Loli say, “What is going on?”
Episode 1 for us was an experiment. We apologize using you as the testees, but this was the only way it could be done. With episode 1, we encoded the .avi version in a h.264 codec. This is the codec that people have difficulty with in a MKV container, and is often why people ask “Where is the AVI?” However, we used lighter settings than the MKV version and hardsubbed it. Hence, people DLed the AVI expecting an XviD and got an h.264.
Results are similar to what we expected. The complaints we got were based off of what the people chose to watch the episodes off of. For instance, WMP or a PS3. However, there were NO COMPLAINTS AT ALL about the audio/video desynching. Essentially, this proved what we were testing. That is, there is no compatibility issues with SD shows for viewing. Maybe HOW you want to see it, but saying “Please encode XviD, I have a bad computer and can only watch XviD~” is a blatant lie, unless it’s a HD show.
We will continue doing XviDs this season. Next season is undecided.
For those who DLed episode 01 WS h.264, please rename it to [Chihiro]_Asu_no_Yoichi_-_01_[WS][h264][24670C29].mkv if you are planning to seed it with the batch at the end.
h.264: Here
XviD (01): Here
XviD (02): Here
thanks for the WS version!
😀 😀 😀 😀
Thanks for subbing this.
Epic series 😀
comedy + romance = insta-WIN
I always knew that people that said they couldn’t watch an h.264 encoded video were lying sacks of crap. IT doesn’t take that much cpu power to run an h.264 encode for play back…..some people are just too lazy to find some codecs that work.
I don’t really care if a show is encoded in h264 or XviD any more, as long as it’s SD. HD comes in like shit on my computer.
I use mkvmerge to turn the .mkv container into avi so I can get all the cool thumbnails. All of a minute of my time per episode. Not bad, and I feel accomplished.
mkvmerge? How do I use that?
CCCP ftw.
Actually on my old PC which I used until a month ago which had
512 MB RAM, 1.1 Ghz Processor, etc.. could not play h264 without desyncing..
So it is not a lie.
But I bought a new PC which plays it fine and since then I download the .mkv instead of the .avi.
So thats why I didn’t complain.. and besides, I could always re-encode it if I needed to..
But if I was too lazy to re-encode and was stuck with my old PC I would have complained about not being able to play it. So YES THERE IS COMPUTERS OUT THERE THAT CAN’T PLAY THEM. =P
Oh and with all that.. I was using CCCP, so don’t say it was because of my codec pack. =P
u deceived us!!!
HIDOI DESU!!!
so.. who wanna play the tsundere?
and say he/she actually liked being deceived D:
So much loli… so little time.
@Koby
You didn’t complain because you got a new computer, which is part of the point. This is 2009. The point being, any computer that can’t play an SD mkv is going to be close to 10 years old at this point and should probably be scrapped anyway.
Drop avi and do mkv hardsubs, also have an sd and hd option. The thing that I notice is that I’m able to play mkv hardsubs with WMP and CCCP installed and I won’t experience desyncing, however when I have to play mkv softsubs I will experience more desyncing in VLC player than in Zoom player. FYI, I have a 3.5 year old PC w/ 1.6ghz proc and 512mb ram.
Note: you should never use VLC, especially on softsubs.
Oh, I forgot. Why did you people look at the poor loli with ill intentions?
lol nice.
I never once complained about not being able to play h264. My old computer had an Athlon XP 2600+ (1.9GHz), and that was enough to play SD h264, but I would get desync issues with anything like 720p h264. I got myself a new computer soon afterwards anyways. Now I don’t watch anything SD unless there’s just no HD version. And if there’s SD h264 and SD xvid, I’ll always choose h264.
Though now I wonder, why bother releasing a “real” xvid version when no one complained about it? >_>
Waste of cpu clock cycles encoding the xvid version I say. XP
Still, I’m surprised people even have such old computers with like ~1.0 GHz or slower cpus. My old laptop has a slow Duron 900MHz cpu, and though I could watch anything xvid, it was slow enough to annoy me when i do other stuff like even web surfing sometimes (all that annoying flash and java stuff). And the excuse too poor to get a new computer doesnt make sense either. You pay at least $15 a month for basic DSL (that’s $180 a year), but a desktop that can play h264 can be as cheap as $200 (barebones and minus new monitor). Even laptops that can play h264 can be as cheap as $400 (cheapest dual core + coreavc, shouldn’t that work?).
