* new iPod Shuffle

* new Nano with touch-screen. Unfortunately, the demo did not show any video-icons, and with a completely square screen, I’m not sure if it would actually be capable of video playback.

* new iPod Touch. As expected, based on the iPhone 4 specifications, including the high-resolution “retina” display, 2 camera’s and facetime.

* new Apple TV, completely rental-based with netflix, no apps though.

* new iTunes 10, streaming video (and audio/photos) to Apple TV and “maybe” iPod Touch and iPhone over wifi.

*no new iPad

The last couple of months, there have been rumors about the following:

* Touch-screen iPod Shuffle/Nano. A square ipod Nano without the clickwheel that resembles the look of a (very small) iPad.

The screen appears to be similar in size as the original Nano, so my guess is that the resolution would be the same, 320 x 240, meaning that the original iPod Nano profile will still be the best choice for video on this little device. Because of the touch screen, the device might run iOS, enabling the use of AppsI on it as well. It is possible that the screen would be a mini version of the Retina display used on the iPhone 4, in which case the resolution might be boosted up to 640 x 48, which would make apps that are currently available work on the device as well, however, on a screen that size, I doubt that playing games like Angry Birds on it would be doable.

* Apple TV. Rather than using a locked-down version of OS X, a new Apple TV (or iTV) a new model would use iOS instead, enabling Apps (iPad versions probably) as well as Netflix streaming for example. With the smaller install-footprint (OS X takes up 3-6GB) the device would probably use flash-memory (like the iPhone/iPad) instead of a harddrive. With the limitation in storage size, iTunes on a PC/Mac would probably be used as a streaming solution for videos as well. Video-wise, it is quite likely that the new Apple TV will only be capable of playing video files up to 1280×720 due to the use of the iPad’s processor (A4).

* iPod Touch. A new iPod Touch based on iPhone 4, including a higher-resolution “retina” display, camera(’s), and a microphone. It is a possibility that the new iPod Touch would be marketed as a more portable version of the iPad, in which case a 3G option and Face time would be available. Video-wise, the device would be the same as the iPhone 4.

* Smaller iPad. While maintaining the same specifications, a smaller iPad is rumored to be in the pipeline. The rather bulky iPad, while great for in-house use, is a bit hard to “grab & go” so a slightly smaller one would make sense. Resolution and performance would be pretty much the same, to maintain compatibility with the iPad Apps currently available.

More info during/after the keynote.

Besides new profiles, the new features from DVD Catalyst Free 2.0 have been added, such as the movie title display in the actual movie, as well as the Album Art feature. Quite a few other things have been added and tweaked a bit more as well, and for the most part, all that is happening at the moment is continuous testing to iron out the bugs.

In addition, the manual is being redone, again, to provide a more organized overview of the features, and of course the wealth of video-conversion related information included already will be altered to fit with the new update.

Specification-wise, the video capabilities of the Droid 2 are identical to the original Droid and Droid X, so if you are upgrading from one of those models, there is no need to change anything in your video conversion tools.

Of course DVD Catalyst 3 supports the Droid 2, but a specific profile for the Droid 2 is a little time away yet until the new version is released, but the only difference with the Droid profile is the name.

The Droid 2 still sports the same 854×480 screen resolution, and still requires the video files to be in H264 MP4 format, so just select one of the Droid profiles for your video conversion needs.

If you want to use DVD Catalyst Free instead, (to convert your DVDs and video files for free) select the Droid version for best results.

DVD Catalyst Free for Droid X converts your DVDs and video files such as DIVX, AVI, MPEG, ISO, MKV and more to a video file that can play on your Droid X. DVD Catalyst Free uses the high-quality H264 video format for compression, which produces a great quality at a reasonable file size, so you can fit more movies and TV show episodes on your Droid X.

Here is how it works:

Download and install DVD Catalyst Free for Droid X by using the following link:

http://www.tools4movies.com/free/dcf_droidx_install.zip

After install, start the program:

Insert your DVD, or drag the video files you want to convert onto the program.

After the scanning is complete, click the blue arrow button on the bottom right to start the process:

After the process is finished, Windows Explorer will open, showing the location of the file. All you have to do is to copy the file to your device.

DVD Catalyst Free does what it does, no more, no less. It lacks any features such as quality adjustment and black bar removal. In addition, the conversion speed of DVDs is a bit slower than our non-free applications such as DVD Catalyst Free Plus and DVD Catalyst 3.

DVD Catalyst 3, our flag-ship product and currently on sale for only $9.95 (similar product sell for $60-$8) supports 100’s of different devices and includes all the features you can ever wish for, many being unique to DVD Catalyst 3 alone.

DVD Catalyst Free Plus for Droid X (on sale for only $5.95) is a more powerful version of DVD Catalyst Free, and besides faster DVD conversion, it includes automatic file-transfer, quality adjustment and black bar removal options.

To purchase DVD Catalyst Free Plus for Droid X, click here

purchase

While the phones are different, the video screen resolution as well as the video format it needs to play is identical.

