House of Cards

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Foggy

Ahn'Qiraj Raider
6,218
4,789
I really like this show, and even the things I thought would be annoying (Spacey talking the camera, his inconsistent accent, etc.) didn't really bother me at all. Underwood is likable in spite of the things he does, and they did a very good job with his relationship with his wife.

And then I watched E10...

Just once I'd like to watch a 'root for the bad guys' show or movie without them eventually turning on each other. It's fucking infuriating that there's some sort of unwritten rule of Hollywood that the same goddamn thing must happen in every screenplay of this type.
That depends on who you qualify as the bad guy. I believe there are two ways to view the characters in the show. Either they are all varying levels of bad guys or Frank is the one and only bad guy (maybe David too) and everybody else are a bunch of self obsessed assholes.

Really, the closest thing to a good guy of the main characters is Peter. He seems to genuinely care about the people from his district and tries to make amends for his faults and mistakes.

I think the show has just one true bad guy, Frank. It is about him stomping around a land full of scumbags conquering everything in his path.
 

Agraza

Registered Hutt
6,890
521
Yea, they've done it with a few brands too. I can live with it.

Apple would have you think every computer in the world is an Apple from what we see on film. Yet walk into an office building and chances are high it's wall to wall IBM compatibles.
 

Foggy

Ahn'Qiraj Raider
6,218
4,789
Why are some people bothered by product placement? Product placement gets things made.
 

Tarrant

<Prior Amod>
15,516
8,969
Yeah I've never been bothered by it either, I feel like your nitpicking if you're going to complain about it in something as great as this show.
 

antoine_sl

shitlord
26
0
I think nonintrusive is fine, but a 30 second non sequitur is pretty disingenuous when you say "no ad breaks, no interruptions, etc"
 

Loser Araysar

Chief Russia Correspondent / Stock Pals CEO
<Gold Donor>
74,079
145,412
I noticed that they were using iphones and macbooks but I never thought to myself "hey, product placement", more like "yeah, it makes sense that people with money would use high end notebooks and phones".
 

Selix

Lord Nagafen Raider
2,149
4
While I am sure it was product placement I would say that macs aren't as uncommon as all that. I have been considering getting a Mac laptop for the wife because I am tired of restoring backups every time she gets a virus.
 

Drinsic

privileged excrementlord
5,612
5,872
Apple product placement just makes me laugh, the only really annoying shit was the PS Vita.
 

Cor_sl

shitlord
487
0
This show is incredible. I've binged on the first 7 episodes over the past few days and I've been loving it. Netflix instant watch quality is pretty shitty, though. This show deserves better. Hopefully it gets a blu-ray release at some point.
 

Loser Araysar

Chief Russia Correspondent / Stock Pals CEO
<Gold Donor>
74,079
145,412
This show is incredible. I've binged on the first 7 episodes over the past few days and I've been loving it. Netflix instant watch quality is pretty shitty, though. This show deserves better. Hopefully it gets a blu-ray release at some point.
were you watching it in HD quality or regular quality?

not sure how blu ray would really improve the video quality. its already looks great in HD.
 

Cor_sl

shitlord
487
0
were you watching it in HD quality or regular quality?

not sure how blu ray would really improve the video quality. its already looks great in HD.
HD.

There's been banding issues, compression artifacts and dropped frames/pulldown issues, too. There seems to be a difference in colours between the broadcast version and the netflix version, too (http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/6171). I'm not sure which of the two is 'correct', though.

Unfortunately, the Netflix encodes lack the bitrate needed to do a show like this justice. It'll look a lot better on blu-ray.
 

Selix

Lord Nagafen Raider
2,149
4
HD.

There's been banding issues, compression artifacts and dropped frames/pulldown issues, too. There seems to be a difference in colours between the broadcast version and the netflix version, too (http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/6171). I'm not sure which of the two is 'correct', though.

Unfortunately, the Netflix encodes lack the bitrate needed to do a show like this justice. It'll look a lot better on blu-ray.
Odd this didn't happen to me. I watch the first half of the season via my computer then the last half through my Xbox360 netflix on my 50" HDTV. The quality was much better then I expected though my tv only goes up to 1080i.
 

Tarrant

<Prior Amod>
15,516
8,969
Yeah the Vita thing was pretty obvious.

Underwood uses a Blackberry though, not an iPhone, so they aren't everywhere on the show.
 

Agraza

Registered Hutt
6,890
521
I totally forgot about the Vita thing. Yea, that was bad. I just rolled my eyes and thankfully it was over in a moment.
 

Asshat Brando

Potato del Grande
<Banned>
5,346
-478
Started watching yesterday and just finished now. Definitely will second that it's a great show but I'm not sure it's at The Wire/Deadwood type level.

I think it's a bit contrived that Zoe starts going after Underwood just because Janine tells her she fucked for stories earlier to and then when word leaked she got nothing

The real question should be who on the set saved those Blackberry pics of Kate Mara on the bed and how do we find this person to make a deal on getting those?????
 

Vorph

Bronze Baronet of the Realm
10,944
4,641
HD.

There's been banding issues, compression artifacts and dropped frames/pulldown issues, too. There seems to be a difference in colours between the broadcast version and the netflix version, too (http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/6171). I'm not sure which of the two is 'correct', though.

Unfortunately, the Netflix encodes lack the bitrate needed to do a show like this justice. It'll look a lot better on blu-ray.
It depends on the device you're watching it on. PS3 gets the best encoding Netflix offers, at full 1080p with 5.1 audio, and there's no visible artifacts at all. Sony had an exclusive contract on that for a long time, but I believe that it has since opened up to Roku boxes and some (Samsung?) blu-ray players that have streaming support. The PC version will always be lower quality, because they know that there's nothing they can do to prevent someone from ripping the stream out of Silverlight. Last I heard, the 360 was still somewhere in between.
 

Cor_sl

shitlord
487
0
It depends on the device you're watching it on. PS3 gets the best encoding Netflix offers, at full 1080p with 5.1 audio, and there's no visible artifacts at all. Sony had an exclusive contract on that for a long time, but I believe that it has since opened up to Roku boxes and some (Samsung?) blu-ray players that have streaming support. The PC version will always be lower quality, because they know that there's nothing they can do to prevent someone from ripping the stream out of Silverlight. Last I heard, the 360 was still somewhere in between.
Ah, ok. I was watching it on my PC through the Netflix site. I'll give the PS3 a go. Cheers.