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Original Message
"Boston City Hall Plaza DVD (v2.0) Available"
Posted by gustergerm on Feb-04-04 at 09:38 AM
LAST EDITED ON Feb-04-04 AT 09:39 AM (EST)

Ladies and gentlemen...

It is with great pleasure that I offer the second edition of the Boston City Hall Plaza DVD. On behalf of contributors Kenta, Dave, Eliz, and the other Dave, I am proud to announce the BitTorrent and B&P availability of the:

"Guster - Boston City Hall Plaza DVD Spectacular (Version 2)"

As we await the official "Portland" DVD, I figured now would be a good time to re-release the disc from last summer's Boston show. Hopefully it will satisfy our "Guster on TV" fix until the release of the *real* DVD, AND allow some of you individuals who missed it in the fall to get a copy of the DVD.


============ {Features of the DVD} ============


* City Hall Plaza concert video, hand shot by Kenta Koga mixed with the audio recording by Dave Mallick. This thing looks and sounds fantastic.

* Photo galleries and menus featuring the photography of Elizabeth Weinberg and Greg Germanowski

* Brief (and admittedly cheesy) biographical information on band members.

* NEW! Video from the "Austin City Limits" performance is included in the Special Features.

* NEW! Video clips from television performances on shows such as "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno", "Late Night with Conan O'Brien", "The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn", and others are included in the Special Features. (Lower quality)

* Printable PDF (Adobe Acrobat) files for jewel case inserts.

* A collection of audio recordings (SHN's) from the Summer 2003 free shows, including...
June 24, 2003 - Boston, MA
June 25, 2003 - Portland, ME
June 26, 2003 - Providence, RI
June 27, 2003 - Morristown, NJ
June 28, 2003 - Philadelphia, PA

* Tools and utilities for using the SHN recordings listed above.

* ...And other enhancements to the disc not found on the original!


============ {More Information} ============


To find out how you can get the DVD, please visit

http://members.cox.net/gustergerm

On that page you will find instructions for participating in the Blanks & Postage (B&P) or the BitTorrent download, as well as more information and screengrabs from the DVD itself.

All of this would not be possible if it weren't for Kenta to take the video, Dave to take some audio, and Eliz to provide some pictures. Also, the second edition contains content provided by Dave G., who added some special feature items. But most important is the band - HUGE thank you's to Guster for having a policy on taping which allows fans like us to participate in projects like this.

Table of contents
Messages in this discussion
"RE: Boston City Hall Plaza DVD (v2.0) Available"
Posted by The Demon on Feb-04-04 at 12:47 PM
Germ,

You speak of new special features - ought the people who got one in the fall be looking to get one again? I don't want to take up slots for people who didn't get one last time if it's just stuff I can download off guster.net or some such.

Chris

"RE: Boston City Hall Plaza DVD (v2.0) Available"
Posted by gustergerm on Feb-04-04 at 01:45 PM
http://members.cox.net/gustergerm ..for the features.

Yes, most of the features are guster.net findable. The B&P instructions say that I will give priority to new participants, and finish with any previous B&P folks should they be interested in the new disc.

Is it groundbreaking new stuff? No. But it may be worth it to the fan... that is up to you (and them) to decide.

-Germ

"RE: Boston City Hall Plaza DVD (v2.0) Available"
Posted by The Demon on Feb-04-04 at 08:09 PM
Thanks for the info, Germ. I'll put in for this one and give my other one to a friend.

Chris

"RE: Boston City Hall Plaza DVD (v2.0) Available"
Posted by siwelwerd on Feb-04-04 at 06:53 PM
Whats your definition of slow? I'm hardly downloading (All the way up to 1.0% after 8 hours) and it says theres others with 32, 22, 14, 5, 6, and 31% done. Any suggestions other than be very patient?
"RE: Boston City Hall Plaza DVD (v2.0) Available"
Posted by gustergerm on Feb-04-04 at 07:42 PM
This is treating you like a complete BitTorrent newbie, which you may or may not be. Sorry for the sterile nature of the stuff below!

