He knew the purists on the forums hated it. They complained about the "bitrate starvation" and how the deep blacks of the film’s shadows turned into a muddy, pixelated mess of macroblocks during the library scene. They mocked the tinny 128kbps audio.

The film's use of the seven deadly sins as a motif has been particularly influential, and it has been referenced and parodied in many other films and TV shows.

The was no accident. For years, 700MB was the capacity of a standard CD-R. Even as people moved to USB drives and hard disks, that 700MB limit remained a "golden rule" for a movie that could be downloaded quickly on a DSL connection. Breaking Down the Technical String