Multimedia Guide

Sites to download cracked mobile applications, games, themes and ringtones for free – Part 2

2009-04-21T09:26:00.000-07:00

The first part of this article, which featured some of the best sites for full mobile appz, games and themes, was published about a month back.

This post is an extension to the previous article and features several more sites from which you can download cracked applications for mobile phones, games, themes and ringtones for free. Supported mobile devices (phones, PDAs, iPOD, etc) range from Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, Windows Mobile, Siemens, LG, Samsung and many others.

Note that some of these sites may require you to login before you download anything. Registration for all these sites is free and currently open for all users. We have included the registration URL below each site for your convenience.

1. GSM Hacks
At a glance, GSM Hacks will look like your average mobile reviews and news site. Actually it’s much more than that; GSM Hacks Forums is where all the fun is. Their “Mobile Applications” section in General Discussion forums is home to many cracked (and non cracked) Symbian OS 9.1 Applications, Symbian Series 60/80/90 Applications, Pocket PC & Windows Smartphone Applications and Sony Ericsson Applications. Finding a particular item by browsing all the threads is not easy at GSM Hacks so it would be wise to use the search feature.

Site Name: GSM Hacks
Registration URL: http://www.gsmhacks.com/forums/register.php

2. Noeman GSM
Noeman GSM, which is part of the Noeman Network, is a huge online community with nearly 370000 members. Check under ‘Mobile Software Solutions’ and ‘Mobile Multimedia’ sections in their forums and you will find a lot of full applications, games and themes for S60, UIQ, S80, S90, Pocket PC, Smartphone, java based mobile devices. Some of the cracked applications are scene releases.

Site Name: Noeman GSM
Registration URL: http://www.noeman.org/gsm/register.php

3. Mobiles Mania

Mobiles Mania is a huge community of mobile users with 313000+ members. You can download a lot of cracked applications and full games for Symbian OS-9.1/9.2/9.3, Symbian 60 Series, Nokia 40 Series, Nokia N-Gage, Nokia 30 Series, Symbian 80 and Sony Ericsson/UIQ. Apart from usual apps and games, Mobiles Mania has a lot of software packs and even mobile optimized movies. It’s definitely a site worth checking out.

Site Name: Mobiles Mania
Registration URL: http://www.mobilesmania.com/forum/index.php?act=Reg&CODE=00

4. NokiaApps

5. Other sites

There are several other places where you can get your hands on cracked mobile appz, games, themes and the likes. You may want to check out http://symbianapplication.blogspot.com/ which has over 1500 posts all featuring S60V3 appz including scene releases. It updates several times a day and the links are pretty reliable.

6. BitTorrent trackers specializing in mobile content

If you are a fan of the BitTorrent protocol, there are a lot torrent trackers dedicated to mobile stuff you might want to check out. Here is a brief list of them; click on a link for more information on the site.

JAF Torrent Tracker : Mobile Software, Service Manuals, Unlockers and Flashing Tools (Signups Open)
Mobile Club – Appz, Games, Themes, Ringtones (Signups Open)
SynctheBits (StB) – Appz, Games, Themes, Ringtones, Packs (Signups closed at time of this post)
iPODTVNOVA – Movies, videos and audio optimized for viewing in mobile devices (Signups closed at time of this post)
Pimp Your Mobile- Appz Games, Ringtones, Themes (Signups Open)

Credits: TEAM FILEnetworks

Sites to download full Mobile applications, Games Themes and Ringtones for free – Part 1

2009-04-21T09:19:00.000-07:00

Who doesn’t own a mobile these days? We hope that this post will help you jazz up your mobile device with applications, games, themes, ringtones and more. The following is a list of some of the best sites available for mobile downloads. Most of them full mobile applications and games including scene releases, fan made themes, ring tone packs and many more goodies for your Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, Windows Mobile, Siemens, LG, Samsung or any other mobile device.

Note that these are not the only sites of this kind but these are the ones we have used and hones we have found to be reliable and secure. There can be hundreds more mobile download sites on the internet so if you know any feel free to share it will all of us by dropping a comment.

1. DotSIS

DotSIS is a huge online community that is dedicated to SymbianOS downloads and discussions. You can find full, cracked mobile applications, themes and games for the Symbian platform. Supported SymbianOS versions include SymbianOS 7/8/9.1/9.2 and 9.3 (S60, S60v2, S60v3, S60v3 FP1/FP2 etc). DotSIS also has separate sections for S40, S80, S90 and Java downloads as well. As said before it is a huge community with more than 630000 members.

You need to register to view some threads and to view the download links. registrations are currently open and is free.

Site Name: DotSIS (http://www.dotsis.com)
Registration URL: http://www.dotsis.com/mobile_phone/register.php

2. iPMart Forum

iPmart Forum is another huge community that has mobile appz, games, themes as well as PC appz and game consoles. Their mobile section includes content for iPhone, Alcatel, LG, Mitsubishi, Motorola, NEC, Panasonic, Philips, Sagem, Samsung, Sharp, Siemens, Sony & SonyEricsson, PocketPC/PALM/SP and many more. With nearly 1 million registered members (currently 920,000), iPmart forum is one of the largest mobile communities in the world.

You need to register to view some threads and to view the download links. registrations are currently open and is free.

Site Name: iPmart Forum (http://www.ipmart-forum.com)
Registration URL: http://www.ipmart-forum.com/register.php

3. MobileCastle

Another excellent mobile community. If you visit the homepage, it may seem like yet another mobile news site. But that’s not where the fun is. Check the forums. It’s a place where more than 150000 members share their knowledge, discuss and download appz/games/themes for a number of different mobile phones and platforms. The following are the main categories in this forum:

* Smartphone / Windows Mobile / POCKET PC
* Nokia S80 and S90
* Nokia S60: 6600 - 7610 - 3650 - 6620 - 6630 -6680 - N70 - N80 – N90…
* Iphone Zone
* SONY ERICSON & UIQ MOBILES -K700 / K750 / T610/ J300 /K300 /K500 / K700 /W800/ W550 / p800 / p900 /p910 ...
* Nokia s40 : 7210 / 7250 / 3100 / 6610 ....

It’s needless to mention that most of the appz available on this (and other two sites mentioned above) are cracked versions most of the time. There is a good number of scene releases by groups such as BiNPDA, NokiaPDA, hsPDA and ILLUSiON on this forum.

You need to register to view some threads and to view the download links. registrations are currently open and is free.

Site Name: MobileCastle (http://www.mobilecastle.biz)
Forum URL: http://www.mobilecastle.biz/mobiles/
Registration URL: http://www.mobilecastle.biz/mobiles/register.php

Stay tuned for more similar sites which will be featured in the next part of this article (upcoming).

Credits: TEAM FILEnetworks

Convert MKV to MP4 for Xbox 360 (Easiest Method)

2009-04-20T18:39:00.000-07:00

This article shows how to easily convert MKV files to MP4 files fully ready for Xbox 360 playback with as little re-encoding as possible to preserve quality. GotSent will automate a process that usually involves using several applications to extract streams from MKV files, change h264 stream characteristics, encode to AAC audio, mux as MP4 etc. Basically put, this is the easiest method and it works the vast majority of the time.

Introduction & Requirements
GOTSentObviously you will need to download and install GOTSent Fall 2007 Media UpdateIn the Fall of 2007, Microsoft released a media update for the Xbox 360 console to improve multimedia support. If you did not get this update yet, but you do have Xbox Live, then before this guide is over you will most likely have updated your Media capabilities. This update is Optional but highly recommended.Nero AAC Encoders (Optional)These are optional but recommended. You extract the encoder into the GotSent folder and it produces higher AAC audio quality. Haali Media Splitter Haali Media Splitter must be installed.AC3FilterAC3Filter is used during the process.WinRARYou need WinRAR to extract files from some of these downloads.

Xbox 360 MP4 Support
The Xbox 360 supports the MP4 container and several video and audio streams inside. The most important support is for H.264/AVC which is what most MKV files today contain. It supports AAC audio but not multi-channel. It does support XviD and DivX video inside the MP4 container also. Because MKV files often have AVC or XviD video streams, re-encoding is not always needed and so the process of converting MKV to MP4 can actually be very fast when armed with a tool like GOTSent.

Recommended: What will Xbox 360 play?

Download and open GOTSent archive

The first thing you need to do is open the GOTSent RAR file in WinRAR. If you have never used WinRAR before just install it and then .RAR files will automatically be associated with it. You will see that inside the archive is a bunch of files and folders.

What you must do now is go somewhere, anywhere on your HDD and create a folder called GOTSent.

Extract GOTSent files to Folder

Now using WinRAR, drag and drop the files and folders (CTRL + A to select all) into the GOTSent folder you just created so that it looks similar to the photo supplied with this text. Remember where you have put this folder for later use. It is good to keep all tools of this sort in the same directories so that you can easily find them when needed.

Download and open Nero AAC Encoders archive (optional)

Now download the Nero AAC files if you want to have the highest possible quality audio output. It is hugely unlikely that the MKV file that you input will have AAC audio (Stereo AAC LC at that) in it therefore GOTSent has no choice but to re-encode. The ZIP file that you download from Nero's site will open in WinRAR, and it has four files in it, neroAacTag.exe, neroAacEnc_SSE.exe, neroAacEnc.exe and neroAacDec.exe.

The neroAacEnc_SEE.exe file is specifically for computers that have processors that support SEE2. If your Intel or AMD64 chip does support SEE2, then that's the file we are looking for. If not (or if unsure), then neroAacEnc.exe is what we are looking for.

Extract Nero AAC Encoder into GOTSent Folder

Using WinRAR again, drag and drop the encoder files from the ZIP archive into the same folder that you put your GOTSent files.

Launch GOTSent application

Launch GOTSent for the first time, it is GOTSent_023.exe (version number may be changed by time you read this). It is an easy program to understand; had two input fields, one for input MKV, one for output folder (for MP4 file), allows you to select audio if there is multiple and several other options.

Load MKV file and Change Settings

To load an MKV file into GOTSent simply click File and use the file browser that pops up to find the MKV file you want to convert. You also must set an Output folder, you can do this by clicking Set Output and locating the folder with the browser that pops up. Next check to see if there is multiple audio with the drop-down box under Audio detected and select the language you want (with one audio track you will often just see und).

Make sure to select Split > 4GB as there is a size limit of 4GB for MKV files on Xbox 360. Fit to DVD is your choice. Before we begin conversion, we have to make sure that the audio that comes out is not multi-channel (unsupported by Xbox 360). Click AC3Filter Options.

AC3Filter Options

Based on the settings you put into AC3Filter, the conversion process will either create two-channel or multi-channel audio. Under Output format, change it to 2/0 - stereo to ensure compatibility of the output MP4 file with Xbox 360. When you are done, click Apply and click OK.

Conversion Process

Click the Convert button to begin the conversion process. Several DOS windows will pop-up during the process, do not close these as they are important. The amount of time the process will take depends entirely on the length of the MKV file and the speed of your computer.

Further Reading

When you get your MP4 file output, if you are not sure how to play the resulting file on the Xbox 360 console, then check out the link below.

Credits: AfterDawn.com: Guides: Convert MKV to MP4 for Xbox 360 (Easiest Method)

Vinyl Ripping: Equipment

2009-04-20T18:20:00.000-07:00

Here's a quick lesson on how the technology works and what the major components are.

Records are recorded by cutting a small groove into a vinyl or acetate disk. The groove is modulated with the audio signal so that its depth and shape records the sound signal itself. During playback, the disk sits on the platter, which is the motor-driven spinning component and spins at a constant rate. Several rates were used, with the most common being 33-1/3 RPM (for 12" LP records) and 45 RPM (for 7" singles). While the disk spins, the stylus (or needle) which is housed in the cartridge rests in the groove. Holding the cartridge and stylus against the record is the tonearm that swings from a pivot as the stylus moves across the record, and has a counterweight to balance the force of the stylus on the record. As the stylus vibrates due to the groove's contours, coils in the cartridge convert the movement to an electrical signal. The electrical signal is of a very low strength, and must be amplified before it's sent to an amplifier or recording device. This task is handled by a dedicated phono preamp (or an integrated one in the speaker amplifier), which also performs another critical task - equalization. Due to the mechanical constraints of the record medium, both low and high frequencies are much quieter on the record than they should be at playback. A special equalization filter must be applied to restore the correct tonal balance; this task is performed by the phono preamp at the same time it is amplifying the signal to a usable level. This signal is then taken into a standard line input and amplified for playback, or recorded.

Equipment

I will discuss the turntable and cartridge/stylus separately here, as they are generally purchased separately. Chances are good that you'll need to purchase at least 3 components - a turntable, cartridge and phono preamp, so I'll spend the most time talking about these. If you need to buy all three, you should budget for at a bare minimum $200 expense (and a lot of time). If you need a quality sound card as well, budget another $100.

Turntable
Turntable quality is often assumed to be of little importance. All it does is spin the record, right? Unfortunately for us, that's not really true. What a record player does is convert physical vibration (of the needle in the groove) to an electrical signal that can drive an amplifier. The problems arise from the fact that the groove might not be the only thing vibrating the stylus - motors and mechanical instability can be huge noise culprits. Furthermore, frequency stability in the motor is extremely important to reduce wow and flutter. You can check this using the strobe built in to most higher-end turntables. Most turntables will have a dot or dash pattern around the outside of the platter. Many also include a built-in strobe, which flashes at a particular frequency. By looking at the dot pattern while the platter is moving with the strobe on, you should see the dots (usually one row for each speed) 'frozen' in place by the strobe. Any movement or wavering indicates an unstable speed.

