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Friday, December 9. 2011
Managing Your Media on the Cheap
This is how I create a media suite from free apps.
If you're like me and you don't have to have some of the "premium features" nor do you mind managing more than a single application, then it's very possible to put together a low to no cost home built media suite. Let me tell you about some of the things you'll want to get.
Your Burning Desire!
Your CD, DVD, or Blu-Ray drive should have shipped with at least an OEM version of one of the more notable commercial burning programs, but if not, there are lots of free alternatives that are very good. More over, if you are using Windows 7, you can burn CDs, DVDs, and BDs without any third-party software. And that includes making ISO and IMG files from your discs. If you're like me however you'll want a separate program and the two best ones that I've found out there are ImgBurn [www.imgburn.com] and CDBurnerXP [www.cdburnerxp.se]. Both are free and very capable products.
BLU-LIGHT Special
If you have a Blu-ray drive you may have found that it's not easy to play a Blu-ray movie on your PC for free. It's not impossible, but there aren't many free players out there. Being the new kid on the block and the fact that there isn't a lot of free offerings, be careful because what looks like free could be a commercial program in disguise (i.e., pirated). Your BD Player or equipped PC should have come with a player. If not, and you can't find something for free to play it, you can rip your Blu-ray and view it on VLC [www.videolan.org] or any media player that supports MKV (Matroska) file formats. A popular program that decrypts and rips Blu-ray discs to MKV is MakeMKV [www.makemkv.com]. This is technically circumventing copy protection, but as long as it's for fair-use backups, I don't have a problem with doing it.
Get The Red Out!
Photo editors are a dime a dozen or really there are dozens out there for free would be more accurate. From small simple applications that just do a limited set of things quickly to full blown layered editors that rival or exceed the very expensive commercial offerings. My favorite for viewing, organizing, and making quick fixes like resizing, red eye removal, rotating, etc.. is FastStone Image Viewer [www.faststone.org]. I mainly like the fact that it works with images very similar to how Windows Explorer works with files. So it's a familiar feeling experience. Unlike Picasa 3 [www.picasa.google.com] which, while it is very slick, can be very frustrating to use at times. In either case, these both are completely free programs and do a very handy job of managing your gigs of photos.
For more serious editing of images you can't get any more powerful than GIMP [www.gimp.org]. GIMP has been around a long time and all the bells, whistles, and more. It rivals the expensive PhotoShop. But all those tools cause a pretty high learning curve that most of use just don't want to take on. I think a better alternative is PAINT.NET [www.getpaint.net]. This free application is a powerful image editor designed for the techie on the street.
I'm Ready for My Close-Up
Video editing can be very rewarding when you get that right mix of footage and sound with a few cool transitions thrown in and then you can take it to the world on one of the many video sharing sites like YouTube. And the good news is that Microsoft provides a fairly nice and FREE application to do just that. It was MovieMaker in Windows XP and with Windows 7 it's now Windows Live Movie Maker. Just google it and you'll find it. But if want a little more than just the basics there are some free applications out there for you video buffs. They are a little harder to figure out, but in exchange they provide you with some additional capabilities. VirtualDub [www.virtualdub.org] and Avidemux [avidemux.sourceforge.net] are two that do the trick pretty handily. This is one area where it will probably be best to go with a commercial application. I tend to like the offerings from Corel and if you watch the usual online computer stores they have nice sales on these packages every so often. $40 to $50 is not too much to pay for something that makes really pro looking videos and is fairly painless to operate.
Rippin' and Rollin'
Believe it or not, I'm still a bit of a novice when it comes to ripping music from CDs to MP3. I do have a few MP3 players and I have done some ripping, but I'm sure there are a lot of non-geek people out there who have much more experience doing this than I do. There's basically two levels of doing this. The Quick Rip for just getting some music converted and placed on your MP3 player to have and hold. And then there is the Archival Ripping. Archival Ripping takes a little more work and time, but you end up with high-quality MP3s that take up a bit more space. With storage space being so cheap these days, it's probably more desirable to have best quality over least amount of used space.
