Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with video and computers

How to create online video classes?

jabo — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 10:36:36 -0800

I need advice in setting up secure, online video classes. A student would pay for the class, and then be directed to a streaming video that they would be able to watch (not download) for a length of time (say a week).

I could use any advice, resources, warnings or general musings on how to accomplish this. Existing software or hosting solutions also welcome. I know html and css but only just getting my little toenail wet with php. Finally, this would be for a small business with limited resources (i.e. cash).

Can I upgrade the graphics card on my aging desktop?

Fluffy654 — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 08:29:17 -0800

What is a cheap graphics card that is still better than my ATI Radeon X300 and will my old desktop be able to handle a more modern card? I have just bought Sims 3 and have realised that I need a better graphics card. I don't need anything amazing or expensive but my current graphics card is 5 years old and so I think it is time for an upgrade. I currently have the 128MB ATI RADEON X300 SE and am looking for something in the range of £50.

I have a Dell Dimension 5000 and various forums inform me that its power supply might not be sufficient to handle modern cards. Its 305 Watts. Is this true?

How does one play back 2-channel video?

Artifice_Eternity — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 10:27:02 -0800

It's becoming increasingly common in the art world to see various forms of multi-channel video: works or installations in which video plays back on more than 1 screen at a time. If I wanted to create a 2-channel video piece, what technical means would be available to me to play back both video channels in sync with each other? Creating 2 synced videos is not a problem for me. I would edit each video separately, but working with a common soundtrack. The mystery is how to play them back together. Anyone know how this is typically done?

I imagine there may be a computer-based solution. Many computers will now support 2 displays; perhaps the right software would be able to send a separate feed to each video output. But I don't know what that software would be, or even what file format would be involved. Perhaps 2 separate conventional files played simultaneously? Or 1 file with a double-wide aspect ratio, split in half down the middle? (If the latter, how the hell would I produce such a file?) Hive mind, clue me in if you can.

Why does my satellite remote control now longer work with my new HDTV?

SweetJesus — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 16:15:16 -0800

I recently purchased a new HDTV and all of a sudden I'm having a lot of problems with my satellite remote no longer working. So I purchased a new Toshiba HDTV last week (46XV545U) and it finally arrived yesterday. After setting the TV up I noticed that my Dish Network cable box (VIP211) would just no longer receive/accept IR signals from the remote if it was more than three inches from the front of the cable box. I've never had this problem before, and I've had the cable box for around 3 years.

I also happen to have an HTPC connected to the TV with a Microsoft wireless IR keyboard, and that comes with a little IR USB receiver. I know that whenever an IR signal is emitted a little light on the front of the unit will light up. I've now noticed that whenever I turn the TV on the light on the IR receiver is constantly on, meaning that something is sending IR signals its way. As soon as I shut the TV off, the light turns off on the IR receiver. Does anyone have any idea what would cause the TV to emit IR signals constantly when turned on? I haven't yet contacted Toshiba or Dish Network because I'm trying to fix it myself without decending into help-desk hell.

How to display a transcript in sync with a media file?

isnotchicago — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 16:54:42 -0800

I have a transcript with timestamps and a media file. How do I display both of them on a webpage at the same time, synchronized? Oh, and it has to work in any browser or OS. I have a transcript (foo.txt) composed of 1000 sentences. Each sentence is given its own line, and some sentences have accompanying comment lines as well. The sentence lines are formatted as "Speaker|Sentence sentence sentence.|timestamp", and the comments lines are formatted as "comment|Comment comment comment". An example could be:

*MOT|which way we're gonna go ?|01234_02234
%com|Mother is gesturing toward train set.
*CHI|backwards .|02234_02934

With this transcript is a media file (audio or video, the solution should be able to handle both). The timestamps correspond to points in the media file (in milliseconds).

I want to display the entire transcript alongside the media file, and when playing the media file, have the corresponding lines in the transcript be highlighted (1). The transcript should also automatically scroll so that the media is always in view. Finally, users should be able to begin playback either by going to a particular point in the transcript and hitting play (or some keyboard shortcut), or a particular point in the media and hitting play (or some keyboard shortcut).

An important caveat is that this must work in older browsers and both Windows/OS X (Linux support is unnecessary/probably follows from Windows/OS X support). All my research has come up with solutions using HTML5, which obviously won't work in older browsers. Staying away from Flash is also preferable, but not mandatory.

