I didn’t know about these nice tricks.
They’re from Jeff Carlson, author of Peachpit’s iMovie ‘09 and iDVD for Mac OS X Visual QuickStart Guide. Well done.
Miguel Guhlin is an über education blogger – a very very thoughtful and prolific writer. Sometimes I skip his feed in the morning because he makes me think about his posts and my work here languishes a bit. It’s a problem, but we could all do worse than have too many good writers to read.
The post I link to here, Hacking DVD Region Codes covers methods for both Mac and PC for circumventing the restrictions on DVDs from around the world. Do yourself a favor and read Miguel, or listen to his podcasts. He’s well worth your time.
An Inconvenient Truth DVD Giveaway for Teachers
We have 50,000 copies of An Inconvenient Truth to give away to teachers in the United States. The first 50,000 teachers who apply are eligible to win. There is a limit of one DVD per teacher. All entries must be received by January 18, 2007.
This is would be an excellent teaching tool, and not only for science. This movie could work in almost any class, from public speaking to language arts to communication to history to civics or political science, and more. For this one, let’s pretent this site is called DVD for Teachers. Get in on the contest – but note that they accept entries only from schools with a federal tax ID number.
Via Ed-Tech.
A fascinating article on the whys and hows of DVD and CD media.
Bottom line: DVD+R better than DVD-R; Taiyo Yuden is the best brand.
Lifehacker points to Any Video Converter. Looks good, but couldn’t download this at posting time; seems their server was overloaded, thus I haven’t tested it. Lifehacker’s recommendations are pretty reliable, though, in my experience.
Windows only: Convert nearly any video format to nearly any other video format with the aptly named Any Video Converter.
The program supports just about every video format known to man, including AVI, DivX, FLV, RM, and VOB. It also comes with output profiles for devices like the iPod and PSP, though you can easily create a custom profile with the audio and video specs of your choosing.
AVC couldn’t be much easier to use, and it supports batch conversions—always a nice perk. You’ll definitely want to add this utility to your video arsenal (though don’t overlook Videora Converter, arguably a better choice for converting videos for mobile devices). Any Video Converter is free for Windows.
The ever-reliable folks at Ken Stone present Working with Dual Layer Media, a tutorial I’ve known I’ll need one of these days. Since the price of dual layer disks and drives keeps dropping, it won’t belong until that’s what people will expect, even in schools.
The DR-MV1S is a combo VHS deck and DVD recorder, with a FireWire input for dubbing from MiniDV machines. All it does is flash “LOADING on the front display. Apparently, we’re not the only ones with the problem. See this list of moans from VideoHelp.com, where I found a link to this on the JVC support site:
A limited number of units of certain models of DVD recorders (Models-DR-MV1S, DR-M10S, DR-MH30S, DRMX1S, SR-MV30U) have experienced the symptoms described. While manually resetting the unit, as set forth in the question, restores normal operation, the symptoms may reappear. JVC has identified the cause of these symptoms and will make the necessary adjustments to affected units to eliminate the likelihood that the symptoms reappear. Adjustments will be made free of charge at JVC Factory Service Centers. Click the Factory Service Center link at top left of this page to obtain your nearest location. Please call 1-800-252-5722 and select option 4-3 if you have any questions regarding this process.
I have an email in to the support folks. This unit had the same problem two years ago. Let’s see if they do the right thing.
Flip4Mac, the folks who made it possible for Windows Media video to play on Macs in the QuickTime player, now offer the Episode media encoder, with a wide variety of input and output formats, with a standard version at $395 and Pro version for $895. See the website for details.
Qualified education customers can apply for a 20% academic discount.
Stephen Schleicher answers questions in the new feature at Digital Producer.com, called Questions Answered. The first installment explains Customizing iDVD Themes.
The elusive multi-device video format at bioneural.net
So here is the challenge: What combination of video codec, audio codec, and container will produce a video (with sound) that can be played back on a Mac, a Windows PC, a Palm, a Pocket PC, and an iPod?… Was that an artery I just burst?
I’m still looking too… though this article explains beautifully several encoding processes that work on most of those platforms, but not on all of them at the same time. Bookmark this one if you produce compressed video on the Mac for different platforms.