A.) Are you behind a firewall (hardware or software)? Blocked firewall ports can severly impact your BT download speed. The outside world must have direct access to your computer on ports 6881-6890, and if possible, up to 6999. This is so that the information you share can be downloaded to others. If you are behind a firewall, you should "Port Forward" (external firewall) or "unblock" (software) that range of ports to your PC. There are tons of BitTorrent/Firewall resources on the 'net if this is causing you grief. Note that many 3rd party cablemodem *routers* from Linksys and DLink also contain firewalls and systems which need to be properly configured before torrents can work.

B.) Are you behind an academic firewall? Many colleges and universities are now blocking or throttling Torrent traffic due to the high volume of copyrighted materials transferred with it. If not blocked outright, they will severly slow down the transfer to make it unpleasant.

C.) Do you have your upload speed throttled? Slowing your upload speed will cause the BitTorrent program to slow down your download. I typically set my uploads to 1/2 my upload bandwidth - in my case, that's 15 kbps. Today, I have it maxed out at 30 so the DVD can get out as fast as possible.

D.) You ARE on a broadband connection, right? Modem users will *not* want to participate, as it is a 4.3+ GB download.

If you've answered no to everything but (D), then the answer is yeah - you have to be patient.

I strongly suspect some sort of firewall or port blocking issue in your case.

-Greg

"RE: Boston City Hall Plaza DVD (v2.0) Available"
Posted by siwelwerd on Feb-04-04 at 08:09 PM
>A.) Are you behind a firewall
First thing I tried. Google is my friend . Altering my firewall produced no detectable results

>B.) Are you behind an academic
>firewall?
Wouldn't surprise me. However, I never experienced a real problem with the ACL mpeg...though that could be because it is a fraction of the file size.

>C.) Do you have your upload
>speed throttled?
Nope

>D.) You ARE on a broadband
>connection, right?
Of course.


Hopefully it will improve...otherwise in another 1400 hours (roughly 2 months) I'll have my DVD.

Thanks to all the contributors and to Greg for putting it all together.

"RE: Boston City Hall Plaza DVD (v2.0) Available"
Posted by gustergerm on Feb-04-04 at 07:54 PM
Ok all - I found a pretty good bug on my master of the DVD. Whenever the background sound for a menu ends, the DVD "stops" and returns you to the bluescreen that you would see if you turned your player on.

It can be easily worked around by choosing something before the sound ends, but people might want to listen to those clips.

QUESTION: Should I continue the torrent as is, allowing the buggy version out, or should I halt it and remaster? (It will be fixed for B&P participants)

The sooner you answer the better, so action can be taken (or not taken)

-Greg Germ

"RE: Boston City Hall Plaza DVD (v2.0) Available"
Posted by siwelwerd on Feb-04-04 at 08:11 PM
>Whenever
>the background sound for a
>menu ends, the DVD "stops"
>and returns you to the
>bluescreen that you would see
>if you turned your player
>on.

Bug? I think not. Built in screensaver

"RE: Boston City Hall Plaza DVD (v2.0) Available"
Posted by The Demon on Feb-04-04 at 08:11 PM
Since I've watched the original a bunch of times and never noticed (and because others haven't said anything) I think it's fair to say it's not a huge issue. Keep seeding.
"RE: Boston City Hall Plaza DVD (v2.0) Available"
Posted by gustergerm on Feb-04-04 at 08:20 PM
It's only a problem on the new one.
"RE: Boston City Hall Plaza DVD (v2.0) Available"
Posted by gustergerm on Feb-04-04 at 08:40 PM
I have made a request that the torrent be stopped. I uncovered additional errors above and beyond the original one.

I will post a new thread to the forums here when the torrent is restarted...

B&P requests can continue, as I'll send out the fixed version. My apologies for the screw-up!

