AV1 Is Now Live on SexLikeReal!

doublevr But what about Original 8K h.265 downloads paid by subscription? Gone forever?

doublevr I think many (incl. myself) would appreciate keeping the 8K h.265 HQ download option as part of their subscription. You could even make these files smaller than they were before (like 60-90 Mbps) and still sell the AV1 downloads as an UHQ option to those who want the best possible quality.

What a joke

doublevr Eh not sure if I understand. "ppv" = Pay Per View? So you guys are taking away the original bitrate files and if we want them we can only watch them online and pay per view, do I understand that correctly?

So just that I get this right: we no longer get original bitrate files as part of our subscription? And if we want them we need to 'buy' the video for $7 per video?

Thanks

doublevr That's a significant downgrade for subscribers and a major disappointment. Taking away quality download options is upsetting.

doublevr That's applied to all subscriptions, including the lifetime?

doublevr Alright, if the AV1 is really that high of a cost in terms of time and processing and that's the reason you're charging for it individually now, then, please, get back to HEVC and make it part of our subscription.

I don't think anyone is interested in a slightly higher quality original video if it cost them more, including high quality enthusiasts like me.

Please get back to the previous subscription plans. They were and still good for everyone, including SLR itself.

doublevr

eh what? I have to echo @VRXVR & @onyxone & @SchnuppiLilac sentiments and concern. You're gonna take away our access to the full quality 8k original downloads? From all studios or just SLRO? (If it's just SLRO then... ok... much less of a big deal . Because I do appreciate the visual quality SLRO manages to pack into the efficient files. But if it's site-wide from all creators, then alarm bells are ringing, so please take my concern all the more seriously!):

I've experimented with some ffmpeg myself and found that for video in the 120-200Mbps range, I could convert them to around 50-80Mbps depending on the video, using slow preset and crf 18. Then have my 3080 render them for my Q3 - this yields a definitely higher quality experience than watching the seemingly 30Mbps-capped vids, but obviously takes up much less space than the raw 120-200Mbps files. (fwiw if the studio's original file is less than 80Mbps or so, I may not bother doing a conversion at all)

Like, I genuinely admire how y'all have managed to push streaming quality as high as it can get within the 30Mbps range ️. But it's still good to have the ability to access higher bitrate than that with our subscription if we wanted sometimes! I'd like to be able to continue tinkering in the way I described above.

Getting surprised by downgrades periodically is certainly crummy - so if this is a full cutoff and not just SLRO, please reconsider. I'm not even one to argue against reasonable limits/compromises, such as the 30 files per 144 hours - that kind of thing makes sense. If I can conjure up an example of a new potential reasonable compromise: let's say we didn't have access to the full size original video anymore, but we did have the AV1 download option be at a higher cap than the 30Mbps used for streaming, that could certainly be agreeable. Say, if the downloadable file were 50-60Mbps AV1, which in my experience is very roughly comparable to 70Mbps h265 or 100Mbps h264, I could vibe with that! (no pun intended as I don't have a haptic device )

Furthermore, another thing I have tinkered with is AI interpolation to triple frame rate with really good quality results. Of course to do this, it's desirable to start with the highest bitrate original available, rather than a compressed file. I was contemplating doing some more of these transcodes, editing together top quality slow motion clips, and then seeing what it would take to become an uploader here. My fingers are crossed for confirmation that other studios' raw/full/original files will not be gated off . Because without those starting points for my editing tests, this potential side project will lose all steam and nothing will come of it.

nogarapamerT
Just a note. NVENC Encoder is trash and destroys quality. It's great for real time encoding but not for maintaining quality. The only way to maintain quality from the HBR files is to use the CPU encoder.

nogarapamerT They've indicated several times before that a high quality download option without the ludicrous bitrate isn't going to happen, so I don't think anything is going to change there.

Funnily enough they also promised that original downloads weren't going anywhere, but now they are taking them away from premium subscribers and slapping an additional fee on them. Must be making bank off scripts and figured they could charge extra for original quality downloads too? There's a repeating pattern of subscriber benefits being reduced or removed so you have to wonder what's next to go. No doubt downloads will disappear entirely at some stage, but it's probably too soon for that right now.