DVD Catalyst Free for Galaxy S now available

DVD Catalyst 3 Beta

As some of you might have noticed, a few weeks ago, we released DVD Catalyst 3 v3.90, which included quite a few significant additions as well as new device profiles for the Droid X and the iPhone 4. A week later, we decided to pull the update, and revert back to 3.86.2, due to some people experiencing compatibility issues with certain devices. To avoid a repeat of this, we decided to run a public beta test for the next update of DVD Catalyst.

Since the 3.90 version was pulled, we have been working on fixing the issues people reported, however, not all of them are reproducible on our end, so if you are interested in playing with the beta to use it as you normally would use DVD Catalyst 3 to see if you run into any complications. Of course if you enjoy playing around with the settings and report your findings to us, you will help us with making the overall user experience of DVD Catalyst better as well.

DVD Catalyst 3 Beta

Whats new:

Theme. As you can see from the screen shots above, DVD Catalyst 3 has received a new look. While some parts were themed in our previous releases, we have reworked the entire interface to give DVD Catalyst 3 a more up-to-date look.

New device profiles. Newly released devices such as the iPhone 4 and the Droid X now have profiles in DVD Catalyst 3

File Transfer. For most devices, after the conversion is complete, DVD Catalyst will offer to transfer the created video files to your device.

Power User mode. By default, DVD Catalyst has only the basic settings accessible to avoid confusion for new users. By enabling the Power User check mark, all the options and features of DVD Catalyst will become available. This should make DVD Catalyst a lot easier to start with for new users.

Fixed:

2-pass conversions. The first pass is now quite a bit faster.

How to take part in the beta:

* Only people who actually purchased DVD Catalyst 3 are eligible to take part in the beta.

* Send us an email with proof of purchase, or use the “Email Us” button in DVD Catalyst 3, and include the email address you used for purchase in the email content.

* In the same email, please provide us with some details about your system, such as processor type/brand, memory, windows-version, as well as what you mainly use DVD Catalyst 3 for, such as DVD’s, MKV’s, AVI’s etc.

Important:

This is in regards of a BETA of DVD Catalyst 3, so there might be (probably are) some complications you run into. If you do, please provide us with the profile you used, as well as any settings you might have changed. The more information you can provide, the better we can address the issue.

]]> http://www.tools4movies.com/2010/07/dvd-catalyst-3-beta-testers-needed-2/feed/ 0 http://www.tools4movies.com/2010/07/dvd-catalyst-3-and-droid-x/ http://www.tools4movies.com/2010/07/dvd-catalyst-3-and-droid-x/#comments Thu, 15 Jul 2010 15:39:37 +0000 Mitch http://www.tools4movies.com/?p=1267 While a completely new device, the Droid X features the same specifications in regards of video playback as the original Droid. In the next update of DVD Catalyst 3, profiles for the Droid X will be available, however, these are identical to the original Droid profiles already in DVD Catalyst 3, so you can use those as well.

For DVD Catalyst Free, just use the DVD Catalyst Free for Droid version.

As it turns out, the “AlbumArt” feature recently implemented in DVD Catalyst Free actually enables the streaming flag as well, and because this is not enabled by default in DVD Catalyst 3, it needs to be enabled for it to work. (Global Settings > Conversion: “Enable streaming for PC”)

After playing with the DropBox service myself to figure out what was actually happening, both the user who asked about it and myself figured it would be interesting for other users to provide a bit more information about using DropBox for streaming your videos.

If you have read the article about our MP4 Streaming Server application, you are probably aware that it takes a bit of work to get things set up. Things like your upload speed, quality of the files, and lets not forget that your computer needs to be on all the time for you to be able to access your videos.

With DropBox, things are a bit easier to do.

Step 1: Visit the DropBox website to create an account and to download the client application

click here

Step 2: After downloading and installing the client application you have to add video files to the DropBox folder (by default this is called “My Dropbox” and is located in your My Documents folder)

Very important, as mentioned in the MP4 Streaming Server article, the files need to have streaming enabled, otherwise the files will download completely to your Android device before it starts playing the video.

Step 3: The DropBox program will upload the files you added to the folder to the website. This can take a while, depending on your upload speed.

Step 4: Once all the files are uploaded, you can visit the DropBox website on your Android Phone using the web browser, log in using the account information you provided, and start watching your videos.

The whole process is a lot easier than setting up your own streaming solution. the MP4 Streaming Server, or programs such as Orb all require a bit more work to get things working right, however, because you are using an online service, there is a limitation.

A free account is limited with only 2GB of available space total. You can increase this for free by using a referral link, which gives you an additional 256MB per sign-up up to 8GB total. This does not give you room for a lot of videos. You can upgrade to 50GB or 100GB for a decent price though.

Summary:

If you are looking for an easy way of accessing your video content on the go, DropBox is very easy to use, however, if you want access to your entire collection of video files, streaming solutions that use your own computer such as MP4 Streaming Server or Orb would be a better way to go.

Converting movies to MP3:

If you are using MP3’s or other music files, you can skip to the next section.

An often asked question on internet forums is how to create a ring tone from a video file or DVD. For this purpose, we created a modified version of DVD Catalyst Free that converts whatever you add to it to an MP3 file. It works with DVDs, ISO, AVI, MKV, DIVX, XVID and more.

