Tips Of The Week

Tip 1:

Directshow is a mutimedia framework developed by Microsoft, which renders media files for various operations. It mainly uses FFDSHOW, which is a multipurpose media filter and it helps avoiding installation of various codecs for reading the media files (video and audio). Even though Directshow is integrated with Windows, you still have reasons to install K-Lite Codec Pack.

Tip 2:

To learn how to write the commands in Script Editor of VirtualDubMod, you must read the HTML documents about Resize and Crop in AVIsynth program folder (Program Files -> AviSynth -> Docs -> english -> corefilters). Since many of the movies downloaded from the internet are having wrong Aspect Ratio or black borders, (for God's sake, why can't they use AutoGK?) knowledge of the Resize and Crop commands in Script Editor of VirtualDubMod will be useful if you want to watch those movies in your TV. To watch them in your PC, you need not modify anything because you can simply change the aspect ratio in some media players like VLC.

Tip 3:

While browsing the web, I have many times stumbled upon a question - How to convert downloaded AVI files to DVD format (.VOB files)? Obviously, many people still use DVD players which can't play AVI files. Even though, watching the movie in PC itself is a good option, some people prefer their TV. Moreover, they might want to preserve some rare and good movies in DVD format. The simplest choice for them is to use Nero Vision to convert any movie file to DVD because it is already available in Nero Package (I assume most of you use Nero to burn DVDs). Next option is DVDflick. But, of course, the best option is Cinema Craft Encoder (CCE). Instead of using the CCE alone, better use it through AVI2DVD which is quite a nice program. It can be operated in 5 simple steps like AutoGK. Even though CCE produces the best quality, there are two problems; It is hard to get it because it is very costly and it works very slow.

Tip 4:

If you ask my opinion, processing a downloaded movie file is just a waste of time and energy. Even I do it sometimes to correct the aspect ratio of wrongly compressed AVI files, to remove black borders and compress downloaded DAT files and to convert file types (MKV/MP4 to AVI) just to watch them on TV or to preserve some rare and good movies. Yet, whenever there is a better quality file of the same movie available in some other site, I would rather download it than converting the first one. In my experience, that's the best thing to do. Of course, if your internet is slow or there is no other file available in the web, VirtualDubMod is always at your service !!

AVI Vs MKV

Question Of The Week

AVI Vs MKV

Which Is Better?

You can find that most of the downloaded movie files are .AVI and some are .MKV files. Both AVI and MKV file formats are nothing but containers of compressed movie data. They don't actually specify the encoding of data. Encoding is done by specific audio and video codecs. Thus the quality of the audio and video depend on the file size and the codecs used to compress the movie data to a particular file size.
1. Codecs:
AVI files usually contain XVID and DIVX as video codecs and MP3 and AC3 as audio codecs. MKV files use Advanced Video Codec (H.264/AVC) and Advanced Audio Codec (AAC) which belong to MPEG-4 standard and produce superior quality for a smaller file size. While AVI files can accommodate AVC, they are not compatible with AAC yet. This is clearly an advantage of MKV.
2. Subtitles:
Even though AVI files can contain multiple audio tracks like MKV files do, they cannot accommodate seperate subtitle streams. Only one subtitle language which will be encoded in the video as hard (internal) subtitle is possible in AVI format. But MKV files can contain multiple soft (external) subtitles among which you can choose any language like in a DVD or turn the subtitles off when not needed. That is another advantage of MKV.
3. Standalone Players:
If you want to watch downloaded movies in your TV, MKV files can't be played by Standalone DVD Players. But AVI files with their usual codecs (XVID, DIVX, MP3, AC3) can be played by any DIVX certified Standalone DVD Player. Although this is clearly a disadvantage of MKV, we shall positively expect that the makers of Standalone Players will soon incorporate MKV file format in their players despite the complexities of it.
Overall, MKV files are slightly better than AVI files. Hence, it won't be imprudent to say... AVI is the present; MKV is the future.

VirtualDubMod

Program Of The Week

VirtualDubMod

It can be called as Mother of all Video Editing Tools. This is a modification of Virtual Dub which is a open source progrm developed by Avery Lee. VirtualDubMod will take any video file as input through Directshow filters (see AVIsynth Templates in the OPEN FILE window). Output is given in three file formats (AVI, MKV, OGM). There are many other improvements from the original (Integration of multiple Audio streams and Subtitles). While VirtualDubMod can be used all alone for editing and compression purposes, it is also an integral part of video compression programs like AutoGK and AutoMKV. It can also be used for modification of the Audio stream properties like BitRate, Number of audio channels, Synchronisation with video etc., You can resize/crop the video using the Script Editor of AVIsynth (Look under the TOOLS tab in the Menu bar of VirtualDubMod) and see the effect instantly in video window by saving the commands (F5). There is also an option to capture video from recording devices. Even though, at first glance you will be panicked/confused by the Menu bar of VirtualDubMod, I promise you, it is very simple to use. Just read the manual given in HELP tab.

Saveasflv

Website Of The Week

www.saveasflv.com

This is not just another online video site. The name itself declares the difference; You can download and save the videos. Enter a key word in the search box and it will look for that video from a number of websites like youtube, metacafe, myspace etc., If you already know the URL (Uniform Resource Locator) of a particular video you want, enter it in the specific box provided and get it. The downloaded files will be in .FLV (flash video) format which is the file type universally being used for online streaming. The good news is .FLV files now support advanced codecs of MPEG-4 (AVC and AAC) which produce superior quality. If you don't have Adobe Flash player already in your browser, get it now. Of course, FLV files can be played by any media player which uses Directshow Filters.