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4001

Living Room / Re: How do you rip your DVD collection? (I want to know)

« Last post by superboyac on April 13, 2010, 04:05 PM »

Yes, it's definitely a better container format than AVI (which is very outdated at this point). I think it's not used more often for the same reason Ogg Theora isn't used more often. Whatever that reason is.

- Oshyan

-JavaJones (April 13, 2010, 03:35 PM)

So if I read you correctly, it's not used more just because.  Even though mkv is better, more features, can do more, it's just not as widely known and doesn't have the momentum of avi.  OK, that makes sense.  Sounds like I'm going to enjoy mkv, though!

4002

Living Room / Re: How do you rip your DVD collection? (I want to know)

« Last post by superboyac on April 13, 2010, 03:33 PM »

MKV does allow for pretty much all the features of a DVD - chapters, subtitles, alternate audio tracks, etc.

- Oshyan

-JavaJones (April 13, 2010, 12:02 PM)

So it can do all that with one file?  That's pretty cool.  If that's the case, why isn't mkv used more?  It sounds like it can do everything the other containers like avi can do, but more.

4003

Multi Photo Quotes / Re: Feature Request: Quickly set desired slide

« Last post by superboyac on April 13, 2010, 03:31 PM »

That sounds pretty simple.  I don't do that with my phone, but it could be done.  As much as a software geek as I am, I'm pretty bland with my phone use.  I don't even text!

4004

Multi Photo Quotes / Re: Feature Request: Quickly set desired slide

« Last post by superboyac on April 13, 2010, 03:16 PM »

glad that it's useful.

you know that MPQ already has a feature that supports a plugin-like system for grabbing quotes online (there are sample "plugins" that query various online sites for quote); i was thinking it might be useful to have one that fetches the last "tweet" or text from some web service, so that you could change your away text remotely from offsite.

-mouser (April 13, 2010, 11:47 AM)

That sounds interesting.  I'm trying to think of a way to implement that without having it too difficult to use.  The current method is pretty good because I double-click, choose one of the preset messages, change a word or two if necessary, and I'm done.  The whole thing takes under 10 seconds, which is awesome.  The only way I can see something working where I'm offsite is if it can somehow read my outlook calendar, or something along those lines.  Or override it from another location updating where you are, I guess twitter could do that, if I used it.

It's a good idea...remotely change the message.  If I think of anything, I'll be sure to let you know.

4005

Multi Photo Quotes / Re: Feature Request: Quickly set desired slide

« Last post by superboyac on April 13, 2010, 11:28 AM »

mouser, thanks so much for this feature.  It has been tremendously useful the past couple of weeks for me.  I'm never in my cubicle in my current job and it is possibly the most effective way for people to find me.  Thanks again.

4006

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: New MakeMKV beta

« Last post by superboyac on April 12, 2010, 10:35 PM »

(I know i should just try it, but I don't have the time yet)
When you say it can retain the meta-data, does that mean I can have one mkv file that still has menus, chapters, etc.?

4007

Living Room / Re: How do you rip your DVD collection? (I want to know)

« Last post by superboyac on April 12, 2010, 10:23 PM »

Anyway if it were me, and I had a big existing DVD collection to rip, I'd go for one of those tools that targets MKV, so you can easily maintain all additional materials, and then hopefully it has some customization in terms of video and audio codecs and bitrates, etc. Ideally it would just have a nice automated system where you can set a quality threshold or even file size (e.g. 2GB as above) and then just tell it to go, and all you have to do is swap out discs and press "Rip" each time. Unfortunately I don't know of specific tools that would be best for this, but I think something along those lines does exist, possibly one of the ones already mentioned...

-JavaJones (April 12, 2010, 12:45 PM)

That sounds pretty good to me!  I'm going to try out this makeMKV program.  i guess mkv files allow for all that extra stuff, like menus and chapters?  That would be very helpful.  having one file per dvd is a good idea, and have it retain all the dvd qualities, while removing the annoying bits.  i know images are technically one file also, but images keep all the annoying stuff on it.

4008

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: (another) Linkman Review

« Last post by superboyac on April 12, 2010, 09:09 AM »

Thanks, Outertech, for the updates and the licenses for this month's giveaway.

