The Spam Thread!

[RAMChYLD]

And now one big cyberlocker site has become their scapegoat. Wonder what will happen next...

Agreed. it's very sad.

Those MPAA/RIAA numbskulls should be tied to a chair and forced to watch the entire 2003 and 2007 SSC episodes...

[huckleberrypie]

The RIAA and the MPAA should be disbanded. Just because Megaupload has illicit content doesn't mean that the site is evil. All this bullcrap the media is doing is just as stupid as like during the Prohibition era in the States - they banned booze, and yet the ban did more harm as gangsters benefited from it.

[RAMChYLD]

The RIAA and the MPAA should be disbanded. Just because Megaupload has illicit content doesn't mean that the site is evil. All this bullcrap the media is doing is just as stupid as like during the Prohibition era in the States - they banned booze, and yet the ban did more harm as gangsters benefited from it.

Doubly agreed. Case in point: Megaupload was one of the 10 websites blocked by the Malaysian government as part of their censorship regime. In response, people purposely want to download more, uploaded more pirated video to the site, and thought other people ways to subvert the censorship. Some even said that it drove the sales of pirated DVDs back up.

The problem is this: the shows people want are no longer or never available legally in the country because the TV stations only care about the advertisers and couldn't be bothered listening to what people want to see. Either that or it's a personal vendetta. And of course iTunes, Hulu, et al is region blocking Malaysia for no good reason. Video? Useless if they're not going to release a season boxset, since the story's not going to make sense out of order, made worse by slow release dates (why the heck did it take 4 years for the entire Season 4 of the 2003/2007 continuity of SSC to be released?!?), and even worse, with missing episodes (just found out- AiCAL episodes Cheer Up and Down To Earth are not getting a Malaysian DVD release for no reason at all). Worse still is that the DVD release is dropped halfway through due to "poor sales" (TVTropes has a list of shows that got this treatment). Plus, the discs are region-locked and unless you're lucky enough to own a region-free player (not a big deal, you just gotta know how to ask for one. The big pain is tearing apart the wrapping for a disc that costs over a hundred dollars in local currency and praying that it's not going to get scratched while playing in a substandard China-brand player of questionable quality, as those player are usually the only genuinely region-free player available). Guess what happens when someone in a country that does have the show introduces a show to a friend in a country without, and all legal means of obtaining said show fails? Or if a person in a country whose TV stations have cancelled the show halfway through hears about new episodes through fansites and all requests to their TV station is answered with a "HAHAHA, NO!", or that their PayTV provider which was carrying a channel that airs the show suddenly drops the channel, and a phone call asking them to bring it back is answered with a blunt "the channel wasn't making any money"? Or even worse, you lost the show on Terrestrial TV, but then find out that a satellite channel in the region has it, but when you call your Pay TV provider, they answer "the channel's genre is one we consider to not be a money maker for us"? And they quote their sources from the one name all TV fans hate: Nielsen Media?

Those, are what I'm going through. The above are true stories of what I've been through when I lost various shows in the past (Arthur for the first scenario, Doctor Who for the second, and of course MLP:FIM, SSC:BBA and AICAL for the third). And for the MPAA to bluntly put that "they are stealing our show, they should not get to watch it because no TV providers in their country want to pay for it, and if they have asked but their TV station refuses" but not letting us have it through other means legally, it's just plain depressing. The "it's their problem that they don't get to see the show, not ours" attitude is just plain selfish, greedy and rude.

[RAMChYLD]

These scans will be FLAGGED

[cpd2009]

Parallels Desktop....

So expensive, yet so useful.


Parallels Desktop by cpd2005, on Flickr

I could have just gone with VirtualBox and not paid one dime, but can VirtualBox do this?

