Any old rams games collectors out there?

[Guest]

Ok, i tried to search if this topic has already come up or not, but for some reason the search function on this forum never ever works for me. The drop down box just won't appear. also don't know if its in the wrong place to post this or against the rules altogether but anyway ...

i'm sure some, if not most, of you are familiar with the "tape trading" of older NFL games that in recent years has broadened a bit into the torrent world. Well, I am very much into old St. Louis rams games and have been building a modest little collection of games between the 1995 season (where it all began for me) and the 2006 season (where the games are more easily available)

So basically, i'm after any game between the start of the 95 and start of the 2006 seasons that i don't have already, and would be willing to trade anyone something i have that they don't for something i've got if they need it. We CAN NOT sell them to one another, of course, as the NFL so politely reminds us 3 times throughout every broadcast since VCRs were invented.

I've built my collection through a combination of scouring the torrent world and other tape traders whom i've made deals with. Some games are nearly crystal clear, and others are obviously dubbed from a VCR tape that is .. well, blurry but distinguishible. I'm not really a stickler. My hardrive is just FILLED with the stuff, to be honest. So ... here's a list of what i have.

I just figured it was a shot, seeing as how this is the biggest lump of rams fans anywhere on the internet.


1995 Season
==========
Week 3 at Carolina


1999 Season
==========
Week 1 vs Baltimore
Week 3 vs Atlanta
Week 4 at Cincinatti
Week 5 vs San Francisco
Week 6 at Atlanta
Week 7 vs Cleveland
Week 8 at Tennessee
Week 9 at Detroit
Week 10 vs Carolina
Week 11 at San Francisco
Week 13 at Carolina
Week 15 Vs New York Giants

NFC Divisional vs Minnesota
NFC Champion vs Tampa Bay
Super Bowl vs Tennessee

(* note: im in the process of attaining the missing 4 games of the championship season)

2000 Season
==========
Week 1 vs Denver (MNF)
Week 5 vs San Diego

NFC Wildcard at New Orleans



2001 Season
==========
Week 3 vs Miami
Week 10 at New England
Week 11 vs Tampa Bay

NFC Divisional vs Green Bay
NFC Champion vs Philidelphia
Super Bowl vs New England


2002 Season
==========
Week 3 vs Tampa Bay

[Dwight Frye]

Re: Any old rams games collectors out there?

I have some old L.A. Rams' games. Not even sure what they all are. I know I have the 'mud bowl', and the Seattle game w/ Zorn and Largent where we held them to (I believe) -28 yards offense for the whole game, '79 Super Bowl, a couple from the 80's w/ Dickerson, ..... Don't even know what all. Now I'm gonna go dig thru closets.

I think the only '99 games I have are the NFC Championship and the Super Bowl.

[leadbelly86]

Re: Any old rams games collectors out there?

got the means/know-how to copy em to DVD or you computer?

[Dwight Frye]

Re: Any old rams games collectors out there?

Wow. Found some .... think there's more. Holding in my hand :

1979 Highlights
Week 10 1979
2001 HOF (Slater/Youngblood)
1999 NFC Championship
1977 Playoffs
1979 Super Bowl
America's Game #19 (not sure what this is, but it's obviously Rams related ... or else I wouldn't have it!)

All are on dvd and are of varying quality. No idea how to save to cpu. Ideas?

[leadbelly86]

Re: Any old rams games collectors out there?

First of all, to make just a straight DVD copy the best program you can use is called DVDshrink, which you can find for free.


If you're wanting to get an AVI file of the game which you can share through torrent and/or just have saved on your computer, here is an easy tutorial:

Here's the steps I take to get games from DVD and into you computer

Before I start, here's a list of programs I use:

DVD Decrypter
AutoGK
VirtualDubMod
VLC Player


These are just what I choose to use. There all free and pretty easy to use.

