For Android Smartphone

On your Android smartphone, launch the YouTube app (if you have not installed it, here’s the link).

Tap the “Menu” button and select the “My Channel” option.

Go to the Playlists tab and select your playlist.

Tap on any video to start playing. Once it has ended, the next video will continue automatically.

For Android tablet

While the YouTube app is the same, the interface is different.

At the top of the YouTube app, select “Your Channel”.

On the left sidebar, select “Playlist”. On the right pane, select the playlist that you want to play.

When you tap on a video to play, it will only play that video and won’t continue to the next video. To play all the videos in the playlist, you have to select the “Play all” option at the top right corner.

That’s it.

Note: From the YouTube app, you can also create new playlist and add/delete videos to/from your playlist. However, You will need to have at least one playlist in your YouTube account before the YouTube app allows you to create playlist. If not, it will show a “No Playlist found” error message.

Noow is a pretty new competitor to the media playback game. Its claim is that it can play back HD video with amazing quality. Lets see how it stacks up against VLC.

The desktop applications

Both are applications you will need to download and install onto your machine. The look of Noow is clean and modern.

There are options in the left sidebar to video sources like Hulu and YouTube. Also near the bottom of that same sidebar, there are some links to podcasts.

VLC has a more plain interface. It is not as stylish as Noow’s player, but has everything you typically access right there in the open.

Noow media types played

Noow can play MPEG, AVI, DivX, H.264, Flash Video, QuickTime, Windows Media. There is not a full list of file types anywhere I could see.

While installing Noow, you may want choose custom install so you can turn on support for QuickTime, MP3, AVI, MPEG, Windows media files. These are not checked by default.

VLC media types played

VLC has a full list of media types it can play. If you take a look at the file types, I doubt there are many out there that VLC won’t play.

Having the ability to play a specific media type can take a lot of the guess work out of deciding on the player you want to use.

Noow special features

Playback location – If you need to stop a movie or video before you finish it, Noow will remember the location where you stopped and automatically start you there when you open the file again.

RSS feeds – Get the latest video from your favorite site using the RSS feed option.

Torrent files – You can use files from Bit Torrent

Space – You can set aside a certain space on your hard drive for your downloads and be notified when it is full.

VLC special features

Stream – You can stream your audio and video files to other devices. This can be super cool if you set up an old computer as a media server.

Remote – Your Android device can be used as a remote to control your media playback.

Appearance – You can download different skins to change the look of the player window.

Conclusion

I am still leaning toward VLC. My reasoning is, I am using Windows 8 for most things recently and Noow was a bit choppy playing video. I don’t expect all of the applications to work perfectly on a new OS. Noow worked great for me in XP. VLC has been a great all around media player for as long as it has been around. They usually adapt to new formats very quickly.

What kinds of features help you choose which media player to use?

1. VPlayer

VPlayer is a solid video playing app that plays a number of video formats including DivX/xvid, wmv, m4v, flv, rmvb, avi, mkv, mov, mp4, 3gp, ts, and tp. Additionally, it supports most common streaming formats including http, rtsp, mms, and m3u. Furthermore, this app is fairly basic and straightforward to use. So, if all you want to do is watch your video files then this is probably the best choice. On the other hand the quality of some video files were lacking

Unfortunately, the free version of VPlayer lasts for 7 days before you must purchase the unlocker to be able to use the app beyond that period.

VPlayer

2. RockPlayer

In the past few months, RockPlayer has become the de facto alternative Android video playing app. It does not perform one function extremely well, however it has enough bells and whistles to ensure that the user is satisfied. It plays virtually every video format possible and it also supports external .srt subtitle files. The only problem I have noticed is that the player sometimes hangs when I attempt to stream a video over the internet. However, if I wait long enough, it starts playing.

The free version of RockPlayer displays a bright red “R” in the top left corner of your screen whenever you are viewing a video. To remove the “R” you must pay USD 9.99 and upgrade to the full version from the RockPlayer website.

RockPlayer

3. MoboPlayer

MoboPlayer, like the others, plays almost all video and audio formats and supports external subtitles. What sets this app apart is its slick playlist support and continuous playback of similar files. This makes it easier to queue up multiple videos. Additionally, videos on your SD card are displayed with their thumbnails making it easier for you to pick one to watch.

In some cases, MoboPlayer requires you to download additional codecs. These can all be found in the Android Market and you will be prompted to download them if the need arises.

MoboPlayer

4. MX VideoPlayer

This is the newest video playing app. In addition to supporting the standard video formats, it also supports Google’s .webm format which may become useful in the future. It also supports a wide range of external subtitle files including .srt .ssa .ass .sub .smi .mpl .txt .psb and Matroska subtitle track. In fact, if you watch a lot of foreign films or films with subtitles, I would recommend this app simply because the subtitles look the best on screen due to the way they are displayed. Lastly, the app automatically optimises its performance according to the CPU of your device which makes playback a lot smoother. However, I have noticed some problems playing .mkv files, such as jerky playback and artefacts appearing on the screen.

You may be prompted to download additional codecs from the Android Market should the need arise.

MX VideoPlayer

5. mVideoPlayer

This app is probably the weakest app in the list as it only plays the video codecs that are already supported by your device. Hence, it just brings a better UI and other enhancements to your default Android video player. I would only recommend paying for this app if any of its features are particularly useful, otherwise skip it.

mVideoPlayer

Conclusion

Android provides a plethora of choices. After trying all the video players above, I have decided to use RockPlayer Lite for the simple reason that it has given me the least number of problems and it has worked with every video without any issues. It does not have the best looking UI, and if that is important, then I would recommend MX VideoPlayer, but if you just want to watch a video without any issues, RockPlayer is the best choice.

