Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with video and media

Multimedia-filter: Looking for help from all you Network and digital media Gurus in making my first house totally awesome. Movies, Televsion, Music, Wifi, Streaming Content and 50mgbt broadband within.

Cogentesque — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 05:03:13 -0800

Multimedia-filter: Looking for help from HDTV, NAS, Media Servers and Network Gurus' in making my first house totaly awesome. Movies, Televsion, Music, Wifi, Streaming Content and 50mgbt broadband within. Ok guys, this is my first new message on metafilter, so thanks for everything thus far - to business.

The Premise:
In two weekends time, my girlfriend and I are moving into our first house together in Southampton (UK).

Thankfully she is very accomadating and shares the same views with me reguarding the wonder of technology and allure of gadgetry and thus: we have decided to go down the "cyberhouse" network route - all be it slowly.

What we currently have
50mgbt line and a Television package from Virgin.
2 relatively high-spec PCs downstairs (in the lounge) (XP/Vista soon upgrading to Windows 7 im sure)
A new TV - to be bought - (http://www.ebuyer.com/product/154997/show_product_reviews?offset=10&review_type=both&review_order_by=RLF - ebuyer's own)
1 ipod touch
Host of parts to make a low spec PC.

What I would like in my cyber house
DVD's playable on the TV
Normal channels (Virgin package) playable on the TV
Video (films, episodes) from PC's playable on the TV
Music, both downstairs and upstairs: DAB radio/Cd's/Downloaded Music/Online Radio (last.fm etc would be great)
The ability to change the music remotely (ideally, different sources for different rooms)

Some ideas I've been looking at so far
KVM Switch and a long HDMI cable for my computer to use TV as alternative screen - enabling videos from pc to be played
NAT Storage hiding somewhere in the network
Popcorn Hour to play video from PC
Sonos music system to play upstairs and downstairs
Media pc configured to do the job of sonos and popcorn hour (apparantly this is very tricky?)

What do you think metafilter? Remember that we are definately "on a budget" but I much more trust your collective ideas and conceptions than my own - so what would you reccomend should be my immediate course of action?

I want to be the new sexman!

mooders — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 14:30:04 -0800

How do I create a YouTube channel to promote my business? I want to utilise video to promote my business. I'm thinking that creating a channel on YouTube (or similar - Blip.tv? Vimeo? Other? Open to suggestions) with videos on content relevant to my line of business would be cool.

Problem is, I don't know where to start in terms of equipment. Here's what I have currently:

A 24" Aluminium iMac with built-in iSight camera running OS X 10.5.
iMovie pre-installed.
Um. That's it.

I've done a little video and audio track editing in the past, so my question is really around the equipment, setup and planning side of things.

I want to record in some form of HD, so I think that rules the iSight camera out.

Each video will likely be between 4 and 5 minutes long.

I'm an okay writer, but unsure whether to script, bullet-point or memorise a monologue. I have done a few presentations and generally memorise but in that context I have immediate audience feedback (body language, mainly) to feed from.

Any and all help hugely appreciated!

Pimping Out a MacMini as Media Center, etc.

Gideon — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 21:17:34 -0800

I'm consolidating and trying to save some money in the coming years. To that end I've acquired an older Mac Mini and pulled out an old monitor. I've set it as a working media center, but I think I could do more and do it more efficiently. This Mac-Mini pretty much only has one job - dealing with media. I've a normal computer I use for everything else. Right now my setup is like this:
I have boxee for Netflix and Hulu (sometimes). For videos I might download I use a program that grabs the videos for me automatically an begins downloading them in Vuze. Cause I am security sensitive I use the IP Filter with Vuze.

After they are complete they are moved to a "completion folder" where Hazel (the program) moves them to the proper directory. This way I can watch stuff I download on Front Row or Boxee.

I also have Connect360 running so I can watch movies from my 360 in the other room.

I have screen sharing as well so I don't have to worry about needing a mouse and keyboard for the macmini.

-Still, having some troubles. I can't seem to slow down the file moving, so errors crop up in Vuze all the time.

