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The Daily adventures of a true geek administrator

Life of a Geek Admin - The Daily adventures of a true geek administrator

Tag Archives: video

How To Retrieve and edit MOD Movies off Panasonic Camorders

There are days that there is something you see makes you just scratch your head and go What?? Well one of those came to me when I was given a Panasonic Camcorder in which there was no software just the device and USB cable and asked to retrieve the movies and make a DVD.

Upon connecting to the device I found files with the .MOD extension. Since I am running VLC I was able to double-click and was able to watch the videos. With a bit of digging I found that .MOD extension is used by JVC, Canon and Panasonic on various models of their camcorders. Here is a list of some of the models saving SD (Standard Definition) with .MOD extension.

  • Canon FS100
  • Canon FS10
  • Canon FS11
  • JVC GZ-MG30
  • JVC GZ-MG70
  • JVC GZ-MG37
  • JVC GZ-MG77
  • JVC GZ-MG50
  • JVC GZ-MG130
  • JVC GZ-MG155
  • JVC GZ-MG255
  • JVC GZ-MG555
  • Panasonic SDR-S100
  • Panasonic  SDR-S150
  • Panasonic  SDR-S10
  • Panasonic  SDR-H18
  • Panasonic SDR-H200
  • Panasonic SDR-H40
  • Panasonic  SDR-H60
  • Panasonic  SDR-SW20

I found many posts of confused users on what to do with the files and how to play and convert.  What .MOD file extension really is just a standard MPEG2 file, so really all you need to do is just rename to .MPG and you can edit the files with you favorite editor. To get to the files with a Windows Vista / 7 system you only need to connect the USB cable to the PC and put the camcorder in the correct USB connection mode. With the Panasonic camcorder set the camcorder to play mode and select PC\Recorder for the USB connection type and Windows will install the drivers and show a selection of what to do with the recently discovered device.

Navigated to the directory on the camcorder that has the MOD files and copy them to a place on your hard drive and just press F2 or right click, select rename and replace .mod with .mpg and that’s all.

Next step is to use your favorite editor (Sony Vegas, Adobe Premier, Kdenlive, and many others) and chain the files together into one. For details on doing that refer to the documentation and posts by others for the program if you don’t know it already. Also look for future posts here on the subject.

Hopefully this will help to clear confusion on .MOD file extension!!

 

Data Crow for Collection Cataloging

Recently I took on the task to catalog my video and music collection. This need was driven by the fact that I was purchasing duplicate movies. The criteria was simple. It had to be able to use a barcode scanner, handle movie and audio collections, more if possible and have connections to access IMDB, Amazon and others if possible and able to run on different OS’s. And lastly the cost had to be reasonable or free. If free then a donation to the developer was in order.

After searching I found several options to try but ended up on looking at Data Crow. Data Crow is the ultimate media cataloger and media organizer. Always wanted to manage all your collections in one product? You want a product you can customize to your needs? Your search ends here! Using Data Crow allows you to create a huge database containing all your collected items. You can use the excellent online services to retrieve the information instead of typing all the information yourself.

A few features:

  • Platform independent and completely portable
  • Highly customizable and feature rich.
  • Audio, software, book, movie and photo collection cataloger
  • Retrieve information from services like Amazon.com, Imdb.com, Softpedia and MusicBrainz.
  • Optional internal web server and web GUI.
  • Import file information (mp3, divx, xvid, ..)
  • Loan registration.
  • PDF and HTML reporting.
  • Create new modules to, for example, maintain your stamp collection.
  • Available translations: Italian, German, Dutch, English, Spanish and French.

Data Crow is 100% free and 100% free of ads, viruses and spyware. Data Crow runs on any system where Java 1.6 (or higher) from Sun is installed.

The barcode scanner is an Adesso Nuscan 1000u which is a low cost USB scanner that will work well for the job and is supported by Data Crow. The nice thing about the Adesso barcode scanner is that you plug it in and it works, no drivers needed.

Installation is simple for Windows just download , unzip it and run the installer. One note for the Windows installation is to change the installation directory to c:\Data Crow instead of c:\program files\data crow.  the reason for the change is due to an issue with directory and file restrictions that can cause issues with Data Crow.

Installation on Linux and MAC is just as easy. Download and unzip the program. To start the program change to the extracted directory and run datacrow.sh.

Now that we are installed lets start it up and get started adding movies! Start up Data Crow and you will be greeted by a simple interface.

At start up you will be ask to select the modules. For my choice I selected all and after a few quick moments I was on my way. Select the module you want to add, in this case I am adding a DVD using the barcode scanner.

