USB 3.0 impression and some testing

 

 

Apparently the Blu-ray writers price aren’t going down as I had hoped (well, just for Pioneer BDR-205 I had wanted). But I got a USB 3.0 setup for cheap totally unexpected. I did some initial testing, and the results are very impressive – the drive performs as fast as internal SATA connection!

The setup I got consists of an EVGA USB 3.0 PCI-E card utilizing NEC chips and a Seagate USB 3.0 go-flex adapter which can be used on either Seagate drives OR any desktop drives.



So to make this combo work, all you need is a bare drive, there is NO enclosure involved here. I personally preferred this way since I got my HDDs mainly for backups, I don’t need constant access, but I DO need quick and convenient access. So this setup suits my needs well.

Here is the tests I’ve done today with ATTO Disk Benchmark. The drive tested is a WD green 1.5TB drives, very certain it’s the EARS series with the 4k advanced format… The read speed approaches to 90MB/s, and the write speed approaches to 85MB/s.

An internal SATA II connected Samsung 1TB F3 drive for comparison, the read speed actually beats it.

An internal SATA II connected WD Black 750GB drive for comparison, this drive rated fastest during all of the tests.

An externally connected USB 2.0 enclosure, it has a 200GB Maxtor ATA drive in it. The slow transfer rate is as expected.


 

An externally connected USB 2.0 drive, it’s directly from WD though, has an entry level 640GB drive in it. It doesn’t even perform as good as the old Maxtor on write speed…

 

So from the testing scores, I’m quite impressed. The real world speed reflects the tests as well. I tried to copy a 30GB file, it takes about 10min to transfer, which is a HUGE improvement over the USB 2.0 connection.

 

Next is something not so related, I just don’t want to post another entry… For the past two weeks, I’ve been cleaning my space and finally assembled a new L-shaped desk. Now I got quite some space, although the desk is not as large as I had expected.

Lastly the 1TB expansion drive from Seagate is a USB 2.0 external HDD that doesn’t require a power adapter. The size is a bit larger than most portable drives I’ve seen. But it’s 1TB, it’s USB powered, and it’s not that expensive than a 3.5” internal drive. I’m happy with this Black Friday item so far. Just have to mention it here since it’s on the desk in the photo above.

Anime BD Release Date #02 (2010)

 

2010.01.22 Fate/stay night TV reproduction I

JP Geneon Universal 本編60分／片面・1層／カラー／16:9LB／HDサイズ／BDトールサイズ／リージョン:ALL 【音声】 リニアPCM・Stereo （日本語2ch） 製作：2010年

 

2010.01.22 Fate／stay night TV reproduction Ⅱ

JP Geneon Universal 本編60分／片面・1層／カラー／16:9LB／HDサイズ／BDトールサイズ／リージョン:ALL 【音声】 リニアPCM・Stereo （日本語2ch） 製作：2010年

 

2010.01.27 DARKER THAN BLACK 流星の双子 02

JP Aniplex ■収録内容 ・第3話「氷原に消える・・・」 ・完全新作「黒の契約者」外伝　第1話 ■初回生産限定版特典(Blu-ray/DVD共通) ・岩原裕二描き下ろし三方背BOX ・小森高博描き下ろしメタリックジャケット ・40Pスペシャルブックレット封入 ・購入者限定イベント参加応募券

 

2010.02.16 Claymore: Complete Series Box Set

US FUNimation. 3 Discs. 620min.

 

2010.02.24 機動戦艦ナデシコ Blu-ray BOX

KING RECORDS. 封入特典：36Pブックレット 外箱付／6枚組デジパック仕様＜BD5枚＋DVD1枚（特典DISC）＞ 本編685分（＋映像特典101分）／本編1080p High-Definition／BD50G／AVC 仕様［カラー／4：3］ 音声［日本語（リニアPCM／5.1chサラウンド）］ ※DISC5のみ16：9ビスタサイズ／音声2ヶ［①リニアPCM5.1ch サラウンド　②DTS5.1ch MASTER AUDIO

 

2010.03.16 Gunslinger Girl: Complete Series

US FUNimation. 2 Discs. 325min.