-I'm wondering if there is a more efficient way to do this. Boxee has torrent downloading, but no ip-filtering.

-What else can I use this for? It seems I should be able to do something else with this thing but I'm not quite sure what. I don't need to share files or anything (mobileme allows for that). But what other things might I do?

Making a big list of online news media archives

activitystory — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 12:40:23 -0800

What are your favorite places to find archived news footage and imagery online for free? Looking to put together a list of sites for communications studies students to help them approximate the functionality of the Vanderbilt Television News Archive without spending hours hunting on YouTube for media to critique. Through other AskMe questions, I've found a few strategies, like searching archives.cnn.com, the CBC & WGBH archives, and using British Pathe's news (which goes up to the 70s), and I'm familiar with the watchdog sites like Media Matters for America and Media Research Center. These are pretty much along the lines of what I'm looking for, even if tehy require disclaimers-- offering something other than just "search YouTube".

Historical and contemporary sources are both great, even if they come from the news organizations themselves. Format is not a big deal, nor is completeness of the archive.

Compressing whole DVDs for playback on a Mac.

odinsdream — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 11:04:50 -0800

How can I store DVDs for use in a media library and get the benefits of compression without losing the menu structure and special features? I store DVDs on a Mac for playback with VLC or most recently Plex. Both of these programs will read directly from VIDEO_TS folders and display the normal DVD navigation screen so you can access special features, subtitles, all the audio tracks, etc.

I currently do one of two things: Use MacTheRipper to create a VIDEO_TS folder from a physical disc, or use Handbrake to extract only the main title and compress it into a single H.264 file.

The first method is good because it preserves the entire disc and all of the features on it. The second is good because it takes up only about a quarter of the space.

Is there a way to compress all the video on the disc and write it back to a VIDEO_TS folder, thus preserving all of the features of the disc but getting a smaller size?

I don't need these folders to be readable by standard DVD players.

What are the best programs that can convert almost ALL kinds of video files and vice-versa?

omaralarifi — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 01:59:44 -0800

What are the best programs (paid/shareware/freeware/open source) that can convert almost ALL kinds of video files and vice-versa? All sort of video files such as : MJPEG · Motion JPEG 2000 · MPEG-1 · MPEG-2 · MPEG-4 ASP · MPEG-4/AVC · H.120 · H.261 · H.262 · H.263 · H.264 · AMV · AVS · Bink · Dirac · Indeo · Pixlet · RealVideo · RTVideo · SheerVideo · Smacker · Snow · Theora · VC-1 · VP6 · VP7 · VP8 · WMV · 3GP · ASF · AVI · Bink · DMF · DPX · EVO · FLV · Matroska · MPEG-PS · MPEG-TS · MP4 · MXF · NUT · Ogg · Ogg Media · QuickTime · RealMedia · Smacker · RIFF · VOB · AIFF · AU · WAV · FLA · Flash · and others

Note: It does not concern me if it a paid software or free.

Also are there programs that can rip VCD, SVCD, so the I can burn the files into DVD?

Thanks

Which version of "Totoro" should I buy?

lynnie-the-pooh — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 22:19:35 -0800

My Neighbor Totoro...........I want to buy the DVD, but on Amazon a lot of people are saying certain versions are not good. There is a 2006 Walt Disney widescreen version; and then there is a 2002 full screen version that is not Disney. What do you think the best version would be for me to get? If it makes any difference, I want to hear it in English.

Also, I've heard that the film maker of this movie has made even better movies, but I have a four year old that does not watch violence, so do you think this is the "best" movie she could watch from this film maker right now?

Thanks so much for your help!

What's the best solution for streaming HD media from a PC?

YoungAmerican — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 11:08:27 -0800

What's the best solution for streaming HD media from a PC? I just got my first HDTV. For a couple years, I've been using an XBox Media Center with a wireless adapter to watch downloaded video from my WinXP PC in the other room. XBMC, however, lacks the power for HD video.

What's the best, reasonably priced solution in 2008?