#1. I rip the files to my computer using DVD Decrypter. For the encoding you only need the main movie. (As seen in the picture below)



#2. Next I use a program called AutoGK. Click on open file and find your rip folder and look for the VTS_0#_0.IFO file. This is the info file for the rest of the file. Now you'll see the info:



The important stats are the duration (first circle) and the output size (bottom circle). This is why I watch the disc first. The reason is if there are commercials, which I later edit out, then I would make the output size a little higher so to keep the bitrate at a good size.

If no commercials or anything else to edit out, then it's just a straight convert. For example:

If the game is all on one disc then I'd put the output size at 1400 MBs (1.37 GBs).
If the game is on 2 discs then I'd put the output size at 700 MBs, then the 2 halves would still equal 1.37 GBs once joined.
If the game is on 3 discs then I'd put the output size at 466 MBs.
And so on and so on.

If there are commercials/haltime/etc throughout, then I would add to the output size acordingly. For example:

If the game is all on one disc then I'd put the output size at 1700 MBs and once the editing it done the final size would be smaller while still keeping a good bitrate.
If the game is on 2 discs then I'd put the output size at 850 MBs, then the 2 halves would still equal 1.37 GBs once joined.
If the game is on 3 discs then I'd put the output size at 600 MBs.
And so on and so on.

Once you've done it a few times, it becomes almost natural and also easier to calculate when there say only a few commercials for very little to edit out. So say there was only 4 commercials, you would add as much to the output size as you would for a game full of commercials.

Ok ... so now you have the output size taken care of. There's one more thing that I like to make sure of and that's the resolution. It's very easy to have different resolutions when dealing with multiple discs. What I do is look at the video info. In this picture the resolution is 720x480.



Now press the "Advanced Settings" button.



Click the "Fixed Width" button and use the arrows to change it to 720 (in this example) then click ok. Now it might not always 720. I've had a few with the resolution of 352x272. The reason for the fixed width is so AutoGK doesn't put it to what it "thinks" should be the correct width. Basically it's just easier this way.So now we got the output size & and resolution taken care of. Save it and convert. Depending on your computer it may take awhile. What I like to do is let it convert over night and when it's done, it's shuts down the computer. Then when you wake up you got your converted game and it's ready for editing, if needed.

#3. Now I use VirtualDubMod. If there was no editing need to remove commercials, then I use this program to join the 2 files as one and your done with this program. If there were commercials then I edit them out using this program. I just open it up and hold the ALT button while pressing the right arrow key until I see the commercials start. Then you mark the start of the commercials (Start Point) and the end of them (End Point), then you click File and cut and it's gone. Then I continue until there's no more commercials and I save it.





How To Edit Out Commercials Using VirtualDub(Mod)

Slider (LEFT=Back RIGHT= Forward)

Selection Start / End (LEFT=Start RIGHT=End)

Previous / Next keyframe (LEFT=Previous RIGHT=Next)

1.Open VirtualDub(Mod).

2.Select FILE>Open Video File then select the file you are wanting to edit.

3.Select VIDEO and AUDIO and select Direct Stream Processing in both.

4.Using the Slider go to the start of the section you want to delete and use the Keyframe button to select the frame to start from. Then click the Selection Start button(which is the one on the left) and a small green line should appear in the Slider Bar. Thats where the section you are going to delete starts.

5.Next, using the Slider and/or Next KeyFrame to move to the end of the section you want to delete. Again, use the Keyframe to select the end of the section and then click on Selection End. The section should now be highlighted in the Slider Bar.

6.Select EDIT>Delete. The highlighted section should now be removed and the overall lenght of the file should be less if you look at the number of frames below the Slider Bar. Repeat the above process to remove all the commercials etc. you wish to.

7.Select FILE.Save as AVI. If the original file name I used was AWAYvHOME I will save it to a different file name in the same folder ie AWAYvHOMEcut. That way if I have messed up I can still use the original AWAYvHOME file later on.

