Recent Posts

4501

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: New MakeMKV beta 1.6.2

« Last post by 4wd on December 13, 2010, 06:06 AM »

I've never tried CloneDVD.  But from just looking on their web site it implies it uses a transcoder.. sort of like DVD Shrink.  Which can be ok if the output size is very close to the input size.

-MilesAhead (December 12, 2010, 07:26 PM)

Technically, CloneDVD isn't a transcoder, (similar but not the same because there is no change of format), instead of encoding to another format it just lowers the bitrate enabling it to fit on smaller media.  You can see it doing this if you watch it's graphical display, original bitrate compared to lowered bitrate.

And as you said, this is OK if the final size is close to original - otherwise you're better off using an encoder to get better quality output.

If you set the output to DVD9 then no bitrate reduction will occur, (same thing in DVD Shrink), so the output will be of the same quality as input.

4502

Living Room / Re: Can we compare file transfer protocols?

« Last post by 4wd on December 12, 2010, 06:11 PM »

HTTP is better, since you get keep-alive connections... but there's some protocol overhead, and the issue of server setup and rights management. I think you'd want to look at WebDAV stuff for that, but it's not something I have experience with; I'd expect it to be better performing than FTP, though.

If big files are involved, and two-way synchronization is needed, you should probably be looking for a solution that can handle partial updates (and then you still have to realize that some big binary blob formats are modified in a way that partial updates can't even be done - shame on those formats). On top of that, you need to carefully consider the problems involved if multiple clients have access to the same repositories.

-f0dder (December 12, 2010, 08:42 AM)

Taking just the relevant parts from your post f0dder, it almost sounds like Syncrify fits the bill.  From the people who brought you DeltaCopy, (rsync for Windows).

They have a free Personal version which should help you determine whether you want to part with cash for the Professional version.  If you only want one user then maybe the Personal version running over a VPN, (to take care of the encryption), will be adequate for your needs superboyac.




If you can get by without delta copying, then there is also Synaman, (also has a free Personal edition), on which you can transfer over SSL.

4503

Living Room / Re: Can we compare file transfer protocols?

« Last post by 4wd on December 12, 2010, 01:11 AM »

Does this count?

Or do you specifically not want to use third party software?

If nothing else it will give you an idea of a rather easy OpenVPN set up.

4504

Living Room / Re: Need Help Finding a Domain Name

« Last post by 4wd on December 12, 2010, 12:41 AM »

Knowing your affection for all things Apple:

stevejobbsloves.me

You could go a bit colloquial with:

wellbugger.me    (People would probably get the wrong idea but it would push your page stats up )

theyscrewed.me

4505

Living Room / Re: Help! I can't access my website.

« Last post by 4wd on December 11, 2010, 06:13 PM »

No problem, I might need your help with another Steam purchase in the future


Actually, I'll go out on a limb and say it is your ISP DNS' since it won't even resolve from the CLI and they are the first port of call.  This is why I run my own now.

4506

Living Room / Re: Help! I can't access my website.

« Last post by 4wd on December 11, 2010, 06:04 PM »

Do you have to periodically re-enter your DNS redirection anywhere?

eg. Domain Registrar, hosting site, etc

It might be a routing issue or DNS issue with my ISP.

-Deozaan (December 11, 2010, 06:00 PM)

It does sound like your ISP DNS' are flakey.

4507

Living Room / Re: Help! I can't access my website.

« Last post by 4wd on December 11, 2010, 05:52 PM »

Have you tried specifying different DNS servers on your net connection?

eg. Google DNS - 8.8.8.8 & 8.8.4.4

Does it resolve if you ping deozaan.com from the CLI?

4508

Living Room / Re: Help! I can't access my website.

