Otaku no Podcast » streaming

Episode #0026 – Anime Expo 2011 Interviews – Maki-san of Obitsu

The Ghost in the Machine — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 08:25:53 +0000

We conclude our Anime Expo 2011 interviews with a chat with Maki-san from the doll maker Obitsu. We talk about Obitsu’s products as well as their plans for the future.

This concludes our series of Anime Expo 2011 interviews, but is not the end of our AX 2011 coverage. There are still some videos that we’ll be putting up, as well as photos, so keep an eye on our YouTube channel as well as our photo gallery.

Today’s Theme: “Kawaru Mirai,” by Choucho. OP to the Summer 2011 anime Heaven’s Memo Pad (Kamisama no Memochou), now streaming on the Anime Network.

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We are now a Crunchyroll affiliate!

Donald Burr — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 01:06:28 +0000

We are pleased to announce that we are now a Crunchyroll affiliate!

Crunchyroll is quite possibly the best thing to come around for us anime fans, and is the easiest and cheapest way of enjoying 100% legal streaming anime while supporting the companies that create it. They actively go after the latest and greatest anime titles, as well as maintain a back catalog of over 200 titles.

You can access most of the site for free. But if you pay for a Premium membership, not only do you help support the people and companies that create anime, you also get access to some cool extras. For one thing, you get access to the full back catalog (only a subset of the older titles are available for free). You also get — and this is the big one — same-day simulcast. Yes, on the same day that any given anime episode comes out in Japan, you can watch it on Crunchyroll, complete with English subtitles. You also get access to high-quality HD (720p and 1080p) streams. And not only can you watch Crunchyroll on your computer, but with a Premium membership, you also can use their apps for iOS (iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad), Android, as well as set-top boxes by Boxee and Roku. And finally, if you’re a fan of live-action Japanese or Korean dramas (“dorama”) they’ve got those too.

What will all of this cost you? Very little. For an anime- or drama-only Premium membership, you pay the low low price of just $6.95 per month. Or if you want both anime and drama, that’ll run you $11.95/month. Better still, if you’re willing to pay for multiple months in advance, the price drops to as low as $4.99/month!

So what are you waiting for? Get a Crunchyroll Premium Membership today! If you sign up through any of the CR links/banners on our site, we’ll get a little cut (it doesn’t cost you anything extra), which goes towards keeping the website up, paying for server and bandwidth, equipment for the studio, etc.

J-List is a peaceful island of Japanese pop culture for you

Cool Find: Western Digital WD TV Live

Donald Burr — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 15:11:58 +0000

This is sort of a half-Cool Find, half-review type article.

For the last few years I have been on a quest — a quest to free my anime from the confines of my computer screen.

Many others out there have shared this quest, I’m sure. After all, although watching anime on your computer is nice (especially with the mega-HD resolution monitors of today), it’s still nice to get away from the computer every now and then. Maybe we want to consume our anime while out and about; fortunately there are devices and software that make it relatively easy to do so, such as iPods, iPhones, iPads, Android smartphones/tablets and the Archos 5, and software such as Meridian, Air Video, and Crunchyroll for iPhone or Android.

But what if we want to enjoy anime on the big screen, using your home theater system?

This is particularly desirable nowadays, when more and more anime are being made in HD quality with multi-channel surround sound. The problem however is getting your anime to the big screen. You could hook your computer up to your home theater system, but that’s a rather clumsy and complicated solution, and most computer interfaces aren’t well suited to the “lean back experience” you get in a home theater setting. With some special software, you can use most current-gen game consoles as media streaming devices. However I’ve found that setting up this software can be tricky at best, and downright impossible at worst. Or you could get one of a variety of media center set-top boxes. Unfortunately picking the right set-top box is challenging, mostly due to the wide variety of formats that downloaded anime comes in these days. Add to that the complexity of multiple audio tracks and subtitles, and you’ve got yourself a recipe for pain and disappointment.

Well, I have tried just about every set top out there and have found one that is just about perfect — the Western Digital WD TV Live.

It’s a pretty small thing, about the size and weight of a small paperback book, and will easily fit in even the most crowded A/V shelf. It doesn’t give off a lot of heat either. With connections for component and composite video, digital optical audio and HDMI, the WD TV Live will easily hook in to your other devices. It also has a USB port, which is used for expansion (more on that later) as well as storage — the idea being that you can plug in a USB hard drive full of media and play that. But that’s not what we’re really interested in: we want to be able to stream our media off of our home network. For that, the WD TV Live has a built-in Ethernet port. The WD TV Live is also capable of accessing WiFi, but that requires a USB WiFi adapter, sold separately. You can access your files off of your network using the Windows file sharing protocol, which fortunately pretty much every other OS speaks.

