Released from BluRay Prison

We are finally free from PowerDVD and WinDVD.

A free player that supports multi core and puts the Power back in you finger tips.

This will play a BluRay from your harddisk just by selecting the folder.

Subtitles will play so select the subtitle menu icon from the top of the player which looks like a square with an S in the top right. Select disable from that menu. Do not try to find it in subtitle settings.
This player didn't like conedvd for some reason. I have to un-install cloneDVD. I tried pulling out the SCSI driver but it didn't fix it.

http://www.digiarty.com/

Free Bluray Player

Support commercial and homemade Bluray. The only free Bluray decrypt and backup solution in market. Compatible with BD+ and AACS protected Bluray. Play Bluray from hard disk backup files and virtual driver.

Region Free DVD Player

Play all 1-6 region locked DVD disc. DAPlayer enables you to freely play any DVD on any region DVD driver device with full DVD navigation controls.

Easy Play 1080P High-Definition Videos

DAPlayer supports all 1080P/1080i HD videos at low CPU cost, such as M2TS, AVCHD, TP, MPEG-TS, EVO, MKV, AVC, MOD. Also support the HD video mixed-in subtitle tracks.

High Quality Audio System

Support up to 8 channels audio system, mix audio to 2 channels headphone and surround sound. Support Multi-channel DTS, TrueHD, AC3/Dolby. DAPlayer is based on BASS Audio System.

Support Most Popular Video Formats

DAPlayer is built in 450+ A/V decoders. It supports game videos, Youtube and other popular videos, such as MPEG1/2, WMV/ASF, AVI, MOV, RM/RMBV, OGV, FLV, MP4, H.264, M4V, WEBM.

Low CPU Cost

Optimized with MMX SSE SSE2 SSE3 Intel CPU instructions and support Multi-Core CPU and Hyper-Threading technology. Under 10% CPU cost on i5 CPU when playing 1080P AVCHD video.

Itunes Clone for Droid

Motorola Media Link



http://www.motorola.com/Consumers/US-EN/Consumer-Product-and-Services/Software/Motorola-Media-Link-US-EN

Motorola Media Link is a free PC software download that connects your Motorola Android phone to your PC. Easily transfer, sync, manage, back up, and share your phone's content. A variety of other valuable tools is included.

Moving files from the PC to the droid is as simple as copy and paste. This tool creates a great way to manage this flow with a visual interface. We tend to load up the camera with pictures that could get lost or deleted easily. This kind of development is expected from a company as big as Motorola if they want to give the customer the type of user experience that can compete with the IPHONE.

One Giant Leap

So you need to get that HD video from your new camera into a format people can use?

Even though the logo looks more like a fox, they are both scavengers and so are we so here it is free of charge. They have many other great tools that I have written about in the past like FLV player. They have a good wmv and mp3 converter as well.

http://www.koyotesoft.com/indexEn.html

Free HD Converter V1.4

Free HD Converter is a freeware designed to convert all your MTS and M2TS files. AVCHD is a format for the recording and playback of high definition video. Video compressed in MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 format. This format is used by camcorders like Canon HF10, HG20, Sony HDR-SR1, HDR-XR100 and many more.

This freeware will let you convert your HD files from your camcorder easily to AVI, MPEG2, DVD format, Ipod, Mp4, Wmv format. Very fast conversion and completely free to use.

• Batch conversion,
• output video parameters configuration and presets,
• Preview during conversion,
• Fast conversion process and easy to use.