Since you all probably know more about Quick Ripping with your Windows Media Player or iTunes lets talk about Archival Ripping. Best way to do this is using something to grab the audio - Exact Audio Copy [www.exactaudiocopy.de] and something to do the encoding like LAME MP3 encoder [www.lame.sourceforge.net]. Here's a quick guide to taking all your old Audio CDs and backing them up to the best quality digital storage you can.
Start by downloading and installing LAME. You can get a compiled version from Rarewares [www.rarewares.org] There is no install program so you'll want to unzip the download into a folder on your local drive. Under Program Files would be a good place. Just make a folder called LAME and unzip the download files contents into that folder. Now download and install Exact Audio Copy (EAC) and be mindful during the install as it will attempt to install some unwanted additional software if you don't uncheck it from the list of things to be installed.
After installation EAC will go right into is configuration wizard. It will detect your optical drives and come to a point where it will ask if you are focusing on speed or accuracy, be sure to select accuracy. Next it will want to test your CD drive, so select a good clean disc to insert for the test. It will then ask you for an MP3 encoder and you will click the browse button and point to the LAME program that you unzipped earlier. There will be other choices to make along the way that are fairly self-evident. Finally when it asks, do select to run it in "expert" mode.
Once the configuration wizard is done, there are still a few settings you should change. Go to EAC > Drive Options and dismiss the warning you'll get. Now find and insert one of the worst scratched up CD you can find and click the Examine C2 Feature button. If it says that your drive is capable of finding C2 error information, check the box next to “Drive is capable of retrieving C2 error information.” This will noticeably increase the speed of your rips.
Now lets set the MP3 bitrate. Go to EAC > Compression Options. Lets set EAC to use LAME’s V0 profile, the highest variable bitrate setting. To do this, change the field labeled “Additional command-line options” to %l-V 5%l%h-V 0%h --vbr-new %s %d. (Note that the number in the middle has changed from a 2 to a 0.) Now, as long as the “High quality” radio button is selected, LAME will use the V0 profile, regardless of what is selected in the bitrate dropdown menu.
Since we are going to rip multiple discs, you'll want to change these options: Go to the General tab, check the box marked “On unknown CDs” and click the radio button next to “Automatically access online freedb database.” Also, check “Eject CD after extraction finished” for faster ripping of multiple discs.
In the Directories tab, click the “Use this directory” radio button, and select a folder to store your newly encoded MP3s. That should do it, you are now ready to build the ultimate Digital CD Archive.
Insert the first music CD into your drive and EAC will display a list of tracks. It should automatically download track names and other ID3 tags for each track on each CD. Be sure you look over the info to make sure it's all correct.
Now, Click Action > Test & Copy Selected Tracks > Compressed to kick off the ripping process. And you are off and Ripping. Be aware, it will take considerably longer to rip the MP3s with EAC than it would with iTunes, but the MP3s created will be as close to error-free as you can get.
You ARE Batman!
There you have it. An awesome media suite and you didn't hardly spend any money. I'm sure there are some alternate programs from the ones I have mentioned in this article and I'd love for you to leave a comment telling me about them. Or if you set yourself up with everything I've suggested above and want to tell me what you think about it, that's what the comments are all about. Enjoy!
If you're like me and you don't have to have some of the "premium features" nor do you mind managing more than a single application, then it's very possible to put together a low to no cost home built media suite. Let me tell you about some of the things you'll want to get.
Your Burning Desire!
Your CD, DVD, or Blu-Ray drive should have shipped with at least an OEM version of one of the more notable commercial burning programs, but if not, there are lots of free alternatives that are very good. More over, if you are using Windows 7, you can burn CDs, DVDs, and BDs without any third-party software. And that includes making ISO and IMG files from your discs. If you're like me however you'll want a separate program and the two best ones that I've found out there are ImgBurn [www.imgburn.com] and CDBurnerXP [www.cdburnerxp.se]. Both are free and very capable products.