Download DVD Catalyst Free for MP3 by using the following link:

free download

It uses some files from DVD Catalyst 3, so you will need to download this as well. The free trial version is sufficient though:

(free trial download) or (purchase for $9.95)

After installation of both programs, make sure you run DVD Catalyst 3 once. The first time you run DVD Catalyst 3, it creates a folder which is used for settings, and this is the folder that DVD Catalyst Free for MP3 needs.

After that, start DVD Catalyst Free for MP3

DVD Catalyst Free is specifically designed to make things as easy as possible. Because of this, the program does not have any hidden features or options. It’s basically “what you see is what you get”

The options it does have:

Scan for DVDs. When the program is running when you insert a DVD, it will automatically recognize the DVD, otherwise, click on this button to have DVD Catalyst Free look for DVDs (real or mounted ISO’s with programs such as Daemontools). When it finds one (or more) DVD(s) it will access them briefly to obtain information about movies, tv episodes and special features.

Add video files. This will bring up a browse dialog that lets you select video files that are on your computer. You can select AVI, DIVX, MKV, MPEG and more video file types. DVD Catalyst Free for MP3 supports drag&drop as well, which (in our opinion) is a lot easier to use. Just drag your files, or even a folder filled with files onto the program and DVD Catalyst Free will sort out whatever files it finds that it can work with. If you want to convert a lot of video files, this is the way to go.

User Guide. This brings up the included (PDF) user guide of DVD Catalyst Free for MP3. It displays the full conversion process with screenshots, and also includes information on how to edit the created MP3 files afterwards to make the perfect ring tone. Because you are reading this, there is no real need for it at this point.

Select all. After scanning a DVD, DVD Catalyst Free automatically enables the longest video track on the DVD (usually the movie). If you want to convert every track on the DVD (special features or TV episodes for example) clicking this will enable all of them. After selecting a previously unselected track, it will be briefly scanned to determine if there are additional languages.

Select none. If you want to go through the entire track list yourself, or when you added a folder of files, you can remove the entire selection.

Audio Maximizer. This setting increases the audio quality (from 128kbps to 160kbps) and in addition, it increases the volume to a certain level. With this enabled, your ring tones will all have the same loudness.

For the purpose of this guide, we will create a ring tone from the classic “The Dukes of Hazzard” TV show.

*Start the program

*Insert your DVD (or add your video files with the button or drag them onto the program)

After scanning, the tracks that were found are displayed. This particular TV show DVD has a so-called “play-all” track that contains all the episodes. Since we just need the intro-song, which is found in every episode, we just select a single, shorter episode.

To make sure we pick an episode that actually has the song, we can click on the DVD image in front of the track name, which bring up a preview. (enable the checkmark first before clicking the preview)

With the track/file we want enabled, close the preview, and click on the blue arrow at the bottom right to start the conversion process.

After the conversion process is complete, Windows Explorer will open up in the location of where the file was saved.

Editing MP3 files (make MP3 files into ring tones) with Audacity:

To create your own MP3 ringtones, you will need, besides DVD Catalyst Free for MP3 to rip the sound for you, a sound editor. Programs like Sound Forge, or various movie editor programs are capable of
doing this, but they can be a bit expensive. To do it for free, you can use Audacity.

Audacity is an open-source, free sound-editor application that enables you to cut out portions from sound-files and apply various audio effects on it as well.

Visit this website:

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/windows

and download and install the following:

Windows 98/ME/2000/XP/Vista: Audacity installer (.exe file) – The latest version of the free Audacity audio editor (v1.2.6 at the time of writing this)

LAME MP3 encoder – Allows Audacity to export MP3 files. (follow directions on the page)

After installation of this, start Audacity with the shortcut on your desktop

Drag your audio file onto the program, or use the top menu (File > open)

It will import the file. Depending on how long your MP3 file is, this can take a minute or so.

After the import is complete, you are presented something that looks like the following:

The display shows the full file (40 minutes in our case) which is a little hard to work with. First thing we do is make it more manageable.

Because the intro song is close to the beginning of the show, we click in the middle of the graphical display. It will put a line there

now tap the spacebar on your keyboard, and it should start playing the audio. If you are certain the line is not at a point you want to keep, click on it, and drag your mouse to the right to select the right half.

Now hit the “Del” key on your keyboard to remove the selected portion.

Now click on the button (above the “15:00″ in the screenshot) and it will zoom to fit the left-over portion into full view.

And just repeat this process a couple of times for both left and right sides until you only have the portion you want left.

Once you get into a smaller portion of the file, you can easily spot certain parts. The higher the blue area is, the louder the song is at that point, and if there is a flat area, such as where the line is in the above screenshot, it indicates a quiet area. These are spots where it transitions from one scene to another for example.

When you have everything cut out what you don’t want, you end up with something like this:

Now click on File > export to MP3, or if your phone only accepts wav as a ring tone file, select that instead.

Now just transfer the created file to your phone and set it as a ring tone. Please follow the instructions in the user guide of your phone on how to do this.

download the mp3 for the sample displayed above here

Why stream?

