Movies

Yesterday YouTube doubled the upload limit available to users in response the increasing number of high definition videos that are being sent to the site. Now you can upload a 2G file, instead of a 1G file. YouTube has made it easier to upload a high definition file as well. According to Liz Gannes at NewTeeVee.com, YouTube has done this because “HD videos are now becoming a significant part of the YouTube library”.

They look gorgeous, no doubt. Check out this trailer from Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. Click the full screen button to see the full impact. It’s really darned impressive.

Don’t expect to see a lot of Canadian high definition content, however. Not that there aren’t people in this country shooting high definition video, who might have a strong desire to share that video. It’s simply a matter of bandwidth and usage caps. All broadband providers in Canada, excepting a few small outfits in Vancouver, cap usage at between 50 and 150G of transfer per month, and restrict upload speeds to under 1 megabit per second, except Shaw who have raised their upload limit to a meagre 2 megabits. We’d be in our graves before YouTube received our videos at these speeds.

	Uplink Speed	Downlink Speed	Monthly Allowance	Price
Rogers “Extreme Plus”	1Mbps	16Mbs	95G	$99.99
Bell Internet “Max 16”	1Mbs	16Mbs	100G	$72.95
Telus “High Speed Turbo”	1Mbs	10 – 15Mbs	100G	$43
Shaw “High Speed Warp”	2Mbs	25Mbs	150G	$94
Videotron “Ultimate Speed Internet 50”	1Mbs	50Mbs	100G	$89.95

Pathetic, no? Even worse, most of the small business offerings from these providers consist of repackaged residential service, with a better service agreement and a higher price.

Does it matter if a few people can’t upload video? Perhaps not, unless you’re a Canadian culture supporter or Heritage Minister James Moore. But what about the other impacts of capped usage and restricted upload bandwidth – the economic and environmental impacts? Applications like VPN, remote desktop, and VoIP are the cornerstones of telecommuting strategies. Those applications are dependent on high speed upload as well as download. When telecommuting is impaired, it has an economic impact to business, and an environmental impact on society. We should all care about that!

So how about it Rogers, Bell, Telus, Shaw and Videotron? Download speeds have increased steadily over the last decade, but we’ve had upload speeds of under 1Mbs since the dawn of broadband. Shouldn’t we have better?

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I discovered Flixster last night, and instantly fell in love.Â Here’s a social network built around watching movies, something which we at the Saunders household do lots.Â The premise is really simple: join, convince your friends to join, share, rate, and watch movies together.Â As you watch them, your preferences are accumulated, and together you can separate your personal dogs from your personal favorites.

I got some fabulous responses to the invitations I sent, like the one from an old friendÂ below:

But before I go there, I can tell you that I like complex quirky films like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Garden State, and Wild at Heart and Memento and Total Recall.Â I like the poetry of Lost in Translation and The Virgin Suicides. I like the mood of The Dead (based on James Joyce’s novel), and the intensity of Black Hawk Down and The Professional, and the tradition of The Homecoming and It’s A Wonderful Life, the humour of Airplane and The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle, the romance of Notting Hill and The Titanic, the integrity of Fahrenheit 911, the action of Dawn Patrol and Angels One Five and Apollo 13 and True Lies, the heart of Rocky, the drama of The Insider and Quiz Show and Beautiful Mind and Erin Brockovich and Philadelphia and The Firm, the art of The Fifth Element and Blade Runner and Excalibur and Natural Born Killers…..Â Â Â Wait, wait, I’m out of breath….Â oh, and Dr. Strangelove, and the original Lolita with Sue Lyon.Â There are just so many great films…..Â Â I also like most of the great new animated films like Shrek and Ice Age and Finding Nemo, many of which come from Pixar.

Did I mention The Professional?Â I would say it’s one of my favorites. I have always liked Gary Oldman’s work, and this is where I started to like Natalie Portman.Â Â I particularly do not like films that exploit torture such as Seven and the sequel to Silence of the Lambs.

Now, I justÂ need a few more friends.Â If you’d like to join my Flixster network, click here.Â

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