BLU-LIGHT Special
If you have a Blu-ray drive you may have found that it's not easy to play a Blu-ray movie on your PC for free. It's not impossible, but there aren't many free players out there. Being the new kid on the block and the fact that there isn't a lot of free offerings, be careful because what looks like free could be a commercial program in disguise (i.e., pirated). Your BD Player or equipped PC should have come with a player. If not, and you can't find something for free to play it, you can rip your Blu-ray and view it on VLC [www.videolan.org] or any media player that supports MKV (Matroska) file formats. A popular program that decrypts and rips Blu-ray discs to MKV is MakeMKV [www.makemkv.com]. This is technically circumventing copy protection, but as long as it's for fair-use backups, I don't have a problem with doing it.
Get The Red Out!
Photo editors are a dime a dozen or really there are dozens out there for free would be more accurate. From small simple applications that just do a limited set of things quickly to full blown layered editors that rival or exceed the very expensive commercial offerings. My favorite for viewing, organizing, and making quick fixes like resizing, red eye removal, rotating, etc.. is FastStone Image Viewer [www.faststone.org]. I mainly like the fact that it works with images very similar to how Windows Explorer works with files. So it's a familiar feeling experience. Unlike Picasa 3 [www.picasa.google.com] which, while it is very slick, can be very frustrating to use at times. In either case, these both are completely free programs and do a very handy job of managing your gigs of photos.
For more serious editing of images you can't get any more powerful than GIMP [www.gimp.org]. GIMP has been around a long time and all the bells, whistles, and more. It rivals the expensive PhotoShop. But all those tools cause a pretty high learning curve that most of use just don't want to take on. I think a better alternative is PAINT.NET [www.getpaint.net]. This free application is a powerful image editor designed for the techie on the street.
I'm Ready for My Close-Up
Video editing can be very rewarding when you get that right mix of footage and sound with a few cool transitions thrown in and then you can take it to the world on one of the many video sharing sites like YouTube. And the good news is that Microsoft provides a fairly nice and FREE application to do just that. It was MovieMaker in Windows XP and with Windows 7 it's now Windows Live Movie Maker. Just google it and you'll find it. But if want a little more than just the basics there are some free applications out there for you video buffs. They are a little harder to figure out, but in exchange they provide you with some additional capabilities. VirtualDub [www.virtualdub.org] and Avidemux [avidemux.sourceforge.net] are two that do the trick pretty handily. This is one area where it will probably be best to go with a commercial application. I tend to like the offerings from Corel and if you watch the usual online computer stores they have nice sales on these packages every so often. $40 to $50 is not too much to pay for something that makes really pro looking videos and is fairly painless to operate.
Rippin' and Rollin'
Believe it or not, I'm still a bit of a novice when it comes to ripping music from CDs to MP3. I do have a few MP3 players and I have done some ripping, but I'm sure there are a lot of non-geek people out there who have much more experience doing this than I do. There's basically two levels of doing this. The Quick Rip for just getting some music converted and placed on your MP3 player to have and hold. And then there is the Archival Ripping. Archival Ripping takes a little more work and time, but you end up with high-quality MP3s that take up a bit more space. With storage space being so cheap these days, it's probably more desirable to have best quality over least amount of used space.
Since you all probably know more about Quick Ripping with your Windows Media Player or iTunes lets talk about Archival Ripping. Best way to do this is using something to grab the audio - Exact Audio Copy [www.exactaudiocopy.de] and something to do the encoding like LAME MP3 encoder [www.lame.sourceforge.net]. Here's a quick guide to taking all your old Audio CDs and backing them up to the best quality digital storage you can.
Start by downloading and installing LAME. You can get a compiled version from Rarewares [www.rarewares.org] There is no install program so you'll want to unzip the download into a folder on your local drive. Under Program Files would be a good place. Just make a folder called LAME and unzip the download files contents into that folder. Now download and install Exact Audio Copy (EAC) and be mindful during the install as it will attempt to install some unwanted additional software if you don't uncheck it from the list of things to be installed.
