DVD Flick, available here: http://www.dvdflick.net/ , is a free DVD authoring program. DVD authoring means taking a video file that you can play on your computer and changing it into a file that you burn to a normal DVD which will play on a standalone DVD player, just like the movies you buy at the store. DVD Flick takes just about any video file, it supports 45 file formats, making it much more versatile than other similar apps. It’s free, easy and foolproof. You can make simple DVDs that play as soon as you pop them into the player or you can create fancy menus, just like a real DVD. We’ll explain the basics here but feel free to explore DVD Flick on your own.
TIP: We recommended Window’s DVD Maker in a previous post but we’ve changed our minds on that program. Yes it’s good but it doesn’t work as well as DVD Flick. We recently ran into a problem where the Window’s app made DVDs with no audio. We tracked down the problem to an issue with ‘codecs’ and could have fixed things but we decided to use DVD Flick instead. DVD Flick supports over 40 audio codecs, just so you know. We doubt that you’ll run into a problem with silent DVDs if you use DVD Flick.
Here’s a rundown of DVD Flick’s features, straight from their website:
Lots of video formats and lots of audio codecs, can’t ask more more than that.
The first thing you want to do after you install DVD Flick is to add the video file that you want to turn into a DVD. While you can add more than one video file, adding more than one degrades the video quality that you’ll see on your TV screen. We’re talking full length videos here, not snippets of home videos. If you’re simply making a DVD of various family movies, that’s different. Add as many as you want up to the time limit of a normal DVD, about two hours. Again, you can add even more videos, past the two hour limit, but the final result won’t look nearly as good.
A blank window, click the words ‘Add title…’ up on the top right.
When you click ‘Add title’, you’ll open the normal Windows file window. Find the video you want and click ‘Open’.
Choose the video then click ‘Open’.
DVD Flick will show you a new menu that has the name of the movie (change it to caps), how long the thumbnail will be shown as well as different settings for things like audio, chapters and subtitles.
All we did was to change the name a bit, adding caps.
DVD Flick will save the final DVD files in your documents folder. It always uses the same folder, which brings up the following menu if you forget to change things:
Change the folder where each set of DVD files is stored.
If you’re authoring several videos, make sure you change the name of the folder each time. Looks on the lower left of the DVD Flick menu:
Change the dvd designation at the end to ‘dvd2’ or ‘dvd3’ or just change it to the name of the movie.
Once you’ve done all of this, click the Create DVD button on the top row and wait. Depending on the speed of your computer, this process could take a while. In our test, on a reasonably fast computer, it took 35 minutes. When DVD Flick is finished, you’re left with a folder that contains two other folders. These creations are named VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS. Each folder contains the various files needed to make your DVD look like one you buy in a store. Next time, we’ll show you how to burn those files to a DVD.
TIP: Although we could, we don’t use DVD Flick to actually burn the DVD. We ran into a few problems when we tried. For now, we’ll create the DVD with DVD Flick and burn the final product to a DVD using Burnaware. We’ll show you how to do that in our next post.
Miro, available here: http://www.getmiro.com/ , is one of those little apps that grows on you. It seems a bit odd, at the start anyway, but when you get used to it, it makes a whole lot of sense.
Download the program and install it. Miro is what we call ‘open source’ software. It’s free, completely and totally free. You will get the chance to donate during the installation and when the program starts up but that’s up to you. The software is not shareware, it’s not hampered in any way but the makers do ask you to send them a few bucks. That’s fair, isn’t it? Once you see how cool this software is, you might actually send them a shekel or two.
Once Miro is installed, it will ask if you want the program to search for videos. We said no to that but you can certainly say yes, if you want. It will also prompt you to download something called Bonjour which supposedly makes sharing your stuff with other Miro users much easier. Again, we declined.
Here is Miro when it first opens:
Viewing window in the middle, sources on the left and history on the right.
On the left side of the menu you’ll see the various sources of media that Miro can connect with. You can even add your own sources, DailyMotion for instance, to the list. To do that, click on the word Sources then type in the URL of the source you want in the slot provided. Like this:
Type in the url and Miro will add that site to its source list.
For any of the sources listed, it’s always better if you have an account there, right? These are all free sites and signing up for an account is easy and free, too. Once you’re signed up, for Youtube for instance, Miro will tell you what videos you’ve seen, what subscriptions you’ve added and, this is the best part, it will let you save the video to your computer. Click up on the top where it says ‘Download this video’ and, zap, the video is now in your library. See on the left side, up near the tops where it says ‘Videos’? Click that word and you’ll see a list of videos that you’ve saved.
