Numbers for Genki Shadowcast and my new laptop

Lag testing

TV: Toshiba 43LF421U21 43-inch Smart HD 1080p TV - Fire TV, Released 2020

Monitor: Dell U2913WM

PC: Alienware 15 Notebook m15 R6

Nintendo Switch game with clock: Tetris 99

In-game clock displayed on TV: 00:00:56:65

In-game clock displayed on monitor (full screen while capturing): 00:00:56:58

I think I've determined that my TV in game mode has two frames of lag (need to find those pics). But the photo I took to test Shadowcast lag shows that even when I'm recording, the lag on the monitor is shorter than on the TV!

File sizes

1 hour and 20 minutes of raw 720p60 capture (default settings) by Genki Shadowcast (rounded down): 9.00 GB

Encoding with MeGUI

• 2000 kbps quick & cropped... barely passable quality (don't do this)
• 5000 kbps placebo... lossless, but takes forever (don't do this either)
• 2000 kbps / Advanced Settings: Encoding Mode: Automated 2pass, Bitrate 2000 kbps, Very Slow, Target Playback Device: PS3... very very good, damn near lossless, and although it takes a while, it won't be an overnight affair. This is the one to use, or if you're even more impatient, try the next-fastest preset at a higher bitrate. More info on presets here.

Comparing file sizes...

• 5 minutes, 39 seconds @ 720p60 capture (default settings)
• raw capture: 644 MB
• 2000 kbps... 97.0 MB (15% of original size)
• 5000 kbps... 218 MB (33% of original size)

Windows 11 annoyances, fixed

• Not getting the full 2560x1080 resolution of my ultrawide monitor (Dell U2913WM) through HDMI, from the laptop to the monitor? 
  
  At first I couldn't just select it from the menu; I had to open that little popup bubble on the right-corner that said, "This device could perform better" or something like that, where it took me to the NVIDIA settings and I was able to choose it.
  
  That was all well and good until I got my Dell D3100 dock and went back to my multi-monitor setup. Moving the HDMI from the back of my laptop to the dock, I couldn't get ultrawide no matter what, so I plugged the HDMI cable into the back of the laptop again and I got it.
  
  
• Can't change from the default Microsoft apps to view pictures and videos?
  
  The old trick of "right-click > Open With > Choose Another App > Always use this app" doesn't work anymore. Neither does the other way Microsoft wants us to use.
  
  Credit to Amdkt7 for this one. If you want to change your default app for images (e.g. IrfanView), Apps & features, scroll down to Microsoft Photos, scroll down and hit both the Repair and Reset functions, and then immediately do that old way of right-click and Open With to choose IrfanView. Similarly, if you want to use Media Player Classic for videos, you would go to Movies & TV and do the same thing.

Guspaz's pearls of wisdom

Just documenting them here before I lose them forever. More added as they come!

On Sabrent, Anker, and power adapters:

I've been quite happy with my Sabrent SSD, a field in which they've rapidly built themselves a good reputation, but when it comes to power adapters, I normally first look for Anker. If you need a 10-port charger, Anker has a 10-port charger that does 2.4A per port, shared for 12A total: https://us.anker.com/collections/chargers/products/a2133

It has PowerIQ so it should support full speed charging/power on anything you plug into it.

On high-speed HDMI cables and certification:

(NOTE: I'm going to use "HDMI 2.1" in this post, treat it as me saying "Ultra High Speed", meaning specifically 48 Gbps rated cables)

You can't use cat5e anything with HDMI 2.1, and there are no cheap yet effective solutions. The only way to do longer HDMI 2.1 runs is fiber optic, and those cables all cost a fortune.

I've been quite happy with Cable Matters' 15 meter (49.2 feet) HDMI 2.1 cable, which currently sells for $150 CAD.

HDMI 2.1 devices are very picky about cables, there are so many stories out there about people buying HDMI 2.1 cables and then not being able to do 4K120 over them because the cables aren't good enough. It's a major problem, especially for these fiber optic cables, and with HDMI 2.1, pretty much any cable longer than maybe 10-15 feet must be fiber optic to deliver the full 48 Gbps.

There are three things you should do when buying an HDMI 2.1 cable:

1) Only buy a cable that uses the specific wording "Ultra High Speed HDMI". Don't buy a cable that is labeled only as 4K or 8K or HDMI 2.1 or anything like that. If it doesn't specifically advertise "Ultra High Speed HDMI", ignore it.

