PCPowerGuide.com » Multimedia

How To Make Your PC Ready for Blu-Ray

donna — Mon, 24 May 2010 20:42:45 +0000

Apparently Sony Corporation did learn from it past mistakes. It lost the Beta versus VHS format war, not because its beta product was inferior but because Sony refused to license its technology to other manufacturer’s so they could build hardware for it. The high-definition video war is over and Blu-ray is the undisputed winner.

Now that the war is over, many PC owners want to add Blu-ray capability to their PCs. If you are running Windows 7 or Mac OS/X, you are all ready to add Blu-ray since both of those operating systems support Blu-ray.

First Decision

Even if your operating system supports Blu-ray, your hardware may not. The Blu-ray drive uses SATA to connect to your motherboard. The important thing to check is to see if your graphics card and monitor are HDCP compliant. HDCP stands for High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection created by Intel to prevent pirating while the content is dent over DVI or HDMI connections between a source and a receiver.

So if either your graphics (the source) or your monitor (the receiver) fails the HDCP test, you will still get a signal but it won’t be high definition and you will have wasted your money.

Second Decision

If your hardware supports Blu-ray, then your second decision is whether to buy a Blu-ray player or a burner. Players are cheaper but only let your play the disks. Burner will give you the ability to create all varieties of Blu-ray, DVD and CD disks including dual layer disks. With 25GB storage on a single layer disk and 50 GB on a dual layer disk, the storage capacity is inviting. At the moment, single layer disks run around $3 each and dual layer disks around $10 each.

Third Decision

You will also need software to run your Blu-ray player or burner. Both Windows 7 and the Mac OS/X have built in software capable of Blu-ray playback. However, for burning or ripping, you will most likely want to purchase a commercial application like Cyberlink’s Power DVD Ultra or Nero.

Recommendation

If your hardware supports Blu-ray but your operating system doesn’t, you really should consider upgrading to Windows 7 or Max OS/X. I did read about some tweaked drivers available for Windows XP, but no one seems to be having much luck getting them to work right.

How Can You Uninstall DirectX?

donna — Wed, 19 May 2010 01:03:52 +0000

Every windows computer normally has DirectX installed on it. DirectX should run on your PC with no issues, in fact Direct X should enhance your audio, video, and overall PC speed. If your having issues and want to uninstall DirectX, the actual problem might be much deeper in your windows registry. We recommend running a registry repair software prior to uninstalling DirectX. DirectX is a collection of application programming interfaces (APIs) designed to provide better multimedia and gaming for the windows operating systems. DirectX 9 is recommended for XP, version 10 was designed for Vista and version 11 for windows 7.

The files can become corrupted and cause your program to stop working properly. If that happens, you will need to remove the program.

Why is DirectX necessary?

Technically, it really isn’t necessary but the DirectX features provide better 3D video rendering and can keep you system from crawling when you are running a graphics intensive program such as a video game or the latest movie you downloaded. Without the APIs, a different version of the computer game or multimedia program would be needed for each individual hardware platform The APIs allow gaming and multimedia developers to use powerful hardware features without having to write complex code for each hardware platform in existence.

There are three components to DirectX, Direct3D, DirectDraw andDirectSound.

Direct3D, as its name implies, lets you video adapter create three dimensional images. The better the quality of your hardware, more realistic looking images can be produced on your screen. It enhances both static and animated images.

DirectDraw renders two dimensional images and allows them to be incorporated into displayed images. The video adapter, the windows operating system and several programs make use of DirectDraw.

DirectSound provides communication between the different multimedia programs and your sound card and can enhance the overall quality of the sound. It can also provide several audio mixing and playback features that are not available without it.

How to Remove DirectX from Windows XP

In XP, it is pretty easy to remove DirectX manually by following these steps:

Select Start->Run and then type dxdiag into the dialog box to see what version you are using
You will be asked if you want to check for Microsoft signing. Select No. A screen similar to the one below will appear.

As you can see I am running Windows XP Professional and Version 9.0c of DirectX
On the More Help tab, you can perform troubleshooting tests to see if the problem can be repaired
If not, Select Start->Run and then type regedit into the dialog box to open the registry editor
Navigate to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\DirectX as shown below

Highlight DirectX as shown above
Right click and select Delete
Close the registry editor and reboot your computer
You can either download the directX installation program or use the version on you original windows installation disk to reinstall the program.