4009

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: New MakeMKV beta

« Last post by superboyac on April 12, 2010, 09:07 AM »

MilesAhead,
Does makeMKV get rid of all that FBI warning stuff that you have to wade through on most DVD's?
For example, does it make my movie watching experience more "pirate"-like?  I'm, of course, referencing that great image that zridling posted here earlier:
https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=21888.0

If I rip my dvd's, i want to get rid of all that annoying stuff.  I want to be able to double-click a file and start watching immediately.  No waiting for trailers, copyright warnings, any kind of unskippable menu parts, etc.

4010

General Software Discussion / Re: How to watch folders and perform certain actions automatically?

« Last post by superboyac on April 12, 2010, 08:50 AM »

I was asked by a client a year ago to make a SERVICE that watch
a directory for zip files and opens them
Dose that help ?
If it is interesting to any one i mite do a product out of that.
(I have a variant of the program that is not a SERVICE)

-limelect (April 12, 2010, 01:42 AM)

Well, this sounds interesting!  If you are willing to add features and stuff to it, I think it could do everything we're asking for here.  Watch directories, automatically extract files (zip, rar, multiple formats), options to tell the program what to do with the files once extracted, etc.

4011

Living Room / Re: How do you rip your DVD collection? (I want to know)

« Last post by superboyac on April 12, 2010, 08:46 AM »

Shoes, thanks.  I remember that thread about makeMKV.  I'll have to go back and read that again.  I don't know much about MKV, but I've heard it's a good format.  The only thing I know about it is that people who like subtitles like mkv for some reason.  i'll have to research that.

Innuendo, I already have a tv hookup to a pc right now (I should have mentioned!).  I did that last year with my old computer.  It's an old 2001 pc and it's amazing how fast it runs on XP with all the extra junk taken off.  Anyway, that's ready to go.  However, i must say that it can't really play HD movies, it can't handle it.  In fact, it can't really handle anything much more than those 700MB compressed files, or things of comporable size/quality.  But I do have an extra laptop and another computer as well, so I'm good there.

No, I don't need something to play on several computers, just mine.  That's all I want, to be able to access my movie collection on the hard drive without looking through all my discs on the shelf/boxes.  I would say I'd like to play these anywhere, but I really don't care.  I've done that before, where I've taken movies to other people's homes and tried to play them through a laptop or something, and it's always a pain to setup.  They don't have the right cables, they don't have the right software, the TV settings are difficult, audio issues, etc.  By the time the movie starts playing, everyone's asleep.  No, this is just for my own use.

4012

Living Room / How do you rip your DVD collection? (I want to know)

« Last post by superboyac on April 11, 2010, 10:47 PM »

I really want to know how some of you have gone about transferring your DVD's to your hard drives.

I'm trying to figure out the best way to go about ripping my extensive DVD collection.  I'm sick of putting the discs in and out and going through all the menus, etc.  I've never really gone through all the video ripping software and I haven't followed that technology as much as you would think (for a software geek like me).  That being said, here are the questions I am thinking about:

--I know that I can straight up copy the discs as images.  This would be lossless as far as quality goes and you would think the ideal way.  But even with the big drives that we have now (I'm using 1TB drives currently), it can quickly get filled up with movies.  A typical DVD disc is about 8 GB.  So even a 1TB drive will only hold around 100 movies, which is really not that much.  That brings me to compressed ripping.  The movies you can download on the web will be around 700MB to fit on a cd, I'm guessing.  Now we're talking, because we can fit 1000 movies on a 1TB drive now.  I like that.  But how much quality do you lose?  Is it very noticeable?  I know I can answer these myself, but I don't have a big screen HD television yet, so I don't know.  Those 700MB files look fine on my old, curvy-screen TV.

Well, I guess that's my only question right now.  Do I want to compress or not?  I'd like to hear how some of you go about doing this.

The other thing is that Bluray DVD's are even bigger, like over 20GB each.

Of course, there's the SHHHH! option....download pre-ripped movies from the web that I already have.  Why should I rip my own DVD's when people out there who are better than I am have already done so?  Of course, I'm sure not everything I have will be there.  I have a lot of music DVD's (jazz, classical) that i doubt is anywhere on the web.  But i'm not completely opposed to that option.  I've tried ripping DVD's once or twice before, and the whole process is a big pain in the butt.  And it's not just a couple of minutes like with music.  it takes quite a while to rip movies properly.  And a lot of technical stuff going on there, lots of settings, etc.