Freeware

Compatibility: Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista/Seven
Size: 3.46 MB

-----------------------------------------------------
Free Mp3 Wma Converter V1.9

Free MP3 WMA Converter enables you to convert your MP3, WMA, OGG, AAC, M4a, MP4, Ape, Ac3, FLAC, WAVE files:

• Mp3 to Ogg, Mp3 to Wma, Mp3 to AAC, Mp3 to Wav...
• Wav to Mp3, Wav to Ogg, Wav to AAC, Wav to Wma...
• Wma to Mp3, Wma to Ogg, Wma to AAC, Wma to Wav...
• Ogg to Mp3, Ogg to Wma, Ogg to AAC, Ogg to Wav...
• AAC to Mp3, AAC to Wma, AAC to Ogg, AAC to Wav...
• Ape to Mp3, Ape to Wma, Ape to Ogg, Ape to Wav...
• Flac to Mp3, Flac to Wma, Flac to Ogg, Flac to Wav...
• M4a to Mp3, M4a to Wma, M4a to Ogg, M4a to Wav...
• Ac3 to Mp3, Ac3 to Wma, Ac3 to Ogg, Ac3 to Wav....

And even more possible conversions !

You can convert Itunes audio files (m4a format) free of charge in MP3, WMA, OGG…! Tags's editor integrated (V1 and V2). Copy your audio CDs very rapidly thanks to “Free CD Ripper”. Simplicity at the service of efficiency.

For a full list of products

Home Grown TV

More and more people are overcoming the controls placed on them by big media companies. They are producing unique focused content that likely won't make them famous but certainly can cause a following. They are opening more doors than just sitting at home playing an odds game. This is reality TV. Made by real people not mass media companies. Your looking at the next generation of media pioneers. If you enjoy their work donate anything to help them grow. Their success will pave the road for many more future success stories.



http://theguild.blip.tv/posts?view=archive&nsfw=dc - better quality than Youtube
http://www.watchtheguild.com/

The Guild on The Web

IMDB
Wikipedia
MySpace
Facebook Fan Page

Core Facts about The Guild

• Over 6 million hits web-wide
• Completely funded by Fan Paypal donations since episode 3
• Almost 1/2 of our donors are women
• The 10th episode will be the Season 1 Finale

Monster Prices on HDMI Cables

http://www.monoprice.com/home/index.asp

Its time to slay this dragon. Digital signals usually don't degrade on cables until you get over 225 ft in length. I typically see 6ft HDMI cables from $60 to $150 dollars. Monster cables only makes for a monster bank account for the company and to be honest makes a fool out of you.

6ft HDMI cables for $5.24 - at monoprice.com

There is another company offering ok prices with lots of conversion options:
bluejeancables.com

Are You a Control Freak, You will Be

Remote Infrared Control 1.0.4

This is a nice application because you can adapt a Windows Media remote to handle PC control when not using media center. You don't have to have a IR port built in to take advantage of this. Try using IR that comes with TV tuner cards or old remote PC keyboards, etc.

If you have an IR (Infrared) port in your computer, you can use RIControl to control your applications using an ordinary remote control from a TV or stereo. IRControl is completely configurable (even contains its own scripting language), and with the integrated Artificial Intelligence, you can teach the program what the remote control buttons are. This means that the program does not have to have the buttons programmed inside it, but you can use any remote control you want!

Bells and Wistles, How about KNOBS and more KNOBS

http://www.kreatives.org




I love knobs, big knobs, little knobs, knobs of all shapes and sizes. Who can resist? Maybe you can't twist, push, or pull on these knobs but they can be fun none the less and there are lots of them.

As use may have noticed WavePad has a mixer plugin feature for an extra $49.
You can effectively mix audio tracks in many movie editing applications. Here is a easier way to master digital audio. Worst case you can record a song for your special someone and mix in the band. This could be a great way to mix up podcasts as well. Many times live feeds have variable audio levels when you have remote guests. If you record each as a separate track you can mix it later and get professional results.


