Mercurial Morpheus

Oh, i've come across quite a few in my day. Too many to recall off the top of my head. I got sealed copies of some early nineties releases for a buck. 1st releases of Dangaio, KOR OAV and Demon Hunter Yoko. Seems the box was closed up at the store in the early nineties and forgotten about until con. I've kept them closed since it's just sort of awesome that way (with $35 price tags still on). Having no problem with VHS has lead to a lot of cheap collection building. Swap meets can be very lucrative. Especially when lots of the old people going through them aren't fans of the same old shows you are. I've gotten manga for dirt cheap, and last year a guy was selling his Escaflowne and Eva CDs for a buck each. Even picked up Kotono Mitsuishi albums since they were practically free. Sometimes a things rare enough you feel lucky to get it. I picked up a Koto Noriko Takaya figure at AX 06. All of one dealer among dozens had her. One the most awesome I had to miss out on. One Fanime swap meet had a guy selling a 1/48 Skull One for 30 bucks. I wouldn't have my money until the following day, and he wouldn't hold it. everytime I forget about it, someone reminds me.

How old's your PC? it could just be a codec issue. While i don't mind grain being stabilized in extreme cases like DYRL, I'm not a fan of DNR. It is too often used in the extreme (just look at the B-G release of DYRL or the screencaps coming out of the new Star Trek IV blu ray).

At least they fixed Kirk's death in the final cut. In the novelization based on the original shooting script he gets pointlessly shot in the back.

Thanks for the input. Sorry that I forgot the name. I expected as much

I picked up two glass sets and they're real glasses. They say the set is $7.00 prior to tax, and they wanted $2.99 for a lone glass without meal (I wanted a second Spock glass, but decided to pay the added 4 bucks for the rest of them). On the reciept it was 15.92 for the glasses (labelled "w/meal" so it shouldn't have been a higher price), so I was definitely charged about 8 bucks a set. It was $1.49 for the Scotty toy, and I have some odd $1.94 charge for "Cents +" that I'm really been wondering about. Anyone know what that is? I did originally ring up 5 glasses then switch to eight. Came out to about 21 dollars for eight glasses and a Scotty toy (I wanted Original Spock, but it was Scotty, Kirk or the Kelvin). Speaking of the Kelvin, I wonder how that Iowa town feels about Kirk being born in space. I never expected him to act serious in the Kobayashi Maru, but it was a little too far. Like one put it, more Zack Morris, than Kirk.

Kirk's bag on the ice planet is labelled NCC-1701-D for all you Galaxy fans. The product placement was a touch odd. Nokia carphones (I guess it was a classic), Bud Classic (though I believe that was for letting the production use a Bud plant as Engineering).

Yeah, his attitude was way off in that scene. I'm still kicking myself for not picking up on the apple earlier. That worked extremely well. It helped with saying that just because things have changed, not everything truly has. Thanks for the Zack comparison. I may not be able to unsee that now. I'd love to see it in IMAX, provided I can find one in the area that hasn't been ruined by digital conversion or is a downright poser theatre. I saw Watchman that way. Aside from the sound, it wasn't worth the added price in the slightest.

Well, I was talking about myself personally. My favorites are 2, 4 and 6. My appreciation and perception of them has changed over the years. One has grown on me. Three just has way too many moments that I enjoy (Stealing the Enterprise is possible my favorite Trek movie moment), Six had some great themes to it, "Is it possible that you and I have grown so old and inflexible as to have outlived our usefulness". Five is definitely the black sheep, but Shatner's memoirs does make it a touch interesting. I've also freely admitted a bias. I grew up with the films, the old cast. I know them inside and out. While I may enjoy a new actor's take on the character, Shatner will always be Kirk, Nimoy Spock, etc. It's like how I enjoy Next Gen and DS9 and even Voyager, but I would never place them as a whole above the original. I threat them as separate pieces of the same whole. Each with their moments and so on. As a movie, it's quite good, though not without some character and pacing flaws. As a TOS based Trek movie, it's number 7 on the list. I wouldn't even think of comparing them to the Next Gen films (though I may have enjoyed it a bit more than most of those). Even if I were so foolhardy as to outright compare it to the others, which would be unfair due to the change in cast and direction, it still wouldn't rank higher than fifth. So I have too creteria for it - basically how much I enjoyed it as a film, and how much I enjoyed it as a Star Trek film. That line was in reference to the latter. I also respectfully disagree with your assessment of how "alive any of these characters are", particularly the supporting cast (which even I admit were rarely allowed to outshine the big three). Especially when they're not quite right at the moment (both intentionally and unintentionally). Though I see no point in arguing about things that pretty much come down to personal point of view. Might I add that this is the first time I've ever seen anyone call The Undiscovered Country "flat out bad". Though it's not like I go around looking for opinions on it. Nor do I have a problem with you not liking it. Trek is something different to you than it is to me. Naturally we're not going to have the same acceptance of certain things. One thing I will give this film is that it's definitely rejuvenated my interest in classic Trek lately. Aside from a few film watching, it'd been mostly dormant for awhile now. I've been watching the old series lately. Grand Admiral, I sort of like what you did to the Ambassador class, though I've never really had much of an opinion on it. Like i said, I have grown to like the Galaxy's lines, but your fix just doesn't help much. It's just built into the design. Amusingly, I've seen numerous changes to the new Big E that actually does improve her quite a bit. Though she is much better in motion. I've never thought of the Sovereign as having any similarity with the Excelsior. She always looked like a somewhat compacter, stretched out Galaxy with Constitution tendencies in her profile. Definitely Next Gen styling.