I do have Netflix, and Netflix "Play Now" would be neat, but isn't a requisite. I play video games sometimes, and that would be nice, but again, not required. BluRay, same deal. What is important is that it work really well, not require a lot of hacking on my part, and that it play all the stuff I download -- DivX, Xvid, MPEG, etc. I am not opposed to something with an HD I can easily access over my network, but I don't want any sneakernet. I'd rather spend $150 than $300 or $400, but I'd consider the latter if it was something really kickass.

These questions have some sorta answers, but they're also a year old. What's the latest and greatest?

Audio-Video-Computing wish list

Echidna882003 — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 13:56:10 -0800

I'm moving and starting over just about from scratch. I'd like people's input on what I should do about setting up nifty integrated audio/visual/computing stuff in my new place. Here are some details:
1) I'm renting, so things like mounting speakers inside walls, drilling a bunch of holes for cables, etc. is probably out.
2) I will have a decent LCD HDTV.
3) I own a 80 hour dual tuner TiVo, I like it okay.
4) I own a PS3 (w/ remote), so I have a pretty good BluRay player.
5) I have my nice T60p laptop (with XP) and a decent dell desktop (with Ubuntu.)
6) cable internet and TV from Comcast (sigh.)
7. I'm fairly technically competent, I just haven't kept up in this area.

So what would you do? Media server? What kind of stereo components are essential or just nice to have? Universal remote of some kind? A safe way to make and watch "backups" of DVDs (wink)? Software recommendations? Internet radio? Clever integration?

Which awesome website do you folks love that deals with this kinda stuff?

Thanks folks!

(sorry if this topic has been covered before, but I'm a very special person who deserves a lot of individual attention, plus I'm very lazy!)

Who would want a veterinary symptom video

amtho — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 12:15:34 -0800

Donating a veterinary disease symptom video - would any library / video collection want this? Is any university veterinary school collecting things like this? I do not want to spend a lot of time on this; I couldn't bear it right now. But I want to resolve this as soon as I can.

I've got a couple of video clips of a cat in either respiratory or vomiting distress; probably respiratory. I think it might be useful to vets or vet students or animal owners in diagnosing a pretty dangerous and awful condition. I didn't realize exactly how serious the condition was when I saw it, although I did realize it was pretty bad and made the video to send to my vet.

Now the thought that I might have seen this behavior earlier and not reacted bothers me a lot.

Anyway, I'd like to contribute this video in some way to the public body of knowledge. I have found some vet schools by Googling, but does anyone know for certain of some repository or library that would collect this kind of thing?

Please don't ask for more information about the cat.

Name That Tune/Video (Center)

ill3 — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 03:13:45 -0800

Naming Filter: Hive mind, please help us name our open source OS X media center application! I have been impressed by the hive mind's creativity when it comes to naming things, most recently the Lawyer Golf Team.

Sorry for the long explanation that follows, however, I think coming up with the best name is going to require a little bit of context.

I'm currently working on an open source project (free as in beer and speech) that is a recent fork of the well known and highly regarded XBMC project. In fact, I shamelessly plugged it here in an ask.mefi answer earlier. As many of you may know XBMC originally was called XBox Media Center. It was an app that could be run on a hacked XBox that allowed you to play media on your XBox (divx, h.264, mp3s, etc) pulling the media either from local disks or across the network using windows shares, ftp, etc. What made it a media center, rather than just a media player (like the excellent VLC and Mplayer) the application also has a great skinnable navigation and metadata system. XBMC will scan your media library (which in most cases would be located on a computer somewhere else in the house) automatically guess what piece of media the particular file was, and download and associate the appropriate meta-data. This would allow you to look for movies or songs based on Genre, Year, etc, all while flipping through the DVD's or CD's cover art. The interface is also optimized for use with a remote control, to make it easier to use from the couch than say QuickTime. It's easier seen than explained, here is YT video of it in action running the xTV skin (a skin inspired by Apple Tv).
A little over a year ago the core XBMC.org team decided to start porting what many consider to be the best media center application ever written, to other platforms starting with Linux. They have made great progress and they have already have a highly usable application for Linux. About 6 months ago myself and a few others decided to embark on an OS X port of the application, based on some amazing progress that the head of the new OS X port had made in just a few weeks. There was already quite a bit of pent up demand, as many thought the Mac Mini was an ideal HTPC (Home Theater PC) platform, again discussed here. We started out as a part of the larger XBMC team until very recently, both teams decided that we had enough philosophical differences that it made sense to amicably split up. Up until the project had been called XBMC on OSX and/or OSXBMC. We have currently been using the OSXBMC name as a place holder until we come up with a better name. There are a few reasons for wanting a name change, the big ones are :
- Having XBMC in the name does not differentiate us enough from the original XBMC.org project (the original XBMC guys have politely asked us to make our name a little more distinct) and it perhaps it makes it seem like an XBox is required to use the application.
- Something a little less "acronymy" would be nice, more in the tradition of Mac apps.
- It's possible that someday we will release versions of our (keeping in mind that at this point "our" software is 98% composed of XBMC's code) on platforms other than OS X, so we would like to get away from having the platform in the name.

