how much would you pay for a 10Mbit connection to the net?

[Simon F]

The only channels that have real HD content are thoses specifically produced for HD, with HD cameras or mastering, like Discovery Channel HD. If you buy the T2 Extreme Edition (only 6Mbps bitrate), and play it through an HTPC on your HDTV, it looks far better than what you get on terrestial HDTV, even though the bitrate is lower.

I was refering to video that I've seen that was specifically from a HD digital tape and so, presumably, has been telecined to the correct resolution. It's the noise presumably due to low bit rates, especially in the low frequencies, that I found objectionable.

 

[Leto]

Whats the bitrate on a DVD?

 

[Diplo]

Whats the bitrate on a DVD?

AFAIK it's variable, depending on how it was encoded (typically this is governed by how much is needed to be fitted on a disc). The maximum theoretical rate is 9.6 Mb/s but the average DVD is more likely to be around 3.5 - 4.5 Mb/s.

 

[horvendile]

Answer to original question:
Right now I pay about US$50 a month for a VDSL line that is capable of something like 12Mbs/9Mbps. So I guess I'd pay that... and a little more. But not much. Unless, of course, the only alternative is 56k modem, in which case I'd easily pay US$100 and be happy to do it.

 

[MPI]

Whats the bitrate on a DVD?

AFAIK it's variable, depending on how it was encoded (typically this is governed by how much is needed to be fitted on a disc). The maximum theoretical rate is 9.6 Mb/s but the average DVD is more likely to be around 3.5 - 4.5 Mb/s.

More like 6 - 8Mbs typically IME, but as you say, it depends on how long the movie is and how much extra material they like to cram in. Only really long movies dips down to 4Mbps.

 

[digitalwanderer]

$23us/mos.

I just got cable net access to compliment my 384/384 DSL and it's $23/mos for 4-6Mb/s.

Right now that's more than I really need for, well for anything!

I don't generally find servers out there that can keep up with what I got, so I don't see the point in paying more.

(And I only have DSL & cable because I'm in a contract for DSL for bloody $29/mos for it and I like the $23/mos for the insane cable speed over the mediocre DSL speed....I'll decide which to keep in April when my contract is up with the DSL)

 

[pcchen]

AFAIK it's variable, depending on how it was encoded (typically this is governed by how much is needed to be fitted on a disc). The maximum theoretical rate is 9.6 Mb/s but the average DVD is more likely to be around 3.5 - 4.5 Mb/s.

The maximum bitrate for DVD is 9.8 Mbit/s. However, the 9.8 Mbits/s limit includes everything, video and audio. For stereo LPCM the audio alone takes at least 1536 kbits/s (48kHz 16 bits).

MPEG-2 video on DVD is allowed to have variable bit rate, so it's common to see DVD with lower average bitrate. Using a DVD-9, a 2 hour movie can be fit in with about 9Mbit/s.

 

[Guden Oden]

and even an upconverted movie looks far better than its original

Uhm, how can "upconverted" material look "far better" than the original? It's the same amount of picture information just interpolated to fit more screen pixels. Ideally it would look exactly the same, potentially a little worse.

Anyway, multi-Mbit connections are a total waste today, very few sites give much more than 500kbyte/s download speed, quite a few are no more than 50. I got 8Mbit/s downstream and I've only come close to maxing it out (900+ kbyte/s) a handful of times.

 

[T2k]

and even an upconverted movie looks far better than its original

Uhm, how can "upconverted" material look "far better" than the original? It's the same amount of picture information just interpolated to fit more screen pixels. Ideally it would look exactly the same, potentially a little worse.

?

HINT: I have HDTV...

Anyway, multi-Mbit connections are a total waste today, very few sites give much more than 500kbyte/s download speed, quite a few are no more than 50. I got 8Mbit/s downstream and I've only come close to maxing it out (900+ kbyte/s) a handful of times.

Wrong.
Most of the sites have faster access than 128 kB/s (1mbit) or even 192 kb/s (T1) already and while you're downloading some bigger stuff - say a dvd-sized data - you can easily do anything else without slowdowns.