Nice post Chronicidal. I totally agree that the last thing I want to see them do is stuff like "Here's what Wrath of Khan is like now that the timelines changed". It never even occurred to me that someone might suggest that. I actually was a touch disgusted when Bill Hunt brought that up as though it were some exciting new prospect. Can they revisit old Treks? Sure. But i think it would be best if they told new stories while referencing the old. The little things like Kirk and the apple were nice nods. Last we need are real cases where we have to divide the fandom between "New City on the Edge of Forever is way better than the old" and so on. I like it as an alternate timeline, but they shouldn't focus purely on that. I found it interesting that Spock Prime knew the true timeline, though I suppose he had to for plot purposes.

Yeah, as much as I love AE, they have one of the crappiest icehouses on the planet. I was rather amazed to discover the use of DVD5s. Though I've noticed Funi has started releasing series on 4 discs lately. Those can't look as good as they could. Remastering is funny business. Particularly color. There are some fascinating studies on remasters that royally mess up color tones. I'm reading up on the new Trek film set right now. Khan is really blue now, and most are DNR'd to hell and gone. It's seems most people care not for accurate color timing. You'd be amazed what color timing can do to a films look. Even the recent Sleeping Beauty restoration, which used three stripe Technicolor had some really odd color fluctuations. Sadly, a lot of recent restorations are contrast and tint tweaks with some digital paint put it and some grain scrubbing and edge enhancement (The SB DVD had tons of EEE that the BD thankfully didn't). Basically what happened to DYRL (minus the DNR). Not that it's always a bad thing, though it can be when they decide "punchy" is better than accurate. I'll have to compare a bit more. Though AE really did do some great work.

Maybe it was a bias brought on by not being a Next Gen fan growing up, but I'll trow my lot in with those that hated the Galaxy class. Something about it's curves never appealed to me, nor did the lowered nacelles. I was overjoyed when they destroyed her. .I even ran out and bought the toy (though I own a non-damaged one too). I remember as a kid hating the design enough that I never referred to it as the Enterprise. I have a drawing I did at one time labelled "Picard's ship" Though I've come to appreciate it lately, as I grew to like TNG. It's still my least favorite Enterprise. Needless to say, I love the Sovereign precisely for the reason you hated it. It was more in line with the Constitution (the Constellation is something else entirely)It peeved me quite a bit that Playmates never got the pylons right on their toys. The refit Constitution/Enterprise class is still my all time favorite. I feel the higher nacelles convey a more balanced, powerful design. I used to draw it all the time. I'm sure growing up with the original crew had a lot to do with it as well, though I've never liked the TV design as much as the movie one. I just love the classic movie aesthetics. That includes the Miranda and Excelsior classes. The new Enterprise is growing on me. It really looks like they tried to combine the best of both Constitution designs. I just wish her profile wasn't so scrunched up. It makes her look top heavy. Though so looks great at the angles where this isn't as obvious. At least she's not all TNG/Enterprise influenced. I'm a bit amazed at how well ILM pulled off the effects with just CG, and that's a huge compliment from me. The last time it was attempted (Insurrection) everything looked downright cartoonish. Anyone know a good price for her toy? Voyage is of the Intrepid class for those that were wondering. Having seen the film, I liked it better than i thought I would. The alternate reality helps a lot. I'm still not too wild about Pine's Kirk though. Particularly early in the film (the bar scene was awful). It felt a tad rushed at times. His decision to heed Pike seems to get all of a few shots of him staring to serve as him accepting the offer. Though the worst was Nimoy really made the film though. I also thought Engineering was a touch too industrial, though more in the "it doesn't look like they're even aboard ship" rather than an offence to the concept. Didn't need the Enterprise reference either, but that's just nitpicking. I did like how each character played their part. Urban was also excellent as Bones, which was not the vibe I got in the clips I saw. Spock is a bit iffy on me, though that's probably because of the thing i mentioned earlier, and he did seem like a bit of a prick at times. I saw it was the most quiet crowd since Insurrection (which was a press screening I'd won tickets to). I felt like I'd had a private screening. I blame missing the 7pm showing (which was fairly packed when I snuck in while waiting) for the 8pm show to accommodate a friend, and the plain lack of midnight showing as it. I WAS the vocal member that cheered Nimoy and such. It was odd living that again. As much as I love private screening, I expect audience reaction, and was disappointed that i didn't really get it. Still, it was worth it for seeing it with a friend (who was much less thrilled then I) All in all, it was a good movie, though I'll never rank it above the original 6 (though maybe 5 since Paramount really did ruin it going by Shatner's memoirs). I sort of approached it as standalone along with being a Trek film. Though I loved the last Trek movie too, so maybe I'm just not meant to hate anything with Star Trek in the tile (hence my dislike for Enterprise). I do disagree that they nailed the characters though. They're not too far off thankfully. Once they get the characters back in order, maybe things will improve. Now that you mention it Redwolf, it does have a lot of socking similarities with the Tim Russ project. I still need to watch the third part of that.