As you know, syncing music/video between iTunes and your iOS devices is an one-way affair. You can only transfer music and video from iTunes to your devices and not the other ways around. If one day your iTunes library is corrupted, all the data will be gone even though you have a copy in your iOS devices. Wondershare iMate is able to sync and transfer your music and video from the devices back to iTunes. What’s more, it supports photos and ebooks as well.

In addition, Wondershare iMate include DVD ripping feature and ringtone maker so you can rip your DVD into iOS compatible format and quickly sync with your mobile devices.

The giveaway is available at http://www.wondershare.com/store/special-offer.html and is available from now till Apr 2nd, 2011. Grab it while it lasts.

Note: Wondershare iMate is for Windows only

I have a lot of music, videos, and pictures on my personal computer, but sometimes I am not at my desk and I still want to view my media content. Fortunately, I have an Android phone and with Skifta I can easily stream these files to my phone through a WiFi network.

Register for a Skifta Account

Registering for a Skifta account is free and allows you to use the advanced features of the app.

Install Skifta on your PC

Step One: After registering and before you can stream media from your PC to your Android device you will first have to download and install the Skifta database application (get Skifta for other devices) to your PC.

Step Two: Once the app is installed you will have to wait some time for the app to configure.

The Skifta application will now run in the background and you no longer have to worry about it. If you wish to remove Skifta, remember to uninstall the Skifta background app.

Step Three: Launch Windows Media Player to configure your network settings.

Step Four: Click on “Stream” and “Allow remote control of my Player…”. This ensures that Skifta on your Android device can read the data on your computer through Windows Media Player.

Step Five: Next click on “Stream” and “More streaming options…”. Here you can enable which devices are allowed to access your network. Ensure that you have allowed your Android device access to your “Homegroup”.

Your media will now be configured for streaming.

Install Skifta On Your Phone

Step One: After configuring your PC, install the Skifta Android app on your device.

Step Two: Ensure you are connected to a WiFi network (the app only works over WiFi)

Step Three: Launch the Skifta app on your Android device.

Step Four: Once the app launches, wait for the app to update.

Stream Media From Your PC To Your Android Device

After installing Skifta on your computer and your Android device, you can start streaming media.

Step One: On the main page of the Android Skifta app you will have to select a media source. Skifta allows you to stream content from your PC, other devices connected to your local network and even “channels” on the internet such as your Facebook Photos and podcasts like Revision3.

Step Two: Next you have to select the device you want the selected media to be viewed on. If you want to simply stream content to your Android device, then simply select your device.

Step Five: Now you will be able to start browsing and playing the media on your PC (or whichever other channel or device you selected earlier).

Step Six: Select the media type you wish to stream to your Android device. The media that is in your Windows Media Player library should appear in this list. Be warned if the list of media you are trying to load is quite large (for example a large number of videos) you may have to wait some time.

Step Seven: Finally, select a video to play it on your Android device.

That’s it! Provided the file you are trying to play uses a compatible Android media format it should play without a problem.

Conclusion

Skifta is one of the easiest streaming apps I have come across. As long as you follow the setup as described in this article you should have no problems streaming videos, music, and even photos. Having said that, unlike competing products Skifta does not convert the video on the fly. So, you have to first ensure that the video you are trying to stream is in a compatible format. This can be problematic, however it is not a deal breaker.

Recommended Reading:
AudioGalaxy: The Easiest Way to Stream Music to Android And iOS
How to Install VLC-Shares In Ubuntu And Stream Videos to Android

Software Downloads

The first and most important step to this process is to download the necessary software. You’re going to need two separate programs – Mac The Ripper and iSquint. Bascially, Mac The Ripper rips, or extracts, DVDs to your hard drive, and iSquint converts the video to be compatible with iOS devices. Mac The Ripper can be downloaded here and iSquint can be downloaded here.

Note: You can also use Handbrake to do rip your DVD into iOS compatible format. The only issue is that Handbrake does not support copy-protected DVDs while Mac The Ripper does.

Using Mac The Ripper

The first step is to insert the DVD of your choice into the Mac. Open Mac The Ripper. It will read and recognize the disc in your DVD drivet. Now you must click on the “Mode” option and change the “Full Disc Extraction” option to “Title Only Extraction”. Below these options, you want to make sure you have selected the title that is the longest and says “(MF)” or main feature. After you’ve completed this, you can return to the Disc tab and press GO!. In some cases, the program might prompt you to select a RCE Region. If it does, select RCE 1 and then click GO!. Finally, choose a location to save the file and let Mac The Ripper do its job. It will take some time.

Using iSquint

Once the DVD has been ripped, you can remove the movie and close Mac The Ripper altogether. Now open the file that was created, go into the “Video_TS” file, and drag the item into iSquint. Be sure that you have selected the “Optimize for iPod” option and have “H.264 Encoding” enabled. If you want to, you can select “Add to iTunes”. In my experience, this has given me a few problems, so you might want to avoid it. Personally, I disable it and just drag the file into iTunes manually when iSquint has finished. Choose the location for the movie to be saved in and click Start to begin the conversion process. Now all you have to do is wait until the file is converted into an iOS compatible video.

