Inuyasha Kanketsu – hen – 08

aqui el 8v0 episodio de esta serie muy triste… pero lo bueno es que estamos a un capitulo de estar al dia

con este final, lo malo es que se esta mueriendo todo el mundo…bueno disfrutenlo

Inuyasha Kanketsu – hen – 07

He aqui el septimo de este esperado final nos acercamos mas a quedar al dia con esta serie…

Que lo disfruten

Inuyasha Kanketsu – hen – 06

Y cada vez mas vemos como comienzan a desaparecer los personajes mientras la trama se desarrolla,

he aqui otro capitulo mas de este tan esperado final… que lo disfruten

Olá,

após uma pequena demora, volto aqui pra terminar o artigo que comecei em Outubro.

Na primeira e segunda partes do artigo, expliquei as diferenças entre fontes analógicas e digitais de áudio, como ocorre essa conversão, e o que se perde nela em termos qualitativos. Também expliquei um pouco sobre o que é bit rate e sample rate, e como isso define uma conversão A/D (analógico/digital).

Agora quero começar a falar um pouco do MP3 e da sua perda de qualidade, quando convertemos um CD ou WAV.

Primeiro, temos de saber o seguinte: nem todo MP3 é igual. Duas coisas envolvem isso. Primeiro, a taxa de conversão (bit rate): quanto maior, melhor. Porém, quanto maior, menor a compressão (e maior o tamanho do arquivo). Um MP3 de 128 kbps é bastante inferior à mesma música convertida à uma taxa de 320 kbps (deixando-se fixa as outras variáveis).

Uma segunda coisa que envolve a conversão é o conversor em sí. Quando fazermos a transformação, utilizamos programas no computador. Cada programa usa um conversor engine específico, que é o conversor em sí. E, como com qualquer coisa, existem melhores e piores. Tudo depende de quão bem feito ele é feito.

Bem, suponhamos que a conversão seja feita com um ótimo conversor, e a um bit rate alto (como 320 kbps). Ainda assim, há perda de qualidade. Porque?

Para o arquivo de áudio ficar menor, há um corte de freqüências graves e agudas, freqüências que, supostamente o ser humano não percebe (ou percebe de forma quase nula). Esse intervalo de corte varia de conversor pra conversor, mas sempre existe, mais ou menos drasticamente. E mesmo sendo imperceptíveis quando ouvidas isoladamente, essas freqüências afetam outras que percebemos muito bem, e por isso há uma mudança na qualidade sonora.

É por isso que tudo fica sem profundidade e sem grandes nuâncias quando convertemos para MP3. O corte ocorrido afeta a profundidade da música, e percebemos isso, especialmente quando ouvimos com headphones.

Outra coisa que ocorre é um boost de freqüências médias-agudas, que são as mais percebidas por nós, naturalmente. E isso faz com que toda música em MP3 soe um pouco metálica e com um chiado característico, normalmente entre 4kHz e 8Khz. Isso é irritante e faz com que nossos ouvidos se cansem muito mais rapidamente. Por isso conseguimos ouvir um vinil por horas, um CD por menos tempo, e MP3 por minutos até sentirmos nosso ouvido e cabeça fatigados.

O ser humano se adapta às coisas, e por isso cada vez mais as pessoas se acostumam com o MP3 e começam achar que o CD ou o vinil soam de forma ruim ou estranha. E isso vai acabando com a produção bem feita, dado que as novas gerações vão se acostumando com a qualidade ruim e tendo aquilo como referência.

Por isso, por mais MP3 que eu tenha, sempre prefiro ouvir tudo em CD ou vinil. E se vou baixar algo, sempre procuro em AAC (considerado melhor que o MP3, como mostrei aqui), ou em um MP3 de pelo menos 256 kbps.

Bem, espero que tenha ajudado. Se tiverem perguntas que eu possa ajudar a resolver, escrevam!

Abraços!

Inuyasha Kanketsu – hen – 05

y aqui otro capitulo mas de esta serie … atrasada aun pero normal ya quedaremos al dia pronto…

Tetsusaiga Escamas de dragon … divertanse…

Inuyasha Kanketsu – hen – 04

Y  aqui otro capitulo mas de este final… y la aparicion de una nueva encarnación de Naraku

que lo disfruten…

Kode :  VCJB-AAC030

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Warna : Seri

Harga Eceran : Rp. 35.000,-

Harga Grosir : Rp. 32.000,- / pcs (minimal pembelian 3 pcs)

