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The Project (plus Other Comments)
2002-10-02 00:43:51
Since I finally got confirmation that my mission was a success, here's a run down of the steps that took place for "the project":
Wednesday, Sept 18: I received an e-mail from Tim Park (from Doki Doki Productions). Basically, knowing that I had a VCD of Hamstah Gangstaz (a fanparody at Otakon), he asked if I give him a copy at AWA 8. That proved to be a challenge since:
a. this was my first attempt at making a VCD copy and,
b. I myself couldn't make it to AWA 8.
My first attempt to make a copy involved using the CD burning program that I usually use. However, that project bombed big time. Then, I decided to make a VHS copy. The copy did work BTW (thus ensuring that I'd have at least a VHS of the fanparody to deliver), however I wanted to make sure it was in excellent quality. That's when I remembered the trail Nero offer.
Thursday, Sept 19: I downloaded Nero, then burned a copy of Hamstah Gangstaz. This time, the VCD burning worked. Now, I needed a way to deliver the VCD, and I didn't want to wait until Anime USA (the next convention that I'm attending, though Saturday only). Luckily, I had a feeling that fellow C-SMACer Senta Miller (C-SMAC is a anime club in Southern Maryland BTW) would be going to this convention. However, I wasn't 100% sure, especially since amv.org was down. Thus, there was one way to find out before the next meeting.
Friday, Sept 20: C-SMAC trip to Spirited Away. A lot of the regulars attended the screening. That, of course, included Senta. So, I explained to him the situation, and he accepted my request for him to deliver it to Tim for me (since I would be absent from AWA 8).
Saturday, Sept 21: I decided to go over the VCD to ensure that the disc was working. It turned out that there was a small glitch during one scene on the VCD. I knew that I didn't want to give Tim a disc with a glitch. Thus, I made a THIRD VCD burn of Hamstah Gangstaz. This time, I watched the fanparody in it's entirely immediately after burining it (rather than two days after burning it) to ensure it was glitch-free. Luckily, there were no glitches this time around.
Sunday, Sept 22: I gave Senta the VCD to deliver. Now all I had to do now was wait.
A few minutes ago: I got the e-mail that confirms that the delivery was a success. Thus, that took a lot of pressure off of my head.
On the other side, with AWA 8 and the DDR Project 2, I've been downloading almost one video a day. In fact, my next three days are booked with download plans. It's a good thing I have a CD Writer and an additional hard drive. -
How To Past the Time Away While AMV.org is Down
2002-09-23 23:45:37
There's so much I have to mention that happened since www.animemusicvideos.org went down that I need to mention it here. Here's what's been going on during the last few days:
-I have currently been busy on a little project that I'm hoping will work this weekend. I'm going to get into detail of this later.
-The anime club I attend went to see Spirited Away last Friday. While I can understand why Fruits Basket beat it in the Animage Grand Prix this year, it turned out to be better than I thought it was going to be.
-Picked up Kingdom Hearts last Wednesday (after arguing whether to get that or Animal Crossing). One thing's definitely for sure, Square was able to make an excellent RPG despite the fact that it features D*sn*y characters. -
Things to Do With a Phillips 724 DVD Player
2002-09-05 23:07:30
Yesterday, at the place where I worked, Wal-Mart, I bought myself a Phillips 724 DVD Player and RF Adapter (since my TV's all lack A/V jacks)as I left for the day. Afte waiting a day for my father to pick up a coax cable (as the RF Adapter didn't have one), I set up the DVD player in my room today, and boy was it work the $165.
First off, I played some VCD's I got to see if they can be played on the DVD player (which was one of the reasons why bought it). While the audio sounded fuzzy on the VCD's and audio CD that I played, it was still able to play the VCD.
Then, I began playing some DVD's to test to see if the DVD's worked. The discs that I used to test it consisted of the Schoolhouse Rock DVD (wanted to test the audio considereing the CD's), Akira (another audio test, this time with anime), and Castle of Cagliostro (wanted to test a DVD that used Macrovision). All three discs worked without an audio or video problem.
Finally came something that I found out while fooling around. I wanted to see what would happen if I played a burned computer CD filled with AMV's that I downloaded on the DVD player. Sure enough, the DVD is capable of playing the MPEG files that are on the disc. The only problem was that I can't play avi. files and the fact that some MPEG files with a bigger resolution have their screens smaller when I play them on the DVD player (big hint for some people who would like to give out AMV CD's at conventions). Thus, I am currently converting some videos to smaller files or to MPEG to that I can view them on my DVD player (although Shameless Rock Video seems to have some problems and Operat0r looks like the same quality that it had on the VCD copy of the DDR project that I have).
Add the fact that I know how to put it on Region 0 (yes, I can now get some Japanse DVD's) and it results in a DVD system that is well worth the money. -
What I Do on a Good Day Off
2002-08-27 22:49:54
Today was an interesting day. It began with a trip to the mall. To start off, I picked up Super Mario Sunshine at a video game store. This is followed up by a trip to Suncoast to pick up the Excel Saga DVD that I pre-ordered. Good thing I did so, since at my Suncoast, the only Excel Saga vol. 2 DVD's available were the pre-ordered ones. While I was there, I also got the Schoolhouse Rock DVD that came out today. Then came a stop to the arcade, where I found out that the DDR machine now has the 6th Mix. Rounding out the mall trip was a purchase of a previously played video game and some lunch.
Getting home, I immediately watched Excel Saga, with me watching the anime hijinx (got to like Hyatt dressed as a bowling pin) and looking for Easter eggs (I wonder if ADV got the inspiration for one Easter egg from This is Otakudom). As for Mario Sunshine, it's a fun game so far.
Finally, my older brother installed the USB hard drive I bought on Sunday. That means I finally have some more storage room for my AMV's, even though I have a feeling that other people will want to use it (well, it is 40 GB, and my AMV collection so far is less than 10 GB). -
Busy Weekend
2002-08-25 23:11:07
SATURDAY:
With me no longer having to work weekends at Wal-Mart, it meant the return of my usual Saturday pasttime of watching the new episode of Pokemon and commenting on it (yes, I like Pokemon. Live with it). Some time in the afternoon, I got an e-mail about the anime club possibly meeting up at Borders to head down to a Lazer Tag place in Laurel. Being interested in seeing what its like, I arrived at Borders at 6:00 and headed up to Laurel with the rest of the club. While the place was smaller than I thought it would be, the Lazer Tag experience was still fun (with me getting better with each go round).
SUNDAY:
With a Best Buy now opening in Bowie, my father and I drove down to see what the store was like. While I was there, I picked up one thing that I had plans to buy for some time: a USB hard drive that I can use to store my downloads (we're talking about a 40 GB hard drive versus a computer with a 13 GB hard drive with less tha 2 GB left). I also picked up the remastered Project A-Ko DVD while I was there. When I got home, I watched the DVD. Two things are for sure:
1. There's some static lines during the last half of the film, which I found out was on all of the discs due to some transfer problem.
2. Don't watch the remastered Project A-Ko DVD on a Fisher S1000 DVD player. There's some video problems when I try to watch the special features, but they weren't there when viewing the disc on a Playstation 2.
JOURNAL: TnAdct1 (Joseph Klemm)
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