Giveaway of the Day Forums » Tag: video

Giveaway of the Day Forums » Tag: video - Recent Posts http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/tags/video Giveaway of the Day Forums » Tag: video - Recent Posts en-US Sun, 12 Feb 2012 07:29:21 +0000 http://bbpress.org/?v=1.0.2 graylox on "Fraps video recording" http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/598#post-99071 Wed, 01 Feb 2012 21:09:38 +0000 graylox 99071@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ Please post <a href="http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/1450/page/48#post-99017">Giveaway Suggestions</a> in the correct thread <a href="http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/1450/page/48#post-99017" rel="nofollow">http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/1450/page/48#post-99017</a> Thanks. fluffy on "Fraps video recording" http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/598#post-99070 Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:28:17 +0000 fluffy 99070@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ /signed yes fraps would be a very cool giveaway Whiterabbit-uk on "For Wabbit- The Skyrim Bard Song-The Dragonborn Comes" http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/10960#post-97927 Mon, 19 Dec 2011 08:26:06 +0000 Whiterabbit-uk 97927@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ Really sorry to here about your hubbys friend delenn. These things seem to come in three's. My sons friends uncle died a few days ago of a massive heart attack and my daughters best friends muns dad also died of the same thing and my wifes grandad died last week of a heart attack, but that was brought on by other things. Thanks for the song. :) ⓒⓗⓘⓟ on "For Wabbit- The Skyrim Bard Song-The Dragonborn Comes" http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/10960#post-97911 Sun, 18 Dec 2011 14:25:09 +0000 ⓒⓗⓘⓟ 97911@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ I used to make pointless comments on random threads in the GOTD Forums; then I took an arrow to the knee... delenn13 on "For Wabbit- The Skyrim Bard Song-The Dragonborn Comes" http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/10960#post-97906 Sun, 18 Dec 2011 13:09:35 +0000 delenn13 97906@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ Just for you Wabbit and anyone else who likes Skyrim. I love her voice. Glad this went viral! The Dragonborn Comes - Skyrim Bard Song and Main Theme Female Cover - YouTube - <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=4z9TdDCWN7g" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=4z9TdDCWN7g</a> From what I am seeing on YouTube new meme is "I used to be an adventurer like you; then, I took an arrow to the knee". Some of them are really funny. P.s. Not going to be around much for a few...The hubby's best friend had a massive heart attack and died. Gonna be busy. mikiem2 on "DVD & Blu-Ray Basics/Authoring" http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/10539#post-95793 Wed, 05 Oct 2011 16:16:00 +0000 mikiem2 95793@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <blockquote>Hi Mike, this is wonderful information for me</blockquote> Thanks Hopefully this latest part on the actual video itself might help too. It covers a couple of topics that I've seen confuse a lot of people, but if you work with TV or DVD sized video they're unavoidable, since a lot of (most?) software will change things automatically for you, often when you don't want things changed. mikiem2 on "DVD & Blu-Ray Basics/Authoring" http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/10539#post-95791 Wed, 05 Oct 2011 15:58:34 +0000 mikiem2 95791@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ DVD Video, Part 1 When it comes to DVD video there are 2 concepts that many (most?) people have trouble with, even some pros... it's not that either is particularly difficult, but at least the first of the two can seem to make no sense, so for better or worse I'm including a very brief history lesson. Most all video software considers all DVD-sized video [720x480 NTSC -- 720x576 PAL] to have Non-Square pixels. Now the 1st thing to remember is that pixels themselves don't exist physically, but are a unit of measurement, just like an inch or mm, a quart or liter. Years ago a company wanted to market their new hardware, & as a part of their marketing they invented pixels that were rectangular rather than square to help explain why their hardware was better than anything else available at that time. Their explanation stuck, becoming part of all the standards. Back then video signals were all analog waveforms, & to digitise them, capture or convert those analog signals to digital files, that analog signal was measured at a set frequency, producing the 640 frame width video that most everyone's familiar with [I'm skipping PAL measurements for a moment trying to keep it as simple as I can]. This new hardware used a higher frequency, took more measurements so it was more accurate, BUT, they chose to save & display it on PCs at a 720 width to reflect that extra data [I've always thought the people in PAL land got the short stick]. Since the actual TV picture never changed, displaying it at a 720 width didn't look the same, was distorted, so Non-Square pixels were invented -- basically the explanation goes: the video itself is perfectly fine, but the pixels themselves are no longer square so it just *looked* wrong, & people working with video on their PCs could just deal with it. Now at the time there were few people working with video on PCs, so that original assumption, that they could deal with it, while short-sighted was at least somewhat reasonable. There's a bit of math behind it, but long story short the aspect ratios for the *pixel rectangles* are: 0.9091 4:3 NTSC, 1.2121 16:9 NTSC, 1.0926 4:3 PAL, & 1.4568 16:9 PAL [Note that that's per the Sony software I use -- the wide screen ratios can vary slightly depending on your brand of software]. While the math folks can work everything out exactly, the most important point is simply this: the picture in 720 width video will look stretched wider [NTSC] or shrunk narrower [PAL] if shown unaltered on a PC/laptop screen. DVD player software compensates [take a screen capture & measure it]. Most video editing software will compensate automatically, which is not always a good thing, for example when you're importing still images which start with square pixels [the best way to import stills varies with the brand of editing software, so if you're concerned with accuracy dig deeper & research or/or experiment]. Video player software may or may not compensate, often depending on the video format -- avi will usually be shown with square pixels, & so too wide or narrow. And of course if you're not aware of this pixel aspect mess, but have a good eye, converting 720 video to some other frame size can often seem badly broken. If you're one of the math folks you might have worked out already that given those ratios earlier, video frame size conversions, going non-square pixel to square, don't seem to work out perfectly, & you'd be right, they don't. 720x480 video does actually have more data than the PC-centric equivilent of 640x480 NTSC, so some of the width has to be cropped off to make things exact. [Work it out for PAL & again I think those folks didn't come out as well in this scheme.] At any rate, analog video capture wasn't the only source of video on a PC [& certainly isn't today], so provisions were made in case all you had was 640x480 video to start with... it's not as commonly used, but the non-square pixel equivilent of 704x480 [NTSC] & 704x576 [PAL] are