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Post by wildjackmonroe on Aug 2, 2018 9:00:07 GMT -5
I've been getting some questions every now and then about the status of my collection (link here) and when and if I'll reopen for trading. So while I have some down time this week, I thought I'd come on here and let possible interested people in on what's been happening lately and what's been holding me up.
In the last day or so I've been doing some house cleaning on my site, by adding new banners and such. I'm going to continue to do stuff like fix airdates, fix typos and anything of the sort to make that part of it look as presentable as possible. Also with the new listings, shows like Supermarket Sweep and Tattletales will be getting their own pages.
I'm also still taking time to re-organize and sort out things in my collection. When I've had the time to do a couple or so catch up trades, I've had to ask people to make replacement selections because something can't be found and I want to do my best to avoid that in the future. Discs are in the process of being re-numbered and I'm in the process of purchasing things like large binders and vault cases to put items in and these are in the process of being sorted alphabetically and more efficiently.
- The advent of Buzzr. I've got loads of things (like 1983 PYL; the first 30 episodes of Double Dare '76) that have been replaced entirely because of Buzzr's existence (because Buzzr w/full screen credits and no time compression > GSN with time compression and splitscreens), some are being edited together, because of antenna issues with Buzzr no matter how many times I wait for a repeat w/out antenna glitches; and I'll just put a GSN recording with Buzzr credits tacked on the end. That's why there's a large chunk of Match Game episodes for example that are not listed. It's because they've been re-sorted, in some cases converted to DVD, and they will be eventually re-added.
- What's new are largely Buzzr recordings, and some stuff I've found from the internet that's good looking enough VQ-wise that I think is worth adding to my collection... that I've re-encoded to make it have a decent frame rate enough to watch on a TV (that is, if it's not already 720p/1080p to start with). There are a good number of UK game shows and classic Barker Price is Right episodes that fit this mold. Also every now and then I find something on tape that was somehow never listed in my collection. As I've mentioned in other threads, if something looks like it's too obvious that the frame rate is either low or that it was gotten from the internet, I don't bother with it.
- I'm also converting stuff in general that I have on DVD. Anything that looks good on the VCR. Anything and everything Sony (like Pyramid, J!, WoF) is a go, but with the G-T stuff, because of Buzzr's existence, I'm pickier about what I convert in case we see it on Buzzr. Like right now I'm doing P+ from 1980 onward, plan to do SP from at least 1987 onward, Perry CS episodes from 1981, TTTT'90, and so on. I've also done shows that have never even aired on Buzzr like syndicated What's My Line? and Bill Rafferty's Blockbusters, and will continue to go with these shows from spots further from the current airing points. I'm doing this as a means to save and condense as much space as possible.
- I have an S-VHS VCR I bought used from amazon a couple years ago that works very well. Unfortunately though, the main VCR that I have used for the better part of 14 years to record and play back most of what I have has finally kicked the bucket. The positive thing to come out of this is that a fairly large number of tapes I've recorded on with this same VCR play just fine in my S-VHS player and I've been able to work with them well as I convert. Some of them though, however, especially towards the end of its life... do not look as great on this other S-VHS player and add either a tracking line on the top or the bottom or fuzzy audio (which means I have to turn the Hi-Fi function off in order to ignore that). So I'm trying to figure out what to do. I'm thinking of getting another used JVC that's similar to the one I had. It's harder to find affordably new VCR's now that they've started to become obsolete. VCR's becoming obsolete and the hard-to-find nature of new and decent blank tapes is the reason why I have decided I am no longer going to be using VHS tapes on my end for trading as a means for dubbing and will strictly be using either DVDs or HQ files through dropbox.
- I've also got a device that connects a VCR to a computer and can record from it to an MPEG-2 file and trying to work with that as well.
Stuff like work and studying for exams I've been taking this summer and such is taking some time away from it all and I need breaks to dial it back a bit. But I do plan to return. I'm not giving out a date or even an estimation because I don't want to let people down if things don't go through the way I'd like them to. But I'll let everyone know when I'm back right here and ready to go full swing. I just want to let folks know I haven't forgotten about trading.
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Post by wildjackmonroe on Aug 2, 2018 14:00:19 GMT -5
*the second post in this thread has been deleted, meant to edit the original but I hit quote instead*
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Post by Frank on Aug 2, 2018 14:33:01 GMT -5
I'd like to trade with you.
It seems like when traders are "unavailable" the collection looks more impressive.
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Post by vahan on Aug 2, 2018 14:38:09 GMT -5
Is it actually possible to take a 30fps download of a game show episode, and make it smooth and fluid 60fps, as it was originally broadcast? I tried doing that with Virtual Dub, and I didn't see any difference. How exactly do they do it?
