X264 is a GNU licensed free software library used to encode video streams into H.264/MPEG-4 AVC format, which is compatible with Blu-ray players. The H.264/MPEG-4 standard is one of the most commonly used formats for the recording, compression, and distribution of high definition video on the Internet today. H.264 is best known as the standard for Blu-ray disks and the standard that YouTube, iTunes, Microsoft Silverlight, and Adobe Flash Player support. X264 was created to fill the void of not having an open implementation of a video converter to this Read More

One of the frequent questions many computer users ask is how to do I change DivX to VOB? For the most part, the answer is quite simple and there is software to use that can help you easily change these files in a relatively short period of time. However, it is important to understand the basics before changing, here are some tips. What is a DivX File? DivX is created by DivX, Inc. This type of file is a codec that compresses large, bulky video files into smaller sizes while Read More

 Free-To-Air, or FTA, channels are satellite television channels that are not encrypted and are, therefore, available to anyone who is able to receive them. FTA channels are not provided by premium satellite companies, but rather open source satellite providers, such as Galaxy, AMC, and Telstar. FTA channels require subscribers to have a 30-inch satellite dish or larger, but do not require the user to pay any monthly fees or access charges. FTA channels are available from a variety of different satellites around the world, but may change in terms of Read More

For many, MP3 is the perfect digital format. Music in this format sounds similar to CD music quality. MP3 files are much smaller than the standard CD WAV file and using MP3 is free. It seems the only drawback of using MP3s is the fact that most music is stored on media that are not compatible with computers and MP3 players. These media include vinyl records and audio tapes. To quickly and easily convert audio tapes to MP3 in order to listen to one’s favorite music ona computer, MP3 player, Read More

Although movies stored in DVD format are high quality and can be ripped or copied to a consumer’s personal computer, they are bloated in size (3-9 gigabytes per movies) and have weird or obscure file naming conventions. By converting a DVD to AVI or other formats, before storing on a computer or portable hard disk a significant space savings can be obtained and the file naming can be tailored to meet personal preferences by the end user. A popular open source project supported on the Windows, Linux, and Mac OS Read More

The Windows Media Player (WMP) Library collates, arranges, and creates play lists from the music and video files on a Windows computer. Once music files are added to the WMP Library, they can be played, burned to CD or DVD, streamed to other devices at home, or synced to portable media players. The current Windows Media Player version lets users add files to the library through one of several methods including: 1 – Monitoring folders that automatically search known music, video, and picture folders on the computer, including in the Read More

DVI (Digital Visual Interface) is a connection standard that can send uncompressed digital signals from one device to another, usually from a DVI DVD player to a High Definition TV or other digital display. Since this technology is fairly new and the fact that many videophiles are either purchasing their first HDTV or upgrading to new HDTV technologies, there has been a debate on whether DVI is better than component. DVI is Better than Component The short answer to whether or not DVI is better than Component is simple – Read More

Removing the vocals from songs is a really great way to get custom karaoke and voiceless music without the distracting lyrics. The process is relatively simple and can be done with software that is available for free online. Using Free Software A free option to try is Wavosaur, which is available at www.wavosaur.com. It is an audio editor that is compatible with many different types of sound files and music formats. Download and run the free Wavosaur software onto your system. Note: You may need a decompressing software for Zip Read More

Windows Media Video or WMV is a file format developed by Microsoft to store video content in a compressed format so that movies and other video programs can be viewed on a personal computer. Streaming video content over the Internet was popularized by RealVideo and WMV was Microsoft’s version of the same technology. The WMV format incorporates a codec, or encoder / decoder pair that is used to initially compress the file during creation and decompress it on the fly while being played on a computer. Video codecs have been Read More

A FLAC player is one that supports FLAC files. FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) files are a type of audio compression codec that compress audio files to 50%-60% of their original size and decompress them to their original size without any data loss. As a result, FLAC files are much smaller than other audio formats. Though many devices do not support FLAC files as they do other audio formats, several major media players as well as all FLAC players support FLAC files. How FLAC Players Work A FLAC player is simply Read More