2) Only buy certified Ultra High Speed cables. Make sure the cable is advertised as being certified. In the case of the Cable Matters ones, they both list "Certified" in the product entry, and advertise their certified status in the the marketing artwork on Amazon, and in the product description.

3) Once you get the cable, there will be an "Ultra High Speed" certification hologram and QR code on the box. Download the official "HDMI Cable Certification" app for your iPhone or Android phone and use it to validate the hologram. If the hologram is absent or does not pass verification, return the cable for a refund due to false advertising.

I think that if you follow these three steps, you can avoid the vast majority of issues with bad cables that fail to deliver actual 48 Gbps performance.

Bringing my Gefen Home Theater Scale out of retirement

So my DVDO Edge went up in smoke. Or rather, my first DVDO Edge went in smoke... and really, it was just the power supply, which I'm reading is a "common" occurrence (link 1, 2). Since I have a TESmart 16:1 HDMI switcher, the Edge was really downgraded to just deinterlacing and making the OSSC play nice with its more exotic modes: the PSP-specific sampling mode, Line 5x, and 480p/576p proc Line2x.

After waiting so long for the zooming/cropping modes of the RetroTINK-5X Pro, I found the OSSC's PSP-specific mode the superior one all along, and that meant an external scaler again. My long boxed-up Gefen Home Theater Scaler was perfect for this, and it did display the PSP-specific sampling mode just fine (will try 5x and 480p 2x later). 

The box-shaped remote was as crappy as I remembered, with buttons barely registering and making me question if I really needed a new battery. I tried programming a secondhand Chunghop remote and I had some success, although my programmed buttons for Up and Right didn't work. I did get a brand new controller for about $10 so I'll try again with programming.

Then for whatever reason I became interested getting a second Gefen HTS, and it was cheap enough, so I did: 

• Gefen Home Theater Scaler HDMI Untested: $41.36 shipped
• Gefen ITE Power Supply, GT-4201D-05, DC 5V 4.0A, Genuine: $20.46 shipped
• GEFEN RMT-SR-IR REMOTE: $21.90 shipped

Okay, so I should've stopped with just the second Gefen HTS itself. And wouldn't you know it: this second scaler came with its own set of problems:

• The remote didn't work, and without the remote, the second scaler was just a brick. So maybe "untested" really meant broken this time? Well, no. I remembered seeing dip switches under the battery cover, and I also remembered the "Remote" option in the scaler menu. Some searching led me to a PDF of another Gefen Remote, and while the dip switch settings weren't quite the same, I was able to figure it out for my scaler:
1. IR Channel 1: 1: down (off), 2: down (off)
2. IR Channel 2: 1: up (on), 2: down (off)
3. IR Channel 3: 1: down (off), 2: up (on)
4. IR Channel 4: 1: up (on), 2: up (on)
• Turns out this second scaler was stuck looking for Remote 2 and my square remote was set to Remote 1. That meant going through the different combinations of dip switches on the remote until it responded.
• Good news: The firmware of this new scaler was 4.8! Higher than my original one which was 2.2. The menu looked exactly the same (so no new features) except the cursor was highlighted in red.
• Bad news: I saw screen tearing! It went away after I hit Reset on the remote to return to the default settings. I hope that fixed it for good.
• I ordered the 2nd remote (now oval-shaped) before figuring out the whole IR Channel thing, but some good things came out of it:
• The battery was included!
• The buttons are much better; more tactile and responsive.
• The scaler, power supply, and remote complete the set. Or maybe I'll give the old Gefen HTS to my brother so he could enjoy 5x with the SNES or whatever.
• Update: the oval-shaped remote doesn't seem to actually work with the Gefen HTS, and I'm having even worse luck with the brand-new Chunghop remote. What am I doing wrong?
• More IR links for fun and profit:
• Replacing All My Infrared Remotes With Girder 6 and an Android Phone.
• Welcome to the USB-UIRT home page!
• Girder Automation Software
• Configuration of USB IR receiver program (Girder Ver. 3.29b)
• DVDO Documentation

All's well with the Genki Shadowcast... even on Windows

Been seeing a lot of criticism for the Genki Shadowcast, even after the update. All I can say now is, it works great.