on the books, as is 352x480 & 352x576 -- those are all *legal* DVD video frame sizes. Those [sometimes called "Cropped"] video frame dimmensions can save space [less data = smaller files], & make it possible to use PC video [e.g. on-line video] on a DVD without aspect distortion. Otherwise if you're not a math whiz, or if you are & just don't want to bother, just re-size video from square to non-sqare pixel frames & the reverse -- just be aware that each re-size will lose quality, so don't do it more than you have to, & if you can avoid re-sizing altogether that's best. Finally it's time to get to the 2nd concept that I mentioned people might have trouble with... the most important thing to remember here is that TVs are Dumb. NTSC & PAL TVs *Only* accept NTSC & PAL signals respectively -- the same goes for smarter HDTVs when you use a regular NTSC/PAL input. Whatever hardware sends the TV that signal is only going to send it a compatable signal, so when your target is a TV, the only thing you have or need to worry about is making sure that hardware you want to use works with your video. Whether you have to have square or non-square pixel video, & in what format depends on that hardware. This concept is important because you can read an awful lot of video related info that addresses the actual signal the TV recieves, & for most purposes that's completely irrelevant -- target the hardware sending the TV that signal & let that hardware worry about the signal. But while you can [and I think you should] choose to ignore that info, there is one related area that's harder to avoid... Again with the history, to make early analog broadcast work it was decided to not include the whitest whites or the blackest blacks. Worse, the designers of NTSC limited blacks an extra amount, so while no regular broadcast TV signal includes pure white, NTSC signals don't go as far towards pure black as PAL. This effects you two ways. One, software can try to be helpful & transfer images & video to/from that more limited TV colorspace for you, often without you having any say in the matter what-so-ever. You should be aware that this sort of thing happens, so if for example your video appears to turn very dull, knowing what might have happened you can deal with it if you wish. Two, it can help you improve your video. Test first of course with the hardware you want to use, but most player hardware is colorspace agnostic -- it'll accept your video regardless the colorspace as long as it's in the proper format. That means you can expand your video to take full advantage of the full 0-255 colorspace if it doesn't already, & whatever hardware sends the TV it's signal should pass it to the TV. Mileage will vary, depending in part on how the TV's adjusted, but the results can be dramatic... I've seen DVD players that marketed a similar expansion of the colorspace as Super Black. It may or may not be worth the conversion depending on the source video & how much time you want to spend, but if processing your video you use an intermediate step, simply choosing a format or codec with the full color range for that intermediate can do the job nicely. [Of course there are people, sometimes very vocal people, who will tell you that since that's illegal according to the signal spec you just cannot do that -- & if you were broadcasting that video analog over an antenna like the local TV studio you couldn't, but fact is, you're not.] A sort of a PS, in the US watching cable I've seen plenty of examples where the supposed pros got all of this stuff I've talked about wrong, with dark colors crushed [looking very blotchy] & aspect ratios pretty far off. If you find this stuff confusing don't feel badly -- it's not what you do for a living, & considering that at least some small portion of the pros get paid to do it wrong, any confusion on your part can be rightly & easily forgiven... Don't feel badly about it. :-) NolafromNZ on "DVD & Blu-Ray Basics/Authoring" http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/10539#post-95761 Tue, 04 Oct 2011 00:57:31 +0000 NolafromNZ 95761@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ Hi Mike, this is wonderful information for me, particularly about the layering as I understand that even less than I do the rest of the process. Thank you so much for the effort you have gone to, to let us "know how". Very much appreciated. Idunnobutiwastold on "DVD & Blu-Ray Basics/Authoring" http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/10539#post-95745 Mon, 03 Oct 2011 07:15:29 +0000 Idunnobutiwastold 95745@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ Thanks, Mikiem. :) mikiem2 on "DVD & Blu-Ray Basics/Authoring" http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/10539#post-95738 Sun, 02 Oct 2011 22:07:35 +0000 mikiem2 95738@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ A Side Note about interlacing... If you look at a fast moving light in the dark you'll see the light's tail or trail -- that's the way our eyes & brain work. The TVs we've watched since the 50s (with a picture tube) rely on that same effect, plus they work by "lighting" a phosphor coating on the back side of the screen, & once "lit" that phosphor coating doesn't go dark but stays glowing for a very short time. To reduce the amount of data that had to be broadcast over the air [& carried by cables from one broadcast antenna to the next], interlaced video was devised. According to broadcast standards, 60 times a second [50 for PAL] every other line of what we think of today as pixels is refreshed -- the odd numbered lines are refreshed 30 or 25 times a second, & the same for the even numbered lines [60 or 50 *Fields* per second]. With truly interlaced video, every 1/2 of a frame [called fields, & made up of all odd or all even lines] shows you a picture that's 1/60 [or 1/50] sec. advanced in time. Because that phosphor coating stays glowing for that short time, & because of our persistence of vision [the way we see those light trails], everything looks smooth, looks fine [with the exception of sharp horizontal lines or edges]. If you looked at the individual fields on your PC/laptop however you'd see an image where every other line is totally missing -- often it'll be shown as a half height frame, IMHO probably because that's easier to code in software compared to showing transparency like in a graphics app. Most of the time though you'll be shown both separate fields overlaid, one on top of the other, & because neither field, neither "picture" was taken at the same, precise moment, the odd & even numbered lines don't match. Now, there are 3 problems you'll encounter with or because of interlaced video: it doesn't look nice when you're editing [seriously, get over it], it doesn't resize well, and it looks softer when converted to progressive [progressive video frames &/or screens, monitors etc. simply means not interlaced]. It looks softer because the 2 fields are averaged or blended -- note that your editing &/or player software [& often your graphics drivers] may give you 2 or 3 ways of doing that blending. Note also that there's something called field order -- it determines how odd & even fields are paired, & if you get it wrong the result is Very noticeable [in fact that's usually how you determine field order -- the wrong one looks Bad when you play the video]. Normally you're better off just leaving interlaced video interlaced -- it's what a standard TV with a picture tube requires, & many (most) software players, many graphics drivers, & HDTVs etc. will handle that blending [called deinterlacing] themselves. Note also that interlaced video requires the full, standard TV