Here it is possible to change the output directory and video bitrate before the queued videos are processed. Advanced users can edit batch files with advanced settings that are located in the program’s installation directory. These batch files contain the default configuration for the video to mkv conversion. The standard settings produce great results but advanced users might want to tweak the settings further to improve the quality of the output further.

Video To MKV will automatically detect several subtitle formats (srt, idx, sub) which are then automatically embedded in the mkv file that is created. The software program supports multiple audio channels as well.

Video To MKV is an easy to use program. All it takes to convert videos to the mkv format is to drag and drop them into the interface to process them one after the other. Advanced users can tweak the settings in the supplied batch files. Not the most comfortable way of editing the video conversion settings but better than no options to tweak them at all.

The software is available for download at the developer’s website. It is compatible with most versions of Microsoft Windows and does not need any additional software installed to function properly.

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It is possible to combine filters as well using the checkboxes. Videos are displayed with their name, size, source and several thumbnail screenshots which usually gives a good indication of the video’s contents. Video search results can be sorted in several ways including relevance, popularity, duration or date they have been added.

It is furthermore possible to save a video search and to embed it in a website. Videosurf comes with two Firefox add-ons that make it more comfortable to search for videos. Videos at a Glance will display visual video thumbnails while the Videosurf Search Plugin adds the video search engine to the list of Firefox search engines.

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Winamp by default comes with the option to import the iTunes media library. It does however not include a similar option to import media from Windows Media Player which is why the software program has been created by the developer.

The application can import the Windows Media Player library into Winamp. This includes audio and videos files, all metadata including ratings and play counts.

The software comes with a few options to customize the import of the Windows Media Player library. It is possible to import all media files or only audio or video files. There is also an option to only import audio and video from an existing playlist.

Three additional options are available. It is possible to ignore files that are already in the Winamp Media Library, remove files from the Winamp Media Library that are not in the Windows Media Player Library and to automatically import on Winamp startup.

The program will not make any changes to Windows Media Player no matter which settings are selected in the application.

Windows Media Player Import is available at the developer’s website. It requires Windows 2000 or higher (means it is compatible with Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7), Winamp 5 or higher and Windows Media Player 9 or higher.

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Yahoo Downloader is another Firefox extension that has been designed to download videos from portals like Youtube, Yahoo or CNN but also music from sites like Pandora, Last.fm or Imeem. Probably the most interesting feature for many users is the ability to automatically download videos from these websites.

The Firefox add-on places an icon in the Firefox address bar. Some users might not like the location of the icon as it is placed on the left side of the address bar. This can however be easily changed by right-clicking blank space on that toolbar and selecting the customize option. The Yahoo Downloader icon can then be dragged and dropped to another location, toolbar or even removed completely as it is not needed for most of the functionality.

A left-click on the icon will display the window of the download that will list all the videos that have been discovered in open tabs in the Firefox web browser.A click on the download it button will start the download. This can be automated if automatic downloads have been enabled in the options of the Firefox add-on. This setting makes it very comfortable to download youtube videos or videos and music from the other supported audio and video portals.

All videos will be downloaded to a location on the local computer system which can also be changed in the options of the add-on. Yahoo Downloader is a great add-on for users who download many videos or music and want to automate the process as much as possible.

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There are hundreds, if not thousands of content channels to choose from the latest movie trailers to the most popular Youtube videos to Ubuntu guides. It is also possible to add feeds that you discover that are not already included in Miro. These feeds will be handled just like any other feed.

It is possible to auto download new posts from the subscribed feeds or to download them manually. Miro offers a built in Torrent client as well which makes it possible to download audio and video torrents to watch them in the interface as well.

Version 2.5 of Miro comes with some serious (that’s what the developers call it) speed and memory usage improvements. It can be downloaded from the nightlies downloads page.

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An avi to mp4 converter can be used to convert the videos so that they can be played on these devices. Probably the easiest to use avi to mp4 converter is Convert Avi To Mp4 which can convert avi videos with minimal user interaction to the mp4 format.

