Saturday, July 7, 2012

EVO 2012 LIVE

If you're a hardcore Street Fighter fan (such as myself), you've probably been following EVO 2012. It's that time again where some of the top fighting game players come together for an annual showdown! Yesterday kicked off with Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition (AE) roundups and today mostly consists of Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3 matches. Tomorrow we'll get to see finals in various games including the following:
  • Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition
  • Street Fighter X Tekken
  • Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3
  • Mortal Kombat
  • Soul Calibur V
  • King of Fighters XIII
You can view the tournament live at Gamespot (though you will see some lag from time to time since there are thousands of viewers watching the video simultaneously). Standard viewing resolution for the EVO 2012 LIVE stream supports 240p, 360p, and 480p. Purchasing a ticket for $12 will allow you to watch the stream at 720p and 720p+. Additionally, you can contribute to the chat rooms to cheer on your favorite players or offer your opinions for the live matches.

Don't forget to catch the finals tomorrow! Happy viewing.

Monday, July 2, 2012

VLC Media Player For Android

Many of us with smartphones (such as the Android) sometimes prefer to watch Anime on-the-go. Seeing that Netflix has a limited amount of Anime series (ever since DVD licensing issues came up), we tend to find numerous ways to go about watching our favorite shows. You may find that Crunchyroll's App might be another investment, but it has it's own share of ups and downs as well. At the end of the day, some of us just want to watch Anime on our mobile devices in MKV format. The question is "Are there apps that enable our smartphones to play MKVs at 720p?".

I've been quite happy with MX Player for Android (since it is one of the few apps that can render 720p MKV videos without losing frame-rates or quality). The only issue that still exists is whether your mobile device can support Hardware Acceleration and fast Software Decoding. In this regard, MX Player will handle most of your videos just fine. There is, however, no true mobile app that can handle high resolution MKVs perfectly. The only thing we can do is try out different applications and use one that works well.

The mobile team at VideoLAN has been working on an App for Android for quite some time and it has just been officially released today on the Google App Market (Play Store). If you're interested, you can view the release notes and features from VideoLAN. Currently being at a beta stage, the app does not run flawlessly across devices. Some of you may encounter H.264 issues while some of you with high-end phones will be just fine. Being interested in video performance for a versatile of formats, I will definitely be on the lookout for more of their updates.