My guess is that there's some Ajax that can grab the time in the media and compare that to the timestamp for each line, and then highlight that particular line (either by encapsulating each line with a tag, or some fancy XML or JSON parsing). I don't know! Help me, hive!

(1) Particularly, I'm not looking for closed-captioning (a la Quicktime and SMIL). The transcript should be separate from the media file, and should itself be navigable.

Not the most titillating way to take video of oneself, but...

jon1270 — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 08:25:25 -0800

Cheap digital video? Help me do time-motion studies on myself. I build furniture in a one-man studio shop. I suck at estimating how long it will take to build a piece. Every piece I build is unique, and usually made up as I go along; I do a little of process X, then jump to process Y, then work on unrelated maintenance while waiting for glue to dry, etc. It would be very helpful to know how much time I've actually spent on various phases of work, but I've never been successful at switching timers on and off while I'm working; doing so just breaks my rhythm and I stall out.

So it occurs to me that maybe a I could mount a cheap video camera in the shop and run a cable to my PC in the house (perhaps 50 feet away). I (hopefully) could make timestamped recordings of myself working, and then take notes while fast-forwarding through them later.

The shop is small; the camera wouldn't need to move at all. Also, I see this as an occasional, short-term practice; I don't need to build this system to work perfectly, or to work forever. Cheap is important. Low-res and choppy is fine.

I have zero experience with digital video recording. What equipment and software would be necessary? How much drive space would I need to store a day's work? A week's? How plausible is this? Any insight would be appreciated.

Windows Vista Doesn't Work with VGA to HDMI Converter Box

ao4047 — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 11:46:02 -0800

We have an HP Slimline machine running video with an Nvidia Geforce 6150 SE graphics card. We are wanting to use a VGA->HDMI box to convert the video output of the desktop and connect it to our television: 1) We know the VGA->HDMI box works correctly.

We tested with an Asus EEE Laptop running Windows XP and the video successfully outputs to the TV.

We tested with a Macbook Pro laptop and the video successfully outputs to the TV.

2) We know the HP Slimline desktop works sometimes.

When we boot up the desktop the 'HP INVENT' splash screen shows on the tv.

Then, the green status bar with 'Microsoft Corporation' displays.

Then, something happens to the video and the signal stops. I'm guessing that once the boot begins and then Vista settles in something is interfering with the signal being sent to the the VGA->HDMI box.

Any ideas? Thanks!

I found this previous thread but I think we're a bit further along in our testing.

Youtube Videos to Ipod

madmamasmith — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 22:45:10 -0800

I want to import a youtube video on to my ipod. I downloaded a firefox add on that is supposed to convert the files to FLV as well as a download helper. A little icon appears on the bottom of the screen and it is supposed to download the video to my computer, but it doesnt work. SO I downloaded itube and something called ares tube but nothing is working!!!! It always says error....am I doing it wrong? or is there an easier way to transfer videos to my ipod? Please help....and keep in mind, I am not technology minded at all.

How do I guttenberg my digital?

history is a weapon — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 14:00:08 -0800

[video/printing filter]I want to take video from Final Cut Pro, export them, and then print them on a grid on paper. I know how to do the first part, but am confused about the printing. How do I do it? So I can export an image sequence from Final Cut Pro and get a sequentially numbered set of image files in a folder. How do I take said folder and print them so the pictures are at full resolution (640x480), but not just a single picture per page, but as many of them as can fit (with maybe a small border) on a piece of paper and have the slides be sequential? I have use of an epson stylus photo 1400 if this is helpful to the answer. I basically want to print up 1,440 frames on less than 1,440 pieces of paper.

monitor vs projector

dozo — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 22:22:07 -0800

I'm thinking of replacing/supplementing my PC monitor with a projector, but I've never really used or shopped for one. Is it worth it, or should I just go for a couple of the biggest monitors I can afford? I've long dreamed of a leaving my monitor behind and using a projector for gaming and video on my XP/Linux pc. The quality I'm looking for mostly is resolution... at least 1080. Recently I've found what seems to be a reasonably priced projector here.