frame height, 480 NTSC or 576 PAL -- converting that standard video to a smaller frame size includes deinterlacing by definition. Practically speaking, enlarging a interlaced frame without 1st deinterlacing is impossible, though software will gladly let you do it -- the result is generally nasty looking, because the missing, 1 pixel height lines in each field don't grow very well at all. Most commercial [retail] Video DVDs use the pull-down I mentioned earlier, with 23.976 fps [frames per second] NTSC video frames that are repeated for each field, so odd & even fields show the exact same moment in time, & that's why some people talk about having easy success enlarging them -- they were never truly interlaced to begin with. And finally note that you may also come across HD video that's interlaced to reduce the bandwidth required to broadcast or stream it. mikiem2 on "DVD & Blu-Ray Basics/Authoring" http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/10539#post-95737 Sun, 02 Oct 2011 21:50:47 +0000 mikiem2 95737@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ Video DVD basics & choosing Authoring software... Video DVDs can vary a LOT in their complexity, & a very big part of choosing an authoring app is based on what you want/need to do -- it's really a lot like choosing the app you'll use for your image editor, e.g. can you get away with Windows' Paint or do you need Photoshop or The GIMP. And just like when choosing an image editing app, it's hard to judge just what you'll need when you're 1st starting out. It doesn't help that it's harder for the average person to choose a DVD authoring app than most other kinds of software because there's a really high level of abstraction -- if you actually saw the scripting & registers used it would be too complicated for many (most?) people to deal with without quite a lot of learning, so all that stuff's hidden & the novice has no idea what capabilities any authoring app has left out. What I'm doing here is telling you a bit about Video DVDs, & in doing that I hope to accomplish two things -- 1) make it easier to work with DVDs, & 2) give you enough knowledge about DVDs that you can decide what you want to be able to do, & knowing that, hopefully make a better choice checking out & deciding on authoring software. If all you want to do is play a video in your DVD player, that's easy. If you want to get into [especially more involved] menus, flying blind so-to-speak can get expensive in both time spent learning the app & the cost of the program. Just diving in can also mean dead ends & false starts as you try to learn & do more -- an authoring app's help files, manuals, & forums [usually stocked full of loyal fans] are based on what that software can do, & NOT on what DVDs can do or how it should be done... how DVDs work, & by extension how to author one, are covered by an NDA [Non Disclosure Agreement], so while a company can tell you how to use its software, they can't tell you really how to generally go about creating video DVDs. That said... Everything you see when you're playing a Video DVD is DVD-spec mpg2 video -- mpg2 video encoded using a specific set of options -- though as this has almost become a standard in & of itself for mpg2 at DVD frame sizes, you often don't need to worry too much about your mpg2 being in-spec. In a DVD layout mpg2 video is contained in VOB files, along with audio tracks & optionally subtitles. Audio is usually AC3, & here you might have to worry about specs a little, since DVD authoring apps can seem a bit picky -- if your authoring app doesn't like the AC3 you want to import, you can often just import the original .wav files & let the authoring app do the encoding rather than lose quality (& usually volume) twice [once with each encode]. You can think of DVD subtitles as a transparent overlay track -- they have graphics shapes that act as masks, with the player coloring the area covered by those masks. Subtitles usually exist in 2 forms, as plain text an app will turn into an overlay track, or as those graphics overlay tracks saved to a separate file -- there are also OCR apps for turning graphics subs back into text. And there is software for stripping out the CC optionally embedded in mpg2 video, so that can be turned into subtitles -- since many DVD players &/or HDMI won't pass CC through to a TV that can be extremely useful [CC is rendered by the TV -- subtitles are rendered by the player, becoming part of the picture sent to the TV]. Subtitles in text files can be edited, & will play with some software players, but DVD players & player software will only handle the graphical version. Authoring apps for DVDs vary in their support for subtitles &/or multiple audio tracks -- sometimes you need to author the DVD to your hard drive, then add whatever you want/need using specialized software before burning to disc. Finally the media in VOB files is divided up into one or more cells -- these cells are time measurements that coincide with mpg2 video *I* frames. Cells are used for chapters, & any where/any time the DVD needs to jump to a certain time in a video. "I" frames are the Full frames in mpg2 video -- partial frames recording just changes fill the space in between -- I frames are usually 12 - 18 frames apart depending on the encoder. Usually you want to be able to add a chapter point [& cell] a couple of I frames into a new scene. More limited authoring apps might limit you to setting a chapter every "n" amount of time, which may not be a big deal to you if you'll just use the chapters as a sort of fast forward. Better apps will show you the I frames so you can be exact, though adding a chapter a minute or so into the new scene you're *usually* all right, as the closest I frame will usually be in the beginning of that scene -- add a chapter just when a scene changes & you'll often wind up showing just a frame or two of the previous scene, which is annoying to viewers. The IFO files on a video DVD contain the directions for the DVD player -- they are where DVDs can get complicated, & are based on a somewhat primitive scripting designed for dumb hardware in the 90s to interpret. Part of what makes it complicated is some features were never commonly implemented in players, while other commonly used features are used in ways never envisioned when the spec was created. Most Video DVD authoring software uses a set of boilerplate scripting, & how well that scripting works varies from one app to the next, forming the basis for both the capabilities & weaknesses of any particular brand/model of authoring app. Often you can add to or edit that scripting in PgcEdit, adding features to a video DVD that it wouldn't have otherwise. Where the IFO files are most involved &/or more complicated is with any menus [if present on the DVD] as well as for special features, like DVD movies with more than one ending, or if the DVD contains simple games -- IFO files for DVDs with only a title movie or video are usually Very simple, so most any authoring app can handle those well. Menus are made up of mpg2 video, usually AC3 audio, & a type of subtitles. Buttons are really just rectangular areas, while button highlights [the part that changes color to tell you which button is selected] are any subtitle graphics shape(s) within that rectangular area. A pro-grade app lets you set those rectangular areas & import the graphics shapes used to define those highlights -- the further you move away from pro software the more limitations you'll have. What's called the Abstraction Layer in most video DVD authoring software hides the fact that any menu background, including what you *see* as buttons, any