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November 2, 2005
r.i.p. d.v.d.
i started this blog fully intending to limit its focus to m2k2sda-related entries. however, today i feel that i need to divulge some background information in order to adequately explain a decision i have made: newly submitted speed runs will no longer go on video dvd for sale at dvd.metroid2002.com.
as some of you may be aware, radix's life has taken a turn for the worse over the last couple months. mine, by contrast, has rarely been so great. thanks to a well-timed encounter with a professor, i finally know now what i am going to do with my life. as a result, school has actually become something i look forward to and enjoy now. ironically, this blissful obsession with things outside of the sites serves the same function as radix's misery: "the site will suffer."
i was thinking the other day about how many runs i had sitting on my desk waiting to be captured, and i wondered how many of their dvd versions would actually be sold in my lifetime. i knew that the answer, at least for the foreseeable future, would be "not many." in fact, i haven't gotten a single order in several weeks. that said to me that i would soon spend the equivalent of several days working on dvd masters that would sit in storage until the end of time.
i knew when i raised the prices on the products that it might kill the whole operation, and i knew that if it did, i would have to swallow the fact that our worthless capitalist society is not capable of sustaining me doing this video dvd thing. of course, it's much harder for me to accept it now than it was to think about it then. a part of me wants to say "no" to giving up and press ahead toward some unseen salvation. but i know that such delusional acts can be dangerous. i can do my best for you only by carefully evaluating my options and then picking the most logical one, regardless of how i feel about it.
please do not misunderstand and think that m2k2sda is in financial straights or something. that is far from the truth. the sites are quite self-sufficient monetarily thanks to our advertising partner, google. the dvds, taken by themselves, however, are not. the market is simply too small to warrant production of these things at this time. i will continue to make the existing video dvds available for purchase, and all the runs on the site will continue to be available on data dvd upon request.
this effectively cuts down the amount of work i have to do for each submitted run by about two thirds, so hopefully you will notice a decrease in the time from submission to posting after the runs currently in the queue are taken care of.
i apologize profusely to anyone who thought that their run, currently in the queue, was going to appear on video dvd.
thank you for reading.
Posted by njahnke at November 2, 2005 12:18 PM
Comments
It's understandable. Glad to hear of your school situation though. Congrats.
Posted by: Forgotten One at November 2, 2005 11:40 PM
I also agree. It's completely understandable, I'm not sucking up due to the fact I'm one of the lucky three who just missed the "dvd death scythe." Great to hear that one of the hardest working people in the speedrun communitee is enjoying himself, keep living good man. :)
Posted by: trihex at November 12, 2005 10:04 AM
yeh, who would buy a dvd when you can download it for free!
Posted by: Some n00b at November 12, 2005 4:12 PM
tzyr replies, "what, dun you sit down with a thing of pop-corn with the family and watch it together? cheering, hootin'..going crazy?"
Posted by: nate 
at November 12, 2005 8:00 PM
I think sales will have dropped off significantly due to two things>
1) Everyone has very fast broadband so dont need to spend days downloading a 2 gig run
2) Everyone has massive hard drives and can store runs or burn them themselves. :O(
Thanks for all of the work you've done tho in the past and in the future.
Posted by: tom at November 13, 2005 5:58 AM
I have a question. Is there a quality difference between the dvd copies I can purchase and the 'high quality' downloadable versions? There seems to be a time lag between some of the files between the sounds and the films themselves.
A lot of hard work has gone into those runs. Reminds me of my console dominating days. These days the 64 is gathering dust, the PS2 has been replaced with the DVD Drive and the thesis is still looming.
Respect to all who have contributed thus far.
Posted by: Mark at November 18, 2005 7:01 PM
the sound being off sync is due to your computer not being fast enough to play hq files. for d1 (usually 640x480) hq, a 2.0 ghz or faster cpu is recommended, as well as playing the avi file from a fast source (such as a newer hard drive).
in the case of d1, the hq files have been put through the smart bob filter, which reconstructs half of the fields for each frame through either duplication or interpolation (depending on whether there is motion across that field, thus the 'smart'). this is necessary to make them play at full framerate on progressive scan monitors. the dvds are much closer to the original material, because they present the runs with their original, interlaced scanning intact.
Posted by: nate at November 18, 2005 7:10 PM
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