Downloading videos is fast and easy, just click the button.
We should mention that you can only save Youtube videos. So far, this feature does not work on DailyMotion. (We’ve got another way to save DM videos that we’ll explain in another post.)
Once you get used to using Miro, you’ll probably use it exclusively for Youtube and accessing your videos and music. If you click on Music, up on the top left, your iTunes media appears. Down near the bottom are some sample podcasts and a sample playlist. Miro allows you to create your own playlist, of course.
There seems to be a torrent link too but at the time of this writing, it wasn’t working. All it said was that ‘an updated YouTorrent is coming soon’. We’ll wait and see what happens with that. If you’re in the U.S., or if you’re using a VPN, you can watch full episodes of current TV shows on Hulu. You can always upgrade to Hulu Plus, as well. Full-screen viewing is possible here or with any video source you use.
This has been a short rundown of Miro’s uses. We’ve put Miro on all of our computers and, believe us, you’ll get hooked on finding everything in one place. Miro has a small footprint, too. It doesn’t use a whole of of your memory (RAM), leaving lots for your other applications. Right now, it’s our favorite all-in-one solution. Let us know how it works out for you.
We’re in Canada, as most of you know. Up here, we don’t have as many choices as far as TV or mobile phone providers that residents of the U.S. and Europe have. All the same, even Canadians can save a huge chunk of money by choosing to ‘break the cable’ addiction. Before we begin, we should say that our total costs per month are less than $110.00 for our home phone, unlimited DSL Internet, Canadian long distance, Netflix, VPN (more on that later) as well as unlimited text, data and voice calling on our cell phone. That’s right, less than $110.00 with all taxes included. Here’s how we did it:
1. For around $20.00 we picked up one of these antennas:
A $19 HD antenna, available just about anywhere.
With this antenna and a high definition LCD/Plasma or LED TV, we get more than 25 OTA (over the air) channels, some of which are not even carried on cable. We’re in Toronto, Ontario and are fortunate to be in a relatively large media hub. With Buffalo to the south, Rochester to the south-east and, of course, all of the Toronto stations, we don’t lack for entertainment. (This does not mean that your area is much different. Every major network and hundreds or thousands of independent stations broadcast live OTA all across the U.S. and near the Canadian border. Your mileage may vary, as they say.) HD signals are the same as the old UHF signals so even a simple bow-tie antenna will work for local stations.
A simple bow-tie antenna.
TIP: Head over to TVFool before you buy the antenna. Once there, plunk in your address and postal code or zip code. TVFool will then give you a cool diagram with all of the channels available in your area. They even tell you what strength and direction those stations broadcast. All for free, of course.
If you live in a condo, you can put the antenna against a window or on your balcony. You do not need a tower to get good reception, just the antenna.
TIP: OTA reception is uncompressed. Cable compresses HD. Believe us when we say that the OTA signal is way better. Once you see it, you won’t believe your eyes. OTA is pure HD, the way it’s supposed to be seen.
2. In parts of Canada, Worldline offers high-speed DSL, home telephone with all the features (call display, call forwarding, voice mail, etc.) as well as Canadian long distance for $62.00 a month. Starting at $49 a month, a network fee and taxes bring the total up to $62. Bell Canada wanted $36.00 just for home phone, no features and the prices kept going up. Switching to Worldline was a no-brainer. The DSL is the fastest we’ve ever used and the VOIP phone(voice over Internet protocol) is crystal clear and dependable. We didn’t necessarily need the long distance because there are other ways to get that but it’s included so we took it.
Worldline is who we use but there are probably similar alternatives in your area.
TIP: Two things about VOIP phones. First, the 911 service doesn’t work in quite the same way. It’s still there but you need to update a database if you move. The 911 operators won’t know your location as easily as on a normal phone. Second, you can’t fax on VOIP. There are free and cheap faxing alternatives but if you depend on faxes, you can’t use VOIP. We should say that we kept our old number, too.
3. Once we got unlimited and fast Internet, we opted for Netflix to provide cheap movie and TV entertainment. Netflix is $7.99 a month, no tax on top. If you’re not happy with the Canadian selection of movies and shows, it’s easy and cheap to access the American Netflix.
Netflix is cheap and reliable. The best thing out there.