If you're buying a new turntable, I would recommend looking on the used market for a belt driven model constructed mainly of wood or metal (plastic vibrates much more easily). Some direct drive models are good too, but others are horrible - if you're looking at one of these, be careful. Consistently good brands include Dual, AR, Thorens, Linn and others. Aim for models that were top of the line in their day. Also avoid any with a 'linear tracking' mechanism as these require additional tuning and have many problems. You can identify these types as they don't have a tonearm, the cartridge assembly moves on a tube across the record.

This is a place where you really need to research your options and put in the care to get a good turntable. Most of the stuff out there is going to be crap, and you need to sort through it and find the rare gems to get decent quality. Especially with belt-drive and idler-based turntables you may need to replace belts or idler wheels to get stable rotation speeds. Check this before purchase, or expect to invest in the maintenance if buying online. If you can't find anyone praising it on forums and so on, don't buy it.

Because of the difficulty with finding and getting a good vintage turntable tuned up, you may want to consider the new (or less-used) market. Price goes up to $300-400 for a new quality turntable. Look at options like the Pro-Ject Debut III and Rega P1 and P2. These will often include a quality cartridge.

Spend $75-100 on the used market, though the sky's the limit.

Stylus & Cartridge
Choosing a cartridge is largely a matter of personal preference, but there are some important considerations. First, you should replace any cartridge that you don't know the history of, they are easily damaged and do wear out with use and over time, so if you buy a used turntable you should buy a new cartridge as well.

Several types of cartridge are available. Most cartridges are of the moving magnet type, and these are also the least expensive. If you're reading this guide, this is the type you should buy. Beware that there are two common mounting methods used for cartridges. The P mount has a rear section that fits inside the tonearm, while the standard (1/2 inch) mount screws onto the underside of the tonearm. Make sure you get the right type, or a universal type.

Good brands include Grado, Ortofon, Audio Technica and others. Choosing a specific model can be particular about the exact properties of your turntable and tonearm, so I would advise asking at a Hi-Fi audio shop or audio forum for advice. The most commonly recommended cartridge I've seen is the Grado Black, which is relatively inexpensive and readily available. Audio Technica AT95 is also often recommended and is somewhat less expensive.

Spend $50-75. Don't buy used.

Phono Preamp
You may have one already, if you've got a receiver/amplifier with a phono input. The quality may not be the best, but it would certainly be usable. If you've got such a unit, connect the turntable to it and switch the input to 'phono'. It should have a 'tape monitor' or 'preamplifier' output that you can use to record from. I do not recommend this option if you can avoid it though, most receivers have cheap, poor sounding and noisy phono preamps.

If you're buying, there are lots of options. The used market is a good place to look, try to find reviews by audio magazines or on audio forums for ones you're considering. Excellent new phono preamps can be had for quite a small amount of money, so that is the route I recommend. The TCC TC-760LC is widely regarded as a good deal - it's only about $75 and reportedly sounds good. Another good option is the Cambridge Audio Azur 540P, also well regarded and available for under $100. For a few more dollars the Hagtech Bugle seems to be universally loved, at $150 (with no case or power supply). If you've got some electronics savvy and would consider a DIY solution, the RJM Audio VSPS is a good choice and can be built for next to nothing, the Phonoclone at the same site is also excellent, as is the DIY version of the Bugle.

Expect to spend $75-100 on the new market, or $25-75 on the used market.

Sound Card/Capture Device
You'll need a good quality sound card capable of 96KHz/24bit or 192KHz/24bit capture. Aim for a device with good analog specifications. Unfortunately onboard audio devices don't meet this requirement, you'll definitely need a separate sound card to get a decent quality capture. If you've already got a Creative X-Fi model card, it will suffice, but I can't recommend these for anyone purchasing a new one. If you've got a PC with a PCI slot available, I recommend the e-mu 0404PCI or e-mu 1212m (about the same price, the 1212m is much better if you can get it), or the M-Audio Audiophile 192. If you can't find these, the M-Audio Audiophile 2496 is an excellent card as well, though it doesn't support 192KHz operation and doesn't have as impressive specifications. Finally, if you need multichannel or a more entertainment oriented card, the Asus Xonar DX2 is probably a good choice.

If you'd like an external unit, I can recommend the e-mu 0404USB or e-mu 0202USB. For Firewire, the M-Audio Firewire Solo is fairly well regarded. Going with external will cost you extra and probably sacrifice some quality too (at this price range), so I'd go with internal if you can.

Spend $100-150 new for an internal, $200-250 for an external.

Cables
You'll also need interconnects, to hook all of this up. You'll need at least one stereo RCA cable to connect the turntable to your preamp (though many turntables have this attached), as well as the correct cable to connect the RCA jacks on your preamp to your sound card. There are three common jacks used on sound cards, and you'll need to get the correct type for your card. Consult the following descriptions to determine what type of cable you need.

RCA jacks appear in pairs colour coded red and white (or black), they're the same type used for most audio equipment. The red jack carries the right channel audio signal, the white jack carries the left channel. If your sound card has this type (Audiophile 2496), you need a standard RCA cable. They look like this:

3.5mm (1/8") 'Mini' jacks are common on consumer gear, and are the type most people are familiar with. They carry both stereo audio signals on the same connector. The same type is used on iPods and other portable devices, and most headphones today use this type of plug. I don't have a good photo of an example, but most people should be familiar with these. The necessary cable is readily available.

1/4" TRS jacks are common on professional gear, and generally carry only a single channel per cable. There are 3 conductors in this jack, tip-ring-shield (TRS), designed for balanced signals. In our application we're going to be using single-ended signals, so a connector with two conductors (TS) is more appropriate. If you have this type of input (All e-mu cards, M-Audio Firewire Solo), you will need a pair of RCA to TS cables (or a stereo set). These are somewhat more difficult to acquire, but should be readily available at professional audio equipment dealers (probably where you bought your sound card anyway). The TRS jack can take on a couple forms, as it is often used in a 'combo' connector that can accept either an XLR jack (microphone) or TRS jack. It looks like one of the two jacks in the photo:

Don't waste your money on overpriced cables. You shouldn't spend more than $10 on a 6ft cable, so don't let anyone sell you more expensive ones (such as Monster Cable), they are NOT worth the money.

I recommend you buy your RCA cables from Monoprice. The quality is good, the service good, and the prices (and shipping) excellent. Their RCA->mini cables are of dubious quality though, and they don't sell RCA->TS cables either. I'll link to what I recommend for each, though they're very non critical and similar examples can be found at most retailers. Don't try to use the XLR inputs on your professional soundcard, as these are designed for microphone use and won't work properly with your phono preamp.

-2xRCA to 2xRCA, 3ft or 6ft
- Technologies Inc. 3.5mm to 2xRCA, 5ft or at monoprice
-2xRCA to 2x1/4" TS, 5ft

PC
Most any PC should work fine for this. You'll need lots of disk space (you should have a minimum of 10GB free before attempting a capture), but the performance requirements are not particularly high. USB will use the most processing power, and has the most risk of audio dropouts.

For vinyl ripping, see:
- Vinyl Ripping
- Vinyl Ripping: 24bit 96khz

Vinyl Ripping: 24bit 96khz

2009-04-20T18:14:00.000-07:00

Equipment:
This is an overview of the equipment you will need, for a guide on the equipment, see Vinyl Ripping: Equipment
- Turntable
- Stylus and Cartridge
- Phono Preamp
- Sound Card/Capture Device
- Cables
- PC

Tuning
Properly tuning a turntable is a difficult and fairly important bit of maintenance you really should do for the device that probably hasn't seen use in 20 years and likely has a brand new cartridge. I would really recommend taking your turntable to a qualified professional and paying for a proper tuneup, but as always it is possible to do yourself. Improperly adjusting your turntable can damage your records and accelerate wear, as well as affecting audio quality, so please recognize the risks. It's also very helpful to have some fairly expensive tools at your disposal. I won't go into detail on this process here, but you can find a reasonable guide at this site.

It's also important that the turntable is on the most level and stable surface as possible. Any vibrations that transfer to the tonearm or platter will show up in the recording, so try to place the turntable in the most stable place you can.

Setup
Your signal chain should be fairly obvious. You will need to connect components such that the signal goes from Turntable -> Phono Preamp -> PC. In most cases this will be simple to achieve, but I will give a few pointers. If you're using a receiver or integrated amplifier as your phono preamp, it probably has a 'tape monitor' or 'preamp' output. You should use this output to connect to your PC, but you may need to enable the tape monitor feature on the amplifier as well. On professional sound cards, the inputs are often not labeled specifically for left or right; generally you would connect the left (white/black) channel to the first input and right to the second. On consumer level cards there is often a mic input as well as a line input. Use the line input only, the mic input is not appropriate for this use.

Recording
I recommend using Audacity as your capture software. It's simple and fairly foolproof, and free open source software. If you'd prefer, there are many suitable applications such as Adobe Audition. This guide was written against Audacity 1.2.6.

Configuration
First we will configure Audacity for 24/96KHz capture with the correct audio device.

-Edit/Preferences

-Audio I/O tab
On this tab, make sure the correct capture device is selected under 'Recording', the brand and model should be listed here. You might also want to change the Playback device so you can monitor the recording, the default 'Microsoft Sound Mapper - Output' device will play back to your normal windows sound device. Choose 'Software Playthrough' if you'd like to monitor the output while recording.

-Quality tab
On this tab, follow the settings in the screenshot below. If your sound card is capable of it, you may select 'Other' for the Default Sample Rate, and type 192000 in the box for 192KHz capture.

-File Formats tab
On this tab, you must select 'Other' for the 'Uncompressed Export Format' option; this will give you a box to choose the encoding. Select WAV and 'Singed 24bit PCM' for the encoding. The other options don't matter for this guide.

-Directories tab
If you need Audacity to use a different hard drive during capture, you can change it here.

Restart Audacity after making these changes.

You will also need to configure your sound card itself for the desired sample rate. Usually this is accomplished through a driver control panel for your sound card. It should match the setting you set in Audacity. If you have an option for 'Internal' or 'External' clock (Master/Slave is a term also used, you want Master), you want to choose Internal here.

Record Preparation

It is a good idea to purchase a quality record cleaner and clean your records just before capturing them, and to use the dust cover on your turntable. Even the smallest speck of dust will be audible in a recording; the less dust the better. I don't have any specific recommendations here, but I highly recommend you do some research and purchase a good cleaner.

Also, if at all possible, use records that haven't been played much and that have no visible scratches. Wear is a problem as the vinyl is only good for a certain number of plays before it starts to wear down affecting the quality. Obvious scratches will cause lots of loud pops that are difficult to remove nicely and obviously ruin quality. If you don't have a record in good condition, it's not worth the trouble of recording it.

Capture Preparation
We will first be making a test recording to set levels and make sure everything is working properly, so get everything set up, turned on, and put your record on the turntable. Get it fired up and playing.

To start recording, press the record button in Audacity (red circle), and you should see the waveform being recorded as well as the VU meters at the top jumping around. Now we need to set the levels to ensure there isn't any clipping. The screenshot below shows what the VU meter looks like during recording, with a properly adjusted level (though a bit low).

You should aim for peaks reaching about 75% of the maximum level (the peaks are represented on the VU meter with an extra line showing the highest the signal's been in recent time). Try to play the loudest part of the record while you adjust to make sure it's not going to start clipping halfway through and force you to rerecord.

How you actually adjust the levels depends on the sound card you have. Most external cards will have a knob attached to each input that adjusts the level (as well as an LED-based VU meter) - the best setting for these is at their maximum, minimum or at any spot where there's a detent, as long as this puts the signal at a proper level. It's difficult to match them otherwise between the left and right channels, and the balance of the recording might be off if you adjust them.

If you've got an internal card, the driver control panel should provide a level adjustment slider for the inputs. Make you're not just adjusting the output or one of the S/PDIF channels as they can sometimes be confusing. You want to make sure the 'stereo link' is enabled to adjust the channels at the same time. Most drivers will show a VU meter on this panel as well which you can use in addition to the Audacity VU meter.

The level itself is not critical, but it should be at least 50% of the maximum and should never approach 100% at any time.

Once you've got the levels set, stop the Audacity recording and listen to the few minutes of audio you should've recorded. Make sure it sounds good (don't worry if it sounds a bit quiet) and listen for any audio dropouts (there shouldn't be any).

Capture
Finally! Everything is set up and it's time to capture a side. This part is easy.

Create a new project in Audacity and discard your old test one. Stop your turntable.

Now we're ready to start, so press record (red circle) in Audacity and then start the turntable and place the needle in the lead-in area. You shouldn't listen while recording, as the vibrations from speakers can be a contributor to distortion, though if you'd like to monitor on headphones I recommend this.

Once the side is complete, stop Audacity and the turntable. We'll do a side at a time in the guide, once you're done one side, go back and repeat from the Capture step.

