I often require videos that have subtitles so that my grandchildren can connect text to words when watching videos. Of course this is a given when one is watching original DVDs as almost all of them come with subtitles. But like many, I value may original DVDs even the ones for children and I prefer convert DVD movies to formats that I can store on a hard drive and get the kids to watch from these rather than expose the DVDs to mishandling and total destruction. In addition, I also like the subtitles to be displayed as an option -- I want to be able to watch these movies without subtitles when I want to.
I know that DVD Shrink and DVDFab can do ripping to VOB files which will contain subtitles that can be either selected or not selected; but these are always about 4 gb in size. To save space I prefer to convert to other video formats and much smaller files.
I have had trouble with subtitles in the sense that some software that do conversions only allow subtitles to be "burned in", and not have the option of leaving them off. To qualify this, I must say that my main player is VLC and I am not particular about the converted file being a MP4, or mkv, or any other "format" since VLC is very versatile and can handle almost every kind of video file. As long as I am able to to select and display subtitles with VLC, I am happy. I have also found that Media Player Classic is a good alternative to VLC and when VLC meets a file that it cannot play for some reason or other -- and this is not that frequent -- MPC will happily play the file.
I tried Handbrake, WinX DVD ripper and DVD Videosoft's Freevideo and of these three I like WinX the most, and Handbrake the least. With Handbrake converting DVD files to mkv, I could never get subtitles that I was able to switch off despite trying several of the options available. Also, with Handbrake, some MP4 conversions got me very huge sized movie files, well above 10 gigabytes. With Freevideo I get subtitles that I can switch on and off at will but sometimes the wide screen of the original gets converted into some other aspect ratio. Perhaps I am not selecting the correct options during conversion. WinX so far has not given me any trouble with aspect size or subtitles.
DVD VideoSoft, I found, is useful for converting already ripped dvds to mp4 or avi. The FREE DVD VIDEO CONVERTER converts files in a Video_TS folder containing subtitles to MP4/AVI. Subtitles can be retained, but the resultant file is best played with Media Player Classic. For some reason, it is not fully compatible with VLC.
Friday, March 29, 2013
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
What to do if you cannot get rid of that Read Only attribute in your folder.
If you get a folder in Windows XP which you either cannot access or rename or delete because of permissions or some other issue and you have tried everything, the solution is a program called Unlocker. It will take some time to delete the file but it does do it. You can also use Unlocker to rename files that cannot be renamed.
I tried all the other solutions recommended by the forums but without success on one particular folder which I wanted to delete. Unlocker was my last resort.
I tried all the other solutions recommended by the forums but without success on one particular folder which I wanted to delete. Unlocker was my last resort.
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Kindle software for PC
This is the place to get it.
Kindle for PC - CNET Download.com
download.cnet.com/Kindle-for-PC/3000-20412_4-75185974.html - 144k - Similar pages
You cannot get this from Amazon unless you are within their authorised zones. This means if you are living in Asia or SE Asia (Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore) you cannot get this from the Amazon site.
I installed this from the cnet site it worked. Came with three free books.
Kindle for PC - CNET Download.com
download.cnet.com/Kindle-for-PC/3000-20412_4-75185974.html - 144k - Similar pages
You cannot get this from Amazon unless you are within their authorised zones. This means if you are living in Asia or SE Asia (Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore) you cannot get this from the Amazon site.
I installed this from the cnet site it worked. Came with three free books.
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Free Music for Personal Presentations slideshows etc
freeplaymusic.com
live.freeplaymusic.com
You cannot publish or broadcast on the internet nor can you sell cds or dvds with this music because it is for non-commercial purposes -- you cannot profit monetarily from the free downloads. The site also contains music that you can pay for and use with less restrictions. Please read the conditions for use before proceeding.
Using the site is simple. The main site is freeplaymusic.com and you can read the terms and conditions here. The newer live.freeplaymusic.com is easier to use because it is better organised and you can start from here.
The best way to begin if you are interested in totally free music is to click on the "freeplay music" option in the left-hand column. This will give you a list free music organised by style - bossanova, jazz, classical, etc. There is no charge for the music listed here.
If you want to pay for music for less restrictive use, click on "styles" in the left-hand column and again a list will pop up. Select the style of music you want and you should get a list of free as well as music you have to pay for.
To download any tract, click on the "add to download" and select the tracks that you want. This step will not start the downloads but place all your selections in a download section. When your selection is completed, click the "download" option at the left-hand column and all the titles you selected earlier will be listed. You can now begin to download the titles you want.
Have fun.
Installing PC-BSD USB boot
If you want an alternative to Windows operating system, you can try PC-BSD. It is a unix-like OS and is compatible with some linux software.
Why would you want to try this? Well, if you have an old computer that does not have the RAM to run the newer versions of Windows or if you have assembled a computer and don't want to pay for Windows 7 or Windows 8, this is an OS you can try. It is easy to install and it is free. I am not sure how useful it will be if you have printers and scanners that are Windows compatible but I am told that if you want to surf the web, email, listen to and organise music and store and edit photographs, this OS can do it.
While I haven't tried this OS extensively, I did manage it install it into my computer that had Vista originally but which became corrupted after time. A reinstall of Vista did not work and I decided to try this OS. I share my experience with you here.
Since Vista was not working on the old computer, I worked on my netbook to get the installation and other necessary files.
You begin by downloading the software from http://www.pcbsd.org/en/download.html.The page confused me at first because the download button at the top right of the screen led nowhere. Scroll down and on the left hand side will be a list of software to select from.