Fix Sound Errors in Windows XP

admin — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 15:16:34 +0000

With sound and video bring ubiquitous on the internet, in voice and video email, in computer games and even many of the latest applications, working sound has almost become a necessity to use your computer. Sound causes more problems than any other single thing on every personal computer operating system.

Quick Solution

99% of the time, most audio problems in Windows (like your sound stops working) is due to missing or corrupted audio drivers for your specific model. The best way to fix your sound is to use a good driver updater tool and run a scan so the software can locate the bad driver and download the correct updated version for you.

Symptoms

A computer with sound problems will display one or several of the following symptoms:

There is no sound at all
The sound keeps fading in and out
The sound seems to skip or jump on everything you try to play
The sound is distorted or scratchy on everything you try to play
The computer freezes or reboots if you try to play sound
You receive one of the following error messages:
- MIDI output error detected
- No wave device that can play files in the current format is installed
- The CD Audio device is in use by another application
- WAV sound playback error detected
- Your audio hardware cannot play files like the current file

Solutions for Sound Problems in XP

There are several common methods to troubleshoot and repair you windows XP sound problems:

Use the Windows Troubleshooter
Update sound card drivers
Update your media Player
Install a new sound card

Use the Windows Troubleshooter

Windows XP has a built in troubleshooter. To use this feature perform the following steps:

Click Start and then select Help and Support
Under Pick a Help Topic, select Fixing a problem in the window shown below

In the navigation pane, on the left, click Games, sound, and video problems as shown in the picture below.

In the topic pane, on the right, click Sound Troubleshooter

The window shown below will open. Select the option that describes the problem that is occurring, and then click Next.

Repeat the steps for each condition until your problem is resolved or until you have reached the end of the troubleshooting path.

You can click Back at any time to repeat the last step, or you can click Start Over to start the Sound Troubleshooter again. If your sound is still not working, try the next method.

Update the Sound Card Drivers

The easiest way to check your drivers is to use the DirectX diagnostic tool. To run the tool do the following:

Click Start -> Run, type dxdiag in the Open box, and then click OK. The screen below will open.

Click on the Sound tab. The window shown below will open.

Click on Test DirectSound. Repeat the test on the Music tab as shown below for item listed in the Test Using this Port box.

Alternately you can go to:

Start -> Run -> Control Panel
Click on the System icon
Select Hardware
Click on the Device Manager Button
Open the Sound, Video and Game Controllers as show below

Right click on each device and select Update Driver as shown below

The driver wizard will open as shown below

Follow the directions to update the drivers.
Repeat the process for each device

If you are still having problems then try the next method.

Update Your Media Player

If you are using Window Media Player, go to the Microsoft website and download the latest version. For other media players such as Real Player, iTunes, Quick Time and VLC media Player, go to the publisher’s website and download and install the latest version.

If that doesn’t fix the problem then try the next method.

Install New Hardware

If you got this far, you most likely have a hardware problem. Either you sound cable, your speakers or your sound card is bad. We tried all of the repairs that were free in the preceding methods. Perform the following steps to test your sound.

Borrow a known good sound cable and replace the one on your system. If the sound works, buy a new cable.

If not, leave the good cable installed and borrow known good speakers and replace your speakers. If the sound works, buy new speakers.

Next, either borrow a known good sound card and replace your sound card. If it is a different card than the one you have, make sure you install the correct drivers for the sound card before testing the sound. If the sound works, replace your sound card.

If the sound still doesn’t work, either buy a new computer (you probably need a new motherboard) or take your computer to a repair shop and let see if they can fix the problem since they have equipment that can test all of the hardware components.

Fix VLC Media Player Audio Errors

admin — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 01:55:31 +0000

The VLC Media Player is a free open source multi media player that can play the most popular formats for audio, video and various streaming protocols. In my experience, it can also play many of the more obscure formats that the other players can’t handle. The VLC media player can also be used as a multi media server to stream multi media in both IPv4 and IPv6 high bandwidth networks.