« Last post by 4wd on December 11, 2010, 05:34 PM »

This is from Network Tools:

IP address: 174.120.97.61
Host name: deozaan.com

Alias:
deozaan.com
174.120.97.61 is from United States(US) in region North America


TraceRoute to 174.120.97.61 [deozaan.com]
Hop   (ms)   (ms)   (ms)      IP Address   Host name
1   9   5   5      72.249.0.65   -
2   16   29   8      64.129.174.181   64-129-174-181.static.twtelecom.net
3   11   6   6      66.192.253.230   dal2-pr1-ge-7-0-0-0.us.twtelecom.net
4   14   28   17      75.149.228.2   theplanet-cr01.dallas.tx.ibone.comcast.net
5   11   8   8      70.87.253.2   te7-1.dsr01.dllstx3.networklayer.com
6   Timed out   Timed out   Timed out         -
7   11   12   15      70.87.254.226   te5-1.car12.dllstx6.networklayer.com
8   16   15   8      174.120.97.61   3d.61.78ae.static.theplanet.com

Trace complete


Retrieving DNS records for deozaan.com...

DNS servers
ns1.nickthewebsiteguy.com
ns2.nickthewebsiteguy.com
Query for DNS records for deozaan.com failed: Address not available

Here, using my own DNS, it resolves correctly and I can ping it:

C:\>ping deozaan.com

Pinging deozaan.com [174.120.97.61] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 174.120.97.61: bytes=32 time=358ms TTL=48
Reply from 174.120.97.61: bytes=32 time=359ms TTL=48
Reply from 174.120.97.61: bytes=32 time=299ms TTL=48
Reply from 174.120.97.61: bytes=32 time=382ms TTL=48

Ping statistics for 174.120.97.61:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 299ms, Maximum = 382ms, Average = 349ms

C:\>

So it does look like you have a DNS problem at your host.

For comparison, here's a Network Tools output for a site I put up for the wife:

Spoiler

IP address: 69.175.104.34
Host name: gillham.co.cc

Alias:
gillham.co.cc
69.175.104.34 is from United States(US) in region North America


TraceRoute to 69.175.104.34 [gillham.co.cc]
Hop   (ms)   (ms)   (ms)      IP Address   Host name
1   10   13   12      72.249.128.5   -
2   37   12   9      206.123.64.22   -
3   76   7   6      64.124.196.225   xe-4-2-0.er2.dfw2.us.above.net
4   7   7   8      64.125.27.81   xe-0-1-0.cr2.dfw2.us.above.net
5   16   17   12      64.125.26.134   xe-1-2-0.cr2.iah1.us.above.net
6   30   25   30      64.125.31.49   xe-1-1-0.mpr3.atl6.us.above.net
7   26   30   27      64.125.31.46   xe-1-0-0.mpr4.atl6.us.above.net
8   29   27   25      198.32.132.68   99.xe-0-1-0.cr1.atl1.us.nlayer.net
9   33   27   27      69.31.135.129   ae0-50g.cr1.atl1.us.nlayer.net
10   49   49   47      69.22.142.45   xe-1-2-0.cr2.ord1.us.nlayer.net
11   53   38   41      69.31.110.254   ae2-20g.ar1.ord6.us.nlayer.net
12   40   38   42      69.31.111.30   as32475.xe-1-0-1.ar1.ord6.us.nlayer.net
13   47   39   37      69.175.104.34   chopin.x10hosting.com

Trace complete


Retrieving DNS records for gillham.co.cc...

DNS servers
ns2.x10hosting.com
ns1.x10hosting.com

Answer records
gillham.co.cc      MX   
preference:   0
exchange:   gillham.co.cc
   14400s
gillham.co.cc      SOA   
server:   ns1.x10hosting.com
email:   [email protected]
serial:   2010071801
refresh:   86400
retry:   7200
expire:   3600000
minimum ttl:   86400
   86400s
gillham.co.cc      NS   ns1.x10hosting.com   86400s
gillham.co.cc      NS   ns2.x10hosting.com   86400s
gillham.co.cc      A   69.175.104.34   14400s

Authority records

Additional records
gillham.co.cc      A   69.175.104.34   14400s
ns1.x10hosting.com      A   99.198.122.2   14400s
ns2.x10hosting.com      A   173.236.27.195   14400s

I realise my setup is slightly different but still, I would have expected a bit more information from your DNS server.

