Well downloading TV is almost never legal
If you stick to the commonly used definition of gb it is 1000mb. Of course the real geek will tell you that this is actually not the case

So if the average "thing" you download is around 350mb a pop than with a package of 2gb you would be able to download only 2000 / 350 = 5 things and check your email and stuff So that would mean 1 thing a week.

As in your case you probably want to download more than 1 things a week you will have to get a bigger package.

25gb would allow you to download on average 15 items a week. There are some providers that also offer you off peak free downloads. If you can get some decent speed (1 - 2mbit) and your off peak is 8 hours a day you can easily download a few things without actually eating into your usage cap. Probably is that you need to be able to time your downloads as off peak is normally from 0:00 - 8:00, there is of course scheduling software around So if you work smart you can get away with a lot of downloading without having to get a huge usage package

It's not an internet package it's usenet. Not really read about it but someone recommended it to me.

A lot of the same calculations apply though and much depends on what you're currently downloading or planning to download and in what format. A few examples:

45-minute TV episode in XVID/AVI/DIVX or similar moderate quality format: 350Mb
Same but in nominally higher quality SVCD format: 900Mb
Same but in VideoCD episode (handy for burning to CD-R and playing in your DVD player): 450Mb

Key bit I guess is working out how many programmes per week you're likely to want to download i.e. SG-1, Atlantis and Battlestar Galactica plus an allowance for trying new stuff.

Thing though is that if your broadband service is metered, you'll need to make similar allowances for that too i.e. allow 350Mb per DIVX episode on both the Usenet and Internet access services.

---

by Ming
45-minute TV episode in XVID/AVI/DIVX or similar moderate quality format: 350Mb
Same but in nominally higher quality SVCD format: 900Mb
Same but in VideoCD episode (handy for burning to CD-R and playing in your DVD player): 450MB

---

SVCD will also play on DVD players. Most people will however say that 800 - 900MB won't fit on a CD as they only fit 650 - 700MB of data. However if you want to burn a proper SVCD the MPEG file will be recoded and burned off by your burn software and it will actually fit on a 700MB data cd as thats one of the requirements for svcd releases.

Personally I don't agree that SVCD are better quality than the standard xvid releases. Quality is eventually more determined by the quality of the capper / encoder and his / her use of right filters.

Many shows nowadays are also being released in high quality caps. Because many shows are now being released in HDTV in the US there are higher quality caps available. The general HDTV xvid cap would indeed be around 350MB for a 45 minute show, however there are also caps available on higher resolutions and AC3 sound that are 700MB a piece. Even certain shows are being released in 720p format which easily makes them go into the 1.4GB range. Because these higher quality caps require more time to encode (converting the raw tv feed into the end file you download) they are normally only available about 1-2 days after the show actually airs. The 350MB avi's can normally be found within hours of the show finishing on TV.

Do keep in mind that your computer needs a bit more grunt when you want to watch the high quality caps.

---

by Ming
Thing though is that if your broadband service is metered, you'll need to make similar allowances for that too i.e. allow 350Mb per DIVX episode on both the Usenet and Internet access services.

---

A 350MB show as it eventually ends up on your harddisk is slightly bigger when you download it from the newsgroups as there is some overhead involved - not to mention downloading all the headers etc. You will also need to download some parity files if some of the "posted" files aren't fully propegated to the particular newsgroup provider you are using. So you will be downloading a bit more than the 350MB that eventually end up on your harddisk so you will need to add a little slack.

For some more info on downloading things from the newsgroups you might want to read up on Timdoc's Usenet binary downloading Guide. This website gives you all the info on the most used tools for downloading / validation / unpacking etc etc

(Edited by Chambler 02/10/2005 22:52)

---

by Chambler
(quotes)
SVCD will also play on DVD players.

---

Yep. Or at least, new ones will, I recall earlier ones (like mine!) didn't. Actually, for that matter, there's players which will play DIVX files too.

---

Personally I don't agree that SVCD are better quality than the standard xvid releases.

---

Heh. I used the word "nominally" because I can't see the difference either myself! Generally, I'll go for the 350Mb XVID/DIVX releases unless something's only available in SVCD.

---

For some more info on downloading things from the newsgroups you might want to read up on Timdoc's Usenet binary downloading Guide. This website gives you all the info on the most used tools for downloading / validation / unpacking etc etc

---

Outstanding! I've occasionally been asked about how to use Usenet binaries groups over the years and all attempts to explain have resulted in eyes glazing over... This should help!