Key Frames Explained The easiest way to understand this is to think of keyframes as small chapters in the AVI file, except much smaller than the chapters in your DVD Player of course. The best way to get a clean "cut" is to use the key frames instead of the Slider when you are using the Selection buttons. Using the Slider to pick the start and end of the section you are deleting can be flaky and result in some video being left and/or deleted on the new AVI. So in short, use the Slider for moving the large bits quickly and then use the Key Frames to select the start and end of the edited section to be deleted.

NOTE- When you are using the Key Frame buttons and you change between Previous and Next the frames do not change direction straight away. The best way to understand how this works is to open up the File and use the Key Frame buttons to navigate between going Previous and Next to see how the frames react. You only need to do this over a very small section by clicking Previous a few times then next a few times.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How To Join Files Together Using VirtualDub(Mod)

1. Select FILE>Open Video File

2.Select Direct Stream Processing for both VIDEO and AUDIO.

3.FILE>Append AVI Segment. (A window will appear so you can select which file to add to the one you have already selected. Obviously the 1st part you select in (1) will be the 1st part of the joined file and the 2nd part you select in (3) will be the 2nd part.

4.FILE>Save as AVI. Choose a new file name so you can keep the original in case you want to go back to it for any reason. ie.AWAYvHOMEa+b

You can only append(join) files with the same video format, frame rate, resolution, audio format and quality. To check(using Windows) Right Click on the AVI file itself and select PROPERTIES>Summary. This will display the info mentioned above.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If there are 2 or more discs per game just repeat this process, save them all separately, to avoid future problems, and then when there ALL done, join em together and you have yourself a full edited game.


I use VLC player, which will play anything, to make sure the avi worked. Then ta-daa. You have an avi file.

[AlphaRam]

Re: Any old rams games collectors out there?

This is a great idea and a great thread. I do not think I have anything that you do not already have listed, but if I did, I would share them. I know my copy of the 1979 Super Bowl isn't very good quality, so it would be great to upgrade that.

[RealRam]

Re: Any old rams games collectors out there?

Most interesting, excellent job LB86. Rep points and ... Welcome to the Clan!

I'll have to look in my old e-mail files for I know there is someone out there that has old Rams games, back to late 60s / early 70s -- which is why I was so captivated in getting them from him; that's "my" era!

[leadbelly86]

Re: Any old rams games collectors out there?

Most interesting, excellent job LB86. Rep points and ... Welcome to the Clan!

I'll have to look in my old e-mail files for I know there is someone out there that has old Rams games, back to late 60s / early 70s -- which is why I was so captivated in getting them from him; that's "my" era!

Thankls. The Rams just get no love most places, so i thought i might search out somewhere where we all gather anyway, I've gotten no responses in craigslist ads or anything - and i live in the STL area even. So far, most of my trades have come from people who happened to have Rams games in the collection of THEIR favorite team library. Clanram seemed like a good place to try it the other way heh heh. Great place to bicker about draft picks too though. I'll be around here for awhile i think.

[AD1328]

Re: Any old rams games collectors out there?

Hi..wow this is great..I dont have any games but really want some...I could pay for shipping dvds..vhs whatever you need I would love to start a collection of games ..like the championships season..let me know what we can do

[AD1328]

Re: Any old rams games collectors out there?

hi ..im new here and really want to get my rams game collection going..how can I get some if I have none to trade

[AD1328]

Re: Any old rams games collectors out there?

I would be interested in any copies of games you have ..I am just starting ..I have none at this point thks

[Rams134evr]

Re: Any old rams games collectors out there?

Hi saw you had Old Rams Games. I used to have a lot of them on VHS, the playoff game against the Giants with Flipper Anderson catching the game winning touchdown. Classic games against the *****. I had at least 25 games.

I am looking to get some games if you are interested in "trading". The ones I have are currently on VHS

[RamDez]

Re: Any old rams games collectors out there?

If this is something alot of the fans are into, I can create a new forum here for you all?