Bleh, didn’t mean to rant, and it’ll probably just incite more people to flame me. But oh wells.
thx!!
I need the xvid, cuz i archive alll ur shows (well the ones i watch). So i need xvid to play it off on my DVD player!
THX!
What I want to do is make a softsubbed MKV at the highest res, then make a hardsubbed SD mp4 to replace the xvid. That way you still get the quality boost from h264, and the problems that can potentially arise from the softsubbing go away as well.
doesnt matter if the container is .avi or .mkv the problem is the codecs a video needs to run for example when i watch an .avi video it just runs 2 decoders (video and audio) but when it comes to a .mkv it has to run 4 decoders so thats when the audio desynch or the video or both :p
@ Soichiro
I agree with you, drop AVI and use MKV or MP4. Softsubs for HD and hardsubs for SD.
Well I don’t know what other complaints about but for myself is long as you guys keep the format in 704×400 I”m fine with it. I just can’t play anything over 1200×800 or something like that it just too slow for me and I bet most people complaints becouse of that. So Please keep it on low format so most of us can play it. Thank you for your time.
PS if you don’t mind can you not drop the .avi format I like to burn it to dvd something and my computer only can burn in .avi with sub on it .mkv never seen to work right. Thank you. 🙂
@Shadow: at least you know that it’s the video resolution that makes HD files unplayable for you, and not the codec. Most have no freaking clue. But what do you mean “my computer can only burn in .avi”? That not possible, a computer can burn ANYTHING on a DVD.
i watch the MKV files wile using 90% of m CPU in the background and have no problems with desync anyway. i dont get the complaints tbh.
even my brothers laptop can run MKV and its a 1.6 ghz with 512 ram.
please keep releasing avi
@ DmonHiro:
Video resolution doesn’t make HD unplayable, your monitor will just downscale the resolution to fit your display. Standards for HD are 720p and 1080p which translate to 1280×720 and 1920×1080 respectfully. Most displays have a low standard of 1024×768 and my monitor will donwscale 720p to fit my display. A larger video resolution means that there is more pixels per inch and if you have a low performance video card or integrated graphics then the GPU will have to resample the image causing the image to appear smaller, stretched, or jagged. The GPU also affects frame rate and most computers are able to handle 480p and 720p even if you have a shitty GPU and a max resolution of 1024×768 like mine.
I don’t particularly mind the format… avi and mkv are both fine. ( Frankly, and I suspect most of us will agree, I’m just happy you do the work and release at all. Good job!)
The only reason I get avi files if they’re available is that I can burn them files onto a disc and then watch them with my DVD player on my big telly… which is pretty fabulous. (DVD player is not so font of other file formats.)
@Ippo: OK, but why the hell are you telling ME this? Go spread the word to people who don’t know.
Well, I guess I will archive this series then after all.
Thanks for the XviD versions. I personally prefer XviDs over .mkv and H264s because it was what I started with back when I first watched and archived anime. Even though I can get the codec packs, VLC, Media Classic and whatever player, codec etc etc that can play .avi in a .mkv/H264, .mkv, H264, .mp4 whatever, I stick with XviD. 😀
Unless someone has a program or knows of one where I can make .mkv andd H264s play on a PSP, I’ll stick with my XviDs. Problem is with most h264 and .mkv are the resolutions sizes. Some aren’t compatible on PSPs. 🙁
And if people want to bash others who have outdated computers with crap HDD space, RAM, speed and whatever, do that at your workplace or school. They are the ones who usually have the shittiest computers. 😀
My old Pentium II sitting on my floor could probably run better than most workplace and school machines LOL.
Anyhoo, just random bored writing here. If [Chihiro] and all other sub groups stop using XviDs after this season, well…….oh well! The only possible animes I am interested in after this season are Spice and Wolf 2 and…………………that’s pretty much it. Clannad will be done, and perhaps another season of Shakugan no Shana/To Aru Majutsu no Index, but aside from those…..nope….
*falls asleep at work*
ZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz……………….
