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6201

General Software Discussion / Re: HCenc beta

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 17, 2010, 03:50 PM »

Makes me sad MrOdwin didn't keep up with FAVC.  For videos I wasn't picky about quality I used to convert from avi to dvd using QuEnc one pass with high quality disabled.  Or "one pass half assed" you could say!!  Man those videos converted real quick!!  I'd love to see 8 copies of QuEnc pop up, then disappear.

6202

General Software Discussion / Re: ReOpen 3.7

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 17, 2010, 03:46 PM »

ReOpen v. 3.7

Recompiled with AutoIt3 v. 3.6.6.1.

Tray Menu only opens on Right Click avoiding "flash" when double clicking.

6203

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

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 17, 2010, 01:25 PM »

I just installed this when I noticed a mention on Gizmo's site.  Haven't used it yet but it looks like a nice tool to have.  For a long time I used Locate32 but I found the method it used to be advised of file system changes provoked the OS into scanning all the files on the chosen drives.  It took me awhile to find the cause.  For that reason I switched to Everything.

But if you are on an older version of Windows locate32 can still be a useful tool, or run it without the file system update option enabled.

I have Windows indexing off so I'm glad to get an alternative type tool.  The name doesn't inspire confidence though.  Anytime I noticed this software I thought "what a name for a malware... like it Ransacks your system!!"  Paranoia inducing product name.  Not exactly great marketing.  Kind of like the "Last Uninstaller."  Makes me think it will be the "last" because my system won't work after I uninstall something with it!!

6204

General Software Discussion / Re: HCenc beta

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 17, 2010, 01:18 PM »

So far I've done 3 or 4 encodes with the new HC beta and haven't noticed anything weird with 2 pass.

-MilesAhead (April 13, 2010, 01:34 AM)

I've always done the 2 pass. Maybe I should try the 1 pass once and do a comparison.

-Innuendo (April 14, 2010, 09:21 PM)

btw if you do another run I'd love to see a screen shot with 8 copies of HC Enc running stuck all over the desktop.  Then I could live vicariously.    By the time I'm ready to get another PC I hope 8 cores and USB 3.0 will be in off the shelf units in my price range. It will be interesting to see how long it takes for this stuff to ramp up.  Maybe by College Computer Buying Season or Christmas?

6205

General Software Discussion / Re: HCenc beta

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 16, 2010, 11:55 PM »

Even if you have a set top box that plays .mkv you have to make some decisions about storage.  If a stack of Sata drives in a cabinet is an option that's cool.  My budget can't handle that. If you have a nice looking .mkv it will often convert to DVD9 which, played on an upconverting DVD player, can look very nearly like the source in quality.  The other option, to shrink the .mkv, requires 4 or 5 or 6 hour sessions with Handbrake.  If you have a super PC though, that may be a viable option.  I'm not sure how well Handbrake handles multi-core.  I've only actually done a few runs with it.  I got good results on one run that took about 4 hours.  When it starts telling me the job is going to take 7 or 8 or 9 hours, I abort.  I don't have the patience for it.

Once you start watching a TV with 16x9 mode you probably will want to get everything 16x9 anamorphic.  4x3 letterboxed doesn't seem so bad played on a conventional TV, until you start watching a 16x9 TV, then go back and look at some of the old DVDs you bought.  One drawback to doing HD => DVD is resizing down is slow.  What you end up doing is usually shaped by what equipment you have to watch the stuff on.  On some boards if I mention I don't mind burning subtitles into the video, it's like I spoke out against democracy or something!! Oh no!! You're ruining the video quality!!!  Like I have a 5 foot wide TV to watch it on like that guy!!

6206

Living Room / Re: Which prize would you choose?

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 16, 2010, 07:31 PM »

I would choose neither.
I don't believe in sweepstakes (aka gambling) and never participate.  Afterall, by never expecting something for nothing I am NEVER disappointed!

-parkint (April 15, 2010, 08:52 PM)

I can hear that.  In my philosophy, chance means, you might get hit by a meteorite while walking in the park.  When there's money involved, the flow only seems to go one way.

6207

General Software Discussion / Re: HCenc beta

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 16, 2010, 07:12 PM »

...

Same here...don't have an HDTV yet. Still waiting for the technological advances to stabilize a bit. Right now anything you buy is made near obsolete by the next year's models.

-Innuendo (April 16, 2010, 06:56 PM)

I'm sort of in between.  I have a Sony 27" CRT type TV with 1080i. The finest quality isn't required since it's not being blown up large.  If you have a decent source, DVD upconverted looks pretty good.  Also I have a WD set top box.  It can play Avi/Divx HD and .mkv .m2ts. It has it's problems but it's nice to see some stuff in native HD.

I think they phased out these "WEGA" HDTVs. I got this one for $520.. about the price of a conventional color TV.  I have relatives with a gigantic Sony HDTV that fills their living room but every time they come by and see some HD content on this thing they marvel at the quality.  So it's a good compromise of cost/quality.

