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5951

Living Room / Re: Why does the computer have to pause when you stick in a blank dvd/cd?

« Last post by MilesAhead on June 25, 2010, 05:36 PM »

If you have enough memory you could try disabling the page file completely and see if that has any effect. It is in the System settings from the Control Panel under Advanced/Performance settings.

-Carol Haynes (June 25, 2010, 11:16 AM)

I run both Vista64 and Windows Seven 32 bit with no pagefile.sys.  It has nothing to do with optical drive lag.  I think it's just Explorer. In fact if you mess up programming an Explorer extension, such as a context menu extension or whatever, I believe you can hang it.  That's why when it calls shell extensions it breaks it up into bits.  Initialize to give you a list of selected files or whatever, then another call if you want to put something in the context menu, then actually executing a command if one of yours was selected in the menu.  If you hang it or crash it the user has to do Task Manager to launch another instance of Explorer.

It would be interesting to try an Explorer replacement that's multi-threaded and see what happens.

5952

Post New Requests Here / Re: All AutoHotkey (AHK) coders read: No more upx packing of compiled ahk utils

« Last post by MilesAhead on June 24, 2010, 09:12 PM »

I found this interesting. I recompiled a bunch of my ahk and AutoIt3 utilities without UPX compression.  I noticed the other day MalwareBytes anti-malware still flagged a bunch of them.  Seems like there may be something in the compile wrapper rather than in UPX.  Seems a bit odd.

edit: before anyone gets paranoid, I scanned the compiled exes in the script folders and none of them were flagged.  Seems it only wants to flag them in Windows7 32 bit.  Weird.

5953

Living Room / Re: Format Converter

« Last post by MilesAhead on June 24, 2010, 09:03 PM »

Perhaps it would be best to describe what you are trying to do.  Then people can zero in with suggestions. 

5954

Living Room / Re: Format Converter

« Last post by MilesAhead on June 23, 2010, 06:54 PM »

It would help if you were specific.  Are you talking disk format, file format, video format.... ?

5955

Post New Requests Here / Re: Auto save any data from any (running) program at regular intervals.

« Last post by MilesAhead on June 23, 2010, 06:52 PM »

See if this one fits your needs:

http://www.softpedia...ce-Tools/Saver.shtml

5956

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: HDMI Cables: $0.60

« Last post by MilesAhead on June 23, 2010, 06:45 PM »

Not to mention that HDMI is relatively new Uber sharp/clear A/V technology so people are prepped to get bent over anytime they go to buy something for it. Here's an example of two identical items:

   iPhone compatible patch cord $12.00
   1/8" stereo patch cable $2.00

 ...Why? Because one has an Apple Logo on it. e.g. Prices tend to follow what the market will bare

-Stoic Joker (June 23, 2010, 01:32 PM)

Yeah, I try to avoid buying any accessories in brick & mortar stores. You get a good deal on a camera, but you get ripped off on the carrying case. Or you get a good deal on a DVD player but get shafted on the component cable set.  If I know for sure I'm shopping around for something that needs a component cable set or an HDMI cable or whatever, I order the cables from an online discount house.  Usually by the time they've arrived I've found a good deal on the player or whatever. It's lame to spend $30 for cables to watch a $60 DVD player. But that's what they try to get you to do when you impulse buy.

5957

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: HDMI Cables: $0.60

« Last post by MilesAhead on June 23, 2010, 06:42 PM »

Kind of funny. I wondered what sort of corrosion would happen on metal. Didn't really think about just plain 'ol rust.

So basically, gold doesn't (easily) rust and copper does. Got it!

-Deozaan (June 23, 2010, 01:52 PM)

Heh heh.  They call it "oxidation" just so you know they went to college. 

5958

General Software Discussion / Re: VLC 1.1.0 stable release actually works with PGS subs in .m2ts files!!

« Last post by MilesAhead on June 23, 2010, 01:35 PM »

btw it's still not as smooth as Splash Lite for playing HD videos.  But Splash Lite seems to think every subtitle comes in an .srt file.  I do get starts, stops, pauses with VLC but at least you can preview the PGS subs.

5959

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: HDMI Cables: $0.60

« Last post by MilesAhead on June 23, 2010, 01:08 PM »

I'm not a cable expert here, and don't claim to be, but this question has been bugging me for a while now. What would cause an hdmi cable to corrode in the first place... and for that matter, why is it that hdmi cables seem to be the only cables that do corrode? (correct me if there are other cables that corrode)

-nite_monkey (June 23, 2010, 09:33 AM)

Copper is an excellent cheap conductor, but it corrodes easily. If you look at the male end of just about any extension cord unless it's new out of the box it's discolored.  The copper wire in the cable is sealed which helps prevent the corrosion.  But the connection end is exposed to the air.  Something is needed to seal the copper but that's still conductive. Even the RCA stereo cables you buy at online discount houses usually have a bit of gold plating.