 

2010.07.14 風の谷のナウシカ

ウォルト・ディズニー・スタジオ・ジャパン / 片面2層 / 本編約116分 / MPEG-4 AVC / VWBS-1110

 

2010.07.23 機動警察パトレイバー アーリーデイズ

Bandai Visual HONNEAMISE. 片面2層 / 214分(予定) / MPEG-4 AVC 4:3(1080p) / リニアPCM (ステレオ) / BCXA-0259

 

2010.07.23 逮捕しちゃうぞ the MOVIE Blu-ray Disc

Bandai Visual HONNEAMISE. 片面2層 / 91分(予定) / MPEG-4 AVC 16:9 (1080p、一部1080i) / DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1ch / リニアPCM (ステレオ) / BCXA-0263

 

2010.08.11 坂本真綾 15周年記念ライブ”Gift” at 日本武道館

flying DOG. (VTXL-2) ￥7,665(税込) 《初回仕様》 [1]“豪華３２ＰオールカラーLIVE写真集”一体型Gift Box仕様 （BD：黒箱） [2]特製Giftリボン封入（ピンクリボン、ブルーリボン、(極たまに)ゴールドリボンがランダムに封入。こちらのリボンは購入後、パッケージに結ぶことで「Gift」仕様にすることができます。）

 

2010.09.30 劇場版「Fate/stay night UBW」

Fate/stay night UNLIMITED BLADE WORKS Blu-ray初回限定版。本編約105分、特典映像／1080p／16:9／日本語(5.1ch) ／GNXA-1140／9,240円

 

2010.10.07 劇場版マクロスF～イツワリノウタヒメ～

劇場版マクロスF～イツワリノウタヒメ～ Hybrid Pack。価格7,140円。 48ページオールカラーのブックレット、初回生産限定で、劇場上映生フィルムコマも付属する。

 

 

2010.11.26 涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱 ブルーレイコンプリートBOX

 

発売日 2010年11月26日 価格 ￥38,000（税抜）￥39,900（税込） 発売元 角川映画 販売元 角川書店・京都アニメーション 品番 KAXA-2000 本編時間 1080 分 カラーモード カラー　 ディスクサイズ 片面2層　8枚 画面サイズ 　16:9HDワイドスクリーン 1080i, 1080p 音声仕様 リニアPCM／オリジナル（日本語） リニアPCM／英語 字幕 英語字幕 JAN 4997766618555

特製描き下ろし収納BOX
特典映像ディスク3枚
Disc1：番組宣伝スポット / ＴＶ－ＣＭスポット / 涼宮ハルヒのメイキングクリップ集（全８回分）
　　　　「ハレ晴レユカイ」ＴＶ版スペシャルＥＤ / 店頭販促用映像 / ロケハン映像集他
　　　　「谷口が行く、新不思議発見の旅」（全８話）（BD1枚）
Disc2：「涼宮ハルヒの激奏」（ライブパートのみ収録）（BD1枚）
Disc3：「涼宮ハルヒの弦奏」（BD1枚）

 

2010.12.18 涼宮ハルヒの消失 Blu-ray 限定版 

 

価格 ￥9,000（税抜）￥9,450（税込） 発売元 角川書店 販売元 角川映画・京都アニメーション 品番 KAXA-2101 本編時間 164 分 カラーモード カラー　 ディスクサイズ 片面2層　 画面サイズ ビスタサイズ　16:9HDワイドスクリーン 1080ｐ 音声仕様 リニアPCM／5.1chサラウンド 字幕 字幕なし JAN 4997766618579

Blu-ray限定版同梱特典
●特製「涼宮ハルヒの消失　脚本集」
　　シナリオ決定稿から完全収録（シナリオ：志茂文彦）／ハードカバー仕様
●特典ディスク（ブルーレイ１枚、内容はDVD限定版のものと同一）
　１：ロケハン映像（「甲南病院」編）
　２：ＢＧＭレコーディング風景（ビクタースタジオ、オーストラリアにて）
　３：舞台挨拶１（東京／池袋シネマサンシャイン＆新宿バルト９にて）
　４：舞台挨拶２（京都／京都シネマにて）
　５：ダビング、ビデオ編集作業風景
　６：テーマ曲「優しい忘却」ＰＶメイキング映像
●ポストカード付解説シート封入
●特製描き下ろしジャケットイラスト使用スライドトレイ（透明スリーブ付）
●劇場用パンフレット縮刷版

Anime BD Release Date #01 (2009)

 

03.27.2009 Cardcaptor Sakura カードキャプターさくら ―クロウカード編― BOX

JP Geneon. 7×BD50, 1150min. LE Boxset, (1.33:1)1080p, LPCM 5.1, LPCM 2.0. Booklet.