-Greg

"RE: Boston City Hall Plaza DVD (v2.0) Available"
Posted by LaurenH on Feb-06-04 at 11:06 PM
trying not to sound like a brown noser..but this is really nice of you to open up again for those of us who missed it! thanks!
"RE: Boston City Hall Plaza DVD (v2.0) Available"
Posted by gustergerm on Feb-07-04 at 10:56 AM
BLANKS AND POSTAGE CLOSED:
The B&P is now closed, and I am no longer accepting new entries for the City Hall Plaza DVD. I have close to 35 folks participating, and I don't want to be tied up with the 60-70 I had last time in the fall.

I have NOT sent out confirmation emails yet - those who are going to be participating will receive one from me sometime this weekend.

BITTORRENT BACK UP:
The BitTorrent download has restarted anew - a new .torrent was created and the FIXED disc is being sent out now. Find out more about the download here.
http://members.cox.net/gustergerm

Enjoy!
-Germ

"RE: Boston City Hall Plaza DVD (v2.0) Available"
Posted by VetoileV on Feb-08-04 at 12:05 PM
Quick question:
I'm not to good at all the technical stuff in the bittorrent download, but i pretty much understand what's going on. I've been trying to get the boston show on and off for about a day now. The difference I've noticed with this and the ACL show I got last time is that this time there are no seeds. I'm not sure what this means (completely downloaded versions, I think, right?). Is this slowing down my process? Is there anything I can do to speed it up? It seems to be taking its time in getting this show...

thanks!
Sasha

"RE: Boston City Hall Plaza DVD (v2.0) Available"
Posted by gustergerm on Feb-08-04 at 12:36 PM
LAST EDITED ON Feb-08-04 AT 12:38 PM (EST)

Well, the BIGGEST number to watch for are "Distributed Copies". So long as that is 1.0 or higher, there is enough information out on the Torrent to complete the files.

I started the Torrent in what they call "Super-Seed" mode on two computers, which for some reason, does NOT show up as a seed. But it does trick the computers into sending the most rare data around faster, which increases the speed of the distribution. (It should only be used if you are the original seeder)

I am now showing at least 4.5 "distributed copies", and I still have my two original seeds online. What could slow it down would be folks throttling back their upload speeds, or just the sheer number of people in the torrent. As more people get more of the show, the speeds usually increase. Right now, most people only have about 25% of it downloaded.

FIrewalling and academic network chokes often slow these things down, but it will get to you! Transfer speeds will vary with time, but I've often seen it build slowly. Leave yourself connected for as long as you can each time.

-Greg

"RE: Boston City Hall Plaza DVD (v2.0) Available"
Posted by fearlessfitz on Feb-09-04 at 00:40 AM
LAST EDITED ON Feb-09-04 AT 00:41 AM (EST)

Fantastic work!

I was worried about the camera work as it started. I film hockey games, so I get very down when I shake the camera at a crucial moment, but after watching this thing a second time, it is remarkable. I have renewed admiration for Dave's recording acumen after watching it matched up with the video. I'm already over 1:1, but I'll let it go most of the week to help this spread.

My only problem is that I can't burn this at the moment. I have a Gateway desktop and my DVD burner is on my Mac, and my brand new external hard drive is firewire only, which isn't on my GW. Of course my GW is a micro tower so all the readily available cards won't fit. Crud

"RE: Boston City Hall Plaza DVD (v2.0) Available"
Posted by siwelwerd on Feb-17-04 at 05:25 PM
Don't want to be selfish, but if it doesn't hurt anybody, would you mind starting your torrent back up so the two people still downloading can get it a bit faster? I got 1/3 of it over the last week or so, but I don't think it will ever finish unless more than 2 other people are connected. I started it last Monday but I'm pretty sure my school has a choke on the bit torrent bandwidth due to its high useage for unlicensed software, otherwise it would have been long done by now.
"RE: Boston City Hall Plaza DVD (v2.0) Available"
Posted by gustergerm on Feb-17-04 at 06:38 PM
I've got my "work" seed working 24/7 on it, so I'll keep that going. (Appx 25kbps evenings, and I throttle it down to 5-10kbps during the day to keep my ass out of trouble)

My home torrent is off and on depending on the current load, but I'll have that one contributing as well.

