In the Name of The Pharaoh – Japanese Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters Episodes – Raw and Subbed

In part 1, I wrote about Yu-Gi-Oh: The Abridged Series’ use of Blip.tv for hosting its iTunes feed and as another official source for streaming the videos. Let’s now look at what’s available for direct download from Blip.tv.

The YGO: TAS videos uploaded to Blip.tv can be downloaded in four formats:

• the original video source, which is a WMV/AVI file for almost all of the videos,
• Apple-friendly M4V, which is the exact same file that you get when you subscribe to the iTunes feed,
• Flash Video FLV, which is what gets streamed on Blip.tv’s video player,
• and MP3 (audio only).

I’m already liking Blip.tv a lot more than Revver, which only provided MOVs for download.

I’ve decided to add links for downloading the WMV/AVI and M4V videos to my YGO: TAS downloads index, breathing new life into that dying page. I’ve left out links for the Flash Videos, since there really isn’t any reason to save those if they can simply be streamed right from their player, as well as links for the MP3s, since YGO: TAS is best enjoyed with both the visual and auditory systems simultaneously stimulated. :)

You may recall that the WMV/AVI files were originally made available only via BitTorrent. I had previously collected all of those videos and uploaded them onto MegaUpload for anyone who didn’t want to use the torrents. Now that they are all on Blip.tv for direct download, my MegaUpload links are obsolete and have been replaced with the Blip.tv links. The only videos currently not available on Blip.tv that are still obtainable from the torrents are “Without Yugi” (Kroze has mentioned that there have been some problems encoding and converting that file) and “The Final Abridged Video Ever.” My MegaUpload links for both of those videos will remain for now.

In short, check out the updated YGO: TAS downloads index! I had to change the layout of the page using tables, just like I did to my streaming YGO: TAS index, so if anything looks funny or broken, please let me know!

And Merry Slavemas, everybody! Remember, a slave is for life — not just for Slavemas!

At the end of his thank-you video, Little Kuriboh briefly mentioned that the Yu-Gi-Oh: The Abridged Series episodes are now back on iTunes. As later brought up on Facebook, a surge of downloads just a few hours after those videos were introduced put YGO: TAS at top of the iTunes podcast rankings. Wow! So, what’s new with the YGO: TAS podcast?

The old, defunct iTunes feed got its content from the YGO: TAS Revver account. Videos uploaded to Revver were converted into iTunes-friendly MOV files, whose links I collected on my YGO: TAS downloads page. As you’ve probably noticed, the Revver account hasn’t been updated for quite some time now.

The new iTunes feed pulls its videos from YGO: TAS’ recently-created Blip.tv account at: http://yu-gi-ohabridged.blip.tv/

It’s worth noting that you do not need iTunes to access the YGO: TAS podcast feed, a useful fact if iTunes isn’t available in your country, or if you want to use some other podcasting software (“podcatcher”). You can bypass iTunes and subscribe to the feed directly from Blip.tv using: http://yu-gi-ohabridged.blip.tv/rss/itunes/

So what’s Blip.tv? Like Revver, Blip.tv is a video hosting, streaming, and distribution service. Unlike Revver, along with YouTube and other such websites, Blip.tv only allows web shows to be uploaded, making it the perfect home for YGO: TAS and its podcast feed.

Blip.tv now gives us another website where YGO: TAS videos are officially streamed. As such, I’ve added links to all 62 of the currently available videos to my YGO: TAS streaming videos index, and will continue to update that page as new videos get uploaded.

With CardGamesFTW and the new iTunes feed doing so well, I think it’s a safe bet that YouTube and Blip.tv will continue to house Little Kuriboh’s newest videos, while the Revver and Dailymotion accounts will keep on collecting dust.

Astute viewers who watch the videos on Blip.tv will notice that there are links to directly download those videos right on their individual pages. Gasp! Can it be?! Does this mean my YGO: TAS downloads index will finally be getting an update? Of course it does. Stay tuned for part 2.