Perhaps this is close to what you want:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefox_Sync

The immediate problem with this article is that it uses the Sorenson encoder rather than the state-of-the-art x264 encoder for h.264. If x264 was used, the h.264 encodes would demonstrate higher quality and the quality conclusions would most likely be more in favor of h.264. Since x264 is both the best h.264 encoder, and FOSS, it is the ultimate benchmark for any new video codec implementations, and that should be used. The point of VP8 however is that it is now the best free video codec, replacing Theora in that category (which is still being improved and will probably remain relevant in some niche scenarios still). The quality of VP8 is likely not going to surpass h.264, even with open source tinkering, but it will still revolutionize the web through html5 video, it will achieve widespread software support in a matter of a few months, and your devices will pick up support in a year or so (the next generation hardware). VP8 is free, and good enough to be in the ballpark of h.264 even if it is not as good. And that is a huge win.

I agree that if Microsoft is Sauron, Adobe is Saruman. If the FOSS hobbits are going to take down Microsoft, we're gonna have to deal with Adobe first. Whenever someone comes to me with questions about whether they can/should switch to Linux, I ask them if they make heavy use of Adobe stuff and games. If they do, I tell them to hold out. In other news, VLMC (NLE from Videolan) will be released soon, shortly after VLC 1.1 makes it out the door, let's see if they can change the picture a little. Then later this year we're supposed to see GIMP with the new UI...

Forget super download rates. It's about upload rates today. An 10mbit ul rather than a 1mbit ul will allow you to become a producer of services on the internet too rather than only a consumer.

With my 5mbit upload on Fiber, I run a 24/7 box that provides these services:

1- A torrent seedbox (utorrent web interface) for me and close friends to use whenever behind connections that block torrents, like dorms, workplaces etc. It's not blazing speed but you can get a damn movie to watch in an hour rather than never.
2- A Filezilla FTP server to push out the torrents downloaded, and for my personal files like short films that I created and would like to share without handing it over to some Tube site.
3- A Mumble voice chat server.

All the while having enough ul bandwidth left over for the 4 PC's that share this line to surf comfortably and play online games.

This is not possible with 1mbit ul.

But you not having to pay rent _is_ an essential part of commie no money ideology. Remember that surplus value is typically seized from those who produce it, i.e. workers, in the form of profit (industry), rent (land) and interest (money).

AFAIK The first game to introduce the Heroes of Might and Magic style turn based map control + combat. Sophisticated mana and xp system for each unit, and you have to chase down on the map and kill on the battlefield the one enemy Hero while keeping your Hero safe. Majestic intro and great atmosphere throughout the game. 1991 - Ubisoft http://www.lemonamiga.com/?mainurl=http%3A//www.lemonamiga.com/games/details.php%3Fid%3D245

On2, which rapidly releases new spec generations, is currently at VP8 and this is supposed to compete with h.264. AFAIK no one has seen an actual VP8 encoder released to the public, so the comparativ quality is unknown.
The secret about vido codecs is that the implementation and ongoing optimization is more important than the spec itself anyway. Just look at how far XVID has come despite being based on a 10 year old standard. Similarly, Theora was based on VP3, but it is extremely tuned and updated to this day. So Theora is already closer to h.264 (although not on par) than anything from On2 up to VP7 at the moment. VP7 was comparable to h.264 when the h.264 implementations sucked (circa 2005), but so was XVID! since then h.264 implementations, especially x264 has made strides, eclipsing VP7 (and XVID etc).
The moral of the story is that even if VP7 is made open source, it is only comparable to Theora quality anyway, I doubt there is enough room for improvement in that spec to compete with h.264. VP8 probably has more potential, but all we have ar On2's claims and (biased) demonstrations so far. VP8 open sourced + Google pouring in development effort could produce the breakthrough in 1-2 years, who knows.. But nothing from On2 is the holy grail ATM.

..and yet no one can ABX it. unless you have Monster Cables (TM) ofcourse ;)

The 30-fps-is-all-you-can-see myth was probably born of the notion that the illusion of continuous movement starts to set in around 25-30fps (in film for example). Therefore actually 30fps is the minimum you need rather than the maximum you can perceive.
I could tell in a glance the difference between 72fps and 100fps (both common refresh rates that translate to the max fps when v-sync is on) in Counter-Strike just by briefly moving the mouse to pan the scene.
This site has had the definitive explanation on this issue for a long time, along with many other useful faqs: http://www.100fps.com/how_many_frames_can_humans_see.htm

Newcomers.. ofcourse GSpot exists. http://www.headbands.com/gspot/
It's just discontinued and we all use this now instead: http://mediainfo.sourceforge.net/en

What they do is merely an up-to-date trick of the tradeless. Beggars, hobos, petty thieves with an internet connection. A criminal enterprise ofcourse, but reverse-baiting them in vigilante fashion just reeks of classism and racism. I don't find it not much funnier than putting monopoly bills in a beggar's can.

I suggest anyone seriously interested in our energy future to take the time to go through this report called "Technofixes" by CorporateWatch UK
http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/?lid=3126
According to this report, only wind and solar come out as having the potential to be both socially desirable and effective in combatting climate change. Hypothetical 4th generation nuclear reactors, even if decided upon, would be too little too late because it takes long to deploy at great up-front cost, and the waste problems remain unsolved (despite what you may hear about the magic of breeder reactors etc.)

Agreed. I'm secretly hoping the Videolan folks will prove to be the ones to get it right. We need something stable, cross-platform (including Windows!) and compatible for starters. If VLMC can be to the NLE world what Avidemux is to the simple video editors world, that will be an important step in improving the viability of Linux. Anything that challenges Premiere and Vegas is good.

Having recently struggled with some 1080p AVCHD files, I know where you are coming from. Unless you're running something like a i7, you need either some GPU dxva / Cuda magic or some multithreaded cpu magic to play back these high bitrate files. In the open source world, currently that means turning to MediaPlayerClassic-HC for dxva, or enabling the experimental ffmpeg-mt decoder in ffdshow for multithreaded decoding. I'm not sure about MPlayer. VLC is based on the ffmpeg stable branch, so hopefully when ffmpeg-mt becomes stable, VLC will take advantage of that. No ETA of this though.