Anime Expo 2013 AMV Competition - WINNERS POSTED!

[Rider4Z]

oh lord, not the livestock i mean laptop

[XStylus]

I thought you were using AMVPlayer for playback since they gave you some sort of crap about needing BRD license fees or something?

Ehhh? License fees? No, the nothing quite so dramatic (though such a thing wouldn't be unheard of).

Last year, Plan A was to play the competition off Blu-Ray. I made a lovingly authored Blu-Ray disc and everything, and the AVTech guys backstage would've had no problem running it... ...except for the fact that Main Events didn't have a Blu-Ray player. Why? Because the projectors and scan converters and other super-awesome-techy-stuff didn't support HDMI's HDCP protocol and we didn't have any magic gray-market devices on hand to bypass it. Unlike DVD players, all Blu-Ray players are hard-coded to require HDCP even if it's playing a non-commercial disc.

Plan B was to run the Blu-Ray from a PC using software. That kinda worked, but it wasn't "seamless" enough for me because the OSD would pop up whenever the mouse was moved too close to the playback window in the software we were using, plus the software was glitchy. I was in zero-tolerance mode for anything even hinting of a glitch so I nixed the Blu-Ray altogether.

Plan C was to run the files directly from KMPlayer on my personal PC, though Vlad introduced me to a nifty little program called AMVPlayer which worked even better. And since he was operating the system while I was on stage, he was well familiar with it (though the program was pretty much idiot proof). And just in case my computer decided to do something screwy for whatever reason, we had the AMV chef computers backstage already booted and cued up to take over right where we left off within seconds with just a flip of a switch.

Thankfully we learned of all of this the day before con rather than moments before the AMV competition. Yay planning! We were ready for anything... ...except for the LACC refusing to turn off the lights.

[l33tmeatwad]

I was researching some info regarding optimal settings for MP4 encoding for anime and I ran across a few conversations on a fansub forum. 10-bit encodes seem to be the fad among that community, and some were aggressively swearing by it as far superior even though the source is only 8-bit. Since a lot of encoding wisdom for fansubbing is directly relevant to AMVs, I figured that 10-bit encoding might become a thing here as well, which would suck. 10-bit files are a pain to work with and have a lot of negative tradeoffs (only plays in specific players, looks scrambled in CS6, no hardware acceleration support, no set-top box can play them). All for what is, to me, only a miniscule quality/space improvement.

It doesn't change the facts behind my statement, the SOURCE MATERIAL is not originally 10-bit, they simply filter and encode it to 10-bit as it allows them to compress it more without having the noticeable side effects of compressing the same amount in 8-bit. I am very much familiar with 10-bit and what it is and isn't being used for, and there is NO way a AMV editor will have legitimate 10bit footage. Even working with these 10-bit anime encodes, they have to be converted BACK TO 8-Bit to even be usable in the editing software, so even if it were legit 10-bit footage it has already been cut back to 8-bit before it even enters the editing software.

[XStylus]

I was researching some info regarding optimal settings for MP4 encoding for anime and I ran across a few conversations on a fansub forum. 10-bit encodes seem to be the fad among that community, and some were aggressively swearing by it as far superior even though the source is only 8-bit. Since a lot of encoding wisdom for fansubbing is directly relevant to AMVs, I figured that 10-bit encoding might become a thing here as well, which would suck. 10-bit files are a pain to work with and have a lot of negative tradeoffs (only plays in specific players, looks scrambled in CS6, no hardware acceleration support, no set-top box can play them). All for what is, to me, only a miniscule quality/space improvement.

It doesn't change the facts behind my statement, the SOURCE MATERIAL is not originally 10-bit, they simply filter and encode it to 10-bit as it allows them to compress it more without having the noticeable side effects of compressing the same amount in 8-bit. I am very much familiar with 10-bit and what it is and isn't being used for, and there is NO way a AMV editor will have legitimate 10bit footage. Even working with these 10-bit anime encodes, they have to be converted BACK TO 8-Bit to even be usable in the editing software, so even if it were legit 10-bit footage it has already been cut back to 8-bit before it even enters the editing software.

I'm in total agreement with you. However, I guarantee you that there will be one or two less informed or newbie editors out there who will think "moar bitz = bettah!" and will want to compress their 8-bit-to-10-bit-to-8-bit AMV back to 10-bit again.

[Hagaren Viper]

I had a dream that I made the finalist list but for whatever reason my vid wasn't show in the con.

I can deal with our annual drama but...please keep the drama out of my dreams if possible...

[Castor Troy]

I had a dream that I made the finalist list but for whatever reason my vid wasn't show in the con.

I can deal with our annual drama but...please keep the drama out of my dreams if possible...

I've had that dream before.

Only that all of the finalists were Pauly Shore movie videos.

[Rider4Z]

you're dreaming already? i must be behind schedule....

[Radical_Yue]

I had a dream that I made the finalist list but for whatever reason my vid wasn't show in the con.

I can deal with our annual drama but...please keep the drama out of my dreams if possible...

I've had that dream before.

Only that all of the finalists were Pauly Shore movie videos.

I'm kind of surprised you didn't bite your tongue off in your sleep just to put yourself out of your misery.

Ryan be a survivor~

[XStylus]

Just to keep ya'll in the loop, I figured I'd talk about the online submission system briefly since it was promised that it'd be ready in "early March".

Well, now it will be ready "April 1st". No foolin'. Our IT guy is getting a tad swamped, but we want to make sure it's done right.

If we're unable to get the system properly readied by then, we'd switch to Plan B. That involves electronically filling out a simple form and emailing it back. You would then use a cyberlocker to provide your video (a list of preferred cyberlockers will be listed on the form), and I will also provide access to my personal FTP if needed.

If ya' got questions or concerns, speak em'.

[l33tmeatwad]

That's very short notice for such and extreme deadline change...let the drama begin!