Even though most devices have plenty of space available for video content, streaming your video collection provides you with access to your entire collection. No need to make sure you have replaced viewed content with new content. You can watch that one movie you thought of you might want to see again in a matter of seconds, rather than having to get home and put it on your device. And you save the free space on your device for other stuff.

What do you need?

*Video-player device with a web browser and either network (for at home) or Internet access.

*Windows-PC (Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7)

*Tools4Movies MP4 Streaming Server application

(download)

*Tools4Movies DVD Catalyst 3

(trial download) or (purchase for $9.95)

And of course video content.

Installation:

* Install and Run DVD Catalyst 3.

The MP4 Streaming Server uses a few files from DVD Catalyst 3, so for it to work, either the trial or the retail version of DVD Catalyst 3 needs to be installed.

After installing DVD Catalyst 3, start it once, so that it creates the settings folder on your computer.

* Video content.

If you do not have video content in MP4 format, this would be a good time to convert it. In DVD Catalyst 3, select your device, and add your video files or insert a DVD and click Go.

* Install and Run MP4 Streaming Server.

Getting it to work:

*Video content. (If you already have MP4 video files, you can skip to the next step.)

First we need to get some video content. For testing purposes, I often download trailers from the Apple website here:

http://trailers.apple.com/

Movie Trailers are a quick way to obtain some demo videos. If you pick the HD ones, you have perfect quality in the source video, and because of the 2-minute playlength, they convert quickly enough to make it easy to try different settings.

Just download a few trailers from the site, and convert them using DVD Catalyst 3 or any other video converter you use for your device. As long as it converts to H264 MP4 format, otherwise it will not work properly.

If you use DVD Catalyst 3, you can enable a “streaming setting” that will save some time later on. This setting can be found in the “Conversion” tab in “Global Settings”

This setting will enable a streaming “flag” in each MP4 video file that is created with DVD Catalyst 3. MP4 Streaming Server can do it to your existing video files, but if you use DVD Catalyst 3, it will do it automatically.

To convert your trailers with DVD Catalyst 3, follow the following steps:

1. Start the DVD Catalyst 3 program, select your device using the dropdowns on the left, and make the change in the screenshot above.

2. Drag your downloaded trailers onto the program.

3. Click “Go” to start the conversion process

4. After the conversion is complete, the folder where the files are saved will be opened. By default they are stored in your “My Video” folder

Leave this window open, and close DVD Catalyst 3. If you have Quicktime or VLC installed, you can verify the files to make sure they play.

MP4 Streaming Server:

By now you should have some MP4 video files.

Start the MP4 Streaming Server program.

If this is the first time you started it, it will offer to search for MP4 video files in some of the common locations on your computer. You can do this, or just click cancel to add them manually.

To add the files manually, go to the folder with the video files, and drag them onto the MP4 Streaming Server program.

IMPORTANT:

If you added files you converted previously with DVD Catalyst 3 or any other video conversion program, and did not have the streaming “flag” enabled, you have to enable this in the files to make sure they stream. if you do not perform this step, the files will download completely before they start playing on your computer or device.

Select the file(s) you added to the program.

(tip: leftclick on the first one, then hold down the shift key on your keyboard, and left-click on the bottom one. This will select all of them.)

Now click on the orange lightning bolt button next to the search box.

It will apply the streaming flag to the files you have selected. With trailers this process is pretty quick, but for movies the process can take a little longer.

With your video content in MP4 Streaming Server, and streaming-capable, you can organize the files into playlists and categories to make it easier for you to get to the content you want (create a playlist for a series of movies, another playlist for a season of a tv show episodes for example) How to do this is all explained in detail in the MP4 Streaming Server user guide, so we will not go into that in this how-to.

Once you have everything set-up, click on the green globe button at the bottom right.

(If you receive an error message about port in use, your computer is already running a webserver. You can change the port for MP4 Streaming Server by clicking on the streaming item on the left side of the program)

On the right side of the button, a link appears with a bunch of numbers.

If you click on it, it will open your web browser on your computer and will display the MP4 Streaming Server interface. If your portable device is connected to your home network (wireless router for example) open the web browser on your device and type the exact link in the top.

Just click/tap around to browse your collection.

And to watch the video, tapping on it should open the video player application and play the file while it is downloading.

This is all you need to make MP4 Streaming Server work on your home network.

Streaming files over the internet:

*Video quality:

This part is tricky. Besides some advanced configuration options that are needed to make this work, also the speed of your internet connection at home as well as the internet connection on your device (3G etc) affects the results.

Before you start with this, it is important to know the maximum quality you are capable to use for your streaming video files. The higher the quality of your video files, the more bandwidth is required to stream them. In addition, many people don’t realize that your internet connection has 2 speeds. one for downloading files from the internet and another one for uploading files to the internet. Even if you can download a high quality movie very fast, or watch 20 youtube clips at the same time in HD format, this does not automatically mean that your connection is good for streaming the best quality video.

