The Energon Pub

UPDATED (2010-03-15): http://www.seibertron.com/cartoons/series.php

For the past 5 years, I've been on a quest on-and-off to figure out a better way to do the screen captures. The program that I used to use only allowed me to take "high quality" images at 320x240 while video was playing. I knew there had to be a better way to do screen captures. I also knew that it would take me just as long to do screen caps at 320x240 as it would to take larger screen caps. So, I put the screen cap project on hold until I figured out a better way to do it. I even bought a $150 device from Pinnacle last year in hopes that it would take better screen caps, which it didn't (it was a giant pain in the ass and would only take marginally larger images - so I returned it and continued looking for a better way to do screen caps.

Lo and behold two days ago, I discovered a way to do much larger screen caps ... as in 1400x1050 instead of 320x240. The images are almost too large, but that's fine, they'll be reduced in size for the site's galleries. So without further ado, here's a preview from 8 episodes that were screen captures WHILE I SLEPT last night. Gotta love stuff getting done while you're sleeping.

Please note that the images below link to the full 1400x1050 image. Screep caps will be returning ... in a big way!

Nice!

Good to see screen captures again. I miss those.

This is EPIC! Especially with Season 3 of Animated starting in two weeks.

Excellent

Fender Bender wrote:This is EPIC! Especially with Season 3 of Animated starting in two weeks.

Now to see if I can get together the galleries for TFA before it launches in 10 days. Maybe at least some of them. Hm ...

Now that is sweet. Thats also the most Ive ever seen of an Animated episode.

Wow, those are some clean captures too.

Wonder how many poor souls will be tracking down DVD's of older series once they see the cap galleries?

i_amtrunks wrote:Wow, those are some clean captures too.

Wonder how many poor souls will be tracking down DVD's of older series once they see the cap galleries?

Hopefully a lot. I kind of started to lose interest in doing the screen caps since I stopped about 5 years ago. When I started this site, screencaps were really the only way to go if you wanted to see images from an episode. Since I started the site, bandwidth has increased greatly with our connections and little things like YouTube changed the way we use the internet. Now you can just go watch the episode if you want on a myriad of services such as YouTube. So I kind of shelved the whole screen caps thing because of that. But now that I have a way to present large high quality images, I think there's a value in that which I'm going to bring back to the site.

Couldn't agree more Ryan.

Youtube and the ilk are fine for quick checks and watching episodes at work, but the quality on most of the videos is terrible. Nothing compares to having the proper DVD versions of shows.

Since this site is the bane of every transformers fans wallet, you could run with a new tagline when these new screencap galleries go ahead:
"Seibertron.com: Helping boost the Economy since 2001"

Very, very nice...

And TRUNKS... ROTF:lol:

Wow. It's almost been a year since I started trying to do screen caps again and I was never able to get back to them. Hmm ... how in the world am I going to be able to do these?

Seibertron wrote:Wow. It's almost been a year since I started trying to do screen caps again and I was never able to get back to them. Hmm ... how in the world am I going to be able to do these?

Delegate responsibilities.

Definitely got my hands full this week.

Toy Fair
Galleries of Human Alliance Mudflap, Chromia, and Simmons
Galleries of TFA Cybertron Mode Ratchet and Arcee
Finishing up galleries of Legends Class figures
Working on galleries of FAB Arcee, Nightblade Sideswipe and Power Armor Optimus Prime
Working on new fan website "network"

And on top of all of that, I figured out how I want the screen captures done ... I've screen captured over 100 episodes this past week with a fairly automated process that seems to be pretty damn good (not perfect though, still some blurry shots and duplicate shots here and there but overall pretty awesome)!!!

I'll post a few previews throughout this weekend.

Wow, sounds like a full plate, my friend.

Regarding the new fansite network, did you set up any rough timeline on it or are you just playing it by ear? I'd love the chance to work with the G.I. Joe site. I'm not a tech expert but my Joe fandom and knowledge are about even with my Transformers fandom and knowledge so I have a decent grip on that general fanbase, and a few suggestions for whenever you are ready to do that.

Delicon wrote:Wow, sounds like a full plate, my friend.

Regarding the new fansite network, did you set up any rough timeline on it or are you just playing it by ear? I'd love the chance to work with the G.I. Joe site. I'm not a tech expert but my Joe fandom and knowledge are about even with my Transformers fandom and knowledge so I have a decent grip on that general fanbase, and a few suggestions for whenever you are ready to do that.

The Fansite network is going to be a ways off yet. Will probably start with a forum and then build other sections as we go.

And here's a few samples of the 6,500+ screen caps from the animated Transformers Movie from 1986 ...

And a few from G1 Season 1 and/or 2 ...

Reminds me how much I love the cartoons of old.

I have a lot on DVD, but it was also cool to see RID.

Need to buy Metrodome(?) versions.

tigertracks 24 wrote:Reminds me how much I love the cartoons of old.

I have a lot on DVD, but it was also cool to see RID.

Need to buy Metrodome(?) versions.

I didn't really like RID while it was airing but I really grew to appreciate that series after the whole Unicron Trilogy mess. RID was just a fun, lighthearted series. You can't take it too seriously. For the most part, the artwork was pretty top notch as well throughout the series.

I finished the first 65 episodes of G1 last night. I've got 36 out of 39 episodes completed for RID, and I think TFA Season 1 and 2 is only 6 episodes away from being completed. I think after I finish TFA and RID that I'll start working on getting the images ready for the site and uploaded to the proper directories so that I can start working on the programming for the new screen captures.

And here's a special surprise that you guys will be getting as well later down the road ...

Have never watched Beast Wars the II or Beast Wars Neo. Be fun to see some screen caps on the site.

Seibertron-sama! How much of BWII and Neo do you own? Are these the Laserdisc versions?

Sabrblade wrote::shock: Seibertron-sama! How much of BWII and Neo do you own? Are these the Laserdisc versions?

They're AVI files ... of which I have all of them. I wasn't aware that there were Laserdisc versions.

Seibertron wrote:I didn't really like RID while it was airing but I really grew to appreciate that series after the whole Unicron Trilogy mess.

That's really giving the UT more praise than it deserves. RID was a far superior production. And you would have figured it would have gotten an official NA release, considering the majority of the rest of the NA released TF shows have gotten released over here in one form or another.

Seibertron wrote:I wasn't aware that there were Laserdisc versions.

I don't think there are Laserdisc versions of any TF series. I think Sabrblade is shocked at the decent quality of the caps.

And I find it hard to disagree. Damn, those look awesome-o.

Darth Bombshell wrote:

Seibertron wrote:I didn't really like RID while it was airing but I really grew to appreciate that series after the whole Unicron Trilogy mess.

That's really giving the UT more praise than it deserves. RID was a far superior production. And you would have figured it would have gotten an official NA release, considering the majority of the rest of the NA released TF shows have gotten released over here in one form or another.

Seibertron wrote:I wasn't aware that there were Laserdisc versions.

I don't think there are Laserdisc versions of any TF series. I think Sabrblade is shocked at the decent quality of the caps.

And I find it hard to disagree. Damn, those look awesome-o.

All of G1 was released on Laser Disc in Japan and I think the Takara exclusive series were as well, at least Headmasters was (can't remember if Victory, Masterforce and Zone were).

Beast Wars was also released on laser disc in Japan