Click on Item Wizard and you will have several selections to choose from to search in the drop down next to Search For window. If you do not have a barcode scanner you can type in what you are looking for and select the appropriate category to select from in the drop down. If you do have a barcode scanner select UPC barcode and scan the barcode of the movie.

At this point you can select a different server to search from or accept the default of Amazon and click on the Find button.

Select from one of the search findings and click on Next. At this point Data Crow will connect and download any information retrived from the search. Click Finish to add the data into your collection.

Not to bad, easy to use and with a barcode scanner it will take little time to add the collection.

I have only covered the basic of this powerful collection application. Please download and try the application and hopefully you as I can quickly and easily add your collection. Look for future posts on more you can do with Data Crow.

Silicondust HDHomeRun Dual

As a longtime TV card / capture user I am always looking for new products that are easy to use and work well on many OS’s. One that I have wanted to try is Silicondust’s HDHomeRun series. After much reading I decided on HDHomeRun Dual.

According to SiliconDust the HDHomeRun is a TV tuner for computers – Ethernet attached. Once connected to your home router you can access the HDHomeRun Tuners from any computer, anywhere in your home. Watch / Record TV from you Family Room / Kitchen / Garage / Backyard, anywhere you have a computer.

The HDHomeRun streams the full-quality digital stream from the broadcaster or cable provider, ensuring that you get the highest quality possible, including 720p and 1080i HDTV when available.

Now that we have the details, which are pretty impressive, let’s get to it. Included in the package is the following:

  • Ethernet Cable
  • Coaxial Cable
  • Power Adapter
  • HDHomeRun Dual
  • Installation CD
  • Quick Start Guide

Installation couldn’t be easier. Since it is a standalone device there is nothing to connect to your PC.

  • Connect your coaxial cable to your cable provider or your antenna
  • Connect Ethernet Cable
  • Connect the power adapter
  • Insert the CD and run the installation CD and follow the wizard

The setup wizard started and checked the internet for updated software and firmware and downloaded. Once the update was installed the wizard started again and I was asked for my zip code and moved along the process. The wizard was smart enough to see I was running cable and set the source to digital cable. Next the wizard ran a channel scan and the wizard was completed and data was saved.

Now at this point I can watch TV using the HDHomeRun QuickTV app, which I quickly fired up and ran into the only hiccup which is not the device’s fault but a Windows issue. I had video but no audio, which upon checking the forum I found that the issue is due to being optimized for Windows Media Player. The issue was quickly resolved by installing AC3filter.

The picture was perfect thanks to HD and better than I have had in the past with older Hauppauge WinTV PVR cards. To go further I followed the instructions for Windows Media Center and quickly was able to have TV guides and recording capabilities with minmal effort.

I was able to repeat this on two other PC’s with no issues and can happily watch and record HD TV on any of them at the sametime.

I would highly recommend purchasing HDHomeRun Dual if you want the ability to watch / record HDTV on your computers on your network or just on your PC. The price was right and the picture is fantastic.

 

Install Kdenlive on Fedora 14/15 64 bit

Recently I rebuilt a system to run Fedora 14. One of the many jobs I plan to use it for is for video editing and one of best Linux editors in development is Kdenlive. According to the site, Kdenlive is an intuitive and powerful multi-track video editor, including most recent video technologies. So let’s move on to the install.

Part of the issue with installing Kdenlive is that it is not in the repository but can be found in the rpmfusion free and non-free repositories. So first step is to add the repositories.

$ su -c 'yum localinstall --nogpgcheck http://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-stable.noarch.rpm http://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-stable.noarch.rpm'

Now that the repository is loaded you need to run the install. If you run the command as you would normally it will fail getting libmlt. To resolve this issue you need to temporarily enable the rpmfsion-free-updates-testing repository and install Kdenlive. At the time of this posting 0.8.1 is available.

$ yum --enablerepo=rpmfusion-free-updates-testing -y install kdenlive

Once the command is completed Kdenlive is available. Refer back to the blog for more postings on the adventures of using Kdenlive or feel free to explore yourself and use the great documentation on Kdenlive’s website.

Note: With Fedora 15 you may have a crash caused by MLT. If you experience the crash you will need to downgrade MLT. You can do this by running the command.

$ sudo yum –downgrade mlt

Kdenlive Interface

Adding Multimedia support on CentOS 5.5

Recently I have been building a new Home server as a Home Digital Server. In the process of using CentOS 5.5 as the Linux distro I ran into the need to Multimedia support. Here is how I accomplished the task.

