Bandoleros Fixed Audio Sync Download Link

Well, I've just finished uploading Bandoleros aka Ladrón que roba a ladrón, a movie I mentioned about in my previous post. The movie, originally released by VoMiT had audio sync problems. I decided to fix it myself, and share it with everyone. I re-encoded the original source, so there's a slight dip in video quality, but not much.

Here's the link:
http://www.yaStorage.com/download.php?id=186014&key=da81aa885gndf676f1gg8aaa6c582ffg

The way to use the yaStorage link is to click on the word "Request" from "Request Download Link". Then after that, click on the letter "F" from "Downloading File".

Here's a sample video of the movie for you to check the quality:
http://rapidshare.com/files/85796986/bandoleros_fixedaudio_sample.avi

Enjoy.

Editing XviD Video In Sony Vegas 8

I downloaded a movie the other day called Bandoleros. It's an American made Spanish movie. Haven't seen it yet, but the audio was out of sync by a few hundred miliseconds. A few hundred miliseconds is enough of a difference to make the viewer notice it and spoils the movie. Most pirated movies are released in XviD format. I've tried to edit Xvid video previously using Sony Vegas but for some reason Vegas doesn't recognize XviD format video. The last version I tried it on was version 6 of Vegas. Now the latest version is version 8, and and I've got a new laptop with some serious power in it, so I decided to give it another try.

After installing it, to my dismay Vegas still doesn't support XviD editing. So googled around for some solutions to this problem. I encountered 2 YouTube videos that have 2 different solutions to this problem. The first one is here:



I tried the method showed in first one, but it didn't work for me. In some of the comments for the YouTube video, it is said the the trick only works on XP. My laptop runs Vista so that may be the reason it didn't work.
So on to the second video:



This trick did it for me. This method tricked Vegas into seeing the XviD video as a DivX video. I managed to fix the audio sync problem. But since I re-encoded the XviD to XviD again, there is a slight deterioration in video quality, but barely noticeable. I basically used the same video setting as the original file.

I have decided to share this fixed version of the movie with the world. So in a way, I am now a true pirate. It's still in the process of being uploaded. It's quite slow. As of right now, I still have about 8 hours to go before the upload is completed. I'll post and spread the links when it's done.

Cloverfield Sucks For Others Too

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An updated version is below. The jump goes higher than I thought it would be.

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It seems that I'm not the only one who thinks Cloverfield sucks, and I've got the stats to prove it. After my previous post titled "Cloverfield Sucks", my blog got a big jump in the number of visits. Most of it is referred from Google with the search term "cloverfield sucks". Apparently I am not alone with this sentiment.

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After further analysis of the movie, I think the problem was the movie didn't make me want to care enough about those yuppie characters. There are a lot of other movies that made me feel very attached to its characters, but this one didn't do it well enough. Maybe it's the unconvincing acting, or the maybe it's the script itself that didn't make me believe these characters were real enough to invest my emotions in them.

But the it's not like I didn't enjoy it at all. My main disappointment was with the ending. It ended at a point where I felt that things were only starting to get good and looked forward for it to get better. I wanted to see more of the monster.

I expected a different kind of movie. But my expectations are from the promotions and hype that the movie itself has generated. If I didn't know anything about the movie, if I didn't know that it's about a monster, and my only knowledge of the movie is from the movie poster only, then, maybe I'll truly enjoy it. But after so much focus on the monster from the media hype, I expect it to be monster-centric, not yuppie-centric.

Cloverfield Sucks

Cloverfield doesn't live up to the hype. They clearly had a sequel in mind when they made this movie. At the end of the movie, I went "That's it?".

It's a love story with the monster as a sideshow. Yes you get to see the monster, but it doesn't even touch on what the monster is, where did it come from, why is it attacking Manhattan, etc. I didn't go to see the movie just to see a monster being hit by missiles, but that's what the movie really is. Who gives a shit about the love story, I want the monster to be the star of the movie, not a bunch of yuppies with relationship problems. I have nothing against sequels but at least make the first movie a complete movie, and not just a jumping point for the real movie. And the camcorder style thing, was okay, it didn't bother me that much, but I prefer normal traditional camera style.

A real disappointment. Not worth my 10 bucks. I hope the movie doesn't do well, so they won't have to make a lame sequel.

American Gangster

American Gangster is a true story about Frank Lucas, a black gangster honcho who was bigger than the mafia during his peak. It's a really good movie.

Enough about the movie, while looking around for pictures of Lymari Nadal, who the lady plays Frank's wife in the movie, another person always crops up beside her in her pictures. That person is Edward James Olmos, the guy who plays Admiral Adama on BattleStar Galactica, and Lt. Martin Castillo (the boss cop) on Miami Vice. It turns out that this old guy is the babes' husband. WTF! Nice.

Lymari Nadal

Edward James Olmos

Married

Other than that, American Gangster is a very good movie, it was really easy for me to "get into" it. It feels long, but in good way. There's hardly a boring moment in the movie. Good editing.

Stardust is a *****/***** (5/5)

Stardust is superb. It's a fairy tale, but unlike most fairy tales, it's not written by some old hack who has died half a century ago, but written in modern times (1998) by the famed writer Neil Gaiman. I admit I'm not much of a novel reader, and I've never read the novel itself, but the movie really is excellent.

It has all the good things you expect from a fairy tale, without the pitfalls of a fairy tale created in olden times. Old fairy tales were made for people of that time. The way its told, the kinds of magic and stuff that are in it, the story elements, all are conceived by by old day mentality and experiences. That's why though some of those stories are good, they never really "clicked" perfectly (for me, at least). You have to condition your mindset to the way the story's needs it to be. But with Stardust, there's no need for that. There aren't any of those little quirky things in the story that you never really "get" just because "that's what people back then used to do". It flows effortlessly without interrupting your enjoyment of the movie.

This Neil Gaiman guy must be really good. I look up for more of his work on IMDB, and found out that he is one the the screenplay writers for Beowulf. I wasn't really interested Beowulf when it came out, but after seeing Stardust, I'll surely make an effort to download it when a DVDRip of it emerges.

The Strike Is In Full Swing.

The WGA strike is in full swing. A lot of tv shows have stopped production. Shows that matter:

• 24: Production shut down with 8 episodes taped. Show on hiatus. Premiere has been delayed until such a time that the Day 7 season can air continuously with no or few interruptions.
• Lost: 8 episodes out of 16 ordered taped. In event of protracted dispute, the 8 in the can could run as a mini-season starting in the New Year with remaining shows held back for 2008-09.
• House: 12 episodes have been completed. Repeats to air after American Idol in January.
• The Simpsons: 22 of this season's 23 episodes will be completed.
• Heroes: Heroes: Origins spinoff suspended. December 3 episode to serve as finale of volume two.

And all the talk shows have stopped production and airing reruns. The surprising thing is that they are actually ending Heroes early. Not that this season has much to shout about, but still. The conclusion I have come up with about all this is, "this sucks".

Just give the writers their damn money. At first I was somewhat against the writers and their strike. But after watching this video, I think it's fair game for them to have this strike. Whether they actually get what they want is another matter. Just give me back my tv shows.