Official AMV Distribution Center - Online

Red Wolf · Post by **Red Wolf** » Mon Jun 02, 2003 3:22 pm

Well I'm back from JACON and as promised the Distro is back up and running and better than ever. We are taking requests again and we have a new Request Form you can download which has all the information you'd need to request some CDs.

New CDs:

AMV Distribution Center Sample CDs (two CD set)
Anime Expo 2002 Contest Winners (with hopefully more contest CDs to come)
Kevin Caldwell - Complete Collection (proxy entry)
Random Variable Productions 2

New Item:

AMV CD Spindle (50 great AMV CDs in one request)

danielwang · Post by **danielwang** » Tue Jul 22, 2003 12:02 am

Here's an idea for increasing efficiency:

Recommended components:
Install IIS (MySAP plugins), MS-SQL, Nero, NeroAPI, Perl, etc.
These come standard in Windows .NET Gundam Bloatware Ed.

Recommended setup:
All CD content is copied to disk as data (if ISO) or images (Other). Folder is indexed using Indexing service and XML tagges. Order form uses ID codes for files and allows custom CD ordering - ISO, on-demand VCD creation, hybrid, foldering, etc.

IIS application pool is created with an ASP.NET module for web interface which writes to database.
Database is run with realtime Service code which does 2 thing - calls a cleanup function every n days to delete orders after n days. It also has a realtime call to a Microsoft .NET procedure to export the database data to XML and calla Perl script.

Client must use a standard order ticker with a Job ID. When package arrives, run the .Net procedure with job number to convert to XML format. Perl script converts XML to Nero config file or just proprietary XML if using NeroAPI (files are purged later). Nero Command Line is called for config file and burns a CD. CD is placed into return package (keep it by the burner) and mailed quickly.

Only worth it if you need to allow custom jobs or are doing more than 5 CDs a day, but otherwise a good investment. Why aren't we using Open Souce CD burning software to make it easier? Because Linsux, BSD, etc crash too often.

Just an idea.

Cheers,
Daniel Wang

Red Wolf · Post by **Red Wolf** » Tue Jul 22, 2003 8:07 am

Sounds like a good idea. One problem. I'm a Mac OS X user

Thanks for trying, though 8)

danielwang · Post by **danielwang** » Tue Jul 22, 2003 9:31 am

Red Wolf wrote:Sounds like a good idea. One problem. I'm a Mac OS X user

Thanks for trying, though 8)

Thanks for your time;

Just so you know, Mac OS X is actually based off of BSD (Berkley Standard Software Distribution), which is a unix-based system. It support shell scripting and Perl, as well as AppleScript.

iTunes playlists are already XML, and if you're using iDVD (G4s have DVD burners, don't they) anythime, the project file is XML as well.
If you have plenty of space to use, just let users make their own folder using Sharing and then drag folders to the build in Toast each time.

But you aren't dealing with that many requests per month, are you?

Red Wolf · Post by **Red Wolf** » Tue Jul 22, 2003 9:46 am

Yeah, I'm slightly familiar with the internals of OS X 8) Since you were commenting on .NET features I just thought I'd let you know I'm not your run of the mill Windows operation.

The current offline order form is working out pretty well right now. I'm sure we'll be looking at more automation should things pick up dramatically but currently this simple method is working fine. With local hosting now available on this site and more and more people getting high speed Internet at home, work, and school there is less of a need for CDs except needing AMVs in bulk. That does keep requests to manageable level (as well as my sanity). To be honest my own AMV projects tend to interfere with request processing a lot more than having an offline method does

Kracus · Post by **Kracus** » Tue Sep 09, 2003 6:45 am

Posting here cause no one has in a while. I wish I could go to AWA so I could see my CD. I'm amazed anyone picked it up in the first place.

Kaysow · Post by **Kaysow** » Sun Oct 12, 2003 6:55 am

you should get a dvd-burner. that would be neat if everyone would start making high-quality vids.

Jebadia · Post by **Jebadia** » Sun Oct 12, 2003 8:20 am

It would be a good thing to do, I'm planning on buying me one soon...

Red Wolf · Post by **Red Wolf** » Sun Oct 12, 2003 9:10 am

Punkrocker wrote:you should get a dvd-burner. that would be neat if everyone would start making high-quality vids.

There are a few problems with going to DVD:

1. Cost. I'm still in the hole from new CD-RW and HD enclosure the Distro has moved to. Granted prices are coming down but it'll still be a little while until I can justify the cost.

2. Time. A CD can burn in a few minutes. Even with a 4x DVD-RW a full DVD would take significantly longer. Imagine one requester requests 5 DVDs. That could turn into almost two hours of burning for one person with others already lining up right behind.

3. Cheap Media. Since DVD-Rs cost more than CD-Rs I would inevitably receive cheap DVD-Rs for a request. Those will inevitably screw up while burning. When this happens with CDs, I just pop in a new CD-R. CD-Rs are cheap (as in close to free in some cases) and I have a nice little stockpile built up from a year of doing requests and donations. I'm not going to waste Distro donations on stockpiling spare DVD-Rs that cost $3 a pop.

I have looked into the DVD options and sometime next year the Distro may (and I do mean "may") even start to offer a <i>very</i> select number of AMV related DVDs thanks to an arrangement that may come out with Otaku Video (the group that runs the AMV storage and tech side of several cons including AWA). In such a case I would still not have a DVD-RW drive of my own so I would not accept DVDs from other creators and all DVD requests would actually involve people sending in cash equal to the cost of the DVD-R and shipping instead of a SASE system currently used with the CDs. If anything final of this does come about I will post here as well as on the Distro's site.

son_goten · Post by **son_goten** » Mon Dec 29, 2003 1:52 pm

i already thought about that idea thats why i made my irc chan
we have a 600KB\s Xdcc bot and a 4000KB\s bt seed but the studio
doesnt have any amvmakers plz help us
we want to make a bot with a lot of amv's like you said but we need that 600KB\s to get back to schoolcuz he's bot is there
i told him to d\l a lot of amvs when he will get back to school