Track Splitting

The first thing we're going to do after capturing the audio is to split it into tracks and proof it for quality. Just start playing the audio from the very beginning. When you reach the start of the first track, stop playback and move the playhead (just click in the waveform window) to just before this point. You'll have to use your judgement where to place the track break. Press Ctrl-B (or Project->Add Label At Selection) to create a new label. Your cursor will be in the 'title' for the label at this point, so just start typing the name of the song. Once you've got the label made, press play again and make sure you've got the label in the correct spot and also listen to the track for any problems. Continue for all the other tracks on the side.

Once you've got labels created and properly positioned for all the tracks, we will amplify the signal to a normal level. Select the entire waveform (Ctrl-A or Edit->Select->All) and then choose Effect->Amplify. This will automatically set itself for 0dB maximum output, which is close to what we want. If you see the Amplification (dB) box shows 0.0, you have clipped the input during recording and you'll need to do it over with a lower level. Otherwise, type -0.1 into the 'New Peak Amplitude' box and press OK. It may take a moment, and you should see the waveform become larger.

Now we'll export to WAV files for encoding. Choose File->Export Multiple... and the following dialog appears. Note that unless you check the box and type a name in the box, audio before the first label will be lost - so make sure you labeled the first track.

Post Processing

Okay, the title says 'Complete', but this is one thing I'm not going to go into here. It involves removing clicks and pops, and possibly noise. The problem is that if you've followed the steps up until now, you should have a good quality recording with little noise and rumble that would be easily removed by an automated script. You will need to go through the recording by hand and remove each individual random click or pop. This can be done in Audacity by selecting the problem area and choosing Effect->Click Removal... You can find more detail on this technique at the Audacity wiki.

I do not recommend using the noise removal plugin as many other guides recommend. If you've followed the equipment guidelines and have a reasonable quality setup, the constant noise should be very low. This plugin is not appropriate for removing small vinyl noise which is almost impossible to get rid of. If you've cleaned the record well and the recording is still noisy and fully of pops, chances are that the record itself is just in poor condition and not worth capturing. Please just remove problem clicks and pops as necessary, and try to apply as little processing as possible to your recording.

Disable auto-backup of iPhone in iTunes (Windows)

2009-04-20T18:08:00.000-07:00

I got tired of waiting for my iPhone to auto-backup when I quickly wanted to sync a few songs or videos before going to bed. A quick Google search brought up a bunch of results for Mac, but not much for Windows. After some searching, I found the solution to disable the auto-backup. I wrote a little program that will enable or disable the auto-backup feature in iTunes when you plug in your iPhone.

It requires .NET 3.5 SP1. If you aren’t sure if you have it, the program will let you know when you try to open it.

Download QuickDisable

This program was designed and tested on Vista, though it will work fine on XP. You may have to define the locate of iTunesPrefs.xml if the program can’t find it.

If you want to disable the auto-backup feature in iTunes manually, follow these steps:

Locate iTunesPrefs.xml by going to Start->Run and typing %appdata%\Apple Computer\iTunes and hit OK.
Backup iTunesPrefs.xml
Open iTunesPrefs.xml and search for User Preferences
Under the next add the following:
- DeviceBackupsDisabled
  
  dHJ1ZQ==
Save your changes and restart iTunes. Auto-backup is now disabled.

NOTE: Be sure that you enable auto-backup every so often to get a fresh backup. It would be a sad thing to be in a position where you have to restore your iPhone but your using a backup that is a few months old.

QuickDisable does not have any type of warranty or guarantee, you are using QuickDisable at your own risk. I hold absolutely no responsibility for any damages it may cause.

IP Blocking for uTorrent in Windows XP & Vista

2009-04-20T17:59:00.000-07:00

For years now, Anti-P2P organizations have been polluting BitTorrent with fake peers and bogus torrent files, which send out fake or corrupt data in order to slow down file transfers and/or log the IP addresses of users who ’share’ the torrent. This is typically rampant on a communal BitTorrent level through publicly-accessible torrents from popular sites such as ThePirateBay, mininova, Isohunt, et al. Consequences range from those laughable (but sometimes scary) DMCA notices sent from your ISP; cease-and-desist letters; and even worse, pre-litigation letters from any company under the RIAA / MPAA / IFPI “umbrella”.

To significantly reduce your chances of connecting with malicious peers, the integration of IP Blocking is crucial to P2P safety. This can be approached through third-party software, including PeerGuardian2 or Blocklist Manager - but it can also be handled client-side through IP blocklists. µTorrent supports IP blocking at the BitTorrent protocol level - and it’s a great solution for Vista users who don’t yet have the option of using an external program such as PeerGuardian2.

This article has been done to death, but I’ve updated it with easy-to-follow screenshots and a working link to the updated file.

Installation

1. Download the nipfilter.dat.gz file, and save. NOTE: You’ll need to open and extract it with WinRAR or 7-ZIP (or any other archive program). Extract ipfilter.dat and save to the location of your choice. Similar lists can also be found at http://iblocklist.com/lists.php.

2. Copy the file to your “C:\Documents and Settings\<your computer name>\Application Data\uTorrent” directory. To locate this, open a folder and in the Address Bar, type in: %AppData%\uTorrent.

This can also be done through the “Run” command. Click the Start Button, and select “Run” - enter %AppData%\uTorrent. If using Vista, click the Start button, and in the Search Field type in ‘Command prompt’.

3. After the file has been copied there, either restart µtorrent or hit CTRL+P in the µtorrent window, and select OK. To verify that the IP blocklist is working, click on the LOGGER tab and look for “Loaded IP Filter.dat”, like this

IP Blocking for µtorrent & Vista

This is a great solution for Windows Vista users who want to incorporate PeerGuardian-style IP blocking and use BitTorrent exclusively. The procedure is exactly the same as above, except in Step 3, you’ll need to place the ipfilter.dat file in this directory:

C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\utorrent.

Another alternative is to use a pre-release ‘beta’ version of PeerGuardian2 for Vista.

Troubleshooting - IP Filter & µtorrent:

By default, IP filter is already turned ‘ON’ in the latest versions of µtorrent. If you’re using an older version, verify that it is set to ‘ON’ in the settings. Go to OPTIONS > PREFERENCES… and scroll down to where it says “ip filter:enable“. Choose “True” and click ‘OK’ to save.

How To Speed Up Torrents with Low Seeders

2009-04-20T17:51:00.000-07:00

Here’s a ridiculously easy tip to squeeze out as many users as you can on a dead or dying torrent. It’s particularly handy when a torrent stops near the end, and/or the seed count is listed as zero. Having said that, I’ve also noticed that it helps to increase download speeds from healthy torrents, as well.

NOTE: Do not attempt this trick with private torrents - it’ll only get you banned from the tracker. Use this tip with torrents you find at mininova, thepiratebay, etc.

How it works:

Simple. Just copy/paste this list of public trackers into your torrent’s tracker list.

http://tracker2.istole.it:60500/announce

http://inferno.demonoid.com:3407/announce

http://vip.tracker.thepiratebay.org/announce

http://track.sextorrent.to:2710/announce

http://tracker.deluxebits.to:3552/announce

http://denis.stalker.h3q.com:6969/announce

http://tracker.thepiratebay.org/announce

http://tracker.torrentbox.com:2710/announce

http://tracker.hexagon.cc:2710/announce

http://tracker.torrent.to:2710/announce

http://axxo.sladinki007.net:6500/announce

http://220.162.244.175:53880/announce

http://tpb.tracker.prq.to/announce

http://open.tracker.thepiratebay.org/announce

http://eztv.sladinki007.net:60500/announce

http://tv.tracker.prq.to/announce

http://218.145.160.136:8080/announce

http://tracker.prq.to/announce

http://tracker.torrenty.org:6969/announce

http://tpb.tracker.thepiratebay.org/announce

http://t.ppnow.net:2710/announce

http://www.torrentvideos.com:6969/announce

http://tracker.bitebbs.com:6969/announce

http://www.torrent-downloads.to:2710/announce

http://eztv.sladinki007.eu:60500/announce

http://www.ipmart-forum.com:2710/announce

http://tracker.ydy.com:83/announce

http://bt1.the9.com:6969/announce

http://tracker.sladinki007.net:6500/announce

http://tracker.ydy.com:102/announce

http://tracker.paradise-tracker.com:12000/announce

http://moviesb4time.biz/announce.php

http://tracker.deadfrog.us:42426/announce

http://mpggalaxy.mine.nu:6969/announce

http://www.sumotracker.org/announce

Applying the trackers to uTorrent:

In particular, this is a ‘µTorrent-compatible’ list, so that’s where I’ll show the example.

Open µTorrent, and right-click on the suspiciously-slow torrent. Select "Properties…".

In the first window box, the "General" tab should be open, and there should already be a list of existing trackers (or perhaps just one). ‘Copy’ the list from above, and ‘paste’ them into the window.

You should now be left with what looks like this (see below). Be sure to click "OK" to save the changes.

While you’re at it, make sure that “Enable DHT” and “Peer Exchange” have checks in them, too. Now, if there are ANY public users on that torrent, you’ll be sure to find them.

Want to really increase the speeds of your torrents? Try a seedbox - the guaranteed method to speed up torrents:

The All-new Torrents Open Registrations Checker

2009-04-20T17:38:00.000-07:00

Looking for a great “live” solution to accurately assist in finding private trackers that are open for signups? After months of heavy development, Team Roots has finally launched a new, speedier (and vastly improved) version of TORC - the Torrents Open Registrations Checker v1.25. TORC has it all - a great list of current trackers; filtering options; tracker icons; detailed view; and, of course - automatic timed & repeat checking of selected private trackers to see if they’re open for direct signups.

New Features:

• Complete Redevelopment.
• Huge Performance Enhancements.
• Fast Parallel Searching.
• Tracker description on MouseHover.
• Custom Icons.
• Advanced Conditions for accurate results.
• Filters.
• Grouped View (Detailed View)
• Find (search tracker) function.
• Automatic Tracker Importer (Adder).
• Advertising options.
• Automatic Updates.

How TORC Works:

TORC requires Windows XP, 2003, Vista or above; and the Microsoft.NET Framework 2.0 or higher (found here). Download TORC from here:

http://teamroots.co.cc/projects/torrents-open-registrations-checker.html

Simple Usage: Run TORC, and put checkmarks in the trackers you want it to check, and click the magnifying glass icon in the left of the top menu. Here’s the index of the results of the search:

— Denotes trackers that are currently open for signups.

— The registration page exists, but signups are not open.

— Search timed out (no results reported).

— Signup page is down, or the tracker is offline.

For sites that display a green checkmark, simply double-click on the tracker name in TORC - this will launch you to the desired tracker’s signup page.

Automatic Interval Checking

By default, TORC is not set to "timer mode" whereby it will repeat and/or countdown to a predetermined time to recheck the selected trackers in the list. To enable this:

1.) Go into Options > Settings and change the radio button to "Repeat Timer". The default is 10 minutes, which can also be changed.

2.) Next, you’ll need to turn on the timer to complete the action - this can be done by

clicking the clock icon at the far right corner. This will start the countdown (i.e. - from 10 minutes) and it will repeat the check of the selected trackers once it hits 00:00:00.

Minimizing TORC:

TORC can also be minimized into the taskbar and automatically notify you when it’s found your selected trackers open - which is handy for certain trackers that are seldomly open, or the open signup time is short (such as Demonoid). Once TORC has found your trackers, it pops up with a message (and an sound alert) notifying which trackers it has found. (Note: careful with this; when you click the Launch button, TORC will open all of the trackers in the list that have checkmarks).

Customizing TORC

Filtering: Trackers can also be arranged by category, as TORC makes it easy to find & select key trackers from a group. Simply click the Funnel icon and make changes as shown below:

View as Detailed List or Icons: TORC’s trackers can be viewed in icon list mode (default) or changed to Detailed List which will show categories, signup URLs, and additional info. Access this in Options > View Mode >

Tracker Settings & ‘Timeouts‘: In Options > Settings > Tracker Settings (tab), you can change the timeout value (the default is 5 seconds) to a higher number if you’re getting too many ‘timeouts’. Note that this is for each selected tracker - too high a value will undoubtedly increase the search time. Additionally, on the Search Settings tab you can adjust the Maximum Connections setting - a lower value may also help to prevent timeouts. Lastly, if timeouts occur much too often, either limit how many trackers you’ve selected in TORC, and free up your Internet connection.

Other TORC Features:

Add/edit New Trackers: While TORC currently comes loaded with 182 private trackers, it also supports personal customized functionality - you can also add, edit & delete entries. To add a tracker that is NOT open to signups but you want to add it into TORC, you’ll need:

1.) The tracker signup page URL (i.e. http://www.knights.it/signup.php).

2.) Assuming that the tracker is NOT currently open to signups (but the page exists), you’ll need some text from the signup page that will probably disappear once replaced when open. For our example:

3.) Go into TORC, and select "Add New Entry". Enter in a name for the tracker, and the signup URL. Change the radio button over to "text not found", and enter in some text - i.e. ‘has been reached’ is a good example, and is expected to be replaced once signups open. Add in any additional info you want (you can always come back and edit the entry). Click OK to finish - the new entry should now be added.

{[404]} TIP: Many private trackers are getting wise to websites & software that can identify when they open for registration, so they remove the signup page completely (but temporarily) when not open for signups. However, you can still add trackers that have taken their signup page down, and have TORC notify you when the page comes back online. Follow the steps above, and for "text not found" enter in this: {[404]} (with both sets of brackets). If or when the signup page comes back online, the 404 won’t be found and TORC will notify you. An example of this is when RevolutionTT does their "goodwillweekend.php" signup page. NOTE: You’ll obviously need to know the exact URL/name of the signup page, even if it is currently down.

