Sakura-Con 2005 AMV Contest

[TaranT]

I don't want to start a row like last year, but there are some things worth discussing.

First off, I think that it's clear the contest came off well. Despite being packed in shoulder to shoulder, and despite A/V playback that makes Fifties TV look good, people had a good time. There was plenty of applause and laughter and no "hazing" (it was against the rules!). The low point was right at the start of the third Hoshi no Koe video: there was a collective groan and several conversations started up. But by the end when the comedy vids and commercials started, everybody was back on track.

From the standpoint of the AMV entrants, I think we can at least say there were no interruptions. A couple of very minor glitches is all that I noticed. There was one vid where the screen went black for maybe 3-4 seconds, but apparently that's the way it was supposed to be. (I would have preferred several more seconds between AMVs to clear out the applause.)

Now, the "issues"...and I'll emphasize the obvious, that these are opinions. Agree or disagree as you like.

1. Three mid-size screens are not the same as one large screen (comparing to SK 2003 here). This was personally a major letdown as soon as I walked in the room. The center screen was well below head level even ten or twelve rows back. Fortunately, I was only a few rows behind the right hand screen, so viewing for me was not a problem.

2. Traveling scan lines throughout the show. Signs of bad cabling, a poor multiplexer, something like that.

3. Very poor picture quality, worse on some vids than others. Low contrast and over saturation were chronic. Any kind of subtlety in imagery or effects was effectively washed out. This was apparent on all three screens, so a single worn out projector was not the cause.

4. Unbalanced audio. Not left-right balance, but frequency balance (equalization). In short, way too much bass and low-mids. In some vids - my own, for example - the melodic line was essentially destroyed. And I don't think I understood even half of the lyrics/dialogue in the entire show even without the noise of applause.

5. Unsynched audio? Maybe. I would swear that some videos were off their beats at times. And this was in AMVs from people like Vlad and Lynn who I would not expect to make mistakes like this. Again, I could be wrong and it could just be my sense of things. The individual AMV makers would know better than I would. I did not notice any serious synch problems with my own entry.


Now, regarding my own vid, I'll give more detail. In part, because it's the only one I'm really qualified to speak about. And also, because it had the worst problems that I could see of all the vids that were played. I always keep a direct copy of my entry media, so I was able to check out the same file that I sent in to SK and make sure the problems were not at my end (which I did tonight).

In tune with what I listed above, the dark scenes were washed out and unintelligible, as was most of the vocal line by the heavy bass. The entire thing was playing too fast by maybe 20%. And the video was squeezed vertically by about 10%. I had to focus a second time before I could believe that. Basically, it was a mess.


I'd be interested in hearing from other attendees, especially AMV creators, if only to know that I'm totally off-base here. I scribbled notes on every vid throughout the show. I'll try and post something about those later, maybe tomorrow.

[RutKiskasca]

I remember at Metrocon last year, they did a pre-screening, so that everyone that entered could see their video play, even if they didn't make the finals. They had rampant problems with a/v sync, scan lines, all the things you mention here. They ran the video from a remote location in the hotel to the screening room. I know when my videos showed, the audio somehow played faster than the video, and the two streams gradually got farther and farther out of sync as the videos went. My theory on this was that they used an MPEG compression app that didn't support the bitrates it was being fed. (I have gotten warnings from bbmpeg and tmpgenc regarding bitrate on some projects) and there were some mux errors. Or, perhaps there were some conflicts in framerate when the settings were configured for conversion to MPEG. Either way, it made for a lot of pissed off editors and a very confused crowd. They had the same problem in the Finals videos, so I don't think it was cabling, since they played them off a system in the room.

I am having a hard time picturing what you are describing for monitor setup. Are you telling us that they had three televisions down a center aisle or something? I certainly hope not, because the cost of three large televisions adds up to just about the same as an entry level projector. If they borrowed the equipment to set up the contest, it would still be easier to borrow one projector than three televisions, and easier to move, too.