After installation EAC will go right into is configuration wizard. It will detect your optical drives and come to a point where it will ask if you are focusing on speed or accuracy, be sure to select accuracy. Next it will want to test your CD drive, so select a good clean disc to insert for the test. It will then ask you for an MP3 encoder and you will click the browse button and point to the LAME program that you unzipped earlier. There will be other choices to make along the way that are fairly self-evident. Finally when it asks, do select to run it in "expert" mode.
Once the configuration wizard is done, there are still a few settings you should change. Go to EAC > Drive Options and dismiss the warning you'll get. Now find and insert one of the worst scratched up CD you can find and click the Examine C2 Feature button. If it says that your drive is capable of finding C2 error information, check the box next to “Drive is capable of retrieving C2 error information.” This will noticeably increase the speed of your rips.
Now lets set the MP3 bitrate. Go to EAC > Compression Options. Lets set EAC to use LAME’s V0 profile, the highest variable bitrate setting. To do this, change the field labeled “Additional command-line options” to %l-V 5%l%h-V 0%h --vbr-new %s %d. (Note that the number in the middle has changed from a 2 to a 0.) Now, as long as the “High quality” radio button is selected, LAME will use the V0 profile, regardless of what is selected in the bitrate dropdown menu.
Since we are going to rip multiple discs, you'll want to change these options: Go to the General tab, check the box marked “On unknown CDs” and click the radio button next to “Automatically access online freedb database.” Also, check “Eject CD after extraction finished” for faster ripping of multiple discs.
In the Directories tab, click the “Use this directory” radio button, and select a folder to store your newly encoded MP3s. That should do it, you are now ready to build the ultimate Digital CD Archive.
Insert the first music CD into your drive and EAC will display a list of tracks. It should automatically download track names and other ID3 tags for each track on each CD. Be sure you look over the info to make sure it's all correct.
Now, Click Action > Test & Copy Selected Tracks > Compressed to kick off the ripping process. And you are off and Ripping. Be aware, it will take considerably longer to rip the MP3s with EAC than it would with iTunes, but the MP3s created will be as close to error-free as you can get.
You ARE Batman!
There you have it. An awesome media suite and you didn't hardly spend any money. I'm sure there are some alternate programs from the ones I have mentioned in this article and I'd love for you to leave a comment telling me about them. Or if you set yourself up with everything I've suggested above and want to tell me what you think about it, that's what the comments are all about. Enjoy!
Sunday, November 20. 2011
TigerDirect, Buy, NewEgg, Oh My!
Today's computer hobbyist builder has a wide variety of choices when it comes to where to purchase his hardware from. In the old days it was more about resisting the desire for immediate gratification found by driving to the local computer discount store. Simply by purchasing your hardware online you could save major bucks. While that is still true, it has become much more difficult to find the bargains amongst all the noise out there trying to make a buck. It's also less likely that the best deals will be available for all your components in one location. And the online buyer still has the problem of "knowing" what he is buying. You can't just go on your gut feelings. You need to do your research and due diligence. Especially since most of the good bargain online stores have a "no returns" policy.
Let me tell you about some of my experiences when on the hunt for the components of my next computer build.
The Bargain Bundle
You've probably heard of TigerDirect and if you are on their mailing list I know you have drooled over their bundle specials. Who wouldn't drool over a 6 core machine with 8 gigs of RAM and all the necessities for a mere $400.00. It's a very enticing offer. They are very good at putting together just the right components to make you want to buy it. But every time I look closely at what they are offering I can find a key component that just isn't something that I would want in my Hot Rod computer build. Usually it's the motherboard. Off-brand or severely lacking Mobos bundled with a great processor and gobs of fast ram just isn't worth it. Granted, you could buy one of these bundles and after you assemble it you could probably find some unsuspecting user to buy it and make a nice little profit for yourself. But I would have trouble sleeping at night, even if I was up front with the buyer and gave him or her my honest opinion of the equipment I was selling them.
Once in a while they will put a right nice mobo in a bundle, but in nearly every case I've seen they then include a lesser processor or starve it for RAM. Even so, I get excited every time that darn email shows up with the next great bundle deal.