Wrap-Up

Finally, once iSquint finishes, open up iTunes and find the new video file. Click and drag it into your iTunes library and add it to your iOS device just like you would for any other video. Now that you’ve added the movie go ahead and quit iSquint and go enjoy it on-the-go with your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad!

Do you know any other ways to convert videos? Better, faster ways maybe? Give us all your comments below!

With iMovie, you can create better clips to show to your friends online or via MMS. Currently, it is offered in iTunes for $4.99. This is a very low price for a precious app that you can use to satisfy your artistic taste of a good customized movie clip.

How to Edit Video/Movie Clips

Step One: Launch iMovie from your Springboard and tap the ‘+’ button as instructed.

Step Two: Select the theme which best suits the movie you will be editing. Should you also want to use the theme’s music, you just have to toggle the button from OFF to ON. Of course, do not forget to tap on “Done” button thereafter.

iMovie offers five built-in themes you can choose from, namely; Bright, Modern, News, Playful and Travel.

Step Three: You will be brought to a screen wherein you have to choose whether to import previously saved media or to record from your iPhone’s cam.

Usually, I record video using cameras with high caliber lenses; I just don’t like the resolution of iPhone’s camera. Thus, I usually import videos to my iPhone rather than to record.

Step Four: When you import some videos to your iPhone, you will be able to choose from the thumbnails the video you want included in the timeline. The video clips that you put in the timeline are the ones that will be shown in your movie.

Step Five: Once you have added the clips to the timeline, you can edit them the way you want. You can move the clips forward or backward with a single swipe. To set the Title Style, Location or turn the audio off, you just have to double tap on the clip to open Clip Settings; you can even delete it from there.

After you’ve set everything, just tap on “Done” to proceed.

Step Six: Now, if you want to import another clip to add to your timeline, you can set the transition in between those clips the way you want it. Basically, the transition is the filler that connects the one clip to the other in your timeline. Double tap on the transition button to choose the type you want to use in between your clips.

There are four options you can choose from;

• None – if you choose this option, there will be a blank transition button between your clips; it indicates that there is not transition effects.
• Cross Dissolve – as what the name describes.
• Theme – it sets the kind of transition the matches the kind of theme you selected before you began editing the project.
• Duration – it will set specific time the next clip shows in seconds.

Step Seven: If you think the movie clip you are making is good enough and want to share it with your friends, you just have to export your customized movie. Just tap on “Project View” button and you will be able to see the export button from there. There are also three export options you can choose from; Medium (360p), Large (540p), and HD (720p).

Actually, the steps presented in this guide are so basic. You can do hundreds of things with iMovie iPhone app. All you have to do is to make yourself acquainted with the interface and functions of all buttons and you can create professional video clips out of your iPhone.

iMovie for iPhone (iTunes link)

Here we have gathered a list of media players that can play (almost) every other formats.

1. VLC Media Player

VLC is one player that need little or no introduction. If there is any media files that you can’t play, the first thing you must think of is VLC. From media formats like MP3, AC3, MPEG-3 to MPEG-4, H.264, DivX etc, VLC supports them all. It can also be used to convert media files from one format to another, and improve the compression ratio. It can act as a streaming server and you can see online videos using IPv4 (mostly used) or IPv6 protocol.

VLC is free to download/use and exists for almost every platforms, including the iPad and iPhone.

Supported OS: Almost all Operating Systems.

2. Media Player Classic

Media Player Classic is exclusively meant for Windows. Though it looks similar to Media Player v6.4, it has many additional features. It can even be used to implement a Home Theatre. Removal of tearing in video is another feature. It also supports EVR (Enhanced Video Renderer). Creation of minidump when MPC HC crashes, shuttle PN31 remote control support, multi-monitor configuration, pixel shader to convert BT601 – BT701, YV12 Chroma Up sampling pixel shader are some other features. Some of the supported audio and video formats are WAV, WMA, OGG, AU, AIF, AIFC, MOV, SND, AIFF, MIDI, MPEG, MPG, MP2, AC3, DTS, ASX, MP3, M3U, PLS, ASF, WM, WMA, WMV, AVI, CDA, JPEG, JPG, GIF, WAX, PNG, BMP, D2V, VOB, MP4, SWF, QT, FLV.

Supported OS: Windows NT/2000/XP/Vista/7

3. Moovida

Moovida is more than just a simple media player. It is a feature rich software that allows you to organize your digital media in a slick way. It offers enriched media library with which you can import media from local folders, network devices or even from the internet. The Videos Galore feature supports a wide variety of formats including DivX, avi, wmv, mkv, asf, flv, mov, h264 and ogg, Moovida is available in over 20 languages. Moovida Immersed is a new feature which will support remote control navigation on your HDTV. 

Supported OS: Windows and Linux

4. GOM Player

This player supports almost all CODECs and hence offers support for varied formats. In case you require an extra CODEC, GOM player will automatically direct you to the place where you can get one. It can play AVI files with broken index. It has a strong sub-title support with the major formats being SMI, SRT, RT, SUB (with IDX). You can create and work with your own playlists. It supports playlists similar to M3U, PLS and ASX. Screen Capture feature is also allowed and supports advanced features like customizing color, contrast and brightness. Some of the supported formats are gom, dat, avi, divx, k3g, asf, wm, wmx, wmp, wmv, wvx, ogm, mpeg, mpg, mpe, m1v, m2v, vob, mp4, 3gp, lmp4, skm, dmskm, mkv and ifo.