The main advantage of this software program is that it supports a wide variety of input formats ranging from avi to mpeg, wmv, divx and xvid. All of these formats can be converted to mp4 without the need for external programs or codecs. Everything is built in and it only takes a few seconds to start the conversion.

Convert Avi to Mp4 is compatible with most Windows operating system including Windows XP and Windows Vista. Some users might find the avi to mp4 converter to easy to use as it does not come with any settings or parameters that can be changed. Users who simply want to convert a video format to mp4 without having to set any conversion parameters will find Convert Avi To Mp4 the perfect companion for that undertaking.

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And so…I thought it would be smart to write about the best tools to play certain media types. Understand that these are the best in my opinion. You might hear differently from every other user.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at the best audio and video viewing tools available.

Audio

XMMS. Call me a purist but for straight up audio you can not beat XMMS. No you will not be able to manage your iPod with this tool. But for pure music enjoyment, nothing beats it. And if you were a Winamp user you are in luck because it works the same way. There is one hiccup with using XMMS. If you plan on playing MP3 files, like everyone does, you’ll have to uninstall the XMMS installed on your distribution (if one was in fact installed), and make sure you install the player xmms-mp3 instead. Once installed you can enjoy: mp3, acc, ape, flac, icecase/shoutcast, ogg, shn, speex, tta, wav, wavpack, wma. XMMS is also themeable for all you desktop hipters ;-).

Rhythmbox

Of all the music managers, my favorite is Rhythmox. Rhythmbox was inspired by iTunes so, as you can imagine, it integrates well with iPods and other such devices. And although you can not use Rhythmbox with the iTunes store, you can download music from both Magnatune and Jamendo. Rythmbox also supports DAAP sharing which allows you to connect to a centralized server. Rhythmbox uses Gstreamer so it supports a wide range of audio formats.

Banshee

Banshee is another favorite that manages to one-up Rhythmbox by being the first Linux media manager to integrate with the Android-based G1 phone. Banshee offers all of the features of Rhythmbox minus the ability to download music from a “store”. Banshee does, however, include last.fm stream support. The list of audio files Banshee supports is smaller than that of XMMS mp3, acc, ogg, and wav.

Video

Mplayer

Mplayer is not usually the default video player in Linux nor is it the easiest to install or get running. But when you do get it installed and running it works flawlessly. There are some distributions (such as Elive Compiz) that install MPlayer as the default movie player which plays video files and DVDs perfectly.

VLC

VLC is typically the favorite “universal” media player. This little gem really can play it all. And the beauty of VLC is that it’s cross platform, so if you know VLC in Windows or Mac, you will know it in Linux. VLC supports MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, ogg, as well as DVDs, VCDs, and streaming. VLC is not nearly the installation nightmare of most other video players. If your distribution does not default to VLC, you might want to give it a try before you resign yourself to the idea that Linux and video do not make good bedfellows.

XINE

When all else fails, XINE. XINE is one of the more well done, reliable, versatile of the media players. XINE plays CDs, DVDs, VCDs,? and decodes multimedia files like AVI, MOV, WMV, and MP3. You can also install support for mov and mp4 media as well as real player files. XINE is that media player I install when my current distro doesn’t play well with VLC or Mplayer.

Final Thoughts

Viewing media files doesn’t have to be difficult, even in the Linux operating system. Although this list isn’t exhaustive, it is the best of the best IMHO. Any of the above players should work well for you.

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A click on the Download will open a download window that contains name and download path suggestions. These can be changed in the interface if they are not to the user’s liking. A click on OK will download the selected video using the preferences shown in the download window.

Another interesting option is to transcode videos automatically by clicking on the transcode button. This brings up another menu with options to select the file format, quality and size.

The video streaming downloader will also display a small window with download information that include the current bitrate and status. It is not really clear how the video acceleration works. Videos seemed to load a bit faster but this could have been also caused by a good connection. If you test the application let us know if it was able to speed up video playback noticeably.

