How do you judge contest credibility?

[Pwolf]

I agree with most of the stuff, but still, it's a MAJOR HASSLE for NOTHING OF ADDED VALUE |: I mean, sorry, but if it's technical need on coordinator's side, shouldn't there be some... trying to solve this need, instead of enforcing all editors to re-encode their videos repeatedly and every year?
If it's something in the AMV, like... my nick is there, or there is some mistake I overlooked, I have nothing against going through the stuff again, because it adds to the AMV or because you want the judging to be anonymous... but 2s of black in front and after the end?

I could edit that 1 hour (6 yo PC upgraded last year a bit) that it takes me to render (I don't backup my masters, sorry) and encode my 3 minute video. Want to send 3 entries in? 3 hours. And that' ONE contest.

Sorry, I'll usually pass and send to some con that takes my mp4 (some cons even accept Org links these days).

Honestly, sounds like you're just lazy. Which is fine. I don't really care if you don't want to put any extra time to encode your videos for whatever contest you want to enter. That's your choice. I just think it's a lazy point of view and a stupid reason to say a contest has less credibility than one that doesn't make you do more work. I'm willing to put in the extra time for my videos because I feel proud that they have the chance to be shown at the contests I like to enter. Stuff like that is only a minor hassle if one at all. It's really just part of the process of entering a contest in my mind and if I have to re-encode a video 5 times for 5 different contests during a year, I will do it, it's not that big of a deal.

Doesn't adding black give some time for the computer/projector/etc to sync up?

We should have all known this from the VHS days.

i figured adding the black was to give the projector a chance to fade in before the video starts.

why is the black required by so many conventions anyway? (i was in choir in high school, not the A/V department.)

Ryan is somewhat correct. The issue is/was that if a video started at frame 1, the projector or software/hardware decoder doesn't have enough time to make sure everything is playing back correctly so you'll get some small hiccups, slowdowns, and de-syncing (and possible artifacting) at the start of the video. These are usually cleared up as the video plays but it makes the beginning of the video very unattractive. To fix this, you add 2 seconds of black to the beginning and the end. Adding the space at the end gives the system time to switch to another track or video file and end on something that isn't part of the video which can looking like it's frozen or hanging. This gives the hardware and software enough time to make sure everything working smoothly. I've personally seen this issue on hardware MPEG2 decoders (even software ones actually), which are still used by coordinators today (Vlad's contests/video rooms and AWA come to mind) and i see it all the time on the output of my HTPC playing H264 videos to my TV. It really is a small thing that makes a big difference to make sure your videos are played back smoothly, which is something I take very seriously. The more I can do to ensure my video will be played correctly, the less I have to rely on the coordinator.

[Rider4Z]

OHHH. but why then require black in the end?

[Scintilla]

It's really just part of the process of entering a contest in my mind and if I have to re-encode a video 5 times for 5 different contests during a year, I will do it, it's not that big of a deal.

x2 -- and I wonder how much having gotten used to it has to do with how long one's been active in this hobby.
Heck, I remember recording a VHS tape for a submission to Otakon back in 2003, just in case there was something wrong with my disk, and the VHS version required 15 seconds of black on both ends.

[Pwolf]

It's really just part of the process of entering a contest in my mind and if I have to re-encode a video 5 times for 5 different contests during a year, I will do it, it's not that big of a deal.

x2 -- and I wonder how much having gotten used to it has to do with how long one's been active in this hobby.
Heck, I remember recording a VHS tape for a submission to Otakon back in 2003, just in case there was something wrong with my disk, and the VHS version required 15 seconds of black on both ends.

Very true. I ended up just adding the padding every time I make a video now (well, not all the time) so I don't have to in the future. I also submitted all of my videos on DV Tapes to anime expo starting in 2001 up until 2006ish when I stopped submitting so I needed the padding for that as well.

[Nya-chan Production]

I suppose you are right, I am mostly lazy, but it doesn't help anyway :3 After all, if some contest is credible enough (and Vlad's contests are because of Vlad and AWA.. is just AWA) I'll undergo this boring process.

