Monday, July 20, 2009

VLC 1.0 Records Video from DVDs [Ripping]

VLC 1.0 Records Video from DVDs [Ripping]

Have you ever wanted to save a segment of video from your favorite DVD for watching later without fast-forwarding all the way through the movie? VLC 1.0 adds a new "Record" feature to help you.

Over at the How-To Geek web site (my home away from Lifehacker), blogger Mysticgeek writes up how to enable the new recording features: just use the View -> Advanced Controls menu item, and then you can record videos by hitting the record button to start saving the video, and then pressing it again when you are done. You'll find the segment of the video in your Documents folder, saved in MPG format.

This isn't quite the same as ripping a DVD, which we've covered many times before—but you could use it for that purpose if you wanted to, especially if you wanted to cut out the stuff at the beginning of a movie that isn't necessary. Readers should note that it doesn't seem to work with just any video, but we've successfully tested it with a number of DVDs and even AVI files that seemed to work without problems.

Hit the link for the full walk-through, read up on how to turn your PC into a DVD-ripping monster, or check out the five best DVD ripping tools.



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TextDiff Compares Your Documents and Files for Changes [Downloads]

TextDiff Compares Your Documents and Files for Changes [Downloads]

Windows only: TextDiff is a simple and portable tool for quickly comparing and merging changes in documents and files.

Plug in a pair of documents and TextDiff will quickly highlight all the differences by line and by the portion of the line which has changed. You can ignore spaces and special characters, edit the text from within TextDiff, and generate reports highlighting the differences. For file comparisons you simply point TextDiff at the two different folders and it will highlight which files share names but otherwise fail to match each other.

For another text comparison tool, check out our guide to WinMerge. TextDiff is freeware, Windows only.



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UTube Ripper Saves and Converts YouTube Videos [Downloads]

UTube Ripper Saves and Converts YouTube Videos [Downloads]

Linux only: Video downloading utility UTube Ripper saves a copy of your favorite YouTube videos for your offline viewing pleasure, even converting them into a non-flash format.

Installation on Debian-based versions of Linux like Ubuntu is a breeze—just download the .deb file from the downloads page and double-click to install everything. You'll want to make sure that you have Adobe Flash and the ffmpeg library installed as well, or the utility won't end up working properly.

Once those steps are completed, you can launch the utility, paste in a link to a YouTube video and click the Download button to retrieve a copy. The Convert FLV section of the application will let you convert into MPG or AVI format, or you can use the "Rip audio only" option to convert a YouTube video into an MP3 file.

UTube Ripper [SourceForge via Addictive Tips]


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How Modern Processors Are Made [Science]

How Modern Processors Are Made [Science]

I knew that processors—like castles—are made of sand. But I didn't know they required stuff like ion implantation at more than 185,000mph, electroplating, and the creation of up to 20 metal layers of transistor connections in 500nm.

Thankfully, Intel has put together a slide show to tell how the little things are made, from sand grains to the final packaging, going through all the dicing, the slicing, and the dancing. [Intel via Dark Roasted Blend]













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YouTube Experiments With 3D Video; Supports Multiple Headache Technologies [YouTube]

YouTube Experiments With 3D Video; Supports Multiple Headache Technologies [YouTube]

One cross-eyed Googler has been spending his 20% on a 3D video display system for YouTube, which is open for experimentation/testing/goofing off right now.

It's a little rough right now, but it's already plenty of fun to play with, at least until your inevitable migraine sets in. The interface lets you switch between a fairly long list of viewing options, be it a particular type of glasses—red/cyan or amber/blue—or a simple cross-eyed option, all rendered from a single source file. It's incredibly obvious, simply mashing two-panel source video together in a variety of ways, but it's a surprisingly elegant way to deal with fragmenting 3D technologies. Details about how to activate and upload for the feature, as well as some samples, are available here. [SERoundTable]




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