Thing is, it says resolution=800x600 native, 1600x1200 resized, able to put out 1080p. On Newegg, however, it just mentions 800x600. Having had no experience with projectors, I'm fuzzy on whether they behave like monitors. Can you just change resolution with good results like a CRT, or do they have only one resolution they're good at like a LCD? Will the picture be true 1600x1200 or some crappy technical trickery for "virtual" 16x12 (or something)? Is there something that goes along with high resolution, like shorter lamp life or reduced brightness?

In addition, has anyone set up a projector for their main display? Is this advisable? Are there any things I might need to be aware of, like room size, darkness level, eye strain? I know I'm looking for a high lumen count and over 2000:1 contrast, but is there anything else in particular I need to watch out for?

Need program to track progress in multiple TV series

lrodman — Tue, 06 May 2008 12:02:08 -0800

Is there a good program to monitor progress in various TV shows? I.e. what episode I'm on in shows if watching multiple shows in different seasons irregularly. Optimally this would integrate somehow with hulu/abc/WMP, but I wouldn't expect that. Anyone have a good app like this? It gets confusing with series starting and ending different times, and picking up or taking breaks from different shows.

Help me find the best real-time video generative software for someone with little programming experience.

itchi23 — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 13:48:59 -0800

Help me find the best real-time video generative software for someone with little programming experience (PC, no Mac.) I've been using Resolume for a few weeks for just triggering clips and manipulating effects, and I think it might be really great for VJ'ing, but I'm also looking for a generative video app to use for my video art. I've looked into vvvv, Pure Data, Processing, Jitter, etc., and can't seem to tell the differences between them, and more importantly, how easy each one is to learn. I have little-to-no programming experience, but I'm willing to learn some coding if it'll help.

I'd like to manipulate objects in real-time (ex. importing a path from Illustrator, or a flash object, or maybe even a 3D model), as well as visualize incoming data streams and be able to manipulate the video output. Obviously, I'd also want to use video clips, fframe plugs, etc. Is this something I'd be able to do in a single app, or in real-time - and if so, how easy would it be to learn for someone with little programming experience, but a lot of media production experience?

Alternately, is this something that Flash could do? A lot of VJ apps can use swfs, and if I could program a swf to take incoming data and/or react to outside input streams, that's an additional thing to consider. I'd much more inclined to go with Flash if it's a viable option. Thanks!

Did my new RAM kill my video adapter?

YoungAmerican — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 17:31:06 -0800

BSODFilter: I tried to install a RAM upgrade in my girlfriend's Dell Inspiron 1100 laptop, and got nothing on screen after powerup. So I replaced the old DIMM, and got the BSOD -- the file that was missing was a driver for the Intel video adapter. Long story short, it's still not working. I wiped the HD, reinstalled windows, reinstalled the drivers, and after some installing and re-installing, finally have the computer starting up in XP. But it's giving me the BSOD seemingly randomly every hour or two. This is with everything as it was BEFORE the troubles started.

I spent a number of hours on the line with tech support, they seem completely baffled. In typical tech support fashion, all they want to do is install and reinstall drivers. I've googled my rear off, but to no avail.

Could I somehow have zapped my video adapter when I installed the DIMM? Could they conflict somehow? Would replacing the video adapter fix the problem? Could I replace it myself, as someone who's never done anything more than replace drives and RAM?

If I start up with the new RAM only, I can get it going in safe mode, but with weird purple lines up and down the screen.

I was about to buy a new computer to replace this one, but part of the plan involved getting a few hundred bucks for the oldie-but-goodie, which won't work if it's an oldie-but-baddie. Help me mefites, you're my only hope.

Video el Cheapo

popcassady — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 10:08:55 -0800

How can I build a high-def editing system on the cheap? I want to build a high-def editing system on the cheap (excluding monitors, keyboard etc...) for a round £500.

I'd like to avoid expensive software -- I'm considering using Cinelerra CV as my main package. Is it any good? What (free/cheap) Linux distro would be best?

Now what kind of PC do I need? The source video will be made up of individual JPGs -- 3200x2400, around 22 meg in size a piece -- and is intended to be printed back to film after the edit is complete. I'd like to stay away from any further compression if possible, and especially avoid the awful HDV.

Where do I start? What's important when considering building a PC for these needs? Do I just buy a CPU and motherboard and chock it full of memory, or are there other things to consider?

How do I stream real time digital TV across a lan (XP).

tomble — Sat, 12 May 2007 19:52:07 -0800

How do I stream digital TV from my PC to another PC? I have two winXP PCs on a LAN, the first PC having a digital TV receiver. My other PC is hooked up to a projector. I would like to watch digital TV via the projector in real time.