There's a bunch of BBC videos on YouTube (mostly Grand Prix footage) going back to the late 70's that shows how smoothness and fluidness on PAL/SECAM channels like the BBC is supposed to look, which is 50fps.
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Post by wildjackmonroe on Aug 2, 2018 15:04:36 GMT -5
Is it actually possible to take a 30fps download of a game show episode, and make it smooth and fluid 60fps, as it was originally broadcast? I tried doing that with Virtual Dub, and I didn't see any difference. How exactly do they do it? There's a bunch of BBC videos on YouTube (mostly Grand Prix footage) going back to the late 70's that shows how smoothness and fluidness on PAL/SECAM channels like the BBC is supposed to look, which is 50fps. I've mentioned this in the VHS to DVD thread in the off topic section, but to be more specific, some stuff, like some of the UK game shows that were once on YouTube at one point, like some of Blockbusters, Bullseye and Wheel of Fortune, were already uploaded in 720p to begin with, and I didn't have to do anything extra to them after downloading them. I just put them into DVD Styler, fixed the aspect ratio to the proper 4:3, created DVD menus for them, burned them to DVD's, and that was all that was needed.
In another instance, I found an old YT account (which is since long gone now and the episodes haven't been reuploaded) with at least close to 200 Holness Blockbusters episodes uploaded in standard (as in not 720p) but very good quality. Good enough to do something with besides just watch them on my PC. Some episodes are from the first series and the rest are mostly from the last series on Sky One; and there were some of the 2012 version too. I took every one of those I could possibly save (over 100), fixed the aspect ratio where applicable, edited out the Challenge commercials, and I re-encoded them to HQ MPEG-2 files in Sony Vegas to help give them as close a TV esque frame rate as possible, burned them to DVDs and added them to my collection. The quality is no different than what you'd see on Buzzr over the air when it's set and done. I have to be honest and say I don't look for an exact PAL-looking end result. I just want something that doesn't look pixelated and has a good frame rate. I don't bother working with anything that's like 240p.
UK stuff turns up in the trading circuit every now and then but I'll probably never stumble upon so many decent looking and crisp sounding episodes of some of these shows at once again.
This all started by chance. I was trying to figure out how to fix glitchy Buzzr recordings during the first Lost and Fun marathon and I discovered a HQ MPEG-2 file looks exactly the same as what airs on television. I remember for the Body Language, TKO, and On a Roll pilots, since both airings of each show had problems, I just took both airings, ripped them from my TV and spent time editing and going back and forth combining both airings of each show into one seperate file. I don't always do this because it's time consuming and I now usually just fast forward through double airings and choose the best one. But in those cases I did because of the rarities involved. Then I discovered a program called DVD Styler, which is free and can make DVDs out of files that can be viewed on any home DVD player. I guess the rest is history.
I haven't forgotten about you, Frank . You've got tons of syndie WML that I want!
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Post by Chameleonwhammy on Aug 3, 2018 9:02:02 GMT -5
You still seem more organized with your collection than mine. I dismantled my own site recently, and have tons of stuff to transfer to DVD. Problem is I haven't been near my VHS collection that much over the last year. It's a mess.
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Post by CardSharksFan8689 on Aug 3, 2018 11:41:00 GMT -5
Thank goodness my entire collection of game show episodes - and other TV shows - are digital, either via home recordings or downloaded through YouTube or Dailymotion.
My VHS recorder gave out around 2008 or so, and by late 2008, I started recording GSN broadcasts on my computer using a WinTV PVR (TV Tuner card). But that program became useless when I had to replace my computer in 2011.
I have had a Toshiba DVD recorder since April 2010 - just after the first limited lease of Eubanks' Card Sharks was launched. Still works like a charm even eight years later. I do plan on recording material on GameTV and GSN (the latter despite the negativity people have about the splitscreen promos and advertising banners) as long as fresh content airs.
I remember recording Press Your Luck when GSN aired the 1983 and early 1984 episodes from 2012 to 2014. Now that GameTV in Canada is airing the 1983 episodes with fee plugs and full end credits intact (even though I care more for the gameplay) and no advertising banners on screen, these GSN recordings I have may end up being replaced with the full episodes aired on GameTV in the foreseeable future.
I don't plan on starting a new hobby of tape trading or episode trading, more so due to Canada's copyright laws enacted in July 2013, nor do I plan on uploading any of my recordings ever. I am not sure if uploading them to a cloud storage (Google Drive) is a good idea, even if I don't intend to share the videos.
