Recent upticks in Internet-distributed video quality has just been astounding. Take for example, the following link (be sure to click on the "HD" button... it might take some time to load
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So anime has actually gotten pretty enough to merit HD, eh?
And ......... whyyyyyy .... are you still burning stuff to DVDs when you have an external drive? Do you really feel the need to keep every single anime you've watched?
We have an external drive (and it's old ... I think it's only 100 GB, maybe 250?) and it's never been full. Of course, we generally delete stuff after we watch it, but over the years we've downloaded all of Stargate (9 seasons), Star Trek TNG/DS9/V, The Simpsons (but very NOT in HD) ... and ... about a zillion other shows. We justified it because TV shows are free to watch, and if we want to KEEP watching it, we ought to be honest and just buy it. (Fansubbed anime, on the other hand, is a different burrito. You can't necessarily just go out and buy it, and when you're still in college, it's okay to be dishonest. ;) )
Lately, we've started using Hulu (and Castle airs in HD on ABC's website) to watch our TV shows since we're finally all caught up. We also bittorrent shows that take too long to get posted to Hulu *coughHousecough* and I have no idea what they're going to do when the new Stargate comes out this fall. And Mark now watches Naruto on Crunchyroll. I think he's starting to feel guilty about bittorrenting anything.
Oh. And we have a projector. And an HDMI cable. I love it. (Who needs to go OUT when you've got such awesomeness at home?)
It's merited HD for a while, actually, just not most of it. Anything by Ghibli made at any time in history warrants it, as have some especially lovingly animated shows that depend heavily on visuals (such as Mushi-shi which I recently bought on DVD... every time I watch it all I can think is how much I wish they'd release it on Blu-Ray)
I actually haven't burned anything to a DVD in a long time for the most part, and when I do, since I can (well, used to be able to) shove an entire series onto a single disk, it was like, "meh, what the hell." But I don't like deleting things. I used to burn series that I could barely stand watching the first time, and was almost positive I'd never watch again. I'm getting better about deleting these now. It helps that I'm beyond that "if it's anime, I'll watch it" stage (remember that time, oh so many years ago?) and have become much more picky in recent years. I lost my patience for both Naruto and Bleach a long time ago... after the filler arcs ended, I was like, "yay, back to the shounen-y goodness!" and while the manga-based material is way better, it just crawls along at DBZ speed. So I haven't watched either in years.
I try to go for the legal route when I can for the most part, the biggest barrier being cost. Usually when I buy anything on DVD, it's at a really low price, or a special event (as a reward for finishing my thesis, I'm buying myself two anime movies, Kumo no Mukou and 5 , on Japanese Blu-Ray, but that's in part because they're priced nicely... well, for being Japanese products anyway). But the way I see it, I do my fair share of supporting original American work through DVD purchases and legit online streaming. I'm not as good with anime, but since I buy a lot of manga, I see that as helping balancing it out (when I was in Japan, I introduced myself to Book Off... the cross-country chain that sells used manga for as little as 105 yen... and wow did I bring back a lot of manga ^_^)
I am going to become such an HD elite whore once I have my own (permanent) place and an HDTV and Blu-Ray player. For now, since we have such a setup at home but not school, I don't worry about it as much (the Blu-Rays I'm buying from Japan I won't actually be able to watch on my laptop, after all). Still, the recent uptick in quality makes me glad I bought a 1920x1200 res laptop! Actually, it is one of the many, many reasons I'm glad I bought a 1920x1200 laptop.
Er, the two movie titles are Kumo no Mukou Yakusoku no Basho and Byousoku 5 Centimeter. I guess I accidentally deleted them in the original post.
But you have no idea how happy I was to find out Japan is in our Blu-Ray region. I don't have a problem watching Japanese R2 DVDs because VLC player will play any region, but I can't watch any kind of Blu-Ray on my laptop, so...
And ......... whyyyyyy .... are you still burning stuff to DVDs when you have an external drive? Do you really feel the need to keep every single anime you've watched?
We have an external drive (and it's old ... I think it's only 100 GB, maybe 250?) and it's never been full. Of course, we generally delete stuff after we watch it, but over the years we've downloaded all of Stargate (9 seasons), Star Trek TNG/DS9/V, The Simpsons (but very NOT in HD) ... and ... about a zillion other shows. We justified it because TV shows are free to watch, and if we want to KEEP watching it, we ought to be honest and just buy it. (Fansubbed anime, on the other hand, is a different burrito. You can't necessarily just go out and buy it, and when you're still in college, it's okay to be dishonest. ;) )
Lately, we've started using Hulu (and Castle airs in HD on ABC's website) to watch our TV shows since we're finally all caught up. We also bittorrent shows that take too long to get posted to Hulu *coughHousecough* and I have no idea what they're going to do when the new Stargate comes out this fall. And Mark now watches Naruto on Crunchyroll. I think he's starting to feel guilty about bittorrenting anything.
Oh. And we have a projector. And an HDMI cable. I love it. (Who needs to go OUT when you've got such awesomeness at home?)
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I actually haven't burned anything to a DVD in a long time for the most part, and when I do, since I can (well, used to be able to) shove an entire series onto a single disk, it was like, "meh, what the hell." But I don't like deleting things. I used to burn series that I could barely stand watching the first time, and was almost positive I'd never watch again. I'm getting better about deleting these now. It helps that I'm beyond that "if it's anime, I'll watch it" stage (remember that time, oh so many years ago?) and have become much more picky in recent years. I lost my patience for both Naruto and Bleach a long time ago... after the filler arcs ended, I was like, "yay, back to the shounen-y goodness!" and while the manga-based material is way better, it just crawls along at DBZ speed. So I haven't watched either in years.
I try to go for the legal route when I can for the most part, the biggest barrier being cost. Usually when I buy anything on DVD, it's at a really low price, or a special event (as a reward for finishing my thesis, I'm buying myself two anime movies, Kumo no Mukou and 5 , on Japanese Blu-Ray, but that's in part because they're priced nicely... well, for being Japanese products anyway). But the way I see it, I do my fair share of supporting original American work through DVD purchases and legit online streaming. I'm not as good with anime, but since I buy a lot of manga, I see that as helping balancing it out (when I was in Japan, I introduced myself to Book Off... the cross-country chain that sells used manga for as little as 105 yen... and wow did I bring back a lot of manga ^_^)
I am going to become such an HD elite whore once I have my own (permanent) place and an HDTV and Blu-Ray player. For now, since we have such a setup at home but not school, I don't worry about it as much (the Blu-Rays I'm buying from Japan I won't actually be able to watch on my laptop, after all). Still, the recent uptick in quality makes me glad I bought a 1920x1200 res laptop! Actually, it is one of the many, many reasons I'm glad I bought a 1920x1200 laptop.
Reply
But you have no idea how happy I was to find out Japan is in our Blu-Ray region. I don't have a problem watching Japanese R2 DVDs because VLC player will play any region, but I can't watch any kind of Blu-Ray on my laptop, so...
Reply
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