Recent Posts

351

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Bulk Image Downloader 33% off until April 30

« Last post by sajman99 on April 26, 2010, 04:15 PM »

...Does Bulk Image Downloader get the full-size images from galleries where only thumbnails are shown and you have to click on each to see the full image?

-J-Mac (April 26, 2010, 03:29 PM)

Yes indeed, that's the beauty of the program.  BID will decipher the URL and parse the data to uncover the full-sized images.

btw if you should want the thumbnails (for whatever reason), BID can do that as well via its "Embedded images" filter.

352

General Software Discussion / Re: HyperSnap now installs toolbar, without asking?

« Last post by sajman99 on April 20, 2010, 04:48 PM »

Yeah, these sneaky toolbar antics are getting out of control.

If we don't want or need some toolbar or other add-on, we shouldn't have to take time to uninstall the junk.

Having paid for this software, you have every right to complain. Seems to me you have been disrespected by Hyperionics.  

edit: Ah, perhaps an honest mistake was made and they will fix the issue promptly. If so--good for them!

353

General Software Discussion / Re: Comodo Dragon browser

« Last post by sajman99 on April 20, 2010, 02:35 PM »

When I tried Comodo Dragon some while back, I didn't see any advantages over SRWare Iron.

Could be Dragon's more secure in some way, but it wasn't apparent to me.

354

General Software Discussion / Re: Agent Ransack 2010 freeware lightweight - Desktop Search

« Last post by sajman99 on April 20, 2010, 02:11 PM »

For those who are not familiar with Agent Ransack, this small article by Ian "Gizmo" Richards  provides a nice overview:

http://www.techsuppo...t-windows-search.htm

Bottom Line-- he installed AR on his personal laptop.

355

General Software Discussion / Re: Video Editing software - Any recommendations?

« Last post by sajman99 on April 20, 2010, 01:54 PM »

Anyone know about this Pinnacle Video Spin? It's supposedly freeware, but I've not tried it myself.

My guess is it's quite limited, and they probably push an upgrade to the full commercial version.

Just figured I would mention it because the OP wanted free or cheap.

356

General Software Discussion / Re: HCenc beta

« Last post by sajman99 on April 17, 2010, 01:53 PM »

LOL, I'm also curious what Innuendo's DVD Rebuilder log files indicate on the total Rebuild Time.

I can only imagine what stunning times can be attained with his setup and DVD Rebuilder Pro.

357

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Western Digital Caviar Black WD6402AAEX 640GB 64 MB cache

« Last post by sajman99 on April 16, 2010, 02:24 PM »

Ah, thanks for sharing your experience.

ExcaliberPC.com seems to get fairly good reviews at ResellerRatings.com-- a 9.35 Lifetime rating and a 8.13 Six Month rating. Looks like a solid vendor.
http://www.resellerr...om/store/EXcaliberPC

358

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Bulk Image Downloader 33% off until April 30

« Last post by sajman99 on April 16, 2010, 01:51 PM »

Bulk Image Downloader version 3.9.0.2 has been released.

The developer is constantly adding image hosts and altering rule sets to keep up with hosting changes.

Despite its name, the newest versions of BID now handle video as well.

In a nutshell, BID is a specialized download tool which can download images and video found anywhere on the internet.

For $20 it's a no-brainer to get this app if you download images and/or video. It streamlines the process and saves a ton of time.

Disclaimer- I'm not affiliated with BID, just a satisfied customer trying to get the word out on a solid app.

359

General Software Discussion / Re: HCenc beta

« Last post by sajman99 on April 16, 2010, 01:10 PM »

DVD Rebuilder Free (which I have) and DVD Rebuilder Pro work a bit differently, but I too would guess there's no compatibility issue updating the HC .exe.

I've found HCenc to be excellent at low bitrate encoding, and I've been able to put 2.5-2.75 hour retail movies on a DVD5. Granted I don't have a gigantic screen HD TV, but the HC encodes look very nice on my modest equipment.

360

General Software Discussion / Re: HCenc beta

« Last post by sajman99 on April 15, 2010, 03:23 PM »

So what about the new optimized SSE version of HCenc?

Anybody experiment with that version? So far I've stuck with the standard version and haven't tested that so-called optimized version.