4. Once we found out that the American Netflix offers substantially more content than the Canadian side, we decided to pay Unblockus $5 a month to provide us with a U.S. IP address. Unblockus uses VPN (virtual private networks) to make it appear that we’re in the U.S. This is not cheating anyone, by the way. Netflix doesn’t care where you access their service. As a matter of fact, Unblockus can make it appear that you are coming from England, Ireland or Brazil, if that is what you want. Netflix offers services in those parts of the world. If you travel, for instance, you can log into your Netflix account and get the local offerings. Unblockus offers you a free week to check out their service. We use it on our PS3, our smart BluRay player and some of our computers. Everything works just fine and if there is a problem, Unblockus has great support. Here is the link:http://www.unblock-us.com/
5. As far as sports and cable channels go, many events are available online. The only thing that we sometimes miss are the sporting events that are not broadcast OTA. For those, including UFC events, there are many sites out there that stream these things live. Since this gets into a grey area, we’re not going to put the links here but we don’t have a problem finding them so you won’t either.
6. Once it appears that you are in the United States, you can access Hulu and get a total TV package via Internet streaming. Each American network streams its shows online but you have to be in the U.S. to see them. With Unblock-us, this isn’t a problem.
7. Since we wrote this, we’ve changed our mind about Wind Mobile. Their customer service is terrible, totally the opposite to other companies we have dealt with. Stay away, that’s our advice. We’ll do another post on companies that offer better, and much more responsive, deals and customer service. Stay tuned!
Lastly, we picked up a terrific mobile deal from Wind Mobile. Wind offers us unlimited data, text and local calls for $30.00 a month. How unlimited is the data? We sat at the airport watching Youtube videos for two hours one evening waiting for a late arrival, no interruptions, no delays and no complaints from Wind. The deal we got was offered in August through to early October. Wait for it to come around again. It’s a ‘back to school’ special but you don’t have to be a student for get the deal.
Wind is only in Canada but we’re pretty sure that there are alternatives like this in your area.
8. We mentioned earlier that we didn’t need the Canadian long distance part of the Internet/phone package. Why not? Because there are many different ways to get long distance telephony for free. Gmail, for instance, offers free calling from your Gmail account to landlines or cellphones across the U.S. and Canada. Skype to Skype is free as well. There are at least two alternatives, probably more, that are available on your Apple or Android phone. Some names to check out are TextPlus and Fongo. We also use WeChat for video calls and text. There are lots of free apps out there. Don’t feel that you have to lock yourself in with cable or ‘Ma Bell’. Be smart and save your money for important things!
9. Our monthly bill does not cover the initial hardware outlay, of course. That cost would not change even if you did decide to use cable. These days, most of us are using computers as PVRs (Personal Video Recorder) anyway so the cost difference is very small, much less than the cable companies charge you for their ‘free’ PVRs.
10. If you’re hooked on sports, no matter what that sport is, you can sign up for a full season package from virtually any national league. Use your PS3 or Xbox or any ‘smart’ device to access these packages. Add the cost to our monthly tab and we can guarantee that your total per year is far less than any of the packaged or bundled options from the ‘big guys’. Many of these packages will flow over onto your mobile phone too. That way you can keep up on your games when you’re away from home.
Total all of this up and you get about $105.00 a month. We think that if you pay more, you’re wasting your money. Even if the big companies ‘bundle’ a few things to make it seem cheaper, we’d bet that you’re paying way more than this for similar services. Be smart. It’s your money. Save it!
Thanks for reading! Questions and suggestions are welcome. Just make a comment at the bottom of any page.
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We’ve described how to use Microsoft ICE in a previous post: Microsoft ICE This free program works well with normal photographs but we ran into a problem this week with scans of an old map. Here’s how we managed to work it out.
1. We scanned each side of the map using six separate scans. When we placed it on the scanner, we made sure that the map was square and that each scan overlapped the previous scan. When we finished, we had six full platen scans.
One of the six scans for one side of the full map.
2. In order to ensure that each photograph was oriented the correct way, seeing as how we had to scan some parts of the map upside down, we opened each photo in Irfanview and used the original document as a guide. Some photos had to be turned horizontally left or right. Irfanview is great for looking at photos plus it has many tools with it. We’ll use it later on to make a PDF out of the map. A PDF can handle a large file much better than a JPG photo plus you can zoom in our out at will. For photo editing, however, we use the GIMP. (GIMP is short for Gnu Image Manipulation Program and it’s free.)