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Post by nbafan89 on Aug 4, 2018 0:57:00 GMT -5
You still seem more organized with your collection than mine. I dismantled my own site recently, and have tons of stuff to transfer to DVD. Problem is I haven't been near my VHS collection that much over the last year. It's a mess. why did you dismantle your site and can you send me your list please? yours sincerely Chris Wilson
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Post by Chameleonwhammy on Aug 4, 2018 6:56:39 GMT -5
You still seem more organized with your collection than mine. I dismantled my own site recently, and have tons of stuff to transfer to DVD. Problem is I haven't been near my VHS collection that much over the last year. It's a mess. why did you dismantle your site and can you send me your list please? yours sincerely Chris Wilson
This isn’t even my thread, and no, I’m too damn busy to send anyone any list.
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Post by Mandoli on Aug 4, 2018 8:05:38 GMT -5
Guys, if you're looking to trade (and you're not the thread starter), PMs or your own thread. Come on.
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Post by wildjackmonroe on Aug 30, 2018 8:56:35 GMT -5
I've been going through some more stuff over the past week to convert, and another bullet point to add is whether or not I should keep some of these copies of stuff that don't look so hot. A few listed items might disappear for that reason.
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Post by wildjackmonroe on Sept 16, 2018 1:24:25 GMT -5
Been getting some stuff done over the last 2-3 weeks. 2 weeks ago I put loads of ones and twos that don't have enough episodes to go on a disc exclusively and doing those chronologically. So there's gonna be game shows organized with spots devoted to the 60's, 70's, 80's, and 90's, and 00's. Also have done some Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy!, and Beat the Clock. With the latter show, I'm going from 1956 and forward from that point (starting from the end of the Sylvania sponsorship onto Fresh and then Hazel Bishop). I love Buzzr and no shade, but it'll probably be years before we get that far in the run and as I mentioned before, I'm going to start condensing and making some room as things transform. I recently just got a bunch of new binders and space saving cases for these discs.
I've found a couple episodes of BtC and at one Christmas 2004 WoF that were somehow not listed. I guess they got skipped over when transferring material from the index card of the original tape I recorded it on to the actual collection list.
The S-VHS VCR is working out great for a lot of my tapes, but part of me is considering finding a used JVC VCR from online and seeing if it'll work for the more problematic ones. I actually found a couple on amazon that had the exact same model number as my old JVC that I had for so long.
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Post by wildjackmonroe on Oct 20, 2018 1:07:02 GMT -5
One month later, progress is being made but still a ways to go. I've easily done over 100 episodes in general in the last 2 weeks (helps that I had some time off of work to do it). This week has primarily been Super Password focused. I'm working far away from Buzzr's window (mostly 1987 to the end) because it could be years before we see them on Buzzr's Amazon Prime option or Buzzr television proper.
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Post by wildjackmonroe on Dec 14, 2018 14:33:57 GMT -5
Just a quick update almost two months later. Still going through things. I had to take a bit of a break but as of the last couple weeks I'm working in some time to get some actual videotapes converted. Did several episodes each of Body Language, Super Password, Child's Play, Dawson and Combs Feud... all out of Buzzr's windows, and right now I'm putting some of those special GSN documentaries from 2007 onto discs. I'm not sure when, but probably in the near future I'll add some episodes to my website. I still need some more materials to fully organize my collection... I'm thinking of getting a bigger shelf also so everything will be easily accessible.
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Post by wildjackmonroe on Jan 18, 2019 0:18:47 GMT -5
One month later, and I'm making some significant progress in the actual conversion stage of things (as of late, Name's the Same, TTTT '90, P+ from certain points in 1980-82, '60's WML, Card Sharks from later in Buzzr's runs, IGaS (including the Johnny Carson tribute episodes from 2005; these are the last Winston-sponsored ones GSN has shown to date), J!, H2, Pyramid). It's got to be several hundred episodes that I've done so far in these last several months. I'm going to make a bit of a temporary rest with this at the end of the month. My DVD recorder and SVHS VCR will probably appreciate it. While I do other things I'm going to get some things to organize what I've got. I've got about a box full of DVDs that are now converted and ready to be organized, and in turn a box is filling with tapes X'ed out that have been done.
Still finding a solution for tapes that are playing with tracking issues on my newer VCR since my old JVC one died on me. The listings for used ones either similar to the one I had or the exact ones come and go on various websites. Whenever I get an extra amount of money, I'll be sure to grab one so long as it's presented in good condition. I prefer to keep stuff originally recorded in HiFi sound and so forth to remain that way without any visual or aural interference. It's weird. I've got tapes recorded 2004 and 2005 that play perfectly fine, but the ones from 2009, 2010... they're the ones giving me issues.
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