Droping avi would be fine with me. If I can get mkv’s to run on my pocket pc normal pc shouldnt have a problem. The only problem is my ipaq dosnt care for the HD resolutions, so I just set All to Avi to remake them in batches over night.
I dont know why people are complaining bout MKV files they run as smooth as AVI at SD resolutions and if you need to make it compatible with your *insert random media player* just convert it yourself, with the right programs it is as easy as pie (i know as i do it for my Zen, and you dont see the difference on your Ipod, PSP, etc)
I don’t know… I can recall the times when I tried to play 10 games and watch 3 movies at the same time… h264 had a huge lag and xvid did not! Too bad I can’t remember what games I was playing at the time… nor the shows/movies I watched…
Onto things that actually matter, YAY WS. And thanks.
That is all.
@Kanaka
Is this some kind of troll? Or sarcasm at least? lol
“I dont know why people are complaining bout MKV files they run as smooth as AVI at SD”
Yep… I used to download avi/xvid as i sometimes watch these shows on my – quite old – laptop, an Pentium III with only 800MHz and 288MB Ram (!)… I can watch .mkv and .avi containers with H264 without a problem, as long as the resolution is 704×480 or below and the audio isn’t a codec like AAC.
I’d be fine with all shows being in h264/mkv, as long as there’s a SD Version in reasonably lower quality. But, one thing I’ve got to mention: XVid is often more comfortable to watch on these old machines: With only 20-30% CPU-Load instead of around 96%, the CPU stays much cooler and the Laptop doesn’t have to switch on its (noisy ><) fan. Imho in these low resolutions, H264 doesn’t provide that much of a quality-leap over XVid compared to higher resolutions, most notably if you consider the exorbitant increase in CPU-load…
@Ippo: “Video resolution doesn’t make HD unplayable, your monitor will just downscale the resolution to fit your display.”
Unfortunately, not all video cards can downscale large video in hardware, so sometimes the player will downscale in software. But if you’re decoding h.264 at 720p (or so) on the CPU and then trying to downscale on that same CPU, you will definitely get frames dropping. (I remember running into a recent video card that wouldn’t downscale anything larger than 1800 x 600 or something… in terms of the amount of video data it should have been able to handle 720p but for some reason it just wouldn’t do the damn scaling in hardware. Luckily it wasn’t mine, but still…)
And none of my monitors downscale… if the resolution is smaller, it just takes up less area on the screen and I end up with a black border. :<
@Dmonhiro: “But what do you mean “my computer can only burn in .avi”? That not possible, a computer can burn ANYTHING on a DVD.”
Most likely that user uses one of those “drag and drop” transcoders that converts video from avi to MPEG-2 and shoves it onto a DVD (to be played in a $20 DVD player). Said software is likely not smart enough to detect the mkv demuxer (if one is present). But in that case the result is such that anything higher than 480p or so will result in quality loss anyway, which means that there’s no point in trying to shove 720p down their throat.
What? Someone mentioned 1080p?
Actually the standards starting at 720 are: 720p, 1080i and 1080p … but LOL – does any TV company in J even broadcast anything 1080p, at all, ever?
I’ve no idea how often 1080i is used, but I’d be surprised if anime was broadcast at greater than 720p anywhere.
As for MKV desyncing in >480p – even my AMD 2GHz desyncs (in mplayer on Linux) unless I enable soft frame drop – but with soft frame drop it’s hardly ever noticeable (usually only noticeable in intense action scenes … for the obvious reason) and fullscreen upscaling to 1080p looks great and stays in sync 🙂
I use Storm on this rig anyway, so it’s all good. 🙂
http://www.afreecodec.com/video-codecs/
For the rest of you who haven’t gotten around to adapting to the h.264 format…
And thanks again for the hard work, guys!
WS is awesome… You guys rule!
Stove/Stereo
For me the MKV still sucks big time… I was not able to run the “fake” AVI on my computer (that is not all that old). – To run the video I had to re-encode (into XVID), and it took like 30 minutes or so for me to “fix” the episode.
Hope Chihiro do not drop the AVI, as it’s the only option to a lot of people out there. 🙁
That’s what the people on 4chan commonly refer to as “doin it wrong”.
No one should have any problems playing MKV files except on some standalone players. Low-bitrate H264 should not be a problem on old computers either.