TIP: By default, the new entry is added to the end of the list. Use the "List > Sort List > Ascending Order" feature to list the new tracker alphabetically.

Check For New Trackers: TORC supports an online feature where new trackers can be added into the program. To check, go to Help > Check for new trackers…

Correctly Format An Audiobook For Your iPod

2009-04-20T17:33:00.000-07:00

Today I will be going over how to format your audiobooks in such a way that they appear in the "Audiobooks" section of your iTunes and your iPod. Adherence to this method will result in, not only better organization, but also a better listening experience. What I will show you includes how to convert files into a special audio format which is able to leave a virtual ‘bookmark’ in the file every time you decide to change the music or shut your iPod/iTunes down. This guide is for Windows XP users.

STEP 1:

— Rip / import audiobook into your iTunes

Okay… the first step, obviously, is getting your audiobook tracks into iTunes. You can do this by inserting an audiobook CD and clicking the import button, or (if the files are already on your hard drive) by click FILE > Add Folder to Library… From here, simply select the folder containing your audiobook files.

Step 2:

— Converting files to AAC

This is a two part step:

First go into iTunes preferences (Edit > Preferences). Select the Advanced tab, and then the ‘Importing’ sub-tab. Make sure that you have ‘AAC Encoder’ selected in the second drop down menu (see figure 1).

Apple requires you to convert your files to their own proprietary format before they are able to be recognized as an audiobook. To do this, simply highlight all the files that make up your audiobook and select ‘Convert Selection to AAC’ rom the ‘Advanced’ menu at the top of the screen, or right click each individual file and select ‘Convert Selection to AAC’.

Once the files are encoded as AAC, you have one step left…

Step 3:

— Changing file types from .m4a to .m4b

For this step we must set each file to show its 3 letter filetype extension after its name. To do this, open the folder containing your newly encoded AAC files (right-click and select ‘Show in Windows Explorer’). Within the folder, select Tools > Folder Options. Next, select the ‘View’ tab and make sure that the ‘Hide extensions for known file types’ is UNchecked.

You will now see the 3 letter extensions after each file name (see below).

Notice how your encoded audiobook files are all now .m4a files. The final process is the manually rename each of these files to .m4b …simply replace the ‘a’ with a ‘b’.

Once that is done, you have a fully functioning audiobook. If this process does not work right away, try removing the files from you iTunes library and adding them back in. The files should then appear under the AUDIOBOOKS section.

— A much easier way to do this is to download the program MarkAble which not only automates this conversion process, but is also able to merge the audio files into one.

Scratched CDs: An Easy & Cheap Way To Repair Them

2009-04-20T11:44:00.000-07:00

In this tutorial I will show you how to repair scratched CDs that are giving you errors such as Mismatching CRCs, Read Errors, Sync Errors and Suspicious Positions. If you do it properly, your scratched CDs should then give you perfect rips with matching CRCs. Even badly scratched CDs can be repaired, as long as the reflective layer (label side) is not damaged.

Before you do it on an original CD, I suggest you practice on an old (badly) scratched CD-R first.
Whatever you do, do NOT buy the cd repair kits. They’re too expensive and pretty bad at doing what they’re supposed to do. When you’re done repairing, you’ll see light scratches on the CD. Don’t worry, they are way too small to affect playback or ripping in any way. If you want to get rid of them for aesthetic reasons, you can use finer grain sandpaper.

Specs
—————–
For this tutorial I used a cd my girlfriend brought from work and wanted me ro repair: This Is Tom Jones by Tom Jones. It’s actually a boxset where the 3 cds were extremely scratched; they would skip like crazy when played in the cd player and were impossible to rip. After repairing them, all 3 cds (74 songs) are ripping perfectly with all CRCs matching.
I’ve used EAC V0.99 prebeta 4 on a TOSHIBA ODD-DVD SD-R6372 drive. Rip in Secure mode, proper Read Offset Correction, Test & Copy. High error recovery quality.

What you need
—————–
- 1 scratched CD
- 3 to 10 minutes
- A bottle of Meguiar’s PlastX (clear plastic cleaner & polish).
- Emery paper: 1500 or 2000 Grit. I use the 3M Wetordry Automotive Sandpaper.
- A piece of cloth. I use an old scarf. You can use an old t-shirt, sock, towel..
- A piece of paper towel.
- Warm water

You can find the emery paper and the PlastX bottle at your local auto supply store. I bought my stuff at Canadian Tire and paid 10.49$ for the 296ml PlastX bottle and 2.99$ for five 3.66 inches by 9 inches sheets of emery paper. With that, you’ll have enough to fix over a hundred CDs.

Repairing
—————–
First, cut a small piece of emery paper, 1 inch by 1 inch will do, and you will be able to do a few CDs with that.

Soak it in warm water, and put a little bit of water on the cd with your finger.

Start sanding the cd in the motion shown below. This is for a badly scratched cd, you don’t have to do the whole cd if there are only a few scratches. Just do it where the scratches are.

Put a little bit of pressure when you’re sanding. When you think you’re done and scratches are gone, keep sanding but don’t put any pressure to get rid of the (small) scratches you may have done. I use the 1500 grit for sanding with pressure, and the 2000 grit without pressure to finish off.

Rinse the CD with warm water and dry it out with a paper towel.

Now, put a few drops of PlastX on the cd and polish it with a small piece of cloth until the PlastX gets absorbed by the cloth. To polish the whole surface, I put about 6 drops wich is more than enough.

Rinse the CD with warm water and dry it out with a paper towel.

Now the shiny surface of your CD should be shiny again. Look really close to see if there are any scratches left. If there are, you didn’t sand enough; repeat sanding and polishing.

Your CD should now rip properly.

Example
—————–
The picture below shows a scratched CD before and after being repaired. I used rough sandpaper to scratch it, and then repaired it. The pictures show the SAME CD and the EXACT SAME AREA on the CD. I didn’t switch CDs, photoshop it, or anything.

How To make Utorrent 1.8.2 faster

2009-04-19T23:49:00.000-07:00

tittle says all any

Link: click here

Trace private calls

2009-04-19T23:18:00.000-07:00

Easy way to trace private calls

http://www.reversescan.com/

http://www.whitepages.com/reverse_phone

http://411ca.whitepages.com/reverse_searches/

Rip a DVD to make exactly 700mb

2009-04-19T23:10:00.000-07:00

Learn to back up your DVDs or captures easily and with good quality, to be played in your DVD/MPEG4 player, or on your computer, or perhaps from your computer to your TV set through a TV out on your graphics card.

Link: http://www.autogk.me.uk/modules.php?name=TutorialEN

Where to find No-CD/NO-DVD Patches, Mini Images and Cracks for PC Games

2009-04-19T23:03:00.000-07:00

1. Game Copy World (GCW)

[Click here] to visit GameCopyWorld

2. Game Burn World

[Click here] to visit GameBurnWorld.

3. Megagames

[Click here] to visit the PC game fixes section of Megagames.

E-Books sites free of charge

2009-04-19T23:00:00.000-07:00

1. FreeBookSpot [Click Here] to visit FreeBookSpot.

2. MSLIT - Microsoft Reader Catalogue of EBooks [Click Here] to visit MSLIT.

3. Knowledge is Free [Click Here] to visit Knowledge is Free.

4. eBookShare [Click Here] to visit eBookShare

5. FullBooks [Click Here] to visit FullBooks.

Top Media Players

2009-04-19T22:37:00.000-07:00

Media Player Classic

VLC media player

Winamp media player

These are by far the best media players ready to play any type of file format. All come with amazing variety of codecs.

Burn mp3 files to a CD

2009-04-19T22:34:00.000-07:00

CDBurnerXP is a free application to burn CDs and DVDs, including Blu-Ray and HD-DVDs. It also includes the feature to burn and create ISOs, as well as a multilanguage interface. Everyone, even companies, can use it for free. It does not include adware or similar malicious components.

link: http://cdburnerxp.se/

Free Burning application

2009-04-19T22:30:00.000-07:00

ImgBurn is a lightweight CD / DVD / HD DVD / Blu-ray burning application that everyone should have in their toolkit!

http://www.imgburn.com/

How to mount ISO and other image files

2009-04-19T22:21:00.000-07:00

DAEMON Tools is an advanced application for optical media emulation.

In common use, an "ISO" file is a single file that contains the complete image of a disc. Such files are often used when transferring CD-ROM images over the Internet.

In this guide I will be showing you how to mount a ".ISO" image in a virtual drive to play/watch it.

First thing you need to do is download DAEMON Tools if you haven't already. You can download it here.

Once you have installed and started DAEMON tools, you should now see a "lightning bolt" icon (green) next to your PC clock. [Screen Shot Below]

Go ahead and right click that icon and then left click "VIRTUAL CD/DVD-ROM" , then left click "Set number of devices...", then decide on how many virtual drives you wish to have. For this tutorial I only choose "1 drive" (red). [Screen Shot Below]

After that, go ahead and right click that "lightning bolt" icon again, left click "VIRTUAL CD/DVD-ROM" again. Then left click "Device 0: [*Letter*] No media", then left click "Mount image" (blue). [Screen Shot Below]

Then on the screen that pops up, navigate to where your ISO file is to mount it to the virtual drive. When you find it, click it once then click the "Open" button (purple). [Screen Shot Below]

After clicking the "Open" button, it will act just like you put a DVD in. It will ask you what you want windows to do. Either pick a task for it to follow or cancel it and do your own thing if the program you want to use is not listed there. [Screen Shot Below]

Ok your finished with loading the image.

Now if you go to "My Computer", you will see a "extra" drive listed there (red). That is the "virtual drive" created by DAEMON Tools. [Screen Shot Below]

To remove it, right click that icon and then left click "VIRTUAL CD/DVD-ROM" , then left click "Set number of devices...", then click "Disable".

POOF! Its gone!

Unlock your iPhone and iPhone 3G!

2009-04-19T22:05:00.001-07:00

How to unlock and get the most out of your iPhone

Link: http://iphone.unlock.no/

How to change the Wallpaper on your iPhone

2009-04-19T21:59:00.000-07:00

How to change the default background image - or Wallpaper - that appears when your iPhone is locked

The Apple iPhone does not have any easily installable themes (and hey why would you? It's beautiful already) but you can change and customise its default background image (or Wallpaper).

Out of the box this is the striking image of planet Earth as seen from space, chosen because it shows the capabilities of the iPhone's 163 DPI screen. But if you get tired of looking at the beautiful blue globe you can change it quite simply in either of the following ways:

Method 1

Click the home button to go to the main menu. Then click on Settings
In the Settings screen click on Wallpaper
You have a choice of options:
- Wallpaper will take you to Apple's preloaded range of Wallpapers. To switch to a new one, click on its thumbnail image
- Camera Roll lets you select from any photos you have taken with the camera. Select the one you want by tapping it
- Photo Library (and any photo folders you have created) lets you pick from any photo you have synced with your iPhone. Select the one you want by tapping it
Once you have selected the photo, you can drag your finger to move it into the position you want and use the finger-thumb pinch to zoom it in or out. When it looks right click on Set Wallpaper

Method 2

Click the home button to go to the main menu. Then click on Photos
Find the photo you want and tap once to make the control overlay appear. Click on the Actions icon in the bottom left corner
You can drag your finger to move the image into the position you want and use the finger-thumb pinch to zoom it in or out. When it looks right click on Set Wallpaper

Here is a more detailed explanation

Links: http://howto.wired.com/wiki/Change_Your_iPhone_Wallpaper

free ipod video converter (windows)

2009-04-19T21:56:00.000-07:00

Videora iPod Converter is a free iPod video converter that converts video files, YouTube videos, movies and DVD's so you can play them on your iPod. The software, developed by the creators of Videora, can convert all types of video files (avi, divx, xvid, flv, x264, vob, mpeg, DVD's, YouTube, etc.) into the proper video formats (MPEG-4, H.264) that play on the iPod.

With Videora iPod Converter you can convert videos for any type of iPod that plays video. This includes the new iPod touch, iPod nano and iPod classic in addition to the 5th generation iPod. You can also convert videos for the iPhone.

Links: http://www.videora.com/en-us/Converter/iPod/

Back up your DVD

2009-04-19T21:40:00.000-07:00

DVD Shrink 3.2 guide

Recently, compressed domain transcoders have reached quite some popularity. These transcoders are based on algorithms designed to recompress an MPEG-2 stream in real-time for TV broadcast. These programs can transcode an entire DVD movie in only a few minutes, because they do not have to decode and re-encode the entire video stream, but only part of it. I will not go into a detailed explanation of the mechanisms used as they are quite involved but basically what you get is a size (and hence quality) reduction per time unit that cannot be rivaled by regular MPEG-2 encoders (though the latter category can yield better quality). DVD2One was the first program to be based on these principles, now DVD Shrink is the first free program to offer this functionality.

You will need the following software for this guide:

DVD Shrink
ImgTool & DVD Decrypter or a commercial DVD burning program

Step 0: First time setup

The first time you use DVD Shrink you might want to configure the preferences. To do so, press Edit - Preferences.

Step 1: Back up your DVD

The first thing you'll have to do after starting up DVD Shrink is select a source. Press Open Disk to get a list of available DVD drives:

A list of all available DVD drives on your computer will be shown. Select the one containing the movie. Alternatively you could first rip the DVD to an ISO file using DVD Decrypter and create a virtual DVD drive which you will use as source.

