Being able to watch fansubbed anime on my TV is a lot more pleasant than watching it on my monitor; for one thing, the TV’s larger (barely), but more importantly, it’s way easier to lounge about while doing so. When I first got my Xbox 360, my buddy Doug pointed out TVersity to me. Essentially, it lets you stream media from your computers to your Xbox without having to hassle with the vagaries of the Windows Media Center nonsense. Also, it lets me watch video in a wider array of formats… like, say, .mkv, which as far as I can tell, WMC still doesn’t support without extensive modification.

Now, until the last year or so, this setup was pretty sweet, as almost all my shows were either hardsubbed anime (old fashioned .avi files) or non-subtitled shows in mkv. The twist came when I tried watching subtitled .mkv’s, which seems to be the format of choice for most fansub groups these days (just check out the ratio of mkv to avi on animesuki‘s list…). Then my system ended up giving me conniption fits when I tried to watch those shows; either I’d get sound but no video, video with no subtitles, or desynchronized audio and video.

After giving my system a thorough sweep, I’ve finally gotten to the point where, with one minor kludge, I can watch soft-subtitled .mkv format anime. I’m noting down what I did here so that I can re-create it in the future, and to help anyone else who’s been having problems getting this to work, since relatively stepwise information for enabling soft-subtitles in .mkv formatted files via TVersity are sort of scarce on the internet. Do note that these instructions are very Vista/Windows 7-centric. I also highly recommend that anyone following these steps actually reads the instructions and FAQ’s for the two things we’ll be installing: TVersity and CCCP — the Combined Community Codec Pack, as what I’ll be describing later is more of an overview rather than an in-depth series of instructions.

First, download and install TVersity. During the install process, opt not to install any video codecs, as we’ll be using CCCP’s codecs later. Don’t bother installing any video players that come with TVersity either, as you’ll be getting a more up-to-date copy of Media Player Classic in a bit anyway. Once TVersity is installed, bring up your Services panel and look for the TVersityMediaServer entry. Choose the “Log On” tab, select the “This Account” radio button and fill in the data for the primary user on your system (the user who actually watches anime, and who’s running the TVersity application in general). This is necessary because the ffdshow settings that you’ll be changing later are saved on a per-user basis.

Next, get and install the latest copy of CCCP. Yes, this is a beta; it’s what’s working for me, so it’s what I’m advising. Leave things pretty much on default. The only thing you’ll be changing here will be the above-mentioned ffdshow settings. Find and play an .avi file on your system (yes, this is a bit of a shortcut, but bear with me). Look in your toolbar, and rightclick the red ffdshow video decoder icon. Check the “subtitles” option, and then, near the top, select the ffdshow Video Decoder menu item. In the ffdshow video decoder configuration window that comes up, check the “subtitles” box and basically check off all the applicable options (blu-ray subtitles, vobsub subtitles, text subtitles, Substation alpha subtitles, etc). Click on Apply.

Congratulations! The hard part’s over with. Now all you have to do is tweak your TVersity settings for maximum clarity. From your icon bar, bring up TVersity and select settings; in the left hand pane, select Transcoder. Under the heading “Maximum Video and Image Resolution”, fill in the appropriate values as per your TV’s specs for the Video Resolution line (either 1280 x 720 if you’re running 720p, or 1920 x 1080 if you’ve got 1080p on your TV). Click on Save, and you’re done this part.

The last bit is getting the subtitles to display. While it is a bit of a kludge, the least painful way to get this to work is to just extract the subtitle file from the video that you intend to watch. Download MKVToolnix and MKVExtractGui (make sure to unarchive the MKVExtractGui files into the MKVToolnix folder). Then, just run MKVExtractGui and point it at your .mkv of choice. Let it extract all the relevant files (it should do so in the same directory as the target file itself). It’ll tend to append a” _chapters” pseudo-suffix to the .ass file, just rename that file so that it’s the same as the .mkv, barring the extension. Say the file was called “example.mkv”; you’d end up with “example_chapters.ass” in the same folder — just rename that to “example.ass”, and you’re good to go. When you watch this on your XBox, you should now have functioning softsubs for your show.

If you think that this is a pain, it’s infinitely preferable to the old process, which was to extract the subtitles, then re-encode them with the video into a hardsub format (which could take anywhere from 30 minutes to a few hours per file…). This way is much faster, and relatively cleaner. And also, yeah, before anyone says anything, I know this is a lot easier on the PS3. I don’t own one, and very few of my friends do, so the network effects are more in favor of me retaining my 360 rather than going out and spending cash on a PS3. Mind you, this may change a year down the line when I finally break down to get Disgaea 4…

March 21, 2011 edit: After having all kinds of headaches with TVersity (including massive CPU consumption and garbage collection problems), I’ve made the switch to PS3 Media Server, and it does the trick right out of the box, with no finagling of files. It reads embedded subtitles in .mkv’s with no problems whatsoever. It does have the occasional issue with some older format .avi’s and I have yet to figure out how to get it to stream youtube videos, but since the majority of my use of the Xbox 360 as a media server is to stream subtitled anime, I’m not too concerned with these issues.

Quite some time back, a random comment on Tycho’s newspost sent me searching for a song called “Breaking Out“, by the Protomen. The piano opening hook and the low, angry/mournful lyrics grabbed me viscerally, and I had to go and find out what these guys were about. Discovering a whole goddamn Rock Opera, in two acts (so far), based deep in Mega Man lore was such an unexpected delight that I was compelled to buy their albums off of iTunes.