text, & any animation, is simply a mpg2 video file. If your Video DVD authoring software has or lets you place text, add animation, place buttons etc., it'll just render all that stuff to an mpg2 video file. Designing your menu in your authoring app can be a time saving convenience, but it also limits you to what that app allows or can do -- you can most always do better elsewhere, & better authoring software lets you import your own work. [In practice you often do what you can do in your software, & as possible learn tricks to force it to do what you want.] One area where DVD menus get more complicated is with aspect ratios, i.e. 4:3 vs. 16:9... Generally you can get by matching the video, &/or using 16:9 since that'll look better to most people, even if letterboxed, than 4:3 with pillarboxing on a wide-screen monitor or TV. More pro-grade authoring software will let you include both. Another area where things get more complicated is having more than one menu cell... Video DVDs can have an intro video, plus you can use intro video's with any other menu or video -- this is what you see transitioning to the menu &/or playing before a menu or video plays. When you have menus with more than one cell the 1st cell can contain the DVD intro, & the 3rd cell (if present) can contain the intro to a video title, playing when you click that menu button, as opposed to including a separate video file on the DVD for each transition. I'm mentioning this mainly because some software companies make a bigger deal out of it than I think warranted -- in practice you won't usually see a huge difference... Using menu cells can help you control where on the DVD that video's physically located [you can have a delay if the DVD drive mechanism has to travel from one end of the DVD to the other], & it puts that video into another domain on the DVD [e.g. a concern if/when you reach the max number of titles]. OTOH if you have/use a menu with a looping audio &/or video track, multi-cell menus tend to cause a bigger delay at the point where it loops, so you may prefer not to use multiple cell menus, even if/when you can. Menus aren't just used for their designed purpose [letting the viewer make selections], but can be used just to hold scripting or used instead of a title for audio/video. A title video is basically any video file that's not in a menu -- it's not just the main title on your DVD -- & both menus & title video's have End Actions you set to determine what happens once it's done playing. You can have a menu button start a short video file as an intro or transition, & that file's end action would normally be set to open another menu or play another video. Menu end actions are usually either loop or hold, but at a more advanced level for example you can have a menu end action set to activate a [often hidden] button -- with a multi-cell menu including the intro video, that auto-activated button can go to a duplicate of the main menu using a single cell with no intro video... that gives you the best of both methods, very slightly better continuity between intro video & main menu, plus slightly less lag when the menu loops, & doing it that way is pretty common for or with retail Video DVDs. And whenever thing's change, say a button's activated or a menu/title video ends, that's when/where you can change things like the audio or subtitle track, or even the video aspect ratio [though that one can get iffy because of player over-rides]. That's why you have separate setup menus -- when you change audio tracks using a menu the button you click goes to another menu page, though it may look identical. But the viewer, the person playing the DVD has a lot of those controls right in their hand -- the player's remote. A DVD author tries to control the viewer, not so much because of ego but because that's the only way to make sure of what they see on-screen, when, & to do that they prohibit operations -- you're probably became familiar with these DVD flags or switches when you tried to skip through the trailers at the beginning of a DVD & found out you couldn't. I think most authoring software adds these prohibitions when it makes sense to do so -- e.g. the results are unpredictable hitting the Next button with a menu on-screen -- & a lot of DVD related apps will remove them all by default. You should be aware that those prohibitions exist, that some apps will let you set them, & some other apps will remove them all unless you're careful... you don't want to spend time designing & creating a very nice DVD experience, & then run it through DVD Shrink, finding that all prohibited operations were removed because you didn't un-check the box in preferences. Now, most authoring apps include an mpg2 encoder, & most of the time you want to avoid using it as possible... pro-grade apps assume you might have spent a whole lot more money on a separate encoder that they can't hope to match, while cheaper software is cheaper in part because they don't have to license or write a really good mpg2 encoder. Even in cases like the Sony apps where DVDA uses the same encoder as their Vegas editing app, they leave out most of the encoding controls/settings figuring you'd use Vegas if you wanted higher quality. You want a DVD Authoring app that passes through your already encoded video -- it used to be a sign of higher quality authoring software, but nowadays it's so common that only the really poor authoring apps won't let you. As a general rule of thumb, use VBR [Variable Bit Rate encoding] with a max bit rate of 9 [you can go higher but might have compatibility issues], & for single layer DVDs, an average of ~5 as you approach 2 hours length, ~6 as you get closer to 1.5 hours... rather than a bit-rate calculator what I've always done is open Windows Explorer so I could see the new file being written, opened Calculator at the same time, then regularly refresh the view in Explorer -- as soon as the encoder progress bar/window shows 4% I enter the new file's size in Calculator & divide by 4. If I'm in the ballpark I'll try again in a few minutes at 8 or 12 % for example, & if it still looks good I'll walk away & let it be. I'd also rather just be a hair over the limit & use DVD Shrink or Nero Recode to reduce the size than be too cautious & waste quality by having the video file turn out much smaller than it has to be. [If/when you're only slightly reducing size (in the 90 range), Shrink & Recode discard data from the in between frames ("P" & "B") in a way that is not very noticeable, & the overall result may even look better than the same video encoded at a reduced bit rate to fit.] If your encoder & source video support it, use pulldown -- a movie at 23.976 fps is used with special flags in the mpg2 file, telling the player to repeat certain frames to reach 29.976 NTSC, which allows you to use a higher bit rate for the same final file size, with no loss in quality compared to actually repeating frames in the video file. Note that you may or may not have better results encoding menus progressive or interlaced [assuming you have a choice], depending on the software you're using. Audio & video tracks are separate things -- audio & video themselves use different timing [video is based on fps, while Video DVD audio is based on a sample rate of 48.000 Hz]. True, some containers like AVI may let you interleave audio & video, but that's just the way they're combined into a single file. Better Video DVD Authoring apps, encoders, editing software etc. let you work with the separate streams, indeed may only let you work with separate audio & video. Many, usually cheaper authoring apps & many converters only let you work with the two