Winter is here (GOT spoilers)

[Κracus]

I stream 4K from HBO directly.

[Mat Linnett]

Eraser:
While I'm not an editor, I am responsible for building and supporting post production solutions such as edit suites and the supporting network infrastructure.
There's an interesting disconnect between audio finishing suites and video finishing suites.
Audio finishers always have a reference monitor to hand; a traditionally crappy speaker, made to sound awful, so the operator can judge how their final mix sounds on bad hardware.

Video finishing suites don't feature something like this. Sure, they'll occasionally have a wall mounted telly to give them some idea of final output, but most finishing suites have what we refer to as grade 1 monitors. These are incredibly high quality monitors with exceptional colour reproduction. Note that this doesn't mean colours look better on them; rather, they accurately show the editor the colour of the scene they're working with.

There's an interesting industry blog post relating to the problems with the last episode of GoT over at RedShark.
It highlights the need for there to be some form of low bandwidth output monitor in finishing suites, and a normal telly output isn't enough. It needs to be something that takes your uncompressed or high bandwidth codec media and proceeds to squash it down a low bandwidth pipe in real-time, emulating the end viewer experience.

But at the moment, I can guarantee that none of the post production companies I work with are even contemplating using something like this. The obsession is with quality in the suite, not for the end user.

[scared?]

That episode looked great on my TV...I guess the poors need to upgrade...

[MrHarleyBen]

I personally LOVED the battle of winterfell. People are complaining it wasn't shot like they did with battle of the bastards or battle of blackwater. But I think this was the only way they could have shot this. However, I don't agree with the strategy they put to attack white walkers and sending DOTHRAKI's from front (which is another debate). Anyway coming to the topic again, whenever they give screen time to the night king or white walkers they always added a touch of nightfall to it. This is how they build the terror of whitewalkers. We never saw them coming out in sun and I was certainly not expecting the battle at day time. So stop with the complaining already. We are half way through. Just 3 more episodes and then we are going to miss the anticipation and preparation we always had for this show.

Looking forward to episode 4 and 5 and as Emilia Clarke has said, that these episodes are longer than normal and are KA-BOOM sort so I can not wait for Sunday to arrive. Also, I recently noticed that there's a option for HBO subs on Amazon prime, searched a little bit on it and I find out that you can watch game of thrones on amazon prime but its region bound. Not all can play and watch. How are you all watching Got anyway?

[Doombrain]

I stream 4K from HBO directly.

Streamed = compression

[Don Carlos]

Compression algorithms are getting better and better all the time.

Though I have just got series 1 of GOT on 4k disc, so I will let you know how it compares to my Sky Q download by the end of the bank holiday.

[Κracus]

I can tell when it's compressed vs when I'm getting a full 4K resolution. I'm not saying there's no compression at 4k either just that the image was crisp. It wasn't the quality of the image, it was purely screen glare that was my issue. All I'm saying is anything except a perfect viewing experience resulted in a non viewable episode.

[scared?]

Perfection... Me...I win...

[mrd]

I thought the episode was pretty good. At the end of the day it is just TV so some concessions have to be made. I still prefer the books. But I think they did a pretty good job and that battle scene was something else. That shit near the end with Jon Snow running around trying to avoid that undead dragon was insane :olo: I liked the behind the scenes where they talked about how they accomplished that undead dragon stuff. They even went so far as to design and build a mechatronic dragon head that spewed fire so the movement and flow of the flames looked realistic. Dedication!

The episode wasn't too dark for me... I think a lot of people who are bitching either don't know how to setup their TV, or they had a piss-poor stream. I streamed it on Crave in Canada which is probably a sub-par stream already, and it was fine. I downloaded a 1080p version of it later and it was even better again. I am sure the Bluray version of it will be way better.

Looking forward to seeing Cersei getting crushed

[Transient]

I am used to GoT episodes being super dark, so I didn't really notice anything out of the ordinary while I was watching. There have been plenty of episodes in the past that were as dark as this one. I guess I just got used to it. :shrug:

[scared?]

Watched a little of it on one of our older TV's. Lol couldn't see shit...

[Eraser]

Your eyesight is failing you, old man

[scared?]

Looks fine on the new TV...

[Captain]

Why wouldn't Daenerys just fly straight up past the trajectory of the ballistas and dive to strafe the shit out of the ships safely from behind? Poor Drogon is definitely dying in episode 6

[Κracus]

I'm wondering how she didn't see the huge ass balista on top of the army of ships headed her way. Like hey, those look like they could shoot me, oh well, let's just fly around playfully near enemy ships anyway. I feel like they're condensing episodes, like they could have had multiple seasons worth of stuff but they're instead trying to compact everything into 6 episodes. I'm guessing one of the main actors or directors is tired of it and just wants to do something else so this is the compromise.

[Captain]

Yeah it's weird the way the scene was laid out too because at first it seemed like they were in the open sea approaching Dragonstone, then all of a sudden there's this huge cliff wall hiding an entire fleet of ships that Daenerys couldn't see from way up in the sky. Lazy and poor writing for sure, but Rhaegal's death was heartbreaking

[Eraser]

but Rhaegal's death was heartbreaking

You know which dragon is which? You're one step ahead of me.
But I guess that's why it wasn't heartbreaking to me. I thought the death was kind of pointless and out-of-the-blue. Like they needed to get rid of a dragon because it wouldn't fit some kind of future narrative. Or because they used it to give the viewer the impression that Cersei really is dangerous. She really really is, please believe us before we're going to have our heroes completely crush her in episode 5!

Edit:
tbh, I'm more heartbroken about poor Tormund

[Eraser]

Oh yeah, and instead of using his farseer powers to say "eh, Euron teleported his fleet to Dragonstone again", Bran decided to show off his vintage hipster wheelchair.

[Eraser]

lol

[Captain]

Robert did all that drinking in less than a season, that's impressive :olo:

[MKJ]

[Κracus]

Seems about right. I guess if you want to take the crown away from lost for the worst last season you have to aim pretty high.

[Doombrain]

Can’t people just enjoy it for what it is

[Mat Linnett]

I think the past two seasons, it's become blatantly apparent that they're shit writers when they're no longer able to work from the books.

Still, at least it's rekindled my interest in reading the last two books, if George R.R. Martin ever gets around to finishing them.
I'm sure a lot of the main story beats will remain the same, but I doubt they'll feel as rushed.

And there's several story threads they blatantly ignored, which are far more interesting than a lot of the stuff in the past two seasons.
Lady Stoneheart, Euron having a horn that potentially controls dragons rather than ballistae, the king north of the wall (didn't die in the books; instead, got disguised by Melisandre during the burning), Rattleshirt and more focus on warging in general; loads of stuff.

[Eraser]

People are so salty. IMO GoT is still great. Sured, Euron with his ballistas was a bit meh but people are so overreacting.

Also, everyone going on about how great the books are,.really, get off your high horse. The books are bloated, long-winded and a chaotic mess with so many different storylines that don't really amount to anything. The books are too much and seriously lack focus.

And why is everyone moaning about Jon not petting the direwolf? The dog hasn't played any role of significance since season 2 and suddenly everyone is masturbating over the idea of Jon petting it? Jeez.