But still, I feel it's worth mentioning that these little things, for whatever reason (laziness or not) help to decide when there's the fine line of "credible enough"/"not credible enough". I feel it can't really be separated, so it's fine to stick it in here.
After all, some other stuff mentioned in this thread falls under the same category as well (say, Code's example of paper/electronic mail).

[Pwolf]

OHHH. but why then require black in the end?

Adding the space at the end gives the system time to switch to another track or video file and end on something that isn't part of the video which can looking like it's frozen or hanging.

Only really effects videos that end with a straight cut and have no black padding or a fade to black.

I suppose you are right, I am mostly lazy, but it doesn't help anyway :3 After all, if some contest is credible enough (and Vlad's contests are because of Vlad and AWA.. is just AWA) I'll undergo this boring process.

But still, I feel it's worth mentioning that these little things, for whatever reason (laziness or not) help to decide when there's the fine line of "credible enough"/"not credible enough". I feel it can't really be separated, so it's fine to stick it in here.
After all, some other stuff mentioned in this thread falls under the same category as well (say, Code's example of paper/electronic mail).

I think most of the stuff mentioned in this thread is just people complaining about what they don't like about a contest rather then what makes them credible, codes example included. Your reason for Vlad's and AWA's contest being credible isn't because they have rules you agree with or don't agree with, they are because they have a reputation for being great contests. You'll go through the extra work to submit. In that case, the rules don't make a contest more or less credible, it's the people behind them. And to me, that is more universal than a set a rules or procedures and I can judge for myself how credible a contest is or may be based off that.

[BasharOfTheAges]

It's really just part of the process of entering a contest in my mind and if I have to re-encode a video 5 times for 5 different contests during a year, I will do it, it's not that big of a deal.

x2 -- and I wonder how much having gotten used to it has to do with how long one's been active in this hobby.
Heck, I remember recording a VHS tape for a submission to Otakon back in 2003, just in case there was something wrong with my disk, and the VHS version required 15 seconds of black on both ends.

Very true. I ended up just adding the padding every time I make a video now (well, not all the time) so I don't have to in the future. I also submitted all of my videos on DV Tapes to anime expo starting in 2001 up until 2006ish when I stopped submitting so I needed the padding for that as well.

I actually thought the technical reasons to be more relics of an era we've advanced past, and that people just copy-pasted them into their current rules because they couldn't be bothered to make up their own technical rules from scratch - especially the ones they didn't understand the reasoning for.

Back on topic - Yes, it really does end up being the reputation the people involved have developed. Lack of a reputation is a ding to your credibility (though not a big one) but things like having a bad reputation for failing to get things done, being unresponsive to questions (or very untimely), selectively enforcing your rules, etc. are far more hurtful to your name IMO. Was hoping the thread would focus on those things more to be honest. I'm sure there's other shit i've missed, hence the thread.

[Pwolf]

people just copy-pasted them into their current rules because they couldn't be bothered to make up their own technical rules from scratch - especially the ones they didn't understand the reasoning for.

I've seen that before -_-

[Seijin_Dinger]

Doesn't adding black give some time for the computer/projector/etc to sync up?

We should have all known this from the VHS days.

i figured adding the black was to give the projector a chance to fade in before the video starts.

why is the black required by so many conventions anyway? (i was in choir in high school, not the A/V department.)

I just use it for spacing out between videos so they arent run directly back to back

and I wasnt in any a/v department in high school... I was a jock and a gamer...

[Seijin_Dinger]

It's really just part of the process of entering a contest in my mind and if I have to re-encode a video 5 times for 5 different contests during a year, I will do it, it's not that big of a deal.

x2 -- and I wonder how much having gotten used to it has to do with how long one's been active in this hobby.
Heck, I remember recording a VHS tape for a submission to Otakon back in 2003, just in case there was something wrong with my disk, and the VHS version required 15 seconds of black on both ends.

exported one back then to minidv tape for ax and akon from the college editing rigs and both required somewhere between 10 and 15 seconds of black, I figurred it was so they could have more room for error with setting an in and out point to capture the tape into the editing rig