04.14.2009 Fate/Stay Night Blu-ray BOX フェイト/ステイナイト

JP Geneon. 4×BD50, 600min. 1080p, LPCM 2.0. Digipak, booklet, T-shirt.

 

04.24.2009 Macross Frontier Vol.9 マクロスF(フロンティア) 9 <最終巻>

JP Bandai HONNEAMISE. First Press, 1×BD25, 72min. 1080p, LPCM 2.0. Keep case, 16pg liner notes.

 

04.24.2009 RIDEBACK Vol.1

JP Geneon. First Press (Original Soundtrack CD, leaflet), 1×BD25, 46min. 1080p, LPCM 2.0. Keep case.

 

05.22.2009 RIDEBACK Vol.2

JP Geneon. 1×BD25, 46min. 1080p, LPCM 2.0. Keep case.

   

06.26.2009 Cardcaptor Sakura カードキャプターさくら ―さくらカード編― BOX

JP Geneon. 4×BD50, 600min. LE Boxset, (1.33:1)1080p, LPCM 5.1, LPCM 2.0. Booklet.

  

07.22.2009 亡念のザムド 1 Blu-ray BOX

JP Aniplex. 1×BD25, 50min. 1080p, DTS-HD MA 5.1 (24bit), LPCM 2.0 (24bit), audio commentary (DTS stereo), Japanese subtitle. Small size storyboard. BOX (BD exclusive first pressing)

 

08.11.2009 Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid Box Set [Blu-ray]

US FUNimation. 280min. 1080i, Dolby TrueHD 5.1, English Dolby TrueHD 5.1, English subtitle. Flimsy box.

 

08.25.2009 攻殻機動隊 STAND ALONE COMPLEX Blu-ray Disc BOX 1

JP Bandai HONNEAMISE. 3×BD50, 325min. 1080i, Dolby TrueHD 5.1, LPCM 2.0, English DD 5.1, audio commentary, Japanese subtitle. Booklet, DVD tachikoma days omake.

 

09.16.2009 バスカッシュ shoot.1

JP pony canyon. 1×BD50. Premium Booklet.

 

09.25.2009 攻殻機動隊 STAND ALONE COMPLEX Blu-ray Disc BOX 2

JP Bandai HONNEAMISE. 3×BD50, 325min. 1080i, Dolby TrueHD 5.1, LPCM 2.0, English DD 5.1, audio commentary, Japanese subtitle. Booklet, DVD tachikoma days omake.

 

09.26.2009 天地無用！魎皇鬼 Blu-ray BOX

JP Geneon.

 

09.30.2009 DARKER THAN BLACK-黒の契約者- Blu-ray BOX

JP Aniplex, 5×BD50, 625min. 1080p, Dolby TrueHD 5.1, LPCM 2.0. 40P booklet, box, digipak.

 

10.23.2009 GUNSLINGER GIRL Blu-ray BOX

JP media factory, 2XBD50, 300min. Special Case (infini BOX), 1080i, Dolby TrueHD 5.1. Booklet. Post cards (first press)

 

11.25.2009 攻殻機動隊 S.A.C. 2nd GIG Blu-ray Disc BOX 1

JP Bandai HONNEAMISE. 3×BD50, 325min. 1080i, Dolby TrueHD 5.1, LPCM 2.0, English DD 5.1, audio commentary, Japanese subtitle. Booklet, DVD tachikoma days omake.

 

12.22.2009 攻殻機動隊 S.A.C. 2nd GIG Blu-ray Disc BOX 2

JP Bandai HONNEAMISE. 3×BD50, 325min. 1080i, Dolby TrueHD 5.1, LPCM 2.0, English DD 5.1, audio commentary, Japanese subtitle. Booklet, DVD tachikoma days omake.