KRISTAL Audio Engine

• 16 audio tracks
• 32 Bit floating point audio engine
• 44.1 to 192 kHz sample rate*
• Downmix to 16/24/32 Bit audio files
• 3-band parametric EQ &
• 2 VST insert slots per channel
• 3 VST master effect slots
• ASIO low latency audio driver support
• 4 KRISTAL Plug-In slots
• Load/Save KRISTAL project files
• Supported file formats: WAVE, AIFF, FLAC, OGG Vorbis

The following Plug-Ins are included in the KRISTAL package:

KRISTAL Waver

• 

• the sequencer Plug-In for KRISTAL
• multichannel harddisk recording via ASIO/MME
• ASIO input monitoring
• audio clip arrangement
• audio clip fade-in/fade-out/crossfade
• unlimited undo/redo
• AES31 Export

KRISTAL LiveIN

• 
• connect your mic/guitar and play
• thru KRISTAL using VST effects in realtime

KRISTAL Effects Plug-Ins

• KristalMultiDelay
• KristalChorus
• KristalReverb
• Kristalizer

Ride The Wave Like PRO

http://www.nch.com.au/wavepad/

WavePad is a serious audio editor for people not so serious about spending money. They offer a pro version designed for professional use, imagine that.

I use to copy my audio books on tape to CD using Nero Wave editor. The process is quite simple and the editing features allows you to run multiple streams together or create page breaks for easier navigation. WavePad is a few branches higher in the geek tree compared to NERO. Its also free where the NERO wave editor can cost extra depending on the version you have.

One nice feature is being able to modify the volume to be able to hear weak or poor recordings.

WavePad sound editing software includes a recorder that supports autotrim and voice activated recording. Tools include spectral analysis (FFT), tone generation and speech synthesis. WavePad’s easy to use interface will get you started running. Player includes Scrub/Cue control for precise editing.

Effects

Effects include, Amplify, Normalize, Equaliser, Envelope, Reverb, Echo, Reverse, Noise Reduction, Sample Rate Conversion and more.

Features Sound editing functions include cut, copy, paste, delete, insert, silence, autotrim and more. Audio effects include, amplify, normalize, equaliser, envelope, reverb, echo, reverse, sample rate conversion and more. Supports a number of file formats including wav (multiple codecs), mp3, vox, gsm, real audio, au, aif, flac, ogg and many more. Batch processing supports up to 32000 files allowing you to apply effects and/or convert your files as a single function. Tools include spectral analysis (FFT) and speech synthesis (text-to-speech). Recorder supports autotrim and voice activated recording and more. Audio restoration features including noise reduction and click pop removal. Supports sample rates from 6000 to 96000Hz, stereo or mono, 8, 16, 24 or 32 bits. Includes its own CD ripper with 'ultrafast 'rip mode and cddb music database lookup. Works directly with MixPad multi-track audio mixing software. Links directly to the Express Burn CD Recorder to burn your sound files to CD. Easy to use interface will get you started editing in just minutes. Typical Editing Applications Software audio editing for studios and professional journalists. Edit sound files to broadcast over the internet with the BroadWave Streaming Audio Server Normalizing the level of audio files during mastering before buring to CD. Editing mp3 files for your iPod, PSP or other portable device. As a music editor (includes ringtones creator formats). Music editing and recording to produce mp3 files. Voice editing for multimedia productions.

System Requirements Windows 95/NT4/98/2000/Me/XP/2003/Vista or later; Mac OS X 10.2 or later; or, To run under Linux use WINE.

Not for the Mentally Challenged

Over 1000 free audio books and video downloads

For the Geek

Gettysburg Address
Speech by Gandhi

I Have a Dream
by Martin Luther King, Jr.

Extraordinary Leadership
by Robin Sharma

The Mercury Theatre on the Air
by Orson Welles

The Road Less Traveled
by Robert Frost

Self Reliance
by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Law of Attraction and Relationships
by Pramod Uday

Extra Tips for The FG to Maximizing Your Money
by Peter Bielagus

Answering the Question: What is Enlightenment?
by Immanuel Kant

You will never know unless you listen.

