Anime Expo 2012 AMV Contest Thread - WINNERS ANNOUNCED!!!

[Melichan923]

Lots of stress tonight. Got in some last minute very minor changes to my video that I've been wanting to make and encoding is still a problem but I will manage to send them properly synced if it kills me! ^_^ I almost forgot just how many artifacts and banding and all that good stuff is present within XviD encodes. It can kind of make Blu-Ray footage look like a bad upscale. Considering all the issues I am having, I am starting to panic. I must find an option that is HQ, synced, and a low file size that is not an MP4 in about 24 hours. Uh... oh. Apparently back in 2009 I sent a HuffYUV file... I wonder how big that was.

Re-reading what xstylus wrote a few pages back, I saw that 200MB is the limit for online submissions so I may even need to suck it up and actually send my first evar mail-in entry. =O I'm kind of nervous about sending even my entry form through the mail...even though it's "guaranteed" to arrive in 3 days... New Hampshire to California by the 11th? D: What is the actual likelihood of that happening?

If I don't send my submission in the mail I have 3 options:

XviD: Have mediocre quality with banding.
MPEG-2: Might have to face different artifacts. Sometimes with MPEG-2 I tend to see a mosquito-noise like effect during the transitions. This is usually in low bitrates, but I'm not sure how high I can go with bitrates and keep it at 1080p while staying under 200mg.
MPEG-4: Pretty good quality, might be able to keep at 1080p and stay under 200MB with minimal artifacts but risk it not playing in sync (especially if I can't figure out how to do the lossless audio thing). I only have one computer to test the sync on right now.

If I send it in the mail I can probably manage to fit a Lagarith on there if I downscale it. I do not have DL disks, just SL.

Everything on my computer is updated... my muxers, encoders, video players, FFDshow and all that. I'm still testing out all the said methods here. The MP4 box GUI has a nifty delay button. I have a feeling that this will help me with my audio in the future! *Crosses fingers* I didn't realize that MP4 had an Audio Lossless Coding option, in fact I thought I had looked that up a few months ago because I wanted to try out PCM audio to find out it's not supported. It was mentioned somewhere in this thread and that might help with this sync too. I have yet to figure out how that's done. I have a lot of reading ahead of me I think.

It's almost 3:00am, so I need a bit of sleep... but I shouldn't. x.x

Also, good luck Chiikaboom! You can do it. Monster drinks, coffee, and some Red Bull may help. XD I think I need one of those in a while too too.

Note To Self: Write in AMV Deadlines on calendar a month before the deadline in the future because converting properly takes me forever.

Extra note to self after looking at how long this was: USE JOURNAL MORE!

[Ryvannis]

I really can't tell if you guys are trolling me now because the visual art is extremely accurate. In terms of implying them towards me.

@melichan MPEG-4 compression for me required my video to at least be over 300mb to avoid visual artifacts at 720p. 1080p and under 200mb is almost impossible to achieve if you do not have a short video.

[Ryvannis]

Hope I can't make it on time ;;

Fixed.

You seem afraid of something.

Worry about me first.

I'll only worry about you, if I win.

Spoiler :

That's if I even get in. <.<

[Melichan923]

@melichan MPEG-4 compression for me required my video to at least be over 300mb to avoid visual artifacts at 720p. 1080p and under 200mb is almost impossible to achieve if you do not have a short video.

Yes, my video is over 4 minutes long so it would probably be impossible. Did you send through mail or a file sharing site?

[Kireblue]

@melichan MPEG-4 compression for me required my video to at least be over 300mb to avoid visual artifacts at 720p. 1080p and under 200mb is almost impossible to achieve if you do not have a short video.

Yes, my video is over 4 minutes long so it would probably be impossible. Did you send through mail or a file sharing site?

my 3 minute 720p H.264 mp4 was 67 MB

Anyway, the last couple pages of this thread is a reminder that I really don't know anything about codecs, compression, or encoding. I always just throw my Lagarith AVI into Zarx264 and be done with it. And even though I run a bunch of AMV events, the fact that they are done via a computer (and not a DVD player) means that I don't even have to learn any of this stuff. I guess that I probably should though

[Sephiroth]

Far as codecs go, I do think that's why its suggested to submit early that way you can fix whatever is wrong with your video. As Troy said i was able to keep one of my vids out of DQ cause i submitted it early. He e-mailed me and we worked things out from there.

Likewise he's using VLC so get that look at your video in it with the DE-interlacing turned off. If it looks good enough to you chances it'll look good enough to the judges.

[Ryvannis]

@melichan MPEG-4 compression for me required my video to at least be over 300mb to avoid visual artifacts at 720p. 1080p and under 200mb is almost impossible to achieve if you do not have a short video.

Yes, my video is over 4 minutes long so it would probably be impossible. Did you send through mail or a file sharing site?

I'm at 5 minutes, but I'm assuming its higher because I had to drop the resolution for some of my sources since not all of them were at a full 1080p.

[Castor Troy]

ONE MORE DAY!

Watch this, it's a classic.

[XStylus]

Lots of stress tonight. [insert lots of talk about compression workflow here.]

If I send it in the mail I can probably manage to fit a Lagarith on there if I downscale it. I do not have DL disks, just SL.

My hard drive is whimpering in fear over what you intend to send, Melichan.

If your AMV won't fit on a single layer DVD, there's something very wrong. I'm all about pristine video quality, but that sounds like an OCD level of effort there.

[irriadin]