Heroes

Woo Elephant Yeah · Post by **Woo Elephant Yeah** » November 8th, 2006, 8:30

I still can't find any info when this is on TV in the U.K.

Don't really want to

it, as both me and the missus want to watch it on T.V. and buggering about downloading DivX files and burning them onto DVD just enfuriates me, plus they always look shit on a large plasma screen.

Sheriff Fatman · Post by **Sheriff Fatman** » November 8th, 2006, 15:59

Woo Elephant Yeah wrote:I still can't find any info when this is on TV in the U.K.

With it being fairly new in 'Merka I doubt we will see any UK syndication for a few months yet. That said, it is proving to be very popular over there and I would be surprised if someone from the major channels here wasn't in talks already.

I'll add that I am becoming very faaabulous (curse you admins!) for this show (possibly connected to my current City of Spandex addiction). Having just spent an hour or so reading through the boards on the CBS site, I now have some fantastic <strike>crackpot theories</strike> interesting plot ideas on how it might pan out.

Tim Kring has stated he has a clear idea on the story for the next five years, I just hope it doesn't get too far up it's own arse and drag it all out for too long.

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » November 8th, 2006, 16:01

Sheriff Fatman wrote: Tim Kring has stated he has a clear idea on the story for the next five years, I just hope it doesn't get too far up it's own arse and turn into Lost v2.0

Fix'd.

Sheriff Fatman · Post by **Sheriff Fatman** » November 8th, 2006, 16:13

Dr. kitteny berk wrote:
Fix'd.

I did consider posting that, however I have never watched it (a show that seems simply designed around compelling you to watch it next week just to explain WTFIWBOA the previous week instantly gets the complete opposite reaction from me), so I went for the better informed option.

spoodie · Post by **spoodie** » November 8th, 2006, 16:34

Exactly why I probably wont watch beyond the end of the first season unless there's a very good reason, just like I did with Lost. At least this one seems to be heading for some closure at the end of this season.

Post by **Joose** » November 8th, 2006, 17:22

yeah, this seems a very different beast to lost. Lost had no closure at all, wheras this will at least have nuke/no nuke as an end point for the series, even if it leaves a bunch of other things open.

Post by **FatherJack** » November 8th, 2006, 22:02

Woo Elephant Yeah wrote:me and the missus want to watch it on T.V..

ditto for a few people I know.

I tried to put a couple on DVD, but the results were horrible. The c.300M files look fine on my PC monitor at 1280, but on my TV which is big, and widescreen, but only about 720 it looked awful.
Maybe my methods are flawed, and apparently there are some c.700M versions around, but since a UK channel won't buy it until there's a whole series to buy, and as an NBC exclusive likely won't be syndicated until they're screened the first series, it's probably summer next year.

As, I've said before, I'm really liking this, and I don't like anything. I'm keeping it seeded on To5, and I'll investigate making decent DVD versions again sometime.

mrbobbins · Post by **mrbobbins** » November 9th, 2006, 8:59

All the versions I have (bar ep 3 for some reason) are the 700ish mb ones, can't say I notice a huge difference when watching them on my normal telly but on a big widescreen monitor the large files are prettier

spoodie · Post by **spoodie** » November 9th, 2006, 10:01

FatherJack wrote:c.700M

Oh I see now, this means circa 700 meg. I thought it was some kind of HD TV format or something. It's a bit of an odd use of circa though.

The ones I have are 300-400M but I watched them on my laptop screen so not really an issue, still look a bit shit when the screen is mostly black.

Fear · Post by **Fear** » November 9th, 2006, 14:53

I watched the latest one last night and i'm starting to think 'meh'. It's just a lack of real plot, the sub plots are good - it just needs a more in-your-face real plot. Like actually tackling the bad guys and saving the world type stuff. It's a bit like superman with no bad guys at the moment.

Also the way the Heroes are meeting up without realising the other is a fellow hero is getting tiresome now. They need to get some action going! Start kicking some bottom as a gang.

When I first started watching I looked forward to the next episode, now not so much. Demonstrated by the 2 or so days before I watched this latest one I suppose.

Post by **Joose** » November 9th, 2006, 16:01

Fear wrote:I watched the latest one last night and i'm starting to think 'meh'. It's just a lack of real plot, the sub plots are good - it just needs a more in-your-face real plot. Like actually tackling the bad guys and saving the world type stuff. It's a bit like superman with no bad guys at the moment.

Also the way the Heroes are meeting up without realising the other is a fellow hero is getting tiresome now. They need to get some action going! Start kicking some bottom as a gang.

When I first started watching I looked forward to the next episode, now not so much. Demonstrated by the 2 or so days before I watched this latest one I suppose.

no offence, but I couldnt disagree more. Im tired of superhero type films/tv shows being all "Ive got superpowers, I must immediately spank bad guys". Also, the fact that they are taking more time over the main plot is, I think, the reason the sub-plots are so good. It gives them time to fill out the characters and so on. As long as they dont go the way of Lost, and stretch the main plot out sooooo much that you cant even imagine it ending, Im happy. Besides, as this series has proved one of ABC's biggest hits, its almost a certainty that there will be a series two, at least. There will be plenty of time for team based arse kicking.

