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Post by Tom Maneiro on Mar 5, 2007 10:33:09 GMT -5
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Post by GiGaBiTe on Mar 5, 2007 22:42:16 GMT -5
I can verify that the onboard cache is most likely fake. The two cache chips look like plastic with the words "WRITEBACK CACHE" enscribed in them. I have a cache slot, but the cache module that I have doesn't work in it.
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Post by Tom Maneiro on Mar 6, 2007 11:48:10 GMT -5
www.redhill.net.au/b/b-96.html => see the entry for the M919. The COAST (cache) slot is not standard, but a custom, bastardized slot by PCCHIPS - we may have one or two cache sticks out there in the lab. Also, the "WRITEBACK" black squares were just... black plastic squares with pins... This is a PCCRAP classic: fit fake/non-standard "el-cheapo" parts, and sell'em to the masses at ridiculous low prices... PROFFIT! My M535 had the option for a COAST stick, but it came without the slot soldered, so i only have 256K of (REAL) cache PS: Here is PCCHIPS hall of shame! - the fake cache and soldered BIOS chips are two of their biggest cheats. Yep, they STILL (as of 2007) save on sockets for the BIOS chips! You CAN'T recover from a bad flash too easy, you need to find someone that can desolder SMT chips, reflash'em, and maybe, add a socket for prevent this issue again in the future.
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Post by Tom Maneiro on Mar 6, 2007 15:06:09 GMT -5
Now, a quick resume of my LONG list of TODOs for my current active projects: 386 box: - Find 4MB SIMMs - Do the "Slashdot on 386" experiment - Find a way to playback MP3s there PROJECT Spica: - Finish rips for all active series (being Pita-Ten a P1 priority task) - Find raws for all active series (unedited stuff, NOT fansubs! Mule/torrents are not working for that) - Find a decent video editor (currently using Jahshaka under XP, but it lacks documentation and it's pretty buggy) - Fine-tune DVD settings (first tests were done, but only 5 episodes will fit on a single DVD at 3000Kbps/384Kbps MP2 audio, plus MPEG2 encoding does serious damage to the colors) - Add new series after i finish current ones. Candidates: - Find 32MB SIMMs or 8x8 64MB DIMMs - Fix SoundBlaster damaged stereo speaker plug (i only get one channel) - ... Too much tasks and too litte time (in the next semester i will have NO FREE TIME at all! so this project may be frozen) BONUS: The following images are not suitable for people that love their data, and for people that love to sleep FAR AWAY from the noise of refrigerators. With yours, the only and one MaxCrap Fireball 541DX! (AKA 2B0xxH1 series): If your EVER get one of these, QUICK, find a hammer or a flamethrower and exorcise it! You don't want to wake up someday and see that you now have a Maxtor Athena and not a Maxtor 2B020H1... (all Maxtors have the same issue, but this family is VERY prone to kill its own firmware)
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Post by GiGaBiTe on Mar 6, 2007 17:33:48 GMT -5
Aye, I pretty much knew the cache chips were fake when I first got the board. cache chips made out of plastic looked very flaky. That document actually had a picture of them:
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Post by paulpsomiadis on Mar 7, 2007 8:41:36 GMT -5
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Post by Tom Maneiro on Mar 13, 2007 14:51:52 GMT -5
Bored.... Time for a report Audio synchronization is a major pain in the ass: since Jahshaka sux exporting edited audio tracks, all audio editions must be performed in a external editor. This requires to close Jahshaka (needed to free the audio file), perform the audio editions, relaunch Jahshaka, and test. DVD encoding seems to add some lag (less than 0.2 seconds, but noticeable sometimes). Since DVD encoding takes 1 hour per episode (!), it's a long, boring and painful process. Also, DVD encoding makes the video to look like crap (even setting TMPGEnc to generate HQ MPEG2 video, the "inverse telecine" stuff and MPEG2 compression can serioulsy screw up the video). Here is how much time is needed for edit a single episode: - Audio syncronization: up to 1 hour - Video mix (mixing the episode with my custom intro): 25 minutes - DVD premastering (MPEG-2 compression, including 30 minutes of inverse telecine): 1 hour 30 minutes - DVD burning: up to 10 minutes (may include some re-muxing). Total: 3 hours per episode. Multiply it for 26 episodes, and you get 78 hours! (more than 3 days of 24-hour work). For now, i'm working with a HQ fansub, but i've found a way to get raws: Share P2P (a Japanase P2P). Damn slow (unless if you have a 100Mbit link, common in Japan), but full of HQ media (including full DVD ISOs) The things that a fan have to do for their shows in forgotten lands... ;D My list of programs used for this project: - sound-recorder (a Linux comamndline sound recorder) - Audacity / Cool Edit 2000 - Jahshaka - TMPGEnc - DVD-lab (perfect for authoring DVDs, used NeroVision Express, but it was very basic) - Nero Recode (for burning the final DVD) - A cheapo Memorex DVD+RW and a Admiral DVD2968 DVD player for testing in "The Real Thing(tm)"
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Post by Tom Maneiro on Mar 24, 2007 11:29:44 GMT -5
Anyone has experienced this on MPEG2 videos? That crappy zig-zag black line patter was NOT on the raw video, but "magically" appeared after encoding to MPEG-2 with TMPGEnc... Encoder error or decoder issue? (my DVD decoder is from Cyberlink, but as far as i can remember, it also appeared in Intervideo's decoder too) Any advice? I'm using Constant Quality (CQ) encoding plus Inverse Telecine filter.
