First off, I’ve booked my train tickets for London’s MCM Expo, and the Leeds Eurogamer EXPO, so I will definitely be turning up at those events. I’m still trying to wangle my way into being able to go to EuroGamer EXPO in London. I’ve got the tickets, but it’s more the logistics of it that’s causing me problems. I admit that at MCM I’ll be focussing on gaming moreso than Anime, Manga and Comics, but I’m sure my wallet will be empty, and my bag will be full of stuff to bring home to read/display/try and put together.
Monthly Archive for August, 2009
I figured that I might use this opportunity to show off my (albeit small) figure collection. My collection hasn’t been updated in ages, and I’ve actually lost a statute since I stopped buying the figures, as it was smashed (and the price on it has skyrocketed), so it won’t feature here.
These are the first figures that I got, and are part of the .hack//LOVABLE collections. The two outside figures (BlackRose and Subaru) are both from the second collection, and Mimiru in the middle is from the first. Since Subaru was in both of them ,I saw no point in getting both sets to have a duplicate, albeit in a different pose.
And now we have Ragnarok Online figures. These are from the actual game, rather than the Anime series which is based off it. Not related to the Manwa, either, which was equally disappointing, as it would be awesome to have a figure of Chaos or Loki. These are capsule toys from Japan, or ‘Gashapon’, and are the same sort of idea of those 20p twist-the-lever machines you get in leisure centres and supermarkets, only better. The figures are (top) Swordsman, Sage, Novice, (bottom) Crusader, Rogue, Wizard. There is a second series, but as with .hack//LOVABLE, there are duplicates and I didn’t see the point in getting them.
If you don’t remember this guy from any Anime or Manga, then don’t worry. This is the VS Suit that Wayne’s Father has from Lost Planet. It was meant to be a pre-order bonus, but since Lost Planet was a launch game for the Xbox 360, naturally there weren’t that many pre-orders and the amount of figures that went spare was enough that I could grab one of these for about a fiver. It will fall apart with the slightest amount of posing, so I just keep it like it was out of the box. So far, mine hasn’t fallen apart. Yet.
Seras Victoria from Hellsing. This is from the Hellsing Anime series, rather than the Manga, or Hellsing Ultimate. It did come with a packet of blood and a bullet as well as the gun, but those seem to have gone missing. I’m pretty sure that it’s somewhere in my room at the moment. Forbidden Planet have the tan-clothed version in stock at the moment, which includes the same and is faithful to the original material. I bought it while I was in America in 2006, so I doubt I’ll get the same model over here. ;]
Last, but not least, I have the Tachikoma series of figures. Tachikomas are tanks in Ghost in the Shell, by the way. These were odd, in that they could’ve been gashapon figures, but for some reason they were sold in little boxes. I’ll be the first to admit that I haven’t got the faintest idea of Japanese culture outside of the foreigners’ misconceptions, so perhaps someone can help me with that. There are only six figures in the series, but to get you to collect all six, there are parts to build a seventh ‘secret’ figure, which is the suit in the middle on the bottom.
For now, that’s all I have for figures. As much as I would love to get more, I don’t think I will have the money anymore to really invest in the same ways that I used to, and I don’t have the time to stalk eBay for a good deal anymore. I might be getting the Armored Core Hogire and Aaliyah models, though. They’re $50 each, but at least I won’t be buying anymore for a while. Why? 500 pieces each. All ready coloured, just need to be put together.
Note: This was originally going to be a Voice Scribbles, but due to problems with software, I’m unable to do so. I might release what I have recorded, but this will have to do. Also; there’s some swearing.
I’m trying to get some hardware together to start capturing footage off my 360. I want to do video reviews, and of course my exploits on games other than Halo 3, mainly because I suck at it, but also because it has a built in service for doing the exact same thing. And I’d rather get my video editing skills up to scratch, to add to my current media skills. This means I need a piece of kit that’ll plug into the RCA Composite cables of my consoles to grab the audio and video from them. Until recently, I’ve used a kWorld 2860. I would’ve continued to use it, as it was a solid device, but since I’ve upgraded to Vista, it appears to be having problems.
AVOID THIS LIKE THE PLAGUE.
So, let me add a little more background information. Getting footage from the Xbox 360 is a little different from grabbing footage from either the PS3 or the Wii. The Wii transmits in PAL, as does the PS3 (in PAL areas, of course). However, the Xbox 360 does things a little differently. It transmits most games in something called PAL-60. From what I know, it came about when players realised that in Halo 2, the Battle Rifle fired faster in NTSC regions than in PAL regions, because of the increased frame-rate on NTSC signals. NTSC signals peak at 60 frames per second, with PAL at 50 frames per second. So, for their next generation console (360), they eventually found a workaround. Most televisions in the PAL area were able to transmit NTSC signals, so they came up with PAL-60; a barely modified NTSC signal, just to allow PAL-centric televisions to broadcast the signal in full colour, while still maintaining the 60 frames per second. This allowed games to be able to released with PAL localisation much quicker than they had been before in terms of the technical aspects of the graphics and sound.
But enough of the technical stuff; essentially, I needed a piece of hardware that was going to be able to capture a PAL-60 signal. I thought that it would be commonplace; after all, it’s a barely modified NTSC signal as I mentioned before, and the Xbox 360 has been around for a while. I thought it would just be in almost all the chipsets; or at least the ability to capture it through tweaking a few settings.
Pinnacle was the first company that I tried when I originally wanted to get a device to do the same thing when I was using XP. The Dazzle Digital Video Creator was their main product, and I tried it out; of course, the version I got was the only one that was unable to grab a PAL-60 signal, so I went for the cheaper kWorld EzCap, that I knew would work because I had seen it working in person.
If you have XP, get this. Cheap, cheerful, and works.
Fast forward a few years, and I’m in the same situation. I have Vista Home Premium, and the kWorld that I used to use now doesn’t work. Pinnacle had recently released the MovieBox, and I figured that they would’ve packed in PAL-60. I ordered it, spent £75, and got it delivered within a couple of days. I unpacked it, and installed everything. First off, the software wouldn’t install on my desktop. I have no idea why, but I went through all the potential issues. Turns out this is something to do with my PC being a Dell rather than anything else. But it worked on my laptop, which was a little weird. I fired up the device, and got the normal PAL signal working, which I expected. No PAL-60 mode, which was fine; neither did my kWorld. I used the usual method, and I had a single success. I recorded, and looked at the footage. It was smaller than a standard webcam. No solution was given.
In almost four years since the 360′s release, in a time when Machinima is finally becoming a large enough market to become a factor in video capture hardware, Pinnacle still haven’t added PAL-60 capture to their repertoire. What fucking idiots do they take us for? PAL-60 is going to become a big standard because it makes localisation for PAL areas easier and cheaper, and Pinnacle, the self-confessed ‘Number 1 choice for video capture’ haven’t fucking factored it in?! The old kWorld 2800 had the mode built into the goddamn software!
OK, I’m done. Swearing over. I’m going to put the MovieBox on eBay. Let some other chump deal with it, while I spend a third of the price on the latest kWorld, that has PAL-60 as a feature and an advertisement on the packaging.
KAECY.US is the freshly resurrected blog of Allan 'Kaecyus' Bowden-Smith; an Aion nut with too much time on his hands. 