Harga Kodian : Rp. 29.000,- / pcs

Note : Untuk pembelian di atas 2 kodi, potongan harga Rp. 3.000,-/pcs

Harga belum termasuk ongkos kirim

Batas pemesanan : minimal 1 minggu pada hari kerja

Here is a link to download the audio directly: Episode #44

Episode Overview-

Hey everyone,

Episode #44 is up for your listening pleasure and boy is it a doozy! It clocks in at just under 42 minutes!  Yikes! Episode #44 is kind of a unique episode because it features a recording of a live event. Back on November 14th I was lucky enough to attend the Powering Up with Technology Conference in Prince George’s County Maryland.  At that conference I presented a session called Alternative Professional Development.  I use the term “presented” loosely because, although I was listed as the presenter, the session was more of an integrated brainstorming session.  I was more of the moderator for the discussion than a presenter.  During the session we tried to outline some of the common problems with staff development happening in public schools and then try to come up with some solutions.  During the course of the discussion a bunch of great ideas were mentioned about how to address some of the problems with the typical professional development model.  Furthermore, a number of concrete resources are mentioned that can be used to assist students.  You can access the entire presentation as generated by the audience here:  Alternative Professional Development Presentation from PUWT09.

The episode also features a bumper from Robin Lesht who is a speech-language pathologist from Mount Prospect, Illinois. I met Robin at ATIA 09 where we shared different experiences working in the field of speech-language pathology.

A.T.TIPS In This Episode-

A.T.TIP #67: Document Holder from Inverted CD case and Alligator Clip

Many a student has strained their neck transposing a handwritten assignment onto the computer because the paper was flat on the desk.  To alleviate the neck strain people started to use document holders so that they didn’t have to constantly shift their field of vision from the paper to the screen and back again.  Sure, you could go out and spend money on a fancy, commercial document holder or you could take an unused CD case that you probably have lying around, flip it over so the hinged cover is upright and then fasten the paper to it with an alligator clip.  Done and done, instant document holder.                   

A.T.TIP #68: www.educatus.com

This website provides over 1000 pre-made lessons/presentations on a wide variety of curricular topics.  The media-rich presentations are similar to a PowerPoint presentation and each one is available to be viewed online via your web browser.  Each presentation is useful as a pre-learning activity where students could be asked to independently review content before a class discussion, as an alternative source of content to complement or supplement another lesson, or as a follow-up/review activity at the end of a lesson.

A.T.TIP #69: www.voki.com

This website allows you to create an animated talking head.  Use text-to-speech or record a voice to have the voki speak the message.  Vokis could be used by a teacher to introduce a lesson, give verbal instructions for an assignment, record reminders to students, provide feedback and more!  Vokis could be used by a student as an alternative means of expression for presentations, practicing conversations, or demonstrating knowledge.  Check out these ideas on how to use Voki in your classroom from The Edublogger.

Check out a Voki I created.

A.T.TIP #70: www.blabberize.com

This website allows you to upload a picture, select a portion of that picture that will move (usually a mouth), and then record a message.  When the message is played back, the selected area will move in time with the message.  Blabberize can be used in similar ways as Vokis.  It could be used by a teacher to introduce a lesson, give verbal instructions for an assignment, record reminders to students, provide feedback and more!  It could be used by a student as an alternative means of expression for presentations, practicing conversations, or demonstrating knowledge.   

Check out a video I made in Blabberize

Additional Resources Mentioned-

1. Loudoun County Public Schools’ Assistive Technology Video Archive

2. Evidence that high-speed Internet access is not ubiquitous.

3. More evidence that high-speed Internet access is not ubiquitous.

4. www.delicious.com – Social Bookmarking Site.  Note that the A.T.TIPSCAST uses delicious to share resources on the left side of the page.

5. www.Prezi.com – A new and interesting way to create a presentation.  Information is presented on one large canvas and you zoom into different areas of the canvas to view the information.

6. www.tinyurl.com – A useful way of making long URLs shorter.  Shortened URLs are easier for users to remember (like www.tinyurl.com/nlsstories) and easier for people to type in if entering a URL from a piece of paper.

7. Tonyvincent.info – A link library of useful educational resources created by the keynote speaker of the conference, Tony Vincent.  **Corrected from original post- Tony made a comment below sharing that the site he used to present at the conference was http://tonysite.info ***

8. Radio WillowWeb Podcast - Radio WillowWeb is a podcast for kids
and by kids from the students at Willowdale Elementary School in Omaha, Nebraska.
Each new show is called a Willowcast. Each Willowcast can be heard on WillowWeb
as an mp3 digital audio file.

9. ASHA Podcast - The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association’s podcast features interviews with different individuals making strides in the field of speech-language pathology and audiology

10. Quick Access Toolbar in Word 07 – Microsoft Word 07 features a quick access toolbar that can be customized, allowing for favorite tools to be shown and less used tools to be hidden.  This feature helps to reduce clutter on the screen while highlighting to students some key/important features they could be using in Word.