VLC can let you setup your own live broadcast. Until recently, VLC was the only media player that could play downloaded YouTube, Meta Café and Google videos. Some of the more common problems users experience using VLC are discussed below.

Synchronization Problem

I don’t think there is anything more frustrating than spending several hours ripping a DVD or downloading a movie and then not be able to play it because the audio and video are not synching up properly. One way to fix this is to change the configuration of the advanced audio preferences in VLC by performing the following steps:

Open the VLC media player and select Preferences as shown below (the screen shots were made using version 0.8.6d that has the wxWidgets interface. Your player may look different depending on which version you have but all of the essential functions should be available.

Select Audio and make sure the Advanced Options is checked as shown below. After you check the advanced options check box, the screen will look like the picture below.

Configure the settings as shown above.
Click on Save

The Audio desynchronization compensation setting allows you to adjust the time delay between the audio and video tracks in milliseconds in both the positive and negative direction. You can play with this setting moving one step at a time until you get the sound and video in synch. Of course, you will have to stop and restart the movie each time you make an adjustment but I think that is a lot better than trying to watch an out of sync movie. Until I started using VLC, I just deleted out of sync movies since the other players did not provide a method to correct the problem.

No Video When Using VLC on Vista

One very common problem is experienced with Vista. You get sound but no picture. This was also a problem on XP but the solutions on the two operating systems are different. I will only discuss the way to fix Vista. You have to reconfigure the video rendering engine. Use the following steps to correct the problem:

Open the VLC media player.
Click on Settings and select Preferences as shown in the first example above
Expand Video and click on Output modules
Make sure the Advanced options in the lower right corner is checked
Using the drop down arrow as shown below, set the Video output module to DirectX, OpenGL or Windows GDI.
Click on Save

I find that OpenGL works on more files that the other choices, but all of them work most of the time.

Poor Audio Quality when using the Capture Feature

VLC has the ability to capture multi media from files, DVDs with menus, DVDs, VCDs, audio CDs. I can also capture live broadcasts from the internet using UDP/RTP unicast /multicast, HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, MMS and RSTP protocols. It has the ability to allow time shifting and to capture television programs.

Fixing the problem depends on the source the capture. One of the biggest problem is finding the correct protocols for internet broadcasts. Sometimes the website will provide that information. Other times you have to experiment with the settings. Use the following steps to configure the stream input:

Open the VLC media player.
Click on File and select Capture Output Device as shown below

The screen below will appear. Open the Direct Show tab

Click on Advanced options and the screen below will open

You can adjust the audio and video input and output pin to get the best sound and video quality from the incoming signal. There are several sources that provide the technical specifications on what the proper settings should be that are available online. However, if reading a lot of technical material is not your thing, you can experiment with short captures until you find the right combination.

How To Copy DVD to DVD

admin — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 16:43:32 +0000

Ever since man discovered a way to record audio sounds, there has always been the problem of copying one record, tape, cassette, CD or DVD to another one. Some manufactures have even offered dual deck recorders that allowed “dubbing” or making a duplicate of the media in the other drive.

I haven’t seen any dual DVD burners although you can always install two of them in your computer and then copy from one to the other. If you have a lot of DVDs you will need to make a backup copy just in case something happens to the original. I always use the backup copy for normal viewing and keep the originals properly stored in a safe place. So, to back up your DVDs you need a tool that will let you:

Copy the content from the DVD
Make the best possible copy
Preferably only have to buy one tool to do it.

Your DVD burner should have come with burning software. The only way to find out if this software will do the job you want is to test it by making a copy of one of your DVDs then play it back in your DVD player that is hooked up to your television to see what kind of quality you got.

The reality is that you will not find one tool that can do it all. Many claim to do so, but none of them totally succeed, at least not if you want the best quality copies.

One of the primary problems with making good backup copies is that commercially recorded DVDs are usually on dual layer media. Most burners are for single layer media only so you will either have to use two DVDs, only copy part of the material on the DVD or use a compression algorithm to fit everything on one DVD. Compression will reduce the video and audio quality.