Supported OS : Windows 98/ME/2000/XP/NT

5. SMplayer

MPlayer is best known in Linux world, used as the backend for various media player. SMPlayer is the implementation of Mplayer in Windows. It comes with a simple GUI that allows you to control the functionality of MPlayer. One of the most interesting features of SMPlayer – it remembers the settings of all files you play. If you leave your movie half way, the next time you resume, it will restore to the same point you left it, and with the same settings: audio track, subtitles, volume…

Supported OS: Windows

6. KM Player

It lets you play almost everything easily. It can easily be customized. You can adjust the visualizations, add plug-ins and change its playback options. It supports a wide range of audio/video formats so that once installed, you won’t have to go for another player. KMPlayer has a small desktop footprint. It also sports a minimalist interface that makes video playback quick and hassle-free. Some of the supported formats are VCD, DVD, Ogg, MPEG-1/2/4,  AVI, MKV,  3GP, OGM, WMV, Real Media and QuickTime .

Supported OS : Win2000/XP/2003/Vista/7

8. K-Lite Codec Pack

If all you want is the ability to play various media formats and not to install a new media player, then K-Lite Codec Pack is the one software that you are looking for.

The K-Lite Codec Pack is a collection of codecs files required to play all the popular audio and video formats, and even several less common formats. It integrates itself to the Windows Media Player so you can play (almost) any files with WMP.

It is always a good thing to be pampered with choices. Even when the Windows Media Player doesn’t recognize the file format, it doesn’t have to be the end of World for you. The above list of media player + codecs should get you on with your life. What other method do you use to play that file that is not recognized by your media player?

For those who are having this problem, here’s the fix:

1. Disable hardware acceleration

1. Open your browser and go to YouTube.com. Start playing your video.

2. Right click on the video and click Settings.

3. On the flash popup, uncheck “Enable Hardware Acceleration”. Click Close.

Restart your browser and play the video in full screen mode.

Overriding GPU validation

If the above trick does not work, here’s what you can do:

Open a terminal and type the following command:

sudo mkdir /etc/adobe

echo "OverrideGPUValidation=true" >~/mms.cfg

sudo mv ~/mms.cfg /etc/adobe/

Start your browser and play the video in full screen. It should work now.

Other options

If you are using Firefox, you can install the FlashVideoReplacer extension. It replaces the flash player with movie player and is able to play the video in full screen and in HD quality.

via Ubuntu Forum

image credit: smemon87

Trick 1: Fast forward/Rewind the video

To fast forward the video, you just have to press the “right” arrow key on your keyboard. Similarly, press the “left” arrow button to rewind the video.

Trick 2: Skip to a particular section of the video

To skip to a particular section of the video, you can press “1, 2, 3…” or any number button to skip to 10%, 20%, 30%.. of the video. Press “0″ to go back to the start.

Note:

1. Trick 2 does not work in full screen and embedded mode.

2. Both tricks work when the video is playing or is paused.

3. In Firefox, if you have enabled the “search for text when typing” feature, you will have to click on the YouTube player to give it focus before you can perform trick 2.

What other YouTube tricks do you know?

via The Next Web

Some people are fine with this, but for those who wish that they can play (almost) any kind of movie files without the trouble of converting them can use some help from iOS apps that are built just for this purpose. Here are two alternative free apps that you can use.

1. VLC

This is one of the most popular media players for all the computer platforms out there, and now it has come to iPhone.

The iPhone version does only one thing and it does it very well – play videos. You can throw in practically any kind of videos and this baby will play them without difficulties.

The interface is also simple. You will see a list of available videos along with small thumbnails, “About” and “Edit” button (to delete the files), and nothing else.

To play a video, just tap on the one that you want to watch and you are ready to go. You can slide to adjust the volume and position of the scenes. There are also other standard playback buttons like Play/Pause and Skip Backward and Forward. Tap the “Done” button to stop playing, and tap the screen to hide/unhide the tools.

To add videos, you’ll need the help from iTunes. Plug your iPhone to your computer and open iTunes. Select the phone from the left pane and go to the “Apps” tab.

Scroll down to the bottom of the page and select VLC from the list. Click the “Add” button and browse to the place where the video files are, and the rest is self-explanatory.

2. OPlayer Lite

The second alternative is OPlayer. There are two version of this app: the Pro-paid version and the Lite-free version. Both come with more bells and whistles than VLC in terms of features.

Note: I’ve tried the lite version and it crashed a couple of times. Still, it’s a viable alternative.

You can add video files to OPlayer via iTunes, similar to VLC.

And those files will be presented in explorer-style. Tap on “My Documents” and you can choose one of the available videos to watch.

The playback options are similar to VLC, with the ability to play full screen by tapping on the screen.

There’s one thing that made me excited about OPlayer. I found out at the “Settings” that this app is capable of attaching subtitle to the movie (SRT files). So I experimented by adding a movie with its SRT files along with it. It turns out that the subtitle appeared for the first several seconds and then gone.

OPlayer is also able to add files via WiFi connection. You need to point your browser to the address that OPlayer provided. This address will always change every time you start the app, so be sure to check back the “WiFi Transfer” options from “More” menu every time you want to go through the process.

Your browser will show upload/download interface. Choose file and click the “Submit” button to upload, or click one of the file to download.

Another cool ability from OPlayer is the ability to open web page and download video files directly from the web. I opened YouTube successfully but not able to find any way to download the videos. I didn’t know any direct link to download videos from web so I couldn’t try the feature.

So far, these two apps are the best alternatives of video players that I could find in iPhone. If you know other alternatives, please share using the comment below.

