The Brown's
Our Life…in words and pictures
Lodge
Dec 4th
So as some of you may, or may not know, I am a Freemason. Our lodge, Pentalpha Lodge #564 F&AM here in Indianapolis had it’s annual elections last night. We have all new officers, me included as the Senior Deacon.
I am very excited about being in line and at the same time, really nervous! The Fraternity has a lot to offer me and I hope I have a lot to give back.
Being a Freemason and a Roman Catholic has it’s own set of issues. Unfortunately there is a stigma upon the Brotherhood. We are cast in a dark light along with Pagans, Satanists and other baddies. Surprisingly, most people have been more curious about the Craft than negative. What intrigued me and still impresses me about Freemasons is the fact that we will not answer to anyone no matter how darkly we are portrayed.
There is a wave of renewed interest in Freemasons especially with Dan Brown’s new book, The Lost Symbol. The Grand Lodge of Indiana has started a statewide marketing campaign aimed at gaining new members and feeding off of this renewed interest with rabid intensity. Some older members are opposed and even the newer members (myself included) think we should still stick to our traditions but this publicity and marketing should not hurt the Craft unless it gets out of hand.
We aren’t necessarily a dying breed, but we’re getting long in the tooth and we need new, younger members to keep the Craft moving forward. Youth does bring renewed energy to a somewhat stuffy group of old codgers who mumble between themselves when a younger man walks by. Some of the members who aren’t yet senior citizens find themselves missing stated meetings more and more often until they no longer attend unless asked by an active member. Joining Freemasonry is so much more than joining a networking group (though networking can certainly be a benefit I guess.)
Being a relative newcomer with only 2 years in the blue lodge, I really have so much more to experience and learn. There is so much I would like to do and hopefully this new year in the lodge will get me motivated to ask for that knowledge.
Canon EOS Rebel XSi
Nov 20th
So we finally broke down and bought a digital SLR camera today from Roberts in Carmel.
Truth be told, I’ve wanted a dSLR for quite awhile but really could not justify it until we had Ella.
It is my birthday, our Christmas, Kelly’s birthday and our Anniversary present all wrapped up in one.
I hope that both of us get to use it often so we can take some awesome pictures of the munchkins, furry and non-furry alike.
Here’s our setup:
Check back often to see how our camera prowess progresses.
WDTV HD Media Player How-To Part IV
Nov 17th
Tagging your newly transcoded file with DVD cover art
This is the final post in a series of small tutorials on getting the most out of your WDTV HD Media Player.
I am sure there are multiple programs out there to tag MP4 files (which is the type of media file I decided to use when transcoding my DVDs to a smaller format). However, I found that MetaX for Windows works very well.
(note upon writing, I found some issues with Windows 7 and MetaX for Windows)
***An update from the MetaX for Windows forum suggests that you uninstall Microsoft Office Grove. I have verified that this works***
Let’s get started!
So if you don’t tag your videos, this is similar to what you would see after finishing the transcoding process:
With a little mojo, this is what we’ll see:
As my note says above, I had some trouble with MetaX for Windows and Windows 7, but I don’t have any other version of Windows to test so it may be a bug in general.
Here is what I do to tag MP4 files that I transcoded:
- Open MetaX
- Click the folder icon and browse to the MP4 file that you created in Part III (E:\valkyrie.mp4 in my example) and click Open.
If it asks for the type of file, select the appropriate one (Movie in my example):
You’ll notice that on the left hand side you’ll see that the Results field gets populated with different tags.
I select the tag that shows the DVD cover art that most closely matches the cover art of the DVD you copied.
There are several different tabs with information about the DVD that you could add to the tags, but unless you are going to use some sort of DVD library software, only select the check box for the DVD art.
Again this program allows you to do multiple files to a queue so you can do them all at once. Once you have selected all of the files you want, it’s time to write the queue. To do that, click the red arrow:
MetaX will then copy the original file into a folder called ‘deleted’ inside of the directory where your original file is located. This is usually the longest part of the process.
The program then writes the tags and that’s it! You should now see cover art for your MP4 file:
WDTV HD Media Player How-To Part III
Nov 17th
Transcode the DVD from the raw image that you just ripped to your hard drive into the format of your choice
This is a continuation of the WDTV HD Media Player How-To series.
There are any number of programs that you can use to do this. However, I prefer Handbrake because it’s open-source and it’s free to use. Handbrake is relatively easy to use, but there are a large number of options that you can choose from throughout the program. When I transcode video for my WDTV, I use the XBox 360 Preset:
Let’s get started. You’ll need to know where your VIDEO_TS folder is that you created in the previous step (or you can do this straight from the DVD)
- Open Handbrake and select the source:
Click on Source and Select DVD/VIDEO_TS folder (Notice that if you have a DVD in the drive you can select that also). You should see this screen:
Notice that I have drilled down to the location of the VIDEO_TS folder that we created in Step 1.
You will get this pop-up while the program reads that location:
- Select the Destination of the new file (E:\VALKYRIE.mp4) in this example
Click Start (The one thing I really like about Handbrake is it will allow you do create a queue if you want to do multiple files – I won’t go into how to do that here, but it’s relatively easy to do – just hit the Add to Queue button and do more!)
When you click start you’ll see a similar DOS window pop up. Do not close it or you’ll kill the process.
This process will take quite awhile and the ETA shown in the command prompt should be fairly accurate. The older the machine you have, the longer it will take. To speed it up, you’ll need better (and more) processing power.
Once this process is finished, the command prompt window will close and you should see the MP4 file in the location that you picked.