combined -- often you'll use a muxer/demuxer app to combine or separate the audio & video files as necessary. It can be confusing with mpg2 since muxed [multiplexed or combined] files usually have an .mpg file name extension & contain more timing info that separate .m2v files, which are the same thing, just without the audio & that extra timing data. Sony media apps [Vegas, DVDA] are an anomaly, working best with .mpg files without audio -- use a muxer on .m2v but don't supply an audio file. Using more than one audio track means you need to be able to add audio tracks separately. When space is tighter, e.g. on a single layer DVD, a stereo AC3 file is smaller & more people can play them on their PC/laptop. When you have the room OTOH 5.1 AC3 sounds better, even down-mixed by a player to stereo. If/when you have room, e.g. on a double layer DVD, it's nice to include both -- again best of both worlds. There are apps/tools, both free & not that let you create fake 5.1 from stereo, & those often do sound better as 5.1 AC3. Dual layer DVDs are necessary when you have too many extras to fit with the video on a single layer DVD, &/or when the video length exceeds 2 hours -- dropping the average mpg2 bit rate below 5 [which you need to do to get the video file small enough] noticeably downgrades quality. Most authoring apps consumers can afford do poorly when it comes to dual layer DVDs... What I do is open the DVD on a HDD in PgcEdit, then go to create an ISO, which tells me the layer break [split] should be between chapter X & chapter Y -- sometimes I get lucky & an existing chapter is ideal, but that's more rare than not. When I need another cell [chapter] I go back into my authoring app & add a chapter between "X" & "Y", since I can't just add a cell otherwise -- layer breaks are best placed when there's a minimum of anything going on, since reversing course the player's drive may hesitate/pause. Back in PgcEdit I'll remove the chapter from the cell, & then create the ISO, which I'll burn to disc with ImgBurn. Idunnobutiwastold on "GeeXboX -- Linux Live CD Media Center" http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/10470#post-95362 Thu, 22 Sep 2011 11:47:52 +0000 Idunnobutiwastold 95362@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ Thanks, Mikiem. :) mikiem2 on "GeeXboX -- Linux Live CD Media Center" http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/10470#post-95338 Thu, 22 Sep 2011 00:27:35 +0000 mikiem2 95338@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ Wanted to mention something called Geexbox - <a href="http://www.videohelp.com/tools/GeeXboX" rel="nofollow">http://www.videohelp.com/tools/GeeXboX</a> Basically a Linux LiveCD ISO already set up with Media Center or Home Theater type apps -- it does look nice when you start it, & thought some might like to try it out. It can be burned to a CD you boot from, but it's really set up to store persistent data on a USB stick. If you have VIrtualBox, either installed or using the portable start [launcher], you can also attach the ISO to a VM & keep the default boot order where the CD comes before any hard drives... don't need a real VM with an OS installed. mikiem2 on "Aiseesoft Total Media Converter" http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/10443#post-95172 Sat, 17 Sep 2011 01:50:17 +0000 mikiem2 95172@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ After a long week I spent today getting routine med tests, so just got a look at the Aiseesoft Total Media Converter a couple/few hours ago -- with apologies then for the lateness here's the basics on it, as tested in win7 64, as well as XP Pro, win732, & win8 32 dev preview VMs. ----------- Aiseesoft Total Media Converter is very similar to better video converters that have been offered on GOTD. Installation is low impact, & it runs on XP, win7 32 & 64 bit, & the win8 dev preview. It's fast, but the quality of re-sized video was a bit uneven, & ATI hardware acceleration not only didn't work with an AMD/ATI 6870 graphics card, but turning it on slowed things down considerably. Based on tests I'd recommend it if 1) you didn't have an alternative, or 2) you were working with HD rather than DVD video. With these converters that use ffmpeg [ffmpeg.org], newer is usually better if/when they include newer versions of ffmpeg, which itself is under continual development, so there is reason to try newer video converters out when you've already picked one up from GOTD in the past. Testing 5 minutes of DVD mpeg2 video, converting to 855x480 AVC video [DroidX], with ATI assist off it took 50 seconds, with up to 99% CPU, up to 1% GPU, & a final file size of 55 MB -- with ATI assist on it took ~5 minutes, used 12-18% CPU, up to 3% GPU, & the final file was 51 MB. Testing 5 minutes of HD video [1080p AVC in a MKV container], converting to 720p AVC with ATI assist off took 4 min. 4 sec. using up to 99% CPU [no measurable GPU], with a final file size of 295 MB -- with ATI assist on it took 5 minutes, used ~33% CPU [no measurable GPU], with a final files size of 253 MB. Both HD renders looked great -- DVD renders had trouble with horisontal edges/lines that was especially noticable in scenes with panning or zooming. While the 720p AVC video produced looked very good, it did not pass Blu-Ray compliance testing, so some Blu-Ray authoring apps will insist on re-encoding, & as-is it may or may not play on your Blu-Ray player. I didn't test Aiseesoft Total Media Converter with DVDs that had DRM, but it will open DVDs as well as video files. As with most all of these converters there's no way to import separate video & audio tracks -- It's not a deal breaker but it does mean that if you have separate tracks your'll have to combine [mux] them elsewhere. Editing tools let you add watermarks, trim video length, adjust brightness etc., & crop. [Note that unless you shot the video yourself, there should be little cause to fool with things like brightness -- e.g. if a DVD looks too dark it's probably your system &/or software -- & usually the only time you want to crop is when you'll play the results on a PC.] Installation adds the "Aiseesoft Studio" program folder with 92 files, 8 folders, & ~63 MB -- running it through the PortableApps.com App Compactor the same folders has 92 files, 8 folders, ~36 MB [Note that you should keep a copy of the original folder & test thoroughly after compacting should you choose to use it]. A folder gets added to the User MyDocuments folder, with a 2nd folder under All Users Application Data [XP] or ProgramData [win7/8], & a 3rd folder added to User\ Local Settings\ Application Data [XP] or User\ AppData\ Local [win7/8]. The registry gets an uninstall key, one key for the app, & 1 empty CLSID key. mikiem2 on "WinX Triple Play" http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/10371#post-94744 Sun, 04 Sep 2011 01:24:00 +0000 mikiem2 94744@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <blockquote>#12: "* Copy DVD to a single MPEG2 file within about 5 minutes. Tried it. failed. Even if it could do this, quality is going to be poor. Never trade quality for speed... If I’m going to backup a dvd, I want to preserve both image _and_ sound-quality, and mp3 !== dolby surround... Looks decent, but doesn’t come close to what I need. I’m sticking with mencoder."