If you have already ripped the DVD in file mode (thus you have a collection of .IFO, .BUP and .VOB files on your HD) press the Open Files button:

Then press browse and select the folder where your VIDEO_TS directory resides.

Once you've selected the source disc, or IFO file, DVD Shrink will perform a quick analyzation pass over all the video items. Just let it do its job, it won't take very long.

Once analysis has completed it's time to get to know the different parts of DVD Shrink, starting with the size bar.

This bar indicates the size of your project. If it contains a red part, your project is too large and won't fit onto a DVD±R disc. By default, DVD Shrink automatically selects a compression ratio to make your movie fit onto the allocated space (the output size you set up in the preferences).

In the upper left side of the window, the general structure of the DVD will be shown. As you can see there are 3 top categories, Menus, Main Movie and Extras. The folders react just like in Windows Explorer so you can click on those having a + sign and they'll open, displaying their contents.

To the right of the structure you have the individual streams contained in the item selected on the left side. Below you'll see how the main movie item looks like. It has a large video stream, 6 audio streams and two subtitle streams. The DVD Structure and the Streams part of the window are where you configure your project. You select the item you want to configure on the left, then you configure it on the right (set a compression ratio, deselect audio and subtitle streams you don't need).

Note that if you click on the DVD folder on the left, and the percentage shown on the right is 100%, your movie is small enough to fit onto a DVD±R disc without further processing and you can follow this guide to back it up. Note that the French audio track is already disabled because I set up my audio preferences to only include English AC3 audio.

Finally, on the lower left we have the preview window. It allows you to preview any title you click on. Simply click on a title, then press the play button. The preview window remembers its state, so if it is playing and you select another title, the title you have just selected will be played. If you stop playback, selecting another title will not start playing until you press play again.

If you right click within the preview window, you can change the audio channel, pause, stop and even switch to fullscreen for a better preview.

Now you have two options: You can either keep the entire DVD intact, or you can choose to only keep certain parts of the original DVD (for instance only the main movie, dropping extras and menus). Obviously, keeping the entire DVD, the video has to be compressed more to fit on a single DVD±R disc, but it allows you to keep all the fancy menus. If you want to keep everything, press the Backup! button.

If you prefer to keep only parts of the disc and discarding parts (or all) of the extras, select Re-author instead (technically, when re-authoring you create a new disc from scratch and add whatever you like from the original disc to it). Re-author allows you to create your own DVD by putting only content that you really want on a DVD. It does not allow you to keep the menus though. If you want to entirely remove certain items but keep the menus you have to use program like IfoEdit or commercial transcoders like InstantCopy and DVD95Copy. You can also combine IfoEdit with DVD Shrink, remove stuff you don't want in IfoEdit, then compress the remaining movies using the Re-encode function of DVD Shrink but that's beyond the scope of this guide since DVD Shrink is a program mainly designed for beginners.

So now that you know what you can do, what will it be? Keep everything on the DVD, remove some items or keep the main movie only? Note that the main movie can consist of multiple parts (episodic DVDs, like TV series), but the guides cover this case as well. If you have a flipper disc (1/2 of the movie is on one side, the other half on the other side of the disc) and you'd like to join this to one DVD±R disc, or if you want to put two movies onto one DVD±R, there is a special guide for joining multiple DVD discs to one DVD±R.

Removing certain movie items requires basically the same procedure as keeping the main movie only. All you have to do is follow the main movie only guide, then just add more movie items after the main movie and configure them the same way you configure the main movie.

Convert .flac to .wav

2009-04-19T21:10:00.000-07:00

Flac frontend is perhaps one of the best lossless converters to decode from .flac to .wav or encode from .wav to .flac, notice this application has to be in (C:\Program Files (x86)\Exact Audio Copy\FLAC), just be sure to install EAC, link will be provided below.

What can this simple program do you ask?

Encode
Decode

FLAC frontend

Links: http://members.home.nl/w.speek/flac.htm FLAC frontend

http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/ EAC (exact audio copy)

Decompressing .flac to .wav or Encoding .wav to .flac

2009-04-19T21:08:00.000-07:00

This is great tutorial for all you confused folks on how to Decompressing .flac to .wav or Encoding .wav to .flac

check this out: http://wiki.etree.org/index.php?page=FlacFrontend

Make Foobar2000 Look Like iTunes

2009-04-19T21:01:00.000-07:00

Ever wondered how to organize like itunes without it hogging up your memory. Well now you can, check out this neat and nice tutorial.

http://www.teqnilogik.com/tutorials/foobar2000_itunes.shtml

Download Streaming Videos with Firefox plugin

2009-04-19T20:54:00.000-07:00

DownloadHelper is also a free Firefox extension for downloading and converting videos from many sites with minimum effort. Install the extension !

Here is a wonderful video tutorial http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRzOej3ioXk

Rubyripper: Secure ripping on Linux

2009-04-19T20:41:00.000-07:00

It is often recommended that Linux users try to get EAC working with Wine. However, this doesn't always work.

When Wine and EAC don't want to cooperate, Rubyripper, with its test-and-copy layer on top of cdparanoia's oft-bemoaned correction, is the next best thing.

So, without further ado...

Installation (Linux)
Method 1: install via your distro's package manager
This is the most convenient way, but it won't always give you the most up-to-date version, even if Rubyripper is in your distro's repositories

Ubuntu / Debian-based distros: GetDeb.net Deb
• GetDeb.net now offers the latest Deb installer of rubyripper for Ubuntu.

Method 2: install from the tarball
1. Download the tarball from http://code.google.com/p/rubyripper/downloads/list (0.5.5 is the current version at the time of writing)
2. untar it in ~/local (or the directory of your choice): tar -xjvf rubyripper-0.5.5.tar.bz2
3. Install the dependencies listed in the README. (if you're using this method because the distro-provided version is out of date, you can still use the package manager to install these)
3.1 Ubuntu-specific: Install the following packages: cdparanoia ruby-gnome2 libgettext-ruby1.8 ruby-full flac cd-discid eject vorbis-tools vorbisgain mp3gain.
4. Follow the installation instructions in the README file.

Method 3: run it from your home directory
1. Download the tarball from http://code.google.com/p/rubyripper/downloads/list (0.5.5 is the current version at the time of writing)
2. untar it in ~/local (or the directory of your choice): tar -xjvf rubyripper-0.5.5.tar.bz2
3. Install the dependencies listed in the README. (if you're using this method because the distro-provided version is out of date, you can still use the package manager to install these)
3.1 Ubuntu-specific: Install the following packages: cdparanoia ruby-gnome2 libgettext-ruby1.8 ruby-full flac cd-discid eject vorbis-tools vorbisgain mp3gain.

Installation (Mac)
Check out resipsa's Rubyripper: OS X installation and usage tutorial. Then come back to this tutorial to complete the configuration. The commandline menu system will look different, but the options should be the same.

Configuration
Launch Rubyripper

Click the Preferences button in the upper left corner of the window

Secure Ripping
1. Look up your CD drive's read offset in the AccurateRip database.
(One way to identify your CD drive is to issue the command: lshw. Another way is: dmesg|grep CD-ROM).
2. Copy the read offset value into the Cdrom offset field

Recommended Ripping Options:
• Match all chunks: 2 times
• Match erroneous chunks: 3 times
• Maximum trials: 20

You can probably leave the Ripping options at their defaults, however:
• it doesn't hurt to bump the Match erroneous chunks value up to 3.
• If you don't set the Maximum trials, a badly scratched CD could cause Rubyripper to keep trying for hours before randomly getting matches on bad chunks. (note: if this happens, please do not upload your rip)

Ripping related:
• Pass cdparanoia options: -Z
· This disables cdparanoia's built-in correction and leaves you relying entirely on Rubyripper's test-and-copy method. The speed benefit of this might be worth it, given cdparanoia's reputation of not having very secure correction on its own.

Codecs
FLAC
• --best -V
· This will produce the smallest files, but encoding may take a little longer (what.cd recommendation, equal to -8).
• -5 -V
· This is the default compression level, slightly larger than the highest compression, -8, but the encoding will go faster.

Vorbis
(note: many/most Linux distributions ship the official xiph.org encoder. The tweaked and tuned aoTuV beta 5 encoder is recommended as superior by HydrogenAudio. If your distro doesn't ship this version, you may wish to check out the section on aoTuV Oggenc under Other codecs)
• -q 6
· This is the lowest quality preset allowed. Its nominal bitrate is 192kbps, but the actual average can vary widely depending on the type of music.
• -q 7
· 224kbps nominal bitrate. Again, actual ABR can vary greatly.
• -q 8
· 256kbps nominal bitrate. Again, actual ABR can vary greatly.
• presets other than q6.x, q7.x, and q8.x are no longer allowed on What.CD

Lame Mp3
• -V2 --vbr-new
· V2 is the lowest quality VBR preset allowed on the tracker.
• -V0 --vbr-new
· This is the highest quality VBR preset. Many people prefer this.
• -b 320
· This will give you the maximum possible constant bitrate of 320kbps. Many view this to be overly wasteful compared to V0 (which can hit 320kbps when it needs to) and not necessary, but some people appreciate that extra little bit.

Note: The switch --vbr-new, which enabled a superior VBR mode in LAME 3.97 and some previous versions, is no longer needed with LAME 3.98 as it is now the default VBR mode. However, if you're still using LAME 3.97 or older, you have to add --vbr-new to your commandline to use that mode.

Other
This is where you would put settings for other codecs, such as AAC (with FAAC), or updated versions of the above codecs that your distribution doesn't yet include.

FAAC

aoTuV Oggenc
1. If your distribution does not already ship a version of oggenc with Aoyumi's tunings, download it from http://artfwo.googlepages.com/oggenc-aotuvb5.bz2 and uncompress it somewhere where you can run it.
2. Disable the Create m3u playlist option in the Codec related section at the bottom of the window
3. Include the following line in the Other field of Rubyripper's codec settings: ~/local/bin/oggenc-aotuvb5 -q 7 -d %y -N %n -t "%t" -l "%b" -a "%a" -G "%g" -o "%o.ogg" %i
3.1. Replace ~/local/bin/ with the directory where you placed the executable
3.2. Replace -q 7 with your desired quality preset.

Normalization and Replay Gain
ReplayGain and peak normalization are two ways of making music from different sources play back at the same volume without manual tweaking of the volume nob.

Normalization is a lossy process and doesn't change the perceived loudness very effectively. Do not normalize

Replay Gain, however, calculates the perceived loudness of a track or album and adds tags to the files so that supporting audio players (such as Foobar2000, Amarok with the replaygain script, and the Rockbox DAP firmware, among others) can be set to change the volume automatically upon playback or just ignore the tags altogether if the user so chooses.

ReplayGain has two modes, album/audiophile and track/radio. The former is preferred when listening to entire albums at once; the latter is good for listening to tracks out of context from their albums, such as with random playlists.

FLAC and Ogg Vorbis
• Choose Use replaygain on audio files
· Select Album / Audiophile modus

ReplayGain is perfectly acceptable for these formats and is in fact highly encouraged. Applying replay gain in Album/Audophile modus will cause both album and track gain to be written to the tags.

MP3
You can still apply replay gain to mp3 rips, but there are some caveats that must be mentioned:

With the way Rubyripper invokes the mp3gain utility, it alters the actual audio data. This is a lossless process, since the scanner adds an APEv2 tag to the end of the file with information necessary to revert the change. Supporting players can still switch between album and track modes, and other players will play the altered audio with the mode chosen when the scan was done.

However, the original volume may be unobtainable in some players without first altering the audio again. Also, there is a risk of the APEv2 tags being corrupted or erased by poorly implemented or configured id3 taggers.

This leaves you with three options:
• Do not apply ReplayGain to mp3 rips
· Choose Don't standardize volume
• Revert the changes made by the scanner, leaving only the tags, which can still be used by supporting players.
· Choose Use replaygain on audio files
· use the following command in a terminal window: mp3gain -u /*.mp3
• Apply ReplayGain manually without passing the -a or -r switches
· Choose Don't standardize volume
· use the following command in a terminal window: mp3gain /*.mp3

Freedb
The defaults should be sufficient here.

However, if you would prefer to use Musicbrainz' FreeDB gateway (which often has better data but doesn't have quite so many albums in its database), change the Freedb server to the following:
freedb.musicbrainz.org.

Other
Filenaming schemes must include, at the very least, Artist and Album in the directory name and Tracknumber and Trackname in the filename.

• Base directory: this can be wherever you want the resulting files to be.
• The following are decent settings but can be tweaked so long as all the appropriate data remains.
· Standard: %a - %b (%y)/%n - %t
· Various artists: %a - %b (%y)/%n - %va - %t

Click the arrow by Show options for "Filenaming scheme" for a list of variables that can be used.

The Programs of choice and Debug options are matters of personal preference and do not actually have any effect on the rip.

Troubleshooting
Rubyripper freezes after ripping the first track (Rubyripper 0.5.3 or earlier)
Set Preferences > Codecs > Number of extra encoding threads to 0.

