crankyman

that have downloadable "clips" or anything? i searched a few newsgroups and can't seem to find anything.

i would *love* to get some of these that aren't available on dvd or tape yet...

spanks,

cranky.

darkside

http://www.mst3kinfo.com/links.html

Has just about every place around.

crankyman

thanks!

darkside

For the remaining Mystery Science Theater 3000 fans out there there is a project going on that is trying to preserve the episodes in a digital format. http://www.mst3kdap.org/ You can get information there on how to download episodes. The episodes are saved in a MPEG4 or Divx format and are about 700 megabytes each. Just thought I would let anyone that is interested know. I have downloaded about ten and the quality is decent. The biggest gem is one of the original KMTA episodes they just posted. You can see Joel's long 80's hair during the intro.

Maximi

I'll just backup what darkside here has posted. The MST3K-DAP is a phenominal undertaking, vowing to keep the spirit of Best Brains' motto "Keep circulating the tapes!" alive in the digital age.

I have all 67 of the DAP's releases, and they are of excellent quality. Each episode is encoded in MSMPEG4v2, not DivX. Their bitrates are also tuned so that each full episode exactly fits on one 700MB CD. Also, so as not to deny Best Brains or Rhino any profits, no commercially available releases are made available for download, so don't come looking for Mitchell or Manos, as you can grab those on VHS, and soon, DVD. In fact, most of us already own all the VHS releases.

But, come and check out mst3kdap.org and see what you find. For those MST3K fans still lurking out there, this will be a godsend, just like it was to me. And darkside's right: Joel looks pretty damn funky with his long hair. Dirty, dirty hippy.

DJLinus

WOW!!!!!!!! Thanks for sharing this.

Must...buy...more...CD-Rs...

I have a ton of episodes on VHS that I taped off of Comedy Central (including some of the KMTA ones), but they are of varying quality. I'll explore the site more later on, but I hope they have "The Starfighters" and "Danger! Death Ray."

Man, this rocks. Cool beans.

darkside

Sorry about confusing the format. I can't remember the differences in MPEG4v2 and all the rest. You are right they are all MPEG4v2. Anyway they all look good enough to watch and enjoy and thats what is important. BTW I use the Tsunami MPEG encoder 12a to encode them to VCDs, so I can watch them on my TV. I lose a little of the image quality that way, but just having Sandy Frank classics like Fugitive Alien and Gamera taken apart by Joel and the bots on my TV again is good enough for me.

crankyman

hey!!! how are you??

i haven't been by in a while...but still have quite a few episodes on the old hdd.

i am planning on making vcd's out of the ones i have downloaded (it takes forever to convert 700 meg avi's to mpg's btw...). has anyone done this?? and what is the quality like on these?

thanks for providing this to us. as someone who doesn't have any of my old tapes (thanks ex gf...grrrr) i really appreciate all you guy's efforts!!!


cranky.

Slumbering Fist

Well, great, MST will always live because of the dedication of its fans. Too bad some of us with run down computers cant get this stuff, but at least the rest of you are getting it, providing some cover for the obsolete people. I know this kind of stuff has been brewing, and I have run across mention of people selling vcds, and a plan by many fans to convert their good tapes to DVD and get copies out there. Thank God. Believe me, if I had the resources, I'd be helping out too.

Joxer

Where are the files, I looked all over the website and couldn't find the files, I saw the file sizes on the Master List, but it wouldn't let me download them.

ME

darkside

Check the FAQs on the website. You can go to the IRC and chat with members to find out FTPs that are available to download from (however its tough to actually get into most) or get edonkey (a napster like software) at http://www.edonkey2000.com. I have been getting about 3-4 episodes a day using the edonkey software. All the info is in the FAQ section at their website.

For those wanting to make VCDs out of the avi files dowload Tsunami MPEG 12a from here. http://www.vcdhelper.com/tmpgenc12a.zip
It takes 4 hours to convert them on my PC (1.2 ghz with 384 MB Ram) in slow mode (high quality). The quality is just slightly less than the original file and the sound will be just a bit degraded. However, they still look and sound pretty good and you can watch them on your TV. If you want higher quality you can encode them to SVCDs, but they only look and sound slighty better and it takes 6-7 hours to encode and 3 CDs to hold the episode. Not enough increase in quality for the time IMO.

crankyman

thanks for the links, darkside!!

i'm going to go try edonkey now. but i've had a few probs with tmpgenc converting some of the avi's i've downloaded. mainly, that it tells me that the files i'm trying to convert aren't recognized. have you tried any other progs??

thanks!

cranky.

darkside

I had problems with the newer version of TMPEG working with AVI, but I know the old version 12a that I linked to works with the MST3K avi files, plus it does not expire like the new beta versions. There is also a new guide at the MSTK DAP site for converting to VCD. I have been meaning to check it out and see what they suggest.

Apocrypha

Why oh why does sci fi channel show the same MST3K over and over If I tune in Merlins Shop of Mystical Wonders one more time I am just going to start recording my own new episodes and use my 1 year old son and dog as sidekicks,

yecul

What time is it on?

tor_greg

The ungodly hour of 9am Saturdays.

yecul

Blah, that's what I thought. How terrible. I mean, I'd understand if their other shows and movies were good... but they're not. Stick it on in the afternoon at least...

Static Cling

Thank you, TiVo.

Thrush

It would be even nicer if they showed some of the earlier shows before Joel Hodgeson left. Those were the best.

larryw

They can't do that because of legal reasons.

Static Cling

Can you elaborate a little more?

ellone

I know that they lost the rights to some of the movies that they spoofed.

Plus I don't think the Scifi channel got the rights to show the episodes that were made while the show was on Comedy Central.

Derrich

I still dont get why it was cancelled in the first place. Looking at the sets, the budget must've been non-existant. And the SciFi Channel has a couple million bad movies in the vault just waiting to be spoofed. Seemed like a match made in heaven.
Lets see whats coming on in the next few days:
THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD
ALIEN AVENGERS
THE FLINTSTONES
SCREAMERS
DR. CYCLOPS
THE BRAIN THAT WOULDN'T DIE
HELLBOUND: HELLRAISER 2
NEON MANIACS
I STILL KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER
THE DARK HALF
SHRIEK
THE HORROR OF DRACULA
etc. etc. etc.

D

crankyman

bring me......a sampo!


cranky.

Slumbering Fist

All the Comedy Central era MST3k movies had thier rights expire long ago, and the only people who have picked up the MSTied versions are Rhino who releases them on DVD and vhs... Thats why you wont see MST in syndication, because you have to buy the rights to the MST version, pay the Best Brains for it, as well as gobble up the movie rights from the companies they got the movies from. It becomes too large a hassle.

As far as SciFi Channel repeating a lot of the same episodes, well, once again, a lot of the early SciFi era episodes have had the rights to the movies expire. They usually buy the films as a package deal- so all the films like the Universal International Picture titles (Revenge of the Creature, Deadly Mantis, Mole People, to name a few) have expired and can't be shown anymore.

Its also why every episode ends with "KEEP CIRCULATING THE TAPES", because the Best Brains know that is the only way fans can have copies of most of the shows and distribute them to others who arent so lucky as to have copies or have the show in their area. Personally, I have around 50 (not including Rhino) of the Comedy Central era episodes on tape, and nearly every SciFi episode on tape.