[sumo] day 15 video segment

[Barbara]

Final match, final day:

http://www.zyvid.com/temp/day15-asashoryuu-chiyotaikai.avi

So, that does it for this basho.  Overall I've enjoyed the basho. Making 
the complete-basho xvid avi set turned out to be more work than I 
expected.  Even when one has a nice procedure all mapped out that one 
expects to follow in a routine manner, things happen.  The time needed 
to follow the procedure wasn't too bad, but the personal time needed to 
solve problems when something goes wrong can be excessive.  I promised 
to make the set next basho too, so I will do that.  Sets of the disks 
are reserved but if you write email to me by Monday morning, I may be 
able to add 1 or 2 additional recipients.  Anyway, now I have 15 avi 
files, all of them a bit over 1GB in size, that fit onto 4 data-DVD's. 
Even though these are xvid video and only intended for viewing on a 
computer,  there are DVD players now which are "Mpeg 4 capable" (or 
"Divx capable").  With one of them, these disks can be watched directly 
on a TV with good results.  That means that each disk has about 8 hours 
of sumo on it.  You could put the disk in the player in the morning and 
have it playing sumo all day.  Well, you might have to press the "next" 
button to go to the next file, depending on model.  Here's a link to the 
unit I bought, the RJ-1800DVXII, only $75:
http://www.myvirtualzone.com/detail.aspx?ID=13471
That unit has the additional feature that it has a built in card reader. 
You have the option of writing avi files onto a compact flash card or SD 
card and just popping that in.  Or playing files from disk.  Of course 
it plays DVD's and does the other usual tasks as well.

For some reason, NHK did not add an additional half hour to its 
broadcast for the final day.  As a result the first two Makuuchi matches 
were not seen.

One thing that saddened me was the look on Baruto's face when he 
suffered some losses.  It looks like the other rikishis have studied his 
weak points and come up with effective strategies that prevent him from 
taking advantage of his size and strength.  He's realizing now that 
things are going to get hard and that his natural advantages aren't 
enough to carry him any further.

I really enjoyed the use of the overhead camera on some matches. However 
I think the producer is not sure of when to use that technique still. 
They did choose a good one on day 15 when during one match the gyoji got 
shoved out right in front of the match's loser, so that the winner was 
actually doing a double oshidashi.

On the other hand I thought that the lighting in the Kyushu location was 
more harsh than in Tokyo.  They should take a look at that.

This video segment will be removed sometime Monday morning.
Barbara Murasakihana