Green screen (also known as Chroma key) is a commonly used technique for compositing two images or frames together in which a color (in this case, the green background) from one image is removed (or made transparent), revealing another image behind it. In Apple’s iMovie, this feature is readily available for your usage.

Why iMovie?

The main reason for using iMovie is because every new Mac has it, which makes it essentially free (save for a few cents for poster board, but we’ll get into that later) for all Mac users. Secondly, iMovie is easy to use and is effective for producing top-notch videos.

Keep in mind though, the green screening feature is only available in iMovie ’09. ’08 won’t do the trick. If you don’t have the newest version of iLife, don’t bother trying. All new Mac’s come with this though, so if you aren’t sure, open your version of iMovie and go to iMovie -> About in the menu bar to see which version you’re using.

Enabling Green Screening in iMovie

When I first started using the green screen function in iMovie, I was super confused because as much as I looked, and as confident I was that I was doing everything right, I couldn’t find green screen in the menu! There’s a simple solution to this problem, and I’m going to save you a ton of time here by cluing you in. Before doing anything, go to iMovie -> Preferences, and place a check beside “Show Advanced Tools“. This will make the cool options like green screening, picture-in-picture, and cutaways available. While they are labeled as advanced tools, they’re really easy to use. I’ll show you!

Steps to Creating Your Video

Now that you’ve enabled green screening, the first thing you need to do is decide on what background you want to use for your video. This can be a video or a still image, depending on what the purpose of your video is. 

Next, open iMovie, create a new Project, and drag it into the Project section at the top left corner of the screen. To adjust the length of the background to match the movie you want on the background, click the gear in the lower left-hand corner of the clip and select Clip Adjustments, then change the time appropriately.

Now you’ll need to film yourself to add on to the background. First, you’ll need a green screen. This is much easier than you may think. While you can go all out and either buy a fabric green screen or paint a wall green, you can also create one for almost nothing out of green poster board. Just scotch tape it onto a wall, and bingo, you’ve got a perfect, wrinkle-free green screen. Now, capture video of yourself doing whatever it is you want right into iMovie, by clicking the camera button on the left side.

Once you’ve recorded your clip, drag it up onto the background, and when you release the mouse button and the menu comes up, click Green Screen. Your recording will now be superimposed onto your selected background!

Lighting

Sometimes lighting can be tricky, but when working with lighting, remember these keys: you want the lighting even, and you want it bright. Unless you’re doing this for professional reasons, you can basically use any generic lamps you’ve got lying around the house. iMovie happens to be pretty great implementing green screen tech, and the Mac’s built in iSight is generally pretty capable, so you shouldn’t have too many issues. This is a generally accepted way to light a subject when recording for green screen:

If you do run into any shadowing problems, one trick I’ve learned that can work is to put a light behind the screen. This will help to bring some of the shadowing down in intensity, if it exists at all.

Wrap-Up

I told you it wasn’t too complicated! Have any questions? Let me know below and I’ll do my best to answer them. What do you plan on using the green screen technique for? Any tricks or tips for other users for those who have done it before?

I have been a fan of Windows Live Writer (WLW), Microsoft’s desktop blogging tool, for quite some time. It allows me to blog from the desktop and relieve myself of the cumbersome web interface. With the release of its newest incarnation (WLW 2011), it is also a good time to provide a review of its features.

WLW now has a Ribbon

WLW is a blog-publishing application featuring WYSIWYG and media editing. One of the greatest strengths of WLW is that it integrates with your blog, so when you are editing a post or creating a new one it does not feel like you are using an alien application. The newest version of WLW incorporates Microsoft’s much lauded ribbon feature which dynamically changes as you select different items on the page.

When text is selected:

When images are selected:

Integration with WordPress.com

To get started, you have to first add your blog detail to WLW. To add a new blog you must first click on the “Add blog account…” button under the “Home” tab on the ribbon.

This will launch the WLW wizard for adding a new blog.

Microsoft has recently partnered with WordPress, so if you select Create a new blog, you will be directed to the WordPress.com website to create a new account and blog.

If you are using other blogging platform, such as Blogger or self hosted WordPress, you can select one of the other platforms to connect it with WLW. For example, when I first added my technology blog TechComet to WLW, I selected the “Other services” link as TechComet is hosted on Google’s Blogger platform.

On the next page you will have to enter the URL of your blog and its username and password. Since, all Blogger blogs are linked to your Google account, simply enter your Google username and password here.

Once you have entered your account details, you will have to create a nickname for your Blog.

That is basically all it takes to add a new blog. Once WLW downloads all the technical information from the Blog, you can start writing and publishing your posts immediately.

Posting

WLW has a number of unique features, and my favourite is its ability to download the theme of your Blog.

As you can see, the theme of my blog has been downloaded and this is an useful visual indicator of how a post will look after publication.

Once you have completed a post you either hit the “Post draft to blog” button if you want to make further edits to your post before publishing, or you hit the “Publish” button to immediately have your new post appear on your blog.

Media Management

WLW’s most powerful feature is its ability to manage videos and pictures as though you were editing a local document.

Along the ribbon you have the option of adding picture or video files from a variety of sources.

Pictures

You can add pictures directly from your computer hard drive, or from the web.

Alternatively, you can add pictures through the “album” function, which allows you to use Window SkyDrive service to create a virtual slideshow of your images.

First select the “Create online album…” or “Add online album…” option.

Next add as many pictures you want into your album and select “Publish” from the ribbon.

