MultiMedia Zone

Archive for the ‘Audio Video’ Category

We all have grown up with radio and television as forms of media. Now, with the exponential  growth of the internet, traditional forms of sharing content have evolved. We now have “new media” and “online broadcasting, ” as platforms for producing and distributing content.

Many sites allow you to post content , and more being created as we speak..  For the visual video format known as streaming media most people have seen YouTube. YouTube has more than 1 billion videos online in a month. Recently in the news Current TV had press after former President Bill Clinton helped secure the release of one of their reporters.

Before we start with the tweaks to speed up slow streaming video, lets get a basic understanding of streaming video technology in order to stop choppy video. Streaming video is a prerecorded video files that can be distributed as part of a live broadcast “feed.” The video signal is converted into a compressed digital signal and transmitted from a Web server. This server is able to be multicast the same file to multiple users at the same time. When you click on the on the video it is partially loaded before you can access it. This is known as “buffering”. This helps you to load and play the video instantaneously. Now lets take a look on how to cut down on buffering time, stop slow streaming video and eliminate choppy PC video playback

The internet’s potential of reaping the benefits through streaming media is now being tested by many companies and audio and video clippings through different mediums are uploaded and updated on a regular basis by the think tanks of the company. But a lot of streaming media on the internet goes unnoticed simply because most of the net surfers may not be aware on how to look for them. The question thus arises on how to improve the visibility of the audio or video files to millions of surfers that use search engines for accessing information.

With many companies going global these days, it only makes sense to be more efficient in day to day transactions and mergers to make the company and the businesses profitable. So every time you want to call a meeting, or meet some of the partners for future advices, catching the quickest flight to the next state or country, might work once or twice, but not every time. Air fares and travelling isn’t cheaper. So why bother travelling when you can have audio video conferencing equipments setup at your disposal, and you could do all your work right from the office or your house, without worrying about flight delays or rest of the travelling hurdles. Say bye-bye to jet lag and Hello to this new world of video conferencing.

Conferencing made easy

All it requires is that you set up basic audio video conferencing equipments, both at your place and the place of interest, i.e. the person or the group of people you would want to have a meeting with. You can even have the conferencing equipments placed in different locations so that all could log in to gather and see each other and still be able to carry out a meeting the way it should be carried, with everyone present and with everyone given an opportunity to speak up and say what they like, as others will be able to both watch and listen to what they have to say, even though they are literally miles apart from each other.

Get the necessary equipments

Audio video conferencing equipments aren’t magic boxes are anything, there is simple yet tried and tested and perfect technology working behind it. Firstly you will need the cameras, the video calling software, a display screen for you to see others, a mic, a fast internet connection, and you are good to go. The advancement in video communications systems is the main reason all this is possible in today’s world.

When I bought the WDTV I was excited for the ability to watch digital video, listen to MP3s or play slideshows of photos on my computer. The WDTV eliminates the need to plug your computer in to the television. Prior to buying the convenient WDTV unit, I struggled with separate connections for audio and video, namely with s-video connections requiring an additional cable from my computer to the stereo. Well the WDTV eliminated the need for this.

The WDTV unit has two USB ports, rca video out and a HDMI out. Furthermore, it has an output for DTS. So very small in size, you can easily take it to a friends house to share videos and photos. Buy in conjunction with the portable Passport drive by Western Digital and you can take hundreds of gigabytes of media with you on the go. So small it can fit in a purse.

The unit comes with a small remote control. The interface is clean and to the point. You can easily browse between audio, video and photos. If your media has the accompanying data like title, artist or album you can easily sort and find the media you need. Furthermore, you can view folders either by the basic folder structure or you can set up playlists. The interface is very easy to use. During video play, there is a menu at the top you can access to turn on and off subtitles, zoom in or zoom out, or pause the movie. Furthermore, if you stop a video in the middle the WDTV player will ask if you want to start from the beginning, or continue from where you left off when you go to replay the video.

Unfortunately not all conversions go 100% smoothly and some result in the Audio and Video out of

synchronization. This can be due to many reasons with the primary problems being the original movie source

and software/codec clashes. Here I will tell you how to fix these problems with just a few clicks.

Tools needed: WOMBLE MPEG Video Wizard DVD

This software provides three tools ( three methods )  to solve your audio/video sync problem.

a):MPEG GOP Fixer

This tool lets you check and correct GOP time code errors, video and audio PTS (presentation time stamp)

errors, and DVD GOP size violations, which may be present in an MPEG data file.

1. Click the tools button on the Toolbar, and select MPEG GOP Fixer in the drop-down list.

2. In the open dialog window, input your problematical MPEG file.

3. Then, in the “Test Options”, you can choose one solution to deal with your file. e.g. “Fix GOP time

code and PTS errors (Read + Write)” , and then “Start”. The GOP Fixer will automatically scan your MPEG

files and fix the errors.

b): MPEG MBS Scanner

There may occur audio/video sync problem when one MPEG file contains one of the three changes below:

Timebase change, such as a time code restart;

Video encoder settings change, such as image size, frame rate, and bit rate; and

Audio encoder settings change, such as sampling frequency, bit rate, and number of sound channels.

We refer this kind of file as a Multiple Bit Stream (MBS) MPEG file . When this occurs, we can fix this

a/v sync problem by using MPEG MBS Scanner.

1. To open MPEG MBS Scanner, click on the Toolbar and select MPEG MBS Scanner from the list.