Monday, January 22, 2007

Lawyers and combat

SCREAM - Not the Movie
Only slightly more maddening than the hoops¹ I had to jump through to transcribe this clip grabbed from a Military Channel show on snipers last night, is the content itself. Is Lyndon Johnson still President? At some point we must - before we can ever hope to triumph on the battlefield again - we must agree that lawyers, media, and democrats are cut out of the battle equation. How? Snipers, if need be. Sheesh.

¹ It seems that with every Windows update the boys in Redmond implement some new copyright protection scheme. The .dvr-ms format is now almost impossible to work with.

 
1/22/2007 10:00:00 AM 14 Comments

"If the number of Islamic terror attacks continues at the current rate, candlelight vigils will soon be the number-one cause of global warming. "
Argus Hamilton


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14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Stop using windows. Go to LINUX or a Mac.

Gates will make anything that might allow you to circumvent DRM a PITA.

Jobs will try to do it too, but there is too much open source code out there that will work on an Intel chipped Mac to make Mac based DRM really successful.

And, of course, the LINUX crowd simply hates DRM, and makes a point of not implementing it.

As the doctor said ... "if doing that hurts, then stop doing that."

If you really insist on video manipulation in Windows, check out CCCP:

http://www.cccp-project.net/

1/22/07, 10:49 AM
Rodger the Real King of France said...

I have already downloaded, but not installed, CCCP. One of the problems I (think I) face is the way Windows chooses codecs. It goes down the line and says "Can you handle this?" and the first codec to say "yes" gets the job - even though they are lying, or just not qualified. I am not adept enough to know how to cull the bad codecs from the good, or even move them up in the pecking order. I have spent hours and hours on this problem, and in case you missed it, at least Windows doesn't delete the source media after it screws up, as my daugter's MAC recently did.

1/22/07, 10:59 AM
Anonymous said...

Rodger, that is why most codec packages tell you to uninstall any old codexes you have. I have mentioned before that CCCP will play anything, so no need to worry. Just dump all the old ones and install CCCP.

1/22/07, 11:18 AM
Anonymous said...

There is a Windows app called vcswap that allows you to choose which codecs are used.

I'm looking forward to the release of Ubuntu Studio, a version of Ubuntu Linux tailored to multimedia production. Coming in April, supposedly: http://ubuntustudio.org/

1/22/07, 11:30 AM
Anonymous said...

I have begun to hate all things Microsoft for this very reason, but...
The problem with all things Linux is that there is no standard core to the OS. You may wake up from your afternoon nap and discover your OS is nine times removed from current.

That said, I could handle those issues if it weren't for the problem all things "nix" has with playing streaming content from the net. You never know what type of app they use on websites but one thing is certain, Linux doesn't play well with many of them.

Then there is the list of useful applications and games for Linux, it is sparse, for reasons stated in point number 1 above. I play with various Linux builds from time to time, but for me, thats about all it's good for.

1/22/07, 11:50 AM
Anonymous said...

Things are simple for me because I do not understand a shitting thing you guys are talking about.I just use it to red web sites.

1/22/07, 12:11 PM
Rodger the Real King of France said...

How does one go about deleting all codecs?

1/22/07, 12:22 PM
Anonymous said...

You should be able to go to Settings --> Control Panel --> Add/Remove Programs and uninstall from there.

Sometimes applications include their own uninstaller, even if it doesn't put one in Add/Remove. Look in its Program Files folder.

It's also wise to use an uninstaller program when you install anything, because uninstallers don't always remove it all. They'll sometimes leave behind bits of spyware, for instance. I like ZSoft Uninstaller. It's free. Be careful when uninstalling this way. When in doubt, leave it in.

1/22/07, 1:16 PM
Rodger the Real King of France said...

I know how to uninstall programs, I was only interested in replacing the codecs.

1/22/07, 1:36 PM
Anonymous said...

I use the Satsuki Decoder Pack, myself. It installs the codecs into a self-named folder in Program Files.

Your mileage may vary, but Program Files is a good place to start.

1/22/07, 2:30 PM
Anonymous said...

I don't think you need to uninstall anything. I haven't had to.

But here is a utility that I use when something won't run.


GSpot v2.21.

Go to gspot.headbands.com. It takes a look at your media files, tells you which codecs you need...and what codecs you have. You can double check file lengths, and if it says you can run the file, press crtl+G and Windows opens and begins playing. If a file is corrupted, G-Spot will tell you. No sense wasting time trying to run a garbage file.

Oh. And it's a free utility. Steve Greenberg is the Man.

OregonGuy

1/22/07, 10:39 PM
Rodger the Real King of France said...

I have G-Spot. I have no problem playing media files, I have a problem encoding DVDs.

1/23/07, 7:28 AM
Anonymous said...

Encoding DVD is always going to be a problem on DRM compliant platforms like Windows or the Mac.

I'd start with CCCP, and then hold your nose start hanging out on Anime fansub making forums.

These folks have been messing with DVD making and video format conversion for years.

There really is no easy way to get around a lot of this DRM crap ... pick an OS, and then start talking to people who are doing this stuff with that OS already.

I could walk you through decoding and burning video CDs and DVD in LINUX ... but not Windows, since I don't use that OS for anything other than PC games or in the workplace.

1/23/07, 1:05 PM
Anonymous said...

Greenhorn here..A little while back my computer insisted,when I tried to play a DVD,that I had incorrect DVD Decoder and it turned out that I had to have a new DVD drive.Meanwhile I had done a complete HP restore trying to correct the problem to no avail.

1/23/07, 4:32 PM

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