 

10.28.2009 鴉 -KARAS- フルエピソードエディション

１話～６話まで本編を完全収録　約１８０分 音　声 ： ①　ドルビーＴｒｕｅＨＤサラウンドEX（6.1ch）日本語 ②　ドルビーデジタル・日本語（オリジナル）ステレオ   品番：　 SHBR1

 

11.27.2009 マクロスF(フロンティア)ギャラクシーツアー FINAL in ブドーカン

Bandai Visual HONNEAMISE. カラー／（予）217分／（本編約１６７分＋映像特典５０分））／ドルビーＴｒｕｅＨＤ（５.１ｃｈ）・リニアＰＣＭ（ステレオ）／ＢＤ５０Ｇ×２枚 ／１６:９<１０８０ｉ Ｈｉｇｈ Ｄｅｆｉｎｉｔｉｏｎ> 品番：BCXE-0216　販売専用

2010 Black Friday Purchase

 

Time to update on what’s bought for this Black Friday. Not much either for this year. It’s actually the first year that we didn’t wake up at 4AM and go into the lines. I got up at 9AM that day and went out to buy a couple stuff, which most of the items are still in stock. Granted they aren’t THE popular stuff like TV, notebook, etc…

So here are what I got:

A Samsung BT headset, my staples rewards is about to expire, so I got this… I actually made two staples online purchases with a seagate 1TB expansion drive, and a camera bundle. The camera gets cancelled though… Next is the Logitech mouse from office depot. I’m pretty impressed with the new Logitch lines with these mini receivers. They got great range unlike the older ones which totally sucked and required in line of sight. Then it’s the SIIG AC adapter for notebook. The Toshiba notebook we got last year had a malfunctioned adapter, so we exchanged the adapter within warranty with Toshiba acclaim without problem (one incident is Toshiba charged my credit card for original price of $134 even though I returned the broken one within 30 days, but a call solved the problem). And this SIIG AC adapter is only $10 after rebate… It seeams I got lots of SIIG product lately from sound card, notebook cooler, to keyboard… Last one out of this photo is the ASUS DVD writer. It is the first SATA DVD writer I got. My old SONY ATA one is dying, so this is a good replacement, hopefully it can last long enough before I got my first Blu-ray writer…

These are got from the next day, Saturday, which turns out have a better deal than Friday (more attractive). There’s also the Fujitsu i3 I reviewed earlier on sale for $400 which is a great deal, but I opt out since I want to assemble an i7 desktop in the near future (just wait for the memory to come down a bit further!) The SIIG card reader takes four drives which I don’t like, otherwise it’s decent enough with a dedicated microSD (TF) slot. The Trio 8GB 7” mp4 player WAS a steal at only $20. But it’s going back to store, since yesterday I can’t power this sh*t on! Called the manufacture, support guy suspects the battery is out, which I only had it for two weeks?? How unreliable is this… Lessons learned, never get unnamed brand… Last is the HDMI 1.4 cable with ethernet built-in. This was much better than the HDMI 1.3 cables I got last year from cablesunlimited.

So that’s pretty much what I got for this year.

Next are the entertainment stuff. There are MANY crazy prices for Blu-ray boxsets this year. The price/disc is even better than the end of 2007 when SONY defeats Toshiba’s HD-DVD. Anyway, I got the following, six movies for less than $40 after tax:

And lastly, the order in Sept from Sony rewards has been cancelled by me since I got the move bundle from Amazon:

I got tired waiting for Sony, since Amazon’s price is not too bad, I went ahead and placed order, got it within 3 days instead of endless waiting. Now just have to wait for Sony to reimburse the purchase by using my rewards points I got way back when I purchased my Playstation 3!

October big BD purchase Part I – Planet of the Apes 40th Anniversary & Goldfinger Steelbook

 

Here’s the promised big month of BD purchase. Well, the two items in part one here are actually unexpected, somewhat impulse buy.

I’ve always wanted the Planet of the Apes 40th anniversary set considering the first movie is so awesome, plus there’s a 200 page book in there. So since I can get this for $41 shipped, which is the lowest price I’ve ever seen on this set, I pulled the trigger.

The package came in relatively fast. It’s a 4lb beast! I’ve never received any DVD/BD sets so heavy. I was pretty surprised. I’ve seen some pictures online, but never thought this thing would weigh so heavy.