Once published, WLW and Windows Live Services will automatically create a slideshow of your images on your blog.

Next, you can use SkyDrive to view these images as a slideshow.

Videos

The video options also allow you to add videos from external video sources such as YouTube.com.

Conclusion

WLW has eliminated the need for me to use Blogger’s, sometimes frustrating, web interface when creating a new post. I believe it will be useful to you too.

WLW is free for download and use. WLW is Windows only.

Download Windows Live Writer 2011

I shall cut the crap and go into the main points. Video Converter Factory Pro supports a great wide of video/audio format and range. Originally priced at $29.95, it is already considered a good deal. But now it is provided for free (limited time only), you will definitely not want to miss it.

Input File format supported

Video: AVI, MP4, DAT, MPG, MPEG, H.264, NSV, VOB, MOV, FLV, MKV, TS/TP/TRP(AVHD H.264, VC-1, MPEG-2 HD), DV, WMV, ASF,3GP, 3G2

Audio: WAV, APE, FLAC, M4A, WMA, AAC, AC3, MKA, OGG, AIFF, RA, RAM, MP3, MP2, MPA

Output File Format Supported

Video: WMV, VOB ,MPG, MOV, MP4, AVI, ASF, DV, 3GPP, 3GP, 3G2, FLV, MKV, M4V, SWF

Audio: FLAC, AIFF, AU, MKA, OGG, WAV, WMA, AAC, AC3, M4A, MP3

Output Device Supported

• iPod, iPod nano, iPod Nano 5G, iPod classic, iPod shuffle, iPod touch, iPod touch 3G, iPhone, iPhone 3G, Apple TV
• Zune, Zune HD
• Window Mobile device: Pocket PC, Dell Axim X51, HP iPaq hw6500 series, etc.
• PSP, PS3.
• Xbox, Xbox 360.
• BlackBerry, Common Mobile Phone.
• General MP4 players: Archos, Creative Zen, iRiver, Walkman etc.

Free Giveaway

To enjoy the free giveaway, here is what you need to do:

1. Go to Video Converter Factory Pro Giveaway – Free Licensed

2. Download and install the software.

3. Enter the registration key (as shown in the download page).

That’s it.

This free giveaway will end on 27th Oct 2010. Get it while it lasts.

The Basics

To work with JayCut, you first register an account at the site (don’t worry, it’s free). Unfortunately, JayCut will send you a copy of your username and password over plaintext email after the signup, so it’s probably wise to avoid using a login similar to ones you normally use. When that’s done, you’re ready to create your own video magic.

As you can see, there are tabs near the top to access different categories of media you might wish to include in your project. This can include audio-only tracks and still images. Video transition affects are included here as well, and will be covered in more detail later in this guide.

Adding Audio and Video Clips

Chances are, you’ll want to start adding video clips to work with. This can be done either by uploading a pre-existing file from your computer or by recording directly into JayCut. Both audio (via microphone) and video (via webcam) tracks can be recorded directly into JayCut through Flash. To being any of these tasks, you start by clicking the Add Media button in the upper right corner.

From here you can choose the source (existing file or new recording). If you choose a local file, it will be uploaded to JayCut and will show up in the Video tab.

If you choose to record from webcam or microphone, you’ll be given a screen like the following to choose the appropriate devices.

Followed by a test screen where you can verify that everything is working as intended.

Arranging Clips

Once you’ve finished recording and clicked Save, your clip should show up in the Video tab. If you don’t see it after a few seconds, try going to another tab and back again. When you see your clip, drag the thumbnail down to the sequencer at the bottom. Sometimes you have to drag verrrrrryyyyyy slowly and carefully, as not all browsers can handle JayCut with ease.

Continue with any other clips you want to add to your video.

Transitions

Once you’ve got your clips, arrange them so that you have the desired amount of overlap for a transition, as shown in the screenshot below. Then go to the Transitions tab and drag the desired effect into the row between the clips. It should snap for you to the correct location.

If you just click the thumbnail without dragging, the preview window on the right will give an A>B example of the transition effect.

Text Annotations

You can, of course, add a bit of text to your videos with a choice of font. In fact, if you use JayCut, you might end up the one person on all you YouTube not using white script on a blue background. The process is much like that for transitions. You open the Text tab and drag the desired style into the sequencer. Once it’s placed (and you can stretch the edges to determine time) you’ll see the text edit screen where you can enter your annotations along with font and size choices.

Saving/Publishing Your Video

While the free version of JayCut does not allow saving of the master version for later editing, you can publish your video to the web or save to your hard drive through the Publish/Download button in the lower right of the page. This will allow you to save or media to the location of your choice.

Update: The developers of JayCut has clarified that the “Save” button wasn’t disabled. It is just that it is always autosaving and LOOKED disabled.

Problems

JayCut isn’t perfect. As it requires some pretty intense browser power, it tends to run somewhat slow, at least on non-GPU accelerated browsers. Stability can occasionally be a factor as well, particularly on systems that already have some trouble with Flash. The worst issue, in my opinion, was not with the software itself but with the way the site handles new signups. I would think that in this day and age, they would know better than to send your username and password unrequested over plaintext email.

Conclusion

Those few problems aside, JayCut is an extremely impressive site. Prior to seeing it for myself, I’m not sure I could have believed you could put this much functionality into an easy-to-use web app. JayCut is part of the new breed of web applications that are beginning to challenge the belief (held by myself and others) that web apps will never quite match the speed, power and comfort of local applications. Will it be the editing platform of the next summer blockbuster? Probably not – but it will play a part in my next home video.