Add the rpmforge repos if not already installed.
Type the following commands in the console/terminal
For 32-bit installations (i.e. CentOS 5.x 32-bit installed), enter the following into your console/terminal:
# wget http://packages.sw.be/rpmforge-release/rpmforge-release-0.5.1-1.el5.rf.i386.rpm
# su -c 'rpm -Uvh rpmforge-release-0.5.1-1.el5.rf.i386.rpm'

Enter your root password to complete the installation.

For 64-bit installations (i.e. CentOS 5.x 64-bit installed), enter the following into your console/terminal::
# wget http://packages.sw.be/rpmforge-release/rpmforge-release-0.5.1-1.el5.rf.x86_64.rpm
# su -c 'rpm -Uvh rpmforge-release-0.5.1-1.el5.rf.x86_64.rpm'

Enter your root password to complete the installation when prompted.

Install Adobe Reader
Type the following commands in the console/terminal:
#su -c 'rpm -Uhv http://linuxdownload.adobe.com/adobe-release/adobe-release-i386-1.0-1.noarch.rpm'

Enter your root password to complete the installation when prompted.

Additional Multimedia Programs
The next thing we need to do is install all the multimedia applications that we want to use. This includes all the needed DVD, Gstreamer plugins and Flash. When the dependencies are picked up you will get MP3, MP4 and many other needed codecs and programs. Type the following commands in the console/terminal:
# su -c 'yum -y install libdvdcss libdvdread libdvdplay libdvdnav lsdvd mplayerplug-in mplayer mplayer-gui compat-libstdc++-33 flash-plugin gstreamer-plugins-bad gstreamer-plugins-ugly'

Enter your root password to complete the installation when prompted.

Additional Codecs
Now we need to install all the codecs we want to use, luckily this step provides all the codecs we will ever need, most are for use with Mplayer. Type the following commands in the console/terminal:

# wget www1.mplayerhq.hu/MPlayer/releases/codecs/mplayer-codecs-20061022-1.i386.rpm
# su -c 'rpm -ivh mplayer-codecs-20061022-1.i386.rpm'
# wget www1.mplayerhq.hu/MPlayer/releases/codecs/mplayer-codecs-extra-20061022-1.i386.rpm

Installing Win32 Codecs on Linux

The following is an example way to install the “all” pack as root and will work on Ubuntu and Fedora.

cd /tmp
wget http://www.mplayerhq.hu/MPlayer/releases/codecs/all-20100303.tar.bz2
tar -jxvf all-20100303.tar.bz2
su -c 'mkdir -p /usr/local/lib/codecs'
su -c 'cp all-20100303/* /usr/local/lib/codecs'
rm -rf /tmp/all-20100303*

Downloading YouTube Videos and Extracting Audio on Ubuntu

Have you ever had a YouTube video that you just wanted to have on your PC in-case you were not online to watch it or you wanted the audio extracted from one of those videos to listen to on your PC or iPod? With Firefox addons  that is a reality. I had a friend who had found a very, very old German song and found it on YouTube put to a slideshow and was asked how to download the video and extract the audio. This can be done in two steps very easy.

First download the Firefox addon called Fast Video Download. It is available here https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3590. Install the addon and restart Firefox. Once restarted you will see a little icon in the top right portion of the toolbar or the bottom right corner.

Next make sure you have the correct programs for the audio extraction. This is primarily done with ffmpeg and a few supporting actors.
$ sudo apt-get install ffmpeg gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg gstreamer0.10-ugly-multiverse
mpg123 mpg123-alsa

At the command line type
$ ffmpeg -i input.flv -acodec copy output.mp3

And in seconds you have music to listen to!!!

If you want more information on the use of ffmpeg go to http://www.ffmpeg.org.

Adding DVD Support Ubuntu Karmic 9.10

Due to licensing on encrypted DVD you are unable to watch your movies on Ubuntu. To remedy this you can add the support needed to Ubuntu 9.10.

$ sudo wget --output-document=/etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/$(lsb_release -cs).list && sudo apt-get --quiet update && sudo apt-get --yes --quiet --allow-unauthenticated install medibuntu-keyring && sudo apt-get --quiet update

Now install the DVD support and a few codecs

$ sudo apt-get install libdvdcss2 libxine1-ffmpeg gxine mencoder non-free-codecs ubuntu-restricted-extras

And finally a player to watch them. I prefer VLC and mplayer since both are very versatile players.

$ sudo apt-get install vlc mplayer mozilla-plugin-vlc

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