VVV News - Blogs

Testing Blog

Rummy — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 13:54:52 GMT

27 July 2010
Testing Blog

Panasonic HDC-TM700 Recent Purchase

Mr Deap — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 11:18:19 GMT

You must laugh at first only seeing 32GB of space on a camcorder & may think I only spend 400$ on it. Huhuh you're wrong.

This is one of the newest Camcorder from Panasonic that can record at full 1080 & 60, indeed 60 progressive frames at at resolution of 1920X1080.

Showing that nice tactile(touch screen) screen. Indeed, surprising it also take pics at 14.2 megapixel.

Support 5.1 sound recording & that nasty button showing 1080P60.

Flash included.

Well it tell all...

The price in NA is 999.99$ & in GPB it's around �850. It give you an idea how it is expensive especially when you consider the size of memory.

So far I like the product, especially because it can handle 1080P60.

FM3 SSC Ultimate Aero Nurburgring Nordschleife hotlap

Mr Deap — Mon, 17 May 2010 03:58:53 GMT

YOUTUBE(720P HD 30fps):

7:12.766(R3 762) Manual No Assist

Megaupload(same video, but at 60fps):
Resolution & bitrate: 1280X720 7Mbps
Framerate: 59.94fps
Length: 9:58
File Size: 439Mb
Container: Video-WM9 Audio-WMA 10 Pro
Link: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=5MSKXLNE

The size of the download may be huge, but that's due to the video rendering at 60fps. HD is bandwidth hungry, especially at 60fps & I have to increase the bitrate to keep the video quality at a decent quality for viewing purpose. I can keep it ultra clean as close to the original, but it would weight 2GB which I doubt anyone would want to actually download it, lol.

HDMI vs Component & youtube

Mr Deap — Sun, 09 May 2010 05:17:35 GMT

Tested with Star Ocean 4 The Last Hope.

Embedded box to small, click here

Though you have to check 720P to get a bigger idea how HDMI influence youtube quality.

Conclusion?

Well as stupid as it seem, youtube quality is not good enough to perceive the difference between HDMI & component.

It's a total waste of time to fetch HDMI over component due to HDMI handshake issue. at 30Mbps you may start to see a difference between HDMI & Component, but the file size would be ridiculous to share anyway(example: 10min = 1.5GB).

From now on I will use HDMI for recording, but no actual update... >_>

That's a difference of 3 second in FM3

Mr Deap — Fri, 07 May 2010 19:24:48 GMT

To be honest, I can't see what I did wrong to actually lose a full 3 sec. By the way, I'm the left side & the best time is in the right.

top 10 P2P!

Tone Marley — Tue, 04 May 2010 22:46:09 GMT

So with no assists in P2P ole Tone here has busted into the top ten.

Using almost exclusively stock tuned cars, I have managed to eek my way up the ladder. Still, there are many track left to run. But doing a couple everyday has really started to pay off.

Im 30th in Circuit with no assists as well. Not too shabby.

The funny thing is though, that I am using crap cars and putting down really slow times. But so few people have driven even half of the courses in this game, that I have had little trouble moving up the ladder. 83rd in overall P2P

Well back to the track as I now want to make my way up to the top 5 with no assists.

Have fun and drive clean :)

Bad Weather

flavaunit — Sat, 01 May 2010 05:47:29 GMT

Ok now i have been a biker for quite some time, but desided a long time ago that i don't like riding in the rain, now you might call me a pussy but i ride an R1 and riding in the rain is like going on the saw ride everyday.

With this in mine i hate the rain and will keep doing my sun dance.

Runnin' and gunnin'

Tone Marley — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 22:50:59 GMT

So I spend more than four hours in a car today and what do I do when I get home? Jump right onto Forza3...

I just wrapped up a couple hours of mutli-player. It was a bit of a mixed bag. I was couple different lobbies. The first one was dismal. It was as if I jumped into a room full of four year olds. No one had the slightest clue what proper circuit racing etiquette consisted of. There IS a lobby for that type of racing (I'll give you a hint: Tom and Jerry). So after a frustrating two races, VVV Hauling Ash and I decided we would try our luck in A class (we were in B).

