Recent Posts

3701

Living Room / Re: Science News Roundup

« Last post by 4wd on June 18, 2012, 11:50 PM »

  He's sleeping....

3702

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: Folder Properties Auto-Update....

« Last post by 4wd on June 18, 2012, 11:46 PM »

Thanks, I think we can get skwire to move this into the Finished area now

3703

Living Room / Re: Science News Roundup

« Last post by 4wd on June 18, 2012, 10:23 PM »

One earlier study on reproductive success, in common European birds called great tits, found smaller clutches near roaring highways.

It's quite often that you'll find great tits in a clutch....usually when attempting reproduction.

3704

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: Folder Properties Auto-Update....

« Last post by 4wd on June 18, 2012, 09:55 PM »

OK, I think I'm there now:

• Updates the file/size count every 1000 milliseconds.
• Updates the Window title every 5000 milliseconds.
• Font is a bit bigger (14pt).

Changing the update intervals dropped CPU usage back down to 0-1% on my computers.

See above for archive.

3705

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: Folder Properties Auto-Update....

« Last post by 4wd on June 18, 2012, 01:26 AM »

Another update, see first post for file.

Window title gets updated with the number of files in the folder.

NOTE: This only happens every 60 seconds - more frequently pushes CPU usage up too high AFAIAC, (~10%), and it won't change until a minute has passed after running it, (meh - I'm lazy).  So you will get discrepancies between the two numbers until the title gets updated.



So this means your Taskbar label gets updated with the number of files

3706

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: Folder Properties Auto-Update....

« Last post by 4wd on June 18, 2012, 12:25 AM »

OK, here's the colourised version  (See attachment here)

Just copy over the old version and run it, the colour defaults to Yellow on Black, (except for the two buttons - yes, that's right!  A whole new button!).

You can change the colours by editing the ini file, exit the program first otherwise it'll just overwrite the ini file when you do exit it.

Colours are in RGB format:

Background=0x000000
Text=0xFFFF00

Pretty self-explanatory, here's a list of RGB values.

Now that it has an Exit button, (dang it - just ruined the surprise!), I might change it to a borderless window.  (More reading.)

Or I could make it buttonless and you use the keyboard or a menu on the tray icon.

3707

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: Folder Properties Auto-Update....

« Last post by 4wd on June 17, 2012, 11:53 PM »

-- change background color to some color darker than white.  I'll leave it running on my desktop, and am always concerned about monitor burn-in image caused by white.

-nkormanik (June 17, 2012, 11:41 PM)

Should be easy enough.

-- when the program is minimized in the task bar, allow it to show the data (at least number of files) as opposed to the title.

Might have to do some reading on getting that done - what OS are we talking about, (just in case there are differences) ?

3708

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: Folder Properties Auto-Update....

« Last post by 4wd on June 17, 2012, 11:32 PM »

Can we assume that it won't be interfering too much with the file-creation process being monitored?

-nkormanik (June 17, 2012, 11:23 PM)

Shouldn't, all it does is return directory statistics.

It's not recursive either, although you could make it easily enough by changing one parameter.

3709

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: Folder Properties Auto-Update....

« Last post by 4wd on June 17, 2012, 11:16 PM »

FolMon v0.4.0.4



Instructions:

Run it, the Path button allows you to choose a folder to monitor.  When it closes it will save the folder being monitored, colours, Always on Top setting, and Update Interval to an ini file so it can use them next time it starts.

You can change the colours two ways:

• Edit the .ini file - the colours are in RGB format - here's a list.
  
  • Background=0x000000
  • Text=0x00FF00
• Right-click on the window background and a popup menu will open, (best place is between "Files:" and "Size:").

NOTE: Colour changes will not take effect until the next time the program is run.

You can have multiple instances running, even from the same folder - just rename the executable, an ini with the same name will be created upon exit.

Input boxes are read-only.
Statusbar reflects the last file creation or deletion in the directory.