</blockquote> If you use the DVD Copy app that's part of the complete package [see link at top of GOTD page], you won't lose anything but subs & added audio tracks going to mpg2 -- the mpg2 is just stripped out of the VOBs. PGCDemux is another free app that'll strip the separate audio, video, & sub file(s) out of a non-protected DVD, but you might need to mux the m2v file you get before some apps will accept it. You can also use the WinX ripper for the video encoding, then swap out the audio, using whatever you prefer & throwing the WinX audio away. * * * <blockquote>#28: "On this web-page, I clicked on HERE IS HOW THIS BUNDLE WORKS and was forwarded to the Vendors description web-site. Saw that they are also offering Bluray decrypter FREE as well. Downloaded and used the activation key they provided in their description of the product. BONUS GOTD!"</blockquote> On the same page as you downloaded the Blu-Ray Decrypter is the download for their DVD Copy app -- scroll down. :-) * * * <blockquote>#35: "I am not clear. Can I copy a DVD to a DVD with this software? If so, how do I do it? I have read the user manual and all I see is various ways to rip the DVD to the PC. I would like to make an exact copy from DVD to DVD."</blockquote> The WinX DVD Copy app decrypts the DVD disc & copies it wherever you want. The DVD Ripper is a video converter that just works with DVDs as input. The Blu-Ray Decrypter copies Blu-Ray discs to your hard drive bypassing DRM. mikiem2 on "WinX Triple Play" http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/10371#post-94742 Sun, 04 Sep 2011 00:26:40 +0000 mikiem2 94742@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ OK, with days to download these WinX apps rather than 24 hours as std on GOTD, took a look at & tested the DVD Ripper, DVD Copier, & Blu-Ray Decrypter. [I'm Tired...] ------ The kind folks at Digiarty have been offering 4 free apps packaged as 3 downloads for a limited time, & today, 9/03, the DVD Ripper package is also featured on GOTD. Taking a look at all 4 then... WinX DVD Ripper Platinum is an update [v. 6.3.5] to their regular DVD Ripping app, packaged together with an optional install of Digiarty's Air Playit [airplayit.com], which offers media serving based on Bonjour [ <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonjour_%28software%29" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonjour_%28software%29</a> ]. [Over?] Simplified what you do is set up your own version of the media servers on-line, a very basic YouTube if you will, that other devices can connect to & get whatever media files or streams served to them. The idea itself is not new, & there are many alternatives, some specializing in serving PSPs [Play Stations], some as part of media center packages, some like TVersity boasting fast, on-the-fly transcoding, some players offer it as an out-growth more-or-less of existing playback features, & so on. Quite possibly the easiest to use, another way to do it is by using Orb.com, where your PC uploads content that's accessible on their servers with whatever other devices you use [Orb Casting]. The DVD Ripper Platinum in a nutshell is a video converter that only accepts DVD input, in this case from a DVD disc, ISO [DVD image file], or a DVD folder you've already copied to your hard drive [VIDEO_TS]. It's good if you want to convert DVD audio/video to a video file with a smaller frame size for viewing on a hand-held or cell, &/or when you want to re-encode that video to a more efficient format. e.g. AVC/H264, so it might take up <1 GB instead of the original 4 - 7 GB worth of DVD mpg2. Using DVD Ripper Platinum it's also easier to add permanent subtitles compared with many other methods of doing the same sorts of conversions, but while quality & speed of conversion are great, you'll lose some flexibility when it comes to audio output formats. I missed not being able to type in my own output video frame dimmensions, which you can do with many of these rippers & convertors, but I liked that trimming the length of the video [to convert] worked without the hassles I've experienced in a lot of the competition. While DVD Ripper Platinum does let you up-size your video, in most cases you won't want to -- hardware does the same or better job, whether it's a PC using something like PowerDVD, or the DVD &/or Blu-Ray player connected to your HDTV, so all you're really doing in most all cases is increasing the file size for little or no reason. DVD Ripper Platinum itself adds 2 folders & an uninstall key to the registry... the "WinX_DVD_Ripper_Platinum" program folder holds 27 files, 2 folders, & ~59 MB -- most of these converters/rippers can be compressed using something like the PortableApps.com App Compactor to about 50% original size, if you're converned about space &/or portability, but you'd want to save a backup of the original & test the compacted version thoroughly. The 2nd folder is under User App/Application Data & holds configuration info. As far as Air Playit goes lot of apps use Bonjour, so if you have it already mileage will likely vary. Included in the setup file are Bonjour.msi, Bonjour64.msi, vcredist_x86.exe, & vcredist_x64.exe. The Bonjour install files are v. 2.0.4.0, while the Microsoft C++ runtimes are v. 6.00.3790. For Air Playit an "Apple" folder is added to All Users App/Application Data, a "AirOfflineConvert" folder is added to My Documents, you get a new "Bonjour" program folder with 23 files, 20 folders, but only ~600 KB, the "\Digiarty\ WinX_DVD_Ripper_Platinum_API\ Air_Playit_Server" folder holds 32 files, 1 folder, ~31 MB, 4 files get added to Windows system folder, plus the usual roughly 2 dozen files added to Windows\ WinSxS\ by the the C++ runtime install. Recorded new registry entries approach 1900. Note that on the Digiarty site you're asked to activate the DVD ripper before 9/10, & note that Air Playit gets activated separately. ----------------- DVD Copy Pro is a separate download that comes as a zip file containing winx-dvd-copy-pro.exe & License Code.txt. More of a one-trick pony, it copies the content on a DVD disc to another DVD, a DVD ISO file, a VIDEO_TS folder on your hard drive, or to a single mpg2 file -- you can also copy just the audio or just the video, or copy a selected chapter. You'd typically use DVD Copy Pro to bypass the DRM that prevents you from just copying the files like you would on a data DVD. To know if it does better than alternatives you'll have to use it on a lot of discs, & if it works with some where others don't, it's better. That said, DVDFab, an earlier GOTD, will let you skip the intros like movie trailers & go straight to the menu -- on the downside the result doesn't always seem 100% kosher with DVD spec, so if you're planning on editing the DVD at all [PgcEdit, VobBlanker etc.] I'd suggest not using that option, though burned as-is it seems to work in players fine. Note that if you output to mpg2, you'll lose subs etc. -- sometimes I think it's better to copy the DVD on your hard drive to another folder with DVD Shrink set to write only one VOB file... that way you could use video converters that will use those subs. DVD Copy Pro adds a "WinX_DVD_Copy_Pro" program folder that holds 34 files, 3 folders, ~36 MB. A 2nd folder is added under User App/Application Data for configuration info, & again you get one new key in the registry for uninstall. Tried on an older, just bought retail DVD, DVD Copy Pro did work, but it's hard to say much more than that because speed is dependant on your hardware, & it doesn't change or convert anything. If copying is slow BTW, check out MediaCodeSpeedEdit. A newer alternative I haven't tried is the free BDlot DVD ISO Master [bdlot.com]. The old stand-bys AFAIK are still DVDFab & AnyDVD. ------------------- WinX Blu-Ray Decrypter works -- it's not perfect, but I'm not sure what if anything is. WinX Blu-Ray Decrypter copies either the main title on a Blu-Ray disc to your hard drive, or it can copy the entire disc. IN a head to head comparison with