361

General Software Discussion / Re: HCenc beta

« Last post by sajman99 on April 15, 2010, 03:17 PM »

The few times I've tested HC 1 pass, the sampling phase seemed to take so long it almost felt counter-productive. I *think* with this April HC beta more frames are added in the 1 pass sampling in the effort to increase accuracy.

If I had a brand spanking new PC + DVD Rebuilder Pro supporting multiple instances of HC, I wouldn't even bother to consider 1 pass.

However, I do recognize the HC 1 pass "guessing game" works pretty well most of the time. Even the predictive quantization mode in good 'ole FAVC worked quite well.

362

General Software Discussion / Re: Ipod Recovery Program

« Last post by sajman99 on April 14, 2010, 02:15 PM »

I can only suggest you try a recovery program like Piriform's Recuva to attempt to locate the lost files.

You can get a portable build of this free tool Recuva here.

Good Luck.

363

General Software Discussion / Re: DuckDuckGo - new search engine

« Last post by sajman99 on April 14, 2010, 01:29 PM »

DuckDuckGo seems pretty good to me.

I did a few searches for software mentioned in this forum, and the DC results were there. Same searches in Google produced no DC results.

But I sure hope the Aflac duck doesn't find out about this.

364

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: FREE Ashampoo Burning Studio 2009

« Last post by sajman99 on April 12, 2010, 06:15 PM »

...and then there is this totally annoying advert for MyAshampoo Toolbar. Every time you open Burning Studio a pop up will tell you about MyAshampoo Toolbar, ..and will you believe: there is no option to remove the advert! Oh, I hate it! I have purchased a license for the Burning Studio program, so how dare they turn my program into adware??!!! If you protest, they will tell you that you can get rid of the advert by installing (and disabling) their toolbar!!!!!!!!
 

-Curt (April 12, 2010, 05:33 PM)

LOL. Thanks for telling. Those type of shenanigans also make my head spin. I'm stressed enough without having some silly advertisement annoy the crap out of me every time I launch the app.

365

General Software Discussion / Re: DriveAlive 1.1

« Last post by sajman99 on April 12, 2010, 04:16 PM »

I don't have need for such a tool with my current hardware config, but DriveAlive certainly sounds like a useful software.

Bookmarked for future reference.

366

General Software Discussion / Re: HCenc beta

« Last post by sajman99 on April 12, 2010, 03:13 PM »

Last night I used DVD Rebuilder Pro (with HCenc) for the first time on my new PC. Coming from an old Prescott CPU I was amazed.

There were 8 (eight!) instances of HCenc running simultaneously chewing through that DVD like nobody's business. I'd tell you how long it took, but I forgot to look at the log when I was finished. I was still thunderstruck by how fast it all went...

-Innuendo (April 12, 2010, 08:18 AM)

Wow, I was feeling pretty good today until I read that.

Seriously, there are many old comments still floating around about how slow HCenc is. To give credit where credit is due, the HCenc developer hank315 has really improved (in both speed and quality) his encoder in the last few years.

367

General Software Discussion / Re: Need Windows 7 alternative to RED (Remove Empty Directories)

« Last post by sajman99 on April 12, 2010, 03:00 PM »

...I was worried buy the quote "...as they does not mean anything if they don’t have any contents in them." from the technixupdate.com link...

-Eóin (April 12, 2010, 12:39 PM)

Kind of a scary statement, I agree. Many empty folders are placeholders which are there for a reason, so I share your concern with system-wide cleaning.

368

Living Room / Re: usb hard drive problems

« Last post by sajman99 on April 12, 2010, 02:52 PM »

thanks for the suggestions.  do your suggestions also fix the errors?

-techidave (April 11, 2010, 06:38 PM)

Ah, I guess those free tools only check for errors. Sorry if I led you astray.

Seems like a tall order for a free tool. I would be very interested in a free disk checker and fixer as well.

369

General Software Discussion / Re: Need Windows 7 alternative to RED (Remove Empty Directories)

« Last post by sajman99 on April 11, 2010, 06:59 PM »

Here's one called Fast Empty Folder Finder. Don't know much about it as I don't use this type of tool myself.
 
http://www.technixup...empty-folder-finder/

370

Living Room / Re: usb hard drive problems

« Last post by sajman99 on April 11, 2010, 06:27 PM »

HD Tune has "Error Scan" among its features.