Upcoming Presentations-

Alternative Professional Development – Assistive Technology Industry Association Conference 2010 – Orlando, Florida – January 28 – 2:45pm – 3:45pm EST

UDL 2.0 presented with Beth Poss – Assistive Technology Industry Association Conference 2010 – Orlando, Florida – January 29 – 9:15pm-10:15pm EST

Contact Information-

If I don’t get to see you at NECC we can still connect virtually. Join the A.T.TIPPERS group on Facebook and/or Classroom 2.0 ! You can also follow me on twitter.com.

Leave a comment down below or drop me a line at attipscast@gmail.com. Let me know what you think of the show! You can access the podcast and register as a fan of the show from here:

Thanks everyone and happy listening!

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So, many people in the anime world who live in the New England area have heard of it but few take advantage of it. Cheaper than Anime Boston, with much MUCH shorter lines, AAC is definitely worth the trip and the money.

Cosplayers came out en masse to enjoy the party, showing off old costumes or debuting new ones before larger cons like Otakon, Portcon and Anime Boston, others just milling around with cat ears and taking pictures. Either way, it was a fun time for all and a time to meet many new people!

I lost the game (by the way, you just lost the game) and got Rick Rolled more times than I can count, just in the two days I was there. Registration was a breeze and I was out and about in minutes. The panels I did go to were well done and the lines for VA autographs, which at Anime Boston you could spend HOURS in, went really fast. If I was in line for more than 10 minutes it was because some otaku couldn’t help but ooze fangirl for a little too long.

There were some organizational problems with the Con hosted operations, such as the Dating Game (18+ Yaoi, Yuri and Regular) and the Anime Idol and Masquerade. The Yaoi/Yuri Dating Game started late because of technical and setup issues and was horribly handled. Every time the contestants attempted to answer a question they were often interrupted by the hosts for several minutes, requiring repetition of the question. Mind you, the interruptions were funny, but it made the Dating Game run past schedule and made it difficult for the contestants. Not to mention the Bachelor and Bachelorette were not informed they were asking individuals questions of the SAME gender, causing some minor discomfort.

Suggestion for next year, AAC? LATER DEALER’S ROOM HOURS! So a certain Otaku who was waiting until the end of the day to stock up on ramune before she left doesn’t get there to discover she was too late and has to wait until next year.

p.s. Yaoi fanservice for the win!

Communication Matters is a UK-wide organisation of members concerned with the augmentative and alternative (AAC) needs of people with complex communication needs.

The Communication Matters Road Show is a FREE event, which presents a valuable opportunity to learn about communication aid technology. A number of the UK’s leading suppliers of adaptive devices, voice output communication aids and signing systems will demonstrate and provide ‘mini-master classes’ on their latest products and services. There will be opportunities for questions and hands-on trials of systems, and lots of valuable handouts and literature to pick up.

Each Road Show has a full day’s programme – delegates attend five workshop sessions featuring presentations on new developments and product demonstrations. The Road Show is for:

• People new to the field of Augmentative and Alternative Communication and voice output technology
• Professionals specialising in this field who want to update their knowledge
• Everyone with an interest in communication technology
• Anyone who works with children or adults with severe speech, language or communication difficulties and are in need of some support with communication

This year, the Road Show will visit the following venues:

1st December, Edinburgh
Murrayfield Stadium, Roseburn Street, Edinburgh EH12 5PJ
 
2nd December, Aberdeen
Aberdeen Football Club, Pittodrie Stadium, Pittodrie Street, Aberdeen AB24 5QH

3rd December, Glasgow
Hampden Park Stadium, Glasgow G42 9BA

To find out more and to book your FREE place, visit the Road Show area of the Communication Matters website.

How would you like to have your favorite songs become your custom ringtones for free? iTunes allows you to convert DRM-free or non-protected songs into custom ringtones.

Read more…

Apple 80 GB iPod AAC/MP3 Video Player Black (5.5 Generation)

