Niconico Douga / ニコニコ動画

[HashiriyaR32]

Spoiler for THIS IS MADNESS!!!!:

How the hell did the OP for Rosario + Vampire get #1?

[wao]

Man, I didn't know gazelle went on to delete nearly all of the videos where she sang songs like Melt, Cloud 9 etc... I don't know what the real reason is, since I never really followed any discussions about her, but I shall personally blame it on all the stupid evil flamers out there because when her videos were around there were way more stupid flame wars than most other popular singers (well, I think). I still think her version of Melt was the best out of all though!

So here's a medley of her songs uploaded by someone else (don't know if he/she will end up deleting it too, eventually) - http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm1369095 If you haven't already heard her voice listen through some of it, it's really so beautiful! If there was proper mixing I'd totally mistake her for a professional, but what do I know...

[Asamidori]

She's quitting Nico 'cause of personal stuff if I remember correctly, so she deleted all her stuffs off there. A tiny little bit of info here:

http://www41.atwiki.jp/niconico_singer/pages/19.html

[wao]

Sooooo the Lantis Kumikyoku featuring Nico Nico Artists came out and of course it got uploaded onto niconico (but it'll get deleted within the day, I suppose)...

At the risk of sounding utterly stupid, なぁにこれぇ・・・ (;´д｀)

The singers really aren't bad, and I totally understand being able to pick only short bits of songs but they're strung up so badly!! The flow from song to song is really awful And the first part was made up of (IMO) absolutely boring songs I can't even remember, it was so unneeded...

Also some super hi-quality encode of the Air OP is up in the rankings, and my goodness it IS very nice (the source is Blu-Ray) http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm2497063 You really should see his other 本気モード (serious mode) stuff like the Rozen OPs... *_* I wonder why he has to add an equivalent amount of blank, black video with no sound though - I'm curious as to how this helps the encoding...

EDIT: Oh wait, so it lowers the average bitrate of the video and lets him upload super high quality on one half and nothing on the other!

[cyth]

Originally Posted by wao

EDIT: Oh wait, so it lowers the average bitrate of the video and lets him upload super high quality on one half and nothing on the other!

That's how things usually work even on YouTube. I uploaded some videos there, but conditions are severely harsher compared to Nico. Nico videos have to be under 40 MBs total, encoded with VP6 and the bitrate average has to be under ~600 kbps. Fortunately, BlankClip() is a miracle worker. You could probably drive those videos up to high-def resolutions, granted the videos were kept relatively short. Even so, nobody could benefit from such high quality videos because of Nico's limited display capabilities (no fullscreen and lack of player embedding).

sm2497063's bitrate average was 621 kbps (pushing it), so the first half had to weight around 1200 kbps. The resolution was set at 512x288, meaning it doesn't matter whether the uploader had a BD or a DVD source. Audio was MP3 @ ~128 kbps. It's a shame he didn't add black borders himself and declared the video as 4:3. He could've squeezed out a few more pixels that way.

[bayoab]

Originally Posted by wao

The singers really aren't bad, and I totally understand being able to pick only short bits of songs but they're strung up so badly!! The flow from song to song is really awful And the first part was made up of (IMO) absolutely boring songs I can't even remember, it was so unneeded...

Agreed. What was Lantis thinking stringing nearly 10 minutes worth of long sections of songs from eroge together. They had the same problem when they got to the JAM project section in the second half. It didn't feel the singers could adlib much either which took away some of the fun.

[Asamidori]

Apparently Nico's going SP1.

Live broadcast of the announcement will be broadcasted here @ 12:45~ &? 13:00~ on March 5th, 2008 JP time. Only the first 1000 visitors are able to view it.

As a function test, they ran a mini game during 時報 today called 「ニコニコはんまぁ」. The ranking for the 100 videos that got the highest points are posted here:

http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/nm2505317


#1 = 空気
#2 = R-18 category, deleted by uploader after all the 荒し to it after the ranking ← What all the comments in the ranking was about
#3 = Spiderman



@ Lantis Kumikyoku:

...Really can't tell most songs. It's not that bad, but yea... 微妙。 (The way the songs are connected, I can see the connection to some of them, but yea...)

