Apple’s iPod devices, and even their iPhones – if you happen to have already got your hands on one of these telephone/multimedia players – aren’t particularly user-friendly when it comes to loading movies onto them. Many videos aren’t compatible with these multimedia players and the conversion tools provided with iTunes are neither the fastest nor the most versatile. The specific version of Mobiola Video Studio for iPod/iPhone speeds up enormously video conversion tasks, even when working with YouTube multimedia content. Whether you drag and drop, browse through the file explorer or enter the URL of the YouTube video directly, the software provides you with a video which is compatible with and adapted for the screen sizes of Nano, Classic or Touch iPods or the iPhone. You can also choose to only copy the files to the hard disk so that you can convert them later.

It’s possible to pick the final quality of the video and even to chop it up into chunks of predefined sizes for when it’s difficult to work with large file sizes. The conversion is done quickly, and you can optionally display a preview window to keep an eye on the process and make sure it’s all going well.

Moviola Video Studio.

Tags: Audio, Entertainment, Ipod, Video by admin
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The multimedia capabilities of computers have improved to the point where they’re now potential competition for conventional DVD players. All you need is the right piece of software, such as Cyberlink PowerDVD, to really turn them into a multimedia system which is as easy to handle as the kit in your living room, with the added bonus that they don’t just play DVDs, but also movies stored on your hard disk, whether in standard resolution or high definition. As with a conventional DVDs, you can pick the audio track, the subtitles and access particular scenes by just pushing a key, or a button on your remote control if your PC has one.

What’s more, the software can take full advantage of the hardware acceleration of the new graphics cards, capable of playing full HD files easily, even when your CPU isn’t the most powerful on the market. Combined with a Blu Ray drive for your computer, Cyberlink PowerDVD is one of the most economical ways around to get access to real high-definition video.

CyberLink PowerDVD.

Tags: Audio, Entertainment, Video by admin
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Internet is absolutely full of multimedia content, but a lot of it is not always easy to view. You know the story: you download a file as normal, you click on it, and when you expect Windows Media Player to show the images and sound as normal, all you get is a message saying that the codecs are being downloaded, followed by nothing except a psychedelic pattern playing in the background.

The problem is the codecs: each video is encoded in a particular way, in accordance with certain standards. Un-encoded videos would be so large that they’d be extremely complicated to handle, and so particular methods to compress the audio and video as needed in each case were developed. DivX was one of the first, along with Apple Quicktime and MPEG2 for DVD. Now the most popular ones are H.264 for high-definition video, Windows Media Video and the new versions of DivX and Xvid. But there are many more, for sound as well as video, although for audio the most common codec is MP3.

Luckily, there are compilations of codecs out there waiting to be downloaded and installed that can solve these old problems, installing on your system everything you need to enjoy practically any video or audio file around. K-Lite is one of the most well-known and popular collections, with frequent updates that update your machine so that you can enjoy multimedia content without worrying about compatibility problems. It may seem strange that it installs an old version of Windows Media Player, but this is one of the most compatible players around at the moment, and any newer version you already have installed will not be affected.

More about K-Lite.

Tags: Audio, Design, Video by admin
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The ease with which you can take digital images nowadays is only comparable to the problems with which organising and sharing them can present. One of the most satisfying ways to display them is to make a multimedia CD or DVD which can display the photos one by one with a nice soundtrack in the background and maybe some transitions effects between the different images. In the same way, you can create an auto-executable file for Windows, or even design a desktop screensaver showing that very same sequence of photos, music, transitions and other effects, such as pan and zoom. If you’ve got a high-definition screen, you can also make HD-compatible videos in the 720p, 1080i or 1080p formats, to take full advantage of the quality of your digital photos and the screen.

Once you start sharing your photos digitally, you can start taking advantage of different image formats, like the panoramic format, straight away. Simply by using the scrolling features, you can enjoy viewing landscapes and urban shots on the screen that would otherwise be very difficult to see, and even harder to print. Photos which feature small details can also be viewed perfectly using the zoom function during a slideshow, without the need to do anything else, just watching from the comfort of your sofa.

Also, if you’re not satisfied with this way of sharing pictures from your holidays, parties or social events, you can also create a Flash or web presentation that can even be sent via email. A whole range of possibilities is available to help make sure that your digital images are enjoyed rather than being left in a folder on your hard disk, forgotten and unseen.

Photodex ProShow Gold.

Tags: Design, Entertainment, Video by admin
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Editing videos doesn’t have to involve getting to grips with complicated programs with endless menus and enough tools to keep a professional film maker occupied. If all you need is a tool for cutting scenes, extracting audio or even converting a video into an animated GIF sequence, VirtualDub is a good choice: it’s easy to use, and has just the right number of tools to carry out these simple, but extremely useful tasks. What’s more, it doesn’t need an installer and works straight from the folder where the files are unpacked, meaning that you can carry it around with you on a USB memory key and always be ready for those emergency editing jobs.

The interface doesn’t have too many bells and whistles but is functional. There are two main windows: one with the original video and another with the processed video. The toolbar concentrates on the tasks of cutting, selecting the selection starting and finishing points, the play-back controls, and little else. Everything is designed with speed and functionality in mind.

And if all that isn’t enough for you, it also includes filters for processing the video’s colours and sharpness and even includes some basic effects.

You can download it in Goofull VirtualDub.

Tags: Entertainment, Video by admin
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