Now that you can buy movies from the iTunes Store and sync them to your iPod, the whole world is your theater. With a 30GB or 80GB iPod in hand, those movies fit comfortably next to TV shows, new iPod games, podcasts, audiobooks, photo albums, and, of course, an entire library of music – up to 20,000 songs, in fact.How much can your pocket hold? That’s up to you and your iPod. It holds up to 20,000 songs, up to 25,000 photos, and up to 100 hours of video – or any combination of each. So you can browse movies on the iTunes Store, download the ones you want (Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, perhaps?), and then sync it to your iPod. Same goes for TV episodes, new iPod games, 99? songs, best-selling audiobooks, and an entire universe of free podcasts. Go ahead. Fill ‘er up.With all that music at your fingertips, you may never want to stop listening. Lucky thing your iPod plays audio for up to 20 hours. Or, if you’d rather watch, you can feast your eyes on movies and TV shows for up to six-and-a-half hours.It might be a miracle. Otherwise, it’s hard to explain exactly how 30GB of storage can fit into an iPod that’s over 30% thinner than the previous fourth generation. Or how an 80GB iPod can be the same size as the 60GB model before it. However it happened, it means you can carry your entire music collection – plus a nice selection of video – absolutely everywhere you go. And a 60% brighter, more vibrant display gives your album art, photos, and video extra oomph.Finding what you want to hear among 20,000 songs could be quite a chore – unless you have an iPod. A new interface lets you search your iPod using the patented Click Wheel. And if you’re a fan of live albums, classical works, or anything that sounds best when it’s continuous, iPod supports gapless playback that seamlessly transitions from one song to another.

Reviews from Customers

“Gave up my 60gb iPod video for this one!”
I have been using the 80gb iPod Video for several days now, and I am extremely pleased. First, a note of caution. The surface of this unit is identical to the earlier iPod video, so it is extremely prone to scratching. My 60gb iPod video was always transpored in the $99 Apple leather case, and it still attracted scratches! This one comes with a chamois-like form-fitted pouch which does a nice job of protecting the finish, but provides no protection from hits or drops. The screen is bright! Much brighter than the earlier models. The integration with iTunes 7 takes the hardware/software experience to a new level. I purchased some games and TV shows, which downloaded flawlessly, and playback time appears very impressive (read: better battery life). I’ll know better on my next 12 hour flight to Asia, of course! 80gb is a staggering amount of storage space. I have nearly 10,000 songs, several music videos, several FULL seasons of TV shows, my contacts and my date book data, and a few purchased games, and I am barely halfway to filling the drive. The new iTunes interface screen for the iPod is much more friendly, allowing different settings to be made for, say, music, TV shows, PodCasts, etc. from within a tabbed browser environment. Apple still demonstrate that less IS more, and the total user experience blows away anything else in the market. It would be hard to imagine another solution (player/online store) emerging that could get the experience any better than Apple does. Though I realize several are trying… Zune anyone?
“Minor improvements makes this a great player”
First of all, this is, to my knowledge, the cheapest 80GB Hard Drive MP3 player on the market, and with a name like Apple backing it up, this rendition of the iPod is well worth your time to look at.

*Technically this is still not the iPod Video, this is still an iPod with video playback; rumors are still buzzing about a Widescreen iPod, but still no official word*

NEW:

-Longer battery life

-Games

-iTunes 7 has movies

-Search feature

-Larger capacity

-Brighter screen

GOOD:

-Great GB/$$ ratio

-Great build

-Bright screen

-Battery life on video is double what it was before

-Great interface

-Innovative search

-Games are pretty fun

-Excellent design

-Minimal buttons

-Oodles of potential accessories

BAD:

-Still scratches easily

-Prone to fingerprints

-Sometimes a little sluggish (not as much as before)

-Battery isn’t removable

-Still no FM tuner, line-in, or voice record

-Expensive accessories (not many in box)

-Cheap earbuds

BOTTOM LINE: If you are too hardcore for the 30GB version, than this is definately your cup of tea. This is the perfect MP3 player for any causual music and video enjoyer’s needs!
“A beauty – and not a scratch in sight”
First up, I’m surprised at the comments about the scratches. What are people doing to their iPods? I thought I treated mine rough, but clearly some are throwing it out the window. My iPod is completely scratch-free after just over a month of use, and it’s been painless to use.

It’s my fourth iPod – I bought the first model the day it was released (5 gigs – how I thought that was a lot!) and then upgraded to the third generation model. Finally I treated myself to this in order to a) carry my massive music collection b) watch videos and video podcasts and c) use with my Canon DSLR camera.

(I also have a Shuffle – a great device for the gym!)

The screen looks small but I’m surprised how immersive an experience it is to watch video on it. I thought about waiting for the rumoured large-screen video iPod but reasoned that I actually don’t need something so big or battery-hungry and am really pleased with the current screen size.

It’s also really good at displaying photos, either on the screen (nice, crisp images and colour reproduction) or on TV or data projector.

Sound is good too, though they no longer provide those little black covers for the earbuds which mean mine keep dropping out (I suppose my ears aren’t compatible!) Anyway, I used the ones from the old iPod…

I like the new features such as the letters that pop up on screen when you scroll through long lists, and the search feature. The new games are great too – Bejewelled and Texas Hold ‘Em helped me through a tedious train journey recently.