Anyway, I haven't even talked about the software options yet (on purpose).  That's because i don't know how I'll go about doing this.  Once i get some ideas from you guys, I'll be able to make a decision.  Thanks!

I went through a similar thing years ago for my music collection.  Do I want to use mp3's or FLAC (or other lossless codecs)?  I settled on mp3 because you get the most bang for your buck.  Lossless files are practically 5x the size of a normal mp3 file, and I didn't think my ears could tell that much of a difference, if at all.  But if you ask people, you will get very opinionated responses.  Audiophiles will insist that they can totally hear the difference.  But i don't know, I have pretty good ears and I'm a hardcore music person, but I honestly could not tell the difference.

The other thing i considered was that not all portable players would play the lossless files at the time.  Things are different now, but my collection is already set. 

4013

Living Room / Re: Leveraging what Google has to offer

« Last post by superboyac on April 10, 2010, 05:44 PM »

The Living Room is beginning to feel a bit schizophrenic. I just finished reading this thread here:
https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=22379.msg201232

-cyberdiva (April 10, 2010, 03:09 PM)

Ha!  Well, the truth is rarely black or white.  Usually, it's in the gray area.  I heard a great quote by Stephen Fry in one of his documentaries where he says it's a very American thing to greatly desire explanations to be black and white.  I believe it was during a conversation with a Harvard professor.

4014

Living Room / Re: Leveraging what Google has to offer

« Last post by superboyac on April 09, 2010, 10:40 PM »

40hz...nice!  I'm only 10% through those articles and I've already learned a lot!

4015

Living Room / Re: First iPad Reviews Are In

« Last post by superboyac on April 08, 2010, 07:20 PM »

Is it only about the money and "instant cool" though? I can't recall Jobs doing anything charitable on any scale with his company or his gadgets. Whatever I may think of Mr. Gates's company, the man has spent the last decade giving back around the globe in demonstrable ways. It's like the guy (Arnold?) who went out and bought the biggest Hummer made just to show that he could burn more gas than your biggest SUV. Or perhaps the rich lady who spends tens of thousands of dollars on a special purse to carry their fluffy dog around with them in airports. And SuperboyAC, most of the Apple people I know are on my teevee, telling me how great their new shiny toy is. No matter how hard I try, I can't respect CNBC's Erin Burnett.

-zridling (April 08, 2010, 05:33 PM)

Ha!  yeah, I'm on your side.  All I'm saying is that a few years ago, I would have bashed apple to a pulp.  now, I really see how it makes sense to other people.  I still will never get one, but I'm not so vocal about bashing it anymore.  I mean, especially when guys like Stephen Fry and my other smart friends can intelligently rationalize why it makes sense to them, I give them that respect.

The other great thing about Apple is it gets people off my back.  back in the day, i'd jump at the chance to fix any problem anyone had with technology.  Now, I pray that they don't bother me about this stuff.  So, if they are happy or think they are happy with their ipod or ipad, good.  They leave me alone with my gadgets, and I leave them alone with my (superior) gadgets.  That's a big reason why I've softened my stance.

4016

Living Room / Re: First iPad Reviews Are In

« Last post by superboyac on April 08, 2010, 10:49 AM »

I think the thing with Fry and the other Apple fans is that they don't care about the same stuff that we care about.  I think Fry understands perfectly well that the ipad isn't a particularly "new" technology.  The argument with Apple is always that they make it so easy to use...for NORMAL people...not us!  We are all powerusers here.  We go in and get our hands dirty.  We know all sorts of geeky details about everything.  We are different than the normal joe walking around with an iphone.

I know these apple fans, they're no dummy's.  They are intelligent, rational people.  They just don't care about all the stuff we care about.  They don't go on software forums, they don't know or care about DRM, they don't think about Sony vs kindle vs ipad.  They know Google, but they don't know HTC.  They don't know what IPS is.  This is total geek stuff.  This is our world.

The ipad is designed for them.  And let's remember, WE are the minority by quite a bit, not the other way around.  So if Jobs, who is a brilliant marketer, is going to cater to any group, it's going to be them.  So, whether the ipad doesn't have USB or is going to eventually lock their data into the Apple proprietary world...these thoughts don't even cross their minds.

