HD Upgrade Complete!

My new weapon of choice: The Hauppage HD-PVR.

At long last, I finally got my much-awaited new tool for video capture, the Hauppage HD Personal Video Recorder. The successor to my old Archos AV700 PVP is, while bigger than it's predecessor, surprisingly light and apparently made mostly of plastic, making it seem toy-like and fragile. However the proof is in the pudding- the Hauppage does what it's supposed to do- capture HD video- easily, quickly and smoothly. Setting up the device in my room was pretty easy, mostly plug-and-play, though it was good foresight on my part to have in advance acquired an extended USB 2.0 cable to connect the PVR to my Mac, on the other side of the room from the TV and game consoles. Really, who would have their TV right next to their computer?

Anyway, once everything is connected, opening up a third-party app (EyeTV) and turning on the Hauppage and the video source (PS3) immediately opened up a lovely view of streaming 720p footage on my desktop, ready for recording. The slight wrinkle is about a couple of seconds delay between what's showing on your TV and what's recording on your computer monitor, but that's no biggie. Recording is easy as pushing the record button on the virtual remote control on your desktop, and that's that! Recording is almost instant, and once you stop it's there ready to be exported to your desktop or anywhere else in a flash. The files I got were H.264 video (mp4), which can be easily viewed in Quicktime.

After a couple of hours of initial testing and recording of vids from Tekken 6, the PVR did so admirably with crisp, clear video that captures the awesome detail of the game's graphics. It totally delivers on its promises, for which I am truly overjoyed. All I can do now is keep the device well-maintained and dust-free, safe on its new place in my headquarters.

Anyway, I've posted some test vids and more stuff from Tekken 6, so check out the awesome loveliness of hot, buttkicking barefoot game babe action in luscious 720p.


Asuka (looking cool and fresh in her tank top and bandage shorts) battles the walking tank, Ganryu.


Lili battles Anna (maybe she can strip off those stockings and heels afterwards..?).


Lili and a pretty creepy Yoshimitsu battle it out in the Graveyard stage.


Asuka takes on TKD Maestro Baek in Rustic Asia.


Lili's turn to give old man Baek a beating...

These match vids are pretty much raw footage, with just a bit of trimming. I can't wait to start doing edited barefoot babe features- Tekken 6 KO ryona, Soulcalibur IV FMN Knockouts, CASplay matches- in HD! Man, this is gonna be fun. Anyway, that's that for the technical side of things. Now the real work (or fun, actually) begins. Later then!

Upgrading... Upgrading...

I've been doing this little hobby of mine, sharing vids of virtual babe feet, for the past couple of years. It would not have been possible without access to means of video capture, and fortunately all this time I've been using an Archos Personal Media Player with record function, and it has proven up to now easy to use, problem-free and adequate. However, the videos captured are at best only VGA quality- that's 640 x 480 resolution at 30 frames per second. It's fine for older games, but for hi-res games like Tekken 6, Virtua Fighter 5 and Soulcalibur IV a lot of fine detail is lost. The recently-released Super Streetfighter IV in particular looks pretty crappy (which is why I haven't posted much from it so far).

So with HD being the proper way of seeing video these days, I finally went and bit the bullet, acquiring a solution to capturing video from games in High Definition. I'm not one for complicated capture cards and more for actual devices; so I chose the Hauppage HD Personal Video Recorder. As far as I know, it's the most easy-to-use HD recording device available readily and at a pretty good price. Admittedly, it's not as plug-and-play easy as the Archos device was- a computer is actually required to be hooked to the PVR with software for recording, albeit the machine does most of the actual recording work. Reviews are good and this machine looks to be the tool of choice for capturing HD game footage for us armchair web video casters, particularly on Youtube.

As of this writing, my order has 'already shipped', though I am not totally sure when it will arrive- it could be by next week at the earliest. Till then, I'll continue updates as usual, though I think I should put big vid projects like the Soulcalibur IV Knockouts series on hold since I'll surely be re-doing all the FMN vids in HD once I have the Hauppage in place. But think of it... Tekken 6, SCIV, SSFIV and potentially VF5R (or Final Showdown?) in eye-catching, sole-exposing, foot-lovin' HD! I'm excited, and I hope you guys are too. Fingers crossed that the Spirits of Shipping smile on my package and bring it safely and speedily to my doorstep. Later then!