content out on the sites for me to sign up right now and I sure as hell wont pay just to get higher resolution quicklooks. If you really need to milk cash out of every visitor, slap more annoying shit like the MEEBO bar on the site, just don't nickle & dime me for bullshit like higher res video.
I'm a little scared by how few views the videos get. I think the embedded ones count, too, so a couple hundred to about 2000 for Quick Looks that have been up for several days? That is not much.
I will be the annoying paying member and say, if people are getting so pissed off about the lack of p's in their video they clearly care about GB, which is nice. On the other hand, maybe they could use some of that care to understand that whole Whiskey Media is in fact running a business and not a giveaway, plain and simple. GB content is so unique that 'other sites give people HD content for free' argument is pretty mute IMO. GB would not lose anything if they were to abandon posting game trailers, since you can watch those on... gametrailers.com
@mnzy: I also find this kind of puzzling. The Bombcast is consistently on the top list in its category on iTunes, but I wonder how many people who download and listen to it never actually visit the site itself.
I will be the annoying paying member and say, if people are getting so pissed off about the lack of p's in their video they clearly care about GB, which is nice. On the other hand, maybe they could use some of that care to understand that whole Whiskey Media is in fact running a business and not a giveaway, plain and simple.
Yeah, and let's see how well that works out for them, then.
Here's a comparison between the youtube version and WM's player on high resolution:
The Youtube is on the left and the WM player is on the right:
I think they look almost identical, in fact the youtube looks slightly sharper.
As a paying member I wouldn't mind if they uploaded the youtube version in HD. Just saying the 360p isn't really a downgrade of quality.
Here they are zoomed in:
I actually noticed things looked a lot better on this QL specifically. So Youtube's compression or whatever only seems to negatively affect some videos. Although there wasn't a lot of difference in the QL you posted screens of, some videos look noticeably worse. I mean, the most recent ILM is clearly much worse than before. The small thumbnail of Ryan's face in the corner is really lacking in detail. In many videos, WM's 360p >>>>> YouTube's 360p, so getting a downgrade sucks.
Still not noticing much of a difference:
WM left and YT on the right
Just a correction to some statements. There is no such think as a "Whiskey Media" video player. They used (and still use) Flowplayer for all videos before the Youtube switch and the video engineers for the site have indicated they really don't like Flowplayer and prefer Youtube.
I will be the annoying paying member and say, if people are getting so pissed off about the lack of p's in their video they clearly care about GB, which is nice. On the other hand, maybe they could use some of that care to understand that whole Whiskey Media is in fact running a business and not a giveaway, plain and simple.
Yeah, and let's see how well that works out for them, then.
I have reached a point in my life. No more Forums. I'm tired of reading "gimmie gimmie gimmie, you owe me" shit over and over again. I will continue to support WM and GB as they give me what I consider to be value for money, but I'm done reading these threads. It's not just here, but on pretty much every site I visit nowadays. The entitlement society.
Well, here's my last pearl of wisdom, you don't like it, then don't let the door blah blah blah
Don't quote me, follow me or reply or pm me as I have zero interest in what you have to whine about.
I will be the annoying paying member and say, if people are getting so pissed off about the lack of p's in their video they clearly care about GB, which is nice. On the other hand, maybe they could use some of that care to understand that whole Whiskey Media is in fact running a business and not a giveaway, plain and simple.
Yeah, and let's see how well that works out for them, then.
I will be the annoying paying member and say, if people are getting so pissed off about the lack of p's in their video they clearly care about GB, which is nice. On the other hand, maybe they could use some of that care to understand that whole Whiskey Media is in fact running a business and not a giveaway, plain and simple.
Yeah, and let's see how well that works out for them, then.
that doesn't make sense.
Neither does their business plan.
The videos have always been 320p. I dont see why you have a problem with it now, at this point in time.
This is getting interesting. All I'm seeing is "the community deserves more than 320p." and "NO! Giant Bomb deserves your money". And all I have to say is...
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!