I think the majority of the torrent'ers were NOT from here or the mail list - they were Sharing The Groovers just fetching some wholesome Guster DVD goodness.

BUT! If you have it, share it, folks. Help us out.
-Greg

"RE: Boston City Hall Plaza DVD (v2.0) Available"
Posted by siwelwerd on Feb-17-04 at 08:29 PM
Thanks! It's greatly appreciated by those of us less fortunate in torrenting ability.
"RE: Boston City Hall Plaza DVD (v2.0) Available"
Posted by Oysterhead00 on Mar-01-04 at 08:09 AM
OK, I finally finished downloading the whole show and extras via Bit Torrent and am TRYING to burn the show to DVD+R. I've read all the FAQs I could get my hands on and have tried many different types of software where you convert the VOBs and BUPs to a single ISO and burn it (that will not play in my DVD players, but will play on the PC with Windows Media Player but without working menus), programs that take the files and burn a DVD (have all the chapters, but get a 'CL 13 00' error each time I try it), and burning to a virtual drive on my PC (which works fine, but cannot get it to DVD).

Anybody know of a "Complete Idiot's Guide to burning a DVD" that I can check out to try to figure this out? If I can get it working I will offer a bunch of B+Ps for people....it took me like a week to download (never got above 10k though I can download from etree at 370k most of the time) so I want to spread it around so fewer people have to deal with that.

Thanks,
Dave

"RE: Boston City Hall Plaza DVD (v2.0) Available"
Posted by gustergerm on Mar-01-04 at 09:21 AM
>have tried many different types of software where you convert the VOBs and BUPs to a single ISO and burn it (that will not play in my DVD players, but will play on the PC with Windows Media Player but without working menus)

* I haven't heard of these programs... I'm not sure why someone would want to use them, especially given that if you use a DVD-Reader in your system, you might as well get the menu structures.

* Which program are you using to try to burn the disc to DVD (getting the CL 13 00 error)? I've never seen that error before. You've probably seen the other thread, but I can vouch for it working properly with Nero. If the torrent completed sucessfully, the DVD files were received without error - this isn't to say that somehow they got corrupt on your system, but they transmitted OK. That error looks like a burner write error - are you using the same discs you always used to, or are you using a new brand? Are you getting buffer underruns? All sorts of things to look at. (I looked up CL 13 00 on the net and got nothing) If your burner has the capability, try it on a DVD-/+RW so you don't spoil the write-once discs. If that's what you're doing, it may be worth "sacrificing" one write-once disc to see if it's the RW media causing the issue.

>..it took me like a week to download (never got above 10k though I can download from etree at 370k most of the time)

* You can thank the freeloaders who downloaded it from Torrent and then closed down without sharing the wealth with others. Because Torrents depend on users helping each other out, as people left, speeds went down. I had my Torrent window open since the beginning, and towards the end I was sometimes the only one on. Now that it's been just about a month, I've turned down my windows for good.

Thanks to all involved, the Torrent distributed 383 GIGABYTES of information over the past month. 81 users downloaded the complete disc. And out of those 81 users, not one remains to help out the torrent.

Alas - the time has come to sunset the torrent. It's now up to the users and others out there to maintain it.

-Germ

"RE: Boston City Hall Plaza DVD (v2.0) Available"
Posted by siwelwerd on Mar-01-04 at 11:34 AM
>I had my Torrent window
>open since the beginning, and
>towards the end I was
>sometimes the only one on.
>Now that it's been just
>about a month, I've turned
>down my windows for good.

*Ahem* I've had mine up essentially every minute my computer's been on since then. I'm just up to 72% now (*insert favorite curse towards academic firewall*)...I was kind of hoping to get something out of this rather than the warm fuzzy feeling from donating my bandwidth to help spread the torrent.

"RE: Boston City Hall Plaza DVD (v2.0) Available"
Posted by Oysterhead00 on Mar-01-04 at 12:07 PM
If you don't want to wait for the download to finish, email me at Oysterhead00@hotmail.com and I can mail you a DVD with files on it as data...exactly what you'd get from the torrent anyway. Just send me your address and I'll get it in the mail tomorrow on my dime so long as you agree to offer up some B+Ps for it when you get it all set up.