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Post by jlf65 on Mar 24, 2007 14:07:16 GMT -5
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Post by Tom Maneiro on Mar 24, 2007 17:09:19 GMT -5
I'm not dealing with subtitles here, instead of that, it's a simple audio track swapping (from Japanase to Spanish). The problem comes when i convert from AVI (a bunch of DivX files) to MPEG-2: some episodes look crystal-clear, but some others appear with the issue pointed in the last two screenshots: those ugly black lines that appear sometimes during the playback.
I've tried everything: all modes of inverse telecine, deinterlace, i even encoded with no filtering at all, but i can't get rid of those crappy lines! They do appear even on ALL DVD players (either software or hardware), so it must be a encoder issue. For example, some episodes encode and playback with no problem at all (the crystal-clear ones), but some others look like vomit.
I could use Nero DVD encoder, but this would force me to use NeroVision Express for authoring the DVD (and stick to crappy menus and titles), so i'm stuck with TMPGenc. However, i will give it a try to those other encoders (hmmm... ffmpeg and libavcodec... cool!)
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Post by paulpsomiadis on Mar 24, 2007 22:37:41 GMT -5
I usually use ConvertXtoDVD (sorry, not freeware) for quick AVI to DVD conversion... ...the only downside is that the menu is basically a background picture with text for a title and text for each video sequence. But it doesn't mess with your video files!
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Post by Tom Maneiro on Mar 27, 2007 11:19:59 GMT -5
Back to teh 386, it's time for the "Slashdot-on-386" experiment! - Router: done! - Internet connection: done! (thanks to a EVDO crapphone) - Cables: done! - IP stuff: done! Experiment: SUCESS! IE3 is crap, chokes with JavaScript, does not support most CSS sites, and it takes a LOOOONG time to load a page, but after that, it works nicely! After an initial 10-minute load, you can browse a broken CSS page. Expect screenshots soon UPDATE: OK, here is a sneak peek ;D Photos will be uploaded later today And yes, the background MIDI does playback there with no slowdowns.
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Post by Tom Maneiro on Mar 29, 2007 17:21:51 GMT -5
OK, here are the pictures of the real thing doing something that most people never thinked to do: surfin' the net on a good old 386. - We got an IP from our router (for some odd reason, i need to renew the IP manually if i unplug the network cable), now let's go!: - The first sucessful connection: a 404 from M$IE website: - Several painful minutes (and some thrashing) later: Slashdot looks bad because this IE is so old that it does NOT support CSS2/3 (it barely supports CSS1) (PS: this sucker is faster than Vista deleting files!) - "ALL YOUR SEARCHES ARE BELONG TO US" - No, this thing will NEVER run Firefox: it would cause a meltdown! For now, use this Firefox ;D - Site log entry: IWANTMOREPICTURES! In one phrase: it's possible, but you must be VERY patient. PROJECT Spica update: Steel Angel Kurumi rips were cancelled Animax shelved the series for place Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu, a really bad replacement! However, checking the entry for this series on ANN Encyclopedia, this series is on a rerun, so there is a (small) possibility to resume Kurumi rips/dubbing in the (distant) future. I also have rescheduled all Twin Spica/Pita-Ten remaining rips, so i should end with these in May.
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Post by paulpsomiadis on Apr 1, 2007 21:48:17 GMT -5
Where'd you get that PHUNKY Firefox wallpaper? GIMME! GIMME! ;D
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Post by Tom Maneiro on Apr 2, 2007 9:33:54 GMT -5
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