Made torrents for each episode
Episode 1 - http://torrage.com/torrent/22F33BE947C538A89193F3BD3357343C3D3156B3.torrent
Episode 2 - http://torrage.com/torrent/B642606A5D9A1CA84E27BA4E38A4C3CF80C483C0.torrent
Enjoy! ;)
Thought that I’d share a section of Archive.org which I use to store miscellaneous stuff for the show. Some makes it into an episode, some doesn’t; it is really a mixed bag. Inside you will find the show’s theme song, an earlier version of the theme song, and the VHS Disasterpiece video. More stuff will be coming, and if it is interesting enough, I’ll probably make a post about it. That said, some other stuff may make it onto the archive that never shows up anywhere else, so keep your eyes open.
I successfully got iTunes working by creating a little wordpress blog to post .mp4 files to that are generated by archive.org when I upload the Xvid, the link to get the show on iTunes is here, http://itunes.apple.com/podcast/obsoleet/id378988732
I also found out a little bit ago that Blip.tv does Miro for me as well. The Miro link can be found here, http://subscribe.getmiro.com/?url1=http://Obsoleet.blip.tv/rss
If Odeo ever comes back on line, I’ll be sure to setup something with that service as well. Back five years ago, Democracy Player and Fireant were the two big video distribution applications, and they have, over the years, become Miro and Odeo respectively. It would be a shame to only have one. Enjoy the new services!
This is not an episode, it is more of an experiment and a product of boredom. Thought I’d share it with the world instead of keep it to myself.
You can also download this (ridiculously large) video in XviD from Archive.org.
I decided I wanted to see how VHS degraded through the process of copying. Some people may be experienced with “workprint” cuts of movies. A workprint is simply an unfinished movie cut of a film meant for inner circulation by film personnel. Workprints can often contain unfinished effects, alternate takes, different endings, etc. This causes them to be highly prized by collectors.
So how does this fit in? Most workprints were dumped to VHS for circulation, and every once in a while these tapes would get taken off the movie set. People would copy a tape, give it to a friend, and continue this process. Most of these workprints have awful wear because of this.
I decided to run episode one of Obsoleet through some VCRs. The episode was streamed to a VCR via a modified Xbox running XBMC. I then copied the tape back and forth through two VCRs about seven times to get this result.
I dumped the tape to DVD via a DVD recorder, which actually tried to correct the tape and made it look even worse. The recorder might have corrected some of the color, but made the video shaky and more distorted.
I ripped the DVD and cut out a segment that I think best shows the degradation of the video.
Episode 02
Stream from Blip.tv
Stream from Vimeo.com
Stream from Youtube.com
Download XviD from Archive.org
Show Notes
Segments:
Pocket Tone Dialers
CEDs
Portable Radio Station
“Pocket Tone Dialers” used a Portatouch2 tone dialer, a Radioshack tone dialer, and a Bell model 500 rotary telephone. The Radioshack tone dialer appears to be modified to relay sound to an audio jack. Also featured was an iPod Video, and a Sony cassette recorder. To relay sound so the camera could hear it, a recorder telephone pickup (Radioshack part 44-583) and a mini audio amplifier (Radioshack part 277-1008) were used.
“CEDs” showed five capacitance electronic discs, also known as Selectavision videodiscs. The discs can be opened with a small screwdriver.
“Portable Radio Station” used a 4-channel stereo microphone mixer (Radioshack part 32-2056), a Dynex Portable Wireless Fm Transmitter, an RCA audio cable, and iPod Video, an RCA male to 1/8 inch male cable, and two Panasonic radios.
The first episode has been added to youtube. You can check out the channel page here, http://www.youtube.com/user/ObsoleetTV
The video is in three parts.
It has almost been a week since I released episode one, and I have a few things to share.
I got mostly warm reviews for the show, here are some of my favorites:
From Shinmaryuu via Twitter: Really is the shot of new tech blood in the arm IPTV needed.
From ionfarmer via Twitter: Obsoleet TV, a 2 word review: Fuck Yeah!!