As for my old iPods, well I’m glad to report that they maintained their value and were happily sold to new loving parents

Personally I’d be wary of any reviewer that says theirs cracked, or the battery failed or whatever – either they got a duff one (and by a the law of averages, there have to be a few in every batch) or they’re not telling the truth. Seriously – I’ve been a happy iPod user for over five years now and I’ve not only never had a problem with any of mine, no one I know has either (and there are a lot of iPod owners near me!)

Buy with confidence.

See all detials of Apple 80 GB iPod AAC/MP3 Video Player Black (5.5 Generation)

My inaugural post, a lengthy history (personal and generally) of MP3 players, was meant to lay the foundation for this post.  This shorter post.

You’re welcome.

MP3 player.  Doesn’t just roll off the tongue, does it?  And isn’t it funny how the word “iPod” has become synonymous with MP3 playing devices?  The same way a band-aid is both a bandage and a brand name.  The power of success, eh?  But what exactly does MP3 mean in the first place and is it important?  Well, let’s take a look!

MP3 is actually a shortened version of something else, which also doesn’t roll off the tongue:  MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3.  And we can make this even longer by turning MPEG into Moving Pictures Experts Group.  You can begin to see why “MP3″ took off.

MP3 is a codec, which is a piece of software that compresses and then decompresses (the “co” and “dec” of codec) data.  In this particular instance we are discussing the compression and decompression of data related to a file of music; a song.  MP3 is just one of many codecs that exist in the consumer electronics field as related to digital audio.  Some are open source and some are proprietary.  Some are lossless and some are lossy.  Isn’t this fun?  Even more weird terms to wrap our heads around, but I imagine if you are here, at this blog, you probably already know something about these terms and as such I won’t bother to explain what you already know (and if you don’t know you will find wikipedia and google to be your best friend).

What I really want to get to in this blog is what I call codec snobbery.  The notion that one codec is superior to another and that to use any other codec is simply a waste of time and shows you to be a fool who doesn’t understand anything about digitizing music.

Much is written about the various codecs in the market place and why one is better…no….superior to the others.  There are those who swear by open source codecs like Ogg Vorbis and FLAC.  Why be roped into someone’s proprietary mess when you can be open source?  Well, because the vast majority of MP3 players don’t support either Ogg Vorbis or FLAC…and neither do the mainstream digital audio software players (think iTunes, Windows Media Player, etc.)

Are there advantages to going open source?  Sure.  It’s free.  But last time I checked I’m not paying anything to download and install Windows Media Player or iTunes.  There is no cost to me to do such, so I’m not really certain I understand how these free and open source codecs are of some great advantage.  I mean, if they sounded notably better than the more well-known codecs (AAC as used by iTunes, WMA as used by Windows Media Player) then one might be able to make a better argument, but they don’t really sound any better than any other codec in the great scheme of things.

Of course, there are those who swear by AAC, WMA and MP3, which is fine as well.  But I think these folks are mostly steered into their given codec not by some allegiance to the codec itself, but by the player they purchase.  The iPod.  The Walkman.  The Creative Labs.  The Archos.  They encode their CDs in whatever codec their player will play and their software will recognize.  It really is that simple.  As a matter-of-fact, I think it would not be unreasonable to assume that better than 80% of all MP3 player owners wouldn’t even know what is a codec, much less at what bit rate they are encoding their music on their computer.

Yet there are experts and writers out there who want to convince us that FLAC is the only way to go or that WMA VBR (Variable Bit Rate) at a bit rate setting greater than 256 is the bees knees.  But short of using complicated and precise measuring devices to actually “listen” to music encoded by these various codecs at various bit rates and alternating between Constant Bit Rate (CBR) and VBR there is no way to know which sounds best.  And even then I would swear that blind listening tests using tens of thousands of listeners would be the only way to fully understand and appreciate which codec at what bit rate is the best.  And I think it’s pretty obvious this isn’t going to happen.

So what does one do?

For many folks they do nothing.  They go out and purchase the MP3 player they want.  They go home and use the software they like best that will work with their given purchase.  They probably don’t know how to change the bit rate and have never heard of VBR or CBR.  And they probably couldn’t care less.  It makes the whole issue of which is the best codec a horribly moot point.

I mean..think about it.  The iPod, while clearly the run away success of MP3 players, isn’t the best sounding MP3 player on the market.  Never has been.  Will probably never be either.  But that hasn’t hurt its sales in the slightest, has it?  Its success was built upon either criteria.  In other words it sounds good enough.

The average consumer (and by “average” I mean something like 99%) doesn’t care or probably even know about codecs.  They buy the MP3 playing device they want and they want it because it looks cool.  Or is popular and will impart popularity upon them.  Or something.  But it is something other than codec support.