It took several listenings to fully grok the whole elaborate world they’d built around the original game framework, but that just meant that I’d have more time to really experience the work in its entirety. There’s something about 80′s style rock with a chiptune sensibility, laid over a groundwork of apocalyptic dystopia and fallen heroes that just speaks to me; hell, it doesn’t just speak, it growls my name and grabs me by the throat.

So it was really goddamn awesome to see them rock out Beneroya Hall in Seattle last Friday, opening up the PAX concert weekend. And man, their live show? It kicks so much ass. From the opening narration, to the drum procession down the isles, to the bugle calls from the balcony, and the hard rocking all throughout, they delivered a show so incandescent that it could have blinded God himself. The fans certainly got into the mood, with the fist-pumping, light-fist glowing, yellow-scarf-swinging call-and-answer singalongs that ran through their set. Like PAX itself, the worst thing about experiencing their performance was knowing that it had to end all too soon.

On the other hand, they were coming to Vancouver in just a few days, so I’d get to see them again, this time in a much more intimate venue (the Biltmore Cabaret). When they took to the stage there, if they were weary of the 2500 miles of travel between them and their home in Nashville, you’d never have known it. Having them perform Act II in its entirety was ridiculously awesome; especially since you didn’t get to hear a lot of their quieter songs like “Here Comes the Arm” during their PAX performance. Plus, seeing them cover Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart” in the encore was one of the highlights of an already unbelievably cool week.

As of this writing, they should either be in St. Louis or on their way home to Nashville; godspeed to you, Protomen! Here’s to your return to Canada and your release of Act III!

I’ve been to every single PAX since it started (including the two precursors to PAX in Vancouver, Necrowombicon), and every year I’m blown away by the event. I’d always intended to post a breakdown or blow-by-blow of the show, but actually being at the show and immersing myself in the fun superseded any journalistic inclinations that I may have had.

I’d have included a 2004 badge, but since admission to the show back then was a handstamp…

The panels, as always, were the highlight of the show. The standout was definitely the Acquisitions Inc. live game, which I got into via the good graces of friends who were in line WAY ahead of me. Didn’t get a great seat, but the big screen display more than made up for it, and you could still see it when Wil Wheaton stood up and waved his sword around. I can’t wait for the podcast of that adventure, and perhaps any followups that WotC would put out.

Second favourite panel would be Kurtz and Straub afterhours. Scott Kurtz’s panel was hilarious fun last year, and this year he improved on the formula by having Kris Straub on with him in a reverse talk-show format. It was neat hearing all the behind-the-scene anecdotes about the circumstances surrounding his move to Seattle. Also, the Erika/Robert Can Story was priceless.

The Make a Strip deserves a mention because it’s always entertaining, and it had way fewer obnoxious questions than the QA’s of previous years. Plus, hey, Dickwolves logo and impromptu drawings. I’m not much of a poster guy these days, but I’d love a great poster-spread of all of PA’s ancilliary characters.

I wish I could expound on the concerts in greater depth, but I only went to Friday’s, and in my mind, that was more than adequate, since I’d missed out on Anamanaguchi last year, and seeing them this year (dorkily endearing frontman’s response to their technical problems notwithstanding) was really freaking coo. And man, the Protomen! Those cats really deliver a high energy rock show. More on them in another post, since I saw them again when they played the Biltmore Cabaret in Vancouver. From what I hear about Saturday’s show makes me think that either the new theatre that PAX is using as their main stage is ill-suited for the quieter, more lyrical performers like Paul and Storm, Molly and JoCo, or that they really should reschedule PAX so that they don’t have to lose sound guys to Bumbershoot. Which is probably the route they’re going because next year, PAX is a week before labour day, so that may work out. It was certainly nice to be seated for these concerts; five hours on the WTC’s concrete floors had done some really bad things to my feet in previous years.

As usual, the Expo Hall was a great place to go in between panels. This year, an emphasis on panel-hopping meant I didn’t manage to see everything that I wanted to see. Chief on that list was Megaman Universe, followed up by Duke Nukem Forever, which was the biggest surprise of the show. It woulda been cool to see the Portal 2 and the Dragon Age 2 presentations, but those are already on the “will buy” list, so I’ll save some mystery for the future.

A couple of really memorable standouts would be Tron Evolution, which plays like an awesome cyberfuturistic Prince of Persia. Combat’s a little mushy but the experience was pretty sweet. The Light Cycle combat was crazy awesome, and makes up for the lackluster vehicle combat in Tron 2. And speaking of sequels – Torchlight 2 was definately More of the Same, and thank God for it. I wish I’d asked more about the mod’ability and the savegame portability; it was nice having my Torchlight saves over Dropbox so I could play them wherever I was and have my progress sync’d with the Black Altar at home.

I didn’t manage to score as much swag as in previous years; the Duke Nukem and Fallout: New Vegas shirts would have been nice, as would have the Megman Universe headbands. I blame this on being deeply engrossed on tabletop gaming in the last hours of Sunday, which has traditionally been the best time to prowl the Expo floor and grab stuff up that the exhibitors didn’t want to have to truck back home.

One form of swag that I did get in abundance were guests for the Quester’s Rest in Dragon Quest IX, and their associated treasure maps. Both the Kawasaki loot locker and the Masayuki King Metal Slime farm, plus a whole host of others, and a fully upgraded inn are mine now, thanks to the droves of people in various lineups, or in the handheld lounge who were also running DQ: IX in tag mode. This makes up for having lost my TWEWY save file right before last year’s PAX.

Ultimately, I had a great time, and the worst thing about PAX is that it ends. It’s always fun to be amongst such a great concentration of nerds and geeks who are trying their damndest to have a good time. We’ll have to see about attending more after-parties next year. Here’s to another three-hundred and fifty-odd days ’til then.