Simkin.Org

Category: Useful stuff

  • Adventures in Media Centre

    So I now have the MC bug and have decided that my Media Centre PC will:

    • Act as an interface for the boys computer games
    • Play DVDs with full Dolby DTS surround sound
    • Record TV shows off of the Sky Box for shipping onto DVD
    • Allow me to build a DVD library to save digging out the Disc every time the boys want to watch a movie

    Launching games

    The first one was a bit tricky but thanks to this link, and a copy of gameloader.exe I managed to solve it. Basically the “Program Library” within MC can be used to launch almost anything as follows:

    1. Create a folder called c:\MC_Launch for example
    2. create a shortcut to Gameloader.exe “mygame.exe” for the EXE of the game and call it MyGame.lnk
    3. create a MyGame.png image for MC to use
    4. create MyGame.mcl in notepad with the following content:

    <application
    name = “My Game”
    ID = “”
    Run = “.\Launch.lnk”
    BGColor = “RGB(0,0,0)”
    CompanyName = “.”
    StartImage = “MyGame.png”
    ThumbnailImage = “MyGame.png”
    SharedViewport = “”
    NowPlayingDirective = “”>
    <capabilitiesrequired
    directx=”True”
    audio=”False”
    video=”False”
    intensiverendering=”True”
    console=”False”
    cdburning=”False” />
    </application>

    5. Now copy the MCL into “Programs\Media CEnter\Media Center Programs” in the Start Menu

    Play DVDs with DTS

    Easy really. Just plugged the SPDIF co-ax into my Logitech z55000 and trawled through the advanced audio driver settings until I found the DTS tick box. Works a treat. Might need to play with Nero Drive speed as sometimes the disc runs a litle noisy but otherwise it is all good.

    Record TV Shows

    My Hauppauge HVR card has a composite feed from the back of the Sky box and the Sky box phono outputs provide sound. Only stereo of course but I’m only recording TV programmes not movies so that isn’t really a problem. For DVD-quality sound, I’ll buy the DVDs. Another reason not to get pirate copies if you ask me…

    DVD Library

    Possibly the most tricky. But here is what I ended up with.

    1. Use RipIt4Me to build a sectors list for DVDecrypter and force the VOB to the root menu.
    2. Save the resultant VIDEO_TS folder onto my Thecus NAS box
    3. Load-up MyMovies under MC and point it at this folder.
    4. The Movie appears with full artwork in MC and can be played without needing to insert the DVD

    For the record, I buy legal, genuine DVDs and have them on the shelf. I only have the NAS open on my LAN and only the MC box runs MyMovies to be able to pick the movies out and play them.

    I could go one stage further and rip only the main title using VOB2MPG but then my movies are listed as “Videos” and I don’t get the extras menus. I’m happy to sacrifice some disc space to ge the full DVD experience.

    For extra tips and advice, the Australian Media Centre Forum is worth a trawl….

  • Finally Getting into the Christmas Spirit

    We finally have the decorations up and the tree is lit-up. I also managed this week to get the Vista Media Centre configured and unplugged the DVD player. The PC does a better job. I just never got around to persuading the household to convert. In the end, I just switched it over and it is pretty much doing a good job. Need to tweak the DVD player to spin slower/more quietly and a bit of acoustic baffling would be good too. The fan noise is not noticeable really but I feel I can do better. One interesting fact to share with my reader is that the Australian Media Centre forums are the most useful of the lot.

    The other bit of news is that we invested in about 40 new tropical fish as the local fish shop is closing down. We have neons, guppies, tetras and a new catfish to replace our recently deceased one. The are all behaving nicely together and none of the three large fish have turned carnivorous either. We had one scary moment as the blue shimmery tailed guppies disappeared one by one. Turned out they loved swimming behind the fauz-rock backing. We have lowered the water level a little to solve that one….

    For the picture album, I thought Kookichoo had better get festive too.

  • 007 Shaken not Ripped

    I went to see Quantum of Solace last night with my god friend Dom. I thoroughly recommend the film. Ignore the critics, just go see it. Fewer gadgets and one-liners this time but a seamless progression of the story from Casino Royale.

    Needless to say, I thought I’d put CR on my N95 for casual out-and-about viewing. It is however the first DVD that DVDecrypter had trouble with. Darn it. Luckily there is a nother free tool called RIPIT4ME. This breaks the reading of sectors down to only valid ones and rips those. The copy-protection trick of chucking in duff sectors is thus overcome.

    I do not in any way condone film piracy but if you have the DVD already and want to watch it on your Nokia, plough through my blog to get a copy of DVDecrypter and for the settings to use in Handbrake. If DVDecrypter struggles, use RIPIT4ME instead and it will fix the problem.