I selected the USB version as the DVD drive on the old computer was not working. This meant that I would be installing the OS from a thumbdrive plugged into a usb port. The file I downloaded was PCBSD9.0-x86-USBFULL.img.bz2 This is a zipped file. I unzipped it using Peazip (http://peazip.sourceforge.net/). The extracted file was a .img file a little over 3 GB.
I copied the extracted .img file to a newly reformatted 4 GB thumbdrive and tried an installation but it did not work.
I consulted the pc-bsd wiki http://wiki.pcbsd.org/index.php/PC-BSD_Users_Handbook and realised that the .img file had to be written to the usb thumbdrive using a program like Win32DiskImager. This I downloaded from http://www.softpedia.com/get/CD-DVD-Tools/Data-CD-DVD-Burning/Win32-Disk-Imager.shtml
The download was a zipped file and had to be unzipped. Using Win32DiskImager to write to the thumbdrive was easy. However to check if the file was written was difficult because I kept getting a zero byte reading. It seemed as if nothing had been written to the thumbdrive. Despite being unable to see what was on the thumbdrive, I was certain that the file had been written since Win32DiskImager did not report any errors.
I then changed the computer setup to make the usb drive the boot drive, put the thumbdrive in the usb port and restarted the computer. After lots file checks and status reports, the installation page finally came up.
The interface was graphic so there was no commands to enter.
So now I have PC-BSD installed.
Why would you want to try this? Well, if you have an old computer that does not have the RAM to run the newer versions of Windows or if you have assembled a computer and don't want to pay for Windows 7 or Windows 8, this is an OS you can try. It is easy to install and it is free. I am not sure how useful it will be if you have printers and scanners that are Windows compatible but I am told that if you want to surf the web, email, listen to and organise music and store and edit photographs, this OS can do it.
While I haven't tried this OS extensively, I did manage it install it into my computer that had Vista originally but which became corrupted after time. A reinstall of Vista did not work and I decided to try this OS. I share my experience with you here.
Since Vista was not working on the old computer, I worked on my netbook to get the installation and other necessary files.
You begin by downloading the software from http://www.pcbsd.org/en/download.html.The page confused me at first because the download button at the top right of the screen led nowhere. Scroll down and on the left hand side will be a list of software to select from.
I selected the USB version as the DVD drive on the old computer was not working. This meant that I would be installing the OS from a thumbdrive plugged into a usb port. The file I downloaded was PCBSD9.0-x86-USBFULL.img.bz2 This is a zipped file. I unzipped it using Peazip (http://peazip.sourceforge.net/). The extracted file was a .img file a little over 3 GB.
I copied the extracted .img file to a newly reformatted 4 GB thumbdrive and tried an installation but it did not work.
I consulted the pc-bsd wiki http://wiki.pcbsd.org/index.php/PC-BSD_Users_Handbook and realised that the .img file had to be written to the usb thumbdrive using a program like Win32DiskImager. This I downloaded from http://www.softpedia.com/get/CD-DVD-Tools/Data-CD-DVD-Burning/Win32-Disk-Imager.shtml
The download was a zipped file and had to be unzipped. Using Win32DiskImager to write to the thumbdrive was easy. However to check if the file was written was difficult because I kept getting a zero byte reading. It seemed as if nothing had been written to the thumbdrive. Despite being unable to see what was on the thumbdrive, I was certain that the file had been written since Win32DiskImager did not report any errors.
I then changed the computer setup to make the usb drive the boot drive, put the thumbdrive in the usb port and restarted the computer. After lots file checks and status reports, the installation page finally came up.
The interface was graphic so there was no commands to enter.
So now I have PC-BSD installed.
Sunday, January 1, 2012
Mygic TV U718 USB stick
You can turn your Windows based computer into a TV/PVR -- you can watch and record TV programs -- with this handy inexpensive stick (the package calls it a "box" but it is not.) The supplied software worked fine with Windows XP on my LG laptop.
But with with Windows 7 Home Premium on my Acer desktop there was a conflict that Windows could not resolve. I uninstalled the supplied software and activated the stick and the TV function using Windows Media Centre TV feature. This method got the stick working. The picture quality of TV broadcasts and the recordings are not that great -- comparable to VCR quality or slightly better. But this was adequate for my purpose.
This stick seems to work just as well with analogue and digital signals. For USD $16.00 this is a bargain.
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Free Video Dub
If you are looking for a set of free video and dvd utilities then you should take a look at this site. http://dvdvideosoft.com
I tried its Free Video Dub and found it a very efficient and little program for quick cuts of video files. It is so simple to use that you cannot go wrong. It is not a feature filled utility but it does what it does very well.
It cannot be compared to Avidemux in terms of features and sophistication. There is no way to convert one video format to another, nor is there a way to add transitions to make cuts and joins subtle. But if you want to shorten a video by taking out parts of it, whether it is at the beginning, or the end or somewhere in the middle, then this is the program to look at first.
I tried its Free Video Dub and found it a very efficient and little program for quick cuts of video files. It is so simple to use that you cannot go wrong. It is not a feature filled utility but it does what it does very well.
It cannot be compared to Avidemux in terms of features and sophistication. There is no way to convert one video format to another, nor is there a way to add transitions to make cuts and joins subtle. But if you want to shorten a video by taking out parts of it, whether it is at the beginning, or the end or somewhere in the middle, then this is the program to look at first.
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