Not even the slightest. The book costs about 6 bucks. I paid about 8 at Kinokuniya. It is nowhere near worth 71 dollars unless you're loaded and don't give a damn. Especially when you can't read it.

Wow, I was looking for this thread for a few minutes, and then find that I couldn't find it because it was literally bumped by you mere moments after I click over from ANN telling you to look here. That's just too damn hilarious.

My God man, what on earth are you doing then!? If you're TV has HDMI input, go to a BigLots, get a 10 bucks cable, and plug it in directly. They'll look absolutely great with next to no effort. If it's got VGA input like my LOEWE does, do the same and get an a double RCA jack for the audio. If it has none of these, convert to a PS3/360 compatible format at generous filesize. Subs are rather tricky though. Again, check Doom9. Still, if you have a digital TV (and if not, get yourself a Plasma), hooking up your laptop is the way to go. My fansubs look better than DVDs usually. As for a hard copy, burn them off as data discs using Nero or a similar program.

You'd be better off adding ADV's subs to Animeigo's set, as it has superior audio to begin with. That said, you're pretty optimistic to expect someone to rip subs from nine discs for a new member whose request is his only contribution thus far. Like Xeros said, it's a touch time consuming. A lot of other board would consider that pretty rude, actually. Not to mention that I've never heard of Aniemego. Still welcome to the boards. That said, the subs really aren't all the different. They changed a handful of lines in the first volume, and probably didn't use Animeigo's trademark use of colors. So it's probably not worth your time. I've somewhat wondered on the video quality though, as AE used DVD5s, and I think ADV used DVD9. Though I hear AE's are progressive, while ADV's are not. It's a heck of a can of worms. Speaking of VQ, I've only seen one episode of the R2, but I can't really say I'm all that impressed. This is not in reference to Gubaba's work, merely the remaster itself.

You really would not want to do that. Remember that you're already adding more lossy compression. The TV/DVD/Blu-ray files were lossy compressed to begin with, then more was added to fansub them, now you're adding more to make them DVD compatible. On top of that, you're using a really crappy codec for the final product, Ten episodes is already a putrid amount to start with, especially if you're only using a DVD5. That's already less than 500 megabytes of ancient mpeg-2 compression space. So you're looking at a really dismal bitrate which should suffer from astounding macroblocking. You do want these watchable right? You're approaching HK DVD bootleg standards. I used to convert things to VCD all the time, and they looked like crap. If you're seriously going to do this, I would put the minimum number of episodes on the disc. No more than four. Mpeg-2 is a really old, inefficient codec, and needs all the room it can get. I personally have a laptop and just plug it directly into my TV. Though you'd need a digital one for that. If you have a PS3 or 360, I here Tversity works well for streaming. Though they still need to be compatible files, which means you can't use MKV goodness. I also am amazed at the mentioning of realplayer, and actually paying for it. Realplayer's basically been garbage since the nineties. Combined with a streaming source, I can't imagine those looking too hot (at least by my standards and experience). Though whatever works for you I suppose.

