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April 30, 2006
jade empire
here's the avisynth script i'm using to process the jade empire run (using the new leak kernel deinterlacer provided by ballofsnow):
clip=avisource("C:\je1.avi")
clip.BilinearResize(640,480).Crop(0,0,0,470) ¬
.AddBorders(0,0,0,10).LeakKernelBob(order=1 ¬
,threshold=16,sharp=true,twoway=true,map=false)
jade empire is interesting in that the framerate varies so wildly, all the way from f1 to f3 or even less. i continue to be satisfied with the results provided by the leak kernel deinterlacer, even given the difficult and unpredictable frame duplication present in this game.
Posted by njahnke at 6:17 PM | Comments (4)
April 28, 2006
video moving up and down one pixel every frame?
no problem - just use this avisynth script:
clipp=avisource("C:\nmf\vob1.avi").assumefieldbased
clip1=SelectEven(clipp).Crop(0,0,0,240).AddBorders(0,0,0,0)
clip2=SelectOdd(clipp).Crop(0,0,0,239).AddBorders(0,1,0,0)
Interleave(clip1,clip2)
incidentally, this has been seen in runs submitted on dvd.
Posted by njahnke at 6:44 PM | Comments (0)
the transition begins in earnest
having received as many runs on dvd as on vhs in the past two weeks, i am now confident that dvd is the best thing to ever happen to sda.
the difference in quality is just night and day, or whatever other clichéd analogy you'd like to use. processing runs (the actual work i do, anyway) is reduced by maybe 90%, not having to babysit everything while the analog capture takes place, and the benefits don't end there - think about how much easier it is for the encoder to handle video without the excessive amounts of noise apparently introduced only by vhs. the audio is cleaner (no denoising required in most cases), the brightness and contrast are always correct in the case of ntsc (black is black and white is white) and vhs hell who?
on account of dvd being proven so clearly superior to vhs, i have decided to phase out vhs capture starting on 1 june, when i'm finished moving into my new apartment. vhs capture services for sda through metroid 2002 will continue for one year from that date, but as of 1 june 2007, you will need to buy a dvd recorder to submit runs to sda. by that time, though, recorders should cost well under 100 dollars or euros, so it will not be an undue burden on you to come up with that between now and then. on top of that, i doubt that most retailers (except perhaps walmart) will even be selling vhs anything by that time, so it ought to be pretty easy for you to convince whomever you live with to invest in a dvd recorder.
Posted by njahnke at 12:31 PM | Comments (4)
April 10, 2006
r.i.p. akai
the akai vs-g420 that faithfully served metroid 2002 speed demos archive for over two years died tonight. i used it to capture every pal run submitted to m2k2sda on vhs up to and including frezy_man's recent mm3 run.
despite the condition of frezy_man's tape, i do not believe that his tape killed the vcr. these symptoms:
tmnt.mp4 (1.6 MB; quicktime mp4)
... resemble the alignment problem the first uber (jvc hr-s9911u) that was defective had, and so i think that it might have simply been time for the akai to go. on top of that, because it uses european power, i have always had to use this enormous TEMPORARY USE ONLY power adapter for it, and i have no idea what kind of power it was giving the akai.
the good news for frezy_man is that i should be able to capture his tmnt run when i get a new pal vcr. the good news for everyone is that i will now be buying a 60 hz stereo pal vcr of a good reputation from one of my friends in europe. the bad news for me is that i will soon have a much lighter wallet.
but that's how it goes.
Posted by njahnke at 9:39 PM | Comments (2)
April 9, 2006
vhs hell iii: somebody shoot me
this time it was the mega man 3 etc tape from freddy andersson (frezy_man).
attempting to fast forward and rewind the tape failed with tape spewing into the machine (the same thing that always happens no matter what goes wrong). i carefully extracted the tape and disassembled it. this was the scene (click the thumbnails for larger versions):
a third of the left tape reel had broken off and become caught in the rest of it, locking the tape in place. i carefully extracted the piece of the reel. then i noticed that another third of the reel was broken at the center in both places and was about ready to come off as well (it was only being held on by the outside of the wheel). i decided to try to use mailing tape to hold the wheel together better while i attempted to capture the run. i cut tiny pieces of mailing tape and applied them to the two broken center joints of the source reel.
i was able to capture the mm3 run, but i was careful not to fast forward the tape except while playing it (what i tell you to never do!), lest the precarious situation detonate. i've never replaced a tape reel before, and i wouldn't know the right way to go about attaching the tape to the new reel, not to mention how boring it would get winding an olympic-length european tape off by hand, so i was glad to avoid having to do that.
and the fun doesn't stop here! frezy_man forgot to tell me about this tmnt run he wanted to submit that is located near the beginning of the same tape, so the damaged reel will now have to take most of the tape back up ...
Posted by njahnke at 5:29 PM | Comments (4)
April 7, 2006
runner forgot to mark a segment?
no problem ...
#!/bin/bash
i=1
j=1
while `test ${i} -le 41`
do
if `test ${j} -le 9`
then
ii=0${j}
else
ii=${j}
fi
if `test ${j} -eq 15`
then
mv -vi slyf-i-41.avi SlyCooper_255_part15_IQ.avi
mv -vi slyf-h-41.avi SlyCooper_255_part15_HQ.avi
mv -vi slyf-m-41.avi SlyCooper_255_part15.avi
mv -vi slyf-l-41.avi SlyCooper_255_part15_LQ.avi
else
mv -vi slyf-i-${i}.avi SlyCooper_255_part${ii}_IQ.avi
mv -vi slyf-h-${i}.avi SlyCooper_255_part${ii}_HQ.avi
mv -vi slyf-m-${i}.avi SlyCooper_255_part${ii}.avi
mv -vi slyf-l-${i}.avi SlyCooper_255_part${ii}_LQ.avi
i=`expr ${i} + 1`
fi
j=`expr ${j} + 1`
done
exit 0
Posted by njahnke at 10:36 AM | Comments (2)