Previously, we have mentioned several software for video editing, compression and even conversion. One thing that we didn’t touch on was video resizing. While there are plenty of video editing software out there (both free and commercial), not all of them support video resizing. Microsoft’s Windows Movie Maker is one of those without the video resizing feature. In addition, for those video editors that come with video resizing feature, it is always embedded deep in the settings and is not available in the frontend.

In this tutorial, let’s see how you can resize your video in various OS.

Note: The meaning of “resize” in this article is referring to the display size of the video, not the file size.

Linux (illustrated with Ubuntu)

Avidemux, Openshot, Kdenlive are some of the video editors in Linux, but the one that we are going to use is PiTiVi. The reason is because this is the default video editor in Ubuntu Lucid (and above). Sorry to non-Ubuntu users.

In PiTiVi, first import in your clip.

Next, go to Project -> Project Settings. Under the Video Output section, select “Custom” from the dropdown field.

You should be able to set the video’s width, height and frame rate.

Next, proceed on to edit your video. Once you are done, click the “Render Project” button to save your video.

Windows

In Windows, other than the Windows Movie Maker, the next popular free video editor is Virtualdub. Unlike WMM, it supports video resizing and doesn’t require installation.

1. Download VirtualDub. Extract the zip file and run the VirtualDub application.

2. Go to “Video -> Filter“.

3. Click “Add”. Scroll down the list until you find the entry “Resize”. Select it and click OK to add it.

4. In the next window, you will be able to change the size of the video. You can use either absolute sizing or relative sizing. I would recommend using “relative (%)” as it will retain the aspect ratio of the video.

5. Once you are done editing your video, go to “File -> Save As AVI” to export your video.

Mac

iMovie is a great software for video editing, and the best of all, it is pre-installed in Mac.

Open your iMovie. Import your media clips and do your editing. After you are done editing the video, go to “Share -> Export to QuickTime“.

Click on the Options button.

Under the Video section, click on the Size button

In the Dimensions dropdown field, select Custom. You should be able to set your video size now.

That’s it.

If you have any questions, feel free to leave your comments below.

1. Minitube

A pure Qt application, Minitube is cross-platform and integrates well with KDE. Plainly put, it is a desktop YouTube client. Rather than opening a web browser and watching YouTube videos from the website, this little app allows you to watch up to 1080p streaming YouTube videos, just by entering a search term. The app is great for lower-powered devices, such as netbooks and tablets, that may lag when viewing Flash-based videos. Minitube is available for Linux and Mac OS X.

2. Skrooge

Pinching pinnies tends to be associated with negative, stingy people, but with today’s economy, most people are struggling financially. Skrooge is a KDE Extragear app that helps you manage your personal finances. It allows you to add multiple bank accounts, balance your checkbook, schedule bill payments, import bank statements, and run reports, complete with helpful graphs and charts.

3. Konvertible

With the multitude of devices many people have these days, you may need to convert audio files on a regular basis. Aside from dropping to the command line, there are not a lot of options for converting media files in Linux. Konvertible makes it easy to convert a wide variety of audio codecs: Mp3, Ogg Vorbis, and anything else supported by your version of ffmpeg.

4. PlaybaK

Former known as KDE Media Player, PlaybaK is a full-featured media player that aims to provide comprehensive media management and playback support, including music, videos, and more. It is still in early development but already supports many formats and has received very positive ratings and reviews on KDE-Apps.org. Both source code and some Linux distribution binaries are currently available for download.

5. Silence

I am not even sure if I fully get Silence, but the features and possibilities make it an app to watch. The developer describes it as an “information management tool” that allows you to store your data, search through it, and view it in an hierarchical way. It supports plain text, rich text, images, and programming code (with syntax highlighting), making it ideal for note-taking, coding, and just about anything else you can think up that requires organized information. It is light, fast, and free.

Finding KDE Apps

The best way to find these apps and others like them is to search KDE-Apps.org. The ones I have mentioned are those that I find useful, but you may find many others that better suit your needs. KDE-Apps.org includes ratings and comments from users, a helpful search tool, screenshots, and provides the ability to contact the developers directly. As developers update their apps, they usually post their updates to KDE-Apps.org, making it ideal for tracking apps in early development. Like all KDE applications, these work in other desktop environments, such as Gnome and LXDE, and most are available for multiple operating systems.

One thing you can enjoy when you have your iPhone 4 jailbroken is the capability to use FaceTime Video Calling even if you are using a 3G network. FaceTime is one of the coolest features of iPhone 4 which enables you to do video calls to your friends and families. However, you must be in a WiFi zone to be able to utilize such feature… but not anymore.

A Cydia app called My3G makes it possible for you to use apps which require WiFi connection to run even over a 3G network. So, you don’t have to find WiFi zones every time you use FaceTime video calling. Here’s a quick tutorial on how to install and run My3G on your jailbroken iPhone 4.

Installation

Step 1. Launch Cydia from your iPhone’s springboard and tap on the “Sections” tab located at the bottom of the screen.

Step 2. Look for “System” and tap on it to open a list of system packages.  Then look for “My3G” and tap to open the package.

Step 3. There should be an “Install” button found on the upper-right of the screen, tap on it. You will, then, be asked to confirm your last action; just tap on the “Confirm” button to initiate the installation.

Step 4. Congratulations! Your My3G installation is done. Just tap on the “Reload Springboard” button located at the bottom. It is impossible to miss it because it’s large enough to catch your attention.