How do I go about streaming the digital TV from my first PC to the second one? I believe there is software out there which will do it, but I want to do it as easily as possible without having to compile files, run command lines etc.

Explorer constantly crashing on video file thumbnails, can't take it anymore!

bradn — Fri, 11 May 2007 09:33:08 -0800

Windows XP / Explorer: MPG and WMV file thumbnails constantly crash Explorer, sometimes taking the entire OS with it. How can I fix this? I have a folder of small clips, mostly MPEG files, some WMV. When I leave this folder open in thumbnail view while I work with the clips, Explorer constantly crashes. Usually it just hangs and I have to kill the explorer process and rerun it. Sometimes everything locks up and I have to hit the restart button. If I keep it in List view, this doesn't seem to happen, but I need thumbnail view to identify the clips easily.
Help?

graphics co-processor?

crunchland — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 07:50:10 -0800

Does anyone have, or have you seen a computer with a video co-processor installed? (Like the PhysX card by Ageia) Is it worth the extra $250?

Help me upgrade the video on my Dell Dimension 2400.

huskerdont — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 09:19:03 -0800

Help me upgrade the video on my (PCI-only) Dell Dimension 2400. I'm trying to get a new video card for my Dell Dimension 2400, which has video (64mb Intel) pre-integrated into the motherboard.

Now, the kicker is that the Dimension 2400 only has PCI ports. Being not too computer-innards knowledgable, I bought a 256mb PCI-E card that didn't fit into my motherboard at all.

Are there any decent PCI video cards out there that can offer good performance in conjunction with plenty of RAM or is it time to get a new computer for doing graphics-intensive work?

Help me create a video with lots of eye candy for my anniversary.

mattholomew — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 11:12:58 -0800

Need recommendations for free/low-cost options for putting together a DVD video from still photos with lots of snazzy effects. I want to put together a DVD for my wife for our 10th anniversary (using Windows XP). I want to do the typical cool transitions between photos (wipes, cube effects, etc.) I would like to sync the transition of images to music, so that the transition happens on the beat and/or with the change of songs. Other ideas I've had are to use morphing software to show how our kids have grown up over time and to somehow capture the 'flyover' video from Google Earth to show all the places we've lived. The end result should be a DVD that can be played in any consumer DVD player (I can burn to either DVD-R or +R if necessary).

Any recommendations for software that will do any of this? What about consolidating it all into the final seamless DVD? Extra bonus points for freeware and/or open source software. I do not have a video capture card.

Can I fix these recent horizontal black glitches on this onboard SiS chipset?

adamwolf — Tue, 17 Jan 2006 18:46:47 -0800

How can I fix my SiS onboard video? What did I even do to break it? I recently reinstalled my girlfriend's Linux machine, adding a hard drive in the process. For some reason, the display shows horizontal glitches and every once in a while blinks black for a few seconds. This is onboard SiS video. It is independent of monitor. This sounds quite like video bandwidth issues, but I'm not exactly certain, because of two reasons. The 99% of the time these horizontal black glitches occur during a keystroke. You can tap out a drum solo on the spacebar, and the flickers will follow as well. Is this typical of video bandwidth issues? Another thing is that assuming it is memory bandwidth issues, I decided to set the display to 640x480@8 bits per pixel. Still horizontal glitches. This makes me say it isn't a memory bandwidth issue. Another test I performed was playing a video. The "glitch rate" didn't increase.

The display also blacks out every once in a while for a few seconds. Here's the kicker--It worked a month ago, and she's never seen the glitches before. I haven't really changed anything except I installed GNOME. However, Xfce4 *also* has this problem. I've tried to see if text mode has this problem, but its hard to see the glitches on a black background. X detects ~64 megs of video memory. This *should* be enough by my calculations for 3.5 frames of 1280x1024@16bpp. I've used alternate monitors and alternate video cables.

What would do this? BIOS settings? Was there an Xorg update recently that would break something? I'll accept "random hardware failure" if there are no other choices, but I can't help but wonder. It's extremely hard to work with this machine, and I'd really hate to have to replace it this soon. I've googled with my usually amazing google-fu, but have had no luck.

crashing makes the baby jesus cry

chronic sublime — Sun, 06 Nov 2005 17:06:29 -0800

Problem with iMovie bloating files and crashing. What am I doing wrong? There are two parts to this question, and they may or may not be related.