Btw I remember there was a username and password for the FTP DDL. It’s nowhere to be found now… Is that intended?
KK ppl…. I use an ol’ P3 800. Low bitrate MKVs are ok on my comp, esp when I use lighter players like MPC instead of WMP. I use ffdshow (CCCP) when playing stuff with most formats but have switched over to core codec for my h264s but high bitrate or higher resolution (higher than 512p) h264s STILL GO OUT OF SYNC! A 1.6gHz Comp ain’t slow, they’re referring to ppl with lower than 1.0GHz PCs.
So there you go:
1) Ppl ain’t lying about the audio going out of sync!
2) @Miroku64…. it’s not that we don’t know how to configure it. Let’s face it, with such slow PCs there’s nothing you can do to improve the performance when it comes to higher quality .h264’s. The solution is just to get a better PC.
3) Kirsten….. did you type that main comment out at like 3am your local time? Because my god, I can’t understand half of what you were saying! It’s high time for people to speak/write proper English or to go back to school!
4) Yes, this is the first time I’ve flamed someone here but bad English is a definite NO-NO for any translation group. But other than that, to the whole of Chihiro Subs, great work ppl, and I’ll still dl your subs no matter what…. so long as you guys keep up the superb work.
(* Kitsune shakes his head at the colour and flavour of discarded choice words that he wished to put in here and feels glad that he has kept his honour more or less intact.)
@Kitsune
You said that high def MKVs are the only ones that go out of sync. WE KNOW THIS. We’ve said SEVERAL TIMES that we will NOT release MKV only for a series that is HD. We will ALWAYS do an SD encode. And if you think Kristen’s English is bad, you should see what some groups post. Besides, it’s not like the person who does the release posts is necessarily the one who is in charge of the English on the subs.
hey men ty for the ws good job
plz upload all te episodes in ws plz
ty ty ty ty ty
You know what guys? You make the subs, if you don’t want to waste your time making an extra release (when anyone with a free video converter program can get the show in whatever format they want) then it’s your call.
Personally? Let them rot.
@ Soichiro
I was curious as to who you were referring to. Their posts are bad but some do it to piss people off. The stuff they post is funny and when they try to get serious they are still bad. Then I go and read a dictionary to cleanse my mind of all the bad grammar that I encountered.
Kitsune: I don’t do any of the editing/QC/TL/TLC here. I may be a native in English, but my grammar/word choice are still poor. I do Timing/Typesetting/Karaoke/Encoding, which are the technical aspects.
kristen: are the other episodes all in ws or just these 2 episodes?
Coming late to the party, but I want to reinforce what’s been said – SD h.264 mkvs with CCCP installed should pretty much run on anything. Honestly, this should be the new standard.
But, there are some major choke points for HD encodes on machines that aren’t dual core CPUs. I say this using a 2.4 Ghz Pentium 4 system with 2GB memory and WinXP, that is running Core, MPC Home Edition, and Zoom Player as an alternate. Zoom gives the best performance but it still gags on some 720p encodes and always on the full HDs. Full HDs are beyond my system’s capacity until I make the jump to the next level. I suspect everyone who’s moved to a multi-core CPU, no matter the speed, are showing far better results.
Interestingly, though, I have better results with HD .mp4 files than with .mkv for whatever reason. Does anyone know what’s the diff there besides the wrapper and would it be more worthwhile to move HD releases to .mp4 rather than .mkv?
I watch ’em on my PS3 because I bought a 47″ HDTV. the picture makes my eyes bleed. though some of the episodes won’t run. (like episodes 4 and 5 of skip beat). anyways thanks Chihiro.
Just a note on the MKV / AVI deal (yes, quite late, but I feel it should be mentioned).
Yes, it’s true that every computer should be able to play MKV files, as any computers that cannot are generally well outdated and due for an update anyway.
However, many people use standalone players to watch anime. I have the capabilities myself to watch MKV files on my computer, but I don’t often have the time to sit around and watch; I put my anime on my PSP to watch on the go. I would assume plenty of people do the same with iPod video and whatnot, as well as the people who watch on their TV using a PS3 or DVD player.
And MKV files just are horribly incompatible with any of those options.
Matroska aims to become THE standard for media files, which is great and all, but until they do reach that goal, I like having access to file formats that work on nearly everything.