Visit a speed-test website such as this one

http://www.dslreports.com/stest

A (flash8) test on our own internet connection gives us the following result:

Our download speed exceeds 5000Kbps, but our upload speed is only 900Kbps (and this is on a good day)

So we can watch high quality movies that are located on the internet that are encoded at 5000Kbps in realtime, but if we upload these movies, it will take more than 5x as long than it would take to download. So if we stream such a movie, it would take 5 times as long as the movie playlength for it to finish.

So for our movies to stream properly, we will have to make sure that the total bitrate does not exceed our upload speed. The 900Kbps is the maximum our internet connection can handle, so both the audio AND the video together have to be that or less.

Besides the upload-speed of your internet connection at home, the download speed on your device also affects the playback performance of streaming video. Do a speed test on your device as well, when connected to the internet connection you want to use. If you run a test while connected to your wireless network at home, it will not give you an idea of how the performance is when you use 3G for playback on the road, so if you intend to use 3G or 4G for streaming, make sure you are connected to that before running the test.

After this test, compare the DOWNLOAD SPEED of your phone/device with the UPLOAD SPEED of your computer at home, and use the lowest value. If your connection at home uploads at 600Kbps and your phone can download at 400Kbps, use 400Kbps

As I mentioned, the speed test was done on a good day, so I recommend to be a little on the safe side.

I use earbuds for my own video playback, and like to have a good quality audio, so I use 128Kbps Stereo for my sound quality setting, this leaves 900-128=772Kbps for the video. To be on the safe side, I would pick 700Kbps, which gives a little room for internet fluctuation.

Another adjustment that we recommend to make is to reduce the screen resolution. Your video playback experience will be a lot more enjoyable when you use a lower resolution high quality file than a high resolution low quality file.

The Kbps quality setting basically means the amount of data that is to be used per second. The resolution and the framerate use this limitation to determine the quality per individual frame.

Regardless of the resolution of your video, if we take, for example, 600Kbps as a video quality bitrate, and your video is 30 frames per second, that leaves you with 20Kb per frame. The higher the resolution of your video, the less data is used per pixel, so a 640×480 file will look a lot sharper using these settings than a 1280×800 file.

We converted the Harry Potter trailer using it’s original resolution as well as half the original resolution for you to see the difference. For best results, play them full-screen on your computer.

High Resolution(1280×544)

Low Resolution(640×272)

Zipfile containing both (showing both files are nearly identical in filesize)

To enhance the video quality for slower internet speeds, you can use the following tips:

Screen size: As explained above. A small rule of thumb is to use a width of about the same as the video bitrate setting.

Conversion format: For high video bitrate settings, the difference between h264_ipod and h264_ipod_hq is not really noticable, but on low-bitrate settings, you will benefit from using it. If you use it you can increase the screen resolution a bit.

Video mode: Use 1-pass. With 2-pass you will achieve better quality video files, but the bitrate fluctuates throughout the file, resulting in stuttering playback. With 1-pass, the bitrate is the same from start to finish, resulting in a consistend video playback experience.

Sound quality and Audio mode. Especially for low-speed connections, this can help improve the quality quite a bit. Most conversion tools, including DVD Catalyst 3  use 128Kbps Stereo for audio for most of the devices. 128Kbps Stereo is 2 different audio channels, one for left, another for right. When we change this to 64Kbps Mono, it merges the left and right channel together, and when you play the video file, it will sound pretty much the same, except it misses certain effects like a car driving from one side to the other. The quality is nearly identical, but you gained 64Kbps you can use to enhance the video quality.

Lastly, and this is only if your device supports it (try it), the framerate. By lowering the framerate, each frame that is played gains extra data for the quality.

300Kbps at 30fps is 10Kb per frame

300Kbps at 15fps is 20Kb per frame

A lower framerate makes a movie look a little jumpy, depending on how low you adjust it, but going from 30 to 20 will boost the quality while still keeping the video playback smooth enough to watch.

*Making the connection:

(warning, this can get complicated!)

With the MP4 Streaming Server up and running, and video content in it that plays on your device over your network at home, we can now continue on setting up streaming over the internet.

If your computer is connected directly to the internet using a modem of some sorts (DSL/Cable etc)things might already work.

Visit this link on the computer running MP4 Streaming Server

http://www.whatismyip.com/

If the number displayed at the top of this website (Your IP Address Is: xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx) is the same number as what is displayed at the bottom of the Streaming Server program (http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:xx) youshould be set. Change the internet connection on your device to 3G (or whatever else it uses, as long as it is not the wireless connection you have at home) and in the web browser type in the link displayed by MP4 Streaming Server

If it works, you can skip the following, and scroll down to the Dynamic DNS section.

If MP4 Streaming Server displays something like http://192.x.x.x or 10.x.x.x your computer connects to the internet using a router of some sorts. In this case, we have to set up the router that if it receives a connection for the MP4 Streaming Server that it sends this to the computer that is running the program.

Unfortunately, most computers and routers are set up for an automatic IP adress, so when you restart your computer, it might have a different number in MP4 Streaming Server. For a router to be able to send your device to the proper computer for the videos, we have to make sure that the computer keeps the same adress.

Setting up a fixed IP on your computer.

First we need to get the current information our computer uses.

