Introducing XBMC

Introduction

XBMC is a free and open source media player application developed by the XBMC Foundation, a non-profit technology consortium. XBMC is available for multiple operating-systems and hardware platforms, featuring a user interface for use with televisions and remote controls. It allows users to play and view most videos, music, such as podcasts from the internet, and all common digital media files from local and network storage media.

Youtube Video Downloads

Introduction

Now you probably already know some internet websites that provide the service of downloading youtube content, and great they Youtube is, it does suffer from bandwidth issues especially if you are on a slow network. Not your fault perhaps but not Google's either as you pay on the basis of what you can afford. Some have additional difficulties when the content or the number of Gigabytes they use is effectively capped.

Multiple Video Outputs

Introduction

A rather neat way these days to expand the functionality of your Linux Desktop is to spread the Desktop screen itself across several monitors. There are many ways to achieve this and one of the ways we will discuss here in this article. Dual screens are not that uncommon now days even for Ubuntu(Linux), Windows and Mac, this article however will be dealing with the configuration of a Quad Monitor display output.

Video converters

Just when you think a particular video format has become the norm, then somebody goes and creates a new one, better, faster more compact etc.

Or your favourite video clip has been recorded in some proprietary format. Whatever the reason, somebody somewhere wants to convert one format to another. This is by no means a definitive list, but here are some converters which have been used and reviewed.

Video Ascii - ASCII Art

Introduction

ASCII stands for "American Standard Code for Information Interchange" it is one of the the most widely used examples of usable character standards currently in use. You probably don't even realise it but if you are using a computer to read this, then you are most likely using ASCII to access and read this very article. It is widely used as common printable characters a-z, A-Z and 0-9 along with the various punctuation marks and readily found on your screen and keyboard. Video Ascii is a form of Ascii Art this is the depiction of a readily distinguishable object, person or form that uses the tonal qualities within individual characters to display a recognisable picture. This type of art first came about with the early typewriter and with individual keyboard characters painstakingly manipulated to depict a person or object. This process was only made slightly quicker with the introduction of the electric typewriter, but not much. As computers came into the scene display outputs were extremely simple, both video and print but the production of Ascii Art was almost automated and much simplified. Now it is possible to produce video Ascii Art using common tools readily available from within standard Ubuntu repositories.

ASCII code Table

Howto convert Mpeg or Mp4 to FLV Video file format

Introduction

This is a very simple console conversion method I came across, in order to create this format it does depend to a large extent on the source file being converted from. In other words if you have a crap source file your resultant file will or may look worse, so always choose the best quality and best resolution file you can lay your hands on before converting.

W32Codecs - Howto

I recently needed to come to the rescue of one of our club members the other day having some trouble playing some video content, so thought I would spell out what you need to add to get things working properly for both 32bit and 64bit systems for Jaunty Jackalope. Having the Flash Plugin now working on 32bit Firefox is great in Jauty Jackalope and only requires the installation of ubuntu-restricted-extras.

W64Codecs - Howto

I recently needed to come to the rescue of one of our club members the other day having some trouble playing some video content, so thought I would spell out what you need to add to get things working properly for both 32bit and 64bit systems for Jaunty Jackalope. Having the Flash Plugin now working on 64bit Firefox is great in Jauty Jackalope and only requires the installation of ubuntu-restricted-extras.

Introduction to Video Editing with a Samsung VP-D10

The Samsung VP-10 at first glance may appear to be a good choice for a hand held camcorder but is it a choice with Linux in mind, today we tried to marry the contents of this video camcorder into Linux Ubuntu Hardy Heron Version 8.04. The Samsung VP-D10 does not support USB (Universal Serial Bus) it uses tapes and has no non linear storage facility.

FLV file converter in Linux

Using "mencoder" to create "flv" from "VOB" DVD video format files

Many websites nowadays are using swf and flv file formats to play videos hosted on their site or sites, it's advantage is clear in that the file itself is often in comparison to regular video format files, smaller and easier to upload so the site is able to hold and run more video content with much less bandwidth than would normally be required.