You should then be able to copy the files into the folder, re-open your BT window and hopefully be a seed then for others trying to download it.

Thanks,
Dave

"RE: Boston City Hall Plaza DVD (v2.0) Available"
Posted by siwelwerd on Mar-01-04 at 01:32 PM
Thanks for the offer, but I wouldn't be able to hold up my end of the bargain. Unfortunately my computer here at school doesn't have a DVD burner and I was hoping (since I had a bunch of free hard drive space on my laptop) to take my laptop home with the downloaded files and burn myself the dvd there (where I can also steal someone else's blank DVD-R so I don't have to spend the $$ on it myself). Once again, thanks for your generosity.
"RE: Boston City Hall Plaza DVD (v2.0) Available"
Posted by gustergerm on Mar-01-04 at 12:21 PM
That was your connection I disco'ed?

Oh ok fine. (insert fake begrudging attitude here, because it's really no problem) ...

Window going up. What's your max download, Swiv? That way I an tweak my max upload to match, allowing me to sacrifice a minimal amount of bandwidth for your torrenting pleasure!

Germ

"RE: Boston City Hall Plaza DVD (v2.0) Available"
Posted by siwelwerd on Mar-01-04 at 01:27 PM
Yup, if its 130.160.something . I don't think I've gotten better than 10 kbps, though normally 5 is tops. Thanks for your efforts...72.9% and counting.
"RE: Boston City Hall Plaza DVD (v2.0) Available"
Posted by Oysterhead00 on Mar-01-04 at 03:25 PM
I'll open my torrent window again around 5pm EST when I get home tonight...assuming you are using the torrent file from Sharing the Groove we should be on the same tracker and my 20kbps upload should help a bit

Totally off topic but I hear that Road Runner caps uploads at about 20kB...which usually seems to be about right, but the other day I was downloading 3 little torrents at the same time and two were uploading at between 15-25kB and the other at around 7kB...is there anyway to maximize my upload speed to help you out? I have everything set to 0 which should mean no limits, but I find it funny that I am capped at a 20kB upload but can reach that limit on several different windows concurrently. Hmmm, odd.

Anyway, I'm no rocket surgeon or brain scientist so if anybody can tell me a way to help I'll be glad to try.

"RE: Boston City Hall Plaza DVD (v2.0) Available"
Posted by Oysterhead00 on Mar-01-04 at 12:03 PM
Thanks for the super fast reply...yeah, when I was downloading much of the time it was just you, the one seed. I've had my window open for like 3 days until yesterday when I finally closed it to try to burn the DVD and will open my window back up pretty soon...what the hell, I work all day and have a cable modem so I might as well get my money's worth of my bandwidth Unfortunately roadrunner caps my uploads at about 20k, but it's definately better than nothing.

I'm at work so I'll have to see what programs I used, but I tried dragging and dropping the files onto a DVD and that didn't work. So then I tried burning them with Nero and Roxio EZCD Creator 6.0. Then I read somewhere about these different applications so I went to Download.com and downloaded pretty much every DVD burning Application to try...nothing worked. After making like 3 coasters I finally used my brain and moved onto a DVD+RW.

I have an A Perfect Circle show too that I've tried to put on DVD+R and have had the same problems, but it actually plays fine with chapters and everything on my computer. I'm not sure what the problem is as I've made DVDs from Camcorder and MPEG sources that have played FINE on my DVD player (and even XBox which is pretty suprising).

Since you seemed suprised that I'd use any of these apps, I'd assume that simply burning them to a DVD works for most people. I'll continue my experimenting and HOPEFULLY find a succesful way to burn the show and then I'll offer up some B+P deals here.

Thanks,
Dave

"RE: Boston City Hall Plaza DVD (v2.0) Available"
Posted by gustergerm on Mar-01-04 at 12:30 PM
The following is probably things you've already done, but for completeness sake, I want to review...

