Software: Video & Audio

[Syndicate]

Post any video & audio problems/questions here.

[Da Raider]

anyone have any preferences on receivers? I'm doing research before I make purchases for my home theater and I'm hearing good things about Denon and Onkyo.

Also, I know HMDI is key, but do I really need HDMI v1.3a? Anything I need to know about compatibility issues with the PS3?

[Jason]

You don't know HDMI 1.3a to see an improvement over component video but it has higher bandwidth so the quality is apt to be better than normal HDMI. I use regular HDMI with my PS3 and it looks great. I don't have any home theater equipment yet.

[danimalcrackers]

I want to cut a MIDI... i downloaded Anvil Studio and tried to do it before realizing my computer doesn't have the soundcard for it to work.....

If I give someone the download link for my MIDI (or just send the MIDI to them), will you cut my MIDI for me? All I want is a 24 second chunk to use for a ringtone. Sites like tonebee only let you use MP3.

So can anyone help me with this?

[Change]

how the fuck do i play a .flac audio file?

[STDSkillz]

http://flac.sourceforge.net/

[cowboy dan]

how can I convert flac to mp3??

[STDSkillz]

http://www.simplehelp.net/2006/08/14/how-to-convert-flac-files-to-mp3-using-windows/
or
http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/archive/how_to_convert_flac_files_to_mp3.cfm

[Skybase]

so I've looked all over the internet and haven't been able to find a solid solution to this issue.

Issue: I used to get appx 60-90 (the latter being more common) FPS in World of Warcraft. I wish I could specify a little more than that. I'm pretty sure it was on my new computer using my current video card, but never paid much attention so can't be positive.

Lately however, I'm getting appx 30-40 FPS in this game. It makes no difference if I change my configuration to SLI mode or leave it on my single card (which runs even Crysis almost all the way up w/ just single mode)

I run the game at 1680x1050, changing the in-game Antialiasing anywhere from 8 down to 1. makes a little difference but only from the 30fps range to 40 as I lower it. All in-game settings are turned up as I've had them when it was working better. I've got the latest NVidia drivers as of today cuz I'd heard that some previous drivers did slow the game down. I'd think it was the game cuz lots of ppl state that after the 2.3 patch fps had seemed to go down but many other ppl seem to be getting high FPS. Most complaints come from slower or single-core processor systems.

My system specs, simplified, are as follows (more detailed were in another thread)

Intel core 2 Quad q6600 Processor
EVGA 132-CD-NF78 Nforce 780i motherboard
8GB PC2 6400 Dual channel memory
Gigabyte Geforce 8800GTS (G92) 512MB video card (x2 in SLI has been tried as well)
800w ABS Tagan BZ Series BZ800 Power supply
Seagate Barracuda 500GB 7200rpm 32MB cache SATA 2.0Gb/s HDD (x2 raid (striping))
Soundblaster X-Fi PLatinum Fatal1ty Champion Sound
Windows Vista Ultimate x64

Cant' figure anything else relevant to my issue. A Pretty solid system to be getting such low FPS on frickin' WoW.
Any ideas?

[Don Scrappy]

did you update drivers recently. Sometimes new drivers can have issues with existing programs. I had to revert to old drivers to play a game on my 8800gtx.

You could always reformat and install drivers you know have worked well from scratch.

[Skybase]

I've actually gone through 3 sets of drivers since it's started. Now I guess I haven't uninstalled them completely and reinstalled any set and could try that, but works great in all other games and hate to start messing w/ my vid drivers that much as I just know with my luck it'll make things worse. haha If it comes down to being that I may not worry about going from 40fps to 90 again just to keep from worrying about screwing everything else up.

(That's the problem with having your main drive being 1TB in size. You become reluctant to having to reinstall, as there's SOOO damned much stuff on there after awhile.

[Penguin Rick]

So I frequently download and watch video files on my computer. I have a problem though. Whenever I download 720p versions of the show, I have problems viewing them on my computer. I have an .mkv file for example, which usually play well in VLC Player. But I'm having issues if they are in 720p format.

Is it my video card that is the problem in my laptop, or some codec that I'm missing?

[Skybase]

What type of issues? slow/stuttering playback, none at all, etc?

[Penguin Rick]

None at all

[Limp]

Comp specs? Mainly the processor, video card, and screen resolution.

[Skybase]

Does the player start up even? do you get any sort of message on-screen when it fails to play? Or. .just no response whatsoever?

[Syndicate]

I'd try the H.264/Advanced Video Codec.

http://www.afreecodec.com/26/h264-codec/

[Penguin Rick]

The player starts up and it expands to its full window, and I hear the audio track fine. Just no video. And a handful of times I open it up, I can see the first image, but it doesn't go on after that.