The very first time I used it, it seemed to take up all my resources and lag and frame drops were common. Just the other day I tried it and it would crash shortly after launch. All I had to do was navigate to it through the Start Menu > G > Genki Arcade 1.5, right-click, More > App settings, enable all app permissions, scroll down, and click Reset.

Now everything's working as it's supposed to; no lag, no frame drops, and my laptop doesn't slow to a crawl! Honestly, I had no idea Shadowcast had its own capture program (I just backed it on a whim on Kickstarter), but since it captures a respectable 60.xx FPS at 720p, I don't think I'm in the market for a capture card anymore.

Just gotta make sure the source is Full RGB, not limited or automatic. Fine by me as my TESmart prefers Full RGB as well.

Downsides: there certainly is lag (just enough to make rhythm games unplayable if going by visuals alone), and the lag is, of course, worse when actually recording. And the codec doesn't seem to play nice with AviSynth even if the captures do scrub and seek fine in VirtualDub, so I always have to encode in highest XviD settings. Probably for the better; it looks like the frame rate is variable until the re-encode that locks it at a constant 60 FPS.

Endgame Vita & PSTV gaming

My interest in the newest game consoles is still zero, so I'm revisiting the Vita and PSTV. Storage is cheap and plentiful with SD2Vita adapters, but the dream of simply taking your memory card out of your Vita and continuing on the PSTV will have to remain a dream; the bubble trick of keeping similarly placed bubbles across the 10 pages using system icons to preserve icon placement across memory card swaps just never worked for me. That's fine; I didn't want to be greeted with the "rebuilding database" message with every power-on anyhow. 

So I'm just going to get a separate 512 GB SD card for my PSTV and mirror exactly what I have on my Vita. The one fly in the ointment is transferring save data (and I don't plan on keeping PlayStation Plus forever), so thanks to these threads I should be able to copy the save data (located in ux0:/user/00/savedata) directly to/from my hard drive, or between the Vita and PSTV directly through ad hoc transfer, no PC needed!

Which files to transfer over? Just sort by date in VitaShell and the latest updated save dates (i.e. your last played games) will appear right at the top. Don't forget to select multiple folders with Square!

A not inexpensive lesson in buying anime

(TLDR: Skip the Honey and Clover DVDs, but do get the Blu-rays.)

Got nostalgic for the last two fansubs I ever downloaded:

• Welcome to the NHK
• Honey and Clover

The budget DVD rerelease of Welcome to the NHK was cheap enough on Amazon, with the whole package coming in at six episodes per DVD and four DVDs. I have to wonder if the original releases were of better quality, but I'm not gonna do anything more about it.

The DVDs of Honey and Clover, however, were far too expensive on Amazon, so I hopped on eBay to check prices there. I saw the entire set for $30 so I had to get it. Then I felt bad because there were actually Blu-rays available, but naturally more expensive; the first half of the series alone was $40. So I thought I could at least be happy that I got the whole series for less than even that.

The DVDs arrived in great condition, and the "book" style packaging was quite attractive. Video quality was as good as you can expect from pre-HD sources. But the truly awful subtitles crushed any enjoyment I could have gotten from it. As this review and this forum post mention, if you hear can clearly hear the surname, you damn well better have that name in the subtitles instead of the given name! Not only is it confusing hearing one name and reading another, but relationships can change, and if and when characters become closer, they'll drop the surnames and call each other by their given names instead. So what what happens when given names were used all along? As a translator, you're boned. As a viewer, you're more confused than you have to be.

Not unrelated: I was almost going to blow a stupid amount of money for the rare, out-of-print physical English manga of Welcome to the NHK, but it's available digitally at both Comixology and Viz. Of course, had I known that it was on Viz from the beginning, I probably wouldn't have gotten it at Comixology first. While the reading experience is equally good on tablets, you want Viz for browser-based vertical monitor for single-page viewing; Comixology can't seem to do single-page viewing on manga other than the cover page. But if you want to view both pages at the same time on a TV, again with a browser, you do want Comixology because Viz enforces this stupid border at the top and bottom of the screen that you can't get rid of. Viz has the border in browser-based vertical monitor viewing, but that almost perfectly centers the image, making it even better than if you had hit the full screen button.

Welp, more money to splurge on the physical complete Japanese-language manga!