So when the experts tell us we need to be concerned about such matters because it might make an infinitesimal difference in the quality of the sound of the music, I think they should sod off.  Unless the sound quality is noticeably better and can be had without any extra work on my part (having to find special software being the big one), then I don’t want to hear about it.  I’ll stick to WMA or AAC and be happy that I can quickly and easily create music for on the go.

After a lengthy, ongoing, personal mission to find the perfect Media Centre software (or hardware-based) solution, I have come to one conclusion – there is not such a thing out there!

Those of you reading this, familiar with the current offerings of Media Centre software and hardware, will likely be thinking that the popular ones are great.

Yes, I will admit, some of them show great potential and are very close to what I would consider “complete”. But not one of them fulfill all the (very simple) requirements.

These requirements are not difficult, or awkward, as each one is implemented somewhere in at least one of the solutions out there. And I say this from a completely non-developer view. I do not feel out of place taking this view, as the examples of what to do are out there.

Enough waffle, what am I talking about?

A Media Centre should tick a few boxes to be considered a proper, complete solution;

It has to be simple to use
No one wants to spend more time ‘tweaking’ their set up than they do enjoying it.

It needs to perform it’s functions with out any frequent bugs
There should be no excuses now for releases to be riddled with a list of irritating show-stoppers, especially if they require work-arounds from the user for something which was once simple. Where I work, we have test documentation we follow relentlessly after every new patch or release of software. This ensures that things which have been fixed in the past remain working after we fix something else. All these new releases with major bugs that are found after just 5 minutes of standard use is not on – there is just no excuse.

It should be customizable
I’m not talking about in-depth, code level tweaking here. Just simple GUI options, allowing the user to switch on or off certain aspects they don’t agree with. Like whether or not to see the year a film was released next to the name, or which order to list TV Shows.

It has to have the WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor)
Nothing can ruin the feel of a Media Centre than the words of your partner complaining how difficult it is to navigate and asking why they can’t just put a disc in.

So where do the current offerings fall short?

Plex/XBMC
Technically Plex and XBMC are different apps. But Plex is based off the same code as XBMC, just refined to be Mac-only. The two are pretty much the same thing.

They offer wonderful eye candy and customization in the way of skins. Plex and XBMC do look absolutely stunning once they are set up.

But the developers are so busy increasing the level of wonderment to the eyes that the underlying functionality of the would-be perfect software is falling behind.

Adding Music and Photos to the Library is a breeze – the application reads the tags and adds the info to the library. (I’m pretty sure it could read more info from JPEG EXIF data, but there is enough there just now).

The level of plug-ins available is amazing too. If there is a web based service you use frequently, chances are there is a 10-foot interface version available for Plex/XBMC.

Video, however, is where they fail miserably. If you name your movie files or DVD rips correctly, the apps can ’scrape’ the information from sites such as IMDB. But this does not always work as expected, far too often odd movies having the wrong info associated (it grabs information for D.A.R.Y.L. as “Droids”) or even nothing at all. And adding this info manually is a pain itself, with you having to add data to propriety xml-based ‘nfo’ files and separate image files renamed ‘*.tbn’ for the artwork/covers. Not something that can be migrated easily should you wish to change software.

Why do they refuse to add simple tag-reading to the movie part of the library?  One word – Piracy!

It’s so simple now to download files of the latest movies from torrent sites. They are usually in the archaic AVI container, encoded with the old, hacked, Xvid or Divx codec. This format is kept alive by bell ends such as the infamous “aXXo”.

Even DVD player manufacturers know the powerful pull of free movies in naff low-resolution quality. It’s hard to find a DVD player now without “MP4 video” support. They know full well that folk now have huge collections of avi files they want to plug in via Hard Drive or USB Stick. I mean, come on, how many legitimate companies out there actually offer services that would warrant support for these pirate-based format? Practically none! It’s not even “MP4 support” as they so freely term it – It’s support for Xvid and Divx in the AVI container.

The introduction of the open MKV container for HD video is thankfully eating away at the nasty AVI files, but even this is a complete mess due to lack of standards – you tend to find people encoding with it in a do-what-you-feel-like fashion.

Those like me, who like to encode their movie collection in proper standard formats, are stuck putting up with the above until the developers pull their fingers out.

We take pride in being able to add all the movie information you would ever need to the files themselves – Title, Directors, Cast, Release Date, lovely clean hi-res artwork, etc. etc. Information that stays with the file, like with mp3s and jpegs, no matter where you decide to use it.

Apple’s Front Row
This is simplicity in its finest. Well, almost.