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ITV Player uses Microsoft’s Silverlight format to stream its media, which allows it to be played on Windows and Macs. Users report problems with it working under the Linux build of Silverlight. The website itself looks quite slick but is nowhere as near as nice to use as BBC’s iPlayer.

The service allows users to watch shows like Coronation Street but I cannot see any way to download these episodes to watch portably as you can with iPlayer.

Whilst it’s nice to see ITV using a non-Windows only brand (unlike Channel 4), it would have been good had they used a more universal format like Flash or OGG.

There are a few other issues with it. Many shows can’t be watch live due to licensing issues, the video is too small and the only options are small or fullscreen – unlike iPlayer. ITV Player also fails to offer HD shows.

I think ITV Player will either be drastically improved or scrapped! I’m surprised ITV are in-touch enough with the public to stay clear of DRM but I’m disappointed they used Silverlight and made it incompatible with Linux. The interface needs work too.

I expect the site won’t work outside the UK but it’s still a convenient service British readers may have overlooked. If it does work outside, please comment and let us know!

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The site makes creating a video presentation easily: to create one, all you must do is simply upload some pictures, or import them from a website, upload a song, or choose one from their, and finalise it. The presentation can then be shared or downloaded.

Whilst you may think you can do all of this in a desktop video editor such as Windows Movie Maker, animoto does it much quicker, has good production and analyses the sound and pictures and mixes them together to ensure they flow well. Humans have an input too; deciding the order in which to put the pictures, the ability to add text and ability to put more emphasis on particular images.

Slideshows speak better than words, so view mine of my holiday in Poland in 2007.

Unfortunately, animoto has some limitations.

In order to have higher-definition presentations or to make them last longer than 30 seconds, the user must pay. To remove the time limit, it’s either $3/video or $30/year and to allow them to be at DVD quality, you must pay $5/video. This may sound expensive, but in my opinion it’s worth it if you need to put on a good presentation. Only full-length videos (ie those you’ve paid $3 for) can be downloaded.

An application is also available for iPhones so you can view animoto presentations on them.

animoto allows presentations to be shared straight into most social networking sites like MySpace, Orkut and Facebook and images can be imported from Flickr, Smugmug, Facebook, Photobucket or Picasa.

(Thanks to Azhar Chougle for introducing me to animoto.)

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First things first, you’ll need to download the Linux binary of Floola from the Floola download page. Once you have the tar file downloaded unpack it with the command tar xvzf Floola-linux.tar.gz which will create a new directory called Floola-linux. Move into that new directory and, as the root user, issue the command cp Floola /usr/bin/. Copying the Floola binary into /usr/bin will allow Floola to be run globally.

Now you will need to mount your iPod. You can refer to my article Connect your iPod to gtkpod for instructions on the mounting procedure.

Once your iPod is mounted you can start up Floola. You will first have to configure the make of iPod you have connected. After you have the iPod type configured Floola will see the iPod and list all of data. Now on to the video download. Well, almost. Before you can actually get the video to your iPod you will need fmpeg installed in order to handle the conversion. Fmpeg can be installed by either doing a search for fmpeg in your Add/Remove Software utility or you can issue a command similar to urpmi fmpeg (for Mandriva) or apt-get install fmpeg (for Ubuntu.)

With fmpeg installed NOW it’s time for the video madness to start. With Floola open go to the Item menu and select Add From Web. A new window will open with a button for Add URL. Click that and a smaller window will open to copy and paste the Youtube video url and click OK.

Floola Add Video

When you see your Video listed in the Add From Web window select the video and click OK. This will start the process. Now it’s time to sit back and watch as the video downloads and then is converted. Depending upon the speed of your machine, this could take quite a while.

Once the video is converted a new window will open where you will need to click the Add button so the video is actually added to the iPod.

Adding File

Once you click the Add button your video will be transferred. But you’re not done yet. In order for your iPod to be in sync you will first close Floola and then unmount your iPod. With your iPod unmounted you are ready to enjoy your new video! You will be amazed at the quality of video transferred, it’s quite good.