[Syndicate]

The player starts up and it expands to its full window, and I hear the audio track fine. Just no video. And a handful of times I open it up, I can see the first image, but it doesn't go on after that.

I'd try the H.264/Advanced Video Codec.

http://www.afreecodec.com/26/h264-codec/

[Syndicate]

Also make sure you have AC3, and xvid installed.

http://downloads.sourceforge.net/ac3filter/ac3filter_1_51a.exe

http://download.divxmovies.com/XviD-1.1.3-27042008.exe

[Skybase]

Yea, sounds like a codec issue alright.

[Penguin Rick]

I have all those installed, and still nothing. Perhaps it's because my screen is only 14", and not able to support 720p resolution?

[Skybase]

That wouldn't make sense. the size of the screen doesn't regulate resolution. However, what's the maximum resolution of your screen? And, most things I've watched that are a higher rez than the screen i'm watching it on basically scales. I'm still leaning toward a codec issue or something.

the K-Lite codec pack is usually a good one to get overall IME.

[ruffdog]

so I use convertxtodvd to burn my dvd's and in the audio tab I can choose the quality of the audio.

of course I selected automatic.
but there are other options and I don't know if they are better sound quality.
1. AC-3, 5.1 Channels
2. AC-3, 2 channels
3. MPEG, STEREO

if someone can let me know which option gives the best sound quality

[Skybase]

AC-3, 5.1 channels if you've got the setup for it.

it's the only one with more than 2 channels of audio. You've basically got them numbered by quality actually.

However that's also the order of which uses the most space. many people tend to allow a lower audio to give more room for greater video quality. Really depends on where you're watching it and what's important to you.

[ElemenoP]

What does it mean when I turn on my iPod and it says that I have to plug it into a computer and restore it? Will I lose all of my songs?

[ElemenoP]

Goddamnit. I lost everything. :(

[ElemenoP]

And now my iTunes says that it can't restore my iPod...... :( :( :( :( And it's frozen in black and white with a "Do Not Disconnect", instead of the white screen with different colours.

Help.

[Gary_Busey]

You're fucked.

[ElemenoP]

I have a spare mini that I'm updating right now. So I'm not totally fucked.

[mongo]

stupid question here, but i've gotta ask. i have itunes. great. i have ripped a little over 800 of my own albums to itunes. problem being, they were all ripped in aac (or is it acc) format. i want them in mp3. so i go to the options tap or whatever and click "convert all songs to mp3. awesome. problem is, it converted all of them to mp3 but didn't delete the old version of the song. now i have two of every song that wasn't mp3 to begin w/. is there and easy way to weed out the songs that aren't mp3 w/out having to select each and every one and then delete? that would take forever.

[Kopek]

Sux2bU

(Restore Point -> Select songs -> make copies -> delete old songs)

[s0bv1ou5lyd3sprt]

Oh man, why would you ever use iTunes to rip CDs?

http://blowfish.be/eac/

[Ace Rockola]

I'm trying to burn movies from my comp onto DVD, and when I do, the movie on the DVD doesn't use the whole screen, and makes everything smaller. I tried burning it in 4:3 ratio and 16:9, and it didn't change anything. I'm using the burning software that came with Windows, is that my problem?

[TylerDurden]

my son got a philips gogear sa3245 mp3/video player for his birthday. fucking thing requires all video to be in smv format, and the included software isn't fucking doing it. it's telling me it's missing a codec (i've ensured that it's not) when i try to convert any video into smv format. i've found other software to handle the shit, but it's just as fucked up as the included software.

i would greatly appreciate any assistance in either remedying this issue or finding new software that'll do its fucking job.

[Swurgen]

Any good ideas for non-apple mp3 player? I want to be able to play ill-gotten mp3's on the player without converting them to the apple format.

[s0bv1ou5lyd3sprt]

Any good ideas for non-apple mp3 player? I want to be able to play ill-gotten mp3's on the player without converting them to the apple format.
twhat? You don't have to convert mp3s to get them on an iPod. WMAs and some other formats, but who downloads that shit? Plenty of arguments have been going on around here. I say iPod. If not look at the Creatives.

[Syndicate]

Any good ideas for non-apple mp3 player? I want to be able to play ill-gotten mp3's on the player without converting them to the apple format.

twhat? You don't have to convert mp3s to get them on an iPod. WMAs and some other formats, but who downloads that shit? Plenty of arguments have been going on around here. I say iPod. If not look at the Creatives.


