The A/V Thread

Satou

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I found a bluray region free player by Vsonic, I bought a DVD player in 2017 and it's region free. I hope this one also is region free, but this is my first bluray disc, so I need to consider it
 

flowersofnight

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Somewhere in a nondescript building in Tokyo, some accounting drone is noticing a little blip in blu-ray player sales centered on 6/21 and wondering why ::mana::
 

flowersofnight

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For those interested in video: did you know that the world's best video capture device, by all accounts, is a USB stick from 2009?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/283731524389

There are a couple of internal versions of this which are just as good, but you need to be running antique hardware with Windows XP (!) for it to work. The USB one works fine on at least Windows 7 and 8.
 

Hampo

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I bought myself one of those hip 4k Ultra HD über bluray players that has been hacked to be region free.
... It was over $300. Ouch.

Anyway, how does that USB stick work exactly? You put it on your satellite/cable plug thingie and hit "record" and it records telly? Wat.
 

flowersofnight

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I bought myself one of those hip 4k Ultra HD über bluray players that has been hacked to be region free.
... It was over $300. Ouch.
Was it a good brand?
I think I ended up paying something like $500 for an Oppo UDP-203 plus another $90 for the region mod chip. But I'm glad I did before they discontinued it, since now they go for $1000+ on Ebay.
... I almost wonder if I should sell mine ::meev::

Anyway, how does that USB stick work exactly? You put it on your satellite/cable plug thingie and hit "record" and it records telly? Wat.
You can hook up composite, S-Video, or RF to it and then it shows up as a regular recording device you can use in your favorite video capture program.
 

Hampo

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The bluray was LG, can't remember the exact release. It was actually under $300 now that I checked.

I was celebrating too soon. Now I have a problem that every 20 minutes or so the screen goes black for a second and then comes back. Might be a problem with my new LG OLED TV or the connection it has with the bluray player. God, I hate this crap. Why can't things just WORK.
 

flowersofnight

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my new LG OLED TV
How is that working out? Last time I was in the market for TVs (a couple years ago) all the OLED TVs still had hideous problems with burn-in, so for someone who plays a lot of games it was a non-starter.
 

Hampo

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Well, the TV is new and the only problem I have thus far is with the screen going black now and then for some reason, like I mentioned. And I assume that's not supposed to be a common problem.

I saw an interesting thing on reddit about the burn-in problem, but I don't have a link to it. Apparently it's an unavoidable thing, but it's not really that bad, at least in my case. I watch TV maybe once in two weeks and I don't play games, so I guess I'm safe... Anecdotal evidence seems to imply that it isn't that bad, because "I have over 10000 hours on my TV and it doesn't have any burn-in!" It can however be a problem if you watch the same news channel all the time (large red news logo always on the same spot) or play games (hud). The worst color is apparently bright red. It kills pixels fast.

The only fear I have is subtitles. Everything I watch is pretty much subbed and that might cause a problem later in the future, as the subtitles are mostly on the same spot on the screen and are bright. Some bluray players apparently let you turn subtitles partially transparent, which would be really good.
 

sanctum

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You kids and your fancy panels, I recently bought a 25" CRT TV just to get light gun games working. I thought it was huge when it arrived but honestly now I wish I had a gone a little bigger.
 

flowersofnight

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I recently bought a 25" CRT TV just to get light gun games working.
I'm not totally up on this since the only light gun game I like is "Duck Hunt", but aren't they coming out with custom guns and/or software patches that allow the games to work on modern TVs?
 

sanctum

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I'm not totally up on this since the only light gun game I like is "Duck Hunt", but aren't they coming out with custom guns and/or software patches that allow the games to work on modern TVs?

I think there was a modern gun designed for the Xbox One and I know there are intermediaries for older systems that use a Wii controller and some other strange boondoggles, but all of that is a lot more expensive and convoluted than just buying a second hand CRT.

Also, before I bought the CRT TV I didn't even own a television.
 

Hampo

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I would love to play some House of the Dead 2 again. I remember being really bummed out when I realized that my Dreamcast light gun had become useless with modern TVs :/
 

flowersofnight

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but all of that is a lot more expensive and convoluted than just buying a second hand CRT.
You say that like it's a bad thing ::meev::

Speaking of convoluted setups, anyone who's a big fan of them may be interested in:
https://www.provantage.com/aten-vs0801hb~7ATEN148.htm
This is the only HDMI switch I've come across that actually handles ARC and multiple EDIDs correctly. There's a smaller 4-port version too for people who aren't completely insane yet.
 

sanctum

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I would love to play some House of the Dead 2 again. I remember being really bummed out when I realized that my Dreamcast light gun had become useless with modern TVs :/

Is there anything stopping you from getting an older TV? If you don't mind something a little smaller, the guns will work with CRT computer monitors and the best possible picture a Dreamcast can output is through VGA, so all your other games will look rad.

afVepso.jpg

You too could be this a e s t h e t i c.
 