[Asamidori]

And SP1 upgrade completed.

Other than layout, here's a list of what else was changed:
- http://blog.nicovideo.jp/niconews/2008/03/000954.html

I'll do a quick translation if anyone needs it.

Oh, I'm not sure about tomorrow, but if you're gonna try to download the Nico Movie Maker right now, expect delays. Took me a bit more than 10 minutes to load the site and two tries to download the installation file.


It's gonna be a while before I'll get used to the category tags being on the left, and Music getting pushed all the way down...


Pick up?: 歌ってみた category → Hello Windows Hello World 【あにま】

Rap is not really my thing, but the lyric is great. And quoting Anima-san:

ありがとう（RC2）　ようこそ（SP1）

[Kinny Riddle]

Awesome use of subtitles for this video.

A commercial sponsor/doujin circle (not sure what the term exactly means) (Xerxes) sends his emissary to the Chairman of the Comiket Committee (Leonidas), demanding that they be granted special VIP access into the convention during the exhibition and threatens them with blood and violence.

Leonidas contemplates for a while, thinking of all the hard work and patience the fans and doujinshi circles have put into organizing this event. And as expected, he points his sword at the messenger.

Messenger: This is madness!

Leonidas: THIS IS COMIKET!!!

http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm2093382

[bayoab]

More niconico related stuff is in the works from lantis.

Lantis no kandzume by Niconico artists (Full CD)

Mystery item #1(No data currently) labeled ニコニコ動画 from Lantis release page.

Let's hope these go better.

[hcl4]

H.264 videos and HD resolutions appear to be possible now with this upgrade. Here's one at 1280x720.
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm2525625
Nice quality if you use full screen with your browser(F11) and click on the enlarge window button.

Edit: So its premium accounts only. That explains a few things.

[Asamidori]

Originally Posted by hcl4

H.264 videos and HD resolutions appear to be possible now with this upgrade. Here's one at 1280x720.
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm2525625
Nice quality if you use full screen with your browser(F11) and click on the enlarge window button.

Only uploadable if you have a premium account. A bit pixelated doing F11 + enlarge window button for me, not sure if it's because I'm using a wide-screen. =|


Sigh, wish I can get premium. N> MyList space. Anyone here have a premium account and is living outside Japan? How did you managed to pay for it?

[wao]

Ah yeah, I would totally love a premium account too... mostly because of the mylist space!! I keep running out, it's horrendous. Why doesn't niconico allow for foreign credit cards...

And about Lantis kumikyoku - http://blog.livedoor.jp/dqnplus/archives/1100127.html it got 9th place in the Oricon rankings

Who the hell is buying so much? I guess the fanboys/fangirls of the various singers cannot be underestimated. I really think the kumikyoku was quite meh though, I hope they do better the next time. Personally I preferred D-sama's little Gag Manga Biyori jab at them much better, he retains the real fun behind the idea of "utattemita" which gets masked when it's a commercial thing that has to respect copyrights and shit.


Also what IS with the niconico "upgrade" naming? RC = Release Candidate and now what, SP = Service Pack? They should've called it RFM (was it RFM that they use at Microsoft for Ready For Market or something?)

Also yay now there's embedded players~ Plus finally, a profile!
Pity I can't check it out from school. =_=

[Asamidori]

O_O;;;;;;;

I just went to Nico's front page to access the categories and some HUGE ASS blue おかえりなさい弾幕 flew across the screen. O_O;;;;

Upper right says "今日はニコニコ復活祭！　おかえりなさい！"

Gonna go and see what that's all about.


Edit: Ohhhh, Nico history! Explains the blue danmaku.

[Sister Princess]

I know this question is asked before but...

For non-registered users, how to watch a video from nico-nico douga?

[Rembr]

You can't.

Registration is free though.