    DVD piracy is taking money out of the pockets of good honest people working in the film industry. Copy legally owned DVDs onto another device for your own viewing pleasure is a neat idea. Know the difference, stay legal and happy ripping.

  • Convert M4V to MP4 (Music Videos on Blackberry)

    Ever downloaded a great video from iTunes but wished you could play it on your Nokia or Blackberry? Yep. With my wife downloading like a demon onto her iphone, I thought I would get a few videos for me. But of course I don’t have an iphone. It would be perfectly legal to circumvent the DRM for my own personal use so long as I don’t actually try and crack the DRM. Mmm.

    Roll-up Tunebite. It emoves DRM from audio and video files. It can also resize on-the-fly as it bascially captures the output from iTunes and encodes it. You will inevitably lose some quality but let me put it into perspective, my PC is faster, has a bigger screen and more codecs than my Blackberry. If I lose the odd frame here and there, I will not notice. If I want top spec video, I’ll buy a BluRay disc. For my Blackberry, it just has to not suck.

    Use the following settings and you’ll be watching your favourite videos on your Blackberry in no time:

    If you have better settings or want to let me know the best ones for my Nokia N95, please post a comment.

  • Get a Road ID

    Mulling over the fact that I once again did a reasonable length ride (60-odd miles) with no companion that knew me made me think again about the Road ID site. Road ID is quite simply a tag with contact details that you can carry with you. If you have an accident and lose conciousness, the emergency services can contact your family and let them know which hospital is looking after you – and get them to come collect the bike!

    As I have a son with Asperger Syndrome, we have used a similar system to ensure that when he wanders off – and he does, we know he has our contact details on his wrist. Occasionally though, he resists the bright yellow “bangle” and we just have to play nervous parents whilst we are out with him. In some cases this mens literally keeping a hold of him even though he is eight years old and longs to run around.

    Road ID solves this problem too. The Wrist ID that I went for is comfortable for him to wear and he thinks it is kind of funky. Now try and get him to take it off! If you have small children that tend to wander, get them a Road ID. They’ll love it. I got the wife one as well so she didn’t feel left out.

    Original Road ID Wrist tag

    I’ve signed-up to be an affiliate for this great product so expect to see some links around the site. Otherwise, just click here.

  • Nokia Sports Tracker

    It is typical that as soon as I finish a nice ride and draw it up in Mapmyride.com, I find that my Nokia N95 could have mapped it all for me automatically using the natty new Nokia service. Poo.

    I will play with it for a while and on my next ride use it to capture the route. Might be hand as well for plotting the routes of some of the charity rides this year. As my bike computer keeps resetting itself – I think it is because it rattles too much, I need another tool for plotting my distance. My odometer, clock and speedo still work but the distances, averages and maximums keep restarting. Oh well, maybe I’ll just load a new battery and see what happens.

  • Beating Mebroot

    There is a new sneaky horrible piece of code about. Check to see if you have it and clean it up here using GMER.

    Mebroot also known as Sinowal.

  • Home Server or Small Business Tool ?

    I’ve seen that Tranquil PC have adopted the Home PC as a product and have done a really good job of it. What you get is a silent, wall-mounted appliance that draws very little power and generates almost no noise. It gives you backup, PC health monitoring, windows updates and remote control.

    This is all good stuff for the power user at home but what about using it as a business tool? For all those small businesses out there that need IT support but can’t afford an in-house guy, these save a lot of mucking around with management tools and third-party solutions like logmein or VNC. Really should investigate this idea for my off-and-on IT consultancy, OrangeTeapot.com. A managed service around one of these devices would easily pay for the unit within six months and provide much needed backup and desktop recovery for a lot of businesses that today don’t have that.

    You heard it here first.

  • Google.co.uk in Firefox 2

    I used to be able to choose google.co.uk when using teh littel search box in Firefox but now I can’t. The solution is to write a little bit of code to put it back. This is especially useful if you tend to search for UK sites rather than worldwide ones. But fear not worried Firefox user. Other people got there first and wrote it for us.

  • Make your web browsing faster!

    I was surprised. It is nice to get surprised by technology now and again. This one though was just scarily simple. There is a nice bunch of people at http://www.opendns.com that run DNS servers that you and I can use to resolve website names.

    OK. Stop yawning. The fact is that your ISP runs a very slow set of DNS servers and your web browser could be sitting there for a second or two waiting for them to respond before taking you to the website you wanted to visit. If you make a minor change to your PC, you can use the OpenDNS servers instead which are much much faster. Go visit them today and see if it makes things better for you too. It won’t cost you a penny.