Verification: You CAN Get HQ Druaga For Free…Not?
EDIT: I may be incorrect about this– per the comment of a user, I went through the process fully this time, including putting my credit card info again, and I DID get an error due to the attempt to charge $0.00 on my card. When I get home later today I’ll play with it more on all the sites and give a full report. I hate it when I’m wrong!
So I went through the process of buying the high quality copy of Tower of Druaga. The way the system works is that you can elect to pay $2, $5, $10, or “Other.” In “Other” the number you specify must be in X.XX format, but you CAN put in 0.00 and download the episode for free. I’ll report on the video and sub quality when I get back to my computer tonight and watch it.
I want to encourage everyone once again to try and pay at least a nominal fee, even if it’s only $0.25. Think of it as proving that anime fans don’t completely suck.
If you’re curious, I paid $10– not because I’m willing to pay ten bucks per episode for anime generally (hell no!), but because I want to show strong support for this experiment. The price I’ll pay for future episodes will probably depend on how much I wind up liking the series, but I expect I’ll pay at least $1-2 per episode from now on.
For those of you who are downloading the high-quality version: how much are you planning to pay?
Tags: crunchryoll, gonzo, legal downloads, piracy, tower-of-druaga
April 4th, 2008 at 12:35 pm
Yeah. I was thinking of plopping down 99 cents or something on it, at least for now, and maybe a bit more later if the series keeps it up.
April 4th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
If you’re going to pay for even one episode then I say go pay BOST instead of CR. For one thing they’re not dodggy like CR, and for two, they actually did the translation along side with GDH (they’re credited on all the sites).
April 4th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
@senshi: Good points to consider, however, BOST doesn’t seem to be doing anything that you could give them money for even if you wanted to.
First off, I only get “COMING SOON” for the streaming episode, even though it was supposed to be up 2.5 hours ago. Second off, I don’t see anywhere to download the HQ version– BOST may not have it. And third, I definitely don’t see any places to buy or donate to the project.
So, while I can appreciate your point that BOST may be a better site to invest in than Crunchyroll, it doesn’t seem to be actually possible to do at the moment. ^^;
April 4th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
gia - you have to either have points or redeem the code they gave you if you already registered before to see the video.
I was like you at first, but once I redeemed my code I could see it. They should probably make that clearer but it IS available at BOST.
It’s 100 points (about $2) per episode if you don’t have the promo code (which I think is for the first 2 eps) or it was 1000 points ($19.90) for a season pass I think.
April 4th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
Oh, they do give “ipod” and “PSP” download options once you do the above as well, though I haven’t tried downloading it yet.
April 4th, 2008 at 12:57 pm
@Josh: What a tricksy system, thanks for the heads up! I can’t get to my welcome e-mail just yet so I can’t check it out. So they have the streaming version and iPod/PSP downloads? But no HQ? Does that sound right?
Clearly I’ll have to launch a full investigation when I get home…♥
April 4th, 2008 at 1:07 pm
After downloading the ipod version..
That version is a .mp4 file 102.57 MB in size, 320×240 in size. I’m downloading the PSP version now to see if it’s any different, as it’s a .mp4 either.
April 4th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
Seems that paying nothing doesn’t work, I got this:
Details: This transaction cannot be processed. The amount to be charged is zero.
April 4th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
OK, stats on the PSP version:
As I said, also a .mp4 file, this time 97.24 MB in size, but this time it’s 480×272. So I’d say, no, no HQ download at BOST, at least that I can find.
What are the stats on the Crunchyroll download, by the way?
Also, I think I found a bug in your comment system. When I pressed submit and went to the captcha page, I pressed back on my browser (cause I caught a typo just as it was submitting) and….it posted the comment without me having to put in the captcha. Oops!
April 4th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
@ilifin: at what point in the process did you get that error? It worked fine for me…
April 4th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
[...] good news, this can actually be gotten for free in high quality… I would actually pay if I had online funds, dammit. This system rocks, I am so for this. I [...]
April 4th, 2008 at 1:19 pm
@Josh: I can’t seem to get through to my remote access at the moment, so I’ll have to get back to you on the exact stats of the CR version. It’s something like 316mb, so it SHOULD be a decent resolution unless they completely fail at encoding; I’m guessing at least 704×480 or whatever, if not bigger.
April 4th, 2008 at 2:00 pm
CR’s full of lying thieves, is all I say.
I paid a dollar and all I got was a ridiculous message about “Sorry, legal restrictions prevent us from letting you download this file. =(”
WTF?
You get my money and you don’t give me a download? Go to hell, Crunchyroll.
April 4th, 2008 at 2:08 pm
Well, check to see if you actually got charged first before calling them “lying thieves” I’d say. If their system is set up correctly, the part that actually does the transaction SHOULD be after the IP check where they see if you’re in a place that allows you to download it (apparently only people in certain nations can grab it. Not sure where, though). Putting in your CC info isn’t necessarily the same as “I’ve paid”
April 4th, 2008 at 6:03 pm
I tried getting the HQ episode on BOST but there is a “coming soon” message instead. I just went to CRUNCHY and donate them 2 bucks. The file is huge but I want to experience the first legal fansubbing with a HQ release. I just hope BOST can make the system works to continue watching the series with them since they are the ones that subbed, I think.
April 4th, 2008 at 7:35 pm
[...] video. However, you can only download them until the end of the rental period. Reader Josh noted that the PSP version is 97mb and 480×272; the iPod version is 102mb, 320×240 resolution [...]