It’s a huge 5 disc digipak with a premium 200 page book. The thing is big and heavy, I put a standard UK Blu-ray just for comparison.

Upon opening, there’s a timeline summarizing the events happened in these 5 movies. These are big spoiler if you’ve never seen the movies, which for me I’ve never seen anything beyond the third movie. But since I’m a big sucker for bonus features, especially physical features such as the book, I know I HAVE to get this version instead of the individual release.

The book is printed on glossy photo-ish paper. The quality is very good, I’m extremely satisfied with it! The digipak, however is pretty bad. The central hub is made of some kind of plastic rubber, with the discs put on them extremely hard to take out. You have to twist the discs in order to take them out. But the problem is that the rubbers will come off when you twist… I think I might just go get some multi-disc Blu-ray case and make a custom cover for the peace of mind. I’ve never liked digipak anyway since they deform pretty fast and not suitable for long term storage.

 

Next up is James Bond Goldfinger Blu-ray Steelbook Amazon exclusive.

Another impulse buy. This marks as the third steelbook, and the second 007 steelbook in my collection (first being thunderball which was very awesome!)

Unfortunately he first one they sent had a pretty big dent. They are sending it in a cushioned envelope which is an extremely poor choice! So I have to request an exchange, the second one came in the next day since I have Amazon prime. But it's still coming in with a cushioned envelope. And guess what, still dented, but it is far smaller, and it’s from the inside which suggests maybe a problem when manufactured rather than the first one with externally squeezed into the case. I also got a $4 Amazon VOD credit out of this purchase.

 

Last one is actually ordered in this month, but since I’m doing a batch, here it is:

Tokusatsu Kaiju movie… I’ve seen some Godzilla (Gojira) movies, but Gamera is new to me, since it’s only $5.49 for two movies, I took my chance to get it. It turns out I enjoyed these two movies very much, pretty decent video (~11Mbps) and audio (lossy DTS-HR with 1509K core) quality since these are from Kadokawa’s new HD transfer despite they are crammed into a BD25 disc (The Japanese releases use full BD50 space for each movie, with LPCM 5.1 audio and special features, but for less than $6, what can you ask for more)... Although the acting and the monster costume are rather lame, I think Ultraman Heisei series (Tiga, Dyna, Gaia) made around the same time are much better in these regards. But the pacing of the movies are pretty fast, which made them very enjoyable to watch.

Sept - Nov TRU Blu-ray Triple Purchase Summary

 

Well, three pre-orders, four separate trips to TRU for the past three month, has finally ended today. This deal wasn’t as good as the previous toy story 1+2 deal. There was just so many unexpected hassle associated with it, it was never as smooth as I had hoped. But I think I have pulled it off relatively OK this time. So here’s the summary for what I got from this four trip deal:

 

 

So I pre-ordered Tinker Bell 3 on Sept 17 for $10. (first trip)

I paid $15.96 when picking it up on Sept 21st. (second trip, did get a $10 GC)

I paid $3.94 when picking up BATB on Oct 5th. (third trip)

And today Nov 7th, I paid $63.69 for Toy Story 3 and the Sing Along Songs DVD filler with a bunch of Hasbro board games as seen below. (fourth trip, spent the $10 GC got earlier)

Among these 4 trips, only 2 of them are good deals, the Tinker Bell 3 sucked the most. If it wasn’t today TRU had a stackable game deal, the TS3 deal would be even a big sucker since there’s no promo whatsoever for this alone unlike all previous Disney Blus...
So here’s the story for today:

I was able to combine 3 deals:
1. Get $10 GC after spending $75. (on today’s ad there’s a coupon, which needs to be scanned)
2. Get $10 GC for purchasing ANY $40 worth of Disney DVD/BD. (In store promo)
3. Get $10 GC for purchasing $35 of Hasbro board games. (In store and online) There’s also a rebate for these games.

So since the TS3 BD is @ $34.99 original price, plus a filler Disney DVD, and then bought a bunch of Hasbro games to make the total purchase greater than $75, I was able to get $30 GC.

