Anime Central 2009 AMV Contest Rules & Submission Guidelines

[ngsilver]

An advanced warning and announcement for anyone who is planning on using FTP to send in their entry.

I will be moving physical locations starting on April 11th and ending on April 15th. This will include the FTP server which will need to move with me when I make the move. I at this time do not know which of those days will be the day that I move the physical server, so let it be known that anytime during those days the server may be unavailable. I will work to make the move as quick as possible to lessen the impact upon users trying to get their videos in last minute. I will also try to make an announcement right before I take the server offline.

I am stating this now in hopes that those of you who are working on videos may decide to hurry up and submit them. Last minute entrants may find a crowded and slow server (the bandwidth at my new address will not be as fast as my current one) so it would be best that you get your entries in sooner rather then later. However if the impact is great enough I may allow use of a separate off site server in order to help with the demand, but will have greater restrictions then the current server.

As always, if you have any troubles let me know.

[Castor Troy]

Sent an ftp request.

[outlawed]

Just sent a batch of e-mails out directing people to check the status of their entry on the contest database site.
http://contests.ngsilver.com/login.htm

You can contact me if you have any questions about tech issues.

From now on e-mail updates won't be sent. Just check the site to know the status of your entry.

[Castor Troy]

Just sent a batch of e-mails out directing people to check the status of their entry on the contest database site.
http://contests.ngsilver.com/login.htm

You can contact me if you have any questions about tech issues.

From now on e-mail updates won't be sent. Just check the site to know the status of your entry.

Ugh, I need to fix the audio sampling frequency AGAIN?

[outlawed]

You weren't the only one. There have been a few MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 files with slightly off specs. I expected this with MPEG-4 since it's new this year and the video frame size requirements differ from MPEG-2 entries. I wanted to open up the submissions more this year with the addition of MPEG-4. It's a popular format and a lot of folks are using it now.

In general I know people may think I quibble on some of this stuff but there are reasons I drafted the reqs as they are. Ever since I was involved in tech at Acen I've had a pretty strong lockdown on those entry requirements. This has helped in several ways not just for our staff but those who enter the contest. You have a much better idea of what we need and the product you will see shown at the con because of those rules. Believe me. You want me doing as little conversion work as possible because I would not perform QC anywhere to the level that you can =p

I expect if it's an older video people are submitting they had the sense to keep a master version. Now some people don't do proper archiving of a master version of their own projects (which is sad after all that great effort and time put in but that's another story). In a case like that I would expect they contact us to at least discuss things instead of just randomly sending me stuff that is slightly "off" because they know hey con X took it so it must be OK for Acen.

At least no one has ever complained about me butchering their AMV so I must be doing something right ^_^

Of course now that I've been running off at the mouth here I suppose I'll have to be prepared for complaints after Acen about how I ruined some AMVs

[ngsilver]

If your video has been disqualified and you wish to re-submit your fixed entry using FTP you simply need to just request another FTP account for that video following the steps outlined in the rules. No other special requests for favors need to be put in.

[chui101]

Couple of questions... A bit late now for me, since I've already gone and uploaded, but I guess I can always fix it if it will be a problem.
1 - Will the playback equipment have any overscan? Sometimes I have text outside the title/action safes... will this be a problem?
2 - Will the audio processing equipment attempt to decode Dolby PLII or anything like that? I am mixing down a 5.1 channel audio track and would like to know if a particular method is preferred - PLII, HRTF, etc.

[outlawed]

Couple of questions... A bit late now for me, since I've already gone and uploaded, but I guess I can always fix it if it will be a problem.
1 - Will the playback equipment have any overscan? Sometimes I have text outside the title/action safes... will this be a problem?
2 - Will the audio processing equipment attempt to decode Dolby PLII or anything like that? I am mixing down a 5.1 channel audio track and would like to know if a particular method is preferred - PLII, HRTF, etc.

Never put anything outside the title/action safe areas. If we have showings running from a DVD mastered version it won't show up.

Audio should be in stereo. There is no mixing beyond 2 channels for L/R.

[Castor Troy]

Can't seem to connect to the ftp..

ngsilver, I thought you were gonna move around the 11th which is tomorrow.

[ngsilver]

That is true. Apparently the server crashed right after I went to bed last night. It is back up and running now.

For all intents and purposes, consider the moving date for the FTP server to be the 14th. I will post something about it before I take it down. However I will still be moving furniture and things this weekend, so please be patient if your FTP requests take longer then 24 hours to get full filled due to me turning off external VNC connections in hopes of making the PC more stable. (it seems certain programs taxing the server causes it to crash from time to time)