The first thing you need to do is decide what content on the DVD you want to backup. You want the movie obviously, but do you really need multiple language versions, subtitles, trailers, cast interviews or both the 4:3 and widescreen versions? Probably not…

Another issue is transcoding which is a method of reducing the size of an MPEG video file without needing to re-encode the entire movie. This is done by eliminating data you can’t see or hear on the screen. There are many applications available. Some of the better ones for reducing the file size are DVD2ONE, Nero’s Recode, DVD Shrink and Pinnacle Instant Copy DVD.

No matter which applications you use the first step is to rip the DVD and remove unwanted stuff then select what you want to keep. You will most likely want to select these options:

Select the English version of the picture and sub picture
If your sound system supports the DTS format, then only backup the DTS sound track. It provides the best audio. Leave the smaller AC-3-2 soundtracks because they are the ones normally used with the menus.
If you don’t have support for the DTS sound track then select all the English and unspecified AC3 tracks.
Select NO COMPRESSION to maintain quality (we will compress it when we transcode.)

Next save your selections. Depending on the program used, you may be able to save it directly to the hard drive or you may need to go through other menus. You want to save it to your hard drive with a different name than the one you created directly from the DVD. The program will decrypt the movie and save it to your hard drive. It can take quite a while, so be patient.

Next you may need additional software such as DVDRemake that allows you to remove foreign language menus, trailers, movie previews and other unwanted content if your program doesn’t have that feature. Save your project to the hard drive again with a different name.

Next use software to edit the menus so you can remove the buttons and links to the features you removed in previous steps. Then save your project, again with a different name.

If you have trimmed the file size to less than 4.3 GB, you can now safely burn your backup to a DVD. If not you will need to transcode the file and then burn it to the DVD. As always, after the transcoding is finished, save the file with a different name. Using different names at each step of the process will help make the process shorter if you are not satisfied with the quality of your copy or if you decide to change something and need to redo it.

When finished, take the backup copy and test it in your DVD player to make sure it works properly. If it does, store the original in a safe place. If not, use the copy of the original you saved to your hard drive to try again until you get a good backup. The first time you may need to do this a couple of times until you learn how to use your software. After that, it will be a no-brainer to back up the rest of your DVDs.

Macromedia Shockwave Multimedia Player

admin — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 15:21:23 +0000

Shockwave is a multimedia player originally unveiled at a trade show in 1995 by Macromedia. This newest movie player was designed to run movies created with Macromedia Director after being encoded by an application called Afterburner. In 1998 Macromedia released a product called Director 7 Shockwave internet Studio. Shockwave could be used to create stand alone movies and animations, computer games and internet movies and animations. Shockwave was the most successful multimedia player available until Macromedia introduced the Flash player which had a smaller file size than shockwave and was designed specifically for use on web sites. In 2000 they released Authorware so that by the year 2005, Macromedia was marketing three distinct multimedia browser plug-ins under the brand names Macromedia Shockwave, Macromedia Flash and Macromedia Authorware.

Shockwave was originally developed to create dynamic content for CD-ROMS and it is still used for this purpose. As all types of online movies and animated features became more popular on the Internet updated versions of Director have included more features that tailor Shockwave files for use on the Web.

Shockwave uses Director as it movie creator. Because of all of its features, it eventually became the product of choice for game developers and as a media to create more complex web applications that are beyond the capabilities of a browser. Shockwave has many features that are not available in other multi media players such as:

A much faster rendering engine
Hardware accelerated 3D
Support for several network protocols such as internet relay chat
Can be extended by many available extra add ins.

A Linux specific version of shockwave is not available but Linux users can:

Use Crossover to run Shockwave files
Use Wine to run a windows browser that can play shockwave movies
Use the Rosetta emulator on the PowerPC to run shockwave.

Shockwave offers the following capabilities:

Multi user chat that can be integrated into the movie
XML parsing
Ability to create more complex games, more elaborate interactivity and more detailed animation.
HTML manipulation
An extensive scripting language
Remote file retrieval
Program control for vector images
Bit map manipulation using vector paths
Ability to stream the movie files.

Shockwave has become ubiquitous and is distributed with all popular operating systems, browser install packages and already installed on most newly purchased computers. Shockwave movies have the .DCR file extension. Shockwave movie elements are stored in the cast (project library) and then added to the stage and afterward you complete the score (movie layout).