With the household extension cord there's enough current going through that it's not going to quit functioning just because there's a bit of oxidation on the connection.

5960

Living Room / Re: Why does the computer have to pause when you stick in a blank dvd/cd?

« Last post by MilesAhead on June 23, 2010, 12:54 AM »

Why does the computer have to pause when you stick in a blank dvd/cd?

Because the cd is upside down and the machine is taken aback by the disc-overy?

-cranioscopical (June 22, 2010, 05:13 PM)

It needs to know if you want fries with that.

5961

General Software Discussion / Re: AVI + SRT =>> burn a regular DVD, how to? Urgent as heck.

« Last post by MilesAhead on June 23, 2010, 12:51 AM »

Unless you need to mix and match multiple format input files, free video converters often do a better job.

-MilesAhead (June 22, 2010, 05:11 PM)

Well, the problem is he had already tried every free converter he could get ahold of & trialed many commercial ones & the one he's settled on is the only one that could fulfill his needs.

-Innuendo (June 22, 2010, 07:22 PM)

I find that unlikely.  .srt subtitle support is hardly exotic.
I know the ones I mentioned work.  I've used 'em several hundred times.

edit: I realize the OP was under deadline. I should have just left it at encouraging people new to video conversion to check out the freeware since there's a ton of paid crapware in this area that isn't worth installing.  The type of stuff you keep seeing on Give Away of the Day that doesn't even get the aspect ratio right etc.. I've heard good things about ConvertXtoDVD.

5962

General Software Discussion / Re: AVI + SRT =>> burn a regular DVD, how to? Urgent as heck.

« Last post by MilesAhead on June 22, 2010, 05:11 PM »

For heterogeneous input

Seems to work now after I converted subtitles to srt. Retrying one last time, and it might just do the job. Now, where did I put that $50...

-tranglos (June 21, 2010, 07:40 PM)

Unless you need to mix and match multiple format input files, free video converters often do a better job.  If the audio is in a format already suitable for
the display device(such as AC3 for DVD or whatever) then often all you have to do is demux into video and audio streams, convert the video, then use an authoring program such as DVDAuthorGui to create the VIDEO_TS with selectable subtitles.

If you have 20 input files all different formats then it's too cumbersome to do it by hand.  But one input video to get one output video it's pretty easy.

edit: when I say "pretty easy" I mean in the case where you are not changing frame rate or doing anything fancy.  As example, it's pretty easy to input .mkv and get an .m2v video file out etc..

5963

Post New Requests Here / Re: Recycle Bin Configurator

« Last post by MilesAhead on June 22, 2010, 02:12 AM »

This one claims to have rule-based deletion control:

http://www.freedownl...powered-recycle-bin/

Here's the publisher's page:

http://www.fcleaner.com/recyclebinex

edit: I haven't tried it myself. The vanilla bin is all I need.  But if you guys rave about it then I'll be tempted to check it out most likely.

5964

General Software Discussion / VLC 1.1.0 stable release actually works with PGS subs in .m2ts files!!

« Last post by MilesAhead on June 22, 2010, 01:50 AM »

Looks like they finally got the bugs out.  I installed the stable VLC media player 1.1.0 and noted in the change log the claim it supports PGS subs.  I tried it with one .m2ts file.  Showed the subs. I could advance the slider without it crashing.  Looks like they finally have it.

http://www.videohelp...ols/VLC_media_player

Now if I could just get them to fix my WD set top box!

5965

General Software Discussion / Re: AVI + SRT =>> burn a regular DVD, how to? Urgent as heck.

« Last post by MilesAhead on June 21, 2010, 06:27 PM »

If you can get the subs to standard .srt it will work in either
DVD Flick
or
FAVC

both free.

Select PAL output DVD type.

My players can play either PAL or NTSC so I never change the frame rate. Audio out of sync is a possibility, but I doubt it. If using FAVC I recommend using HC in 2 pass mode.

edit: Note, if FAVC use the DVD Options Tab to add the .srt subs to the title.  The output will have selectable subs.

edit2: if you have trouble with the .srt subs, try loading in Notepad and Save As ANSI file type and try again.  It may not like UTF-8.

