AutoGK saves the day…again.

I recently shot a video using an HD camera that I needed to pull together for work. Since this was my first foray into professional HD shooting I, of course, wanted to shoot at the absolute highest quality possible. The resulting video would not capture through conventional DV means so I found this nifty app: HDV Split (http://strony.aster.pl/paviko/) which worked like a charm. Oh, and don’t be fooled by the ghetto site, this program is definitely what I needed when I needed it!
Anyway, I got the video off of the camera into several M2T files. WTH is that? Nothing wanted to open them right (I was on a work machine at the time…office grunt = not happy with HD) and I needed the video to run for a business meeting. After some google searching I figured, why not just try autoGK to xvid the video. Sure enough, it accepted the M2T video just fine and spit out a beautiful .avi. If you’re ever needing an HDV downconvert, AutoGK handles it nicely.

DVD Flick – DVD burning software that just works

I stumbled across DVD Flick one day when I was in need of converting an .flv (flash video a la youtube) to a format that I could burn to DVD. None of my commercial software handled the .flv very well, especially getting it to a .vob that could be effectively burned to DVD. After downloading DVD Flick (which is relatively small <8>

Here’s the program’s home:

http://www.dvdflick.net/

And here’s a great guide on how to use it:

http://beginwithsoftware.com/videoguides/dvd-flick-guide.html

I might mention that DVD Flick is technically a front end for some other excellent software that make up the nuts and bolts of open source DVD burning. Namely, DVD Author, ImgBurn, delaycut, and ffmpeg for compression.

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Surround Sound AC3 on an HTPC

Over the weekend I mounted the speakers from our surround sound system and have since become very interested in getting not just good sound, but GREAT sound out of my HTPC. Here’s some of the info I came up with.

Basic AC3 overview:
AC3 is the audio file type used on most DVDs to carry the surround sound. If you use AutoGK when you’re compressing .vob files you should see a couple audio options that have 2 or 5 channels (or more depending on the DVD). These are AC3 files. They are audio files coupled together with an MPEG2 video file to make .vob files on your DVD. (note: you can have multiple AC3 tracks within a .vob file). Anyway, on my system I wanted AC3 5.1 channels (which means 3 speakers front, 2 speakers back, and 1 woofer). These AC3 files tend to be significantly larger than an MP3 stereo mixdown (compression) but would be worth the space for the quality IMO. If you are looking for good sound but don’t need the bells and whistles then definitely go with MP3 for the space. Also, in case you’re curious, Dolby Digital is a type of AC3 that requires Dolby codecs to read (pretty standard on newer surround sound systems). DTS is a different kind of audio file which is similar to AC3, though not as common.

Here’s what you’ll need to get surround sound on your HTPC

Hardware:
1. YOUR HTPC SOUND CARD MUST HAVE SURROUND SOUND CAPABILITIES! If you are not sure if yours does you should check the documentation on it. If you don’t know which sound card you have then
go to Start > Run
enter: DXDIAG
click run to open the DirectX Diagnostic Tool
click the Sound tab and you should see your sound card there.
Alternatively, if you do not have a sound card that will push surround sound then you can pick one up or a external USB solution for ~$30. The USB option will just plug into your computer and provide you with a surround sound out (Dolby Digital or DTS).

2. A surround sound system (obviously) (4+ speakers and a console that can process and push surround sound audio) – I have a Sony dream system.

Software:
Your media player needs to have AC3 capabilities. – I recommend installing AC3 Filter (downloadable from www.ac3filter.net) which should work fine with most HTPC media players though most, like Windows media center, should come AC3 enabled.

That should be it. If your PC is connected to your surround system correctly you should hear surround sound coming from all 4+ speakers in your system. To test this try playing a newer DVD with Dolby Digital surround sound. If you want to keep compressed files from your DVD on your HTPC with AC3 surround sound audio then when you are compressing them you need to select an AC3 track without compression (this is easily done in AutoGK by selecting the track you want in the Audio Tracks box then selecting “original” for the output audio type in the advanced settings). The file will be bigger but the sound will be better (and coming at you from all sides)

Luck!

Richie