Click on Start > Run (or hold down the Windows-Key on your keyboard and tap the R key)

in the dialog that appears, type in cmd and click OK

In here, type in: ipconfig and tap the “Enter” key

In here, look for the number that is displayed at the bottom of the MP4 Streaming Server. In our case 192.168.1.89

IMPORTANT: This is most likely different on your computer. don’t use these values unless they are the same as yours.

Write down these 3 items:

IPv4 Address, Subnet Mask  and Default Gateway

Now, because your router gives out these kinds of numbers within a certain range, (1-100, 101-200) either add 100 to the last number or if it is higher than 150, substract 100 from it.

In our case, 192.168.1.89, we would add 100 so it would be 192.168.1.189. If you have 192.168.1.101, you could use 192.168.1.1 (-100) or 192.168.1.201 (+100)

You are free to use what you want, however, the number can not be the same as the number displayed for the “Default Gateway) (this rules out 192.168.1.1) and can not exceed 254

Once you have that, for safety, in the cmd box, type in

ping xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx (the number you came up with after adding/substracting)

and click OK.

It should say something about unreachable or timed out. If it shows something else, change the number at the end by adding or substracting 10 from it (again, less than 254 and not the same as the Default Gateway)

and do the ping again.

Now, we have to make a change to the computer settings.

Go to your Windows Control Panel (Start > Control Panel or Start > Settings > Control Panel)

Then click on “Network status and tasks” (Windows 7/Vista) or “Network Connections” (2000/XP)

(7/Vista only, not needed for 2000/XP)

And click on Adapter settings

(2000/XP/Vista/7)

Rightclick on your network adapter and select properties

Double (left-)click on TCP-IP (2000/XP) or Internet Protocol Version 4 (Vista/7)

If there are already numbers displayed at “Use the following IP address, click Cancel, and you can skip the following steps, continue on from “Router setup“, otherwise continue.

Change the checkmark from Obtain automatically to Use the following, and put in the numbers you wrote down

IP Adress, the number you came up with above with the adding/substracting

Subnet mask, the same as the one you wrote down

Default Gateway, also the same as the one you wrote down

Preferred DNS server, the same as the Default Gateway.

In our case (Note, this is most likely different than yours)

And click OK.

IMPORTANT: If things go bad, go back here, and change the checkmarks to Automatic again.

Click OK out of the other window as well, so you get back to the “Network Connections”

While not always needed, we recommend to rightclick on the connection, then leftclick on “Disable”, wait a few seconds, then Rightclick on it again, and leftclick on “Enable”. This resets your network connection and forces it to use the settings we entered.

leave the Network Connections open (in case something went wrong you can easily get back to it) and start your web browser to see if you still have internet.Visit a website like CNN or something, just to make sure everything still works. If it does not work, one of the settings you entered is not correct. go back to the network connection, rightclick and select properties, and change the TCPMP / Internet Protocol v4 settings back to automatic. Then start over from the first cmd box in this guide.

If you have working internet with the change you just did, we can continue to

Router Setup:

(Warning: Complicated)

Due to the huge differences in router models and how to configure them, it is impossible to provide you with the full details on how to set up your specific router. Below should give you an idea on how and what needs to be configured, but you might have to refer to the userguide that came with your router.

Most routers are configured using a web-interface. Open your web browser, and at the top, type in

http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx

where xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx is the number you wrote down earlier for the Default Gateway (in our case 192.168.1.1

And hit the Enter key. Then login if needed (usually the username is Admin and no password, or no username and admin as the password, if not, refer to the user guide of the router or obtain it from the person who set it up for you)

Then look for a tab called Port Forwarding or Advanced

You should see something along the lines of this:

The items might be blank in there.

In this screen, insert the following information:

Application: Can be anything, but putting in MP4SS might make it easier for future reference

Start: 80 (default port in MP4 Streaming Server. If you changed it, make sure its the same as what you have MP4 Streaming Server set to use)

End: 80 (same as above)

Protocol: Both (or TCP and UDP)

IP Address: xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx (where xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx is the number you used in the network settings for your computer, 192.168.1.189 in our example)

And ofcourse, if there is a checkmark to enable it, it needs to be enabled.

After that, Apply and/or save the settings on your router. It should restart.

Now your MP4 Streaming Server should be accessible through the internet.

Make sure MP4 Streaming Server is running on your computer, and that the web-server portion is started (the green globe button and next to it the http:// link should be visible)

then on the same computer that runs the MP4 Streaming Server, visit the following website (again)

http://www.whatismyip.com/

Make sure your device is connected to the 3G or data network (not your home network) and open the web browser

At the top, type in:

http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx

where xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx is the IP displayed on the whatismyip website.

If you changed the port from port 80 to something else, use http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:port as the link to visit (http://123.123.123.01:90 for example)

If everything was done correctly, you should see the MP4 Streaming Server website with your videos.