Front Row is able to read all the information it needs from the files you import into it (via iTunes). There’s no need to worry about crap data from less-than-complete sites and horrible looking artwork. If you have taken the time to encode the file yourself and added all the relevant info, you are rewarded with a nice, clean collection.

But it falls short because of Apple’s apparent shunning of this software – the sorting of your library is messed up and can become tedious to try and ignore.

Movies have no options to browse by Date, Genre, Director, Actor, etc. All the info is there, and you can browse them in iTunes really easily, but in Front Row you’re presented with one gargantuan list. But this list is ordered via the “Sort Name” tag though which is a godsend (you’re able to order collections such as the Alien films in the proper order, instead of by name only).

The TV shows suffer a similar fate – multiple seasons are ordered one after the other, listed by Show Name only. For example, 3 Seasons of Dexter and 8 Seasons of Red Dwarf would be listed as follows…

Dexter
Dexter
Dexter
Red Dwarf
Red Dwarf
Red Dwarf
Red Dwarf
Red Dwarf
Red Dwarf
Red Dwarf
Red Dwarf

…Where you find the episodes listed in reverse order (newest on top).

Another example of the poor sorting

You would expect the TV Shows to be listed as Show Name > Season Number > Episode ordered by oldest on top.

Windows 7 Media Centre
As much as I hate to say it (I’m a bit of a Mac fan-boy), Windows Media Centre is almost my favourite.

Windows 7 can read the data in the mp4 videos perfectly. Even allowing you to edit the tags (or ‘atoms’ as they’re officially known) from within Windows Explorer itself. More than Mac OS X allows.

But in some monumentally stupid move, the Media Centre side of things insists on pulling the data down from the web too! For the love of all that is Holy, WHY?! The data is there, you can read it fine! Aaargh!

It does integrate brilliantly with TV Tuners though.

The other Apps out there are very similar, so I won’t go in to every one. Plex, XBMC, Windows 7 Media Centre and Front row are the best I’ve seen.

What about purely Hardware based solutions?

There are quite a few offerings out there. The main two being The Popcorn Hour and The Western Digital TV Live.

They both offer almost the same functionality – play-anything codec support in a small form factor, with the Popcorn Hour giving the option of an optical drive.

But even these feel half-baked and rushed out. If you search online for bug lists of such devices, you will likely find forum posts dedicated to users listing the short-comings of these cheap and seemingly simple devices. I had to send back my original WD TV back due to irritations with playing back simple DVD rips (it would read the aspect ratio incorrectly, displaying the movies in the wrong shape).

Their interfaces are usually very sluggish too; with the low power processors unable to offer any smooth navigation to anything above simple text-based file lists.

No Media Centre is worth anything if no one can use it but you. You need to have something your partner, family and friends can pick up and navigate too. Otherwise you might as well hook your PC up to your TV screen and navigate the files with a keyboard and mouse.

So what needs to be done?

A few very very simple things need to happen to get the current state of offerings out of the depressing half-arsed Media Centre scenario:

Plex, XBMC, Moovida, Boxee, Media Portal and the rest of the ‘Open’ Software solutions need to stop dicking about with adding more eye candy and fix the Library functions.
No one cares if they’ve added the option to see the bit rate of the current playing song, or made the star rating from IMDB look better – if the bit rate of a song is bad, it’s not in my library. And I couldn’t give a monkey’s fart what rating the movies in my collection get on IMDB! Get a clue and import the tags from my standard, non propriety, MP4 files!

If they implement this, they will have a truly perfect Media Centre (the TV Tuner side of things can be handled via launching a different app from within).

Apple need to fix the current bugs in Front Row.
It was working before with the older versions. The interface of Front Row to me is perfect – a nice, snappy, clean, simple system. If they fix the simple sorting bug I believe a lot of people would drop Plex and XBMC (those that can do without the plug-ins). You can even get apps that will scrape the data for your *cough* downloaded collection and add it to iTunes.

I also feel Apple needs to stick to their guns more about abiding by the standards that they’re promoting. As far as I’m concerned (and I speak for the majority here), mp4 is the current standard to replace the ageing format of DVD. h.264 is already the way to go as far as the video codec is concerned. It’s scaleable, meaning it can be used for anything from small mobile phone sized videos right up to full 1080p video and beyond (it’s used for Blu-ray). And the multi channel AAC format for audio is perfect for replacing 6 channel 5.1 AC3 (Dolby Digital). Match that up with an embedded text file for chapter markers all wrapped up in the MP4 container and you have the perfect 21st century format for movies.

VOB container -> MP4
MPEG-2 video codec -> h.264
Multi channel AC3 -> AAC
Chapter markers -> nameable chapter text file

All of that results in a smaller format, practically indistinguishable from the original, and able to hold all the metadata you could need.