Running My3G

Upon the completion of the installation, the springboard will be refreshed and you will be able to see a new icon–My3G.

Step 1. Tap on My3G icon to launch the app. You will then be asked to sign in using your RockID. If you have one, then you are good to go and ready to tap on “Sign In” button. Otherwise, tap “Create New RockID” button.

Step 1.1. Creating a new RockID will not take a minute of your time. What you need is your Name, Email address and Password. Enter them into their respective fields and tap “Create New RockID” button if done. After which, you are ready to sign in using your newly created RockID.

Step 2. If you were able to log into My3G, you will be notified that the trial will expire in 9 days. Nonetheless, you can use the full functionality of this app even if you are under a trial period.

Step 3. Tap the “Home” button then open “Contacts” tab to select a contact who also uses FaceTime. Once you have selected the contact, simply tap on “FaceTime” button to start using FaceTime Video Calling over 3G network. Enjoy!

Don’t forget that the trial version will expire in 9 days. During this time, you can evaluate if you really need to use video calling with FaceTime. If so, then you have to purchase or pay for the app once trial expires; as of this writing, FaceTime costs $3.99. The price is all worth it if you really need to use this feature.

Another problem is that other members of my family do not know how to operate my laptop and whenever I am away from home, they are unable to view the photos.

Then I thought – “Wait, why not burn these photos on a DVD drive as a video so that my family members can watch them on the Television. They can watch all the photos in my absence and there is no need to use the computer at all.”

So basically there are two steps involved:

1. Use a software application to create a video from a bunch of pictures.
2. Burn the video on a CD or DVD drive.

Here are two free programs which can be used to create a video from a large collection of photos:

PhotoFilmStrip

PhotoFilmstrip is the easiest program which can be used to create a video from a collection of photos. After the application is installed, open the program and hit “Control + I” to import all the pictures, as shown below:

2. This will open the editing pane where you can adjust the position of the images in the video. Simply drag and drop the images to position them in the sequence you want:

In the preview pane, you can adjust the output resolution of the video by dragging the cursor on the border of the selected image. The editing can be done on the left pane while the preview is shown on the right.

Next you can add subtitles and captions to a picture and specify the duration of the image in the video, as shown below:

When you are done with all the settings, make sure to save the combination as a project file from File > Save as. This will be handy when you want to add more pictures to the project later and may want to render the video from scratch.

To render the video, click the small “Right” icon and choose the project settings as VCD. Then specify the output directory and hit the “Start” button.

All done, the pictures will be combined into a video file and saved on the location you have specified. When the rendering is complete, double click the video file and you can view the video in Windows Media Player or any other media player of your choice.

Windows Movie Maker

If you want to add more effects to the movie, another great program worth trying is Windows Movie maker. Windows Movie Maker is available on Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 by default, you can also download the latest version from the Windows Live essentials website.

The advantage of using movie maker is that apart from images, you can also add video files, background music, add title effects, sounds and transition effects to individual clips. Here are the steps to create the movie using Windows Movie Maker:

1. Click the “Add Videos and Photos” button and import all the media files in movie maker, as shown below:

2. Next, you can import a wav or MP3 file which will be played as the movie background:

3. To add custom animations to the individual image clips, switch to the “Animation” tab and apply an animation effect. There are different effects to choose from – default, dissolve, cinematic and reveals.

You can choose to apply the animation to one clip or to all of the clips added to the project.

4. Next switch to the “Visual effects” tab and here you can add various color effects to the clips. The options are – Black and White, sepia, cinematic, dissolve and so on.

5. When you are done adding all the visual effects and image transitions, go to the “Project” tab and select the output format as either wide screen (16:9) or standard(4:3) format.

6. Almost done, now you have three options:

• Publish the movie to your YouTube, Facebook, Skydrive or Flickr account
• Save the movie in your computer.
• Burn the movie in a CD/DVD.

After the movie has finished rendering, you can use Nero or other programs to burn the movie in a CD or DVD drive.

Have you uses any other tool to create a movie using a set of pictures? Please share your ideas in the comments.

What is ScreenFlow?

ScreenFlow, very simply, is a screen capture program. You can get it here, and can try it for free. While the full version costs $99, the trial version is fully functionaly, though it does watermark your end result once you upload it to YouTube.

How is it used?

ScreenFlow is ridiculously simple to use, yet powerful if you want to take the time to learn its intricacies. Upon starting ScreenFlow, you’re greeted with this box:

Simply decide which options you want and click the record button at the bottom. If you do choose to record video from a camera as well as the screen capture, your camera image will appear in a box in the corner of the video.

The recording process

The recording process is super simple. You will see a countdown, just like in OS X’s built in Photo Booth application, and then the recording will begin. You can narrate, have music on, or do just about anythign else you can think of. Once you’re finished, you can click the ScreenFlow Camera Icon in your Mac’s menu bar, or you can just hit the keyboard shortcut to stop the recording, which is Command-Shift-2.

Editing in ScreenFlow

Editing is where ScreenFlow really shines. Once you stop the recording, you’re greeted with the editing screen:

In the editing screen, you can trim the clip, as well as add effects of all sorts. The level of complexity varies, but if you really want you’re videos to look professional, its certainly possible. Check out some of their demos at the developer’s site here for some insight into the possibilities this software offeres.

Wrap-up

Do you guys know any quick and easy ways to do this?  Maybe something free that works similarly? Have you tried ScreenFlow, and if so, what did you think of it?  Tell us in the comments!