Streaming or Download

I'm always a bit curious about how people view their anime and what they like. So how do you like your anime? -Cut & paste? Yes please.

I prefer to download a show from a subbing group and then convert it to play on my PSP so I can see it wherever I go.

 

I'm pretty sure it's illegal everywhere, especially when any show gets licensed, try looking for Air TV or Chrno Crusade now-a-days. Either way your secret is safe with me ;)

I'm so used to the PSP the thought never even dawned on me to convert them to play on the PS3 >_<

What kind of program and settings do you use? I currently use FormatFactory for MKV files with subtitles, convert them to AVI and then with Mediacoder encode them to PMPAVC formatted .PMP files for my PSP.

 

Well in general you don't have to convert a file because as you said, you can view it on the computer or a device with native support based on the original file type. Basically it depends on the source of where you get your media from.

Converting to one file is usually all that is needed but I take it a step further because I enjoy the whole encoding process, I know it's a weird thing to like huh? The process of encoding something to PMP is very much an outdated method but I still prefer it to other formats for the PSP because it saves on size and retains the original quality of the encoded file. I'm sure there is far more efficient methods than what I do and probably yield far more interesting results but in the end I enjoy my own personal process.

I know what you mean though, it's a pain to have to go through tons of programs in order to do one process. You don't know how long it took me to finally be able to find a couple of programs just to do what I'm currently doing without crashing or running into encoding issues. Also considering subbing groups are using containers like MKV far more than AVI in the following years, it's become even more difficult to follow the good old drag-and-drop method which the vast majority of converting software are built for specifically. When you bring embedded and external subtitles into the picture, well then that's a whole new mess as you've pointed out. The only suggestion I can make is FileFactory because it actually does what I want it to do, allows me to convert a MKV to something else while letting me choose the audio and subtitle options. I can even encode an entire season of episodes all within the same process. Of course the main issue is having to adjust settings for each video but in my opinion it's not that big a deal and takes only a few seconds. There are many others that do that in some capacity and I spent a good several months trying to figure it out but thus far the easiest was this application.

The main issue I had on and off for years was finding something that allowed me to convert to PMPAVC, that has been the bain of my existence and has made me pull my hair out on many occasions. The only program that did it well was PenGUIn for Mac os X, even then it was very restrictive on what it could encode and would constantly limit the frames to 25, even if the media had 30 or 60. Finally after digging through some of my old contacts from PSPCrazy, I managed to find a former member who used to pair with me to formulate many different methods of getting media and applications on the portable device. She sent me a link to the MediaCoder website where part of the coding we did was incorporated for their PSP edition application. They managed to perfect what we tried to do years ago and believe me I couldn't be happier, although she's still angry about them taking our work and making it free for the public.

I might do a guide for my process of encoding on here sometime. I finished downloading some a couple of movies so it would be convenient all the way around.

 

Exactly, at the end of the day all that matters is that you find a way to enjoy watching your shows anyway that you'd like.

 

Well the problem with what I do is that the .PMP file only plays on the application PMPlayerAdvance for the PSP. If I were to convert to .MP4 then perhaps it would work just fine. I like your suggestion and will give it a go for making PS3 videos Kyrika. All this conversion talk is making me want to go back to making Dreamcast compatible videos as well now XD

 

Well I'm always willing to try a new program out even if it might do the same things as others.

 

Same here, especially considering that show your watching or just finished within time may be impossible or very difficult to download later on. So keeping a backup is always a good thing, finding the space to do so on the other hand can be a "fun" process sometimes. I'm curious, what's your organization system like for archiving Suyo? Do you set up folders with seasons, specials and movies or dump them all in the same folder?

 

Oh wow, I didn't know you could do that in Linux. Well then I guess it's time to take out my Macbook and do some sorting then XD

I like your idea of having the folder icons themselves incorporating an element for a specific anime. I used to create backgrounds for my folders but found that once I transitioned to working on PC's that customization feature was no longer available.
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[Edit] February 17 2013 7:04PM EST
I'm surprised I still have a screenshot but this is what I used to do before, apparently I did custom media icons as well...along with a custom theme for my Mac. Geez...thinking back on it, all the tweaks and such I did to that machine. No wonder it ran so slow.

Hmm...I just noticed that I didn't blend the color of the original image with the background too well, eh I was new to Photoshop back then. This is not the exact sorting system I used to do but it's similar.