6208

General Software Discussion / Re: HCenc beta

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 16, 2010, 07:02 PM »

If you have 8 cores then I guess it's "small" but to me a small test case is slicing off about 5 minutes of video and trying it. I haven't seen any development on DVD-RB in quite awhile.  I think most people are just burning to DVD9.  Seems Dobbs has moved on to BluRay.

If you get 'em from an online outlet like SuperMediaStore $1.33 ea for 8x DL isn't all that outrageous.  Also if you start with an HD resolution .mkv most of the time you don't want to shrink down to DVD5.  If you can get > 7000 kbit with HC 2 pass, then it looks fairly close to the HD source when upconverted.

Of course you could split to a pair of DVD5 to keep the bitrate.  Whatever your preference.  I recently did a pair of DVD9s more or less "by hand" since the flick was 3 1/2 hours and I didn't want to skimp on the bitrate.

6209

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

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 16, 2010, 06:48 PM »

I know.  Trouble with NewEgg is the free shipping is UPS.  Not the greatest way to get your HD shipped. To get FedEx Ground I think you have to add about $13. That brings it up to about the same.  So far I bought one HD from Egg and paid the extra for FedEx ground.  It seems to be working ok but the packing was less than inspiring.  Chucked in a box with some bubble pack.

I've purchased other stuff from Egg, like my USB 3.0 card and DVD+R discs.  But with HDs it seems more critical that they aren't kicked around before you get 'em.

6210

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

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 16, 2010, 10:43 AM »

I see this deal where I purchased my drive is still going on:

http://www.excaliber...lack-wd6402aaex.html

It ships in the US via FedEx Ground by default for around $10(depending in your location.)

I've been using this in my Sharkoon USB 3.0 docking station for a couple of weeks now.
I've very happy with it.

Here's Crystal Disk Mark I just ran with the drive in the dock:

6211

General Software Discussion / Re: HCenc beta

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 15, 2010, 10:12 PM »

I haven't tried the new one but I did plunk in an 0.24 beta from last October instead of the 0.23 without a problem. I don't use DVD-RB much now since I have DVD9 burners. And if I do it's usually a quick squeeze with ReJig.

I would take a guess and say you could substitute it using standard 2 pass mode.  Only way to know for sure is make a run. Only thing with DVD-RB it's tough to make a small test case since if it fits in a DVD5 it doesn't want to process it.

6212

Developer's Corner / Re: A story about "real programmers"...

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 15, 2010, 06:49 PM »

Obviously a real programmer wouldn't edit anything. He'd have an electronic keyer like the Ham Radio Operators use.  A dit is a 0 bit and a dah is a 1 bit.  He'd sit there and key it in "stream of consciousness" style, directly into the instruction queue.

6213

General Software Discussion / Re: HCenc beta

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 15, 2010, 06:35 PM »

I agree on the FAVC predictive method. I got good results.  For some bizarre reason though, I kept getting incomplete muxes(not just with that but with anything FAVC.)  Like, a 2 hour movie might end up being 1 hour 58 minutes.  It was easy to miss unless I remembered to check it.  Another motivation to do the steps by hand.  Maybe my next conversion I'll try one of the HC optimized exes.

edit: not sure what's up with HCenc_024_SSE4.exe.
But the gui shows SSE4 not available on my quad core.
Maybe it's an Intel i7 only thingy?

In any case for the rest of it, the encoder, if set to Auto will use the most advanced optimization detected.
I'm not sure how much it gains you to explicitly set it, unless it avoids a branch in the code. Prolly something
to ask Hank on Doom9 forum.

6214

General Software Discussion / Re: HCenc beta

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 15, 2010, 03:02 AM »

I suspect it will work better if there's a large range in the bitrate.  Say average 4 or 5 thousand kbit, max 9000.  If you try to do a 1 pass with average of 7 thousand kbit or higher it may spend longer than 2 pass trying to figure out how to portion out the bits.  But a sample with medium bitrate and one with high should verify it.

6215

General Software Discussion / Re: updating Firefox plugins sucks!

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 14, 2010, 08:12 PM »

I am usually using SRWare Iron and Opera myself  - speed is no luxury  .
Just wanted to mention that there is now an Iron alternative in the Comodo Dragon Browser, which claims to have similar benefits as Iron.  I have not tried it myself.

-Lutz_ (April 14, 2010, 07:07 PM)

Thanks for the tip off.

6216

General Software Discussion / Re: Need help regarding DOS and BAT files.

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 14, 2010, 05:44 PM »

As good a place to start as any:

http://www.microsoft...ntcmds.mspx?mfr=true


For easy to learn scripting language try AutoIt3.  It's free and has a simple syntax.
http://www.autoitscr.../autoit3/index.shtml

6217

General Software Discussion / Re: updating Firefox plugins sucks!

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 14, 2010, 02:23 PM »

I finally found a download accelerator that will work with SRWare Iron 5 Alpha and Firefox 3.6.3

It's Internet Download Accelerator.

