10-bit AND 8-bit video

[Squareshot]

Hi there, I rarely have time to be on the forum, so I apologize for any redundancy this message may bring.
I lost my computer in a hurricane recently, and was thrilled to pick up a WD TV Live Hub for a very low price- "'at least I can watch my anime,' he says..."  I didn't see anything in the spec's regarding its inability to handle 10-bit video streams. 
So I am now among those who are having difficulty with the 10-bit torrents stashed on an external hard drive.

In the most recent thread that I could find, it was stated that the better file will be chosen, irrespective of the bit-depth.  One or the other format (8-bit or 10-bit) will be excluded, according to an assessment of quality. 

But this doesn't seem consistent with the current practice of retaining SD offerings (C) for titles that are available in HD formats.  The discussions in this forum ultimately lead to the conclusion that 8-bit and 10-bit video streams are as distinct from each other as they are from a standard-definition DVD rip: the ability to view them is entirely contingent upon the viewers' current resources.  It seems (to me) that where a high-quality 8-bit movie is available, it should be a stand-alone format, rather than a competitor with the corresponding 10-bit file.

Again, I'm sorry if this has already been covered elsewhere.  I did as much due diligence as I could, with respect to searching these topics on the forums.

[kitamesume]

you have lost me on what you're saying, for starters theres currently no hardware player that supports 10bit videos, not on my book at least.

if you're saying that those offers of 8bit and 10bit doesn't have any distinct bounderies, yes they don't or not in this tracker site, mostly because they sample each video by eye and see which is better, sometimes they keep the inferior format but most of the time they phase it out.
it should be noted that majority of the 10bit encodes does have visible advantages in terms of quality over the 8bit encodes. at some videos though the difference is minimal, they'd then compare the audio format and file size where the better and smaller one gets the first class seat.

[Squareshot]

I'm precisely saying that hardware players- at least the one I just got- cannot handle 10-bit video streams, something I only just found out.  Files I watched on my computer will not play on the WD Hub.  When things settle down and I get a new computer, I'll likely transcode these files.

But my point is that- given the particular hardware/software capabilities that make 10-bit files usable or unusable- might we treat them as separate formats, rather than grouping them together with 8-bit files?

I understand the need for an aesthetic judgement of quality. 
Still, standard definition videos are often available alongside 1080 torrents of the same title (denoted as (a), (b), (c)...).  Quality is obviously not the deciding factor in such cases.  I'm suggesting that the video stream bit-rate might be a substantial enough variable that it defines separate types of files, rather than equivalent offerings vying for the same position in the tracker. 

I'm sure all decisions have been made, I'm not fighting the power, but I do think it's always worth assessing the definitions and criteria used as the Baka framework. 

[zherok]

It was voted on, and heavily discussed about a year ago. The ultimate decision came down to not making concessions for hardware players.

[Freedom Kira]

The WD hub was not designed for the anime world. Period. It is for the mainstream world of movies and TV shows that are encoded in conventional 8-bit video. Because really, only the anime world really gives a damn about 10-bit stuff.

If you want anime files on your TV, you need to hook up a computer with playback software, or stick to 8-bit releases.