[Rikimtasu]

Originally Posted by wao

Ah yeah, I would totally love a premium account too... mostly because of the mylist space!! I keep running out, it's horrendous. Why doesn't niconico allow for foreign credit cards...

And about Lantis kumikyoku - http://blog.livedoor.jp/dqnplus/archives/1100127.html it got 9th place in the Oricon rankings

Who the hell is buying so much? I guess the fanboys/fangirls of the various singers cannot be underestimated. I really think the kumikyoku was quite meh though, I hope they do better the next time. Personally I preferred D-sama's little Gag Manga Biyori jab at them much better, he retains the real fun behind the idea of "utattemita" which gets masked when it's a commercial thing that has to respect copyrights and shit.


Also what IS with the niconico "upgrade" naming? RC = Release Candidate and now what, SP = Service Pack? They should've called it RFM (was it RFM that they use at Microsoft for Ready For Market or something?)

Also yay now there's embedded players~ Plus finally, a profile!
Pity I can't check it out from school. =_=

Embedded players? God,i wanted that for long time...
How to do embed it?

[jigenbakuda]

Man this sucks so bad... I am actually in japan, but I can not watch nico at all, I only have access to a dial up connection. I am reading all this stuff happening with nico and I can not even check it out. I really want to see that high quality air op <cries>

oh well I will have to resume my nicoing in april.

[Asamidori]

Originally Posted by Rikimtasu

Embedded players? God,i wanted that for long time...
How to do embed it?

Only on selected blog servers/social sites. As of March 5th, the following sites are supported:

- So-net SNS
- trunc
- はてなダイアリー
- livedoor Blog

You cannot add comments while watching from an embedded video.

[wao]

Man, I know I've bumped into this guy's stuff here and there on the rankings but when I decided to take the time to follow through his mylist I can't believe I haven't watched more of his videos sooner...

And I'm talking about none other than タイツォン (Taitson), who... I dunno, he has a lot of talents. I first remember him for singing the Cheetahmen II song with a rap You might think it isn't all that great, but I think it's pretty good for something done in a few days. He's doesn't just dabble in rapping, but creating lyrics, imitating some voice actors and singing too, I think. Here's some of his stuff I like:

1. His rendition of Death Note x Marisa wa Taihen na mono wo (etc) (note: it follows on a whole series of videos that use only the climatic scenes in the last episode of Death Note, so if you don't already know the ending don't watch it. By the way, SPIKE DIES)

2. Collaborations with Miku on popular songs: Mikku miku ni shite ageru and Ievan Polkka

3. Singing Tunak Tunak Tun of all things (It might sound awful, but I think he's probably got the best Indian pronounciation I've heard from a Japanese on nico thus far, and this is coming from someone originating from the Indian subcontinent)

What he's best known for, though, is singing those crazy renditions of songs using those Rurouni Kenshin dub clips (aka Futae no Kiwami). Putting aside the unanswerable question of why the hell anyone wants to sing those, if you happen to like some of them I suggest trying these out (after turning down the volume to be safe):

4. Rendition of Kiwami x Clash on the Big Bridge from FFV (the second half is a stereo comparison) If you think it isn't convincing enough, don't worry he improves...

5. Rendition of FFVI battle theme (...)

6. Rendition of Kiwami x Caramelldansen (second half also a comparison) I tell you if it wasn't for the noise in the original I would've been hard-pressed to tell which was the real one in the stereo comparison...


Although his rendition of that Super Mario RPG song is a bit funny if you understand English... He's so good at emulating sounds, I wished he could pronounce "l"...

I have a special kind of respect for the utterly batshit people who sing along to MADs and hardly use any pre-recorded voice, because it's so difficult. Assuming you ever wanted to, can you ever imagine singing EneCon (Usatei x the Enemy Controller from Yugioh)? Or actually taking on Kanbu de Tomatte Massugu Tokeru... and doing a pretty good job of it, to boot?

Also I think he's either around my age or perhaps a little bit younger. Man, I'm so glad there's crazy people like him in the world. ;∀;