So Ok, we've decided the latest bundle isn't quite what we'd like. They also have some really great blowout deals on individual components. And you can find several excellent quality components at TigerDirect if you look carefully. Just keep in mind that just because they have a great price on a several good components doesn't necessarily mean everything there is priced as good as you can get it for. Competition is so great these days that every seller is offering "loss leaders". That's a marketing term for offering a popular item at rock bottom prices in an effort to draw in the customers and once they are in they typically will buy other things, too. And you make your money on the other things to make up for the one item that was used as the bait to draw them in.
I have found that it's nearly impossible to get the best price on all the components you want to build a computer at one store. Several times I've made my list of components and done the comparison shopping only to find that no one store has the best price on everything I'm in the market for. NewEgg is another online seller of computer components at very competitive prices. But just as with TigerDirect, not everything is the best bargain you can get. They also offer bundles and tend to have better mobos with their bundles, but it's the same old story when you get to the bottom line. I will almost always purchase from 2 or more different places in order to get the very best price on everything I purchase. And yes, before you shake your finger at me, I do take shipping into consideration.
The Magazine Build
Being the avid hobbyist builder that you are, you probably get one or more computer magazines or spend considerable time on a regular basis with your nose in some computer related review website. I personally enjoy my monthly copy of Maximum PC. I especially enjoy the ones that have their recommended "Budget Build" and the "Build of The Year". I frequently get excited enough to jot down the exact manufacturers part numbers of the components to go shopping with the intent of building a machine exactly like they have recommended. And I'm almost always disappointed and frustrated by the fact that there is some component that just is not available. Here again, it's usually the motherboard. I can find similar models of the brand, but it's seems every time the exact model they mention is out of stock or not available. If it's not the motherboard it's something else. It's very frustrating to get all excited about a build and then not be able to get all the parts purchased. I imagine others who are more determined than I will roll the dice and select an alternative component just to keep the thrill alive.
So what's a determined builder to do?
What Works
Well my friend, it's the same as it's always been for me. From my reading and from the advertising emails I get I have a good idea of the caliber of machine I want to build and what is popular, too. I dig my heels in and go to work researching. I'll start with a motherboard. I'll go to a couple of my fav shopping sites and look for a bargain that has all the features I think are necessary. Once I find a contender I'll then hunt down two or three recent reviews on it. This will tell me if it's of the quality that I require or not. If it fails this test then it's back to shopping around some more until I find another one. I'll repeat this process for the other key components until my hardware list of manufacturer part numbers is complete. Now it's time to go shopping for real. I'll hit all my regular stores comparing prices and sometimes I'll even go beyond and look at price comparison services like Amazon, Google, etc.. Eventually, I will have my buying plan complete and I'll get started doing the actual purchases.
Every time I go through this I think to myself that it sure would be nice if there was some way to automate this process or if there was just one place where I know I'm gonna get the best deal on everything I'm buying. But that is just a pipe dream boys and girls. And don't get me wrong, sometimes I'm willing to pay a little extra just for the convenience of getting everything at one place. After all, that is what they are all hoping I will realize and do.
I'll leave you with a listing of most of the websites that I shop on. Feel free to leave a comment with any gems that I overlooked or perhaps didn't know about.
This list is from memory and in no particular order. They are all good sites to purchase computer components from.
mwave.com
buy.com
tigerdirect.com
newegg.com
bhphoto.com
jr.com
cyberguys.com
amazon.com
o.co
Cheers..
Let me tell you about some of my experiences when on the hunt for the components of my next computer build.
The Bargain Bundle
You've probably heard of TigerDirect and if you are on their mailing list I know you have drooled over their bundle specials. Who wouldn't drool over a 6 core machine with 8 gigs of RAM and all the necessities for a mere $400.00. It's a very enticing offer. They are very good at putting together just the right components to make you want to buy it. But every time I look closely at what they are offering I can find a key component that just isn't something that I would want in my Hot Rod computer build. Usually it's the motherboard. Off-brand or severely lacking Mobos bundled with a great processor and gobs of fast ram just isn't worth it. Granted, you could buy one of these bundles and after you assemble it you could probably find some unsuspecting user to buy it and make a nice little profit for yourself. But I would have trouble sleeping at night, even if I was up front with the buyer and gave him or her my honest opinion of the equipment I was selling them.