Wimpy Yes, Flashy No - Free FLV players

Flash Movie Player (FREE)

http://www.eolsoft.com/freeware/flash_movie_player/

*Flash Movie Player is absolutely free - no nag screens, no ads, no spyware, no time limit.
*Allows to rewind swf movies, animations and Flash games to any position in playing or paused mode.
*Opens exe projector files from version 4 to version 7 and works with them same way as with ordinary SWF files (allows rewinding, etc.)
*Flash Movie Player can extract flash movies from exe projector files and save them in SWF format.
*Supports Playlists. Playlist entry editor, sorting functions.
*Has full screen mode with auto-hiding navigation bar.
*All other Macromedia Flash Player standard features (zoom, quality select, repeat, scale mode select).
*Snapshots creation : allows to create snapshot of any animation's frame and save the image in Jpeg or Bmp format.
*Hotkeys for all frequent operations.
*Has Drag-n-drop support.
*The executable has small size and low system requirements.
*Multilingual interface. (32 Languages supported at the moment).
*Allows to explore cached SWF files. (Add swf files from IE, Firefox and Opera cache to playlist).
*Can act as Screensaver. You can set up Flash Movie Player as your screensaver to play flash animations while computer is in idle.

________________________________

Wimpy Desktop FLV Player (FREE) http://www.wimpyplayer.com/products/wimpy_standalone_flv_player.html

Play FLV - Flash formated files on a PC or Mac

_____________________________________


FLV Player
http://www.martijndevisser.com/blog/flv-player/

FLV Player is a standalone utility to play Adobe Flash Video (FLV) files with. FLV Player is compatible with Windows 2000, XP and Vista. FLV Player supports both local and internet streaming content, has fullscreen mode and, best of all, it is free.
___________________________________

http://www.globfx.com/products/swfplayer/

Life comes full circle - ORB personal media broadcasting - FREE

Broadcast your movies, TV, and other media content anywhere for FREE.

What VLC does ORB does well and is easy to setup. ORB is dependent on a Streaming media source to make it work.

The Orb application is free. There are no fees for MyCasting. You need a home pc to get setup, and can use any web-enabled media player with streaming capabilities to remotely play the media. VLC is a good start.

Your computer broadcasts the media you choose that is stored on your PC. You can stream content through any internet device. This works with mobile phones, PDAs, laptops or any other computer.

There is no software installation required on the receiving web device. You can broadcast photos, music, videos, and even live TV. You can use this to view documents as well.

ORB instructions and recommendations.

Download:
http://corp.orb.com/download_orb

You have the Audacity

Audacity is free, software for recording and editing audio.
It is cross platform. Windows, Mac, Linux
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Record live audio.

Convert tapes and records into digital recordings or CDs.

Edit Ogg Vorbis, MP3, and WAV sound files.

Cut, copy, splice, and mix sounds together.

Change the speed or pitch of a recording. - this can help in learning or you can get through content faster. This can also helps a bit for you men out there who have difficulty hearing high pitched sounds. I think we developed this over thousands of years of evolution as a psychological defense mechanism.

Learn more about Audacity...

Wiki

Forum for more information.

Frack This Fraps

CamStudio 2.1 - FREE
http://camstudio.org/



This is a great light weight alternative to FRAPS. FRAPS may be very well worth the price tag but if they cut the price by 50% I think they would make twice the money. For most of us CamStudio will do the job. CamStudio is best for capturing the entire screen. If your capturing video from a source such as a web cam or "video in" then this might not be the best solution.


Virtual Dub might be a better choice:
http://www.virtualdub.org/




This is off the subject of video screen capture:
Check out: http://www.videohelp.com/guides?listall=1&orderby=Date
Choose the How To category to get the guide you want. Most of these guides require a fair amount of skill to follow. With these guides you can do just about anything you can do with a commercial product like InterVideo DVD Copy (my choice) but it will require much more attention and effort. Intervideo has the best quality encoding, its fast for most jobs, and the interface is very intuitive

http://dvd-copy-software-review.toptenreviews.com/
I have tried or own most of the products tested in the link above. InterVideo DVD Copy 5 is the only way to go. If you follow the next link you will see the article that most sold me on Intervideo. http://www.dvd.box.sk/articles8.php
I will do a post on video encoding at a later time. Its an interesting and detailed topic. I touched on turning Windows Movie maker into a HD professional movie maker in a previous post. The same encoder can stream media and convert video to a web friendly size.
____________________

Fraps - Realtime Video Capture Software
If you havent used FRAPS in some time you should try it out again.
I'm a fan of FRAPS, I just wish this was affordable.