When are the results supposed to be posted? Do you happen to know how the videos placed, or who won in each category? It kind of sounds like, regardless of the outcome, the results are tainted by the playback issues. That's a shame. I know that the people working on this con did their best, and I feel bad for them that the end result wasn't desirable, regardless of how my video may have ended up looking.

[trythil]

2. Traveling scan lines throughout the show. Signs of bad cabling, a poor multiplexer, something like that.

Ground loops?

[Infinity Squared]

Yeah, that's one thing I want to know... results, how long before we know anything? My assumption is that they will be released at the closing ceremony and hence that night, Sakura con time, we will hear something... unless the organisers are dead tired which I'm certain they will be...

From the standpoint of the AMV entrants, I think we can at least say there were no interruptions. A couple of very minor glitches is all that I noticed. There was one vid where the screen went black for maybe 3-4 seconds, but apparently that's the way it was supposed to be. (I would have preferred several more seconds between AMVs to clear out the applause.)

Erm... did that happen to be a Vampire Hunter D video?

[Voices_Of_Ryan]

Yeah, that's one thing I want to know... results, how long before we know anything? My assumption is that they will be released at the closing ceremony and hence that night, Sakura con time, we will hear something... unless the organisers are dead tired which I'm certain they will be...

From the standpoint of the AMV entrants, I think we can at least say there were no interruptions. A couple of very minor glitches is all that I noticed. There was one vid where the screen went black for maybe 3-4 seconds, but apparently that's the way it was supposed to be. (I would have preferred several more seconds between AMVs to clear out the applause.)

Erm... did that happen to be a Vampire Hunter D video?

It's scheduled for the closing cerimonies on sunday night.

[burntoast]

The low point was right at the start of the third Hoshi no Koe video: there was a collective groan and several conversations started up.

Uhoh. Hope you'll keep us posted TaranT!

[Voices_Of_Ryan]

The low point was right at the start of the third Hoshi no Koe video: there was a collective groan and several conversations started up.

Uhoh. Hope you'll keep us posted TaranT!

Ditto...

[RutKiskasca]

The low point was right at the start of the third Hoshi no Koe video: there was a collective groan and several conversations started up.

Uhoh. Hope you'll keep us posted TaranT!

Ditto...

Tritto

[TaranT]

Some quick replies since I want to make it to Vlad's panel and I've got a one-hour drive to do...

Contest results are announced at the closing ceremonies. That's 3 PM on Sunday.

The displays were three screens (projectors, not TVs), one in the center, one on the left and one on the right. The center one was at the back of a deep stage.

The HnK video was "Ballad for Two" according to my notes. I don't remember who the creator was.

The long blank screen...might have been VHD. I didn't mark it down and there were several VHD videos.

<edit> I wouldn't worry about the results being affected by playback. That might have been the case if there were 2nd and 3rd place prizes. But the vids that were most popular did well despite the A/V. As I wrote above, the audience liked what they liked.

AND...Sakura-Con sold out in the first hour today. Good work by staff getting an announcement on the Web site by 10:30AM.

[Voices_Of_Ryan]

Some quick replies since I want to make it to Vlad's panel and I've got a one-hour drive to do...

Contest results are announced at the closing ceremonies. That's 3 PM on Sunday.

The displays were three screens (projectors, not TVs), one in the center, one on the left and one on the right. The center one was at the back of a deep stage.

The HnK video was "Ballad for Two" according to my notes. I don't remember who the creator was.

The long blank screen...might have been VHD. I didn't mark it down and there were several VHD videos.

<edit> I wouldn't worry about the results being affected by playback. That might have been the case if there were 2nd and 3rd place prizes. But the vids that were most popular did well despite the A/V. As I wrote above, the audience liked what they liked.

AND...Sakura-Con sold out in the first hour today. Good work by staff getting an announcement on the Web site by 10:30AM.

I think you just insulted Burnttoast...