The state of the Lyn
Dec. 8th, 2009 11:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lynatiSo, let's see...
Two nights ago, I finally got around to re-installing some of the devices for video capture in an attempt to grab workable avi files of, mainly, the still-unreleased-on-DVD second half of Gargoyles Season 2. Both the Pinnacle System and the K-World system had the problems I remembered from the *last* time I tried to do this, namely, dropping frames like crazy, leading to something that looks closer to stop-motion than actual film. I thought it might have been the VCR, so I try the other VCR. I thought it might be the computer, so I try the other computer.
No dice.
And the irksome thing here is, I had the ability to capture just fine back in 2002, on this old desktop with its slower processing speed, but I kind of screwed up the pins on the device and it's part of the sound card, and in the same manner I also screwed up the female cable that connected to it... but wait, hadn't I tried to fix it? When was the last time I actually hooked it up, re-installed the software that came with it (Ulead) and gave it a go?
I couldn't remember. So I decided to try it right then.
Output = AWESOME. I mean, it can't fix the fact it's recorded-off-of-TV quality and not DVD quality, but I have almost every episode from the first airings of the show on tape, so no watermark, and if they're not perfect they are at least a darn sight better than every other copy of the same footage I've seen.
It doesn't encode what it captures, so the files are about 2 gig per every 7 minutes of footage, but The Black Box Of Doom scoffs at this and points to the remaining 680 gigs it has left available on it. And AVC's free "Any Video Converter" is able to handle encoding them into smaller files with its usual surprising efficiency despite the large file size.
So, any gargie vidders out there looking for the second half of season 2? Contact me. The files have no sound, and it's in by-Act chunks, but it's here, and for the most part will be without logo or watermark. (So far with the exception of Monsters, which I don't have a first run copy of, and frikkin' UPN slapped their logo up right in the middle of Puck revealing himself in The Gathering pt 2.)
In related news, my current AMV of evil is actually coming along now. Not perfectly, but better than I had hoped. I may have to cut out more of the song, though, because there's just not that much footage of Maggie speaking angrily; I've already used up the three scenes where she is. (I think.) I may just need to get "creative" again.
~
I moved things in my room around again, by which I mean, I took the giant hutch off of the table I used for my computer, since the table was bent and the hutch was leaning disturbingly far forward like it wanted to fall over onto my head and eat me, like the giant croc at the end of Hook. I'm planning to put a couple shelves up for the random stuff I like to keep reachable right near my computer, but I need special anchors because it is an exterior wall. The hutch turned out to work perfectly on the other side of the room, sitting on my two short Ikea bureaus and holding in an organized fashion all of the random stuff that had been previously covering their surfaces. I swapped the position of two of the tables in the room, too, and wow, this works so much better. (Or would, if I could get the other one cleared off. : P )
I also went through a bunch of the drawers and organized them more, since I still have a lot of papers and items stuck haphazardly inside them from the move. This lead to three more boxes being unpacked, including two of my little statuary I've had mostly since childhood.
My room is almost clean. The new set-up for the computers - desktop and laptop- works swell. (Yes, I said "swell.") When the room actually *is* clean, I'll take pictures.
~
My friend and former neighbor Valerie, and her friend (and "it's a small world after all" since this woman happened to be one of the foundations directors at KCAI the year I was in the foundations program) won the bid for the "putting art in one of the trolley stations" project that the city of Philadelphia was offering, so I might have a job this winter after all, as Val had already said she'd hire me to help since her company is doing the contracting side of the job. I learned this last night; no word yet on when actual work would start. It may in fact not be until after winter. We'll see.
~
What with all the moving and cleaning and holiday travel and AMV-making, I have written almost nothing in the last two weeks. Caught a few dialogue exchanges on paper. But my head? As busy as ever. (Poor Soen.) Oh, and I did write a two-paragraph vignette for Gunjack off a prompt of his for one of the games he's designing. I said I'd take a look and then six minutes later had a scenelet for him on the one prompt I thought would be out of my league to write something decent for. (And he loved it. Yaye!)
~
I am attending an armature workshop at the studio of one of my Fleisher teachers coming up this Saturday. Said here mostly because I'm worried I'll forget and miss it. : P
~
Current thought is to leave for Virginia on the 17th and stay with my Aunt and her family for the week before Christmas. Which means I need to get presents mailed out by the 15th. Which means I need to finish all my shopping, wrapping, and confirming of addresses by the...um...something-th. Which means I need to finish my shopping lists ASAP. @_@
~
This is the last month of the Monthly Gargoyles Art Contest, http://mgc.gargoyles-fans.org/ a standard that has been around since 1998. Since the topic is "anything goes/any previous topic," I'm debating finishing all of the pieces I started but never finished for its various contests. But I also have another idea in mind...
~
And now that I've defragmented my brain through compiling all of the above, it's time to get back to work.
Bachue: And by "get back to work" she means watch more of the second season of "24."
