SM and DWI BG vids thread - Page 14

flamepanther · 08-22-2006, 08:51 PM

I didn't say the videos were free. I said they were royalty-free, which means Roxor pays pays once and then pays no royalties per use of the videos. The point was they don't own it. In any case, I doubt Digital Juice will be watching the StepMania community, and it wouldn't benefit Roxor to report the videos.

TheFlyingSquirrel · 08-22-2006, 08:56 PM

Well then carry on. By all means please do.

flamepanther · 08-23-2006, 12:30 AM

Wouldn't it be better to convert the missing jumpbacks from the source versions instead of using the over-compressed PS2 versions?

beware · 08-23-2006, 07:25 AM

the ps2 versions are OK. they are mpeg, approximately 2 Mbit. same as the videos in the PC version. they look good, even after transcoding to the final version. i save them as divx avi, 2 Mbit, renamed to .mpg, because i lack a lossless and frame exact mpeg cutter. it works in SM.

original jumpbacks: do you have them? because i don't. if you do, please share, so i can make ITG2 vids (no need for ITG1 anymore)

itg2 uses atleast the following volumes/ranges:

586-625 15: weather and the elements
746-785 19: extreme III
826-865 21: high impact VIII
906-945 23: clean streak
946-985 24: tunnel vision

TheFlyingSquirrel · 08-23-2006, 08:08 AM

What are the advantages/disadvantages of using .avi files for videos by the way?

Do they take up less space than .mpeg files or something?

beware · 08-23-2006, 08:30 AM

if you read you see
1: my files are exactly as big as their mpegs: 2 Mbit/sec.
2: the reason is because its the only way i can do it. i couldnt find a suitable lossless mpeg editor.
imo, transcoding from mpeg to mpeg is kind of pointless, mpeg to divx will probably preserve more quality. and it saves me work as i dont need a raw avi step, and a tmpgenc step. for the final result (running in SM) it makes no difference.

beware · 08-23-2006, 08:49 AM

in general, avi is preferred over mpeg. mpeg 1 is ancient. from the VCD ages. avi is a container which can contain all kinds of video and audio codecs, which are better and newer than mpeg. also avi can be saved by virtualdub, and is output (be it in a virtual form) by avisynth. while there's even newer containers than avi (mp4, mkv, ogm), and all the progressivists embrace them, they're also bleeding edge and less widely supported, and more buggy on windows, things which make me avoid something unless i have a good reason to use it. (a reason is softsubs)

eepiccolo · 08-23-2006, 10:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by beware

the videos are from the digital juice, but theyre definately not free. they cost $249 per volume to be allowed to use them. DJ could blame roxor for leaking (by not securing them or so), which can cause roxor to chase after users ripping them. or DJ could chase after people who spread them themselves. i dont know.

I'm sure Roxor has done everything it thought necessary to secure the videos. If a person uses those videos without Digital Juice's permission, Digital Juice would have to go after the person using the video, not Roxor. I suppose Digital Juice could try going after Roxor, but they wouldn't get anywhere.

Fiddling with ripping and distributing these videos kind of seems like a bad idea to me, anyway. It's probably something we don't want involved with the rest of the work discussed in this thread. Yeah, I'm looking at you, GatzBiZZLE.

flamepanther · 08-23-2006, 01:31 PM

beware: I don't have them, but I know of someone who might, and I can get them if I need them.

eepiccolo: Ripping and distributing Digital Juice's Jumpbacks would be no more and no less illegal than ripping and distributing DDR background videos or even simfiles of official DDR or ITG songs. Copyright violation is copyright violation, and we are ALL doing it. The question is whether anyone who could do anything about it will care. Konami has known about DDR sims for years and knows all about DDR:UK, and they do nothing, so we're pretty safe from them. Members of Roxor are involved in communities that pirate music game materials, and all they ask is that ITG piracy be kept low-profile and not include the actual arcade versions. That leaves Digital Juice, who I seriously doubt is even paying attention to the StepMania community. They get no more or less money based on who buys ITG and who doesn't, and gamers are not their target market. So I don't think anyone here should be scared of anything copyright-related for now. All you'd have to do is mark the pack as ITG videos, not "Jumpbacks" or "Digital Juice", and it should fly straight under the radar.

eepiccolo · 08-23-2006, 02:54 PM

The only reason I mention it is Digital Juice is in business to make money solely off of sales of their videos. There's no company out there making money solely off of the DDR BG vids. That's why it just seems like Digital Juice would be "more upset" than any of the other parties you mentioned. You're probably right though; I was just having an emotional first impression earlier.