DVDFab, copying the complete disc, using a less protected Blu-Ray disc as the source [not on purpose, but that's what I had available], I put the 2 std. folders that had been copied to the hard drive, BMDV & CERTIFICATE, into a Blu-Ray ISO using ImgBurn. I then mounted those ISOs using Daemon Tools [GOTD], & tried both PowerDVD & Cineplayer on them. The DVDFab version worked, though the menu video was breaking up quite a bit -- in my experience I have the same results with Daemon Tools as when burned to disc. The WinX copies did not play. The WinX copy also had an extra, WinX folder, & I tried including that as well without any change. It is possible that burned to disc the WinX copy might play in some stand-alone players, but with *my* player as I've said, what it does in Daemon Tools is what it does on disc in that player. I wanted to mention that testing first, since Digiarty has released a new version of their Blu-Ray Decrypter since my original download on 8/31. As far as I can tell the newer version fixes a simple bug where all the other sub-folders in BDMV were stuffed into the STREAM sub-folder. I copied the same Blu-Ray disc twice to test both WinX versions [+ a 3rd time for the DVDFab trial] -- putting the folders in their proper place the 1st version copy was identical to the 2nd version's. Since in either case the result wasn't playable, if you got the earlier version I'm not sure if you'd want to bother updating or not. If the copy of the entire disc isn't playable, AFAIK the only advantage to having the complete disc is if you want to extract the other included video, whether for menus or special features etc. The original most often uses Java, & there's no easy way to alter or repair that -- remaking the disc without Java is 'bout the best you can do currently, unless you want to spend a Lot of money. Alternatively of course the WinX Blu-Ray Decrypter will copy just the main file to your hard drive as a m2ts file. Compared to the WinX app, DVDFab puts that single movie into a Blu-Ray folder layout on your hard drive or into an ISO, & either is playable if burned to disc. Which is better depends on what you intend to do with it. The video on a Blu-Ray disc is very often split between several files, so if you're not going to burn the DVDFab results as-is, you'll most often have to use something like the free Blu Rip to extract individual audio, video, & subtitle files -- the video will be put into an mkv container. That said, the m2ts file the WinX Blu-Ray Decrypter gives you is Not as compatible as mkv, & you might have to use something like Blu Rip anyway. Additional features with DVDFab include selecting just what audio & sub tracks are copied, stripping out HD audio etc., but whether any of those features are worth the added cost is up to you & your pocketbook. The free multiAVCHD does allow you to put your video into a Blu-Ray disc layout, & there are several tools like BDRebuilder that can among other things make the video files small enough to fit on a BD25 [if necessary] or even a DVD. Blu-Ray video can be re-encoded to 1440 x 1080 or 720p, using Blu-Ray spec mpg2 or AVC, & be burned to a Blu-Ray spec DVD -- in many cases you won't see the difference. AVC takes longer to encode, & whether you use mpg2 or AVC bear in mind that there are Blu-Ray profiles that meet compliance testing, as well as profiles that do not. Run a test 1st, or risk a surprise when Blu-Ray authoring software insists on a re-encode, or if/when a player won't play the discs. If you're planning on going from Blu-Ray to DVD or smaller frame sizes, also test -- it is Very Easy to introduce shimmering wherever there's a horizontal line or edge, &/or moire patterns, & it seems to depend on the encoder & encoder settings. It's a byproduct of the downsize that in my experience gets worse the higher the quality of the original -- FWIW I 1st saw these sorts of defects downsizing DVD size video to 320 x 240 years ago. The "WinX Blu-ray Decrypter" program folder holds 13 files, ~14 MB, & again you get a folder under User App/Application Data + 1 new registry key for uninstall. Unlike the other WinX apps however Blu-Ray Decrypter saves a MachineCode when you run it & register -- you may find it won't register after their free offer expires. An alternative I didn't look at because it's not 100% compatible on this system is AnyDVD's Blu-Ray version, which unlocks a disc with DRM so it can be used with another app like Clown_BD. That may be your prefered solution -- many people certainly think so -- but all I can do unfortunately is point it out. You can also use the AnyDVD software to copy a Blu-Ray disc to an ISO file -- I've confirmed it works in a VM -- but that isn't a solution for every disc or everybody. delenn13 on "Week 154 - Good Games to Grab - Loop Raccord (video arcade)" http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/10315#post-94617 Wed, 31 Aug 2011 00:33:22 +0000 delenn13 94617@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ Ditto, roblou62. Thanks, Chazzo! WOW, 3 yrs, Wabbit. Hard to believe that. roblou62 on "Week 154 - Good Games to Grab - Loop Raccord (video arcade)" http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/10315#post-94572 Mon, 29 Aug 2011 13:46:32 +0000 roblou62 94572@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ Thanks Chazzo. This game is out of this world, lol. It is something so different. Plus it is kind of funny too. I suggest everyone give it a try. Whiterabbit-uk on "Week 154 - Good Games to Grab - Loop Raccord (video arcade)" http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/10315#post-94294 Sat, 20 Aug 2011 21:57:49 +0000 Whiterabbit-uk 94294@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ Thanks Chazzo, I hope you enjoyed your vacation. Sorry I've not replied to your PM yet. Been rather distracted. I've been putting together a small collection of games in readiness to post in two weeks time for the third anniversary of the start of the project. I usually try to post a good mix of genres to celebrate. (Wow I can't believe we've been posting games for three years now). chazzo125 on "Week 154 - Good Games to Grab - Loop Raccord (video arcade)" http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/10315#post-94293 Sat, 20 Aug 2011 21:04:38 +0000 chazzo125 94293@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ Thanks Inas, it's certainly a very different from the usual type of game! :) Inas on "Week 154 - Good Games to Grab - Loop Raccord (video arcade)" http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/10315#post-94292 Sat, 20 Aug 2011 20:53:24 +0000 Inas 94292@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ sounds like an interesting and unique game.... chazzo125 on "Week 154 - Good Games to Grab - Loop Raccord (video arcade)" http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/10315#post-94290 Sat, 20 Aug 2011 20:49:13 +0000 chazzo125 94290@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ Loop Raccord (70.5Mb) Can you piece together 12 video clips to produce one continuous series of movements? You can start and stop individual clips, and advance or rewind each clip one frame at a time, in your quest to get them all to ‘gel’ together smoothly. It’s an unusual game produced for an experimental ‘never-ending’ game competition and the only video-editing game I can recall. <center><img src="http://www.gamasutra.com/db_area/images/igf/Loop_Raccord/screenshot.jpg"></center> The game starts off with three video clips on the viewing pane and as you advance through the levels eventually has twelve clips to smoothly merge together. The order you play the clips in has a limited number of possibilities with three clips, though you still have to find the ‘merge’ points. Once there are twelve clips showing in the pane, it’s going to be a huge challenge to sort them into any meaningful order and then find which frame to start them from and finish them on to link them together. There's the added complication of controlling how fast each clip runs. <center><img src="http://playthisthing.com/files/gamenodeimages/loop_raccord_lg.jpg"></center> You can restart at any time, and reset all of the clips to the beginning, to try again. There’s an aspect of speculating what the game’s author was thinking in trying to piece the clips together and it’s the game’s decision as to what is accepted as the ‘correct’ sequence. The game decides which clips you can ‘edit’ which partly forces your hand. If a clip’s movement moves off to the right for instance, you’ll need to catch some movement or other starting to the left on the next clip. You are rewarded with a suitable message and a point score, if successful, and then presented with the next level. <center><img src="http://www.infinitelives.