The user interface is functional, but a bit on the klunky side. Accessing some functions requires you to scroll through several levels of menu items. But it’s not too bad. It doesn’t have the elegant simplicity of an Apple product, but it isn’t the worst I’ve seen either. You’ll get used to it in no time.

Now here’s the good news: the WD TV Live plays just about every video format under the sun. H.264, XviD, DivX, MPEG 1/2/4, WMV… it plays ‘em all. I threw every oddball file I had at it and it played them beautifully. The only file it was unable to play was one particularly large (over 8 GB) MPEG-4; but that could have been because it was a bad file (I have problems playing that file on my computer too). And, best of all, it supports those pesky Matroska (MKV) files! Files with multiple audio tracks are supported. And subtitles are supported as well, in all the common formats (SSA, ASS, SRT, SUB, and SMI), both in “sidecar” files (subtitles in their own file) as well as embedded as part of the MKV file. Unfortunately some more advanced subtitle functions don’t appear to be supported (different fonts, colors, on-screen positioning, etc.) but the subtitle support is good enough to where I’m happy. (A press of a button during playback will bring up a menu where you can easily switch between audio and subtitle tracks.)

The WD TV Live also supports playback of audio and photos, but I don’t really see that as this device’s real strength. (I suppose you could use it to show off your latest anime con pics, or listen to your favorite anime OST’s or whatever.) However it also supports streaming content from several online sources, including Blockbuster, Netflix, Pandora, Flickr, YouTube and several others. Netflix, in particular, is of interest to us anime fans, as they now have a rather impressive collection of anime available for online streaming, and that collection is growing every day.

Finally, let’s talk price. At $80, I think this is a really good deal for what you get.

Overall I am quite happy with the WD TV Live. My quest to unleash my anime from the confines of my computer, and bring it to the big screen, is now complete.

Pros:

Supports just about every video format under the sun (including MKV containers)
Supports subtitles, both as separate “sidecar” files (SSA/ASS/SRT) as well as embedded in MKV’s
Supports most of the popular Internet streaming video sources.

Cons:

User interface is a bit clunky, not as elegant as an Apple product
WiFi support only with purchase of a separate WiFi adapter
only supports Windows networking (SMB)
does not support some advanced subtitle attributes (fonts, color, etc.)

Overall Rating:

Rating: ★★★★½

WD TV Live
Too low to display

WD TV Live Plus 1080p HD
$149.99

WD TV Live Hub with 1 TB Hard Disk
Too low to display

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Air Video adds AirPlay support: now you can watch your anime on your Apple TV on the big screen!

Donald Burr — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 22:58:49 +0000

The Apple TV is a decent little media center streaming box. It improves in every way over its predecessor – smaller, lighter, faster, and doesn’t give off over 9000 BTU of heat energy.

With it, you can rent and stream any of the (pretty large) anime collection that’s now available on iTunes, as well as Netflix, and you can stream any of the iTunes content that’s loaded on your PC or Mac. The problem with the latter is that you would have to transcode most of your anime collection so that it plays on iTunes — a fairly technically involved process — and you lose such niceties as subtitle support and multiple language audio tracks. Which means it isn’t really useful at all. But at only $99, it isn’t too bad price-wise.

Well, if don’t own one, you just might have a reason to buy one after reading this post. And if you already own one, you can stop tearing your hair out in frustration. Because the Apple TV is now a lot more useful to us anime fans, thanks to the wonderful piece of software I’m about to describe.

Air Video, which we’ve written about before, is an awesome video player app for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. It will let you stream your video files from your computer (such as that anime that you have, ahem, acquired from various sources) and play it on your iOS device. The “secret sauce” that makes this so unique is that it will automatically transcode your files in a format that your iDevice can play natively. So you don’t have to go through all that video transcoding voodoo yourself. Plus it supports all the standard subtitle formats (SRT/SSA/ASS), either as separate files or “baked in” to an MKV file. Which is really great news for us anime fans. And it’s reasonably priced as well (just $2.99).

Well, Air Video just recently added AirPlay support in its latest version. AirPlay is a new technology from Apple that will let you stream content — audio and/or video — between your devices, including iOS devices and the new Apple TV 2. So what does this mean to you? It now means that you can, using the Air Video app, stream all of your anime, including subtitles, and watch it on your Apple TV that is (presumably) hooked up to your large screen HDTV. To get this kind of functionality (streaming content from your computer) would ordinarily require a more costly and complex to set up media center box such as the Boxee Box or WD TV Live; the problem with those devices is that they tend to be kind of dodgy, and they don’t “plug in” to the iTunes ecosystem as tightly as the Apple TV does. So now you get the best of both worlds!