And that’s it! Now you can have plenty of video goodness on your iPod with next to no effort.

Oh, and since Floola is freeware, you might consider donating to the author. If you do you will get rid of a 4-second nag screen upon closing.

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The search engine is indexing the contents of those websites and providing a search engine so that users can search all sites for multimedia content at once. The search results are therefor a combination of all multimedia portals. Results can be filtered by media type (video, audio, radio, games..) and sorted by factors like popularity, relevancy or rating.

Content that has been selected will be played in the main interface which uses independent blocks that can be moved around. It is for instance possible to search for additional videos while one is already playing. The multimedia content is simply embedded in the site which means that the basic controls of the site’s players is available.

One major nuisance of the multimedia search engine is that only four results are displayed per page which could mean some serious page flipping when searching for popular terms.

Registered users receive additional options like the ability to save or embed multimedia files or build a personal multimedia collection. The service is showing promise. It’s a little bit slow when it comes to displaying results to the user which quickly becomes annoying considering that only four results per page are displayed.

On the other hand: If you are looking for a way to search hundreds of sites for multimedia content you might want to give Video Crawler a try.

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I have spotted a Pepsi advertisement on Youtube that is airing in South-America only which has all the traits of an interesting fun to watch ad. Honestly, what can go wrong if you combine Kung Fu Fighting, Mini Me and Godzilla in an ad?

Interestingly enough that’s not all there is to be seen and done for the viewer. They did release a free browser widget for Nokia Mobile phones built by interactive design & marketing group AgencyNet that can be downloaded free of charge from a newly created website. Supported languages are Spanish, Portuguese and English. The Pepsimundo website itself is only in Spanish but easy enough to navigate.

How does this ad compare to the ads you usually see when turning on the television?

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One of the initial advantages of Joost was the software client. Yes, it had its problems but it provided interesting features that are hard to impossible to realize in a web client. For one, switching between channels and shows was more or less instant, the web client delays requests because that is how the web works.

Users do need an account before they can watch any show on the website which is one of the big drawbacks of the system. The other drawback is the lack of mainstream media. Yes, you find some tv shows that are free to watch for users from authorized countries but there is not a lot mainstream wise that you cannot watch somewhere else on the Internet.

What Joost needs more than anything else is killer content. Not necessarily tv series like 24 or Alias. It could be something more geeky exotic like a huge Anime archive or Independent movies. There should also be room for educational content.

Joost cannot compete with Youtube because of the sheer mass and sites like Hulu because of their content.

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TubeMaster (via Download online video using TubeMaster Plus) is one of those applications. The portable application supports more than 100 video portals including the ever popular Youtube and Dailymotion but also some unsuspected ones like Hulu, IGN or ESPN. Not all web video portals could be tested because some will only show the videos to users of specific countries. A test of downloading web video from Hulu would be greatly appreciated.

The application uses its own browser that can be used to display the video portal websites. Videos will be automatically downloaded when they are played on the portal. This is unfortunately the only way to download videos from the various websites.

It is still a comfortable way to download web video. Besides the option to load the websites directly users can also use the search engine included to search for various on single or all web video websites.

A maximum of 500 search results can be displayed. The videos cannot be downloaded directly from the search. A click displays additional information about the selected web video and an option to load the video on the video portal’s website from where it will be automatically downloaded when it starts playing.

Another option is the mp3 search which leaves the user in the dark from where the files are coming. Quicktime is needed to play and download the mp3.

Videos can be automatically decoded which is the default option in TubeMaster. The user can choose between various video codecs and stop the conversion.

Tubemaster supports adult web video sites as well but that option is locked for users who subscribe to the service. Downloading from the “normal” web video portals is completely free though.

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The main argument for using DeVeDe is the ease if use of this application. It just takes a minute to add the videos to the application and start the creation of the DVD which does not require user input at all. The program keeps the advanced parameters like audio and video bitrates in configuration dialogs that a normal user does not need to bother to look into.