I was anti-iPod for ages, and then I actually got one courtesy of a trade and I fell in love with it. Now I have a 5th Gen, two 6th Gens, and a Touch. There really just isn't any other mp3 player that comes even close.

[Skybase]

I was anti-iPod for ages, and then I actually got one courtesy of a trade and I fell in love with it. Now I have a 5th Gen, two 6th Gens, and a Touch. There really just isn't any other mp3 player that comes even close.

I'm no pro in this area, but from all that I've used and messed with, I have to agree at this point. The Touch fuckin' rocks!

[One Under]

I remember a while back reading about a program that would scan your iTunes music, and make playlists based on the BPM of them song. You would use it to make like workout playlist with faster songs. Is this even a real thing or am I going crazy?

[s0bv1ou5lyd3sprt]

I'm pretty sure that shit you put in your NIKE shoes does this.

[One Under]

I think all that does is show you playlists on iTunes store to buy. I just want to use my current music.

Edit: Nevermind, found it. Program is called Tangerine!

[JT]

my son got a philips gogear sa3245 mp3/video player for his birthday. fucking thing requires all video to be in smv format, and the included software isn't fucking doing it. it's telling me it's missing a codec (i've ensured that it's not) when i try to convert any video into smv format. i've found other software to handle the shit, but it's just as fucked up as the included software.

i would greatly appreciate any assistance in either remedying this issue or finding new software that'll do its fucking job.

Super (http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html)

I was using this to encode different videos for my PSP and HTC Touch. Works well. It's free and it has been able to do anything I've asked it to.

[JT]

I'm about at the limit I can take without smashing my keyboard to bits.

I have 2 movies that are .mkv files that I want to burn to DVD. How the fuck can I do this without losing video quality? I converted to .vob which was fine but.........I can't burn the goddamn vob by itself to a dvd. If there is a way to do this let me know. Then I went to .avi and the quality was horrible. Looked like it was from a webcam.

Anyhelp would be appreciated.

[Gary_Busey]

I'm about at the limit I can take without smashing my keyboard to bits.

I have 2 movies that are .mkv files that I want to burn to DVD. How the fuck can I do this without losing video quality? I converted to .vob which was fine but.........I can't burn the goddamn vob by itself to a dvd. If there is a way to do this let me know. Then I went to .avi and the quality was horrible. Looked like it was from a webcam.

Anyhelp would be appreciated.
Have you tried using ConvertXtoDVD?

Actually, MKVs are usually HD or BluRay files. Unless you have a BluRay burner or HDDVD burner, you're going to lose quality.

[JT]

Have you tried using ConvertXtoDVD?

Actually, MKVs are usually HD or BluRay files. Unless you have a BluRay burner or HDDVD burner, you're going to lose quality.

I haven't tried covertxtoDVD. I've never used it before.

Well it went to .vob okay but it was over 2.5 gbs per a movie. It x5 to the file size.

[Swurgen]

twhat? You don't have to convert mp3s to get them on an iPod. WMAs and some other formats, but who downloads that shit? Plenty of arguments have been going on around here. I say iPod. If not look at the Creatives.

So ipods play rapidshared mp3's?

I had Creative Zen Vision M but lost it and they don't sell it any more. Only refurb and not sure if that's all good.

[JT]

Have you tried using ConvertXtoDVD?

Actually, MKVs are usually HD or BluRay files. Unless you have a BluRay burner or HDDVD burner, you're going to lose quality.

Thanks for the convertxtoDVD tip. Worked great and really easy interface.

[Juggo]

Does someone know of free software to make an MP3 or wav file louder?

[s0bv1ou5lyd3sprt]

Audacity

[HAWK]

I did a quick search of Google and didn't really find a good answer... I'm using ImToo DVD Ripper Platinum to rip various DVDs to Divx AVIs. with most of them the audio is out of sync with the vid. Any suggestions? I Googled it and found others with the same problem but no real solutions.

thanks in advance

[STDSkillz]

I had that problem with my old computer. When I upgraded, no problems at all. You could try different programs (like ConvertXtoDVD) and see if you have the same issue with them.

[Syndicate]

I did a quick search of Google and didn't really find a good answer... I'm using ImToo DVD Ripper Platinum to rip various DVDs to Divx AVIs. with most of them the audio is out of sync with the vid. Any suggestions? I Googled it and found others with the same problem but no real solutions.

thanks in advance

Handbrake (http://handbrake.fr/) is the sex. Move on.

[HAWK]

My experience with Handbrake is it's getting old and cannot handle some of the new encryption methods.

EDIT: Yep. Tried HB again. When I try to load the disc the CLI scans the disc forever. I let it scan for about 20 minutes last night before giving up on it. I think the encryption is just to much.