5966

Living Room / Re: Why does the computer have to pause when you stick in a blank dvd/cd?

« Last post by MilesAhead on June 21, 2010, 06:21 PM »

Here's a weirdie for you.  I could never get Windows Seven to change the default command for the optical drive to Open rather than Play. I tried all the settings and tips from all the boards.

Now I just looked again, and afaict, the only difference is I changed from double click for launch to single click mode.  Now Open is the default!!!  Hey, I'll take it however I can get it!!

5967

Living Room / Re: Interesting Side-Step of Copyright; Also Porn

« Last post by MilesAhead on June 20, 2010, 08:43 PM »

It was fun to read the marquee, even if you would never think to go in.

-mwb1100 (June 20, 2010, 08:11 PM)

Hmmmm, marquee, or Marquis de Sade?  heh heh

edit: btw, what a come down for Keir Dullea from 2001 to that flick!!

 

5968

General Software Discussion / Re: SrtFix 1.1

« Last post by MilesAhead on June 20, 2010, 07:54 PM »

SrtFix 1.1 has been posted.  You can download using the link in the top post.
The "brain cramp" was that 1.0 assumed checking for periods in even numbered lines would work, when that just happened to be so because the particular subtitle file had all "one liner" subtitles.

Version 1.1 now checks each line for "-->" which indicates the subtitle time interval.  On those lines if it finds a period '.' it will change it to a comma ','
to fix the milliseconds section of the time code.

That's all it does.  But when you get an .srt that won't load it's easy not to notice those commas are really periods, unless you look closely.

5969

General Software Discussion / Re: SrtFix 1.0

« Last post by MilesAhead on June 20, 2010, 07:31 PM »

SrtFix has been removed due to brain cramp.

If it worked it was by accident.

Sorry about that. Use a real srt fix utility from someplace.

5970

Living Room / Re: FCC Moves to Regulate Internet

« Last post by MilesAhead on June 20, 2010, 05:22 PM »

Isn't there some sort of allegory about a camel's nose in a tent that is analogous to this situation?

-Deozaan (June 20, 2010, 05:19 PM)

The side with something to gain never quits.  The rest of us have to live and don't get paid for lobbying.  It's inevitable. Unfortunately.

5971

Living Room / Re: Interesting Side-Step of Copyright; Also Porn

« Last post by MilesAhead on June 20, 2010, 05:20 PM »

Hmmmmm, for some reason "stretch the condom" comes to mind instead of "push the envelope."  But I was going to mention that at least up until now Parody and Satire were valid defenses against claims the work was a copy.

Tom Brokaw is retired but if Parody was no longer protection we'd lose other guys like John Stuart pretending to be newscasters.

5972

Living Room / Re: Optimal mp3 quality/filesize for voice recordings?

« Last post by MilesAhead on June 20, 2010, 01:55 PM »

You might ask Paul Thurrott as he does a lot of podcasting. Probably at least knows the basics of how they clean up the signal:

http://www.winsupersite.com/Default.asp

Or maybe Leo Laporte on Twit TV:
http://live.twit.tv/

Also this board subforum may be good:
http://forum.videohe....com/forums/33-Audio

edit: I'm not very experienced in audio but just from making expendable discs to play in my car stereo it seems .wma has better sound quality for music generally, at lower bit rates. I think the highest my ripper program would go is 192 .wma and it sounded as good or better than .mp3 at 320.  Of course that's music, not talking audio.  If you can use .wma you may try it as it might save you processing. It should inherently use smaller file sizes I would think.

5973

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 8 Requests

« Last post by MilesAhead on June 20, 2010, 01:51 PM »

btw the 8 forums is already getting geared up, getting the bugs out of the board:

http://www.eightforums.com/

5974

Living Room / Re: Why does the computer have to pause when you stick in a blank dvd/cd?

« Last post by MilesAhead on June 20, 2010, 01:48 PM »

Any Linux gurus out there to say if the same CD load lag happens there?
I haven't used it for any length of time in years.  Just curious if different drivers may make a difference.  Also X should be different than Explorer.

5975

Living Room / Re: Why does the computer have to pause when you stick in a blank dvd/cd?

« Last post by MilesAhead on June 20, 2010, 12:34 AM »

http://www.windows7taskforce.com/view/18

It reminds me of accessing a floppy drive.  The thing is so slow they must be afraid if it doesn't have the undivided attention of the system it won't pick up what it needs to get off the dime...  one of those things like "It's been broken for so long, don't try to fix it."