Hey guys,

If you've seen the thread created by @Fattony12000 (link), then you may have an idea of what this post is about.

In short, we're thinking of creating and putting up videos discussing the GW2 beta(s) featuring members of our community. These would include gameplay videos, impressions videos and perhaps just some of us sitting around chatting about GW2 and other random junk.

In preparation for this initiative, myself and @Tarkhein got together and made a pilot in which we discuss our plans for the beta and figure out how to make things go. Although I have posted this elsewhere, it's rather important that I get feedback before the event starts, and as such I am creating this thread.

So here's me and @Tarkhein having a short chat about this BWE to test our end of things. We recorded on the mics we currently own, using Skype for Tarkhein's side of things and me using a personal recording for mine then superimposing the audio streams.

It was originally intended to be posted on Tarkhein's youtube channel which is why he intros then I promptly take over : P

I wouldn't mind hearing feedback about audio quality, etc - and yes, I know half of one of my email addresses is visible, that is why I've kept the video unlisted.

So yes, to summarise, please - if you can spare the time - give feedback on;

• What you can tell of the video quality (it's stationary for most of it, but you can see how the 2 animates)
• Audio quality
• How long do you want impressions videos / general GW2 videos to run?
• Do you hate my voice and never want to hear it again?

Thanks for your time, and it is much appreciated.

Video quality seems good, but it's hard to judge by this video. Audio quality is good enough, Tarkhein's bitrate seems a little low at the start but that improved after 2 minutes or so.

20-30 minutes seems like a good lenght, but could of course be longer depending on the stuff you talk about and how many you are.

And I like your voice, so no problems there!

@selfconfessedcynic: The audio cuts out completely at around 12:01. Is that intentional?

Video quality seems good, but it will be easier to tell once there is more to judge than the menu. I agree Tarkhein's bitrate started out a little poor but it seemed to get better after a few minutes. Yours is fine. As far as length, I think trying to shoot for some canned number isn't generally a great idea. Let things be organic; if the topic lends itself to a longer conversation then just let it flow, if there isn't much to talk about then don't try to pad the length just for the sake of it. Your voice is interesting. Your accent seems to go in and out (from my American perspective) which is unusual to me. Were you born and raised in Australia? At times you almost sound totally American.

Additionally, it's the final countdown.

If you guys are having some audio issues, we've recorded some game footage on bf3 and the vid is picking up the mumble audio, and it sounds purty nifty. So there's that when you get the chance. Seeya tomorrow!

I was able to catch everything y'all said pretty easily until the audio cut. Similar to Subjugation I think that letting a conversation run its course should provide the best results. Anyway, I'm looking forward to the opportunity to chat with some of you guys about the game (when I get a new mic, of course).

Tarkhein sounds louder and clearer than you. Not sure if that's just him speaking louder or if it's a technical thing.

Hmm... Lame.

I'm at work so can't test it out, but no, the audio isn't supposed to cut after 12 mins.

I know the file I have at home works just fine as I re-listened to it last night. I wonder what the issue is...

My thoughts are

• It could be a file format incompatibility between what I re-encoded to and youtube. (On my PC it's h.264 at around 1500 kb/s CBR with 128kb/s 44100, 16bit aac audio - the original is 14 gigs, so I aint uploading that)
• Could be just an issue with the upload
• Have you guys tried out the different quality levels? Is it a problem across all of them?

I would love to know what you guys have tried / found worked when going from the uncompressed file to a compressed version in prep for uploading to youtube. I may try out a different format when I have the chance and see if that works better.

Oh, and I'm Indian born in India, was there till I was about 2.5 and have been here since, but I definitely don't have a generic Australian accent and don't know where mine came from : )

Alot of the influences in my life have been american (people I've known, listened to or watched) - but *shrug*

As long as it isn't detestable, right? : )

ED:

Ok, snuck around and tested it out, it's fucked across all youtube versions

I'll have another look at the source tonight and see if I can figure wtf is up and see if I can get it working.

Switching quality level didn't help. I don't see no reason why it should fail with your settings, so I guess it was just some rendering error.

*swapped out video for properly-working version which has all 20ish mins of audio*

I just changed a couple of settings, re-transcoded and re-uploaded.