When the hell did people get so worked up over a website? No one deserves HD quality anything and websites do not deserve a damn dime from anyone. Now, let's all knock it off and play some damn games.
I feel that we should get atleast 480p. 360p is crap. Watching the video review for Uncharted wasn't a pleasant experience. The video quality standards have risen and 360p should only be acceptable for videos uploaded in '06 or '07, not in 2011.
I'm not against the fact that the videos are being uploaded to YouTube cause that's saving bandwidth and attracting new people to the site, but the quality shouldn't suffer because of it. I'm sure most other members agree with me.
Yeah, I have to agree with this. HD videos should be free in this day and age.
Especially if they're on Youtube.
No they shouldn't. Not every video which is on youtube is in HD, even some well known music artist VEVOs aren't fully in HD (The Dandy Warhols is just one example). It costs money to produce this content and WM have decided to put the premium quality stuff behind a paywall and part of that premium is HD.
I will be the annoying paying member and say, if people are getting so pissed off about the lack of p's in their video they clearly care about GB, which is nice. On the other hand, maybe they could use some of that care to understand that whole Whiskey Media is in fact running a business and not a giveaway, plain and simple.
Yeah, and let's see how well that works out for them, then.
that doesn't make sense.
Neither does their business plan.
The videos have always been 320p. I dont see why you have a problem with it now, at this point in time.
It might have been somewhat understandible when they were paying for the hosting. Now it's all on Youtube and putting up atleast 480p video would take literally zero extra effort and cost nothing.
We're living in the year 2011 where people are putting up full HD video of their god damn cats on their cellphones. Get with the fucking times.
I feel that we should get atleast 480p. 360p is crap. Watching the video review for Uncharted wasn't a pleasant experience. The video quality standards have risen and 360p should only be acceptable for videos uploaded in '06 or '07, not in 2011.
I'm not against the fact that the videos are being uploaded to YouTube cause that's saving bandwidth and attracting new people to the site, but the quality shouldn't suffer because of it. I'm sure most other members agree with me.
Yeah, I have to agree with this. HD videos should be free in this day and age.
Especially if they're on Youtube.
No they shouldn't. Not every video which is on youtube is in HD, even some well known music artist VEVOs aren't fully in HD (The Dandy Warhols is just one example). It costs money to produce this content and WM have decided to put the premium quality stuff behind a paywall and part of that premium is HD.
It costs 0 dollars to upload HD video to youtube. It's ridiculous to have the video on Youtube and have it in 360p, at the absolute very least it should be 480p.
I feel that we should get atleast 480p. 360p is crap. Watching the video review for Uncharted wasn't a pleasant experience. The video quality standards have risen and 360p should only be acceptable for videos uploaded in '06 or '07, not in 2011.
I'm not against the fact that the videos are being uploaded to YouTube cause that's saving bandwidth and attracting new people to the site, but the quality shouldn't suffer because of it. I'm sure most other members agree with me.
Yeah, I have to agree with this. HD videos should be free in this day and age.
Especially if they're on Youtube.
No they shouldn't. Not every video which is on youtube is in HD, even some well known music artist VEVOs aren't fully in HD (The Dandy Warhols is just one example). It costs money to produce this content and WM have decided to put the premium quality stuff behind a paywall and part of that premium is HD.
It costs 0 dollars to upload HD video to youtube. It's ridiculous to have the video on Youtube and have it in 360p.
It didn't cost 0 dollars to produce the video. It doesn't cost 0 dollars to manage the time of and pay the staff who upload the video. Hell, it may not even be free to upload the video too, you have no idea of the bandwidth costs which WM pays. There are some GB videos (namely those from Lemon and MattBodega) which are in HD on Youtube too, so enjoy those until you can pay.
This is getting interesting. All I'm seeing is "the community deserves more than 320p." and "NO! Giant Bomb deserves your money". And all I have to say is...
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!
When the hell did people get so worked up over a website? No one deserves HD quality anything and websites do not deserve a damn dime from anyone. Now, let's all knock it off and play some damn games.
Oh cool. So people shouldn't get paid for their job. Real smart.