Damn. All I need this for is the occasional rental that I don't have time to watch. I want to rip it to my HTPC as a vid file for later viewing. I'm not trying to burn DVDs, etc.

[Trident]

A while ago I downloaded a shit ton of VA stuff, but the dimwits who created the download did not store the track information, so now that I've got round to unraring the files I'm left with this shit:

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x278/fforfreddie/Picture1-1.png

Is there any software that can recognise tracks? I'm using iTunes and a Mac. Any advice would be gratefully received. Successful advice will result in nude pics of Claydon's wife. Thanks.

[HAWK]

Hmmm. Probably not. If the ID3 tags aren't filled out then you're probably out of luck. Especially since this is a home brew.

[Trident]

My reasoning was that there is a program for mobile phones called Shazam (sp) that can listen to tracks and tell you what the artist is etc...

Never mind, I'll probably just have to trawl through them at some point.

Cheers.

[s0bv1ou5lyd3sprt]

You could try throwing the songs in Winamp, right clicking on them, view file info, and hit auto tag in the bottom right. Works 70% of the time.

[Face]

what's a good video format converter program? I need to change an mp4 to a wmv

[mongo]

so i've asked this question around here a few times today. still can't get shit working right.

i want to stream live feeds (mlb.tv, justintv) from my computer to my 360/tv using tversity. i can get vids that i have downloaded to be recognized, but live streaming shit i can't figure out. is tversity able to handle this? can anybody give me any pointers? i'm a just being a retard?

[mongo]

are you telling me none of you fucks know dick about tversity/360? FUCK.

[s0bv1ou5lyd3sprt]

Google says:
http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/archive/stream_video_xbox_360_tversity.cfm

[dick_darlington]

anyone have a good converter for mkv to avi?

[misterfatt]

i removed my Nvidia ForceWare Network Access Manager due to conflicts with windows live messenger and windows blinds. now i've only got sound coming out of one speaker. figured i would try to re-install the network manager but can't find the disc my mobo came with and can't find it on the nvidia site.

solutions?

[s0bv1ou5lyd3sprt]

What board do you have?

And on a quick google search of just "Nvidia ForceWare Network Access Manager," all the hits returned were about people asking how to get rid of it and complaints about it. Seems like its not the greatest software.

EDIT: I checked filehippo and they seem to have it, just depending on your operating system...http://www.filehippo.com/search?q=Nvidia+ForceWare+Network+Access+Manager

[Mr. Brown]

what the heck is a .mkv file and why can't I convert it to mp4 with my video converter? I'm using Video Convert Master version v6.0

[s0bv1ou5lyd3sprt]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matroska

[s0bv1ou5lyd3sprt]

Anyone have any suggestions on converting avi/mpeg/ect to DVD. I love the speed that ConvertXtoDVD has, but not so much on how limited it is with menus and shit. I like the way Nero Vision has its menus, but it's slow as balls and for some reason the DVDs I make with it don't work on one DVD player in my house. WinAVI sucks balls. Any others?

[Hoser]

I am trying to add English subtitles to a movie. I have converted the .srt file to an .ssa. I have installed the subtitler plugin to virtualdub. Now I am just having problems making it work. I am not sure what to do from here. It shows it in the output preview as having subtitles, but when I save it as an avi there are no subs in the movie.

Thanks for any help or guidance with this.

[s0bv1ou5lyd3sprt]

The only program I could ever get non hard coded subs to go on a DVD was winavi.

[Hoser]

I finally got it working. Here is a how to for anyone who wants to try it.

Programs you will need.

Virtualdub (http://virtualdub.sourceforge.net/)
Subtitler plugin (http://www.virtualdub.org/virtualdub_filters.html)
.SRT to .SSA converter (http://www.divx-digest.com/software/srt2ssa.html)

download and install all programs

Step 1 - You will need to find the subtitles for the movie you want. This should come in a .srt file.
Step 2 - Use the converter to convert the srt to an ssa. (At this step you can choose many options for your subs. I normally stick with the default)
Step 3 - Open Virtualdub and load your avi.
Step 4 - Click video > Filters > subtitler.
Step 5 - Find your .ssa file and click ok.
Step 6 - Choose your compression. Videos > Compression. Find the appropriate, I have been using xvid.
Step 7 - Save as avi. This will convert and save the avi file to contain the sub titles.
Step 8 - Burn with program of choice (Nero, Convertx, ect.)


I couldn't get a screencap to work. for some reason windows media player wont let me do it.

[and]

Does anyone have an app/website they recomend for converting youtube videos to mp3? I've used a few sites but haven't found one that retains the sound quality.