I’ve got my hands full at work at the moment, so blogging will continue to be light for the next week or so. Here’s a menagerie of… stuff…
I rewatched Gunparade March for the third time recently. I have to thank Omo for turning me on to the show way back when; it’s one of the few series I’ve bought on DVD sight unseen. Despite being riddled with a lot of annoying little imperfections, it’s a perfectly enjoyable show with a strong cast of characters. It’s also structured in such a way as to be fun to watch in large doses. That combined with its relatively short length makes it an easy rewatch.
One thing that I noticed this time around that I hadn’t noticed in the past was that Kenji Kawai was responsible for the show’s score. Now I know why I always loved the background music.
On the gaming front, I see that Gust and NIS are bringing Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis across the Pacific at the end of March. Since the game looks to be the successor to Atelier Iris 3: Grand Phantasm - which I enjoyed quite a bit - I’ll be sure to buy it.
You may remember that I was working my way through Persona 3 not too long ago. The reality is, I haven’t touched the game since before Christmas, and my desire to continue is pretty much non-existent at this point. To be honest, I don’t have time for marathon gaming sessions, and while the mission based nature of Atelier Iris was such that I could play for an hour or two on occasion and actually accomplish something, the same amount of time in Persona 3 often feels like a complete waste of effort. Persona 3 is a good game, and I’d like to finish it, but it’ll have to wait.
Changing topics, my recent foray into live action Japanese dramas has resulted in an interesting discovery. The computer I use for fansub playback is older than dirt and thus isn’t all that useful for watching h264 or 720p encodes. I’ve been putting off replacing it for some time now, as it handles standard encodes marvelously, but with h264 really catching on with fansub groups, I figure it’ll be only a year or so before I simply have to do something, whether I like it or not.
Anyway, on occasions when I’ve watched h264 or 720p encodes, I’ve found that lag issues don’t really kick until about twenty minutes into an episode. Since the average anime episode only runs a few minutes longer than that, I’ve been able to make do, but with live action drama episodes running twice as long, it becomes an issue. It was during an episode of Hotaru no Hikari, however, that it dawned on me: if the processor simply wasn’t up to the task, why would it always wait twenty minutes before giving up the ghost? Clearly, whatever the problem was, it was a function of time.
Turns out, it was a temperature issue. Monitoring the temperature of the processor while watching an episode, I found the lag would always kick in once it reached a certain level. And it would usually take about twenty minutes to reach that level. My suspicion is that the processor intentionally throttles back at that point to prevent damage. Hence, the lag. Thankfully, I found that simply pausing playback for ten minutes once per episode in order to let things cool down made all the difference in the world. I’m glad I figured that out; now I can explore potentially cheaper cooling options without throwing a bunch of money at a new computer.
Although, I’d probably be better off just replacing the computer and being done with it. After all, I can get a nice little Core 2 Duo machine for under $500.
Finally, as thanks for reading this far, here’s Nanoha getting her ass kicked.
That’s all I’ve got.
P4 core was the first to incorporate thermal throttling. I had no idea those became “older than dirt” by now, but thanks for reminding me.
It is indeed a P4. It runs fine otherwise, but it’s not like I throw much at it.
That’s a shame about Persona 3… I realize it’s a huge time suck, but it really is a worthwhile game to play. Granted, it seems likely that Atlus is about to announce they’re localizing Persona 3: Fes, which is basically the game revamped and improved… so maybe it’s worth waiting for that to come out. Of course, that’s assuming you’d be willing to shell out money for it again (all the new content does make it rather justifiable though, since it throws in a whole new epilogue story that takes about 10 hours or so to complete if you really gun it…)
“Finally, as thanks for reading this far, here’s Nanoha getting her ass kicked.”
Yup, they’re befriending the crap out of each other, that’s for sure…
They’re going to release Fes? That’s a wonderful surprise. I guess my old warhorse ps2 has one last task.
Need to get to finishing Gunparade March, as I’ve been a third of the way through for months, yet don’t know why I stopped.
And the Nanoha vs. Vita fight was definitely one of the highlights of A’s. I just couldn’t get completely into the show after that first battle though. :/
ooooo… Gunparade March! I absolutely ADORE their military uniforms!
Yeah, my machine’s pretty old, too. I need to replace it, but, lol, lack of money.
And the Nanoha vs. Vita fight was definitely one of the highlights of A’s.
It’s my favorite of the entire franchise. Like a lot of the Nanoha battles, it’s ridiculously violent for a mahou shoujo show. That, and I love Nanoha’s, “Listen… POWER UP… to me… BAM!” White Devil, indeed.
Haha that is so awesome. It made me sadder about StrikerS, though. So much wasted potential. I love how Nanoha is all like, “I don’t even know you, but EAT BEAM SPAM!!!”
ATM, Core 2 Duo is the way to go for maximum bang for buck.
Kabitzin, I started the franchise with StrikerS, and liked it a lot. I gather that the earlier series are better, but the young Nanoha, Fate, etc kinda scare me (”Hi, I’m Chris Hansen. Why don’t you have a seat right over there?”)…
I’ve been using my PS3 to play stuff on the HDTV. Works pretty well once you get the kinks ironed out (still in the process of that sadly…)
It’s way economical compared to building a HTPC, and functionally it’s got all you need out of the box. Plus I can buy P3 FES when it comes out now :)
“You touched the bunny-hat… NO ONE, touches the bunny-hat!”
Yes… one of the best moments in the Nanoha series indeed.
Cheers.
Ah, Nanoha A’s… happy days. Isn’t it about time they did a sequel?
Woo, I had completely forgotten about Mana Khemia. I’ll have to remember to pick that one up!
I have to eat my words, by the way. I decided to give Persona 3 another try over the weekend, and lo and behold, I’m interested again. It helped that I was on the verge of a major story development.
Good to hear! The same thing has happened to me a couple of times. Happens with all megten games, now that I think about it.
If it’s a laptop, you can try lifting up the back edge with a deck of cards or something of similar size - that also angles the keyboard nicely so it’s easier to type as well. Lifting it should help air flow, which should increase performance. Another thing to consider would be checking the fans on the bottom for dust or other stuff - it can build up quite a patina over a few years, so much that the fans stop being very useful. You can get the spray air cans from any office supply store, or most machines have a few screws that will allow you full access to the fans for better cleaning.
Or, you could just get new gear. Does anime not love you? Why would you treat it with anything less than the best? Get a nice comp and some decent headphones. This isn’t just a hobby, it’s a lifestyle!
btw, love your site :D