The project's home page is http://www.osxbmc.com if anyone could possibly want or need any more information.

Thanks very much!

How to handle media upload when traveling far and light?

XiBe — Wed, 21 May 2008 02:09:12 -0800

My little brother will in a few months embark in a year-long trip around Asia (India, Vietnam, Thailand...), towards Australia as final destination. He asks me to set up a blog for him - easy does it, I'm a WordPress translator. But what about media? And in general, what should I not forgot to make sure we get the best from his experience while not making it hard for him to communicate? See, he'll be traveling light (so no laptop) and potentially deep in unknown territories, where there's little chance he'll cross any Internet cafe, let alone a computer with broadband - I might be wrong, of course, but I'm speaking with the experience of a friend who works at a resort in Laos valley, and he has limited (monthly) bandwidth at his workplace.

So, while it's gonna be easy for him to update said blog with text, media are another matter, and I have a few advices to ask for.
- How should he handle his files? With limited bandwidth, he cannot upload full size image, but he cannot edit them down either to take as few Mb as possible. Likewise, I don't want him to take pictures at minimal resolution just for this reason, since he'll certainly want to get them full size and on paper once he gets back home.
- He'll be carrying more than one X Gb cards for his camera, but those will run out quickly if he cannot dump them from time to time. I know there are dedicated card-dumping portable HDs these days, but I hear they're not reliable. Anyone has experience on this?
- Any tips on a light, good and sturdy camera, with standards cards that he can buy over there by the dozen?
- Videos are bound to be made, but weight way more than pictures. Should he avoid making them?
- More generally, what should I setup for him to ease the message transmission between his faraway land and the whole family back home? - again, with as little bandwidth use on his side as possible. Should I use my own server for hosting, or rely for instance on Flickr and it's (I suppose) many CDNs in the region?

Lastly, what are the cool traveler/around-the-world blog that you know?

Seeking OS X media player with specific features

chudmonkey — Tue, 20 May 2008 13:26:04 -0800

What video/media player do you use in OS X? Can you recommend one that has some specific features (listed inside)? I've asked basically this same question before, but that was a few years ago and I'm hoping something has changed since then.

I really, really want a Leopard-compatible player with ALL of these features:

-"Always on Top" playing
-Variable-speed playback, preferably with automatic audio pitch-shifting, preferably with a control that shows precisely what % of normal speed is being played.
-Frame-by-frame playback.

I currently have the following installed:

VLC 0.8.6f - No variable-speed playback, no frame-by-frame.
Mplayer 1.0 rc2 - No VSP, no frame-by-frame, no "on top"
Quicktime 7.2.1 - VSP is via an imprecise slider and pitch-shift is not automatic.

MPlayer is actually my favourite, despite having none of my desired features. I like the way it looks. Quicktime is my least-favourite, despite having nearly all the features. It's better now than it ever was, so I'm really just clinging to a bias. The VSP system is shoddy, however.

I'm open to any suggestions you can make, or corrections of my above impressions. I know MPlayer is open-source as has been released in multiple flavours, but I haven't found one with variable-speed playback yet.

Thanks in advance!