Shockwave is actually part of the webpage and does not require any player to be installed on the personal computer. It not only can play movies and animations but can recognize user input and then tell the browser how to handle that input. This ability is due to the fact that shockwave used vector-based graphic manipulation. That means that instead of saving the pictures as a series of pixels called a bit map, the picture is describes as a series of lines and shapes, each with individual coordinates to place it exactly on the screen. The records contain the mathematical values for each component. For example, a circle would be described by its diameter, fill color, line thickness, etc. with exact coordinates for its location and its relative location to other objects. This drastically reduces the size of the image files.

Using vectors also allows you to move bitmap images around by defining a path of movement. This reduces the number of frames that an animator must create. The program can also create TWEEN frames which basically calculate the difference between the images in different frames and record the mathematical representation of that information which also reduces the file size.

Shockwave streams its files over the internet which means you don’t have to wait for the entire file to download before the movie starts playing. The playing time is coordinated with the download time so the movie seems to play continuously.

If not installed automatically with the web browser, shockwave are available free from the Adobe website. Adobe purchased Macromedia in 2006. Normally if a website detects that you want to play a shockwave movie and don’t have the plug-in installed in your browser, it will prompt you to install it and provide a link to the download page.

Shockwave puts a movie studio on your desktop using the Director program for creating professional quality movies. While Director, like all Macromedia and Adobe products, has a bit of a learning curve, it is easy for people used to using any macromedia or adobe product to learn quickly.

Adobe Flash Player

admin — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 00:37:25 +0000

The Adobe Flash player is a free web browser plug in that is distributed by Macromedia, now a division of Adobe products. Flash was introduced in 1996 by Macromedia as a follow up to their extremely popular shockwave movie player. Unlike shockwave, flash was built from the ground up to be used to play and create movies and animations specifically designed to be run in web browsers on web pages. The movie creation application is also called Flash. You use the Flash program to create the movie and the Flash player to watch it.Flash stores it files in a vector based format which means it describes each images as a series of lines and shapes with properties like color and texture. Storing images in this format creates significantly smaller image files which means reduced downloading time before it can be played in the user’s web browser. The early versions of flash were only capable of creating two dimensional animations. However, each new released version has increased the capabilities so that today Flash can create streaming audio and video movies as well as many special effects that make today’s web pages so much more interesting to look at.

At present flash is usually built into newer web browsers. If not already built in, it is available as a free download from the Adobe website. One of the nicer features is that each new version of the flash player is completely backward compatible so you can play older movie files without any problems.

Supported Platforms

Flash is still a proprietary format and not available for free or shareware licensing. However, the flash player is available for the following operating systems on 32 bit platforms:

Windows
Linux (x86-32 only)
Mac OS X
Linux/ARM-based Nokia 770/N800 Internet Tablets
Classic Mac OS
Pocket PC
Solaris
HP-UX
OS/2
Symbian OS
Palm OS
BeOS
IRIX
LeapFrog Enterprises Leapster Multimedia Learning System
Kodak Easyshare One
Sony Playstation Portable‘s web browse
Nintendo Internet Channel on the Wii.

The player is also either already available or in development for the most popular 64 bit operating systems platforms. The most recent releases of the flash player support the H264 video and HE-AAC audio formats. Flash uses the proprietary .FLV file format but can be also be embedded in the .SWF file format. Some of the best know users of the flash video format are YouTube, Google Video, MySpace, Yahoo!Video and Reuters.com

Flash video can be created using Adobe Flash and Adobe Flex as well as other Adobe and third party software programs. Flash comes with a built in programming language called ActionScript which can be used to create completely flash based websites. The biggest downside of the flash player is that it is less efficient running .SWF files when compared to directly running a video file embedded in the web page..

Audio is normally encoded in the MP3 format when used in flash movies. However, the flash player can support ADPCM, HE-AAC, AAC SBR, AAC Main Profile and AAC-LC formats. The latest version released in the fourth quarter of 2007, supports MPEG-4.