GiantBomb fanboys will defend any of their decisions. Their defense? "DEAL WITH IT OR GIVE THEM MONEY!!" No.. this is the year 2011, and free users are being forced to watch GiantBomb videos off site, in 360p. It would be understandable if the videos were still on this site, and they had to pay for the bandwidth, but they aren't. They're on youtube, and the videos are still in the abysmal quality of 360p. At the very least it should be 480p if not HD. 360p is just sad.
I love the site, but I'm not going to sit here and defend that.
GiantBomb fanboys will defend any of their decisions. Their defense? "DEAL WITH IT OR GIVE THEM MONEY!!" No.. this is the year 2011, and free users are being forced to watch GiantBomb videos off site, in 360p. It would be understandable if the videos were still on this site, and they had to pay for the bandwidth, but they aren't. They're on youtube, and the videos are still in the abysmal quality of 360p. At the very least it should be 480p if not HD. 360p is just sad.
I love the site, but I'm not going to sit here and defend that.
I always watched videos in low quality before due to poor streaming. Its just my internet. But I have never really noticed a difference between that and high. But when I saw the Kirby quick look the video actually looked terrible. I don't care about HD, I don't even have an HD tv that I play my games on. But your exactly right 360p is kind of ridiculous.
This is getting interesting. All I'm seeing is "the community deserves more than 320p." and "NO! Giant Bomb deserves your money". And all I have to say is...
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!
When the hell did people get so worked up over a website? No one deserves HD quality anything and websites do not deserve a damn dime from anyone. Now, let's all knock it off and play some damn games.
Oh cool. So people shouldn't get paid for their job. Real smart.
Some of the users on this site have a real twisted view of how Whiskey Media works. You're not signing their checks. You don't pay Google every time you want to search for something, do you? And no one would expect you to.
This is getting interesting. All I'm seeing is "the community deserves more than 320p." and "NO! Giant Bomb deserves your money". And all I have to say is...
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!
When the hell did people get so worked up over a website? No one deserves HD quality anything and websites do not deserve a damn dime from anyone. Now, let's all knock it off and play some damn games.
Oh cool. So people shouldn't get paid for their job. Real smart.
Some of the users on this site have a real twisted view of how Whiskey Media works. You're not signing their checks. You don't pay Google every time you want to search for something, do you? And no one would expect you to.
I'm not talking about them getting money from us the user. This guy said they don't deserve a dime from anyone... anyone. Anyone also means advertisers. So no money at all is what that implies.
This is getting interesting. All I'm seeing is "the community deserves more than 320p." and "NO! Giant Bomb deserves your money". And all I have to say is...
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!
When the hell did people get so worked up over a website? No one deserves HD quality anything and websites do not deserve a damn dime from anyone. Now, let's all knock it off and play some damn games.
Oh cool. So people shouldn't get paid for their job. Real smart.
Some of the users on this site have a real twisted view of how Whiskey Media works. You're not signing their checks. You don't pay Google every time you want to search for something, do you? And no one would expect you to.
I'm not talking about them getting money from us the user. This guy said they don't deserve a dime from anyone... anyone. Anyone also means advertisers. So no money at all is what that implies.
Ugh. People on the internet always insist on being completely literal about everything. It's obvious he was just talking about user dollars.
360p was defensible and made sense when Whiskey Media was providing all the bandwidth for these videos and needed to find a way to recoup their losses on doing so. Even then it was kind of bizarre to have a website charge for HD video, but people mostly understood. But if they're going to unload those costs onto YouTube's shoulders, there is absolutely no legitimate excuse for not putting higher resolution video on YouTube. 480p at the absolute very least. Like CL60 is saying, it seems like an absolutely insane notion to have HD video be a paid feature in 2011. Almost no site I know of aside from this one actually charges you for better video quality.
It doesn't make sense rationally, but it doesn't make sense from a subscription perspective either. Making HD video a paid feature made more sense when they had almost no paid features. They have loads more paid content now. The site video player is now almost entirely exclusive to paid members, there is a separate podcast for paid members, there are archived TNTs, and multiple new video features just for paid members.
