I got my new Chromecast audio gadget about a a week ago, and was excited to give it a try. It has one input and just one output, which at first got me confused as a read that it had optical audio out. Continue reading
Category Archives: Media
Archiving MiniDV videos to MP4/M4V
I forgot how to, and it took me some time to remember. I decided to itemize my steps in a blog post.
What you need before you start:
- Ensure that you got a video camera that can playback MiniDV tapes.
- A Firewire (IEEE 1394) interface in your PC or laptop.
- A Firewire cable that connects your video camera with your PC or laptop.
Steps:
- Capture your videos using Windows Movie Maker or WinDV. This will create raw AVI files on your hard drive.
- If you ended up with multiple AVI files you wish to concatenate, use VirtualDub. Append your videos using the Append option in the File menu. Ensure that under the Audio and Video menu options, you select the Direct Stream Copy option.
- Encode your AVI video using HandBrake. Default options are fine (H.264 for video, AAC for Audio). Just ensure that the Deinterlace option is ON under Filters; Slow is fine.
Final thoughts:
I recommend you keep a backup of both the raw AVI files and the MP4/M4V file you have created. You can even upload them to YouTube (as private for instance) and share it to the ones you care.
Happy archiving!
Spotify Gapless playback does not work [workaround]
Yes, I was frustrated about this issue, as my [Mix-Cut] albums where not flowing correctly.
This is how you work around the issue:
- Desktop app: Menu / Edit / Options
- Uncheck Gapless playback option
- Check it again
- Done
Seems that by default, gapless does not work, even though it is enabled.
Interaction with @SpotifyCare twitter handle:
@SpotifyCares Unchecking and checking "Gapless" option did the trick. Seems that by default, Gapless does not work.
— Oscar Zamora (@ZamoraO) March 21, 2014
Flashback Alternatives Spotify Playlists
Not the common playlists you might usually find. I have compiled 2 main playlists with some Synthpop, New Wave and Alternatives of the 80s and 90s.
80s Flashback Alternatives:
90s Flashback Alternatives:
Latest release of Spotify for Android
Spotify has a preview release for Android downloadable from their website. I have been using it for a few days now and I am pretty happy with the enhancements.
Annoying bugs/issues that I experienced with the previous release, now fixed:
- App Crashing every time a song was added to a playlist.
- Gap between songs that made continuous mixes terrible to listen to.
- No “similar artists” feature.
Official List of enhancements:
- Totally new app with full support for Android 4.0
- Top-to-bottom redesign
- All-new slide-out navigation
- Even more social – check out friends’ profile pages and playlists on the go
- Artist imagery in high resolution
- Related artist view – available for the first time on mobile
- ‘Extreme’ sound quality setting for 320kbps listening
- So much faster
Features that will be added to the final release:
- Last.fm scrobblling
- Folder support
You can download the preview version here.
Enjoy!
Source: Spotify blog.