Delivering the video to the end user

Flash Video files can be delivered in several different ways:

As a standalone .FLV file that can be stored on a hard disk or burned to a CD. FLV files do not require the flash player.
Embedded in an SWF file. The entire file must be downloaded before it can play and you have to completely redo the file to make any changes which means you shouldn’t save your movie in the SWF format until it is the way you want it.
Use ActionScript to progressively download the file from a web server while it is already playing inside the browser. However, unlike streaming using RTMP, HTTP “streaming” does not support real-time broadcasting.
Streamed using RTMP to the Flash Player using a Flash Media Server.

The Flash Video file format supports two versions of a screen share codec that are bitmap tile based and can be lossy reducing color depths as a result of the level of compression used.

Easy Media Creator 10 Review

admin — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 03:51:19 +0000

A descendant of Roxio’s Easy CD Creator, Easy Media Creator 10 by Roxio offers a CD copying option but only allows you to copy non-protected CDs and DVDs. The program has numerous other capabilities. The suite seems designed to put all the tools you need to manage your digital life into one software application. Basically, Roxio took all of their individual media creation, format conversion, and disk burning applications and bundled them into Easy Media Creator 10. It is a general disk authoring tool whose programming code has been rewritten to be windows vista compatible and well as still fully supporting windows XP.

Features

Disk Copying – This program allows the user to easily copy data, audio, photo and video CDs and DVDs including Blu-ray and HD-DVD disks. It has the capability of spanning multiple disks so you can copy movies without needing to use compression and lower the video and audio quality. While the quality of the copy is excellent, the program only allows copying unprotected disks.

Video Compression – the software allows video compression to permit copying the DVD-9 format onto a DVD-5 blank disk.

Catalogs – Easy Media Creator 10 automatically catalogs and tracks disk content even after removal from the drive.

Scheduling Backups – the software allows the user to schedule unattended backups of your system and can encrypt the data and/or password protect the backup disk.

Audio – the software includes an audio editor that allows you to edit and record audio tracks, add multiple sound layers, apply filters and effects includes support for VST effects. The program can convert audio files into other formats and lets you add professionally designed menu templates to your DVDs. In fact the program automatically converts audio files to Dolby Digital format before burning them to a disk.

Easy Audio Capture lets you configure a predefined volume level and file format for any audio input, such as a webcam microphone or the auxiliary input from a sound card. It can also split out the audio from a video file. Probably the most controversial use of this feature is to capture streaming music from internet radio stations.

Video - the video editor allows the user to perform up to 32 overlays with audio and text tracks to your project using the VideoWave timeline which can allow even a relative novice to create complex, professional quality CD and DVD disks. It includes technology called Smart Sound to enable the user to add a soundtrack to a movie or slideshow that will perfectly sync up with your project to match the flow of the slides or mood of the video scenes.

CineMagic is a feature that is geared toward novices who want to create a professional quality production with fancy graphics and transitions by loading a sequence of video clips. After the user is finished loading the clips, CineMagic will automatically generate the production.

Mobile Devices – Easy Media Center 10 has a built in cell phone doctor that optimizes photos for display on a cell phone screen using a feature called Mobile Photo fit. There is an additional feature that allows auto synchronization to permit transferring music, photos and video from PC to mobile phone and back. The user can configure specific file formats for each mobile device. The media manager will automatically transcode incompatible formats to the specified formats.

YouTube – the software allows you to upload your video to YouTube with a single click of the mouse while in the media manager. All you have to do is provide user id and password.

iPod – the software allow you to copy audio, ringtones, movies and TV shows from and iPod.

User Interface

Installation - the program is easy to install and requires little configuration to use the basic features.

Navigation - The main screen for creating a music CD is shown below. As you can see the buttons are pretty self explanatory and should be easy for most users to understand.

Embedded Help File – Some topics in the embedded help files such as the Roxio LP and Tape Assistant have step-by-step instructions that make it easy to perform a complex task. Other topics like Roxio Media Import rely on a Windows help file that assumes the user understands all of the technical terms.

Conclusion

There is no built-in playback for Blu-ray orHD-DVD, no conversion of HD video files into the DVD compatible AVCHD format. While you can burn and retrieve data backups with Blu-ray and HD DVD disks, you can’t create disks that are compatible with standalone Blu-ray and HD-DVD players.