The problem is, there are no Amp manufacturers currently supporting decoding for a multi channel AAC bitstream, you have to feed them something they can understand. The most obvious is AC3.

Plex already does this by transcoding multi channel AAC into AC3 on the fly. This is perfect as you have a standard format to store your movies in. But, Apple seem reluctant to fork out for Dolby Live licences, leaving any multi channel AAC sound being down converted to a PLII Stereo signal at best.

All that is needed is for them to allow the Apple TV, Quicktime, Front Row and even the iPhone and iPods to accept multi channel AAC and either convert it to AC3 for current amps (as Plex does) or, with regards to the iPods, down convert it to a stereo source.

Because they are dragging their heels over this, we’re forced to create a file with two audio tracks – one as a PLII mix of the original AC3 track and the second as a pass-through of the AC3 track. This breaks the mp4 container standard and leaves you with a file, although more compatible with current devices, larger than it needs to be. It’s also has the extension “.m4v” making it feel more like another propriety format.

*sigh*

I feel so strongly about this as I honestly cannot find a single bit of kit worth writing a glowing report about and yet I believe it’s not something that should be this hard to find. I have used all of the well known apps, and read enough forums about the hardware based Media Centres to know that I’ll still be searching for a while yet.

You show me a Media Centre and I’ll show you where it falls short…

Here is a link to download the audio directly: Episode #43: Listener Feedback, For Real – Part 2

Episode Overview-

Hey everyone,

Episode #43 is up for your listening pleasure! Episode #43 features some more feedback from listeners of the show. There was still too much feedback to fit it all into just this episode so you can expect to hear at least one more Listener Feedback episode in the future.

The episode also features a bumper from Lisa Givens who works as an educational specialist for Fairfax County Public Schools in Assistive Technology Services. I caught up with Lisa at NECC 09 and I’m just now getting to play her bumper. 

A.T.TIPS In This Episode-

A.T.TIP #64: Classroom Acoustic Coalition (via Facebook)

The focus of the Classroom Acoustic Coalition Facebook group is to bring about awareness about acoustics in the classroom.  In the episode Signal-to-Noise ratio is mentioned as something to consider when working with students. The following are some other helpful resources about S/N and classroom acoustics:

1. American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Article on 5 Strategies to Promote Good Classroom Acoustics

2. Guidelines for Teachers to Help Minimize Auditory Perceptual Problems

A.T.TIP #65: Onetruemedia.com

This website allows you to quickly upload pictures and videos (.mpegs, .mpgs, .mp4, .mov, .avi, .wmv, .jpg’s and more) and then select from a number of free montage styles and music to create a nicely polished, professional looking, special effect ridden video.  Once finished, the website generates a URL for your video that can be shared.  The website is easy to use and would allow students to be able to create flashy presentations above and beyond just a simple slideshow.  Plus, there is nothing to install.  All of the controls and design occur right there on the website all for free. The only downside is that only some of the montages and music is free.  For access to the complete library you need to become a premium member and pay a fee.  Also, to export the video into another file format you need to be premium member.  The following are some of the videos I’ve made using this website:

1. Professional Development Montage

2. A.T.TIPScast Montage

A.T.TIP #66: Screentoaster.com

This website allows you to capture a video of whatever is happening on your screen.  You can export videos as .swf files (flash) and .mov files, which means you can save the videos right down to your computer.  You can choose to record the entire screen or record a rectangular area of the screen. Screentoaster.com is a great way to capture and share what a student has done on a computer and is also a great way to capture any lesson done on the computer.  Also, a student could capture work they’ve done on a home computer to share back with teacher.  It is also great for making short video tutorials providing directions for how to do something on the computer.  Students could watch these videos over and over again as a way to have instructions repeated as many times as necessary.

Additional Resources Mentioned-

1. Loudoun County Public Schools’ Assistive Technology Video Archive

Upcoming Presentations-

Alternative Professional Development – Powering Up With Technology Conference 09 – Upper Marlboro, Maryland – November 14th- (Time TBD)

Alternative Professional Development – Assistive Technology Industry Association Conference 2010 – Orlando, Florida – January 28 – 2:45pm – 3:45pm EST

UDL 2.0 presented with Beth Poss – Assistive Technology Industry Association Conference 2010 – Orlando, Florida – January 29 – 9:15pm-10:15pm EST

Contact Information-

If I don’t get to see you at NECC we can still connect virtually. Join the A.T.TIPPERS group on Facebook and/or Classroom 2.0 ! You can also follow me on twitter.com.

Leave a comment down below or drop me a line at attipscast@gmail.com. Let me know what you think of the show! You can access the podcast and register as a fan of the show from here:

Thanks everyone and happy listening!