Oh yeah, I can access your site BTW - want me to do something while I'm there

4509

Living Room / Re: I just gotta vent

« Last post by 4wd on December 11, 2010, 05:04 PM »

Ah, I may have misunderstood. So with Quick Edit enabled, right-clicking pastes instantly? I guess that is pretty quick.

So yeah, without it enabled, right-clicking the cmd window brings up a context menu that allows you to select Paste (among other things).

-Deozaan (December 11, 2010, 04:35 PM)

Instant paste and faster Select/Copy but yes you lose the Select All, Scroll and Find... features available from the popup.  But since I never used any of those it was a win-win choice for me

I believe any Windows version originally based on NT has it.

4510

Living Room / Re: I just gotta vent

« Last post by 4wd on December 11, 2010, 03:40 PM »

On XP, it's not enabled by default and right-clicking will only popup the edit menu - you still need to select Paste from it.

On 7 it's enabled by default - well put it this way, I don't specifically recall enabling it but hey, I could be wrong - 10 months is a long time

Correction: It's the same in Win7, not enabled by default and just opens a popup menu - at least it is in my base W7Ultimate VM.

4511

Living Room / Re: I just gotta vent

« Last post by 4wd on December 11, 2010, 02:46 PM »

Turn on Quick Edit Mode under Properties->Options then you only need to right-click in the window to paste.  To copy text, left-click drag-select, (ie. highlight), then right-click.

The almost absolute first thing I do on a new install

4512

Living Room / Re: Need Help Finding a Domain Name

« Last post by 4wd on December 11, 2010, 05:45 AM »

shithappensto.me
idontknowany.info

4513

Living Room / Re: WikiLeaks: Important petition for all Australians and supporters of free speech

« Last post by 4wd on December 11, 2010, 05:39 AM »

Now, has anyone signed the petition? It may or may not help. But apparently they've raised $25000 which is enough for a full page ad in the New York Times.

-Fred Nerd (December 11, 2010, 05:04 AM)

At the very least they could encode a few more cables into the ad in such a way as to only appear when looked at in a mirror.

I haven't signed because I am an Australian and as such suffer from the "she'll be right mate" school of apathy.

4514

Living Room / Re: Need Help Finding a Domain Name

« Last post by 4wd on December 11, 2010, 05:28 AM »

imaidiotblathering.info ?

4515

General Software Discussion / Re: Why is it so hard to create a video cd/dvd on a windows machine?

« Last post by 4wd on December 10, 2010, 09:38 PM »

+1 with Miles here - many a time I've written a DVD that's perfectly fine when played on a computer but looks like shit when viewed on a TV using a standalone player.

DVD Shrink, (yeah it is old), is usually very good at finding any faults with the DVD structure but the only way to test the quality of playback is to put it into a standalone and watch it on TV.

You may have to tweak output by changing field order, deinterlacing, etc to get acceptable output.

4516

General Software Discussion / Re: slock - anyone using it still?

« Last post by 4wd on December 09, 2010, 10:03 PM »

Actually, that's quite interesting - doesn't that imply that registration is not tied to hardware IDs?

As such, you should be able to extract whatever method it uses to store the registration info and that should enable you to install it on any machine, (if you can be bothered now you have a working solution, that is).

4517

Living Room / Re: A NAS server for my home

« Last post by 4wd on December 09, 2010, 07:01 PM »

I would think that the bare minimum for media streaming would be:

SMB/CIFS - Samba^w for normal network shared folder access, most likely what you'd use for normal backups.
DLNA - Digital Living Network Alliance
UPnP^w - Universal Plug'n'Play

Most Digital Media Players should support SMB/CIFS, DLNA or both - if you go for a Apple device then you'll probably have to add DAAP, (Digital Apple Anal Protocol - Bend over and take it ...errr....I mean Digital Audio Access Protocol), or iTunes Server capable, (which DAAP is a part of).

eg. Here's the configuration screen for my DNS-313 showing what protocols it can do:



Network Access = SMB/CIFS for local mapping/shared folder access.
FTP                  = FTP server, access your files from anywhere you've got net access.
UPnP AV Server = For those players that support UPnP (DLNA should fall under this).
iTunes Server    = For Apple devices.