The biggest downside is the inability to burn copy protected DVDs. Many of today’s movies are CSS-encrypted and Sony ARCCOS protected. As a consumer, I want to be able to make backup copies of all the movies I purchase, not just the ones the manufacturer didn’t copy protect.

While the program has many nice features and should appeal to the avid YouTube and mobile phone crowd, there are enough negatives that, in my opinion, makes its approximately $100 cost unappealing.

DVD Cloner 5 Review

admin — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 16:00:09 +0000

DVD Cloner is software program that lets you make backup copies of your movies, music and purchased software from your original DVDs so you can protect that original from damage, loss or theft. The DVD Cloner 5 program won a gold award from the TopTenREVIEWS website as being one of the best DVD copying software packages available today. Below is a screen capture of the program.

DVD Cloner Features

This program comes with just about any feature that I would want in a DVD copying program. The following features are available in DVD Cloner 5.

Supported Formats – DVD Cloner 5 makes exact 1:1 copies of DVD-5 disks and allows the user to copy their DVD movies to both ISO and NRG files on a blank DVD or directly to your hard. The program can also copy CSS-encryption without needing to download a helper plug-in. The state of the art decryption engine can also copy region-protected, Sony ARCCOS protected and Disney movies.

The program supports dual-layer burning so compression is unnecessary if you have a compatible dual-layer burner. If not, you can compress DVD-9 to a single DVD-5 disk, use the movie only feature to minimize compression, or split the movie to two DVD-5 disks. While the quality of the compressed movie is very good, using two disks prevents any loss of movie quality.

Format Selection – The product includes technology that automatically scans the original disk format and provides the correct copying mode and options to the user.

Format Conversion – DVD Cloner 5 can convert your DVDs to multiple formats such as AVI, MPEG and SVCD. These are bonus features and must be downloaded from http://www.dvd-to-divx.com . As long as your copy of DVD-Cloner 5 is registered, all you need to do is install the downloaded bonus software after you have installed and registered the program.

Multiple Copies – DVD Cloner 5 has the ability to select the number of burned copies you want to make so you don’t have to go through the entire copying process again to make a second copy. All you need do is select the number of copies you want to burn and then the program will prompt you when it is ready for a new blank DVD.

HD-DVD and Blu-ray – With the use of a free downloadable helper plug-in available at (http://www.copyhddvd.net), you can rip HD-DVD and Blu-ray movies and then copy directly to your hard drive. However, you can only use this feature if you have an HD or Blu-ray player installed.

Supported Burners – DVD Cloner 5 supports most PAL, NTSC and DVD+-R/RW drives and is compatible with most stand alone DVD players.

Audio and Video Quality – the program has excellent audio and video synchronization, picture and sound quality. If you use the 1:1 copying option, the software creates and exact duplicate of the original disk with the exact same quality.

DVD Recovery – Probably the best feature of this software program is the ability to recover damaged data from scratches or bad sectors on a DVD and restore the lost data to your burned copy. The best part is that this feature is integrated into the full copy selection.

Language Compatibility – DVD Cloner 5 supports several different language including English, Korean, Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Greek, Hungarian and many more.

DVD Cloner Usability

Installation - The program is easy to install and doesn’t require downloading anything to use the standard features. However, to use the format conversion or HD-DVD and Blu-ray capabilities, additional software downloads are required. The downloading process should be easy for anyone who has ever downloaded and installed software from a website.

User Interface – Even the most technically challenged should have no problem using this software. There are two user modes: an Express Mode and an Expert Mode. In express mode, copying a DVD is pretty much of a one click operation. Even in the expert mode, there are software guides to walk you through the customization process so you can produce professional grade copies. The expert mode allows you to select which chapters, language, audio tracks and other features to use for your project.

Embedded Help File – There is a good help section but this product is so easy to use, most people will never need it.

Summary

With the inclusion of the automatic format discovery program, CSS decryptor capability and the bonus conversion software, DVD Cloner overshadows it competitors. This easy to use software finally makes backing up your original DVDs easy enough for anyone to do it. With a street price of under $60, this is a must have program for the video and music hobbyist.