UPDATE (0.4.0.4):

• Added: Colour selector popup menu.
• Changed: The Recurse warning requester now has a 10 second timeout, (so it doesn't block other functions for too long), it defaults to NO at the end of the timeout.

UPDATE (0.4.0.2):

• Added: Update interval slider from 5-120 seconds.
• Added: Always on Top option.
• Added: Recurse option - notes:
  
  • Interval slider will change to 60-120 seconds.
  • Statusbar will be disabled - too hard to monitor all possible sub-directories for file changes.
  • This setting is NOT saved in the ini file, (I've left the lines in the source just uncomment and recompile if you want it).

• Added: Colour setting acts on statusbar - I even fixed the weird colour problem I was getting.
• Removed: The Exit button - guess what you use now.

UPDATE (0.3.0.5):

• Fixed: No longer freezes due to getting latest file created. Statusbar is updated in real time from filesystem notifications. If files are being generated very rapidly, (eg. >50/s), it may start skipping them ... however this is probably faster than you can read individual names.

3710

Post New Requests Here / Re: Execute a launch menu with prior password protection

« Last post by 4wd on June 16, 2012, 09:29 PM »

EnterScript:
Msgbox, 48, Ah-HA, Congratulations! You've made it!

-Contro (June 16, 2012, 05:46 PM)

Replace everything below EnterScript: with menuahk.ahk contents.

ie. Delete the Msgbox, 48, Ah-HA, Congratulations! You've made it! and continue with your script.

3711

Living Room / Re: Raspberry Pi's $35 Linux PC

« Last post by 4wd on June 16, 2012, 07:59 PM »

I think I might have a small wait on my hands

Your Raspberry Pi Id number is 244205

Or I could get one from ebay.....

Only selling as I don't have time for the project I intended to use it for.

I ordered 2 of these with hopes to use them together for a project but I am no longer going that route.

I don't really have a need for it...

Yeah, right....

 

3712

General Software Discussion / Re: Remove this residual files after update !!!

« Last post by 4wd on June 15, 2012, 11:46 PM »

Boot off a Linux Live CD and delete the RECYCLER directory on the drive in question.   

3713

General Software Discussion / Re: Can Firefox Quick Find "shift"-hotkey be removed?

« Last post by 4wd on June 15, 2012, 11:41 PM »

Strange, for as long as I've used Firefox the default Quick Find key has always been '/' which you have the option to turn off under Options->Advanced->General so that, as Ath said, it starts searching when you type.

3714

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

« Last post by 4wd on June 15, 2012, 09:09 PM »

Just did this. Here's a screenshot of the MediaInfo window. Is that enough?

-IainB (June 15, 2012, 11:25 AM)

MPEG4-AVC + AC-3, yet a different mix to ones I've normally seen.  Also, it's not true HD, it's what they call HDV^w - the playback device knows to stretch the picture to fill the full 1920x1080 display.

BTW, I thought you were in NZ, which is PAL?

Those files should be at 25fps for maximum compatibility with existing equipment otherwise for playback on old DVDs/TVs you'll need to change the framerate - if that's never going to happen then it's not a problem but it does show that refurbished stock can come from anywhere.

As to editing programs, it really is a simple choice of what you would like to do and what you need to do it.

An NLE, (Vegas, Premiere, etc), will give you filters, transformations, transitions, effects, multiple output formats (including 3D anaglyph), multiple audio tracks, video overlay, etc, etc.

Or, if you just want to slice and dice, (as SB does), with no change in format, (ie. minimal recompression), then there a number of programs that can do it - VideoReDo TV Suite H.264, SolveigMM for example, both paid software.  There's also VirtualDub, AviDemux (free), the latest beta versions seem to handle AC-3, (can try it doing this, you'll need to set the output container to something else, try MP4).  There's probably more but these are the ones I know of off the top of my head.

There are programs that fall somewhere in between, (both AviDemux and VirtualDub), not the full-on facilities of a NLE but will do basic filtering and transformations.  AviDemux has most of the filters already inbuilt whereas VirtualDub you can just add them as you need them.

