Another source for footage

[Chaos Angel]

I can't believe no one has mentioned CDJapan yet... -_-

[ErMaC]

I get all my imports from CDJapan.

And freako, whoever you are, pipe down about raw quality. I KNOW what raw quality is like. I'm an encoder for digisub groups, so I know my shit here.

Online raws are fine for watching and possibly reencoding for fansub distro, but they're just not acceptable for making an AMV out of unless you know your filtering. I'm doing Galaxy Angel 3 for ANBU and I have to put the raws (which are over 300MB each, BTW) through at least 4 filters before they look acceptable quality (i.e. so they look like they COULD be from DVD, to the untrained eye).

The fact is that no, they are not "DVD quality" since that's complete bullshit. First off, they are never encoded in 720x480 MPEG2, so by that virtue alone they aren't comparable. Most are some MPEG4 variant (MP42, DIV3, DX50, XVID) and they're encoded in 640x480@23.976 fps. The worst is when the show has a 30fps intro (like X or Azudai) which is then decimated in framerate to match the rest of the show.
Then you have the whole editing with keyframing issue. Unless you serve the AVI file through AVISynth (which will make things very slow) you will be stuck with enormously long seek times because unlike DVD-spec MPEG2 you can have as much time inbetween keyframes as you want in an MPEG4 stream, so sometimes you may have to decode 300 frames just to get to the frame you seeked to, and even on fast systems that will take a long ass time with a 640x480 file.

Anyways, YES I know what I'm talking about, and I'll say that 98% of the people on this site are not ready to use downloaded footage to make it look like they didn't. I can tell.

As for cataclysm:

http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/anime/topics/g ... index.html
There's CDJapan's page on GITS:SAC
The first DVD came out on the 21st - unfortunately like most Victor releases they're doing 13 volumes of 2 episodes each. Which is pretty damn pricey at 6000yen/volume (~$50).
But I would definately recommend not using the GITS online raws because their quality is nasty, I've seen them.

[ErMaC]

Oh yea.

Macross Zero is only a 1 volume OVA so far (other volumes come out later) and you can just search for that on CDJapan, easy to find.

Azumanga Daioh was released as 3 large sets, however, each limited edition so you may have trouble getting the imports for that show. I suspect sometime in the near future they'll release them as individual volumes but for now the DVDs are mostly out of print since they were limited runs. See here:
http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/Listups/anime/ ... daiou.html

[Freako]

Not to dispute you Ermac ... but what is your point? You tell me i am wrong but then you go out of your way to explain how I could be right (with a little filtering).


As i am not into that whole scene , I admit i am not in the position to argue with you. We could sit here and argue DVD quality all day .. but the truth is .. I dont give a sh*t.

Except for the awful quality of the footage and the lack of personal intagrety. Thats all.

This is what i was responding to. I know people who do what you do Ermac .. and i don't know how you feel about this comment , but i know my sources take pride in their encodes and would not apprecciate such a nasty generalization of that scene.

but again .... like a good little boy ... i buy my dvds .... LOL

[kthulhu]

The worst is when the show has a 30fps intro (like X or Azudai) which is then decimated in framerate to match the rest of the show.

To go off-topic for a bit, I'd say "Azu" is better shorthand than "Azudai", for Azumanga Daioh.

Disagree with me if you'd like, then look at my current avatar for the result.

<---------------------------------

Anyhow, back to your quality and source debate, good people.

[jbone]

Not to dispute you Ermac ... but what is your point? You tell me i am wrong but then you go out of your way to explain how I could be right (with a little filtering).

He didn't say "you could be right with a little filtering," he said "you're wrong, but something passable might be makable with the right tools, but it would take a lot of effort to do it." There's a _huge_ difference.

This is what i was responding to. I know people who do what you do Ermac .. and i don't know how you feel about this comment , but i know my sources take pride in their encodes and would not apprecciate such a nasty generalization of that scene.

I may know diddly about video compared to ErMaC, but I agree that many of the "awesome-looking" digisubs out there look like absolute ass.

It's sad, but many, many people encoding digisubs don't seem to really know how to encode them well - especially these days, when anyone, their mother, and their pet ostrich Duke can digisub.

[dokidoki]

It's sad, but many, many people encoding digisubs don't seem to really know how to encode them well - especially these days, when anyone, their mother, and their pet ostrich Duke can digisub.

Aw, thanks a lot, jbone. You made Duke cry!

[Garylisk]

FOr my DDR 4th mix project track, I am using raw episodes of Tenchi Muyo GXP that I downloaded. They are TV rips. However, they are also in 640x480 resolution and damn fine looking. Whoever taped them off TV had digital cable hooked right into their video capture card. In other words, they look damn near DVD quality, and definitely better than using a VHS source. My advice to you is that if you downloaded the fotage, go ahead and use it if it looks good... but if it's low res, has static, fishbone effect, or mirroring from oversignal, you might as wel not bother since there's no way to improve how it looks.. unless you don't mind your video looking like ass. And of course, if it has fansubs, that's an even bigger minus since getting rid of fansubs is a pain int he ass, and only using scenes tht have no subs over them limits your scene choices. (Or you could use black bars to cover up the subs, but that juts makes your video have less area on screen to be pretty...)

For the most part, downloaded footage is no good... but I sya if you have no choice in the matter, and really want to make the AMV, go for it. Then later when it comes out domestically or you've imported a DVD, redo the video using DVD footage. Thats how my videos were up until recently. My Sailor Moon S Movie vid was made using a fansub tape, but I'll be redoing it soon when I get the SMS movie box set. My Excel Saga video was made using fansub tapes, but I'll be redoing it soon. ANd then finally, my Love Hina video will be redone soon using DVD since it was originally made with digisubs. (I'll probably never redo my Puni Puni Poemi video, maybe eventually my Fruba video.. and then my other vids are all done using either DVD or HQ raws.)

And that's that.

[Garylisk]

It's sad, but many, many people encoding digisubs don't seem to really know how to encode them well - especially these days, when anyone, their mother, and their pet ostrich Duke can digisub.

Aw, thanks a lot, jbone. You made Duke cry!

Now now, it's true and you know it, Doki A lot of the so called "encoders" for the digisub groups out there don't know what the hell they are doing. Like the chobits digisubs for example. ot only is the keyframing total ass (Most of the digisubs I have of Chobits start playing, then the video locks up before Chii's eye opens, then finally catches up later on int he intro when it hits another keyframe), but then of course there's the matter that Chobits was in the widescreen format, and most of the digisubs were done in 640x480 res, cutting off the left and right sides of the screen. (My only Chobits digisub that retained the true widescreen aspect ratio was the last episode, and the overall encoding of the episode apart from that was complete and total ass. It made my computer hurt )

[Garylisk]

I have to put the raws (which are over 300MB each, BTW) through at least 4 filters before they look acceptable quality

And then there's encoders that just use warpsharp and think that that makes it all OK. I hate it when people overuse Warpsharp. It's like playing an SNES game with interpolation.

The most warpsharped fansubs I ever saw were one particular episode of Chobits and most of the Panyo Panyo DiGi Charat episodes. They were so heavily warpsharp'd that the colors just kind of blended together into a big mush. It's ANNOYING!