I’ve tested this extensively and it works wonderfully.

So what are you waiting for? Go get Air Video on the App Store today! Note that for the new AirPlay functionality, you will also need to install the latest beta version of the Air Video server – versions are available for both Windows and Mac.

J-List is a peaceful island of Japanese pop culture for you

Crunchyroll app now available for Android devices

Donald Burr — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 17:10:06 +0000

If you like the idea of high quality “all you can eat” streaming anime that you can enjoy anytime, anyplace, then in our humble opinion, you can’t beat a Crunchyroll membership. They have a truly awe-inspiring selection of titles, and they actively go after the latest and greatest from Japan. Many series that they feature are actually still running in Japan, and you can watch a fully English subtitled version of an episode literally hours after it has been broadcast in Japan. They also have an extensive back catalog of older/classic titles. And if you’re a fan of live-action J-dramas/K-dramas, they’ve got those too.

The nice thing (well, one of the nice things) about Crunchyroll is that not only can you watch it on your computer (Mac or PC), but you can also watch on a variety of other devices as well, including the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad (we’ve written about these previously). You can also watch Crunchyroll on several Internet-connected TVs and set top boxes, including the Boxee Box.

Well, if you own an Android-powered smartphone or tablet, rejoice, for now you can enjoy Crunchyroll on your device, thanks to the shiny new Crunchyroll app. With this fine piece of software, you can stream any of Crunchyroll’s titles, both current and older, on either your phone’s 3G mobile data connection, or over WiFi, and naturally includes subtitle support. In my testing the app has performed beautifully.

Unfortunately this app will only work for you if you have a Crunchyroll premium membership – but at only $6.95/month, you really should have one anyway. You just can’t beat this price, and you get the warm fuzzy feeling of supporting the legitimate anime industry. Win!

The app will run on any Android device running Android 2.1 (Eclair) or later, and is available for free in the Android Marketplace. Go download it today! Or, if you have one of those newfangled barcode scanning apps on your Android phone, scan the QR code below.

J-List is a peaceful island of Japanese pop culture for you

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Cool Find: Watch the classic 80s anime “Bubblegum Crisis” for free on Hulu

Donald Burr — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 18:46:38 +0000

I’ve been busy working up the next show, where I’ll FINALLY be completing my “Anime on the Cheap” segment I started over 9000 years ago (not really, but close enough), and so I’ve been exploring all the options available for downloading and streaming anime on the Internet. But I came across something that I really have to share with you right now, so here you go. Consider this today’s Cool Find.

Us anime fans truly live in a blessed time, thanks to the advent of computers, cheap (well, relatively speaking anyways) and fast (again, relatively speaking) Internet connections, and streaming technology. Gone are the days when you’d have to wait forever for a series to get licensed, and once it did, you’d have to wait over 9000 months between DVD releases, which you’d have to pay $30 or so a pop for. These days we live in a world where you can stream your favorite anime whenever and wherever you want, and — this is especially cool — often you can stream the latest and greatest series from Japan, literally minutes after they were broadcast there, and usually for free (or a very low monthly membership charge). (However, unlike most technology pundits, I wouldn’t go so far as to say that physical media is dead — I still buy plenty of anime DVDs (and now Blu-rays) — but it is definitely not the primary method of consumption any more.)

Of course, when you think online anime streaming, Crunchyroll comes to mind. They are indeed the darlings of the online anime streaming world, with a stable of many officially licensed shows and simulcasts, and an impressive list of partner companies and investors. But there are others. Not only do many of the anime licensors (FUNimation, Bandai, etc.) have their own streaming sites, but traditionally non-anime sites such as Hulu are now starting to stream anime. Hulu, the streaming site created as a joint venture between NBC-Universal, Fox, and ABC, has quite a collection of anime up for streaming, as it turns out. And they’ve just added one of my all-time favorites — and the title that got me into this whole anime thing in the first place – Bubblegum Crisis. Set in a post-apocalyptic Tokyo (called “Mega Tokyo”), this classic 80s cyberpunk/mech/fighting girls anime tells the story of the Knight Sabers, four renegades out to fight a battle against the evil Genom corporation (think Microsoft) and their humanoid robot “Boomers” that regularly crash and go berserk (again think Microsoft). The show is thematically similar to, and is strongly influenced by another traditional geek favorite, Blade Runner. The traditional cel-based animation is gorgeous (and has a characteristic that modern digitally animated shows lack IMHO) and the classic 80s pop/rockish soundtrack still sounds surprisingly good even today. This is truly a treat for the eyes and ears.

