A standard 720p High Definition movie file (often encoded in Matroska .mkv containers) could easily exceed 4GB to 8GB. For a user on a 1 Mbps or 2 Mbps internet connection, downloading a single movie could take days. Furthermore, hard drive space was expensive. A typical laptop in 2006 might have an 80GB hard drive; storing a handful of 8GB movies was simply not feasible for the average consumer.
Encoders (release groups) discovered that by slightly upscaling the resolution from a standard DVD source (480p) to 520p, or by downsizing an HD source, they could achieve a "sweet spot." A 520p movie file could be compressed to a manageable . 520p movies
Enter the .
For many millennials, 520p was how they watched The Matrix , The Dark Knight , or the entire Harry Potter saga for the first time on a computer screen. It represents an era of transition—the move from physical A standard 720p High Definition movie file (often