 

[zurich]

I pay ~$30 USD for my 5/1 connection.

you live in broadband heaven... is that Switzerland?

Canada

 

[arjan de lumens]

Anyway, multi-Mbit connections are a total waste today, very few sites give much more than 500kbyte/s download speed, quite a few are no more than 50. I got 8Mbit/s downstream and I've only come close to maxing it out (900+ kbyte/s) a handful of times.

Wrong.
Most of the sites have faster access than 128 kB/s (1mbit) or even 192 kb/s (T1) already and while you're downloading some bigger stuff - say a dvd-sized data - you can easily do anything else without slowdowns.

Given your locations, you seem to be on one side of the Atlantic Ocean, while Guden seems to be on the other side. IIRC, the transatlantic links are a rather serious bottleneck of the Internet, so that accessing US websites will be about an order of magnitude faster on your side than on Guden's side, even if both of you have the same, wide multi-Mbps connections available to you.

 

[Moloch]

50.. you guys have heard of verizons 15mb service right?

 

[{Sniping}Waste]

It sucks for me living in Dallas TX area. DSL 720/128 is $39 and thats the cheepest broadband around here.

 

[hey69]

3.3mb/640k > 15euro /month but that includes the discount i have (broadband backbone work is my job)
we will roll out Vdsl in the coming months 9mb down 256kb up and most probably it will be around 50euro a month (they will couple that with interactiv TV next year)

what i would pay is max 30euro a month , i can't afford more then that (or better, its not more worth for me )

 

[MPI]

and even an upconverted movie looks far better than its original

Uhm, how can "upconverted" material look "far better" than the original? It's the same amount of picture information just interpolated to fit more screen pixels. Ideally it would look exactly the same, potentially a little worse.

Anyway, multi-Mbit connections are a total waste today, very few sites give much more than 500kbyte/s download speed, quite a few are no more than 50. I got 8Mbit/s downstream and I've only come close to maxing it out (900+ kbyte/s) a handful of times.

Get a better ISP.

I max out my 10Mbit pipe to most of Western Europe(~1.12MB/s). The transatlantic transit connection seems to be trafficshaped per connection to about 3Mbps. That could be anywhere along the route though, I dunno.

 

[Bambers]

I pay ~$30 USD for my 5/1 connection.

you live in broadband heaven... is that Switzerland?

Sweden have 10/10 for $30/month or something like that i think.

however it is subsidised from taxes afaik so it's not just $30/month in reality.

 

[MPI]

Sweden have 10/10 for $30/month or something like that i think.

It's more like $43/£24/€35/month with the going exchange rate.

however it is subsidised from taxes afaik so it's not just $30/month in reality.

Forget that. MANs and rural digital infrastructure solutions can get minor grants, though.

 

[Deepak]

Which country has cheepest BB rates?? South Korea?
In India we consider anything >= 64 Kbps broadband...

 

[DemoCoder]

Well, I have two HDTVs (Samsung 5085w and Sanyo PLV-70 PJ), and 480p imagery upconverted to 720p doesn't look any better than 480p unconverted, either way, unless you have a crappy CRT HDTV, it has to be converted to the native resolution of the LCD, DLP, or Plasma display anyway (LCD and DLP devices must always convert all inputs to the native panel resolution), the only question is how well the scaler performs. Almost every device sold today has a DCDi Farouja scaler, so pretty much the native TV scaling, and the network upconversion is the same.

Go find a 480p Quicktime or WMV file, and full screen it on an LCD monitor, and that is essentially what you are getting with upconversion.

480i converted to 480p of course looks better because of the de-interlacing, but that's EDTV not HDTV. Many scalers can also do digital noise reduction and image enhancement (e.g. DNIe on the Samsung), which looks like you run "Auto Levels" in Photoshop, so there is some improvement, but there are also tradeoffs (lag). Discovery Theater HD compared to any upconverted and cleaned up broadcast is simply no comparison.