The new Top Gear

[Sport-Tech]

Originally Posted by thorlius

I have no bandwidth cap, so always 720p or greater here. Had no issues.

Smaller carriers that buy the big guys' stuff in wholesale = better packages at better prices, typically with better customer service too.

Originally Posted by voyager2285

No issue here as well, 720 from finalgear

Phhhhft! 720p is for wussies.

1080 all the way. You have to wait a few days for it to show up on Finalgear, but does it ever look incredible (at least on my 30" monitor).

[Sport-Tech]

I found the review a bit disappointing - I would have liked to have heard them talk about any differences in handling they found between the twins. Clarkson's lack of commentary on that topic leads me to infer he found them the same (well that plus his eeny-meany-miny-mo routine).

[thorlius]

Originally Posted by Sport-Tech

Phhhhft! 720p is for wussies.

1080 all the way. You have to wait a few days for it to show up on Finalgear, but does it ever look incredible (at least on my 30" monitor).

Only a 30" monitor? Phhhhft! My computer's second monitor is my 60" LCD TV. :P

Honestly though, I'm pretty sure the 1080i posts are just upscaled and upconverted from the 720p TV source using an algorithm that VLC can do nearly as well on the fly. Unless the Brits are airing 1080i resolution TV channels, unlike us in North America.

[Word]

When you are Jeremy Clarkson and you spend your days looking at Pagani Zonda's and Koenigsegg CCX's then sure, the BRZ looks a bit bland. But when you're a Canadian and spend your days looking at steel-rimmed minivans and Buick Century's then it looks amazing...

All relative.

[Sport-Tech]

Originally Posted by thorlius

Only a 30" monitor? Phhhhft! My computer's second monitor is my 60" LCD TV. :P

Honestly though, I'm pretty sure the 1080i posts are just upscaled and upconverted from the 720p TV source using an algorithm that VLC can do nearly as well on the fly. Unless the Brits are airing 1080i resolution TV channels, unlike us in North America.

Uhhggg - TVs as monitors - I'll pass, I don't want to go blind. 2560 by 1600 on my Dell 3011 is double the res of an HDTV.

NA HDTV standards differ by network. Fox uses 720p - the claim is it is better for high action sports to go with p rather than i, although that has been shot down in empirical testing. ABC also goes 720p; CBS and NBC use 1080i. Most premium stations use 1080i.

A quick Google shows that the standards in Europe are a complicated mess. What the native Top Gear HD resolution is isn't entirely clear, but Wikipedia gives the BBC HD res as follows:

The UK broadcasts are typically at a resolution of 1440x1080i and encoded in MPEG-4 H.264/AVC on satellite and terrestrial television and in MPEG-2 on cable. Although it is not 1920x1080, the resolution is within European Broadcasting Union specifications for HD.

If true the VLC upscale will not be as good since 1440 X 1080 is still better than 720. I'll have to do an A/B to see if the VLC upscale is as good as the 1080i distributed on Finalgear. Doubtful though as even if the 1080 version is an upscale from 720p, VLC still has to do it in real time vs. a transcode.

[wparsons]

Originally Posted by thorlius

I have no bandwidth cap, so always 720p or greater here. Had no issues.

Smaller carriers that buy the big guys' stuff in wholesale = better packages at better prices, typically with better customer service too.

I grab the SD rips for storage reasons, I've got every episode ever aired (specials included) and to keep the HD rips instead of SD would triple the storage needed. It's already 100gb as it stands, no need to be excessive about it The SD rips look fine on a 40" 1080p TV, so it doesn't bother me. Sure the 720 or 1080i rips look better, but meh.

Originally Posted by stateless

I liked their review but I always find it funny whenever a review says the styling is bland. Tell that to the rubber-neckers I see every day on the 10 minute drive to work and back. I'm not talking a small glance, more like hanging out the window, stopping walking and staring with head following car, excitedly pointing etc. The car's six months old, but people still seem to find it interesting enough to look at. It's not like mine's the only one in the city or something either, I see them around.

I've house/car sat for a relative with a 993 as a daily driver with a pretty loud exhaust and I get WAY more looks in my car than I did in the 993.

I've also had at least a few dozen people ask me questions at stop lights, it was way worse when I first got it because people hadn't seen one in person yet.