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/raccordsshot.jpg"> </center> You have to set the speed and loop points for each video clip to try to get the smoothest movement between clips. The left mouse button stops/starts the selected clip and the right button reverses the clip's direction of play. The mouse wheel advances or reverses the clip one frame at a time. The menu and in-game help are in English, and 'Alt' + 'F4' exits the game. Video is normally used as cutscenes or as interactive video in games, here, you very cleverly actually control each video clip as the game element itself. It’s an extraordinary concept, synchronizing video clips, but makes for a very compelling and highly addictive game! Additional Review <a href="http://www.frostclick.com/wp/index.php/2011/03/14/loop-raccord-one-of-a-kind-video-splicing-game/">HERE</a> Download (from home page) <a href="http://pluralgames.blogspot.com/2010/09/loop-raccord.html">HERE</a> ---- (found under the videos, the game’s home page is in Spanish (with some French)) Alternative Download <a href="http://gamejolt.com/freeware/games/other/loop-raccord/3601/">HERE</a> Whiterabbit-uk on "Miro Video Converter 2: Free, Open-Source Update" http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/7594#post-78066 Thu, 10 Jun 2010 11:31:19 +0000 Whiterabbit-uk 78066@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ Thanks Idunno. :) Idunnobutiwastold on "Miro Video Converter 2: Free, Open-Source Update" http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/7594#post-78058 Thu, 10 Jun 2010 05:32:56 +0000 Idunnobutiwastold 78058@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ Description: "This update adds support for the brand new WebM video format, which has the potential to finally eliminate the mess of patent restricted video formats. Also, support has been added for new devices, including the iPad and the Droid Incredible". Homepage + Download (8.5 Mb): <a href="http://www.mirovideoconverter.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.mirovideoconverter.com/</a> Announcement: <a href="http://pcf8.pculture.org/interspire/display.php?M=243410&C=e62213e699da93c741dd98732fed1172&S=32&L=3&N=3" rel="nofollow">http://pcf8.pculture.org/interspire/display.php?M=243410&C=e62213e699da93c741dd98732fed1172&S=32&L=3&N=3</a> hotdoge3 on "The end of Flash IE9 will support playback of H.264 video only" http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/7432#post-76622 Sun, 09 May 2010 01:00:16 +0000 hotdoge3 76622@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ Yes I did know that H.264 is free only for non-commercial use and that (I believe it's next year) the owners of the codec will start collecting royalties? so how we get on with Firefox & Opera !! still if 2022 is right we have time is that wen IE 9 will come out I don't think it be that long !! time will tell. TK_M on "The end of Flash IE9 will support playback of H.264 video only" http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/7432#post-76620 Sun, 09 May 2010 00:44:32 +0000 TK_M 76620@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ There is another complication to this - MS have said IE9 will NOT work on XP, so forcing more of us to upgrade before the end of the offical support for XP. The alternative is to use a different browser that will support HTML5 - But will they support H.264? Will MS try to make their version of HTML5 just slightly different to everyone else's to force IE9 on us as they did in the past? Finally, do you know that H.264 is free only for non-commercial use and that (I believe it's next year) the owners of the codec will start collecting royalties? This is going to be a bit of mess if they get it wrong. Flash might not be as dead as it sounds yet? hotdoge3 on "The end of Flash IE9 will support playback of H.264 video only" http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/7432#post-76619 Sun, 09 May 2010 00:29:38 +0000 hotdoge3 76619@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <a href="http://www.betanews.com/article/Actual-Analysis-Is-HTML-5-already-outmoded/1273009131" rel="nofollow">http://www.betanews.com/article/Actual-Analysis-Is-HTML-5-already-outmoded/1273009131</a> When W3C itself projects 2022 (no, that's not a typo) as the earliest date that a final HTML 5 specification can be completed and published, some are actually saying that date is optimistic. !! IE 9 year !! hope not 2022 ⓒⓗⓘⓟ on "The end of Flash IE9 will support playback of H.264 video only" http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/7432#post-76464 Thu, 06 May 2010 03:02:48 +0000 ⓒⓗⓘⓟ 76464@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ I wonder what the point of having Adobe Flash installed is if the future means no flash lol. Does this mean making flash things for the web will be pointless if all browsers do away with this lol. GMMan, A+, Game Modder on "The end of Flash IE9 will support playback of H.264 video only" http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/7432#post-76445 Wed, 05 May 2010 20:30:45 +0000 GMMan, A+, Game Modder 76445@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ I think that's a good idea. Why have a middleman decode the video if the browser can do it by itself? For other video formats, there are plugins that will decode them. No problem. We don't need more flash video players that forces you to watch ads before it plays. (You can modify HTML to remove ads, dynamically too.) hotdoge3 on "The end of Flash IE9 will support playback of H.264 video only" http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/7432#post-76394 Tue, 04 May 2010 22:11:17 +0000 hotdoge3 76394@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <a href="http://apple.slashdot.org/story/10/04/30/1037230/Microsoft-Tips-the-Scale-In-Favor-of-HTML-5" rel="nofollow">http://apple.slashdot.org/story/10/04/30/1037230/Microsoft-Tips-the-Scale-In-Favor-of-HTML-5</a> Microsoft Tips the Scale In Favor of HTML 5 "Dean Hachamovitch, General Manager for Internet Explorer at Microsoft, has announced that IE9 will use only the H.264 standard to play HTML 5 video. Microsoft seems to have become very committed to HTML 5, while Flash loses even more ground. The announcement came the same day Steve Jobs detailed why Apple does not accept Flash on iPhone and iPad." <a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2010/04/29/html5-video.aspx" rel="nofollow">http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2010/04/29/html5-video.aspx</a> IE9 will support playback of H.264 video only.