1. I have just started using iMovie on my iBook for the first time. When it starts a new project or file, it creates an incredibly large file, over 1 gig or so, without any clips imported. Is this normal? How do I stop these files from becoming so big?

2. I also have a problem with iMovie crashing. It either stalls when I try importing a DV file (that has been converted using MPEG Streamclip so I can hear the audio), or stalls when I shut it down and reopen it. Is that because the files are so big?

I'm normally a patient person when it comes to computing problems, but having iMovie crash so many times makes me just want to borrow a school PC laptop and be done with it. iMovie is the perfect piece of software, but not if the project takes up so much space on the HD and crashes all the time.

Please help! Google-fu and forum-trawling hasn't worked.

Easy DVD creation on newish Dell?

jpburns — Thu, 09 Jun 2005 04:44:56 -0800

A friend of the family has a newish Dell, purchased in the last month. They want to make DVDs from a MiniDV camcorder that is playable on home players. They spent some time using Windows Movie Maker, only to discover that what it made were .avi movies, and not actual DVDs. I work on a Mac, and have suggested the Mac/iMovie/iDVD combination, but really don't know what to suggest for their platform of choice ... Can anyone suggest a simple combination of PC software (perhaps it even came with their Dell?) that would let them edit and master DVDs as (nearly) easily as the Mac solution? Thanks in advance...

The pretty pictures are 16.7% more flickery

ArmyOfKittens — Thu, 28 Apr 2005 07:30:27 -0800

Our Nvidia 6600GT claims to be sending a 60hz signal to the television, but the TV won't budge from 50hz. The TV is a UK Sony 21 inch, about fifteen years old, and the PC is connected via s-video through the front AV sockets. We've had other 60hz-capable sources (games consoles, DVD players) hooked up to the TV through every socket it's got and using every signal type it accepts (composite, s-video, RGB), and the TV behaves for every single one, happily switching to 60hz without a hitch every time. Is there any way to get the Nvidia card to send a "switch to 60hz now!" signal, or are we doomed to see everything all squashed and frame-skippy?

The TV has no way to manually switch it into NTSC/60hz mode that I know of, and we've tried both a different card (Geforce FX5200) and telly (a Goodmans model of similar vintage) without success.

Is my CPU dead?

DyRE — Sat, 16 Apr 2005 16:38:16 -0800

While in the middle of doing my taxes the other day, my monitor went to displaying a weird character over and over over the entire screen. The computer wouldn't respond at all, so I shut it off manually via the power switch on the back. Since then, whenever I've attempted to start it up, the fans come on, the hard drive clicks a couple times, as usual, and then nothing. The fans keep whirring but there's no beep, no usual startup process, and nothing ever gets displayed to the monitor. Now, I'm actually quite sure the video card is dead. The damned cooling fan fell off it. What I'm wondering is CPU dead as well and is the motherboard okay? I would think the computer would at least try to boot up, even without a working video card. I feel kinda silly asking because I used to know my way around this kind of stuff but have become rusty over the past few years. I just want to know the CPU is actually kaput before buying another one or if there's perhaps something I've missed. I realise this might be kinda vague, so if any more details are required, let me know.

The CPU is (was?) an AMD Athlon XP 2700+. The motherboard is a Chaintech Apogee 7VJL Deluxe. The video card was a nVIDIA GeForce 4 Ti 4400.

TV on a lap through router?

PigAlien — Wed, 01 Sep 2004 11:05:46 -0800

I want to watch TV on my laptop via wifi. Does anyone know how I can do this? For example, Toshiba's new Qosmio laptops come with a 'Wifi TV Router'. Does anyone else make a WiFi TV router? Or, alternatively, I have another computer with a TV card in it. What software could I install to stream the live TV signal from my server? I know there are streaming video products, but I don't know if any of them can also handle changing channels on a live TV stream. Any helpful suggestions appreciated. Thanks! I have been doing research, and I see some of the software, such as shoutcast's server, will accept live video feeds, but they won't let you change the channel. The same is true of Microsoft's Media Encoder. I am thinking perhaps of using something like PCAnywhere to change the channel and using the server to stream the video. Also, most of the streaming software is not free. Are there any free or OSS streaming alternatives?