The only time audio is likely to get out of sync with video is if the file contains variable bitrate audio, which is non-standard, but that shouldn't be a worry for files from the camera.

So....what do you want to do with your video

3715

Living Room / Re: NAS Recommendations?

« Last post by 4wd on June 15, 2012, 05:06 AM »

But, it's looking good. It looks like it will take some time though to move data onto it. It's getting about 5.5 MB/s at the moment writing from an external drive, so it's one of those that's a tad slow.

-Renegade (June 15, 2012, 03:59 AM)

That sounds more like the OS that's the problem, with WHS I get:

via Gb LAN: 40-100MB/s depending on what else is happening,
via USB: ~25MB/s from external HDD,
via eSATA: 50-100MB/s depending on the drive.

The Gb LAN is a massive improvement over what I was getting from a D-Link NAS with a supposed Gb LAN, (5MB/s if I was lucky).  Considering the speed I'm getting, I don't even use the USB/eSATA for transferring things to it any more.

BTW, couldn't get FlexRAID to work for some reason so I went looking for something similar:
SnapRAID - Filesystem agnostic parity based data redundancy, (Linux/Windows).
Elucidate - A GUI for SnapRAID (Windows).
Liquesce - Drive pooling for Windows.

All free.

3716

Living Room / Re: NAS Recommendations?

« Last post by 4wd on June 15, 2012, 02:24 AM »

Unetbootin

Getting one of the wire unhooked required a knife for pressure... 20 minutes or so of farting around for that...

-Renegade (June 15, 2012, 02:02 AM)

That would be the mini-SAS connector I'm guessing...they sure don't want it to come out accidentally.

Ooppss! My bad, UNetBootin will give you a USB version of the LiveCD.  I don't know if FreeNAS 8 is much different but with FreeNAS 7 I just booted the LiveCD and you had the option to install to a HDD or a flash drive, which is what I did, (on my old machine that is).

3717

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

« Last post by 4wd on June 14, 2012, 11:28 PM »

You're telling me that you've been able to edit an mp4 file (standard avc+aac) in Vegas with both the audio and video working?

-superboyac (June 14, 2012, 10:08 PM)

Yes, Vegas is what I use to make sure audio and video is in sync since some other editors can de-sync them and that's usually because they've used VBR audio.

And you can chop it up and save the segments without re-encoding (lossless)?

Sorry, I was addressing your comment of limited output formats and included too much quote.  Vegas' output formats are limited by the codecs available.  But it does do smart-rendering of video when the input is in the one of the formats is was designed to work with.  It's an NLE, you're trying to compare it with a simple video splicer.

And unless all your video edits are going to occur on a key frame, (for at least MPEG2 or MPEG4-ASP/AVC compression), there is no such thing as a lossless video editor.  At best it will smart-render, at worst it will render it all - but even then, (IIRC), as long as your not changing anything, good encoders will seek to minimise any recompression by recognising already compressed frames.

3718

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

« Last post by 4wd on June 14, 2012, 09:29 PM »

because these programs have very limited output formats, they will never be able to do a simple lossless cut or joining of video.  That means when you're ready to output, there's going to be re-encoding and all that taking place, which means further degradation of video, longer output procedure (what should take seconds will take several minutes or hours), and it's very likely the output will be a larger file than the original file, with less quality and audio sync issues.

-superboyac (June 14, 2012, 03:05 PM)

Not true, (at least as far as Vegas), I've been able to output in whatever I like since v5, (if I had a VfW codec, it could handle it - and with ffdshow that's a lot of formats), and if Vegas didn't allow, then running it through a simple frameserver to a program that could added, at most, 2 minutes to the process.

3719

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

« Last post by 4wd on June 14, 2012, 09:17 PM »

Well, I am a rank amateur, so maybe I should have referred to the .m2ts format, which is the file extension of the video files that are transferred from the camera to disk.    
The software that I use and that came with the camera and handles the .m2ts video files is PMB (Picture Motion Browser).