Explanation: This is apparently a bug introduced with version 0.17 of the ruby gnome bindings. As a work-around, Rubyripper 0.5.4 no longer uses extra threads for encoding.
Issue 221 on Rubyripper's code.google.com issue tracker

Rubyripper doesn't find the CD drive.
Try the following in a terminal window:

$ ls -l /dev/cdrom*

You should get output something like the following:

lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 4 2008-10-08 16:56 /dev/cdrom -> scd0

In Preferences > Secure Ripping > Cdrom device, replace "cdrom" with the device name shown after the arrow.

X Lossless Decoder (XLD): How to create flawless CD rips on Mac OS X

2009-04-19T20:39:00.000-07:00

Summary

Download and install XLD builds and source code at http://tmkk.hp.infoseek.co.jp/xld/index_e.html This guide will teach you how to set your XLD install correctly, how to rip a CD, and how to check logs for a good CD rip.

The official software page describes XLD:

X Lossless Decoder (XLD) is a tool for Mac OS X that is able to decode/convert/play various 'lossless' audio files. The supported audio files can be split into some tracks with cue sheet when decoding. It works on Mac OS X 10.3 and later. XLD is Universal Binary, so it runs natively on both Intel Macs and PPC Macs.

Anybody using xACT or Max should definitely switch from these to XLD. XLD supports critical things like Test & Copy rips, cache disabling, read-offset recognition, and others. You can view a feature-comparison of popular Mac Rippers XLD, Max, and xAct at http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3112/2863092204_7e8baa6424_o.jpg.

Be sure to update your software frequently because the developer is known to release new versions with updates and/or bug fixes almost daily. The developer is in contact with the Hydrogen Audio forums, who in return give him immediate feedback on his software. For an idea of what features are planned and have been developed, see the thread at Hydrogen Audio.

Here is the full tutorial : http://jungle.sk/XLD_Tutorial/

Vinyl Ripping

2009-04-19T20:38:00.001-07:00

The following guide will show you how to rip a vinyl record to FLAC.
For 24bit/96khz vinyl ripping see Vinyl Ripping: 24bit 96khz
For a guide on vinyl equipment, see Vinyl Ripping: Equipment

You will need the following things:

1. Vinyl record. Preferably mint or never before played.

2. Turntable. Make sure it has a good stereo balance, you may have to repair the connector cables if it doesn't. Also, buy the most expensive needle you can find.

3. Phono Preamp. A phono preamp is basically the part of a receiver that makes your record loud enough for your speakers, inside a tiny case. Make sure the one you buy includes an RCA > 1/8th converter, or you will have to get one at Radioshack, or wherever electronic components are sold. The adapter will let you connect your preamp to your computers line-in jack. I bought mine from http://phonopreamps.com

4. Audacity. Audacity is a very easy to use, open source audio editor. You can download it here for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Audacity will be recording your vinyl to WAV.

5. FLAC. FLAC stands for Free Lossless Audio Codec. It is the best audio compression algorithm available for a few reasons. One: Open Source, no licensing things, so "the man" won't get your money. Two: No quality loss. Three: Wide support among operating systems. You can download FLAC here.

Now that we have all this stuff together, we need to hook everything up.

1. Plug in your turntable, put record on turntable. Hook it up to the IN jacks of your phono preamp.

2. Plug in your phono preamp, Hook it up to the line-in jack of your computer.

3. Open Audacity. Set the drop down box under the Fast-Foward button to "Line In".

Now for the soundcheck.

1. Drop the needle onto a loud spot on the record, and press record in Audacity. Adjust the input levels in audacity, and in your computers volume control application until the waveform has dynamic range (If the waveform is just blue, your music will sound flat and distorted). The waveform should not go past the window it is inside. If so, you have to lower levels and should soundcheck again. The waveform should be close to the edges of the window, but it is better safe than sorry. You can always Amplify a midlevel waveform, but clipping is an uneditable sin. Play back the track to test quality. If there is a lot of crackling, this can remedied by cleaning the vinyl. If the vinyl is old it probably has dust, so you should clean it as well. To clean the vinyl, wet a Kleenex with rubbing alcohol and wipe the record in a circular motion. Then dry it off. This will remove dust. OiNK user weirdcrap suggests using a vacuum to remove some dust.

2. Now x out of the "test track". Place the needle on the outer edge of the record, and press record in Audacity.

3. Once the side is done playing, press stop, and remove excess gaps at the beginning and end.

You have a few options at this point.

a) If the album side is one track, just export it as a wav, by clicking File > Export As Wav...
b) If the album side has individual tracks, select the track, and click File > Export Selection As Wav... You will need to repeat this step for each track
c) If the album is a one track flows into the next type deal, export it as one track, and generate a cue file for it. (this will be covered later)
Repeat this step for each side.

(DON'T use Noise Reduction. I've heard it on some bootlegs and let me tell you, it's awful. Your best bet is to use mint vinyl. However, OiNK user weirdcrap reccomends if you must remove noise, do it click by click.)

Now that you have your files, convert them to FLAC. Using Flac frontend found here. In the extract the flac frontend exe to a folder then take the flac.exe we downloaded earlier in the same folder.
Run Flac frontend drag in your files and encode.

If you ripped a side with multiple songs to one big file, you will need to split files, or generate a cue sheet. This can best be done with CD Wave. I'm sorry its shareware but its the best way to seperate long files into shorter ones, and it generates cue sheets for you. Here is a short tutorial from the www.etree.org

You can also generate a cue file indirectly by using Audacity labels and a 3rd-party, open-source java applet. You can use the cue file with one large file or, Audacity can also break the audio into separate tracks. See this Audacity wiki article for more information.

Converting FLAC to V0 with XLD on Mac

2009-04-19T20:35:00.000-07:00

Converting FLAC to LAME V0 on Mac only requires one program, and that is XLD (X Lossless Decoder)

When you first open up XLD you will need to set the preferences so that it will convert whatever audio files are opened to LAME V0 MP3. To do this go to XLD>Preferences. Under the General tab you can set the output format which will be LAME MP3 in the tutorial, the output directory of the converted audio files, the naming scheme of the converted files, the cuesheet encoding, etc. In this tutorial all we will need to worry about is really the naming scheme, and audio format. So from the Output format drop-down menu, select LAME MP3, and the output directory can be set to your liking. For the naming scheme, use this scheme in my screenshot if it is not already in there by default.

Now to set up the MP3 format to V0, hit Options next to Output format. This will bring up a window with options for encoding mode, quality, stereo mode etc. So set the Encoding Mode to VBR because V0 is a variable bit rate format, set the Overall Quality to High (-q 2), and leave the stereo mode at Auto. For the VBR method choose New from the drop-down menu, and we want to use a V0 bit rate, so drag the slider under Target to the highest quality (245kb/s). Now you can leave the ABR, and CBR qualities at 128kb/s. This will NOT affect the output audio file's bit rate. They will still come out to be V0 245kb/s VBR.

Next you need to choose the FLAC files which you want to encode to MP3. Go to File>Open, and navigate to the FLAC files you wish to encode.

You can select multiple FLAC files by clicking the first file, holding SHIFT, and then hitting the last FLAC file in the list and that will select all the FLAC files at once.

Then click Open, and XLD will begin the conversion from FLAC to MP3. The encoded files will show up where you specified in the XLD preferences, mine were converted to the desktop.

Converting From FLAC to V0 in Foobar

2009-04-19T20:32:00.000-07:00

Remember, only convert from lossless! Do not convert from V0 to FLAC.

You need to highlight all the tracks that you would like to convert, and then Right Click > Convert > Convert to:

After you Click Convert to, this will pop up:

If "MP3 Lame, V0, Fast isn't picked, you need to click on the "..." botton, select "MP3" and then slide the quality bar all the way to the right, the highest that it can go.

Also, make sure "Fast Mode (--vbr-new) is clicked.

If is is already selected, you can skip this step, select the folder you want to convert into, and then click save.

The just select the folder you made in step one, and click save:

Raptor (If you use RS free, check this out)

2009-04-19T20:29:00.000-07:00

http://raptor.yamasster.net/eng/download_bl.html

Alt(works with megaupload): http://jdownloader.org/home/index

There are plenty of good download managers available for Rapidshare Premium members, but what about those of us without a pair account?

Raptor is a good option for handling multiple RS downloads with minimal fuss. Just copy the download URL, click the plus button in Raptor, and paste. Raptor takes care of sitting through Rapidshare's imposed wait times so you don't have to.

The program defaults to a Russian interface. To switch the interface to English, follow the screenshot below:

Transfer speeds aren't the greatest, but Raptor is still a very handy, hands-off way to download a slew of files. It's much less of a pain than tabbing back to the download page repeatedly until you're allowed to proceed.

Raptor is a free program for Windows only, and it requires the .Net 2.0 framework.

Download Rapidshare Files Simultaneously

2009-04-19T20:25:00.000-07:00

jDownloader - Key Features:

— 100% free of spyware/adware & malware. Open-source. Free of charge.
— jDownloader works outside of the browser. There's no need to visit the 1-click hosting sites - simply import your links, and jDownloader will work independently through your Internet connection (not the web browser).
— Automagically beats the captcha at 26 different hosters; including filefactory.com, rapidshare.de, megashares, megarotic, gigasize and uploaded.to.
— Supports parallel downloading & multiple connections. Download from multiple hosters simultaneously. Also has a "reconnect" feature for DSL users to automatically obtain a new IP address.
— Is platform-independent (works with all OSes) and completely written in Java (JRE 1.5+ is required).
— RAR file extraction is done automatically once the completed archive set has been successfully downloaded. WinRAR / 7Zip or other external application is not required.
— Supports both 'free' downloading and premium accounts. Accounts can be added, managed and configured through jDownloader to bypass restrictions associated with free downloading.
— Extensive plugin support.
— jDownloader doesn't actually bypass the wait-time restrictions (they still apply to free downloading depending on the hoster), but user-interaction with the hosting site is unnecessary. Downloading will commence/resume automatically from within the application.

jDownloader - Installation: 1.) Download jDownloader from here - http://jdownloader.org/download/index, select your platform. On this page you will also find links to Java JRE.

2.) Windows: Extract the ZIP file (preferably to the root of your C:\ drive).

3.) Run JDownloader.exe. When prompted, install all upgrades. This is important since they just fixed the MegaUpload captcha issue.

ToS… Before You Download In no way does jDownloader condone piracy or the sharing of copyrighted intellectual properties (yeah, right) - so you'll need to first accept the Terms of Service from each 1-click hoster before 'unlocking' the download feature.

TIP: You have the option to select any or all hosters that you intend from downloading from (and agree to their ToS) before adding any links. In jDownloader, go to the Extras menu and select 'Configuration'. In the bottom left corner, click 'Advanced Configuration'. Click on the "Hosts" tab at the left, and select hosters you plan on using:

Adding Files (Links) to jDownloader[b] To add links to jDownloader, simply "copy" a DDL (direct download) link from a website (i.e. in Firefox - right click a link and select "copy link location"). Below shows the method for adding just a single link.

After copying a link, in jDownloader click on the [b]green plus sign.

Click the "Add" button.

Now, click "Accept all" (for all links). Note the "Save to" path is shown - by default, this is C:\JDownloader\downloads.

Next, click the green arrow on the left to begin the transfer. Here is also where you'll need to agree to the Terms of Service. Also, you can change the number of active (Max.) downloads in the bottom of the window:

Another easy method to add DDL links is to use jDownloader's feature called Drag & Drop target. In jDownloader, go to Extras > Drag&Drop target. You'll notice a small window appear in the upper-right corner. Simply drag & drop any link(s) from a webpage onto the target - this also works well for multiple drops.

Adding Multiple Links (for RAR sets)
Some release blogs & RapidShare forums will display a nice, orderly list of links for easy copying, but this is not always the case. Instead, we highly recommend you install the RSFind! addon for Firefox. All links that RSFind! gathers can easily be imported into jDownloader, as explained here. However, there is another method for batch importing of DDLs on a given page using jDownloader's Firefox extension:

jDownloader Firefox addon With this Firefox addon, you can create a Toolbar icon for one-click copying and importing of links directly into jDownloader (this saves a couple of steps rather than using RSFind, although it's a little trickier to configure). Extended info can be found on this jDownloader Wiki page.

1.) Go into jDownloader… Extras > Configuration (Advanced mode). Click on the "Addon manager" tab on the left, and then click the "Installation & updates" tab at the top. Put a checkmark where it says "Firefox Plugin", and then click 'Save & Restart'.

2.) You should now have a new file "jdownff.xpi" located in %JD_HOME%\tools\jdownff.xpi (i.e. "C:\JDownloader\tools\"). To add this extension, you can right-click it and select "Open" or "Open With" and select Firefox as the program to open it. Alternately, you can also add it through Firefox itself - File > Open File… and browse to the location of jdownff.xpi. Restart Firefox after installing.

3.) You'll want to update the add-on to the most current version. In the Firefox "Tools" menu at the top, select "Add-ons". The Add-ons window will come up - select the "Find Updates" button.

4.) You'll probably have to change two paths in the jDownFF add-on, in order for it to work correctly. To do this, click the "Options" button (see arrow above) for the add-on. Be sure that you enter (or browse to) the correct file locations for javaw.exe and JDownloader.jar. Below is a look at the default (correct) settings for WinXP:

5.) You may need to restart Firefox again (unconfirmed). Afterwards, let's add the jDownload button/icon to the Firefox Toolbar. To do this, go to View > Toolbars > Customize… and a new window will appear. Drag & Drop the "Send Links to jD" icon onto the Firefox toolbar, like this:

6.) You're now ready to send DDL links from any webpage straight to jDownloader. Load up your favourite blog or RS forum - click the icon, which opens "linkcollector" where all DDL links can be added to jDownloader. NOTE: By default, it will import ALL links from a given webpage, although you'll find it's fairly straightforward to manage 'groups' of links (since downloading isn't started automatically).