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Hampo

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Not sure if that aesthetic fits my apartment. I'm a bit too embarrassed to take pictures of my flat, but let me quarantee you, normies can't handle it.

Also, crap. My new TV started doing the thing again where the screen goes black for a second every 20-30 minutes. How frustrating. It worked without any problems for one day and then it did it again the next day. I suppose I really have to get some new hdmi between the bluray player and the tv. I can't think of anything else at this point.
 

sanctum

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I would share a photo of my Dreamcast setup but as it is just a tube TV sitting on a TV stand, it isn't terribly exciting.

I have a question for all of you AV boffins, how do I go about hooking up my Macbook's Thunderbolt-out to my TV? My only input options are composite and S-Video.
 

flowersofnight

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how do I go about hooking up my Macbook's Thunderbolt-out to my TV? My only input options are composite and S-Video.
I imagine you'd have to use an HDMI cable and a box like this: https://www.analogue.co/dac/

But what could you even accomplish this way? Any TV that old isn't going to give you something readable if you plug a high-res computer into it.
 

heutre

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I wish more people would rip their collections, my Dizziness of Lucifer VHS started failing on me before I could try to export it (thankfully it's easily available HQ online, but I can't help but think that some rare tapes are currently deteriorating or are already in a almost unviewable state) I started ripping random VHS tapes I got at flea markets for sampling purposes, and I have noticed how some tapes are really starting to break. (I know it might be multiple factors at fault, but tape deterioration is well documented online) My first Industrial Gender Unit VHS was already stuck in a B&W state for reasons unknown. So.. if you have a rare cassette, please consider ripping it for archiving purposes (no need to share it online.. just make a copy in case it deteriorates further) Products like these are pretty cheap and somewhat easy to use. (Also, consider ripping your cassette tapes before playing them much, since they deteriorate with each play)
 
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sanctum

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But what could you even accomplish this way? Any TV that old isn't going to give you something readable if you plug a high-res computer into it.
I gave it a shot with a cheap converter from Amazon, I didn't mind the awful picture quality but I couldn't work around the awful flickering I was getting.
 

ketsurui

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I wish more people would rip their collections, my Dizziness of Lucifer VHS started failing on me before I could try to export it (thankfully it's easily available HQ online, but I can't help but think that some rare tapes are currently deteriorating or are already in a almost unviewable state) I started ripping random VHS tapes I got at flea markets for sampling purposes, and I have noticed how some tapes are really starting to break. (I know it might be multiple factors at fault, but tape deterioration is well documented online) My first Industrial Gender Unit VHS was already stuck in a B&W state for reasons unknown. So.. if you have a rare cassette, please consider ripping it for archiving purposes (no need to share it online.. just make a copy in case it deteriorates further) Products like these are pretty cheap and somewhat easy to use. (Also, consider ripping your cassette tapes before playing them much, since they deteriorate with each play)
I gave it a shot with a cheap converter from Amazon, I didn't mind the awful picture quality but I couldn't work around the awful flickering I was getting.

I ripped all of my VHS and cassettes using an elgato video capture dongle (https://www.elgato.com/en/video-capture) with OBS for video and Audacity for audio. The more expensive part was picking up a minidisc deck (and Hi-MD player), a high quality Sony VCR, and a high quality Sony dual cassette deck. I now have everything I could possibly need for any future acquisitions.

On that note, I have KuraiKat's ENTIRE collection ripped (for those that don't know, he gave me his collection to archive). I just have a little bit of cleanup to do and need to figure out a good hosting platform to share it all to everyone here. There's a TON of Deshabillz, Luna Sea, Lareine, and Kuroyume bootlegs, along with some other stuff that might have already been distributed by now by people who bought stuff from him years ago when he was still in the scene and trading/selling. Luckily, he took very good care of the majority of his stuff, and I was able to salvage almost everything. There are a handful of things that I'm unable to identify, but I did a mess of research and have almost everything properly labeled. Many of them are original source, so I ripped much of it in super high quality settings to best preserve it.

Note: Please don't bombard me with DMs asking about this stuff. It will come out in due time and I truly don't have time to list everything and/or answer a ton of questions currently. If you have questions regarding the equipment I use to rip, I can field those questions.

Edit: This was a good portion of what I had to rip (nevermind the cat):
20180905_194618.jpg
 
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