Lateralus · Post by **Lateralus** » November 9th, 2006, 17:00

Someone mentioned up there

about screens being all black. Is this due purely to all my sweepings being 350ishMB files instead of 700ishMB ones? Or is it a codec thing? I've been meaning to ask this one for a while now, as loads of scenes in Lost are just blackness where we sit squinting at the screen, trying to guess whats going on by the sounds.

Fear · Post by **Fear** » November 9th, 2006, 17:03

Of course Joose is completely wrong.

I suppose there is a fine line between flying around in spandex and 'doing a Lost<sup>TM</sup>'. I just feel it is edging over to the 'doing a Lost<sup>TM</sup>' camp a little too far.

Sub-plots are fine building the characters up well, but sub-plots are just that, sub. Right now they are pretty much the entire plot. 7 episodes in and something should be happening with some more significance I feel. I suspect all of a sudden everything is going to tie in and we'll all be going 'fucking hell, that's amazing'. I just hope it isn't in the too distant future.

Edit: It is probably a little bit of subconscious frustration at having to wait a week also - as 95% of what I watch I download a couple of seasons and watch them back to back. Then again I don't find Battlestar losing my interest - the polar opposite in fact.

Post by **Joose** » November 9th, 2006, 17:41

Fear wrote:Of course Joose is completely wrong.

Fear wrote:Then again I don't find Battlestar losing my interest - the polar opposite in fact.

heh, that failed to keep my interest beyond 2 episodes. Different

's for different courses, I suppose.

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » November 9th, 2006, 17:45

battlestar bored my arse off too.

heroes could still go either way for me, it has potential to be great. or just fail to keep people interested.

Post by **Roman Totale** » November 9th, 2006, 17:52

I think the only problem with Heroes so far is that because episode 5 rocked like a superpowered rocking

, the subsequent episodes seemed slightly flat in comparison.

I absolutely love this show though. As I stated previously it's the only TV series that's had me on the edge of my seat.

Regarding Battlestar, I liked it first time I watched it (I actually bought it on DVD before having seen as I was bored). However, I've never managed to summon up the enthusiasm to watch any of it again.

Gunslinger42 · Post by **Gunslinger42** » November 9th, 2006, 18:27

Lateralus wrote:Someone mentioned up there about screens being all black. Is this due purely to all my sweepings being 350ishMB files instead of 700ishMB ones? Or is it a codec thing? I've been meaning to ask this one for a while now, as loads of scenes in Lost are just blackness where we sit squinting at the screen, trying to guess whats going on by the sounds.

If you think it's codecs try <a href="http://www.videolan.org/vlc/">this</a>. I never use windows media player or anything else to play video files because I got sick of getting just audio or just video. VLC seems to just play anything and everything first time, no questions asked.

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » November 9th, 2006, 18:34

http://ac3filter.sourceforge.net/
http://www.koepi.org/xvid.shtml

will make sure you have picture and sound on 99% of stuff you download (the ac3 jobbie is mostly for 700mb 5.1 rips)

however what was mentioned up there refers more to the fact divx/xvid are reasonably crappy at dealing with darker scenes (due to compression stuffs) as such, the 700mb ones will be better, while still not perfect.

Post by **FatherJack** » November 9th, 2006, 18:56

I've watched the 350M ones with VLC, and while I do have to have the lights out (and turn off my second monitor) I haven't had any bits I can't see at all.

I am a bit obsessive about watching TV in the dark though, ever since I was a kid and the bright sunlight reflecting on the TV screen always ruined my enjoyment of Scooby Doo.

Sheriff Fatman · Post by **Sheriff Fatman** » November 10th, 2006, 17:43

Lateralus wrote:Someone mentioned up there about screens being all black. Is this due purely to all my sweepings being 350ishMB files instead of 700ishMB ones? Or is it a codec thing? I've been meaning to ask this one for a while now, as loads of scenes in Lost are just blackness where we sit squinting at the screen, trying to guess whats going on by the sounds.

I think it has something to do with the way files are compressed.

When files are compressed, the compression software takes each frame as a whole. Rather than converting each pixel it takes areas of similar colour and re-colours them en mass. If you have a particularly dark scene, I would suppose that the compression would make the scene overly dark because it is quite dark in the first place.

You can see this in action if you watch areas of block colour on any swept file, it should look quite crappy (i.e.: very square areas of colour). Amplified by the res (or screen size) on a wide-screen, it would probably look bloody dreadful.

Sweeping the larger files might help, however a compressed torrent will never be as good a quality as an original version.

Check the size of any 'official' DVD, and the file sizes will be very different.

/limited first hand experience blog