Only spare copy of Windows I had with me was a 32bit Windows Vista, so I installed it. Because of that, it takes up a LOT of RAM, and Windows should be the only thing that is running. (it would have been impossible to use if Lilly was still stuck with 2gb RAM) I could have just went with WinXP, but I left that at home. Besides, WinXP doesn't come with Windows Movie Maker 6.0, which I consider to be the best version there is. It's no iMovie, but it does contain some video effects that iMovie doesn't have.

The main reason why I got Parallels is to run AVI.net, a Windows-only video encoding program I swear by. I won't use anything else. What do I use it for? I use it for DVD ripping and encoding. Here is how my DVD-to-AVI process works..

1: I record a TV show or transfer a VHS tape to DVD with my Magnavox DVDRecorder/VHS combo unit.
2: After the recording is done and finalized, I then rip the DVD to the computer with DVD Decrypter.
3: I then load the VOB files into avi.NET and transcode them into DivX AVI.
4: The video is ready for use in video editors!

Wendell has been previously handling the encoding process, but since he is a budget model, encoding was slow. I barely got 25 to 30 fps! With Lilly handling the encoding process, I now get up to 80 to 85 fps! Much faster!

[RAMChYLD]

What's wrong with VirtualBox?

[cpd2009]

What's wrong with VirtualBox?

No coherence function. Meaning, you are forced to running Windows in an emulator window. I prefer coherence since it blends in with Lilly's other windows, and it allows me to just drag and drop files from the Windows VM to my documents in Finder. (I think VirtualBox can do the same, can't it?)

In other news, I have decided to go back to using composite video for my DVDRecorder/VCR output, mainly because while using SVideo, older video game systems (NES/SNES/Genesis) are upscaled to a 480i resolution. That doesn't sound too bad, but to me, it makes the graphics look blocky and pixelated, similar to how a flat panel HDTV upscales low-res content like these to the LCD's native resolution. (one reason why I shy away from flat panel TVs)


My DVDRecorder/VHS combo has a strange setup with the video outputs...

If you use regular composite, the VHS portion of the unit allows me to see my video games at their proper resolution since it doesn't pass the video through a scaler. However, use SVideo, and you are forced to use the DVD portion of the unit. It does allow you to see the video input, but because the video is passed through a scaler, it makes the 8-bit and 16-bit graphics appear blocky and pixelated. Another downside is that you cannot see the VHS OSD at all, unless if you are playing back a tape. You also cannot record to VHS either. I rarely record to VHS these days, but once I return home for the summer, I am going to archive MLP:FIM on to VHS (as well as DVD-R). Im just doing the VHS recordings for fun. Ponies on an outdated magnetic recording medium. Interesting.

Now...I must be busy changing Anna-Lena's video setup. I will gain an extra open spot on my A/V switch since Im connecting the Black Friday DVD player to the front AV input. (no cords around the front though...the front AV input is around on the side)

SVideo is nice, but I have been comparing the two, and I can't see much difference in picture quality. Under composite there is dot crawl that is common with such connections, but it doesn't bother me at all.

[Evalana]

Oh, Sparkle World and your endless reuse of vectors. At least the books try to hide it (doesn't change the fact that there's only two vectors for Mr. Longface, though: his "dazed and confused" face and his "smug bastard" face).

[RAMChYLD]

Oh, Sparkle World and your endless reuse of vectors.

I suppose they won't let Sparkle World artists draw the characters themselves?

Then again, even Hasbro's own vectors tend to come out weird sometimes. Case in point: the stylized Rainbow Dash that looked like she was drawn by the person who designed Michael Jackson's Moonwalker logo. And of course the "geass" Fluttershy (one eye missing the color in her retina).

[RAMChYLD]

.NETDRV: RQ recovery CasCADE driver.
SYSTERM: WARN: CasCADE driver suffered corruption in UniX tree.

ChantalStrandActionDevice: irreparable corruption in CasCADE.SYS: Damage post-Bijou in ReincarnationOf Tree. SRC of DMG is Stanman.

Driver may become malicious and damage Parse Reactor if certain methods are invoked.

Proceed anyway? (T/NIL): _