Well, Sunny skies awaited us (even though it got a little hairy in the first race with some contact between Ash and another racer: Strikerlegend...I think it was). Still the second and third races in that lobby were much improved over the first room we were in.

I have driven better but at the same time I held my own. I even came in second (out of 5) driving a rear wheel drive Ferrari F50 Tuned down from S Class). She sure is smooth for RWD.
Usually, I feel most comfortable with just the track, the car and myself(Hot-Lapping). Still, the occasional Multi-player race can be quite invigorating.

360 HDD Upgrade

Mr Deap — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 19:10:56 GMT

Indeed, I upgraded my old 60GB hard drive for a 250GB hard drive for the XBOX 360. At 160$ the price ain't so bad so I went with it. Sadly it is more expensive than my Western Digital black 1TB with 64MB of cache with dual Processor which I bought 150$...

That's pretty much how life goes on sadly...

I have a lot of games & space became a bottleneck so I had to do it.

Stock ZR1 hotlap nurburgring

Mr Deap — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 09:46:45 GMT

As usual 720P

DId you know that the Iphone & Ipod touch can handle 60fps video?

Mr Deap — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 09:56:31 GMT

Here the setting via Quicktime Pro.

I noticed while using aver media software to record, but the quality was awful & I tried to figure out how to handle the video in a proper quality on my Ipod touch.

Yes, it make video look awesome indeed & it sure is a wonder since I never noticed until now. It's not even written no where
on google that you can actually do it.

Most of the time it won't allow you to do it because the resolution is too high, but that resolution have to be in the resolution of the ipod touch & lower so you can playback them at 60fps.

Well so far the Iphone & Ipod touch is indeed one of the best video MP4 portable player you can actually get on the market.

It's useful when you want to showcase some very smooth gameplay of games that run at 60fps & it's badass.

Building rear wheel drive cars

Tone Marley — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 16:05:47 GMT

Over the last couple of days VVV Hauling Ash and I have been building Rear wheel drive cars... in E class. Why? just for the hell of it.

We are both kinda bored of the leaderboard cars and in most online lobbies we are literally destroying the competition. Most times they dont even finish the races. So Ash and I figured why not go ahead and build some cars that almost no one ever uses.

I built an Abarth 131, BMW 3.0 CSL, and a 1960 Corvette.

Sure these cars are not very competitive but they sure are fun to drive. Which is what forza is all about for me now. Not worried about getting top times, not worried about using leaderboard only cars. Just about having fun.

The rear wheel drive cars are so much more lively than the AWDs.

Another video with multiscreen Forza 3.

Mr Deap — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 11:15:31 GMT

Another video with multiscreen.

As usual it's in 720P.

Forever and a day.

Tone Marley — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 15:20:26 GMT

It sure has been a while since I have blogged. A lot has happened to ole Tone over the last few months( the sordid details of which I will spare you all). Still, while my virtual pen has been silent, my driving has been quietly active.

Forza 3 has been my saving grace as I traveled the rocky road of life these past few months. Leading the way has been hotlapping followed by some online lobby racing for a change of pace. I have to admit that I like the Multi-class racing. The fact that you have to negotiate around the other class half way through really adds that extra element that I think Forza needed.
Now if they can just have a lobby for Stock tuned cars only in which the Game would randomly place you in competitive cars. That would be something.

Which brings me to my next point: Stock tuned cars. I love stock tuned cars in Forza 3. Why? Simply put, the cars all have personality unique unto themselves. Tuned cars all drive more or less the same way (especially the all wheel drive cars). With the masterful job some of the tuners in the community are capapble of; the cars are just perfect for maximizing time around any of the myriad of Forza's tracks. But when the cars are stock they are completely different beasts.

Take for example this weeks time trial (of which I am doing miserably). You have a Ferrari F40 on Amalfi Coast. The F40 has horrible weight transfer which is what makes driving it on this track such a challenge.

I have been doing most of my hotlapping over the last couple months in nothing but stock cars. Also, with the wheel and no assists (ranked 26th in overall circuit with no assists. Check your stats in the Forza3 stats section here at http://vvvgamer.com/index.php?Homepage=vvvstats ).