 

So my total spending is $93.59. And now I have $30 TRU GC. I have $15 Hasbro rebate to do. And assuming the 10% TRU cashback works, I should be able to get about $7 for all these trips. So my final spending would be $42 assuming I could utilize $30 GC efficiently. I think it was an OK deal, considering the thing I really wanted are just BATB and TS3 BDs, the rest I guess I can give away as gifts considering Christmas is coming…

 

Blogger DVD/BD Reviews Page

 

 

My semi-professional DVD and Blu-ray Disc reviews crammed with pictures! Reviews start from new to old.

DVD Reviews:

 

 

Blu-ray Disc Reviews:

交響詩篇エウレカセブン ポケットが虹でいっぱい Eureka 7 the Movie Pocketful of Rainbows – BD-Live experience report 2

First of all, the updating frequency has been slowed down. From July to the end of August, we got six extra videos, but in September, we got nothing. Now in October, we got an audio commentary for the movie. Let’s see how the implementation of this audio commentary goes.

 

交響詩篇エウレカセブン ポケットが虹でいっぱい Eureka 7 the Movie Pocketful of Rainbows – BD-Live experience report

The disc is released by Bandai under their premium label Honneamise. So how’s the experience different from the previous US Hollywood based BD-Live? Here is the report. This post also touches upon the menu, etc, with a focus on the BD-Live features, I guess.

 

プラネテス Planetes Blu-ray Box - the first full featured BD-J title from Bandai Honneamise (Blu-ray Review)

プラネテス, Planetes Blu-ray Box is the first full featured BD-J title from Bandai Honneamise, looks like Bandai has finally got the Java stuff together.

 

舞-HiME COMPLETE (Mai-HiME) Blu-ray BOX

舞-HiME COMPLETE (Mai-HiME) Blu-ray BOX is the first TV anime title released in Japan to feature Chinese Audio that I'm aware of.

 

MACROSS ZERO Blu-ray Disc Review

The second disc size is 25.6 GB, Video is 1080p 24fps, and audio is 1600K Dolby TrueHD 5.1 and 1536K LPCM 2.0. Last episode also has a commentary track but I haven't listened to it yet. The two episodes here look better than the first disc, colors are better, object and backgrounds are better defined... There is a 13 min seiyuu interview. The video is 1080i with a high bitrate transfer, but it looks rather soft, almost like from some home video.

 

FUNimation BD review Part III: Samurai 7 Blu-ray Box

The first TV series on Blu-ray by FUNimation seems a little underwhelming to me, especially for the video quality issues. I don’t think this release could justify the name of Blu-ray. I would suggest a rental first, start from episode 6 to see if the bandings are issues to you as they are very very distracting for me.

 

 

 

交響詩篇エウレカセブン ポケットが虹でいっぱい Eureka 7 the Movie Pocketful of Rainbows – BD-Live experience report

 

So in my previous post, I’ve mentioned that this Blu-ray Disc is the first Japanese domestic released title that supports BD-Live. The disc is released by Bandai under their premium label Honneamise. So how’s the experience different from the previous US Hollywood based BD-Live? Here is the report. This post also touches upon the menu, etc, with a focus on the BD-Live features, I guess. There are two discs in the limited edition, I’ll talk about mainly disc1 which has the BD-Live on it; disc2 is just a Bonus disc which I don’t have lots of stuff to say… For the BD-Live content, I’ll put the screenshots along with disc2, you’ll see a reason why I go for this order in the end…

交響詩篇エウレカセブン ポケットが虹でいっぱい Eureka 7 the Movie Pocketful of Rainbows – The first Japanese Domestic Blu-ray Disc utilizes BD-Live

 

So per the article from AV/watch impress, Eureka 7 the Movie is the first Japanese domestic Blu-ray Disc that utilizes BD-Live function. BD-Live from this disc provides trailer downloading (currently has seiyuu stage greeting footage), subtitle downloading, chat, etc. I’m rather underwhelmed by the BD-Live functions from US Blu-ray discs, first the registration is really hard, then the contents are pretty much just advertisements. I don’t think too many people would pull out the disc just to check out the BD-Live contents.

 

Also same as Evangelion Rebuild 1.11, this disc uses SONY’s SBMV (Super Bit Mapping for Video) technology to minimize banding issue commonly seen on digital animations.