Unfortunately they are streaming the dubbed version of the show. While it’s not my favorite, it is at least reasonably competently done and definitely listenable, and is a darn sight better than most of the other dubs of that period. (But it has one major flaw: they sing the song lyrics in English.)

So go check it out today!

Gothic & Lolita Products, magazine subscriptions from Japan

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Cool Find: How to register at Nico Nico Douga

Donald Burr — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 19:24:51 +0000

Nico Nico Douga is a sort of Japanese YouTube, and is one of the most popular video sharing sites in Japan. It’s a hotbed of otaku-related video sharing activity, and you can often find fun fan-made anime- or video game-related video content on it. (There’s tons of other weird, wild and wacky Japan-related video content on there as well, of course.) One unique feature that NND has over other similar sites is that when a user comments on a video, rather than the comments appearing as one long list below the video, comments are instead overlaid directly on top of the video, and furthermore can be synced to a particular time in the video. The whole effect is rather akin to VH1′s Pop Up Videos.

While the website is in Japanese, it isn’t really that difficult to find and view videos. (“see shiny looking video thumbnail? click on it.”) Registering for the site is another matter entirely, and unless you have a fairly good grasp of the Japanese writing system, you’re out of luck. Until now, that is. This excellent video from the folks over at Ichiro-Style (a site that I honestly hadn’t heard of until today) shows you the step-by-step procedure for registering, including translations of all the prompts. Wonderful!

So why not head over to Nico Nico Douga today and try it out for yourself? Registration is free (there are paid Premium accounts that give you certain unknown added benefits, but registering for one of those requires a Japanese credit card). All you need is a working e-mail address where you can receive the validation e-mail. Of course, if you’re afraid of spam or whatnot, you don’t have to use your regular e-mail address; you can always set up a free Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, or heck, even a Hotmail account.

J-List is a peaceful island of Japanese pop culture for you

Crunchyroll for iPad: It’s Here!

Donald Burr — Thu, 27 May 2010 22:06:30 +0000

A while ago I wrote about the (then new) Crunchyroll app for the iPhone and iPod touch, with a note saying that they were working on an iPad app that would be out soon.

Well great news – the Crunchyroll app for the iPad is finally here!

This one kinda slipped in under my radar, mostly because I’ve been busy with other things, but also because, rather than updating the already-existing iPhone app to add iPad support (which I would have noticed – I’m pretty obsessive about checking my apps for updates), they chose to release a completely separate app for the iPad (it’s impossible to keep up to date with the latest and greatest app submissions).

And what an app it is. Video looks beautiful, and scrolling through the large movie poster-style thumbnails of the various shows is fun. Unfortunately the app is still plagued with smaller-than-ideal subtitle size, but they are working on it.

The app, like their iPhone app, is of course free. Go grab your copy today!

Crunchyroll app now available in Boxee

Donald Burr — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 21:09:30 +0000

Boxee is one of my favorite media center applications. Available for the Mac, Windows, Linux, and AppleTV, Boxee presents an excellent “10-foot interface” ideal for use on a Media Center computer – that is, a computer hooked up to a large-screen TV, projector, etc. It makes it really easy to watch/listen to your movies, TV shows, photos, and music, both from your computer/local area network as well as from various sources online (TV networks that stream their own content, Hulu, Netflix, etc.). It also brings a unique social aspect to your media consumption – you can follow other Boxee users and see what they’ve been watching and what they recommend.

Even if you don’t have a Media Center PC, Boxee might still be a good program to have, since it can automatically retrieve metadata on your video files (album/cover art, titles, actors/directors/etc.) and will organize your movies and TV shows (TV shows organized by season and episode number, etc.). It can also decode practically every video, audio, and image format under the sun.

Well, this must have happened sometime a while ago, as I haven’t been paying much attention to Boxee. Recently they released a new beta (now freely available to anyone who signs up at the Boxee website – their beta used to be invite-only but is now open to the public). And when I went into the Boxee App Catalog, I discovered to my delight that everyone’s favorite streaming anime site Crunchyroll is now easily watchable through Boxee – a Crunchyroll app is now available in the Boxee app catalog!! You can watch any of the publicly-available streams, or, if you have one, you can log in to your Crunchyroll account to watch any of the non-free videos you have access to – including HD streams!

Want to get in on the action? Head on over to the Boxee website to sign up for a free account and download the free Boxee software. Then, from within Boxee, go to the App catalog (the “Apps” icon, duh) and download the (also free) Crunchyroll app!