Sure most of my times are nothing to boast about but the sheer size of this game means that ANY crappy banker lap( done on all tracks) will still get you high up in the rankings.

My Hotlapping strategy is different than most peoples. Most of the people I know take their time and do one track at a time and do it well. Sure that's great and all, but with 11 classes and 103 plus ribbons your looking at well over a thousand different trakcs all together. You will never get that completed with the old hotlapping mentality.

If you want to get to the top end of the overall Hotlapping leaderboards and you don't want to grow old doing it, follow these simple tips and you too can get to the top of the Forza ladder.

1.)Use stock cars- Using stock cars now assures you of a much better time than the 30 minutes they start you out for as the default time for every track. But this also leaves some great room for maneuvering when you need to shave more time off once you have completed your first round of bankers( more on that later). You don't want to use leaderboard cars or even tuned cars during your banker run since youll only have that much of a harder time later shaving off precious seconds and minutes. Right now you are merely trying to take of the majority of the 30 minute default per track.

2.)Use no assists. The quicker you get with them off.. the quicker you'll be with them on. So when your running your bankers you'll have more time to shave off when you go back through with assists turned on and tuned leaderboard cars.

3.)Dont run more than 5 laps on any track.... if you cant set a valid time in 2 or three laps yor trying too hard. Remember banker means just a lap in the bank not trying for number one on each track here. that comes much later.

4.)Complete each class at a time. This helps to keep track of what you have and have not run a bit better. There's a lot of tracks and classes that can fall through the cracks especially when there are not many left to run.

5.) Once you have finished your bankers you should be ranked in the top 100 (out of 1.7 million people). Not to bad for using stock cars, no assists, and mediocre times per track. But it adds up. You see out of those 1.7 million people; only a handful of them have raced more than a few tracks and classes. let alone everything.

6.)Going back over. Now that your bankers are finished you can go back through to start nipping away at those die hard forza guys who did run everything like you. But you have the upper hand. You see while most of them set their times in Leaderboard or tuned cars; you didn't. You were smart. See this is where they will have a hard time shaving off seconds where in some cases you still be shaving of minutes (like Nurburgring and Fuji). You still be making leaps and bounds while others struggle to climb.

And that's about it. follow these tips and in a few months(as opposed to years) you'll be on the top end of the Forza 3 leaderbaords and Forza3 stats in virtually no time at all.

Thanks for stopping by...its good to be back.:)

Random races online in Forza 3 HD videos

Mr Deap — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 17:36:22 GMT

Some mistake left & right. Grass cut & cheap trick.

My top 10 stuff that I don't wanna hear.(tech related)

Mr Deap — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 11:50:23 GMT

Most people say that often some unknown tech guys are so negative & blah blah blah....

Well the reason behind it is because the tech guy don't want you to suffer from such bad decision on long term use. Though as usual even with the feedback being answered, the person in question still go for it & keep presure of reassurance of is choice being the best.

The person...

10. ... going LED just to play PS3 or XBOX 360 games.
(Led have bad latency & no you won't enjoy gaming on them since the latency figure over 66ms on them even with all the post processing being turned off to the point it look worst than a regular LCD. There's also the motion resolution that also worst on those panel with the processing off as 120hz & 240hz clearly doesn't help the latency on them. The wise choice would be a Plasma as real professional gamer will suggest. They're cheaper & perform way ahead especially if you want to games on them)

9. ...want to convert WMV to H264.
(Those are compressed format & whatever you will do, the native arlgorithm compress ratio is from the WMV video file & you know that replicate the recording figure a loss of quality no matter how much you try >_>)

8. ...arguing how ipod have such awesome sound quality
(Ipod are great Portable PC & video player, but unfortunatly I believe the component quality built inside them are not suited to enjoy music as much as a Cowon or any cheap MP3 player like key USB & crap. Try those cheaply Mp3 at 30$ with the same earphone, you'll go like whoa!!!)