Notice: Use download jdownloader

How To Play Flac On An Ipod, Easy As 123

2009-04-19T20:23:00.000-07:00

Pre-Tutorial Info:
Rockbox is a free software replacement for the firmware held on various forms of digital audio players (DAPs). Rockbox offers an alternative to the host device's operating system firmware (in many cases without removing the original firmware) which provides a plug-in architecture for adding various enhancements and functionality to DAPs which are not present in the original OS. Enhancements include PDA functionality, applications, utilities, and games. Rockbox can also retrofit video playback functionality onto DAPs first released in mid-2000. Rockbox also includes a voice-driven user-interface suitable for operation by blind and visually impaired users. Rockbox runs on a wide variety of portable audio devices with very different hardware abilities: from early Archos players with 1-bit character cell-based displays to modern players with high resolution color displays, digital optical audio hardware and advanced recording capabilities.

Released under the GNU General Public License, Rockbox is free software.

Codecs
Rockbox on software decoding platforms (non-Archos) supports playback (depending on how you count them) of eight lossy codecs, five lossless, two uncompressed and six miscellaneous formats. This makes a conservative total of 21 supported audio formats, although a few of them do not operate in realtime on all platforms.

MPEG audio layers I-III (MP3/MP2/MP1), Ogg Vorbis, MPEG-4 AAC, Musepack, AC3, WMA, Speex, and the lossy portion of WavPack hybrid files are supported lossy formats. Lossless formats include FLAC, WavPack, Shorten, Apple Lossless and Monkey's Audio. Rockbox plays Intel-style WAV and Apple AIFF uncompressed audio. In addition, there are playback of game audio types ADX, SID, NSF, SAP and SPC. The MOD tracker format is also now supported.^[2]

Note that Monkey's Audio support is in the early stages with only the lowest compression settings playing in realtime on most devices. Also note that any file with DRM scheme will not play in Rockbox.

Rockbox features
Beside the ability of playing and recording audio files, Rockbox offers many playback enhancements that other firmwares may not have implemented yet. Listed below are a handful of these features.

Gapless playback
Crossfading
Replay Gain^[3]
5 band fully parametric equalizer^[3]
Crossfeed^[3]
OTF ("on the fly") playlists
True random shuffle (fresh randomly shuffled list every time)
Custom UI themes
Stereo recording to WAV/AIFF/WavPack (lossless) and MP3^[4] (supporting devices)
FM radio, including FM recording (supporting devices)
Remote control (supporting devices)
Digital SPDIF input/output (supporting devices)
Last.fm support (even on players lacking RTC)
Cue sheet support
Changeable selector bar
Album art^{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockbox#cite_note-4}
Sleep timer

Plug-ins
Rockbox developers can create plug-ins, which provide the user with other enhancements that may not be available on various firmware modules.

Available plug-ins include:

JPEG viewer (16 bit color/129 shade greyscale)^[6]
Rockboy Game Boy emulator (port of Gnuboy)^[7]
ZXBox ZX Spectrum emulator (port of Spectemu)^[8]
Doom (port of the PrBoom engine)
WAV to MP3 encoder
WAV to WavPack encoder
MPEG video player^[1]
PictureFlow, an album art viewer similar to Apple's Cover Flow
Various games including sudoku, solitaire, minesweeper, pong and many others (see http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/PluginIndex for an official list of plugins)
MIDI player, realtime on some targets. Requires external instrument set, available on Rockbox page.

Unimplemented features
Rockbox development is always ongoing. However, either due to the lack of support from external companies or platform drawbacks, Rockbox has a few features which are not yet implemented.

Firewire
Digital rights management (or Digital Restrictions Management) (intentionally unimplemented)
USB host capability ("USB On-The-Go")

(How To Install) Video Tutorial:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swg-gZjCBr4

ROCKBOX DATA TRANSFER SOFTWARE:

http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main...tility#Download

Notice:

Rockbox Hacks Your Ipod & Adds Rockbox OS Alongside Ipod Os As A Dual Booting Systen, Thus Voids Your Warranty. But On the added benefit of extra codecs & you also get extra games & Applications.

How To Spot a FLAC Transcode

2009-04-19T20:19:00.001-07:00

What is a Transcode?
Put simply, a transcode is any audio file that wasn't encoded from an original lossless source, such as a retail CD (not created from lossy files) or a properly made lossless rip.

Why is transcoding bad?
Whenever you encode a file to a lossy format (such as mp3, m4a(AAC), ogg, or mpc) information is permanently lost. It doesn't matter what you do, it's impossible to get this information back without making a new rip from the original lossless source. If you reencode it to a different format or bitrate, all you're doing is reducing the quality. This applies to any lossy to lossy conversion, so even if you convert from 320kbps to 192kbps, the final file will still sound worse than if you had just ripped to 192kbps in the first place.

Programs You can use:
Cool Edit
Adobe Audition (Best Pick)
Audacity

Example of a FLAC File (Note: this is for .5 of a second) FLAC Files usually have a 2100 Khz as a cut off to be considered Lossless :

Here is the same example compared with a 320kbps file and a 128kbps file (.15 of a second):

Bottomline: You want to see a nice flat surface when you zoom in otherwise its most likely a transcode

Notice: You Can Also Find out if .flac is a transcode by using Audacity

Just make sure you audacity is in spectrum viewing mode

Download Songs from Last.fm for Free using LastSharp

2009-04-19T20:09:00.000-07:00

With the growing popularity of Last.fm we are starting to see an array of utilities being released based on Last.fm services.

This one is called LastSharp, by Dev.xscheme.de, it lets you download music from Last.fm. All you need to have is a ‘free’ account at Last.fm and you are ready to download your favorite music.

The software not only downloads the desired music but it also downloads the albumart and organizes by artist – album – song kind of hierarchy.

The software is developed by a German developer so the default language is Deutsch but don’t worry, follow the steps discussed in the article to change it to English.

Following steps will run through the process of changing the default language and downloading songs.

Launch the software once the download is complete (Download from here)

Now that’s what the first screen looks like..

Click on the second tab at the bottom of the window and then click on the dropdown and select “English”. Now restart the application to see the changes.

You can search for music
based on several criteria’s as shown in the picture below. Just select anyone of them and type in a keyword in the box and hit “Go” to start searching.

Now you will see a list of songs, simply right-click on the song you want to download and hit “Download”

This is the download area. It shows a list of songs already downloaded under “Last Downloads:” and information about the song that is being currently downloaded.

To avoid the process of right-clicking on each of the songs to download, go to the “Quick Settings” tab and check “Continue Downloading automatically” box to download the songs on the list one after another automatically.

Also take a look at the settings under “Advanced Settings” tab were you can select if you want to save covers, remember downloads, etc..

Find the Appz....and follow this tutorial and your set

Extract MP3 From a YouTube Video

2009-04-19T20:05:00.001-07:00

ListenToYouTube.com is the most convenient online application for converting YouTube flash video to MP3 audio. This service is fast, free, and requires no signup. All you need is a YouTube URL, and our software will transfer the video to our server, extract the MP3, and give you a link to download the audio file.

http://www.listentoyoutube.com/

A/V Truths/100% Uncompressed Digital Audio

2009-04-19T19:52:00.000-07:00

This tutorial will give you an insightful idea of how to play uncompressed "digital" audio from your Blu ray disks. Your blu ray disk audio won't down sample your Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD Master Audio. So without further or due......click

http://www.avtruths.com/uncompressed.html

How To Rip FLAC From Your Audio Cds

2009-04-19T19:48:00.000-07:00

http://www.xs.vc/eac/
http://eacguides.info/eac/
http://blowfish.be/eac/

There are five guides in all. The installation guide is very basic, and is included for those new to installing software and/or moving files around. The other guides are crucial for learning how to make those perfect FLAC rips and for learning how to produce lossy files as well. There is also a guide for how to use EAC in order to burn a perfect copy of the CD from the FLAC files.

The guides contain a lot of "superfluous" information. If you just want to get EAC set up right, you can breeze through the guides by just looking at the pictures and following the bulleted instructions. The extra information is there for you if you want to understand what you are doing and why you are doing it, and also for trouble-shooting purposes if things do not go as expected.

EAC (and FLAC) Installation Guide

EAC Setup Guide

EAC Lossy Setup Guide (mp3 and Ogg Vorbis)

EAC Ripping Guide (including appendices about hidden tracks and pre-emphasis)

EAC CD Burning Guide (including an appendix about splitting single (lossless) files)

In addition, "Spectral Comparisons" briefly informs you about different formats and encodings, and the horrors of transcodes.

Setting EAC compression options for Musepack

2009-04-19T19:41:00.000-07:00

Setting EAC compression options for Musepack

Select compression options from EAC menu.

Open 'External Compression' tab.

Check 'Use external program for compression'
Change 'Parameter passing scheme' to 'User Defined Encoder'
Set file extension to .mpc
Click 'Browse' and locate 'mppenc.exe'
Change 'Additional command line options' to
--quality 5 --xlevel --artist "%a" --title "%t" --album "%g" --year "%y" --track "%n" --genre "%m" %s
Check 'Delete WAV after compression'
Uncheck 'Add ID3 tag'

Open 'Offset' tab.
Uncheck 'Use Offset Correction for encoding and decoding'.

To use other encoders only three steps needs to be done differently.

FLAC:
3. Set file extension to .flac
4. Locate 'flac.exe'
5. Use command line -T "artist=%a" -T "title=%t" -T "album=%g" -T "date=%y" -T "tracknumber=%n" -T "genre=%m" %s

Ogg Vorbis:
3. Set file extension to .ogg
4. Locate 'oggenc.exe'
5. Use command line -a "%a" -t "%t" -l "%g" -d "%y" -N "%n" -G "%m" %s

WavPack:
3. Set file extension to .wv
4. Locate 'wavpack.exe'
5. Use command line -m -w "Artist=%a" -w "Title=%t" -w "Album=%g" -w "Year=%y" -w "Track=%n" -w "Genre=%m" %s

Monkey's Audio with APEv2 tags (requires wapet):
3. Set file extension to .ape
4. Locate 'wapet.exe'
5. Use command line %d -t "Artist=%a" -t "Title=%t" -t "Album=%g" -t "Year=%y" -t "Track=%n" -t "Genre=%m" mac.exe %s %d -c2000
note: if mac.exe isn't in search path you need to specify full path for it.

OptimFROG with APEv2 tags (requires wapet):
3. Set file extension to .ofr
4. Locate 'wapet.exe'
5. Use command line %d -t "Artist=%a" -t "Title=%t" -t "Album=%g" -t "Year=%y" -t "Track=%n" -t "Genre=%m" ofr.exe --encode %s --output %d
note: if ofr.exe isn't in search path you need to specify full path for it.

LAME MP3 with APEv2 tags (requires wapet):
3. Set file extension to .mp3
4. Locate 'wapet.exe'
5. Use command line %d -t "Artist=%a" -t "Title=%t" -t "Album=%g" -t "Year=%y" -t "Track=%n" -t "Genre=%m" lame.exe --alt-preset standard %s %d
note: if lame.exe isn't in search path you need to specify full path for it.

FAAC encoded MP4:
3. Set file extension to .mp4 (or .m4a)
4. Locate 'faac.exe'
5. Use command line -o %d --artist "%a" --title "%t" --album "%g" --year "%y" --track "%n" --genre "%m" %s

Convert .ape format to .wav format

2009-04-19T19:18:00.000-07:00

Required Appz:

monkeysaudio: can download here

1. Open software and choose decompress

2. Add File

open

3. Go to options and choose and output folder

press ok

4. Press the decompress button

And your Finally Done. Hurray

Your .wav file will be in the folder you choose as your output

Play .mkv or .m2ts from external Hardrive to PS3

2009-04-19T19:03:00.000-07:00

Notice: Your External Hardrive Format Has to be fat/fat32 format

OK, I don't know of a decent guide anywhere that covers this whole process, so I thought I'd better step up. If you want to watch BluRay structures on your PS3 without losing stuff like VC-1 video, DTS-HD audio etc, then this is for you.

The first step is to use TSMuxer to create a BluRay structure. In the example below, I'm doing Independence Day. Untick the streams you don't need:

As you can see, I'm keeping the DTS-HD audio, commentaries and English subs. Select the option to output a 'BluRay Disc'. Only one other thing to change in TSMuxer, split every 4GB:

This is because only FAT32 drives are supported on the PS3 which imposes a 4GB maximum filesize.

You can tell TSMuxer to output directly to your USB disk or copy it over afterwards, it doesn't matter. At this point, make sure you have AVCHDManager on the root of your USB drive. Let's have a quick overview of AVCHDManager and why its needed before we continue:

Something to understand before we continue: the PS3 will only recognise 1 movie at a time on a USB disk, it will only look for a folder on the root of the drive called "AVCHD". For this reason, you can store as many films on the drive as you like but the PS will only see one of them. In order to change which film it sees, the current AVCHD folder must be renamed back to the movie title and the next movie folder you want to view renamed to "AVCHD". AVCHDManager performs both renames for you just by clicking the 'Make Default' button.