All they know is the ipad is cool, it's sexy, it behaves sexy, it's easy to use for them, it doesn't make them feel dumb like when we (the geeks) talk to them about the dangers of DRM and not having a removable battery, etc.  And they are right.  The ipad is sexy.  I wish the poweruser-friendly products would put a little more effort in their interface and making it sexier and easier.

Anyway, that's the way I see it.

4017

Living Room / Re: First iPad Reviews Are In

« Last post by superboyac on April 08, 2010, 09:12 AM »

Well, just to play devil's advocate here, I'm going to post an article by the great Stephen Fry about the ipad:
http://www.stephenfr...10/01/28/ipad-about/

Now Fry is a huge Apple fan; if you follow him at all this is obvious.  I'm not an Apple fan, but I've personally softened my stance in the whole PC vs Apple debate lately.  I do see a lot of benefits that Apple products provide.  Also, at least for me, I have too much respect for Stephen Fry to blow off what he has to say about anything.  So I just thought I would post something respectable from the other camp, just to stir up some trouble!

I know there will be many who have already taken one look and pronounced it to be nothing but a large iPhone and something of a disappointment. I have heard these voices before. In June 2007 when the iPhone was launched I collected a long list of “not impressed”, “meh”, “big deal”, “style over substance”, “it’s all hype”, “my HTC TyTN can do more”, “what a disappointment”, “majorly underwhelmed” and similar reactions. They can hug to themselves the excuse that the first release of iPhone was 2G, closed to developers and without GPS, cut and paste and many other features that have since been incorporated. Neither they, nor I, nor anyone, predicted the “game-changing” effect the phone would so rapidly have as it evolved into a 3G, third-party app rich, compass and GPS enabled market leader. Even if it had proved a commercial and business disaster instead of an astounding success, iPhone would remain the most significant release of its generation because of its effect on the smartphone habitat. Does anybody seriously believe that Android, Nokia, Samsung, Palm, BlackBerry and a dozen others would since have produced the product line they have without the 100,000 volt taser shot up the jacksie that the iPhone delivered to the entire market?

4018

General Software Discussion / Re: Why is it so hard to find a decent image organizer?

« Last post by superboyac on April 07, 2010, 04:25 PM »

Dormouse owns this topic.  You're the man, man! 

4019

Living Room / Re: First iPad Reviews Are In

« Last post by superboyac on April 07, 2010, 09:33 AM »

40hz, you're the man.  Really!  Great posts here.

I know it's easy to talk about here, but to normal people on the outside, it's difficult to explain what is so frustrating about something like the ipad.  because most people don't care and don't know about DRM.  The prices are not that big a deal to them.  They're not thinking about the whole business of it.  And that's fine.  But  it's hard to explain, that's all.

4020

General Software Discussion / Re: Why is it so hard to find a decent image organizer?

« Last post by superboyac on April 07, 2010, 09:04 AM »

Yes, Dormouse's last couple of posts are good.  I didn't realize until lately in this thread how specialized this market was, and how confused I was about it.

True, Photo Mechanic is not a cataloger.  The way I've had it explained to me from photographers is that when they take a bunch of pictures, they first browse through them using Photo Mechanic.  They pick their files, sort them, do whatever they have to do to get the batch of photos they want to work with.  Then, they pass those photos to a real photo editing and/or managing application like Lightroom or something.  The benefit is that when you have hundreds or thousands of RAW files, you can browse through them very very quickly.  In other programs, there is a slight delay while the program reads the big RAW files.  Like, you have to wait for thumbnails to load, for pictures to render, etc.

So that's the workflow as I understand it from the photographers.

It sounds like if you don't have a lot of RAW files, maybe PM is not for you?  Or if you're not a photographer?  I don't know...

4021

General Software Discussion / Re: Why is it so hard to find a decent image organizer?

« Last post by superboyac on April 06, 2010, 02:28 PM »

Oshyan, consider trying out Photo mechanic.  People who use it say that it's handling of RAW files is amazing.

4022

N.A.N.Y. 2008 / Re: DonationCoder Search Deskbar v1.0.43

« Last post by superboyac on April 06, 2010, 08:50 AM »

Nice app, app!

4023

Living Room / Re: First iPad Reviews Are In

« Last post by superboyac on April 05, 2010, 11:37 PM »

Over at boingboing Cory Doctorow has a nice little essay that pretty much sums up for me exactly what the problem is with a company like Apple and the entire idea behind a product like the iPad.