Fraps can capture audio and video up to 2560x1600 on dual-core CPUs (1152x864 single-core) at up to 100 frames per second! Remember a Hollywood movie is 24 frames / sec.

Fraps works and works well. The free version has a water mark and is limited to 30 sec clips.
The full version is $37.

YouTube to MyTube - Capture that Flash

Update - Get Down with Download manager

This is a firefox extension.

________________________

http://vixy.net/


Online FLV Converter : Download online videos direct to PC / iPod / PSP. It's free!

The service lets you submit a URL. The site will extract the video and decode it. You can then download later for personal viewing.
_________________________

Ok lets say you might want to be a bit more discrete.

It's going to cost you a bit but well worth it. This thing is like magic. It captures everything in the background so you do need to have a little focus to clean up when your done surfing.


Applian Replay Media CatcherVersion: 2.10.00.00
http://www.applian.com/
http://www.media-catcher.com/replay-media-catcher/index.php


The Ultimate FLV & MP3 Capture Tool
Record all kinds of FLV format Flash Videos.
Capture streaming MP3 files.
Automatically names songs and video files.
One click recording.
MP3 tag editor.
Works great for hard-to-capture sites using RTMP protocol.
Free Trial! - $40 to buy
_____________________________


Another online capture solution. Again free, my guess is not for long.

VLC - I know you know but what if you don't know what your missing

http://www.videolan.org/

VideoLAN Client

VLC media player

VLC media player 0.8.6c

• It is a free cross-platform media player
• It supports a large number of multimedia formats, without the need for additional codecs
• It can also be used as a streaming server, with extended features (video on demand, on the fly transcoding, ...)

This is a great player that could use a bit of consumer polish. If the force is with you, you can stream media from one room of your house to another or across the internet. Trust me this works, I have done both. I say trust me because in some cases this is easier said than done.

This will play a native DVD (without encryption) but if you happen to have a DVD de-crypted or should a say a encryption free DVD on your hard drive, I find it easiest to select the video files and create a playlist for smoothest playback. Of course you don't get any menus but how often do you need them?

Get it while it lasts - Powerful Media Player

MPlayer Features

http://www.mplayerhq.hu/design7/info.html

MPlayer is a movie player which runs on many systems (see the documentation). It plays most MPEG/VOB, AVI, Ogg/OGM, VIVO, ASF/WMA/WMV, QT/MOV/MP4, RealMedia, Matroska, NUT, NuppelVideo, FLI, YUV4MPEG, FILM, RoQ, PVA files, supported by many native, XAnim, and Win32 DLL codecs. You can watch VideoCD, SVCD, DVD, 3ivx, DivX 3/4/5 and even WMV movies..

Another great feature of MPlayer is the wide range of supported output drivers. It works with X11, Xv, DGA, OpenGL, SVGAlib, fbdev, AAlib, DirectFB, but you can use GGI, SDL (and this way all their drivers), VESA (on every VESA compatible card, even without X11!) and some low level card-specific drivers (for Matrox, 3Dfx and ATI), too! Most of them support software or hardware scaling, so you can enjoy movies in fullscreen. MPlayer supports displaying through some hardware MPEG decoder boards, such as the Siemens DVB, DXR2 and DXR3/Hollywood+.

MPlayer has an onscreen display (OSD) for status information, nice big antialiased shaded subtitles and visual feedback for keyboard controls. European/ISO 8859-1,2 (Hungarian, English, Czech, etc), Cyrillic and Korean fonts are supported along with 12 subtitle formats (MicroDVD, SubRip, OGM, SubViewer, Sami, VPlayer, RT, SSA, AQTitle, JACOsub, PJS and our own: MPsub). DVD subtitles (SPU streams, VOBsub and Closed Captions) are supported as well.

License

MPlayer is available under the GNU General Public License version 2. It is not available under any other licensing terms. If you have questions about the GNU GPL, consult the GPL FAQ.

