DVD Play your ripped DVDs with VLC

Lifehacker has a program called DVD Play that works with VLC to easily open and play your DVDs (more easily than VLC does alone, that is).

Video conferencing beams you in

MakeUseOf has a post on MeBeam, the free video conferencing service.

This looks useful for committees and small groups to meet without the hassle and expense (and carbon footprint!) of traveling.  Set up a “room”, invite the others in.  You can also post a link to the room on a web site and invite people to join you at a certain time.

Instantly setup video conference rooms with at least 4 and up to 18 people simultaneously. No registration or sign up is required, just create your conference room and invite others to join. The only requirement is a working headset (the webcam is optional). There’s a text chat window also.

There is a minor limitation: “All members must have a photo avatar of themselfs [sic]. This is to allow us to know who we are testing with, and to stop spam bots using our forum as a dumping ground.  Photos must be a clear headshot and must also contain no nudity.”

HandBrake for converting DVDs

Need to convert a DVD to a computer format?

HandBrake can convert video from a number of sources, including a DVD and a DVD image, and audio too, including MPEG audio tracks. It can convert to a digital file in a variety of formats, including MPEG-4, AVI, OGM for video, or AAC, MP3, and Ogg Vorbis for audio.

You can select individual DVD chapters, get subtitles, and have plenty of control over your recording, including selecting the bit rate, maximum file size for video, and bit rate and sample rate for audio.

MediaCoder to convert audio and video files

“MediaCoder is a free universal batch media transcoder, which nicely integrates most popular audio/video codecs and tools into an all-in-one solution. With a flexible and extendable architecture, new codecs and tools are added in constantly as well as supports for new devices. MediaCoder intends to be the swiss army knife for media transcoding in all time…”

Features In Brief

• Convert to and from many audio and video compression formats and re-multiplex into various container formats in batches
• Full control over transcoding parameters, you can learn about audio/video encoding and play with various codecs
• Strong decoding capability for partial or corrupted contents
• Simplified UI for popular mobile devices (e.g. PSP, iPhone/iPod)
• Fully standalone, no dependance on system codecs/splitters
• Extension (scripting language) infrastructure to expand user interfaces and improve user experience

Typical Applications

• Improving compression / reducing size for audio/video files
• Converting for audio/video playback devices (digital audio player, MP4 player, mobile phone, PDA, PSP, VCD/DVD player etc.)
• Extracting audio tracks from video files
• Ripping audio/video discs
• Reparing corrupted or partial downloaded video files

vixy.net to convert FLV videos to MPEG4

Convert the online FLV file videos to MPEG4 format using vixy.net and the free online converter.

“This service allows you convert a Flash Video / FLV file (YouTube’s videos,etc) to MPEG4 (AVI/MOV/MP4/MP3/3GP) file online. It is using a compressed domain transcoder technology (outline in Japanese). It converts FLV to MPEG4 faster and less lossy than a typical transcoder.

When you submit a URL, it will download and convert to the video format, and then you can download the converted file.”

Note that doing this to YouTube and some other sites may be treated as a violation of copyright.  Please respect the rights of the owners of the files.

Virtual CD/DVD drives

Does anybody really like fumbling with CD cases and DVD cases? Especially when traveling? But if you want to while away the evening with a game or a movie (or even a long, boring meeting — turn the sound off first!)…

Basically, you need to be able to load the contents of your CD/DVD onto the hard drive — which will also be likely to speed up response time — so you can run the files as if they were on the CD/DVD drive. You need a virtual CD/DVD drive. Of course, since you already paid for the CD/DVD, it would be nice if the virtual (or clone) drive software were free. Here are some examples.

MagicDisc is freeware. “MagicDisc Virtual CD/DVD-ROM is a utility designed for creating and managing virtual CD drives and CD/DVD discs. MagicDisc Virtual CD/DVD-ROM emulates audio, data, and game CDs and DVDs with ISO image, CD and DVD images. MagicDisc Virtual CD/DVD-ROM offers 200x speed and noiseless CD/DVD access without a physical drive. It supports creating up to 15 virtual drivers. You can run games, software, see movies (VCD, SVCD, DVD), and hear music directly from your hard disk without inserting and swapping CDs and DVDs. MagicDisc allows you to use almost all CD/DVD image without burning them onto CD or DVD in order to easily access your favorite games, music, or software programs. It works like a real CD/DVD-ROM: You can run programs, play games, or listen to music from your virtual CD-ROM. It can compress ISO CUE MDS NRG CCD image; can encrypt ISO CUE MDS NRG CCD image; can make ISO image from CD/DVD; It can mount UDF only CD/DVD image and multi-session MDS/MDF and CCD/IMG image. Version 2.6.93 can set DVD Region Code.” Windows 98/Me/2000/XP/2003 Server/Vista.