Dynamic DNS:

Unfortunately, unless your internet provider gives you a FIXED IP adress, the website number to access your videos will change when you restart your router. To make it easier to access your videos, and take care of the changing IP number, you can set up a Dynamic DNS. All the websites on the internet use an IP adress to make them accessible. For example, to go to Google, you could use http://209.85.225.99/ instead of http://www.google.com. www.google.com is a lot easier to remember than 209.85.225.99. the www.google.com is the Domain Name provided by DNS. When you type in www.google.com, your internet connection connects to a DNS server, and this DNS server performs a search for google.com and sends back the IP adress your computer needs to find the google website.

With a changing IP adress, it is hard to perform a search, because the IP adress in the DNS server might not be updated for 24 hours, so it will connect to the wrong website. Fortunately, there are websites like DynDNS which have their own DNS servers, which update more often.

DynDNS lets you register a website name for free, and with a small utility, it will keep the ip adress to your computer connected to the website name you selected. With a website name, it is a lot easier for you to access your video files.

Visit www.dyndns.com and register an account. (The free service is enough)

In the hostname area, you can select from a variety of main-domains, and just put something in front of it to make it your own. In above example, we selected:

tools4movies and kicks-ass.net, giving us the full domain name of http://tools4movies.kicks-ass.net

Click on Add to cart, and follow the instructions to create an account.

Use a real email address, because an activation email will be sent out.

After activation, visit this link:

https://www.dyndns.com/support/clients/#windows

and download and install the DynDNS updater.

Follow the instructions of the installer.

At one point during the install it will display the following:

Both options are quite handy to leave enabled. The tray icon is an icon next to your clock, which gives you a quick method of seeing if it is running or not.

The Start with Windows option means that when you restart your computer, it will automatically load the program.

At the next screen it offers to install something about Internet Guide.

I always disable these extra things during install. Many programs include toolbars or helpful plugins, but I always turn those off during install.

Finish the installer.

After the install is complete, run the updater, and it will ask for your account information.

Insert the information you used for creating your account. (note, it needs the name you typed in as part of your website.)

If you provided the correct username and password, it will display your information. Put a checkmark in the checkbox for your domain name and click on Apply.

You should now be able to access your MP4 Streaming Server by using the full domain name, http://tools4movies.kicks-ass.net in our example.

Good Luck

DVD Catalyst Free for MP3, based on DVD Catalyst Free Plus, converts your DVD movies, TV episodes, ISO, MKV, AVI, MPEG and more to MP3 audio files.

You can use it to create audio-books from your favorite movies and TV shows, or to create ringtones for your phone, very quick and easy.

How does it work?

download DVD Catalyst Free for MP3 here

(note, it looks for a folder created by DVD Catalyst 3, so if you do not have that installed, download the trial version by using this link)

After install, run the program.

Insert a DVD or drag your video file(s) on top of the program.

Start the conversion.

Because the program only converts the audio portion (language selection is supported) of your movies, conversion speed is mainly limited by the speed of your DVD drive or harddrive (for video files) Even on a low-end netbook, conversion speed can exceed 10x real-time (that is less than 4 minutes for a 40 minute TV show!)

The included User Guide also includes a step by step tutorial on how to make MP3 ringtones using the free sound-edit application Audacity so you can create your own unique MP3 ringtones from movies completely free. Cut out famous movie quotes for when your your friends and family call, use a cool sound effect for textmessages, use the intro song of a favorite movie/tv show for your loved one(s), the possibilities are endless.

http://thenextweb.com/apple/2010/07/04/app-store-hacked/

While no response from Apple has been given out (yet) it appears the Appstore has more issues than the large amount of fake reviews and clone-apps.

If you use iTunes a lot for your music/movie/app purchases, it might be a good idea to remove your credit-card information asap until this issue has been resolved.

We were so excited about the new features in DVD Catalyst 3.90 that we took too much on our plates. During development, we added the new file-transfer code recently included in DVD Catalyst Free Plus, and besides inclusion of new device profiles, we modified 2-pass conversions so that the first pass would be faster, and we made some changes to the black bar removal process.

Unfortunately the last bit is causing problems for a lot of people. Even though we cannot replicate the problems ourselves in 3.90.2,  some people are still reporting complications.

As a result, we decided to pull 3.90, and go back to 3.86.2 untill we get everything resolved.

To “update” back to 3.86.2, click on the cat-eyes in DVD Catalyst 3.

We are sorry for the inconvenience.

Of course the new profiles and the file-transfer code of DVD Catalyst 3.90 are still there as well.

Click on the cat-eyes in DVD Catalyst 3 to update. Files are currently uploading, so if you still see 3.90 as the latest version, try again in a little while.

You can purchase ($5.95) DVD Catalyst Free Plus for iPad hereAfter purchase, download the zip file from the link in your order confirmation and install the included install file.

After install, run the program.

Insert a DVD and click on the DVD button at the bottom left or drag video files/folders onto the program. DVD Catalyst Free Plus can convert almost any video file, including AVI, ISO, MKV, MP4. It does not convert Amazon or Apple iTunes purchase/rented video files or so-called Digital Copies found on some DVDs and Blurays.

In the screenshots, we used a 720p MOV trailer from Despicable Me. Info about the movie can be found here

To boost the audio quality and maximize the volume (all your conversions will have the same volume if you use this) enable the checkmark with the speaker. If you want the video title displayed during the first few seconds of the video, enable the title checkmark. For Black bar removal options, click on the mountain scene button to see the available options.