One nice feature of the video to DVD software is the ability to automatically adjust the size and the quality of the videos that are added to the application so that all movies fit on the selected medium. The medium that is created can have a size between 185 Megabytes and 8.5 Gigabytes which can be selected from templates.

The user can specify the output format of each video file that he adds, select an audio track if multiple are available and add subtitles from the computer. Advanced users can take a look at detailed information and settings and change settings like the aspect ratio, the scaling mode or several quality settings.

The title menu of the DVD can be configured extensively. A user who just wants to play the videos one after the other can keep the default settings. Users who want to define font size, background image and sounds can do that as well.

If the computer uses more than one cpu core then users should enable the optimization for multi-core cpus in the advanced options of the main menu. The video to DVD software saves the new DVD in iso format on the hard drive which can then be burned to a blank DVD. Other options include the creation of a video_ts folder.

DeVeDe is an excellent video to DVD program for Windows and Linux.

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One of the best, or at least one with lots of options to choose from, is Media Converter. The music and video converter supports a wide range of file types like flv, avi, mp3 or pdf that can be uploaded and converted online. That’s only part of their service though. Instead of uploading files to Media Converter to convert them online it is possible to point the service to a supported website and convert the media files found on that site directly.

This has the advantage that the source file does not have to be downloaded or uploaded. Only the final product has to be downloaded to the local computer. The media can be converted in the process. Pointing Media Converter to a Youtube video makes it possible to convert the video to mp3, ogg or one of the supported video formats before downloading the converted product.

Another interesting feature of Media Converter is the ability to convert video or music from protocols like rstp, mms or http. All those services are free of charge. Premium users get access to a handful of additional video portals, a larger file size limit, unlimited conversions per day, a higher priority and quality of recording.

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Computer scientists at the University of Washington have developed a software application that automatically enhances a video by using several photographs of the same scene. This takes the higher resolution and detail of photos in comparison to videos into account to deliver stunning enhanced videos.

Take a look at the original images in the upper row and the enhanced images in the lower row.

While it might be nice to see the differences on photos it is more interesting to see a video with moving pictures and a voice explaining the technique in greater detail.

The technique has a few limitations. It currently works only on static scenes, meaning scenes with no moving objects except for the camera and lighting. It furthermore takes roughly 5 minutes to compute one 800×600 frame.

A code dump of the project is available on the project’s website which might be useful as a reference for implementing the algorithm.

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The Home Cinema edition adds a few handy functions and features to Media Player Classic. It adds a function to remove tearing, additional video decoders such as H.264 and VC-1 with DXVA support, support for EVR renderer and better Windows Vista support including a release for 64-bit versions of Windows Vista.

The modification also adds several language translations which may come in handy for users who prefer a version in their own language. Definitely one of the best choices for media PCs. Runs extremely well on low end PCs.

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You do need the program Virtualdub, a video file and some sort of audio file. Now start Virtualdub and either open the video using the File > Open Video File dialog or drag and drop it into the program interface. The video can be played right away in the software. You see it twice because the left one is the original video and the right one the processed video. If you only change the audio they will look alike.

Click on Video and make sure Full Processing Mode is activated. Switch to the Audio menu and make sure Direct Stream Copy is active in here. Select the Audio from other file option and pick a audio file on your hard drive. It will be automatically integrated in your video and play in normal speed.

Hit the play button at the bottom to see the video and listen to your audio. It should be in sync. If you are satisfied with the result you can select a compression for the video in the Video > Compression menu and save the video afterwards in File > Save as Avi.

Normally the music will not have the same length as the video and you could sync both by adjusting the frame rate of the video. Click on Video > Frame Rate. Notice the Change so Video and Audio Durations Match ? If you select that option the audio and video will have the same playtime. This means however that the frame rate of the video will either be increased (if the audio is shorter) or decreased (if the audio is longer).

So your video will either play faster or slower depending on your selection. A good tip is to convert the fps to the original fps as well in the same menu. I try to find audio files that roughly have the same length as the video to avoid slow or super fast videos.

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