I have a portable version of Piriform's Defraggler which has a "Check Drive for Errors" option.

Also, there's one called Windows Surface Scanner, but if I understand correctly it doesn't actually fix errors. If you still have to run chkdsk to fix errors, then I fail to see the point of using it.

371

General Software Discussion / Re: HCenc beta

« Last post by sajman99 on April 11, 2010, 02:39 PM »

I always do everything HC 2 pass by overriding the AVStoDVD settings. Yeah, it takes some extra time for probably only a marginal improvement. But I figure hey, if it's worth doing, it's worth trying to achieve optimal quality.

To this day, I've never messed around with QuEnc. I don't have anything against it, per se. It's just that a HC encode looks so darn good I've stuck with it by habit.

Regarding luminace gain (LUMGAIN), I no longer use it. Some while ago I was using LUMGAIN 2 on a DVD source with lots of CGI content and HCenc locked up. After trying multiple times with the same failure, I removed LUMGAIN and was able to complete the encode. Mind you, this was a couple HC versions ago.

Bug or isolated incident? No idea, but I haven't used LUMGAIN since so as to avoid any possible issues.

372

General Software Discussion / Re: Agent Ransack 2010 freeware lightweight - Desktop Search

« Last post by sajman99 on April 11, 2010, 01:35 PM »

Try this too : Index your files, as the name suggests this one does index your files but you can schedule that for during the night or whatever, and when it has indexed them then the search speed even for searches within files is really quite impressive.

(I am not affiliated with IYF)

-joiwind (April 11, 2010, 06:41 AM)

+1 for this portable search tool. The most recent version of Index Your Files can now display original (ie. native windows) icons. Previously the non-native icons always bothered me.

But indexing during the night? Whoa, I have to go check my settings! I've never had it take longer than 3 minutes to index all my drives.

Regarding Agent Ransack, some folks don't need or want an indexer always running, consuming memory, and thrashing away at their HD. Particularly if you don't search inside files very often, Agent Ransack is a very solid solution. Unless you have old hardware, Ransack is amazingly fast even though it's a real-time search.

373

General Software Discussion / Re: Video Editing software - Any recommendations?

« Last post by sajman99 on April 11, 2010, 01:32 PM »

Yep, Curt--you nailed it with question #1. It was poorly formed on my part--basically I was just trying to figure out how many $$ AVS Video Editor actually costs.

Any time I encounter a site loaded with software and "special offers" I tend to get a bit skeptical/nervous. I learned long ago--if it looks too good to be true, then it probably is.

Thanks very much IQLover for taking the time to respond to my concerns. To be honest, I'm the picky sort who dislikes uninstalling software I never wanted in the first place. So I guess I'll be taking a pass on this AVS Video Editor.

374

General Software Discussion / Re: Video Editing software - Any recommendations?

« Last post by sajman99 on April 10, 2010, 08:27 PM »

... Now I am using AVS Video Editor for Months & I am very satisfied with it (I learned how to use it in about 8-10 minutes!) ...

-IQLover (April 10, 2010, 07:37 PM)

If you mean this site, it looks like the NCH Software site in that they have software for everything under the sun.

Since I don't want another NCH pita experience, I have to ask...
-Did you pay for the software?
-Are ads incorporated into the software?
-Are offers for additional software commonly encountered?
-Do they use install on demand?
-Anybody know the WOT (or similar) rating of this site?

Thanks for any responses. I'm just trying to avoid an unpleasant experience like the one I had with NCH's VideoPad.

375

General Software Discussion / Re: HCenc beta

« Last post by sajman99 on April 10, 2010, 07:41 PM »

MilesAhead, a freeware named Simple DVD Creator was mentioned in the AVStoDVD Doom9 thread some while ago iirc. I think the guy was going to output as elementary streams and use Simple DVD Creator to author.

Never used it personally--it may well be too simple for your requirements. What little feedback there is sounds good though.

Simple DVD Creator:
http://www.videohelp...s/Simple_DVD_Creator
http://arakar.ifastn....com/andrej/software