Multimedia, AV Archive

You know what's really laughable? When you visit launch.yahoo.com with Firefox and tells you that you need Netscape 4.7 to view its music videos, even if Firefox is perfectly capable of doing so! And when you open a bug report ticket with them, you get canned messages how to make your IE work with their service! It stinks! Therefore, here is a quick how-to on how to rip down their music wmv/asf videos and save them on your hard disk to view with the player of your choice. In fact, their videos are streamed in QVGA, making them an excellent choice for Pocket PCs that are used as multimedia devices too.

Hollywood (and RIAA) seem to be behind the times when it comes to technology and potential new business opportunities. For years now PocketPCs are able to decode mpeg, divx and wmv videos full speed and yet we can't buy movies in SD/CF format to watch while we waiting on that bus stop.

A few days ago I wrote on my blog about the "sorry state of proper h.264 support on the PC". The bottomline was that if you need some good HD h.264 support for HD videos the solution is Apple's G5 with Qt 7 PRO, or QuickTime 7 PRO for Windows (whenever this is going to be released). The existing PC solutions (Win or Linux) were ranging from bad to terrible with all-time-worse being mplayer's support (about 0.3 fps on the 1080p Serenity trailer on a 2.8 GHz P4) and 'best' the Elecard Moonlight player that could barely do about 10 fps on a brand new 3 GHz P4-630. However...

Chesky records, a small record label, produces what is called audiophile friendly music. To learn how to create music with this high detail and how to play it right, just read some of their articles. There is a lot of talk there on tube amps and stereo mics and horn speakers etc. Forget the high-end gear, there is one complete article on how to set up your power supply for best audio experience. But mere mortals like us listen to the music on our PCs. Though it does not even begin to compare with all that exotic gear out there, it can be set up to deliver a surprisinlgy good quality sound.

TiVo, a much-beloved technology with a precarious business position, may have a new lease on life, thanks to a new deal with the US' #1 cable TV operator, Comcast. Under the deal, TiVo technology will power Comcast DVRs. Comcast and other cable firms have heretofore used shoddy TiVo knock-offs for their DVR offerings, so this new partnership should be of great benefit to both TiVo and Comcast customers.

You know how it is in the Windows platform: the majority of its popular media players use confusing custom UIs & widgets and so they feel heavy. Enter MusikCube: a no-nonsense clean interface app that simply delivers the music without the extra cruft. The application supports CD ripping & tag editing but it could do with some clean up on its song contextual menu. It is released under the BSD license.

A quick look at the GeekBox Linux minimal disribution: 6 MB ISO to power your home-made dvd and divx player.

Wired aims to be a professional music production and composition software running on Linux.

I wanted to love the radioSHARK from Griffin Technology, I really did. I'm a big fan of radio and I've been disappointed that it took so long for a company to develop and AM/FM turner for the PC. So when I heard about the radioSHARK I was excited. A quick trip to the Apple store and I had this little fin-shaped wonder.

After years as the unrivaled king of the digital-media world, the venerable MP3 music format is losing ground to rival technologies from Microsoft and Apple Computer.

I had bitter feelings about RealNetworks products and practices years ago, but over the last couple of years I find that RealPlayer8 is one of the first apps I open on my linux machines. I confess I am a BBC Radio addict living in the USA and streaming audio is my only way to listen.

Every operating system has different sound systems and APIs to access the sound card, so that no low-level coding is required to use the sound device. Programmers have many different choices concerning which system to use, especially under Linux -- and maybe that's the problem. This article illustrates free sound architectures on Linux, as well as the different interfaces a programmer can use.

One of the ultimate goals of music is to provide enjoyment. Be it through association of memories, stimulation, rhythm or melodic messages, music fans all over the world enjoy listening to music.

Here is a nice utility helping you catalog your VHS or DVD video disks, DVDpedia. The application is written for Mac OS X and it sports a metal interface. Let's dive in for some more info on it.