No offense truly taken. Again that line was in response to your post saying she wasn't on it, and my memory of her usually always tagging along. I'd only seen the March poll, and hadn't even rechecked it at the time I responded. I wasn't even comparing the Newtype poll outright to others actually. Most of the ones I've seen people talk about ARE different Newtype polls. Pardon me for not looking up the latest before checking. So please take it with a grain of salt. ;;. Also note that "beauty contest" doesn't always mean looks. I meant that they're simply like you put, popularity contests based on mostly superficial means. If we have a non character like Feldt in there, it's pretty much a given that as many people are voting for characters based on a quirk, personality type, or design, as much as they are actually giving thought to the process. Ranka actually was put down here quite a bit for being the "loli character" by the way. So any poll has to be taken with a grain of salt. It could be easily argued that Sheryl fans are just more likely to participate in them. After all, I've seen it argued that only Macross fans prefer Sheryl over Ranka, yet I personally have never seen it. That's not to say it's not true in that persons experience. Like I said, i don't really care who comes out on top, might've even argued it with the situation reversed, and a lot of the placed characters I myself love, but I mostly see these brought up as a "Look guys, the character we love other people love, that makes us better". So it irks me a bit. I ewas never trying to imply that that was your stance though. I don't mean to downplay Sheryl's popularity, I'm not delusional, but I am bewildered by it at times, particularly at the level some fans take it. I have mentioned that I wasn't wild about Ranka for a while too. Neither are really favorite characters of mine, though I'd probably pick Ranka if forced to choose as I felt she was handled better. It's actually quite unlike me as I usually swoon for characters like Sheryl, and basically illustrates how the story handling and fanbase can affect things personally. As for the Macross notes, what pages are they on? I might be able to make some bigger scans if anyone wants a crack at them (provided I can do so without damaging the book).

Mostly just responding to the "this is now my blog" comment. Thanks for not acrually creating new threads each time.

We see through your deception. Forget torches, where's my flamethrower. Please don't abuse the thread. We've given you way too more help than needed. The last one would be Boxtorrents. They have a good version of DYRL. You can burn the episodes as is. Though I'm guessing you mean as a playable DVD and not a backup. You'll have to convert to mpeg 2, and it's really not worth the trouble. You'd be better off just joining AsianDVDClub and downloading the ISOs. Though if you wish to try, Doom9.org is your best resource.

Ranka's the next Vocaloid (well, Megumi is at least). http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2009-...id-virtual-idol Why can I already see the misuse of this?

I didn't say lists with her on top are superficial, you make it sound like I'm trying to discredit her. My bip on Ranka was in response to yours about how she didn't place here (which is actually dead wrong as she was number three with CC separating them in the March poll), and I had remembered her always close behind on the one's I'd seen. I only looked it back up after the post. It was never to imply that polls with her losing were of lesser value and you insult me for impling that I do. I think they all are rather stupid. I just think that these lists should be taken with a grain of salt, and are essentially beauty contests, not gauges of great character. It's a flavor of the month poll, nothing more. Hence my example of how a pretty much awful character like Feldt is in the top ten despite doing next to NOTHING for twenty five straight episodes. She's likeable,even I like her, but it gives a clue as to just what kind of poll it is. Wow, Sheryl beat her. Big whoop. So yes, its a gauge that Sheryl's popular, but with whom, and why should we care? Thanks for the clarification, Gubaba. It was simply my understanding that LDF was only made the end after they had the series cut down. I'm sure the last nine weren't what was intended, but obviously they had to adapt something, and I still think the series is stronger for it. I'm all for ending the narrative at the proper high watermark, but if a story is still there, why not?

Nice, you should upload to animelyrics.c0m if it's still around. Any chance on the vocal version of the Gunbuster march, or Hidaka's song during the Symphonic Poem?

Supposedly that was Kawmori's plan. Ohnogi wanted her cured a lot sooner. Though that's from FV's post. I was even saying from the moment she left that Ranka would return with the cure. I also find it amusing that the haters never even gave her credit for that one.

The quality is dependant on the quality you download and just how much crappy mpeg2 compression you add when converting them. You're adding compression atop compression atop compression. Don't expect it to look too hot, particularly with the old Xvid encodes of Zero.

Bishopcruz, Love Drifts Away was never meant to be the original ending. SDF Macross was not written as a 25 episode series initially. I think you're a touch confused on it's history. The show was set to end at Love Drifts Away once, but that was a compromise when the series had it's episode count extremely cut. It was going to be longer then 36 (49?). Then it got cut to 27 (which is why they added the recaps, and why LDF seems so final), so they cut the postwar stuff and some other things during SW1. About halfway through, their ratings skyrocketed, and the show was extended to 36 episodes, allowing them to reinsert some of what was initially cut, namely the aftermath. I've heard rumors that Macross 7 has some of the other ideas that didn't make it (like Max and Milia's breakup I suppose), though I don't know if it's true. Unfortunately, a lot of people seem to take DYRL as proof that Macross was always meant to end at Space War 1. Oh, and Sheryl my be in the top 10 on Newtype, but have you seen the rest of the list? It's not exactly a complete who's who of fantastic characters most of the time. Feldt Grace is at 10, and she wasn't even an actual character for just about the entire season. With voters like that, It's basically tantamount to her winning a beauty contest. Ranka tends to stay close in other polls.