Senor Draco!

Don't know about late submissions. It's always worth a shot.

Here is a question for you computer-literate people. Now that I have a brand-new Lamborghini computer, instead of my old Model T, am ready to go and do mildly illegal things with pictures. I don't think I am psychologically ready for the brave new world of Aheming, but how about viewing vids?

(I have some on CD, thanks to Certain People, so I know that I can see some of them.)

I have the standard Quicktime/Real/WMP/Nero video-viewers, but know nothing about codecs and other secret passwords of the viddery world. Can someone point me to a good fannish primer to the technical details?

Also, a central clearinghouse of Which Ones Are Worth My Time? I have seen a couple reviewed and linked-to on LJs, but I wonder if there's a BSO or similar for vids?

I'd also get Video Lan Media player (VLC) [link]

It usually plays stuff that other programs don't and it's prefect for Quicktime vids. Personally I hate watching vids in Quicktime because the viewing area is so tiny. VLC's viewing area is bigger and doesn't sacrifice the picture quality. Also it plays AVIs which a lot of vidders are going to, the files are bigger.

There isn't anything like BSO for vids that I know about, not one place that recs just vids.

A good way to get vid recs is just to post in your LJ what fandoms you are interested in. Also Vividcon has an lj -- vividcon, and there are lists to links to the vids shown this year. There are a lot of vids and very good quality for the most part.

Lots of times I've found vids just by checking in the memories of lj users whose opinions I trust. People often have links to their favorite vids/vidders.

Some vidders pasword protect their sites but you jsut have to email and they'll give you the password.

Cereal:

What fandoms are you interested in?

I have new portmanteaus to hate.

McKay/Dex = McDex

Sheppard/Dex = Shex

I'm still hoping that someone will write Sheppard/Weir/Ford and call it 'Schword'.

Sheppard/Dex = Shex

This sounds like a breakfast cereal. Or possibly some kind of laundry detergent.

Nutty, I have a set of vid recs here if you're interested. In general I haven't had all that much trouble with codecs; I did have to download, crap, I can't remember the name now. A special unpacking program. Anyway, you'll know it if you see it. Also Divx, which gave me pretty much all the codecs I ever needed.

IT could als be "Shweird"

I actually saw someone on LJ who'd just started Farscape ask what John and Aeryn's pairing name was. And then I cried, because that battle? She is lost.

Katie, I'd seen your recs, which was what made me wonder if there was a central clearninghouse of recs. Although, askye is certainly right, that I'd do better taking the recs of people I know and like, because people I don't know have a bad habit of having no taste.

What fandoms are you interested in?

That is the thing -- I am in the fandom of quality a lot more than any specific source material. I will gladly watch vids of shows with which I am only marginally familiar, if they are vids done well and interestingly and with music that does not strike me deaf with its crappiness.

Shalott did a vid showcase at Worldcon a year ago, just a half-hour that she tailored to the fan who wots not of this enterprise, and it went over quite well, I thought. She tended to avoid vids that required really deep, specialized canon knowledge, and mostly eschewed the fulminating emotional effluvia I hate so much, in favor of visual cleverness, exceptionally good effects, and genial/comedic appeal.

(Not that she tailored her selections to me, but she did lay out her choices, as part of a private explanation why we would not be seeing the Star Trek version of Nine Inch Nails' "Closer".)