Blogger DVD/BD Tutorials Page

 

So I decided to start this page by posting some of my tutorials, all of these will be regarding Sonic’s Scenarist (DVD) and Scenarist BD packages. Currently there is only one post. But I have posted ALL of my knowledge on the other Chinese forum. I think I’ll try to translate those into English and make them into PDF and post them here.

 

General:

Blu-ray ISO Mounting and Playback Guide with BD capacity (122509 Update Player Troubleshooting)

Current State of Blu-ray Authoring/Modification

PS3 DLNA software comparison: TVersity vs PS3 Media Server

Playstation 3 does NOT support DVD SPRM4 register !!! (Verified on the US fw 2.70)

How to deal with tsMuxeR's AV frame too large error.

 

My Special Expertise – Subtitle:

Current state of Blu-ray Subtitle Rendering Software

Subtitle Software Bundle Part I - Four subtitle software I've been using for original creation/modifying ((09052010 update)

Subtitle Software Bundle Part II - Two subtitle software for getting subs from the original DVD or fansub Ver.2 (08242010 update)

 

DVD Tutorials:

6 Scenarist (SD DVD) mysteries decode

 

BD Tutorials:

 

Other Resources:

 

Aug and Sept 2010 Blu-ray Purchase

 

 

This was purchased during Bestbuy promo which gives you $25 GC. So the two movies come out to be $5 only assuming I could utilize the GC effectively.

 

Well, nothing much going on, the two titles coming from Deepdiscount BOGO sale. Happen to be all SONY titles, struggled a little, and finally settled on two anime titles since the live action prices are a bit too high. Thus I have paprika, tekkonkinkreet, and sky crawlers from SONY anime titles, still missing some others which I’m NOT interested. But I promise that October is gonna be HUGE!

Farewell Windows Live Space, Welcome Google Blogger

 

 

OK, so M$ has officially dumped Windows Live Space, it’s just such a sad news to me. I’ve started blogging three years ago, 241 posts which averages about 1.5 post per week. I remember how I hated doing diaries during my elementary school and writing weekly essays when I was in China, because there’s really not too much going on in my life that deserves to be recorded so frequently. But blogging, at my own pace, is actually something I enjoyed doing, well, some of the posts are a bit show off, or most of them are pretty technical, but they really record my growing knowledge about video/audio technology. Out of 241 posts, about 90% I spent lots of time writing them, the rest are a little sloppy. Several things happened during the three years of my blogging life, first is my constantly researching for a better blogging place, tried a couple big ones such as fc2, blogger, livejournal, wordpress, I’ve always come back to Live Space because of its unique features such as dynamic page layout, which I can use super wide pictures (at least 800pixels on a 1024*768 monitor), lists which I can link to another site and make some comments, connects with msn messenger directly, which I’ve made some friends with through blogging, and statistics which tracks back all websites where it originally link from. The Live wave4 update removed the statistics feature which was a huge deal breaker so I have to start looking for a new blogger service which I think I finally settled down on blogger this time. But blogger is still lacking some of the features I’m looking for, the dynamic page isn’t dynamic although I can change the CSS style for accommodating the 800pixel width, I just don’t understand why the f*ck people prefer using narrow columns for their blogs, which you have to click every single picture to zoom in in order to see what is going on, it just never makes sense to me. Also the statistics feature, despite google made some effort on improving it such as using the same tech as google analytic, it’s just NOT the same as Live Space, it won’t track back the websites for example, also despite it provides a “don’t track my page view” feature, it still tracks my page views anyway, furthermore it enforces autopagenation, which saves on their resources, but it’s really irritate for people such as me who want to post long articles. I think the only solution to make me totally happy would be hosting my own blog, but it’s not gonna happen any time soon since I don’t want to get into the trouble of setting up all the stuff and pay domain and web hosting fees. Second is the development of Windows Live Writer, which simplifies my blogging significantly, it offers some great feature such as tables, links, graphics, but the video part is extremely weak, which I have to log into the site and do it from their. Third thing is my inner otaku power suddenly woke up sometime around 2008 so that I was really into anime at the time (maybe Macross Frontier was the cause), up until now I’m still watching on a regular basis, just not as much, but since then my blog postings have been centered on anime topics quite a lot, which I eventually renamed my blog’s name to “Anime, movies, home entertainment technology”.