Coming Soon – How to Tag the MP4 file with DVD cover art.
WD TV HD Media Player How-To Part II
Nov 17th
Ripping the DVD to a local hard drive
This is a continuation of my previous post.
In this step we use AnyDVD to copy a DVD to a local hard drive.
- Right click on the http://www.slysoft.com/en/anydvd.html icon in your task bar (looks like a fox) and select Rip Video DVD to Harddisk:
You should see this screen:
- Select your source and destination directories
- Click the Copy button
Once the copy is complete you should see the following folder structure
E:\VALKYRIE\VIDEO_TS
The VIDEO_TS folder is what you’ll use as your source for transcoding the video in the next step.
**You could also do this directly from the DVD instead of copying it locally.**
Friday the 13th
Nov 13th
Today is the actual due date of our daughter. 9 weeks ago today she was born. It’s hard to believe. She’s getting so big! She has her first round of shots today and then she and dad are hanging out at home.
WD TV HD Media Player How-To – Part I
Nov 12th
***Beware that this How-To may not be entirely ‘legal’***
I purchased this media player earlier this year in the intention of getting rid of my DVD collection in favor of having the media on hard disk. Not only does this save space, but it allows me to easily make a backup in case of drive failure.
After some research and letting some buddies at work be the guinnea pigs, I decided to go with the WDTV HD Media Player.
There were pros and cons to each of the products I researched, but the WDTV had the fewest. In addition to having the features I was looking for (ability to plug in multiple drives, HDMI output, upgradeable firmware) it has a great user forum.
The other great feature is the ability to support multiple formats:
File Formats Supported
Music – MP3, WMA, OGG, WAV/PCM/LPCM, AAC, FLAC, Dolby Digital, AIF/AIFF, MKA
Photo – JPEG, GIF, TIF/TIFF, BMP, PNG
Video -MPEG1/2/4, WMV9, AVI (MPEG4, Xvid, AVC), H.264, MKV, MOV (MPEG4, H.264),
MTS, TP, TS
Playlist – PLS, M3U, WPL
Subtitle -SRT (UTF-8), SMI, SUB, ASS, SSA
Note:
- MPEG2/4, H.264, and WMV9 supports up to 1920×1080p 24fps, 1920×1080i 30fps, 1280×720p 60fps resolution
- An audio receiver is required for surround sound output. AAC/Dolby Digital decodes in 2 channel output only
- JPEG does not support CMYK or loss less.
- BMP supports uncompressed format only.
- TIF/TIFF supports single layer only.
So enough of the technical stuff. Let me explain how I got my movies on a hard drive.
Prerequisites:
DVD reader/writer
High capacity USB 2.0 (older version of USB will work, but the performance isn’t as good IMHO) – Mine is a 420GB Western Digital drive that I got for $100.
Dual-Core processors at the minimum. I have a machine with dual Quad core processors and one full-length film takes ~30-40 minutes to convert (using the process that I use)
At least 40-60GB worth of free space on the internal hard drive (remember a full sized DVD will be between 3.5 and 5GB)
*DVD ripping software
Optional:
Video transcoder software
File Tagging Software
Here is exactly what I used:
Windows 7 Enterprise
Dell Precision Workstation 490
OS Name Microsoft Windows 7 Enterprise
Version 6.1.7600 Build 7600
System Manufacturer Dell Inc.
System Model Precision WorkStation 490
System Type x64-based PC
Processor Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5335 @ 2.00GHz, 1995 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s)
Processor Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5335 @ 2.00GHz, 1995 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s)
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 4.00 GB
Total Physical Memory 4.00 GB
AnyDVD – DVD ripping software (the de-facto DVD ripping software – also has a 21 day evaluation license)
Handbrake – Open-Source DVD transcoding software
MetaX for Windows – Open Source File Tagging software
Once you have all the software installed it’s time to start ripping. I will describe that process in my next post.
*Using DVD ripping software is not entirely legal, even if you pay for it. Read the license agreement of the DVDs you are ripping to find out the consequences of ripping a DVD, even if no profit is involved.
Windows 7 Installation Review
Nov 12th
You know I get a kick out of the Mac commercials, especially the one about Windows 7.
I am a Windows guy at heart. I’ve used Macs before and just found them to be like the moon. It’s accessible, beautiful and serves a purpose, but I wouldn’t want to be stuck on one for too long.
Frankly the fact that Windows has the largest part of the PC/Server market out there keeps me in a job. The reason so many issues are found is because so many people use it. My guess is if Linux or Mac was as cutthroat as Microsoft is, they’d be in the same predicament.
Off my soapbox and back to my ‘review’.
I’m a geek at heart and couldn’t wait to get Windows 7 installed on our home machine. Normally I would have backed all my data up to a hard drive even though I’m using Carbonite Online Backup but I was like a retard at the Chuckie Cheese.
I put the disk in, selected Install and was promptly halted because of a weird message. Basically it said that I could not upgrade a 32 bit machine to a 64 bit machine and a 64 bit machine to a 32 bit machine. So the upgrade crapped out on a dual architecture disk (i.e. a disk that had both the 32 and 64 bit versions of Windows 7).
So I thought, “That’s not gonna stop me.” I just did a fresh install. Windows copied all of my important data to the windows.old directory and literally I was done in 20 minutes. If this were Windows XP, I’d probably still be doing updates because it would have taken me 20 hours to download the driver for my NIC.
I created all the users again and started moving files back to where we needed them and then I damn near fell asleep.
More to come…though I did get Avast A/V installed this morning.