As you can see, not much in the way of services just the necessary basics.  At the other end of the scale is something like FreeNAS which adds a few more:

4518

General Software Discussion / Re: Why is it so hard to create a video cd/dvd on a windows machine?

« Last post by 4wd on December 09, 2010, 06:06 PM »

A DVD which has the correct file/folder structure, file format and filesystem to comply with the DVD Video specifications as laid out by the DVD Forum, (which you can obtain at a price).

If you require no editing for your purposes then try one of the following for converting the DV file into a DVD, (either burning direct, creating an ISO or creating the relevant file structure in a directory which you can then burn to DVD):

Avi2Dvd
DeVeDe - Save as an ISO and then burn to DVD using ImgBurn in Write Mode.
DVDFlick

If you want to try a commercial conversion program:

WinAVI - The only one I have any real experience with - results were very good so I saw no reason to use something else.
ConvertXtoDVD - Tried it when it first came out years ago but the limited range of output options wasn't to my liking.  Hopefully a lot better by now.

If the output of one of a program saves it as a DVD directory structure on the HDD, then I recommend using ImgBurn to write it to the DVD.  When you drop the VIDEO_TS folder on the ImgBurn window, (in Build Mode), it will prompt you by saying it looks like a DVD and offer to change the filesystem of the output DVD to the correct one, (ISO9660 + UDF).



Be aware, some DVD players might be so old and anal that they won't play anything other than commercial DVD movies, (*cough* Sony *cough*).  Some players might have trouble with DVD blanks from the cheaper end of the market and some will have trouble with DVD+R discs.

Try writing to a DVD-RW first to see if they'll play them, if they can do that chances are very good that good quality DVD-R will work fine.

4519

General Software Discussion / Re: Why is it so hard to create a video cd/dvd on a windows machine?

« Last post by 4wd on December 09, 2010, 06:26 AM »

so what is the safest format to have if you want it to play on a dvd player connected to a tv?  A good dvd program like VLC, KMPlayer or the like can play just about any format with ease.  Can those set top boxes play ISO's also?

I know the newer players have a wider range of formats but what about the older ones?  Maybe there isn't a standard format yet?

-techidave (December 09, 2010, 05:54 AM)

The only real standard formats are those specified by ISO, IEEE, etc.  Not AVI, MPG, MKV, ISO or any other container format.

Your best bet for maximum compatibility across the majority of players is a bog standard DVD format compliant disc using good quality DVD blanks.

4520

Living Room / Re: A NAS server for my home

« Last post by 4wd on December 09, 2010, 03:58 AM »

I saw that hack but since it's going to be retired in favour of a FreeNAS solution I haven't bothered doing it.

-4wd (December 08, 2010, 08:43 PM)

Mind you, it wasn't a hack. I've implemented my own nice (though not very cheap) solution involving a PICAXE I actually had to put everything into an external casing because it didn't fit into the NAS case . But at least I now have a nice blinking LED telling me that everything is ok and that the NAS will actually power on  

-phitsc (December 09, 2010, 01:16 AM)

I was going to implement this one - 3 components, all internal.

Here's a selection for the DNS-323, if you were fortunate to have Rev.B1 hardware all you needed was a single capacitor - how easy would it have been for D-Link to include it as standard?

4521

General Software Discussion / Re: Why is it so hard to create a video cd/dvd on a windows machine?

« Last post by 4wd on December 09, 2010, 03:45 AM »

Personally, I use Scenalyzer Live for transferring DV to the computer - nothing comes close to the ease with which this program works.  If you use MiniDV at a consumer level then quite frankly, I don't know how you can not use this program.  It makes the first step of choosing what to keep/remove so much easier.

-4wd (December 09, 2010, 01:00 AM)

Do you use the free or shareware version. I note that even the paid version is five years old & pre Vista & 7.

-Dormouse (December 09, 2010, 03:03 AM)

I bought it more than 5 years ago, (IIRC about 8 years ago - so long ago I no longer have the original email purchase), I used the free version for all of an hour or two before deciding it really was worth the money.