And besides, DDR sims and BG vids are "back-ups" as long as you own a copy of a game from whence the songs came. At least, they can be considered that as long as Konami doesn't start sending Cease and Desists to us.

You're not doing anything wrong unless you get a C&D

flamepanther · 08-23-2006, 03:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by eepiccolo

The only reason I mention it is Digital Juice is in business to make money solely off of sales of their videos. There's no company out there making money solely off of the DDR BG vids. That's why it just seems like Digital Juice would be "more upset" than any of the other parties you mentioned. You're probably right though; I was just having an emotional first impression earlier.

Right, but we're not the people Digital Juice is trying to sell to, and these would be transcoded copies (i.e. reduced quality), so it wouldn't discourage their intended customers from buying the real video packs. If it's not a threat to business, it's not worth costly legal action. If you get a C&D, you can just take the files down and nothing happens to you.

Quote:

And besides, DDR sims and BG vids are "back-ups" as long as you own a copy of a game from whence the songs came. At least, they can be considered that as long as Konami doesn't start sending Cease and Desists to us.

You're not doing anything wrong unless you get a C&D

To be a backup, it would have to be a copy of the same files used in the PlayStation, Xbox, or arcade versions. Besides that, for a backup to be legal, it has to be taken directly from your copy. No matter what ROM sites may tell you, downloading copyrighted material without permission is illegal even if you already own it. It's also not any more legal if you delete it in 24 hours. There's no two ways about it. 90% of the simfile scene is illegal, and none of the copyright holders really care.

I'm trying to identify the specific movies that are missing, but they're not named uniformly. The ###_JumpBack.mpg files are a no-brainer, of course. The numbers in jb_###.mpg files corespond to the same three-digit number they would have in the ###_JumpBack format (I've already managed to get substitutes for all of these!). What I'm having trouble figuring out are the EV#####N.mpg files (only one of these appears to be missing) and the VOL#-##-NTSC.mpg files. Are these JumpBacks or from some other source that I'm not familiar with?

eepiccolo · 08-23-2006, 05:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by flamepanther

To be a backup, it would have to be a copy of the same files used in the PlayStation, Xbox, or arcade versions. Besides that, for a backup to be legal, it has to be taken directly from your copy. No matter what ROM sites may tell you, downloading copyrighted material without permission is illegal even if you already own it. It's also not any more legal if you delete it in 24 hours. There's no two ways about it. 90% of the simfile scene is illegal, and none of the copyright holders really care.

That's why I had two (count'em, two!) winky smilies when I wrote that.

Of course it doesn't really apply, but it does help me sleep at night.

beware · 08-23-2006, 07:54 PM

flamepanther: i'd like those vids for itg2. since the original vids are huge, youre going to have to do the transcoding. instructions:
- the original vids are ntsc interlaced. convert to 320x240x30 fps using "discard" method (thus, every target frame is made of one source field, the other field is thrown away)
- encode as divx6 pro, "insane" quality, 2000 kbit/s, 2 pass. as avi.
these steps can be done in one go with virtualdub.

edit: i remember i have volume 23: clean streak, ill do those vids myself. its also the most boring/ugly volume, i wish it was another one i randomly found..

flamepanther · 08-24-2006, 02:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by beware

flamepanther: i'd like those vids for itg2. since the original vids are huge, youre going to have to do the transcoding. instructions:
- the original vids are ntsc interlaced. convert to 320x240x30 fps using "discard" method (thus, every target frame is made of one source field, the other field is thrown away)
- encode as divx6 pro, "insane" quality, 2000 kbit/s, 2 pass. as avi.
these steps can be done in one go with virtualdub.

edit: i remember i have volume 23: clean streak, ill do those vids myself. its also the most boring/ugly volume, i wish it was another one i randomly found..

Cool. I'll see what I can do.

EDIT: Some of the sources I'm finding are quicktime MOV files, progressive, at 720 x 576 x 25. Will converting that to a progressive DivX AVI at 320x240x25 be acceptable?

beware · 08-25-2006, 06:16 AM

no, those are not acceptable. ive seen them, and the videos are completely ruined. you probably refer to a "extreme III, cd 3", which contains a few vids. who converted them from ntsc must be shot. i thought you had legal/real jumpbacks as a source, not p2p like i do.