DAEMON Tools Lite is freeware.

” DAEMON Tools is an advanced application for Microsoft Windows which provides THE best optical media emulation in the industry. !! THIS VERSION SUPPORTS 32 AND 64 BIT OS (Microsoft Windows XP, Windows2003, Windows 2000, VISTA) !!”

Microsoft Virtual CD Control Panel (warning: direct download link) Microsoft Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel is a free CD-ROM emulator that allows you to mount ISO images of CDROMs in a virtual drive. It is a rudimentary program that does not support copy-protected discs such as the game disks supported by commercial CD/DVD emulators. Note that the Virtual CD Control Panel link is a direct download link. It came from a Microsoft KnowledgeBase entry on an unrelated subject, which contains some instructions on how you can install the driver, add a virtual CD drive and mount your images. (If you are visiting that link for instructions about the Virtual CDROM Control Panel, simply ignore references to “Windows PE”.) You will also need to use a third party program to make your ISO images (if you don’t already have it). This is a Windows program. [this entry from www.thefreecountry.com]

Alcohol 52% Free Edition is freeware. “There are no limitations on this version, other than the ability to create only 6 virtual drives. Our retail version still supports 31 virtual drives. Remember you can not run Alcohol 52% if you have Alcohol 120% installed on the same drive. [Alcohol 120% is the pay version with more capabilities.] This version of Alcohol 52% is for private, non-commercial, single home computer use only.The license is provided personally to you and for that reason it does not allow you to make any duplicate (copy) to be sold, borrowed, assigned, leased or transferred. Emulation software allowing users to play CDs DVDs without the need for the physical disc. Notebook users and PC Game players would benifit the most from Alcohol 52% Supports 25 plus languages Can handle up to 6 virtual CD DVD-ROM drives, all at once. The reading speed of a virtual CD-ROM is 200X. This means you can play a CD from the virtual CD-ROM with 200X reading speed. Supports normal CD DVD and CD RAW sub-channel reading methods: RAW reading method enables to emulate all CDs. CD formats supported: CD-DA, CD+G, CD-ROM, CD-XA, Video CD, Photo CD, Mixed Mode, Multi-session CD DVD formats supported: DVD-ROM, DVD-Video, DVD-Audio Support for all current (ATAPI SCSI) drives: CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-RAM, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW Full support for IEEE-1394 (Firewire) and USB protocols. Winner of the 2006 Epsilon Award at the sixth annual European SharewareConference. Windows NT 3.x, Windows NT 4.x, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista.

SlySoft Virtual CloneDrive is freeware.

Features

• Supports all common image formats such as ISO, BIN, CCD
• Supports up to 8 virtual drives at the same time
• Easy to use - just double-click an image file to mount as a drive
• Virtual CloneDrive is freeware, you may use it at no cost.
• Windows 98/98SE/ME/2000/XP

TV viewing sites

Here’s a list of some of the sites that provide legal viewing of television programs (this post may be updated over time):

anytvplayer.com Watch local TV, world TV, Live TV, satellite TV from countries of all world in different languages on your PC with anyTV not just at home, but at the OFFICE , work or wireless. Watch 2630+ Online TV, 6910+ Video clips. Listen to 4750+ Online Radio. Using anyTV means you can watch numerous of international TVs without a television, TV Tuner Card or a satellite receiver. Watch anywhere you have your internet Online. No additional equipments required. anyTV is a completly FREE Software. It contains absolutely NO ADWARE, NO SPYWARE, NO REGISTRATION, NO POPUPS, NO MALWARE or other unwanted software. The channels are constantly updated to bring you up-to-date channel list. You can filter channels by genre, country, bitrate or content. Set up a favorites list for quick access to your favorite Radio/TV/Video channels online. Watch in regular or full-screen mode. anyTV supports both Windows Media & RealVideo. Channels from more than 100 countries.”

hulu.com “Hulu’s ambitious and never-ending mission is to help you find and enjoy the world’s premium content when, where and how you want it. We hope to provide you with the web’s most comprehensive selection from more than 50 content providers including FOX, NBC, MGM, Sony Pictures Television, Warner Bros., Lionsgate, and more to deliver premium programming across all genres and formats, television shows, feature films, and clips. Watch full-length episodes of current primetime TV shows such as The Simpsons and The Office the morning after they air, classics like Miami Vice and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and clips from Saturday Night Live, Nip/Tuck, and others. Hulu also offers full-length feature films like The Usual Suspects, Ice Age, Three Amigos!, and The Big Lebowski as well as clips from films such as Napoleon Dynamite, The 40 Year Old Virgin, Devil Wears Prada and many more. Hulu is free and ad-supported — available anytime in the U.S.”