It works fine on Win7 - probably the greatest disadvantage it has is that these days there are very few consumer level MiniDV camcorders available compared to a few years ago.  Everything has or is going to H.264 on flash or HDD and accessed via USB.

Still, I'll use it for as long as my MiniDV camcorder hangs together - although I do eye off the flash based HD camcorders occasionally, especially considering the difference in weight between them and my old Sony TRV-10E.

If anyone has a flash based camcorder I'd be interested to know whether Scenalyzer works with it.  I'm hoping that it's not tied to IEEE1394 and it can just use whatever codecs are installed for it's display.

and for once with perfect timing: http://www.giveawayo...poo-myautoplay-menu/
but be sure to remember to disable MyAshampoo Toolbar during installation!  

-Curt (December 09, 2010, 02:34 AM)

I believe that's for program disc menus, (eg. Installer menus when you insert a CD/DVD), not much good for video DVDs.

EDIT: DOH! I get your point about the Burning Studio - still there's plenty of free programs that will do the same, author and burn.

4522

Living Room / Re: I figured something out about Apple's device restrictions: file management.

« Last post by 4wd on December 09, 2010, 01:43 AM »

And on a Mac all roads lead no where and are unidirectional ... and that's the "wave-of-the-FUture".

-Stoic Joker (December 08, 2010, 06:00 PM)

Freudian typo slip?

4523

General Software Discussion / Re: Why is it so hard to create a video cd/dvd on a windows machine?

« Last post by 4wd on December 09, 2010, 01:00 AM »

MiniDV has a data cost of approximately 1GB per 4 minutes of footage.

So 10GB will be approximately 40-50 minutes of footage - this is an AVI in raw DV format.

The DV codec is pretty standard on Windows machines so you should be able to use any All-in-one type video to DVD converter, check the thread here.

If you want to do a bit of editing first, then AVIDemux is free and will let you do it - you can then output to a DVD compliant MPG stream, (Auto->Optical Disc->DVD), which can be written directly to a DVD and any decent standard DVD player will be able to read it directly.

If you want to turn the output MPG into a properly formatted DVD then one of the converters in the thread above should do it without re-encoding.

Personally, I use Scenalyzer Live for transferring DV to the computer - nothing comes close to the ease with which this program works.  If you use MiniDV at a consumer level then quite frankly, I don't know how you can not use this program.  It makes the first step of choosing what to keep/remove so much easier.

For editing and encoding, AVIDemux, and for authoring DVDLab Pro - if you're not interested in menus or want simple menus only then the basic All-in-one converters will suffice.

4524

Living Room / Re: A NAS server for my home

« Last post by 4wd on December 08, 2010, 08:43 PM »

The DNS-321 can be configured to sleep the hard drives when unused for a given timespan. However, they take a long time to wake up, so my client software would frequently timeout, so I disabled the sleep feature.

-CWuestefeld (December 08, 2010, 01:54 PM)

Believe or not, but that feature actually worked OK on DNS-313 and SyncBack waited long enough for the drive to spin up, (~10s), when doing a backup.  Mind you, it took 2 firmware upgrades to get it to work reliably, (most of the time).

I've actually modified the HW for it to auto-power on when mains comes back.

-phitsc (December 08, 2010, 06:06 AM)

I saw that hack but since it's going to be retired in favour of a FreeNAS solution I haven't bothered doing it.

4525

Living Room / Re: A NAS server for my home

« Last post by 4wd on December 08, 2010, 05:39 AM »

I have the D-Link DNS-321 as well, but was very disappointed about the reliability and frequency of SW updates.

-phitsc (December 08, 2010, 04:44 AM)

I concur with this, I have the DNS-313 and frankly it's put me off buying D-Link hardware.

Frequency of firmware updates is non-existent and introduce more bugs - they also depend on what version of the hardware you have but don't have the courtesy to tell you in the firmware notes which version it's for.
Emails to D-Link unanswered.

Also little things like not being able to power on to standby at power restoration after a power failure - it's a NAS for heavens sake.  One of a NAS' main functions is backups and the damn thing can't recover from a power failure to continue it's main function.