Once in a while they will put a right nice mobo in a bundle, but in nearly every case I've seen they then include a lesser processor or starve it for RAM. Even so, I get excited every time that darn email shows up with the next great bundle deal.
So Ok, we've decided the latest bundle isn't quite what we'd like. They also have some really great blowout deals on individual components. And you can find several excellent quality components at TigerDirect if you look carefully. Just keep in mind that just because they have a great price on a several good components doesn't necessarily mean everything there is priced as good as you can get it for. Competition is so great these days that every seller is offering "loss leaders". That's a marketing term for offering a popular item at rock bottom prices in an effort to draw in the customers and once they are in they typically will buy other things, too. And you make your money on the other things to make up for the one item that was used as the bait to draw them in.
I have found that it's nearly impossible to get the best price on all the components you want to build a computer at one store. Several times I've made my list of components and done the comparison shopping only to find that no one store has the best price on everything I'm in the market for. NewEgg is another online seller of computer components at very competitive prices. But just as with TigerDirect, not everything is the best bargain you can get. They also offer bundles and tend to have better mobos with their bundles, but it's the same old story when you get to the bottom line. I will almost always purchase from 2 or more different places in order to get the very best price on everything I purchase. And yes, before you shake your finger at me, I do take shipping into consideration.
The Magazine Build
Being the avid hobbyist builder that you are, you probably get one or more computer magazines or spend considerable time on a regular basis with your nose in some computer related review website. I personally enjoy my monthly copy of Maximum PC. I especially enjoy the ones that have their recommended "Budget Build" and the "Build of The Year". I frequently get excited enough to jot down the exact manufacturers part numbers of the components to go shopping with the intent of building a machine exactly like they have recommended. And I'm almost always disappointed and frustrated by the fact that there is some component that just is not available. Here again, it's usually the motherboard. I can find similar models of the brand, but it's seems every time the exact model they mention is out of stock or not available. If it's not the motherboard it's something else. It's very frustrating to get all excited about a build and then not be able to get all the parts purchased. I imagine others who are more determined than I will roll the dice and select an alternative component just to keep the thrill alive.
So what's a determined builder to do?
What Works
Well my friend, it's the same as it's always been for me. From my reading and from the advertising emails I get I have a good idea of the caliber of machine I want to build and what is popular, too. I dig my heels in and go to work researching. I'll start with a motherboard. I'll go to a couple of my fav shopping sites and look for a bargain that has all the features I think are necessary. Once I find a contender I'll then hunt down two or three recent reviews on it. This will tell me if it's of the quality that I require or not. If it fails this test then it's back to shopping around some more until I find another one. I'll repeat this process for the other key components until my hardware list of manufacturer part numbers is complete. Now it's time to go shopping for real. I'll hit all my regular stores comparing prices and sometimes I'll even go beyond and look at price comparison services like Amazon, Google, etc.. Eventually, I will have my buying plan complete and I'll get started doing the actual purchases.
Every time I go through this I think to myself that it sure would be nice if there was some way to automate this process or if there was just one place where I know I'm gonna get the best deal on everything I'm buying. But that is just a pipe dream boys and girls. And don't get me wrong, sometimes I'm willing to pay a little extra just for the convenience of getting everything at one place. After all, that is what they are all hoping I will realize and do.
I'll leave you with a listing of most of the websites that I shop on. Feel free to leave a comment with any gems that I overlooked or perhaps didn't know about.
This list is from memory and in no particular order. They are all good sites to purchase computer components from.
mwave.com
buy.com
tigerdirect.com
newegg.com
bhphoto.com
jr.com
cyberguys.com
amazon.com
o.co
Cheers..