7. ...want to buy a middle end graphic card.
(Middle end graphic card have weakened fillrate meaning it doesn't allow you to bump up the resolution of the game. Middle end graphic card can have good 3d performance, but heavily suffer from 2D performance since the raw power isn't something great. Even if you configure on upgradable part such as combining 2 card, the increase isn't as good as a high end card & you are not having the fun thorough your timw with the card because it's weak.)

6. ...upgrade PS3 hard drive for a bigger one.
(I don't see what you can store in them? how long will it take to fill 60GB with a PS3? Mp3?

You know that streaming exist & don't lie. You have a separate computer to do it.
O_o)

5. ... arguing about a LCD monitor that does 2ms & does 50000:1 how awesome it could console game.
(Spec on display device are pretty much lies, LCD have 3 type of pixel structure & that's pretty much the only thing you need to consider.

Here the 3 types: TN, VA & IPS

TN have low latency & have extremly bad viewing angle. I wouldn't talk about contrast ratio since even viewed straight front the contrast ratio is screwed.

VA have high latency & have decent viewing angle with good contrast ratio.

IPS have low latency, ultra wide viewing angle & have decent contrast ratio. They're more expensive. Spec may be low but on usage they're so awesome!

Pixel shifting(response) time in ms give a hints of how much the panel but it's screwed up. It really depend how much the LCD type is actually. internal software won't give you better result if you know very well that LCD pixel block color of the backlight to reproduce a color what can you do more about it?)
)

4. ... hardcore gaming online with WiFi
(bad latency, can get heavy interference, random pop up online. Nah it make you bad online playtime)

3. ...external HD capture card
(720p: the image in the 720p60 format has about 0,922 megapixels per frame (1280�720), with 24-bit color per pixel (RGB) and 60 full images per second it needs a bandwidth of about 165MB/s .

1080p: the image in the 1080p60 format has about 2.07 megapixels per frame (1920x1080), with 24-bit color per pixel (RGB) and 60 full images per second it needs a bandwidth of about 376MB/s

Indeed, USB 2.0 can only reach 66MB/s the framebuffer alone clearly doesn't fit well for this connection unless the picture quality is heavily degraded. Have fun arguing with me.)

2. ... want a external hard drive
(external hard drive are limited by USB2.0 bandwidth at 66MB/s current bandwidth for internal Sata drive have a bandwidth of 6GB/s"SATA III" no way an external hard drive would suit your need unless you travel with it in your pocket unless you swap on different computers daily)

1. ...want a laptop for hardcore gaming.
(laptop aren't meant to play hardcore gaming since the electronic power & size isn't suited for performance. Laptop use batteries & performance desktop eat a load of electricty along by delivering a lot of heat. Compact thing isn't meant for power performance in the first place)

Forza 3 montage

Mr Deap — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 07:22:42 GMT

You may hate some not the music but you know it's very usual from me. :D

720P HD youtube

Doing it in HD it take more time to edit & encode, but it also look nicer.

Great Resi Evil Video

Hellbringer — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 22:28:04 GMT

This is a great compilation video I found scowering youtube, featuring movie clips from the original and best Resident Evil games 1-3 (Nemesis) on the PS1

Good times.

Music taken from 28 Weeks Later, pretty damn good mix!

Enjoy

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Broken!!

Hellbringer — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 11:04:49 GMT

Right, seen as I cannot access the forums, figured Id leave this here in the hope someone finds it.

Twice this happened this morning:
- Log in
- Click new posts, works fine
- Make 1 post
- All breaks down, and this happens

When in threads, I click new posts, I am greeted with this

Definately not the new posts screen, and the laurel buttons are missing.

So I try to navigate manually and entered 'News' and then entered Morbidelli Interview, and was greeted with this

In order to get everything working again I have to log out completely or restart my browser. Whats going on!?

It just keeps going!

c0dak — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 13:59:10 GMT

Wow, I haven't ever seen this much snow. Currently we're up to two feet on top of about 7 inches so we're now closing on 30 inches of snow fallen. Than add in winds and we have drifts around my house that are over 3 feet. I love the snow but it's annoying now since it's putting off my plans for the PS3. Below are some pictures of what I woke up to and Lucy hopping around the driveway.

At least this gives me another full day to put in some gaming. :)