Well worth a look if you're interested in reading an unusually sane analysis of why the iPad represents a colossal step backwards rather than forward as far as the web and mediaspace are concerned.

Link:  http://www.boingboing.net/2010/04/02/why-i-wont-buy-an-ipad-and-think-you-shouldnt-either.html

-40hz (April 03, 2010, 01:47 PM)

Nice 40hz.  Even though it's not related to the article, this is my favorite part:

So what does Marvel do to "enhance" its comics? They take away the right to give, sell or loan your comics. What an improvement. Way to take the joyous, marvellous sharing and bonding experience of comic reading and turn it into a passive, lonely undertaking that isolates, rather than unites. Nice one, Misney.

This is something that I actually discuss often with my friend.

4024

General Software Discussion / Re: Why is it so hard to find a decent image organizer?

« Last post by superboyac on April 05, 2010, 03:04 PM »

I like Pictomio, not bad as an organizer either.

-cmpm (April 05, 2010, 02:12 PM)

pictomio looks interesting.  I'm going to have to check it out.

But I guess by image 'organiser' tagging is pretty much a must - otherwise I think I'd stick with DOpus too - as I have it 

-tomos (April 05, 2010, 01:42 PM)

True.  I actually find myself using DOpus more and more for simple photo management.  Back in the day, file managers didn't have thumbnail capabilities, which is what made ACDSee so cool.  But no, just about all of them can do it, so it makes programs like ACDSee more expendable.  So this is where we're at now...

BTW, I forgot to mention that I have also been using the free Faststone Viewer for viewing photos and even some light editing - it's quick, looks very nice, and hasn’t done anything to piss me off yet!!   

-J-Mac (April 05, 2010, 01:30 PM)

Faststone is nice!  I keep forgetting about it.  Maybe that's the answer.  It really is one of the better, if not best, freeware browser/catalog application out there.  I'll have to see how pictomio stands up against it.

4025

General Software Discussion / Re: Why is it so hard to find a decent image organizer?

« Last post by superboyac on April 05, 2010, 08:55 AM »

I'm really beginning to understand the purpose of this thread (I'm a quick study!). I have licenses for exifpro and for PhotoCollector and also for PaintShop Pro, which has some organizational capabilities (not tested by me, yet) built in. FRUSTRATING! I'll elaborate later, but after not bothering for a long time, I've reinstalled exifPro and PhotoCollector and am attempting to get organized again...

-Darwin (April 05, 2010, 08:35 AM)

Seriously!  I was excited about exifPro also because it was so lightweight and fast, but it lacks in a lot of other ways.  I haven't played with photoCollector extensively, but it's not that great either.  I'm coming to the conclusion that this is one of those cases where you're going to need to use multiple software to accomplish the tasks that we are expecting one application to do.  I've read that this is the case on forums where they discuss DAM (digital asset management).

For me, this is my suit of software:

Maxview
I use this as my quickview application.  My picture filetypes are registered for maxview.  It is really quick when double-clicking on files to open or view.  It also handles basic editing like cropping/resizing/rotating easy enough.

ACDSee
I'm using ACDSee for browsing pictures, I always have.  It also has a "quickview" module, but maxview is way better for that.  But ACDsee has gotten slower and slower, and the latest interface change I felt was extremely counter-productive.

Photo Mechanic
I don't use this much, but I've heard this is THE program to use if you are dealing with a ton of RAW files.  It's speed in handling RAW files is apparently unmatched.

??
I don't know what I'd use for organization.  That's why i'm following this thread.  I'm not a big photo user, so i don't have a lot of pictures.  But if I did, I don't know what program I'd use.  Tagging, cataloging, etc.  I don't do any of that.  My photos are organized just by folders and files.  I'm actually amazed that nobody has recommended a clear cut favorite in this thread...it's been a while!  In my experiences, I've found that the applications that can do this well are really really slow.  Like Lightroom.

eps & ai files
Adobe Bridge is the only option here that can read these files and browse with thumbnails.  Actually, there's a program called STS Thumbnails which can also read ai and eps files, but it's a pretty klunky program itself, and sometimes it can't read everything Bridge can.  On the other hand, bridge crashes a lot.  These are the only two software that I know of that can do this.