-IainB (June 14, 2012, 02:54 AM)

Before investing any time in trying different editing software could you run MediaInfo over one of the files to see what it really is ?

Camera manufacturers have very weird interpretations of standards, ie. it should be MPEG2 Transport Stream but being HD it might be AVC + AAC within a M2TS container, (don't know why they can't put it into an MP4 container like normal people....but then, it is Sony).

3720

Living Room / Re: Raspberry Pi's $35 Linux PC

« Last post by 4wd on June 14, 2012, 08:36 PM »

Well, can't buy it, but registered interest.

-Renegade (June 14, 2012, 12:59 PM)

You can also register at RS Components (Australia), it'll be AU$41 delivered, cheaper than Element 14 - (formerly Farnell and the 14th element is Silicon in case you're wondering ).

The queue must be mighty long, I registered a while ago and so far they've invited two lots of 4000 to order.....and I wasn't one of them.

3721

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

« Last post by 4wd on June 14, 2012, 05:14 AM »

MPEG2 Transport Stream - Either VideoReDo, Womble or TMPGEnc will do frame accurate editing and, providing you save to an MPEG2 format (Program/Transport/Individual stream), lossless saving smart rendering, (only re-encode what's absolutely necessary).

AviDemux should also be able handle frame accurate/lossless cut/join but I find it more suited to MPEG4-ASP AVI editing and use VideoReDo TV Suite H.264 for all my DVB-T, (MPEG2TS), recordings and quick rough edit of my Sony Camcorder output, (MPEG2), before running it through Vegas.

3722

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

« Last post by 4wd on June 14, 2012, 01:32 AM »

So, one of my requirements - a new and mandatory one - could be defined as "Video editing software must be able to input, edit and output HD 1920 x 1080 standard without loss/degradation."

-IainB (June 13, 2012, 08:09 PM)

This is a pretty hefty requirement.

-Renegade (June 13, 2012, 11:09 PM)

It isn't, AviDemux has had this ability for at least a couple of years, VideoReDo, (mainly MPEG2), has had it for longer, VirtualDub can do it and I think Vegas also can do it.

Re-encoding will only happen if:

• a filter has been applied to the video, (ie. colour changes, resolution transformations, etc),
• a cut has not occurred on a key frame, or
• you are changing the output format, eg. H.264 -> MPEG2.

If it's all a simple cut/join edit and a cut doesn't not occur on a key frame then only the section between the last key frame and the next will be encoded.  In my case, that's one key frame every, at most, 250 frames - so any section that needs to be re-encoded won't be longer than 10 seconds, (PAL = 25fps).  I always try to make cuts on key frames so there isn't any need to re-encode but sometimes it can't be helped.

The two basic rules to minimise re-encoding, (assuming your program can do smart-rendering):

• output format = input format, (this means codec, resolution, frame rate, etc)
• no video transformations, (no cropping, resizing, filters)

You can muck around as you like with the audio.

3723

Living Room / Re: FOI Documents Show TOR Undernet Beyond the Reach of the Federal Investigators

« Last post by 4wd on June 13, 2012, 07:33 PM »

Double bluff - kind of like when they were pursuing Phil Zimmermann and then suddenly....they stopped.

We all knew what that meant  





Disclaimer: Blatant OTT conspiracy theory to fit in with Renegade's mindset.

3724

Living Room / Re: Show us the View Outside Your Window

« Last post by 4wd on June 12, 2012, 05:48 AM »

Sunset, that's Mt Macedon straight ahead, (~80km):

3725

Living Room / Re: Pretty cool pic of the Inside of a brand new HD750, GE CT Scanner

« Last post by 4wd on June 12, 2012, 12:50 AM »

this is what you get when you ask an engineer to make you a toaster

-Target (June 12, 2012, 12:10 AM)

No, you get one of these:



Bread to charcoal in 3.7nS