BTW, if you are a Boxee user, please feel free to follow me – I’m “dburr” on Boxee.

J-List is a peaceful island of Japanese pop culture for you

Mobile Suit Gundam now streaming for free on Crunchyroll!

Donald Burr — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 21:15:32 +0000

Attention Gundam fans! In honor of the impending Mobile Suit Gundam UC (Unicorn) Blu-ray release, everybody’s favorite streaming anime provider Crunchyroll is not only streaming Unicorn, but is also streaming the original Mobile Suit Gundam series! This stream is available free to anyone in the US, Canada, Europe (excluding select countries) and Russia.

Not familiar with the Gundamverse? (Where have you been??!) Here’s a brief synopsis describing the series. You can also check out the Wikipedia entry on Gundam (but beware – there be spoilers here!)

“U.C. 0079. The rebel space colonies of the Principality of Zeon launch a war of independence against the Earth Federation, using humanoid fighting vehicles called mobile suits to overwhelm the Federation Forces and conquer half of Earth’s surface.

Months later, the Federation has finally developed its own prototype mobile suits at a remote space colony. But when the colony suffers a Zeon surprise attack, these new weapons fall into the hands of a motley crew of civilians and cadets, and fate places a youth named Amuro Ray at the controls of the white mobile suit Gundam…”

And here’s the synopsis for Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn:

“The year is U.C. 0096. Three years have passed since the end of the Second Neo Zeon War.

It is said that the Vist Foundation manipulates the Earth Federation and Anaheim Electronics from behind the scenes. Hoping to create a new world, the Foundation attempts to hand over a certain secret to the Neo Zeon remnants known as the Sleeves. This will mean the opening of Laplace’s Box, which holds a great secret tied to the origins of the Universal Century.

The exchange between the Vist Foundation and the Sleeves is to take place at the manufacturing colony Industrial 7. This is the home of the student Banagher Links, who rescues a girl he sees falling through the colony’s zero gravity area. The girl gives her name as Audrey Burne and says she wants to prevent a war, spurring Banagher to step into the conflict surrounding Laplace’s Box—almost as if he is drawn in by his own bloodline.

Based on a story by author Harutoshi Fukui, the newest Gundam work dynamically unfolds against the backdrop of the Universal Century. It all begins with this first shocking episode.”

PC dating-sim games @ J-List

YARRRRR!! Pirates rejoice! One Piece returns to sail the Seven Seas in streaming form!

Donald Burr — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 09:22:44 +0000

I know, International Talk Like a Pirate Day isn’t for another few weeks, but I’m sure that once you read the good news contained herein, you’ll forgive me this slight lapse into piratical dialogue.

Avast, ye salty sea dogs! I be bringin’ good news fer all ye One Piece fans out there! FUNimation has jus’ announced that, startin’ August 29th at 9pm CST, they will resume streamin’ One Piece episodes, startin’ wi’ episode 415. Streams will go live one hour after th’ episode airs in Japan. Shiver me timbers!

In order t’ catch up on missed episodes due t’ th’ stream`s downtime, FUNimation has also announced that ‘t begin streamin’ from episode 391, th’ start o’ th’ Amazon Lily Saga, startin’ on August 21. FUNimation will add three episodes daily startin’ at 9:00 pm CDT on th’ 21st, up until th’ simulcast o’ 415 on th’ 29th. Y’ hear that, y’ landlubbers??!

Now grab yer straw hat an’ set a course fer th’ FUNimation video streamin’ site! Full speed ahead!

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Enjoy FREE access to premium Anime Network content all day this coming Monday!

Donald Burr — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 01:17:33 +0000

Apparently this coming Monday is “Lazy Day,” a national celebration commemorating… well, laziness. Although I can’t find any mention of this in any online resource. Still, any excuse to celebrate laziness is fine with me! (Edit: I was able to find one page explaining this holiday.)

But you may want to make one exception in your lazy, do-nothing schedule for the day if you’re an anime fan. Because, to celebrate the occasion, The Anime Network will be making all of its premium online content freely viewable by anyone. Starting Midnight CDT on Sunday the 9th and ending at 11:59 PM CDT on Monday the 10th, all Anime Network premium online content will be accessible to anyone, for the amazingly low price of free. If you’re feeling particularly generous and wish to sign up for paid access to the premium content, you will get a 50% discount on your first months’ worth. (The regular price for monthly subscriptions is $6.95/month.)

You can find the catalog of shows here. Share And Enjoy!

J-List is a peaceful island of Japanese pop culture for you