There are a million other reasons to subscribe at this point that are infinitely more important than just having HD to the point that it just makes the refusal to upload videos in a higher resolution in 360p look like it's just pointlessly vindictive. They lose nothing from putting up higher res videos onto YouTube and generate a lot of good will from the community. I can't for the life of me understand why they are the last holdouts of a sub-Wii video resolution.
I feel that we should get atleast 480p. 360p is crap. Watching the video review for Uncharted wasn't a pleasant experience. The video quality standards have risen and 360p should only be acceptable for videos uploaded in '06 or '07, not in 2011.
I'm not against the fact that the videos are being uploaded to YouTube cause that's saving bandwidth and attracting new people to the site, but the quality shouldn't suffer because of it. I'm sure most other members agree with me.
Yeah, I have to agree with this. HD videos should be free in this day and age.
Especially if they're on Youtube.
No they shouldn't. Not every video which is on youtube is in HD, even some well known music artist VEVOs aren't fully in HD (The Dandy Warhols is just one example). It costs money to produce this content and WM have decided to put the premium quality stuff behind a paywall and part of that premium is HD.
It costs 0 dollars to upload HD video to youtube. It's ridiculous to have the video on Youtube and have it in 360p.
It didn't cost 0 dollars to produce the video. It doesn't cost 0 dollars to manage the time of and pay the staff who upload the video. Hell, it may not even be free to upload the video too, you have no idea of the bandwidth costs which WM pays. There are some GB videos (namely those from Lemon and MattBodega) which are in HD on Youtube too, so enjoy those until you can pay.
"Hey pw2566ch. Could you upload this HD video for me?"
This is getting interesting. All I'm seeing is "the community deserves more than 320p." and "NO! Giant Bomb deserves your money". And all I have to say is...
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!
When the hell did people get so worked up over a website? No one deserves HD quality anything and websites do not deserve a damn dime from anyone. Now, let's all knock it off and play some damn games.
Oh cool. So people shouldn't get paid for their job. Real smart.
Some of the users on this site have a real twisted view of how Whiskey Media works. You're not signing their checks. You don't pay Google every time you want to search for something, do you? And no one would expect you to.
I'm not talking about them getting money from us the user. This guy said they don't deserve a dime from anyone... anyone. Anyone also means advertisers. So no money at all is what that implies.
Ugh. People on the internet always insist on being completely literal about everything. It's obvious he was just talking about user dollars.
THANK YOU! Ads are unavoidable on most websites. So no matter what, they will get their money. Now, I'm not saying that they have no right to do what they want with this website. All I'm saying is that they don't deserve my money. No one does.
GiantBomb fanboys will defend any of their decisions. Their defense? "DEAL WITH IT OR GIVE THEM MONEY!!" No.. this is the year 2011, and free users are being forced to watch GiantBomb videos off site, in 360p. It would be understandable if the videos were still on this site, and they had to pay for the bandwidth, but they aren't. They're on youtube, and the videos are still in the abysmal quality of 360p. At the very least it should be 480p if not HD. 360p is just sad.
I love the site, but I'm not going to sit here and defend that.
There's nothing to defend. People who work need to get paid. It's really that simple.
GiantBomb fanboys will defend any of their decisions. Their defense? "DEAL WITH IT OR GIVE THEM MONEY!!" No.. this is the year 2011, and free users are being forced to watch GiantBomb videos off site, in 360p. It would be understandable if the videos were still on this site, and they had to pay for the bandwidth, but they aren't. They're on youtube, and the videos are still in the abysmal quality of 360p. At the very least it should be 480p if not HD. 360p is just sad.
I love the site, but I'm not going to sit here and defend that.
There's nothing to defend. People who work need to get paid. It's really that simple.
I fail to see how putting their youtube videos in something higher than the shitfest of 360p = they don't get paid.