[update 2008/6/2]

OVGuide offers “Free online movies: Free DivX movies with very good quality & full length” and a number of TV shows.  This seems to be a portal for a number of other sites with the actual content.

thePickApp for handy utilities

thePickApp is loaded with handy utilities like a free iPod video converter, a free audio CD creator, and many other useful items, many covering media but also some like a Registry cleaner.

How to record streaming media

Gizmo Richards’ TechSupport Alert newsletter has an article on how to record streaming media.

Note that while this may be possible under fair use for students in a one-time use for a paper or presentation, it is not appropriate for more than one use if the material is copyrighted.  A better way is to embed a link in your presentation that will download and play the media at the right time.

Comparing media players

Wikipedia has an entry with a big comparison of media players for audio and video files.

If you want to know what’s free and what’s not, what operating system it runs on, what features are in which players, and what formats each player covers, this looks like a pretty comprehensive list. It even gives the versions of the players evaluated. An impressive effort!

Video drivers for laptops

Some people report strange results with their laptops’ screens or sending video to other screens or projectors, which often means they need new video drivers.

One source for updated video drivers is called LaptopVideo2Go and seems popular and reputable.  They specialize in NVIDIA related drivers.

These are for XP and Vista.

BurnAware also does Blu-Ray

BurnAware Free Edition is a freeware program, comparable to Nero, that burns CDs and DVDs including Blu-Ray (BD-R/BD-RE), disk images, allows for multiple burn sessions so you can add successive backups to a disk or new software to a backup of your collection and it supports all current hardware.

The reviewer on Clif Notes Newsletter has set aside Nero in favor of this software.

uTipu captures screencast videos

“uTipu offers one of the easiest ways of recording and sharing video screencasts online. If you ever tried to remotely explain someone how to do something on the computer then you know it can be both difficult and frustrating. uTIPu helps you easily SHOW what needs to be done by creating a video recording of your screen. “  They also offer free storage for your new videos.

Recommended by MakeUseOf.

Joost the video, please

Joost is freeware that lets you access video, including some popular TV shows (Star Trek, Comedy Central, PBS, CBS, and others).  You can customize your feed to watch just the shows you want.

Create music tracks and mixes yourself

TrakAx “TrakAx empowers you to create professional music and video mixes in an easy-to-use and fun environment. Whether you are creating a music track for your MySpace page or a video for YouTube, TrakAxPC is the most powerful FREE application on the web.” Has trakPacks by sound types and instruments.

[Note: this was not tried by the recommending eletter; use at your own risk.]

Zamzar goes for the conversion

Zamzar will convert a number of formats to other formats, for free, and email you a link to the new format’s file.

Zamzar does documents, images (graphics), music (audio/sound), video, and compressed formats — far too many to list. Check the list for all the current files.

While you do have to wait for the email to get the link to your converted file, it’s free and will convert things like Real Player files to mp3, and Windows .wma to mp3, and so on.

It will also convert YouTube videos to formats that work in PowerPoint.

Recommended by Tech Support Alert newsletter.

Touch and Feel the web with Toufee freeware

Create your own flash movies for use on websites and elsewhere with the free service at Toufee.  This is a flash movie uploading and editing site (registration required) which is intended for amateur creation of flash movies.  Recommended by MakeUseOf.

BitTorrent downloads from PBS

Here are some PBS BitTorrent sources:

• Scientific American Frontiers
• NOVA
• Newshour
• Frontline
• Frontline World

BitTorrent sites with downloads

The Best BitTorrent List from techsupportalert.com: “This list is simply sensational. It not only lists lots of sites but categorizes them under headings such as: Educational, Trackers, Private Trackers, Sports, Television and more. A mandatory bookmark for torrent fans.” [note: this site may contain some links to extralegal file sites; the Library does not condone or endorse any such activity.]

Freeware for Internet TV viewing: Miro

Clif Notes Newsletter has a look at Miro, an open source (freeware open to lots of programmers to improve and update).

Miro is for anyone who wants to view TV programs over the Internet, including the many new Internet video channels, as well as “any video file.”   HDTV is included, too.

It also handles YouTube videos, video podcasts, and BitTorrent files, in “an elegant fullscreen viewing experience.”  It’s described as “a TIVO for the Internet.”