Moving on, there are 2 buttons in AVCHDManager which you should use on every movie - 'Identifiy' and 'AVCHDMe'.

The Identify button

The first column just shows a list of directories which appear to contain a valid BluRay/AVCHD folder structure. The next column is the title of the movie. This is stored in a "details.txt" file inside each movie folder and for that reason, they will all say "Unknown" if you are using AVCHDManager for the first time. Before you do anything else, click "Identify" and enter the name of the movie, do this for all movies in your list.

Lets say we have run all the necessary fixes on the 'Aliens' folder and renamed it to 'AVCHD'. We have watched the movie, thoroughly enjoyed it and now want to watch Superman. This would be done by simply clicking on the Superman folder and pressing 'Make Default'. So AVCHDManager needs to rename the 'AVCHD' folder back to 'Aliens' and then rename the 'Superman folder to 'AVCHD'. How does it know to rename back to 'Aliens' though? That's why we need the details.txt and the Identify button.

The AVCHDMe button

A requirement that the PS3 demands of an AVCHD folder is that the files inside must be in the 8.3 standard. That is to say, they must be no longer than 8 characters with a 3 letter file extension. AVCHDMe renames all files for you to this standard.

Additional

To make the process a bit smoother, put the following in Notepad and save as autorun.inf:

[Autorun]
shell\Manage=Manage AVCHD folders
shell\Manage\command=AVCHDManager.exe

Place autorun.inf on the root of your USB drive and you'll get this handy right-click menu option on the drive which will launch AVCHD Manager:

In Summary

There's quite a lot there but once you've got your head round it, it's fairly straight forward. Each time you copy a new movie to your USB drive, make sure you ID it thus creating the details.txt file and that you click AVCHDMe to fix all the clpi issues and rename the files. Other than that, you will just be connecting the drive, choosing your next movie and clicking 'Make Default'.

AVCHD Manager: Quickly set default AVCHD folder on external drive

This tool is for managing you collection of AVCHD folders on an external hard disk (although it should work on any USB device).

With all these great AVCHD authoring tools popping up, AVCHD on a FAT32 hard drive has quickly become my authoring method of choice for playback on the PS3. Trouble is, my FAT32 drive now contains lots of titles and I'm sick of renaming them all the time. I've written this tool to make that process quicker and easier.

Place the .exe on the root of your USB device and run it. It looks like this:

The current default AVCHD folder is shown at the top and a list of all the other AVCHD compatible folders is at the bottom. Just select a folder, click "Make default" and the current AVCHD folder will be renamed and the selected folder will be renamed to AVCHD. Of course, to rename intelligently, the app needs to know the name of the movie. This is stored in a "details.txt" file in the root of each AVCHD folder. You can make those yourself or just click "Identify" - a prompt will appear, which defaults to the name of the folder, asking you to enter the movie title. This is then saved to details.txt.

There is now an updated version which has a "Done (Safely remove drive)" button which does what it says really. This new function has been tested and confirmed working on Vista and XP.

Update 1.2.0.0: All functions of new AVCHDMe are included as is AVCHD-Undo. Also added Explore button and space free on drive and list is now sorted alphabetically.

Update 1.3.3.0: Red/green flags next to each movie to indicate if filenames adhere to 8.3 standard or not so it's now easy to see which movies you need to run AVCHDMe on and which movies are already PS3 ready at a glance. Also added tooltips for long movie titles which dont fit in the column, tooltips for a few of the buttons and an "Export to text file" button which will save your movie list to a text file.

Update 1.3.6.0: Added error checking for copying of fixlcpi.exe and fixclpi.exe is now cleaned up from the CLIPINF folder after running AVCHDMe and added workaround for Vista UAC. Exported movie list now includes folder sizes.

Update 1.4.0.0: Removed all CLPI fixes as new TSMuxer takes care of these. Made proper icon for app.

Update 1.5.0.0: Added list box at the bottom to display multiple titles - this is intended to display all the seperate items you have put in the same AVCHD using MultiAVCHD. Added video/audio codec, duration and imdb URL (these must be defined in details.txt). New Identify function lets you enter all this extra information. MultiAVCHD has already been updated to output the new format details.txt.

Update 1.5.5.0: Bugfix which fixes problem where empty rows with a red sqaure would appear if no details.txt existed. AVCHDManager can now be run from any location - doesn't have to be the root of a drive. Improved insertion of IMDB links where the user hasn't defined one. Incorporated new workaround for UAC - shouldn't prompt every time it is run now. Couple of minor bugfixes.

Download here.

Also, if you put the following in Notepad and save as autorun.inf:

[Autorun]
shell\Manage=Manage AVCHD folders
shell\Manage\command=AVCHDManager.exe

and place that on the root of your USB drive, you'll get this handy right-click menu option on the drive which will launch AVCHD Manager:

You could also add the line "open=AVCHDManager.exe" if you want it to run automatically

Converting: .flac to .mp3 (Windows)

2009-04-19T18:55:00.001-07:00

(Disclaimer: You can do this using Foobar2000 or dbPoweramp easily enough. For those of you who don't use those apps or can't be bothered, read on...)

OK. Here's a little tutorial for those of you who would like to convert Flac to mp3 using a simple little freeware app.

First, if you don't have them yet, download & install the Flac (FLAC for Windows with installer) and Lame mp3 codecs. Next, download & install this small & simple app called All2Lame.
*You may also need Tag (by Case), which is used for adding ID3 tags to files. It can be found on the All2Lame homepage.

Now that you've done all that, open up the program. You'll need to point it to the codecs that you just downloaded. Do this by clicking on "Locations" and then browsing to each one.

Next, you'll want to add a command line (or a bunch or 'em) to the "Switches" box at the bottom. Click the " " button beside it to add new ones. Later on you can just click the arrow button there to bring up whatever command line you choose, for different bitrate encodings. Here's the ones I use:

-b 320 --add-id3v2 --ignore-tag-errors
-V 0 --vbr-new --add-id3v2 --ignore-tag-errors
-V 2 --vbr-new --add-id3v2 --ignore-tag-errors

You will want the "Add ID3 tags" box checked, and you can configure that option how you want. (I just use "Copy tags from source files")

Now you just add the files you want converted, choose a command line, set the "Output folder" location, and then click "Encode". A DOS window will appear, showing the process in action. It doesn't take too long.

That's it! After that initial setup, it's a very quick & simple job whenever you want to encode Flac to mp3. Also, if you like, you can click "Decode" to decode to .wav files.

Cheers!

If you want highest quality at smallest possible size is (-V 0 --vbr-new --add-id3v2 --ignore-tag-errors)
if you want the highest quality and don't care about the size it's (-b 320 --add-id3v2 --ignore-tag-errors)

Splitt MKV File To DVD 4.7gb (4.38gb)

2009-04-19T18:51:00.000-07:00

A great software that can split mkv files its called mkvtoolnix(Easily be downloaded from matroska site) which will split the mkv files with ease.

Make MKV Out Blu-ray/HDDVD ISO image or ANY BD/HDDVD ripped to HDD

2009-04-19T18:20:00.000-07:00

Appz required

1. Isobuster v2.3
2. tsMuxeR v1.8.4(b)
3. MKVToolnix v2.2.0

1. Right click your ISO image (“ck-nt21080.iso”) and select to open it with ISOBUSTER (“The Ultimate CD/DVD Recovery tool”). The following screen appears.

2. Double click on “BDMV” at the right window or select to expand the National Treasure 2 UDF in the left window and then expand BDMV.

3. Double click on “STREAM”. This screen should appear.

4. Right click on “00001.m2ts” and select “Extract 00001.m2ts”. Select a place to save and a name for your m2ts file. Note: If your ISO image has more than one m2ts (Blu-ray) or evo (HD DVD) files then select to extract all of them, one by one. This case stands most likely for lots of INTACT (not re-authored) BD or HDDVD ISO images Hint: A. It’s better to save it in a different HDD than the one your ISO was originally stored, in order to achieve significantly increased extraction speed. B. Give short file names without spaces between characters, like the one in the screen below. This helps both “tsMuxeR” and “mkvmerge GUI”

Hit on “Save” button and wait for the extraction to finish.

5. Close ISOBUSTER

6. Create a folder named “tsMuxeR v1.8.4”, cut-paste in there the “tsMuxeR_1.8.4(b).zip” and select to extract it. If it’s convenient, create a desktop shortcut for “tsMuxerGUI.exe”.

7. Run “tsMuxerGUI.exe”. Drag & drop your extracted m2ts file(s) (in this example: "NT-BoS.m2ts") into the “Input files:” window of tsMuxeR. In the “Tracks:” window appear all the streams included in your m2ts file, meaning Video, Audio and Subtitles streams, along with a detailed description of them. This is what you should get:

Note: If you have multiple extracted m2ts files (or evo in case of HD DVD) building the BD or HD DVD main movie, then load the No 1 in tsMuxerGUI and use the "Append" button as many times as needed to add all the rest, one by one, following the arithmetical order.

8. Go to the “Tracks:” window and unpick all the subtitles streams. Leave selected only the H264 video and the AC3 audio streams (or any other AV streams of your preference). In the “Output” lower part of tsMuxeR window select “Demux” and then “Browse” for a different HDD to save the demuxed streams (increased process speed is obtained this way). If you’ve done everything as described here, the following screen should appear on your monitor.

In this step you could also configure “General track options” for each selected stream as long as you highlight it. Please don’t mess with Video stream options unless you know exactly what you’re doing. In Audio stream options you may select the language of the track, in case it’s not listed correctly.

9. Hit on “Start demuxing” button and wait for the process to finish. You will be viewing progress in the following window. Once finished, hit OK and then close tsMuxeR.

10. Open “mkvmerge GUI”. Drag & drop your demuxed AV streams. Highlight the video stream, go to the “Format specific options” tab, hit on the down arrow next to FPS field and select the correct framerate (24000/1001 if movie’s original fps is 23.976). See screen below. It’s important to perform this action whenever the imported video stream is raw (elementary) h.264, otherwise audio will be definitely out of sync because mkvmerge is always setting as default framerate 25 fps automatically.

Please don’t touch the other available options unless you know what you’re doing.

11. Select output mkv filename, hit on the “Start muxing” button and wait for the process to finish. It usually takes few minutes. You’re all done!

Play DVD-AUDIO discs on PC (including watermarked DVD-A)

2009-04-19T18:05:00.000-07:00

Hello everybody,

For people who would like to play DVD-AUDIO discs on PC (including watermarked DVD-A):
simple, buggy alpha, but working software player

ShaPLAY

These are the recommended settings for MLP codec from ffdshow

And ffdshow info will look like:

Audio doesn't down sample as compared to other players such as cyberlink powerDVD, true 24bit/96 samplerate can be played with this on vista 64x,etc,etc

How to play MKV content on PlayStation 3 (PS3) (M2TS)

2009-04-19T15:08:00.000-07:00

This guide shows you how to quickly create M2TS files from MKV files for PlayStation 3 (PS3) playback using the TsMuxer software.

Introduction & Requirements

TsMuxer - Download TsMuxer from the link and extract all the files to a folder using WinRAR.

The PlayStation 3 (PS3) console does not support the MKV / Matroska container, but it will support much of the audio and video that can be stored in the MKV container. This guide assumes that the video and audio of your MKV file are H.264 / AVC and AC3 audio. For the record, DTS audio does not work with this process, you need the MKV2VOB method for that.

Open TsMuxerGUI.exe
After you have extracted all the files from WinRAR to a folder, run the TsMuxerGUI.exe file. This program is not very complicated at all but what it achieves is ground breaking for PS3 video. This process used to take quite a while, but TsMuxer automates nearly the entire process now.

Anyway, let's get on with it. Make sure you are in the Input tab. Look at the blank Input files field, click the Add button beside this.

Open MKV file

Browse through your Hard Disk Drive for the folder that contains the MKVPlayStation 3 (PS3) console. Double-click it when you find it.

TsMuxer will now take a moment to analyze the file before it shows you any streams. file that you want to play on the file before it shows you any streams.

Check Stream Information

If the MKV file was opened successfully, you should now be able to see the type of streams that you have in your MKV file. In mine, I have H.264 / AVC video (1280 x 720) running at 23.976fps (click to enlarge picture) and AC3 5.1 audio, very nice.

However, there is a problem. Look closely at the track info for my video. It says..

Profile: High@5.1

This is not good because the PS3 only supports up to Level 4.1, not 5.1. However, the fix for this is easy and built right into the tsMuxer program.
Change AVC video to Level 4.1

Select the AVC stream that is set to Level 5.1 (if you have 4.1 or lower, skip this step) and you will see the options before the Tracks list changes (check my picture, click to enlarge).

Beside the Change Level option is a box. Click it and a green tick will appear. Now click the drop-down box and select 4.1 from the list. This should ensure that the video will play correctly.

Set to M2TS Muxing

By default, tsMuxer is set to TS Muxing, which won't work for this process. Simply select the M2TS muxing option as I have done in my picture (click to enlarge). The option is located under Output.

You also can now choose where to save the new M2TS file if you wish, although the default will be the same folder and filename as the original MKV, but with a .m2ts extension. This is usually fine.

When you have done all of the above, click the Start Muxing button.

The Process

How long this process will take depends on the length of the original MKV file, and of course, it's file size. Hope that there will be no errors!