Exactly.
Two nights ago, I finally got around to re-installing some of the devices for video capture in an attempt to grab workable avi files of, mainly, the still-unreleased-on-DVD second half of Gargoyles Season 2. Both the Pinnacle System and the K-World system had the problems I remembered from the *last* time I tried to do this, namely, dropping frames like crazy, leading to something that looks closer to stop-motion than actual film. I thought it might have been the VCR, so I try the other VCR. I thought it might be the computer, so I try the other computer.
No dice.
And the irksome thing here is, I had the ability to capture just fine back in 2002, on this old desktop with its slower processing speed, but I kind of screwed up the pins on the device and it's part of the sound card, and in the same manner I also screwed up the female cable that connected to it... but wait, hadn't I tried to fix it? When was the last time I actually hooked it up, re-installed the software that came with it (Ulead) and gave it a go?
I couldn't remember. So I decided to try it right then.
Output = AWESOME. I mean, it can't fix the fact it's recorded-off-of-TV quality and not DVD quality, but I have almost every episode from the first airings of the show on tape, so no watermark, and if they're not perfect they are at least a darn sight better than every other copy of the same footage I've seen.
It doesn't encode what it captures, so the files are about 2 gig per every 7 minutes of footage, but The Black Box Of Doom scoffs at this and points to the remaining 680 gigs it has left available on it. And AVC's free "Any Video Converter" is able to handle encoding them into smaller files with its usual surprising efficiency despite the large file size.
So, any gargie vidders out there looking for the second half of season 2? Contact me. The files have no sound, and it's in by-Act chunks, but it's here, and for the most part will be without logo or watermark. (So far with the exception of Monsters, which I don't have a first run copy of, and frikkin' UPN slapped their logo up right in the middle of Puck revealing himself in The Gathering pt 2.)
In related news, my current AMV of evil is actually coming along now. Not perfectly, but better than I had hoped. I may have to cut out more of the song, though, because there's just not that much footage of Maggie speaking angrily; I've already used up the three scenes where she is. (I think.) I may just need to get "creative" again.
~
I moved things in my room around again, by which I mean, I took the giant hutch off of the table I used for my computer, since the table was bent and the hutch was leaning disturbingly far forward like it wanted to fall over onto my head and eat me, like the giant croc at the end of Hook. I'm planning to put a couple shelves up for the random stuff I like to keep reachable right near my computer, but I need special anchors because it is an exterior wall. The hutch turned out to work perfectly on the other side of the room, sitting on my two short Ikea bureaus and holding in an organized fashion all of the random stuff that had been previously covering their surfaces. I swapped the position of two of the tables in the room, too, and wow, this works so much better. (Or would, if I could get the other one cleared off. : P )
I also went through a bunch of the drawers and organized them more, since I still have a lot of papers and items stuck haphazardly inside them from the move. This lead to three more boxes being unpacked, including two of my little statuary I've had mostly since childhood.
My room is almost clean. The new set-up for the computers - desktop and laptop- works swell. (Yes, I said "swell.") When the room actually *is* clean, I'll take pictures.
~
My friend and former neighbor Valerie, and her friend (and "it's a small world after all" since this woman happened to be one of the foundations directors at KCAI the year I was in the foundations program) won the bid for the "putting art in one of the trolley stations" project that the city of Philadelphia was offering, so I might have a job this winter after all, as Val had already said she'd hire me to help since her company is doing the contracting side of the job. I learned this last night; no word yet on when actual work would start. It may in fact not be until after winter. We'll see.
~
What with all the moving and cleaning and holiday travel and AMV-making, I have written almost nothing in the last two weeks. Caught a few dialogue exchanges on paper. But my head? As busy as ever. (Poor Soen.) Oh, and I did write a two-paragraph vignette for Gunjack off a prompt of his for one of the games he's designing. I said I'd take a look and then six minutes later had a scenelet for him on the one prompt I thought would be out of my league to write something decent for. (And he loved it. Yaye!)
~
I am attending an armature workshop at the studio of one of my Fleisher teachers coming up this Saturday. Said here mostly because I'm worried I'll forget and miss it. : P
~
Current thought is to leave for Virginia on the 17th and stay with my Aunt and her family for the week before Christmas. Which means I need to get presents mailed out by the 15th. Which means I need to finish all my shopping, wrapping, and confirming of addresses by the...um...something-th. Which means I need to finish my shopping lists ASAP. @_@
~
This is the last month of the Monthly Gargoyles Art Contest, http://mgc.gargoyles-fans.org/ a standard that has been around since 1998. Since the topic is "anything goes/any previous topic," I'm debating finishing all of the pieces I started but never finished for its various contests. But I also have another idea in mind...
~
And now that I've defragmented my brain through compiling all of the above, it's time to get back to work.
Bachue: And by "get back to work" she means watch more of the second season of "24."
Exactly.
