The long wait is over. The Toronto Raptors will begin their 2009-2010 season against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Every year I feel ambivalent about the Raps until gameday rolls around. Then I get as excited and filled with optimism as everyone else. There are so many questions surrounding the team this year. Will Hedo be the missing piece? Can Andrea improve on his performance from the second half of last season? Does Triano have what it takes to coach in the NBA? Can Jose stay healthy? Will Bosh shed all doubts about him being a franchise player?
So many questions but none of them will be answered tonight. Enjoy the game everybody.
Torrent Link
Rapidshare Link
NZB
You might notice a change tonight. 
Screenshots (click for full size):
See next page for highlights and interviews
October 28th, 2009 on 10:47 am
Thank you !
Go Raptors !
October 28th, 2009 on 5:57 pm
I saw the Cavaliers first match. This is gonna be a hard opening night
October 28th, 2009 on 6:18 pm
Regardless of last night’s outcome, I don’t think many fans are expecting the Raps to win tonight. If they do, it’ll be a very pleasant surprise.
If there are any live streams out there, feel free to post them in the comments.
October 29th, 2009 on 11:10 am
Thanks for the service, raptormage. I hope not to need it much, but nice to know it’s there.
October 29th, 2009 on 2:47 pm
Even HD? Thanks for your effort raptormage, i had no other chance to watch the game from here Hungary. It was a great home opener, I was yelling Defense with the ACC in the last minutes.
October 29th, 2009 on 4:44 pm
Outstanding quality!! Brand new HD equipment?
Thanks so much, raptormage, for all these years of Raptors caps.
October 29th, 2009 on 5:19 pm
I’m using the HDPVR this year. So far so good.
October 30th, 2009 on 6:00 am
Mage. I appreciate the work so much. I have a question though about the new HD format. I used the KM Player that you recommended. I also tried Windows Media Theater and VLC. But I could only get a watchable video from the KM player. And it played at 60% speed. I watched a two hour game,in three hours.
Is it that my computer is too slow, or is there a setting I should adjust in order to get a clear (non-choppy) feed? The KM video was not choppy, but it was like watching instant reply for the whole game….Help me Obi Wan, you’re my only hope.
October 30th, 2009 on 7:22 am
OK, I do understand this could be of little interest but this new semi-HD format is just a little too much for an atom processor to handle.
It’s kind of playable but with frequent hiccups and some freezing.
Maybe it’s not just me watching raptormage’s caps on a netbook…
The two bad consequences of HD are then: it’s going to take more to download a full game (it’s a couple of GB now) and I cannot use my netbook.
HD is nice, but this looks like a high price for it.
Ciao,
Davide.
October 30th, 2009 on 8:55 am
therapture, please post your system specs.
Davide Rossi, you’ll find many examples of people playing HD files on netbooks using CoreAVC here.
October 30th, 2009 on 9:32 am
Operating System System Model
Windows XP Professional Service Pack 3 (build 2600)
Install Language: English (United States)
System Locale: English (United States) Dell Computer Corporation Dimension 4300
System Service Tag: CG5H31X (support for this PC)
Chassis Serial Number: CG5H31X
Enclosure Type: Desktop
Processor a Main Circuit Board b
1.60 gigahertz Intel Pentium 4
8 kilobyte primary memory cache
256 kilobyte secondary memory cache
Not hyper-threaded Board: Dell Computer Corporation Dimension 4300
Bus Clock: 100 megahertz
BIOS: Dell Computer Corporation A04 12/07/2001
Drives Memory Modules c,d
20.54 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
5.48 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space
_NEC NR-7900A [CD-ROM drive]
3.5″ format removeable media [Floppy drive]
MAXTOR 6L020J1 [Hard drive] (20.55 GB) — drive 0, s/n 661203947108, rev A93.0500, SMART Status: Healthy 384 Megabytes Usable Installed Memory
Slot ‘DIMM_A’ has 256 MB
Slot ‘DIMM_B’ has 128 MB
Local Drive Volumes
c: (NTFS on drive 0) 20.54 GB 5.48 GB free
Network Drives
None detected
It’s old. But this is the first time I haven’t been able to handle the video. What’s the verdict?
October 30th, 2009 on 10:33 am
It’s iffy but I think you should try CoreAVC like I suggested to Davide.
October 30th, 2009 on 10:58 am
Is that a codec or a program to be purchased and installed? BTW, the link for DONATE doesn’t seem to be working.
October 30th, 2009 on 11:38 am
It’s a decoder, I’m sure you can find it on the net to try out and buy if it works well for you.
The problem with the donate button looks like it’s an issue with IE. It works with Firefox and Chrome. I’ll look into it. You could always use my email address raptormage@gmail.com if you’re having trouble with the link.
Update: The link should be working now. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.
October 30th, 2009 on 5:56 pm
Thanks mage, I’m well aware of CoreAVC, problem is I’m on linux (there are weird hacks to have CoreAVC working on linux, maybe I’ll give those a try).
That said I’m not asking for a different format just to please atom users. But maybe a little slower bitrate could be enough. I’ll try a couple of transcodings to see if there are possible improvements. Of course I have no idea about what can be configured on the hauppauge product.
October 30th, 2009 on 9:59 pm
I installed a copy of COREavc, but it seems to be a bit beyond me. I installed it, but I am not sure if thats all I am required to do. After installing, there didn’t seem to be anything to start before I played the video. I tried the game again in VLC and it was still choppy and slowed down. I know this isn’t your problem, and that I shouldn’t be bothering the person already making such efforts. I just have a bad feeling I am in for a slow motion season.
October 31st, 2009 on 5:20 am
Slow motion season
October 31st, 2009 on 6:05 am
Maybe i’m not gonna help you at all, but…
I recommend you WD TV HD (Western Digital) to enjoy HD video.
It has no Hard Disk, soit will turn any device in a HD player!
It’s a great piece of hardware, in Italy you can findi it for 80-90 €.
Check it out!
Italian
http://www.wdc.com/it/products/products.asp?driveid=572
English
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=572
And for few more bucks you can buy the new “Live” version, wich add streaming capabilities and support DTS. Moreover its able to handle a much higher ref frame videos.
Italian
http://www.wdc.com/it/products/Products.asp?DriveID=735
English
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=735
Christmas is near, and WD TV is really well worth it!
Speakin about the match: WOW! Andrea domina!
October 31st, 2009 on 7:25 am
@therapture: Just a couple more steps. Download MPC HC (link in video_faq.txt within the torrent) and install that. Start the program and go to View > Options > Internal Filters. Uncheck both H264 boxes in the Transform Filters windows. Close MPC HC and open it again and try playing the files.
@Davide Rossi: Have you tried playing the files with XBMC? I really want this to work for you because I’m considering buying an Atom-based netbook.
October 31st, 2009 on 8:33 am
@raptormage: I’m using VLC, not XMBC. As far as I know, however, both use decoders based on ffmpeg for AVC streams so I do not expect any relevant difference in speed between the two.
October 31st, 2009 on 10:20 am
@Davide Rossi: It’s looking like the single core atom isn’t suited for HD content. Maybe boxee is doing something that VLC isn’t.
Edit: There are also a few reports of success with 720P content with an Atom in this thread.
October 31st, 2009 on 10:34 am
Raptormage, you are so nice. Uploads, guidance, your karma must be phenomenal. The video worked perfectly. Thank you. I will make a donation to your site on my next pay day. Thanks again.
October 31st, 2009 on 10:46 am
@therapture: I’m glad to know you’ll be able to watch all the games this year.