This is getting worse and worse they need to stop trying to force people in to memberships and let people buy memberships on their own free will
This deserves quoting. It's as if they don't have confidence in their own content so they have to put up these ridiculous restrictions to practically force people into buying subscriptions. The worst part of all of this is the culture of elitism it's created among some members (like the post above me for instance..), which is what makes your comment so great considering that you're a paid member yourself. It's insane to me that Whiskey Media likes to tout how it's an "honest and good" company, yet denies most of it's users what is, basically, a 2011 internet video standard.
GiantBomb fanboys will defend any of their decisions. Their defense? "DEAL WITH IT OR GIVE THEM MONEY!!" No.. this is the year 2011, and free users are being forced to watch GiantBomb videos off site, in 360p. It would be understandable if the videos were still on this site, and they had to pay for the bandwidth, but they aren't. They're on youtube, and the videos are still in the abysmal quality of 360p. At the very least it should be 480p if not HD. 360p is just sad.
I love the site, but I'm not going to sit here and defend that.
There's nothing to defend. People who work need to get paid. It's really that simple.
I fail to see how putting their youtube videos in something higher than the shitfest of 360p = they don't get paid.
Yes, you do do fail to see it, I agree. You seem to think that GB owes you something. You seem to think that their time isn't worth your money. You're getting free content and you're complaining.
GiantBomb fanboys will defend any of their decisions. Their defense? "DEAL WITH IT OR GIVE THEM MONEY!!" No.. this is the year 2011, and free users are being forced to watch GiantBomb videos off site, in 360p. It would be understandable if the videos were still on this site, and they had to pay for the bandwidth, but they aren't. They're on youtube, and the videos are still in the abysmal quality of 360p. At the very least it should be 480p if not HD. 360p is just sad.
I love the site, but I'm not going to sit here and defend that.
There's nothing to defend. People who work need to get paid. It's really that simple.
I fail to see how putting their youtube videos in something higher than the shitfest of 360p = they don't get paid.
Yes, you do do fail to see it, I agree. You seem to think that GB owes you something. You seem to think that their time isn't worth your money. You're getting free content and you're complaining.
So you're not going to answer? And instead make shit up in an attempt to make me look bad? Please, tell me. How exactly are they gaining money by uploading their youtube videos in the god awful quality of 360p? If you can't answer that simple question logically, I'm done speaking to you. Because all you are is a fanboy who will defend everything the staff do no matter what.
GiantBomb fanboys will defend any of their decisions. Their defense? "DEAL WITH IT OR GIVE THEM MONEY!!" No.. this is the year 2011, and free users are being forced to watch GiantBomb videos off site, in 360p. It would be understandable if the videos were still on this site, and they had to pay for the bandwidth, but they aren't. They're on youtube, and the videos are still in the abysmal quality of 360p. At the very least it should be 480p if not HD. 360p is just sad.
I love the site, but I'm not going to sit here and defend that.
There's nothing to defend. People who work need to get paid. It's really that simple.
I fail to see how putting their youtube videos in something higher than the shitfest of 360p = they don't get paid.
Yes, you do do fail to see it, I agree. You seem to think that GB owes you something. You seem to think that their time isn't worth your money. You're getting free content and you're complaining.
So you're not going to answer? And instead make shit up in an attempt to make me look bad? Please, tell me. How exactly are they gaining money by uploading their youtube videos in the god awful quality of 360p? If you can't answer that simple question logically, I'm done speaking to you. Because all you are is a fanboy who will defend everything the staff do no matter what.
This is getting worse and worse they need to stop trying to force people in to memberships and let people buy memberships on their own free will
This deserves quoting. It's as if they don't have confidence in their own content so they have to put up these ridiculous restrictions to practically force people into buying subscriptions. The worst part of all of this is the culture of elitism it's created among some members, which is what makes your comment so great considering that you're a paid member yourself. It's insane to me that Whiskey Media likes to tout how it's an "honest and good" company, yet denies most of it's users what is, basically, a 2011 internet video standard.
I hope you realize you just called the members elitists, and then you say you are "denied" a "standard" of video like its a quality of life issue.
Log in to comment