| : Frequently Asked Questions: |
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Thus far we have several
episodes completed that have been well received. We are constantly looking to
improve the show and are working to make it look ever more professional.
dosman
Q: Why does my browser
display junk when I try to download an episode? A: Hold down Shift and at
the same time click the link. Sometimes your browser needs to be told to
download the link rather than display it. Q: Why does my media
player not generate audio when I try to play one of your shows? (Or audio with
no video) A: Most likely it's
because you need a codec or need to upgrade your media player. Windows Media
Player 9 or later is needed to play the low-fi versions of our shows. You can upgrade your Windows
Media Player by using this link
here. (Assuming you are using a Windows platform). If you are trying to view
our hi quality versions, WinAmp should play them fine. Q: I have one of your VCD disks for play in my DVD player.
The menu keeps looping, but I can't select an episode to watch? A: VCD menu's work a little different from a DVD menu. You
must press the number of the selection you wish to play (1 for episode one, 2
for episode two, ect.). Also, with our VCD's, there is always an unlabeled menu
option one higher than what is listed that plays all shows on the disk.
Sometimes you may find an Easter egg that way too. Q: I have one of your DVD's, are there any easter eggs on
it and how many? A: Yes. There are several. A: Why does your video look funny sometimes around
the edges of the picture on my monitor or 16:4 TV set? Some parts of a
show are offset to one side or have excessive blank area around the
picture. Q: That's because we format the show to fit a
typical 4:3 television set. A normal 4:3 TV clips a small amount of
picture from all sides of the video. Sometimes when our shooting isn't
perfectly framed this means someone's face is cut in half or something
like that. We reduce the video size or offset it to correct these issues
when they arise. Unfortunately this correction is visible when viewing the
show on a computer or 16:4 TV set. In the future we will try to correct
this for the online releases for our show. Q: Your audio sucks, it clips and pops. A: Thanks, we know. We started this project with
almost zero knowledge of the video production process. Our audio will be
fixed in the future as we get better at this. Sennheiser to the rescue. Q: Why do you use Windows Media Format, it's
proprietary and OS specific? A: It works for the majority of people out there. We have no problem if folks re-encode our shows into other
formats, we don't utilize the DRM functionality of WMV. And oh yes, there
is always MPlayer that should be able to play our
shows if you are not a Windows user. Q: What is this NSV file you are using now? How do I
play it? A: NSV is the file format for
NullSoft Streaming
Video. It is based on the
VP3 royalty free codec and is similar to the
latest MPEG4 codec's today (Audio is encoded into MP3).
Winamp is used to play it. Well,
MPlayer will
play these files too, as well as any other player than understands the NSV
file format and can decode VP3 encoded video. Sometimes Winamp does not associate the NSV file
extension to itself, so you have to manually open the file through Winamp.
You can also drag and drop the file onto the Winamp playlist to queue it
up. Extra info: VP3 is the basis for the
Theora open
source codec currently in development (6-2005). Theora uses the
Ogg file
container format (As opposed to NSV) and uses Vorbis for audio, so it is
different. But Similar, none the less. Q: Why does it take you guys so long to put out an episode? A: We do this all in our spare time, which when you start to get older
you find that you have less and less spare time available. Also, it takes
an enormous amount of time to edit video. A good editor should be able to
get it down to 1 hour of editing for every 1 minute of video. We're not
that good yet, it often takes 3-4 hours of editing per minute of video for
us. As time goes on this should get better, however we are constantly
learning new techniques and applying new ideas to the editing process.
Just remember, the longer you have to wait for the next episode the better
it will be ;). Q: Why don't you offer torrents for download? Q: Do you mind if I mirror/torrent/stream your
shows? Q: I like the show, how can I get it on my local
public access TV channel? A: Most public access channels will let you submit
other peoples work if you have a signed statement from the copywrite
holder saying this is ok. We would be happy to provide this. Also we will
need to know the media format that the station requires. We can output to
a number of formats, just let us know. DVD+/-R is probably the cheapest,
but we'll work with whatever your needs are. Plus, we'll send you some free schwagg if you help
us out :). We've got high quality Packet Sniffers DVD's, T-shirts and other stuff available. Q: I have a monitor (Or other electronic device)
that I need fixed. How much do you charge? A: We appreciate the offer but we are not a repair
service. We have full time jobs, this show, and other projects too, we
really don't have the time to do repair work on the side. If it's directly
pertaining to a segment you saw on the show we would encourage you to try
it yourself. We taught ourselves everything you see on the show, you can
learn as well. However if you absolutely insist feel free to contact us
and make an offer. Q: I like corn! A: Good for you... Q: That RC car segment in episode 1 sucked! What
where you thinking?? Q: I would like to send you guys a video of a
technology review or project that I did. Will you include it in an
episode? A: Fire an email our way and tell us about it. We
aren't openly soliciting video segments from people, but if you have
something good and you got sk1llz we'd be happy to include it. You can
reach us at: contact[@]packetsniffers.org Q: Are you trying to make money off this show? A: No, we make the show because we enjoy doing it. We sell T-shirts and
stickers mainly because people asked for them. As of this writing, these
items haven't even paid for themselves and I doubt they ever will.
However, we're not ashamed to have the show eventually get into the black.
Tape media and equipment costs are the main things that drain our pocket
books regularly (We'll never ask for donations, if you want to support us
buy a t-shirt). We put up Google Ad's on the site back in July 2005. It will likely be
a full year before we get any payment from that. We are still evaluating
if paid advertisements are really something that brings benefit to the
site and the snow. Q: What kind of equipment do you use to make the show? A: Check out our production site for that kind of info: Q: Where do you get the music you have on your show? A: It's mostly SID and NES remixes with some techno mixed in
for good measure. SID is an old Commodore music format. Check out the
forums for more info, or wait until we get some more info about music on
the site. SID Remixes: Slay Radio - live streaming SID remixes: Native SID's: NES Remixes: |
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