Cyberlink PowerDVD Review

admin — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 21:27:09 +0000

If you want to watch movies on your desktop or laptop or, if you’re like me, plug the laptop into the big screen TV and play the Movies you downloaded, then you want to get a good quality DVD player for your computer.If you have windows 2000, XP or Vista you already have a media player that will do a decent job. But if you want exceptional quality audio and video, then you want to use PowerDVD 7 by Cyberlink.

Power DVD 7 is the number one ranked DVD player by the product review website toptenreviews.com

This program provides some of the best quality video and audio I have experienced when using the laptop connected directly to my high definition big screen TV. I can hook up to the home theater speakers I have and I have theater quality surround sound.

PowerDVD 7.0 can play all DVD formats including DVD-ROM movies and VCD titles. The Ultra version supports Blu-ray disc and HD DVD formats. You can also play video files encoded for your hard drive. Since this program cost between $50 and $100, it is definitely worth the cost.

System Requirements:

Microsoft Windows ME, 2000, XP or Vista
Screen Resolution minimum of 800 x 600 pixels with 1024 x 768 or higher recommended
PCI sound card, USB audio box or motherboard built-in audio device
Available hard disk space of at least 40 MB
DVD-ROM, DVD-R/RW, DVD-RAM, or DVD+RW drive with a 1394, ATAPI, SCSI, USB 2.0, or Card Bus interface
A Video Display card supporting DirectDraw overlay

Features

While some of these features are not available on all versions of the software, PowerDVD 7 Ultra has all of the following features:

It’s easy to install on windows XP and Vista and the program has an uncluttered appearance that makes navigation easy. One really nice feature is the ability to toggle the control panel to a mini size and put in the taskbar.
All features can be accessed from the icons on the toolbar or by right-clicking your mouse anywhere on the screen. Then you can bring up context sensitive menus.
PowerDVD 7.0 supports the Windows Media Center remote control.
An automatic screen aspect ratio technology using CyberLink Pano Vision (CLPV) that adjusts to the size of your screen so you won’t have to spend time trying to get the best ratio
The ability to play movies directly from your hard drive
Let’s you drag and drop the video object file (VOB) in windows explorer onto the player to automatically start the movie.
Ability to program your mouse or keyboard to make chapter selections, control volume, fast forward, reverse, etc.
Has a built in power control feature for notebooks that balances the power to allow the movie to continue to the end.
Supports H.264 playback, DivX Pro, WMV-HD, DVD Audio, CPRM, VCPS, DVD-VR, DVD-RAM, HD DVD, and Blu-ray disc
CLEV-2 video technology is used to balance viewing quality by removing the dark overlay from night scenes and adding contrast to brighter scenes to give you the most vivid, crisp and clear images possible. It also uses an adaptive de-interlacing program to avoid smeared, jagged or tiled spots on each individual frame.
CLMEI-2 (Cyberlink Multi-Channel Environment Impression) uses Dolby Pro Logic technology to convert a two channel audio source into multi-channel audio for output. It also supports two headphone channels, a virtual speaker, dynamic range compression and low frequency sound effects providing a surround sound effect when the multi channel output is played through two or more speakers. There are also settings for quiet, noisy or normal listening environments. PowerDVD 7.0 also supports all of the major audio technologies such as Dolby Digital EX 7.1 Surround Sound, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound, Dolby Pro Logic II multi-channel surround, and SRS TruSurround XT.
The Say-It-Again feature lets you repeat what was just said so you don’t need to rewind to hear the part you missed
Read-It-Clearly lets you move subtitles into the black bar below the viewing screen on wide screen movies.
PowerDVD 7 provides support for multiple monitors, media servers and Universal Plug & Play (UPnP) devices.
PowerDVD 7 provides good embedded help documentation, indexed by category with a built in search feature. There is also online support available.

Conclusion

The only negative I found is that the program doesn’t remember the screen size you used from the last session, which I find annoying. Other than that, PowerDVD 7 is the best DVD Player software available. It is well worth the cost. Not all of the features described above are available in all versions of the program so make sure you read the box to be sure the version you are buying has the features you want.

PCPowerGuide.com » Multimedia

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