Quiet in front!

fshgrl — Sun, 11 May 2008 13:05:23 -0800

How do I delete the audio track from an mvi. file? I have a couple of short movie clips that I shot using a Canon digital camera and I want to burn them to a CD but lose the audio, which is distorted and distracting. They are .mvi files. I have access to Blender, Adobe Premiere and one other program (assume I know nothing about said programs).

Thanks!

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.

What do I need to know to stream a TV station to between 500 and 100 people?

asnowballschance — Sat, 03 May 2008 09:29:44 -0800

How do I set up a server to stream media ? A client has contacted us about developing a website with a streaming TV station and a streaming radio station. The stations will run 24/7 with a great deal of duplicated content. Content items will run from 15 minutes to 2 hours. The client wants to set it up as a broadcast, so that if someone tunes in at 8am, he sees the same program as everyone else, just like with regular stations. Because of the need for playlists, it looks like progressive (http) downloads won't work; however, if there are alternatives to setting up a streaming server, I'd love to hear about them.

Right now, I'm getting a handle on hardware and coding requirements so that we can put a team together. We're in West Africa, so the budget is thousands of dollars, not tens of thousands of dollars. We're also looking at a maximum of about 1000 simultaneous users, but hoping to average between 100 and 500.

What kind of hardware should I be looking at for (managed dedicated) servers? And where can we find the Terabytes of bandwidth we'll need?

What do I need to know about compressing media (into Flash)? Best practices?

Anything else I should generally be aware of?

Licensing, content, and profitability are not my problems. Putting together a plan, a budget, and hiring people to do this are.

Best/Worst Viral Ad Campaigns

Prevailing Southwest — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 13:49:36 -0800

I'm researching viral marketing campaigns, and I'm looking for some of the best and worst examples out there. I'm not having any trouble finding examples, and yes, I agree that the term and the medium are both getting a little played out. (There are spoofs of ads and even spoofs of spoofs at this point elbowing each other for some room in the "viral" landscape.)

To clarify, I'm NOT looking for a list of YouTube videos that "went viral" (Diet Coke & Mentos, water skiing squirrel, monkey smelling finger), and I'm NOT looking for funny TV commercials that happened to get passed around the web (Bud Light ads).

I'm looking for the best and worst examples of non-traditional, internet based marketing campaigns - advertising beyond the 30 second spot. Some of the best/biggest examples I have are:

Dove Evolution
Subservient Chicken
BMW's "The Hire" short film series

I'd also really appreciate help identifying some of the worst viral campaigns ever to crash and burn their way across your screens, as the failures tend to fade away pretty fast.

Xbox 360 + Connect 360 (OS X) + 720p + 802.11n = jerky video?

bryanjbusch — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 13:26:43 -0800

Xbox 360 + Connect 360 (OS X) + 720p + 802.11n = jerky video? While recently streaming some 1280x720 video from the MacBook (10.5.2, RAM maxed out) through the AirPort 802.11n thing to the Xbox 360, which is connected via a physical ethernet cable, the show would periodically stop.

Then the audio would continue by itself, and then after a minute or so, the video would sort of "fast-forward" and catch up with the audio.

I wasn't running any other applications or downloading big files at the same time. Is this normal behavior, or should I be able to stream HD quality video with this sort of setup?

TV Tuner Card

Aanidaani — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 16:27:14 -0800

I'm interested in buying a TV Tuner Card for my PC, but I don't know where to find good reviews. Does anyone have any recommendations for a cheap, decent-quality card that preferably comes with a remote? I'd like to buy a card that I can use to watch and record shows on my PC, with an S-Video input if possible. HD support would be a nice plus, but it's not necessary. A PCIExp-format card would also be desirable. Thanks!

I need a new DVD player.

aladfar — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 10:50:25 -0800

Is there such a thing as a future-proof DVD player? My roommate just moved out and took his DVD player with him. So I need to visit the local big box electronics store to pick up a new one. I'd like something that's built to last, can upsample standard DVDs and that can handle one or both of the new HD formats. What should I purchase? This seems like a question that's already been asked a dozen times, but I'm not finding it on search. Still, I apologize if it's a repeat.