You can add as many video files as you want, and if you have multiple DVD drives, DVD Catalyst Free Plus will convert from all of them. When you have the content you want to convert listed in the program, click on the arrow-button at the bottom right to start the conversion.

After the conversion is complete, DVD Catalyst Free Plus will ask you to connect your iPad to your computer.

After you have connected the iPad (and iTunes has started up) click on OK

Click on “Copy” to have DVD Catalyst Free Plus import the video file(s) into iTunes and transfer them to your iPad.

To download the converted trailer, click here

After download, extract the MP4 file from the zip file, and transfer it to your iPad using iTunes.

Download DVD Catalyst Free for iPad here

Extract the zip file, and install the dcf_ipad_install.exe file

After install, run the program.

Insert a DVD and click on the DVD button at the bottom left or drag video files/folders onto the program. DVD Catalyst Free can convert almost any video file, including AVI, ISO, MKV, MP4. It does not convert Amazon or Apple iTunes purchase/rented video files or so-called Digital Copies found on some DVDs and Blurays.

In the screenshots, we used a 720p MOV trailer from Despicable Me. Info about the movie can be found here

If you want the title to be displayed at the beginning of the movie, you can enable the “title” checkmark. If you are converting a DVD, subtitle selection is available, and of course you can enable Closed Captions as well.

You can add as many video files as you want, and if you have multiple DVD drives, DVD Catalyst Free will convert from all of them. When you have the content you want to convert listed in the program, click on the arrow-button at the bottom right to start the conversion.

Depending on the length of your movie or the amount of video files you added, this can take a while (DVD Catalyst Free Plus and DVD Catalyst 3 are a bit faster with DVDs). After the conversion process is complete, the folder where the files are saved will be displayed. Just drag the files into Apple iTunes, and you can sync them to your iPad from there (DVD Catalyst Free Plus and DVD Catalyst 3 can do this automatically for you)

To download the converted trailer, click here

After download, extract the MP4 file from the zip file, and transfer it to your iPad using iTunes.

For information about DVD Catalyst Free Plus for iPad, please click here

History of DVD and Video conversion tools:

When mobile video started to become popular around 2004, the first generation of video conversion tools became available. Conversion Wizards, Studio’s and the likes all provided an easy, step by step interface to walk you through the process, but the one problem all of them had was that you could only convert one thing at a time.When the lengthy conversion process was complete, you had to start over with the program, and click through all the steps again for your next movie or TV episode from the same DVD.

Over the years, some companies have improved their software to incorporate batch, in which you can queue up conversions before the conversion, but you still have to perform the steps for each item you want to convert. Others, with the popularity of dual-core and multi-core systems implemented a technique to convert multiple items at the same time, but if you are converting from DVD or are only converting a single video file, it does not help.

When we released our first software over 6 years ago (mDVD/mVideo), we did this to make our own life easier. We had a large collection of DVDs, and rather than clicking through an app over and over, we decided it was faster to build an application of our own to do this for us. With our software, as it still is today, you just adjust the settings for your device to your needs. You add video content to the program, and then start the process. Each item will be converted using the settings you provided, if its a single DVD movie, or if you are converting 100 video files.

With DVD Catalyst 1 we started with a “queue” system, a list of files/dvd tracks, where you could modify settings for each individual item (change language/subtitle on a few, remove black borders from others etc), and when you were happy with the settings and changes you made, the one click would convert everything.

With DVD Catalyst 2, our “gadget” collection (as well as the amount of supported devices in the program) was growing, and we came up with the idea of a “device queue” on top of the “video queue”. This enables you to create a list of devices, and everything you convert will be converted for all the devices. So if you have a Blackberry yourself, and someone else in your household has an iPod, you would end up with 2 files, one specifically optimized for each device. To this day, only DVD Catalyst has this capability.

With DVD Catalyst 3, we worked towards a 0-click system. Folder monitoring, language/subtitle selection/black bar removal, all completely automatic if you would want to. You can set DVD Catalyst 3 up in such a way that if you walk past your computer and insert a DVD, it will automatically convert it. When you walk past it a little later, and the DVD drive sticks out, all you have to do is replace the DVD for a different one.

So what is transparent batch?

A Batch conversion is a list of conversions, performed in order. When you start the conversion, the first item will be converted, and when complete, it will automatically continue to the next one, without the need to click on anything.

While there are a lot of programs that can do batch conversions, you need to set up each conversion individually, and then save the information to the batch-list. For a DVD with 4 TV episodes, this means you have to do this 4 times by hand. If you have a collection of 20 video files, you will have to do this 20 times.

Transparent batch works differently. We call it this, because to the user, the process is transparent. You don’t have to deal with it. Every conversion with our software is always treated as a batch-conversion, even if you are converting one item. Because of this, you don’t have to manually save each item for a batch conversion. You just add your DVD and select the episodes you want, or add a video file, 10 video files or 100 video files (just drag them onto the program) it does not matter. After that, just click on the button to start the process.