Shinmaryuu also made a blog post about the release which can be seen here. Having said that, I also got a bit of constructive criticism, and I am going to be playing with the intro a little bit, and hopefully sharpen it. I also absolutely hate how Sony Vegas does credits by default, so I am going to look into some more options for that as well.
From a filming perspective, I actually found my favorite part to shoot was the intro scene. So, you can probably expect some more moving around in future segments instead of just a static shot. I seem to like the act of cutting a sequence together all Dr. Frankenstein-like. I also am going to play with lighting, and might make a dedicated little filming area, but I need to clean up a lot of my stuff and decide how I am going to orient the current space.
Releasing the episode was also an interesting process. I output the episode from Vegas, and it gave me a 5gb DV formatted avi file. I then tried to run this through Avidemux (a great video program by the way) to get an XviD. I thought it would create a file too large (it looked like it was going to be around 700mb for a 25 minute video) and I wanted something a bit less than 300mb. I tried using AutoGK, but it kept messing up the aspect ratio even though I was specifying to keep it unchanged. I ended up just fixing the bitrate in Avidemux and outputting accordingly. This was after around five hours of battling AutoGK. So now I know what settings to use for future episodes. I am now getting into the habit of preserving my episodes as well. I am saving one tape of all my raw footage, and one tape of the finished episode. This allows me to keep a lossless copy of everything I shoot by sticking with the miniDV tape.
Right now, the XviD is the only format for this episode. Vimeo, my prefered uploading host, will convert to some MP4 format, so I am probably going to snag that file and put it on archive.org for people to have a choice. Blip.tv is awful at converting to Flash, so I have to do that myself, and it does not look pretty considering how clear the video is when I put it in. I am also experimenting with advertising on Blip.tv, so don’t let any of that throw you. It is looking like I will remove that soon anyway. I have also toyed with the idea of setting up a youtube account, but I dislike the idea of splitting up the video.
Aside from that, I’m planning out the next episode and taking a little break from filming. Looking at episode one, it took three to four weeks to put out, so there is definitely the possibility of another episode in that time.
As always, I’m looking for feedback, and would love to hear from you.
Episode 01 has been released, hope you enjoy it.
Episode 01
Stream from Blip.tv
Stream from Vimeo.com
Stream from Youtube.com
Download XviD from Archive.org
Show Notes
Segments:
Lineman’s Handset
Cable Descramblers and Filters
Podcasting on the Cheap
“Lineman’s Handset” used a lineman’s handset, Bell model 500 rotary telephone, and a telephone wall jack. Both the handset and the phone were wired to the wall jack. To relay sound so the camera could hear it, a recorder telephone pickup (Radioshack part 44-583) and a mini audio amplifier (Radioshack part 277-1008) were used.
“Cable Descramblers and Filters” showed two Scientific Atlanta boxes from the 1990s, a later Scientific Atlanta box, and a newer Motorola box. This segment also made use of an in-line coaxial filter.
“Podcasting on the Cheap” used a 4-channel stereo microphone mixer (Radioshack part 32-2056), three unidirectional microphones each with an XLR to 1/4 inch jack cord, an rca audio cable, an rca to 1/8 inch jack cable, a computer microphone, two corded headsets, and an AC/DC adapter.
I spent some time making a logo, and then shrunk it down to a blog badge. Here are the fruits of my labor.
Well, the show is getting off to a pretty good start. One segment was filmed, “The Lineman’s Handset.” If you want to check it out, drop into the chat and ask for a link. The next segment to be filmed is “Podcasting on the Cheap” which will hopefully be completed this weekend. I also have some more ideas revolving around telephony which I hope to get out of the way soon.
Also, Moonlit was kind enough to make a theme song, which can be found here on archive.org. More of Moonlit’s music can be found at Byte Garden Audio. This intro theme has given me some ideas for a video intro, but making that work is going to take some time. Segment filming is going to take top priority, but an intro sequence is not far behind.