I believe moving to blogger is the right decision for me. While losing some functions from Live Space, I have some new things to play around with blogger. This blog is still under construction, hopefully I could finish updating all the pages soon. Lastly, I have backed up all my old posts from Live Spaces and it’s available for download.

Anime BD Release Date #01 (2009)

 
03.27.2009 Cardcaptor Sakura カードキャプターさくら ―クロウカード編― BOX
JP Geneon. 7×BD50, 1150min. LE Boxset, (1.33:1)1080p, LPCM 5.1, LPCM 2.0. Booklet.


04.14.2009 Fate/Stay Night Blu-ray BOX フェイト/ステイナイト
JP Geneon. 4×BD50, 600min. 1080p, LPCM 2.0. Digipak, booklet, T-shirt.


04.24.2009 Macross Frontier Vol.9 マクロスF(フロンティア) 9 <最終巻>
JP Bandai HONNEAMISE. First Press, 1×BD25, 72min. 1080p, LPCM 2.0. Keep case, 16pg liner notes.

Triangular Macross Frontier マクロスF Blu-ray Disc Vol.7 review (preliminary)

   

More catch up this time…

   

1. Packaging, goodies.

 

 The first press goodie this time is the so called bromide 3 sheet set – Alto/Ranka/Sheryl. Well, there’s nothing special about the set. They are printed on materials somewhat close to photo paper, but definitely thinner than photo paper. There’s also a warning (do NOT expose these paper under direct sunlight and keep away from humidity) and placing advising sheet coming with the set, which they want you to shed some more money on some holders to hold these pictures.

show/hide

 

   

Vol.7 include episodes 17 to 19. The story picks up after episode 18. Episode 17 is like the director toying with audience by showing so many death hints to Ozma, but in the end he survives. Episode 18 shows the potential of Ranka, and put Sheryl into a bad situation. Episode 19 is quite a turning point (climax) of the show since Ranka’s reaction is directly related to Vajra.Back to packaging of this volume, the jacket picture has Sheryl and her manager Belldandy Grace on the front, Canaria’s VB-6 König Monster variable bomber on the background. Grace has a very suspicious pose with Sheryl’s medicine in her right hand. I liked this cover better than last one since it depicts the show’s tone quite well.

Disc label:

    

The booklet focuses much on interviews on character designer Risa Ebata and animation supervisor Yūichi Takahashi.

  

 

  

  

2. Spec, Video Quality, Audio Quality, screenshot comparisons...

Here is the spec:

Video

Codec: mpeg4 AVC

Resolution: 1080p

Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1

Audio

Japanese: LPCM 2.0

Audio Commentary

Japanese: LPCM 2.0

Disc

BD 25

Bandai/honneamise manages put 4 episodes (acutal content is 3 episodes, but the way of authoring the disc is that they duplicate the video of episode 4, and put the audio commentary on that one, so it counts as four episodes of space) But anyway, the video bitrate doesn't drop because of that. It still got a beautiful full 40Mbps full bitrate transfer.

2.1 The Video: A-

The videos this time remain the same quality.

 

2.2 The Audio: B+

The audio is again clean and clear, that's all I can say. It has not too much dynamic range. There's very little if not at all channel separation/directionality are present... LPCM 2.0 seems to be standard nowadays, but for this series, 2.0 is really limiting the Blu-ray capability...

 

2.3 The Menus and Subtitles: B

Same as the last four volumes, the menu of this release includes both non pop-up, DVD style always-on menu. Menus are static with no background music; as well as Blu-rays pop-up menu. The pop-up menu is missing the music chapters, the only way you can access the music chapters is thru the always-on menu, which defeats the convenience of what Blu-ray offers. The menu is simple and effective (Not so for the pop-up menu!), navigation is easy and intuitive. But again I would prefer a more Macross related theme...

And again, there's NO subtitles.

 

2.4 The extras: B

Audio Commentary (haven't listened yet..)

Other extras (ads)    . Bandai related ads   . It's not an extra feature rich disc, but there's a 16 page booklet, I'd rather prefer to have an actual print-out of the "extras".

 

3. Content:

needs more work

Final thoughts:

     add later.

Lastly, booklet scans:

JPEG version:

Uncompressed TIFF version (5 parts):

  

  

 

See You Next Deculture