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Game of Thrones leak and watermark: a stupid tracking system

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Re: Game of Thrones leak and watermark: a stupid tracking system

#211

Post by zevyoura »

aamar wrote: post #178
damon_c wrote: post #63

How about a scheme where some selection of 16 shots throughout either are or aren't missing a single frame? You could number 65k unique distributions that way and the overall length would rarely be affected by more than a frame or two. It could be implemented with a pretty easy python script.

Speaking as a former film/tv editor, one frame here or there can definitely affect the pacing and feel of a scene. Yes, sometimes external constraints—broadcast formats, licensing issues—can force compromises, but it's still an artistic decision where to cut a frame and where to keep one. Much better to adjust coloring slightly in central but low entropy parts of occasional, appropriate frames, sort of like Omron rin…

Now I'm eagerly awaiting a colorist jumping into this conversation to tell us why that would be unacceptable. (Agreed that it's probably less of an issue to encode data in color than timing, but it just strikes me as funny how we've passed the buck from programmer > editor > colorist)

Re: Game of Thrones leak and watermark: a stupid tracking system

#212

Post by IMcD23 »

InclinedPlane wrote: post #204
iron_ball wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anyone who was going to get hooked on Game of Thrones is hooked, and anyone who is still on the fence isn't likely to torrent the leaked episodes. Incompetence is a better explanation, I think.

I think that statement is really rather silly. It's a bit like saying "anyone who is going to drink coke is already drinking coke". There's a ring of truth to it, but it still falls flat. Edit: a few things: arguments based on the behavior of "the majority" and arguments founded on the principle that 100% of all people who have ever been Game of Thrones viewers are completely and utterly committed to viewing every si…

Except for the fact that this is a TV show, and the majority of people who want to begin watching it will want to start at the beginning with season 1.

Re: Game of Thrones leak and watermark: a stupid tracking system

#213

Post by mattchamb »

InclinedPlane wrote: post #204
iron_ball wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anyone who was going to get hooked on Game of Thrones is hooked, and anyone who is still on the fence isn't likely to torrent the leaked episodes. Incompetence is a better explanation, I think.

I think that statement is really rather silly. It's a bit like saying "anyone who is going to drink coke is already drinking coke". There's a ring of truth to it, but it still falls flat. Edit: a few things: arguments based on the behavior of "the majority" and arguments founded on the principle that 100% of all people who have ever been Game of Thrones viewers are completely and utterly committed to viewing every si…

I don't watch game of thrones. If I was going to start watching it, I would start at the beginning of the series instead of just jumping straight into the leaked episodes. By the time I get to the latest season, they would be formally released.

Re: Game of Thrones leak and watermark: a stupid tracking system

#214

Post by whelden »

Nothing based on time is as simple as this article implies. When movies are ripped, they tend to have slight adjustments in playback speed as a side effect, and not necessarily at a constant rate; it can result in a total language change of a couple seconds. Any playback type analysis needs to be based on frames.

Re: Game of Thrones leak and watermark: a stupid tracking system

#215

Post by whelden »

Nothing based on time is as simple as this article implies. When movies are ripped, they tend to have slight adjustments in playback speed as a side effect, and not necessarily at a constant rate; it can result in a total language change of a couple seconds. Any playback type analysis needs to be based on frames.

Re: Game of Thrones leak and watermark: a stupid tracking system

#216

Post by anigbrowl »

iron_ball wrote: post #196
anigbrowl wrote: post #188

Next iteration would be changing the length of each scene by a few milliseconds. One can count that the first episode holds s=18 scenes. Each scene lasts several minutes. Once again each copy can be made shorter or longer by a couple milliseconds, providing a unique fingerprint for each version sent. This sort of thing makes it hard for me to take any of the article seriously. The author doesn't seem to know the firs…

Anyone who was going to get hooked on Game of Thrones is hooked, and anyone who is still on the fence isn't likely to torrent the leaked episodes. Incompetence is a better explanation, I think.

Do you not realize how complex the workflow pipelines are for a film or TV series of any kind? And how shows involving a lot of special effects like GoT are orders of magnitude more complex? For the publicity and marketing side of things we like to send actors out on talk shows to talk about character and costumes and drama and so on, and maybe show a few shots of a giant camera on a greenscreen stage to talk about how innovative things are, but there's a vast amount of painstaking digital troubleshooting and assembly work by hundreds of people involved in the manufacture of the product. I think you underestimate the degree of engineering knowledge that obtains in the entertainment industry, and at how many different levels that engineering knowledge is applied.

Re: Game of Thrones leak and watermark: a stupid tracking system

#217

Post by m3rc »

mattchamb wrote: post #213
InclinedPlane wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that statement is really rather silly. It's a bit like saying "anyone who is going to drink coke is already drinking coke". There's a ring of truth to it, but it still falls flat. Edit: a few things: arguments based on the behavior of "the majority" and arguments founded on the principle that 100% of all people who have ever been Game of Thrones viewers are completely and utterly committed to viewing every si…

I don't watch game of thrones. If I was going to start watching it, I would start at the beginning of the series instead of just jumping straight into the leaked episodes. By the time I get to the latest season, they would be formally released.

Yeah I'm with you, tho only people who seemed interested in the leaked episodes were big fans.

Re: Game of Thrones leak and watermark: a stupid tracking system

#219

Post by Phlarp »

anigbrowl wrote: post #195
avn2109 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Arms race? The entertainment industry has cantered out onto the jousting pitch with their horse and lance. Meanwhile illegal distribution is calibrating the laser cannons in their orbital battle station and dispatching their aircraft carrier battle groups.

The entertainment industry operates some 40 actual satellites that were put up into space using actual rockets, engages in petabyte-scale asset management as a matter of course, and constantly reworks its content acquisition pipelines as new digital and analog technologies come to market. We're a little bit more technologically sophisticated than you seem to imagine.

>reworks its content acquisition pipelines as new digital and analog technologies come to market.

I would have gladly paid them to watch a stream at 8pm last night, yet somehow that still isn't an option in 2015.

Instead I ended up with 4 episodes from a torrent at 8:15. Tell me more about embracing new technology as it comes to market.

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