3. Once the GIMP was up and running, we created a new file. That new file had to be large enough to accept all six of the scanned documents (photos). The map was about three scans wide and two high. Doing the math created a huge new file. How big was the file? It measured 6920 pixels wide by 5090 high. That’s big!
4. With the file open on one monitor, we opened the folder with the scanned photos in the other monitor. One by one, we dragged each photo from the fold to the new GIMP file. Every time you add a photo to a GIMP file, you create another layer. All of this is done for you, just drag and drop.
5. Once two images were in the new file, we would roughly align them to match each other. With a map, this is pretty easy because of things like roads and location names. Then we added the rest of the scans one by one and arranged them accordingly.
6. After all six scans were in the new GIMP image, we zoomed in and aligned them more precisely. This took a bit of time but, as we said, it’s much easier with a map than it is with a photo.
7. Six separate images mean six layers. A six layered image can’t be saved as a JPG so we had to ‘flatten’ the image into one layer. We double-checked our alignment then selected flatten under the Image tab then saved the image as a JPG file.
Here it is, six scanned photos arranged like the original 1972 map.
8. Lastly, we used Irfanview to create a PDF from the two large GIMP images, one for the front of the map and the other for the back. Here’s our instructions for that: Creating a PDF with Irfanview
This is a basic outline of what you have to do to scan large documents. Microsoft ICE works perfectly…most of the time. We were surprised that it didn’t seem to be able to handle the maps but, as it turns out, we did well on our own. You will too.
Thanks for reading! If you have questions, ask us.
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Behind everything you do on the Internet and on your computer, there is code. There is code in other places too. In your car, in your cell phone, your music player…just about everywhere you look these days. When you bake a cake or mix up some cookies, you’re essentially using code, right? You’re putting together bits and pieces of things to create something else. All of your work in the kitchen is hidden when someone looks at the cake or takes a bite from one of your delicious cookies, just the same as code is hidden when you write an email or watch a video on Youtube.
In the news these days there are reports that fewer and fewer people are learning how to code, that it’s a boy’s world for coding, that girls are not interested in learning or using code. We’re not sure that this is true but we do know that there are some fun ways to learn code, at least the basics of it. Today’s post will introduce you to a tiny bit of HTML code using the Code Academy website. Head over there now to get started: CodeAcademy
Take a few minutes and type in some bits and pieces of code as you interact with the site. Once you get past the apparent silliness of the first page, you’ll begin to realize that you just might be able to write some code yourself. Back in the early days of computing, we’re talking Apples and Tandy computers here, you could buy magazines that contained code which you’d slowly type out and record to a floppy disk. This coding enabled you to actually write your own computer programs. In fact, back in those days, this was about the only way you could afford to run programs on your computer. There weren’t that many retail options.
Here’s a screenshot from CodeAcademy, just in case you are hesitant:
Type your name in quotations and you’re on your way.
Once you start, you might find that the process of typing different bits of code onto a page then looking at the results is a bit more compelling than you thought it was. HTML, at least to some people, isn’t real coding. Some snooty programmers think that HTML is far too simple to be considered a computer language but, hey, you have to start somewhere. We feel that anything you write to produce a completely different looking result is code. When you are writing in Word, you are using codes to display your document the way you want it to look, did you know that? In Word, there is a setting which allows you to see the codes that Word uses to format your text. Once you see all of the things that are behind the scenes in Word, you’ll begin to realize how pervasive code actually is.
Here are two examples from right here in WordPress. We can enter our words using the WYSISYG (what you see is what you get) interface, or we can use the ‘text’ or HTML interface. Here’s what each one looks like:
This is how we enter our posts on WordPress. Much like Word, right?
This is the behind the scenes look. Note that the photo isn’t there, just the code for it.
Once you figure out how to code in HTML, even just a little bit, everything about the Internet will start to make a bit more sense. You’ll know what a link is and how to create one. You’ll be able to make your text bold and even italicize it!The fun part of HTML is that you don’t need any special software to make it work. You really only need Notepad, which comes with every Windows installation, and a browser. Write your pages in Notepad, save them as an HTML document and view them in a browser. It’s really that simple!
If you decide to move on to learning Java or any other language, there are ample free resources out there for you. If you can’t find something, ask us. We’re here to help.
Thanks for reading and Happy Coding!
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a little bit of hi-tech, a little bit of common sense and a lot of fun