In Nero - Insure you are selecting a DVD-Video disc to burn, and not DVD-Data. Even though there is data onboard in the form of SHN's, it needs to be specified as a DVD-Video. Then you can drag the contents of the VIDEO_TS directory into the companion on the project, as well as drag the "Extras" folder. Lather, rinse, repeat.

In Nero - Create your Video-DVD project, and then perhaps create an IMAGE (ISO) using that project as a source. This *should* work, and it just creates that standard "raw" file with which you can burn. If an image is created with the Video DVD structure, it doesn't need to be burned with that turned on... it's already part of it. That way, you can then burn the ISO image using Nero, EZCDC6, and most other modern burning tools. If it *STILL* fails, then I start suspecting the hardware.

EZCDC6 - Didn't know it even had a DVD-Video burning option.

You've had the same problems with other discs? That to me rules out corrupted source material. There could be something screwy with the way your software is interfacing with the hardware, or something screwy with the hardware itself?! Have you been sucessful with burning a Video DVD yet?

Good luck, let us know how it goes..
-Greg

"RE: Boston City Hall Plaza DVD (v2.0) Available"
Posted by siwelwerd on Mar-07-04 at 07:29 PM
8 posts and approximately 1 month later, I have finally finished the download (Thanks to Greg and the others who collaborated on this project). Currently there is nobody else connected, so if anyone else wants me to keep my window open for them, speak now or forever hold your peace.
"Can you put this on Playstation 2?"
Posted by jayb1 on Mar-15-04 at 02:38 AM
Admittedly I know little about DVD burning (Thanks Greg for steering me towards Nero a week or two back, as that DEFINATELY worked on a convential DVD player, whereas the Roxio program I was using blew completely), so I have to ask, is there any way to get this DVD to work on a mid-generation model PS2? According to the specs in the config menus, my PS2 has a version 1.30 DVD player, which according to my research is borderline, meaning the DVD material itself has to be of higher quality (Which it appears to be, as the disc looks awesome on the DVD players back at my parent's house), and it has to be on a high quality DVD disc (I'd read TDK works well, but my copy definately doesn't play in my PS2).

If anyone has anything to tell me on this subject, I'd appreciate it. Nero copies allow me to play it in DVD players, but I have read that Nero copies are notorious for not working in PS2's, but that's just a something I read while trying to seek info on this very subject.

If anyone can give me some advice on getting a PS2 friendly copy, I'd greatly appreciate it. That's the only DVD player I have at my house, and it's lack of functionality in this regard is really making me want to break it.

"RE: Can you put this on Playstation 2?"
Posted by gustergerm on Mar-15-04 at 09:24 AM
LAST EDITED ON Mar-15-04 AT 09:27 AM (EST)

I think you answered your own question there...

The PS2 has the "bonus" functionality of playing DVD's (as it's primary function is gaming). The PS2 apparently needs different/better media for movie playback.

I don't see how Nero would be at fault as it simply lays down a disc using DVD standards. Just as Roxio lays down industry standard audio tracks on a audio disc, Nero lays down standard vidoe files for the DVD player. Nero has less to do with the process than, say, the mastering software I used to create the disc. The mastering software is VERY standards based and although anything is possible, I doubt the mastered files would be to blame.

It is possible that the PS2's laser pickup has been engineered in such a way to work poorly with burned media. This would have been done to help prevent copied games from working. Unfortunately Video-DVDs would also be effected (if they use the same laser pickup).

Of course, if it uses two different laser sets (one for gaming and one for video), then I am at a loss, except to say that not all DVD's are created equally. Certain media will have trouble in certain players - especially given that WRITABLE/RE-WRITABLE DVD media was designed *after* the DVD-specifications were created. All it *must* do is play a silver "pressed" DVD, and it satisfies requirements. My girlfriend's DVD player won't play discs I created for her containing queer eye episodes. But they play fine on mine. It's just the nature of the beast.

It may be time to head to the local store to pick up a cheap-o $40-$60 Settop DVD player. Most cheapo's perform QUITE well, and it will also spare your PS2 the added wear-and-tear from playing videos.