How can repair my video codecs?

cheero — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 17:20:42 -0800

How can repair my video codecs? Out of nowhere, I cannot see any video in my AVI files but I can hear the audio just fine. Windows Media Player 11 simply does not load when I click to open an AVI. It is fully installed and everything but when I try to click on an AVI to open it -- nothing happens. I've installed the VLC player in hopes that plays it, no dice. Same goes for Windows Media Classic.

I've installed the k-lite codecs pack which worked for me for years but for some odd reason, things crapped out on me.

I've also used GSPOT to see what codecs were needed for certain movies but each time it said that everything was fully installed.

How can I rectify this extremely annoying problem? Is there some kind of tool I can use that will repair this?

The specs I am running are: OS: WinXP Professional 5.1 Service Pack 2 (Build #2600) CPU: Intel Pentium D , 2.99 GHz Video: Plug and Play Monitor on nVidia GeForce 7800 GTX Sound: SB Audigy 2 ZS Audio

Thanks in advance

What's the best media player for playing pieces of movie files?

matkline — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 23:48:23 -0800

What's the best media player for playing pieces of movie files? For example, if I have 600 megs of an 800 megabyte video file, which media player would be able to process it most accurately?

Media Center is great except for the not able to view media thing

sandra_s — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 08:02:48 -0800

Radeon 7000 Series wont play nice with Media Center 2005 Media center will open, but not before an error of "Your video card or drivers are not compatible with media center"

After MC opens, everything works except anything involving video playback (MyTV, My Videos). I was able to set up MyTV, ie I was able to download the guide and updates, but cant view video.

When I attempt to view Live TV or an existing video (only in MC, video is fine in regular XP environment), I get "VIDEO ERROR: Files needed to display video are not installed or not working correctly. Please restart Media Center and/or restart the computer"

Both of those suggestions do not work.

I have no problems playing any videos when NOT in the MC environment.

Under the device manager the "Device Status" is "This device is working properly"

I have downloaded and installed the latest Driver version "8.252.0.0" dated 5/3/2006 and the ATI Catalyst Control Center

I have been to the ATI website and registered for tech support. I submitted a ticket a week ago and haven't heard back. Phone support is a 900 number and $1.50 per minute, and I'd rather not par for tech support unless I'm 100% sure they can fix this.

So I come to you, hivemind. Any ideas? Oh, one other thing, this never worked. It's not like it did then stopped.

From Device Manager"
RADEON 7000 Series
Device Type: Display Adapters
Manufactirer: ATI Technologies Inc
Location: PCI Slot 3 (PCI bus 2, device 5, function 0)
Driver Digital Signer: Microsoft Windows Hardware Compatibility Publisher
No Conflists

How can I tag video files of my home movies?

Pastabagel — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 11:13:48 -0800

Help with tagging home movie video files, not DVDs. I have a number of home movies in avi files (captured with DV camera) and mpg files of friends families, trips, etc. I am looking for a way to tag these file with information about the video (people, places, descriptions etc), in much the same way that photo management software let's you tag photos.

I have searched for something to do this extensively, but have not found anything. Everything seems to be related to cataloging movies (i.e. Hollywood movies).

Ideally, it should be
1. free for Windows XP
2. save the tags and descriptions in the video file itself
3. have a decent user interface (like photoshop album or something similar)
4. small and fast memory footprint,

but given my inability to find anything, I'll take any workable solution.

If no such program is available, is there any software for writing to and searching the "keyword" or "description" meta data fields that Windows XP provides for all files that isn't necessarily specific to video?

I can save these tags in these fields now, of course, but I haven't found a way to search a group of files on these fields.

How to put a WMA into a WMV with blank video?

superboy422 — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 12:03:54 -0800

How can I turn a WMA into a WMV with blank video? Here's what I would like to do. I want to take an existing MP3, which I will convert to WMA, but I want to wrap it into a WMV with nothing but blank video (or a static image that is displayed in every frame) so that it can be played on a device that only supports WMV files natively (but not WMA audio files).

Bonus points for finding an open-source way to do this that can be automated easily. If I need to do it by hand each time, it will will be significantly more inconvenient.