It does have some annoying features.  Adds in the progress dialog, silly sounds, insisting on categorizing downloads unless you put them in a dated subfolder, sticking toolbars in Firefox.

But you can turn the sounds off at least.  What it does without using Flashgot or any plugin(when I say without using any plugin I mean, after you remove the stuff it sticks in Firefox AddOns.. just uninstall them,) is follow redirection on downloads from AfterDawn in both Firefox and Iron.

The main annoying thing is it insists on opening a white web page telling you it's taking over the download.  Evidently you have to pay up to get rid of this notification page(like when you try to disable in the settings it tells you only the Pro version lets you disable it.)

But, It's the only one I've tried so far that actually works in both browsers. All the others I had to drag a link to the drop box and that doesn't work with AfterDawn downloads or other sites that fetch with JavaScript.  At least this one does.  Looks like I'll run it until I find something better.

edit:  Looks like it can find Iron on Vista, but not on W7.

edit2: Also it looks like this download manager free version is a lot slower than Free Download Manager. The moral I guess is, if you want speed you have to drag the link to the FDM drop box.  I guess I'm going to uninstall this thing.  It's too slow and annoying for what it provides.

(p.s. sorry to hijack your thread but I thought you might be interested in how Iron fares with common tasks.)

6218

General Software Discussion / Re: DriveAlive 1.2

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 13, 2010, 02:17 PM »

DriveAlive 1.2

As of this version it's implemented in AHK.  Now you don't have to kill the instance in the Tray to change params.  Just run again with new command line params.  If there's already a copy running in the Tray, it will be replaced by the new one.

Also as a result the memory footprint is a bit smaller.
A Donate command has been added to the Tray Menu.

The latest is now available on my site.  Softpedia should update in a day or so.

One note, to cut down on file i/o the dummy file is created if it does not exist, deleted if it does, and cleaned off on program exit.  I mention it in case anyone notices the dummy file disappear although the program is still running.  It's "working as designed" as they say.

 

6219

General Software Discussion / Re: HCenc beta

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 13, 2010, 01:34 AM »

So far I've done 3 or 4 encodes with the new HC beta and haven't noticed anything weird with 2 pass. I only tried a single one pass job so not a fair test.  But I suspect the Feb beta is faster. I think there were a lot of changes in this latest and it may have slowed it down some. It's tough to say though. Sizing down is always slower.  A better test may be avi => dvd.

otoh so far the results are really good.  So if it takes 4 hours instead of 3 but there's no stutter in the motion, then I'll do the 4 hour 2 pass.

6220

General Software Discussion / Re: updating Firefox plugins sucks!

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 12, 2010, 10:59 PM »

Searching SRWare Iron I guess there was a thread on here months ago but I never noticed it. I just tried laying on the latest Alpha.  So far so good. I still haven't found a way to use the password thingy with multiple accounts on the same site. But I guess I'll just use Firefox for those sites.  Just wish I could sync bookmarks etc. without using a google account.

It does seem a tad faster.  Still has no setting that I can see to limit the on disk cache.  But I found out where the cache is so at least I can use CCleaner to delete it and cookies.

The new version does have a "delete cookies when I close the browser" setting now.

6221

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: New MakeMKV beta

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 12, 2010, 10:36 PM »

I don't believe I mentioned meta-data.  You should really read here if you want to know from people with the 1st hand info:

http://www.makemkv.c...m2/viewforum.php?f=1

6222

Living Room / Re: usb hard drive problems

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 12, 2010, 07:55 PM »

I would take a look on the Seagate site.  I believe they own Maxtor now.  When I was looking for software for my Seagate Free Agent drives I though I saw some Maxtor stuff on there.

edit: that was a few years back.  They could have sold Maxtor by now afaik.  But it's worth a look.

6223

Living Room / Re: Hidden Netflix Marathon Gems to Watch Online

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 12, 2010, 06:44 PM »

Hmmmmmm, I'm old I guess.  When I was a kid, this show was a Disney TV series with James MacArthur(the Danno of "Book 'em Danno" Hawaii 5 0) in the lead.  That's all I can remember about the show.

6224

General Software Discussion / Re: DriveAlive 1.1

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 12, 2010, 06:37 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.

-sajman99 (April 12, 2010, 04:16 PM)

Thanks.  It's been great not to have to wait for drives to spin up when opening an explorer window or mapping a network drive.  I'm doing a video conversion right now, reading from one dock and writing to the other.  Just nice not to have to worry about drives spinning down during a lull.  I think I searched for the manufacturer's utility longer than it took me to write it.  Nice and simple.

6225

General Software Discussion / Re: HCenc beta

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 12, 2010, 03:48 PM »

Yup.  Just back in the Feb. beta I noticed about a 5% increase in throughput over the previous beta.  Plus the default is to run at idle priority.  If you are leaving the machine to just process video you might as well bump it up to at least Normal setting.