See the web site for features and screenshots.

http://mplayer.sunset-utopia.homeip.net/

Important Notes:

When playing back DVDs I find getting to the audio track for English overly complicated. I found a nice GUI for mplayer that has what looks like a more polished professional set of options.

http://mpui.sourceforge.net/index.php?page=about

When choosing the download I used the stable download that defaulted to English. To play the English audio track I used 128 which seems to be the default for English.

MPUI (stable)

http://downloads.sourceforge.net/mpui/MPUI-1.1.10_with_MPlayer-1.0-pre8.zip?modtime=1151008778&big_mirror=0

*******************

MEncoder (part of MPlayer) - now its time to get a bit more Geeky

MEncoder is a command line utility that allows you to covert your media from one format to another. Learning command line options is usually easy. Remembering them 6 months from now is the hard part. This is why I like GUIs. GUIs can sometimes be as complicated as the command line if there are a lot of options.

I like GUIs that create the command lines for you and write them to a file so you can manually create a batch file or simply make small changes to complete tasks faster.

MeWiG is a Windows Frontend to the MEncoder (part of MPlayer) using the .NET Framework. You should be able to crop, scale, deinterlace, etc and finally convert almost any digital video-source, without the need for commandline-options.

Download MeWiG - MEncoder GUI for Windows

Free Music CD Ripper Converter - Protect that investment

Music CDs aren't cheap. I dont buy recording industry music anymore but I have quite a collection. The CDs are getting old and I want to protect that investment so here is a free way to do it.

http://www.dbpoweramp.com/dmc.htm

They sell a MP3 conversion and offer a 30 day free trial. I simply use the .wav (Wave) format since its lossless and is universial. Not to mention this program rips CDs in about 1 minute to a wave format. Hard drive space is cheaper these days and I recommend making a DVD backup of all your files.

This program looks up your titles and creates a folder for you that matches a internet database of songs.

Like all of these great companies they are in business to make money. If you like this free product take a look at what they have for sale.

Turn your Pocket PC into a IPOD

The latest version of PocketMusic is always available at

http://www.pocketmind.com/pocketmusic.htm

This is loaded with free features. The way these people do business and what they offer for free makes me want to pay for the full version. For what they charge ... why not?

Turn Windows Movie Maker into the best HD video production software for free.

Links:

Microsoft Posts Windows XP Movie Maker 1.2.1
Update
http://v4.windowsupdate.microsoft.com/en/default.asp

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/bonuspack/default.aspx
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/forpros/encoder/default.mspx

Good writeup on Windows Movie Maker

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/moviemaker/expert/bridgman_02february4.mspx

**************************************

Here is how to make it work:

Creating your own Windows Movie Maker custom export profile:
You need the free Windows Media Profile Editor, which is installed as part of the Windows Media Encoder download.
Get Windows Media 9 Series codecs.

You can download the encoder from Microsoft:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/9series/encoder/default.aspx

From Windows Media Encoder:
open Profile Editor from Start > All Programs > Windows Media > Utilities > Windows Media Profile Editor. You are going to create a custom profile.
Name your profile and give it a description. It will be easier to identify in the Windows Movie Maker Save Movie wizard.
Check off Audio and Video boxes and use the default Windows Media Audio 9.1 and Windows Media Video 9 for the codecs.

You now need to set a target bit rate. Click the Add button to get started. Select a target bit rate type of either K (kilobits), M (megabits) or G (gigabits).
Kilobits would be used for portable devices or Web downloads.
I set video at 30fps, 15fps is the default. Change the keyframe interval to 3-4 seconds from the default of 8.

Click the Save and Close. Name your profile and be sure to save it in the :\Program Files\Movie Maker\shared\profiles folder. The next time you step through Save Movie Wizard, select your new custom profile from the Other Settings drop down menu before saving the final project.

Windows Media Encoder has pre-built profiles you can use as a guide, click the Import button and select a profile from the listing in:
:\Program Files\Windows Media Components\Encoder\Settings