Free converter suite for video and stills

Looking for a decent video, sound or still image file converter?

I have been experimenting with a completely free piece of software for the last few months, that actually does a reasonable job of converting (also batch conversions) most video file formats to popular mobile and PC versions. Its called FreeStudio, but why is it free? According to the website they make their money out of advertising from an installation of a navigation bar that appears in your web browsers... However I will point out that it is possible to deselect the install of this web bar in the early stages, and would recommend doing so. When you see the option to install this web bar, ensure you have unchecked from the bottom up, none of them should be selected. If you do forget, it is possible to un-check it from showing in the 'settings' area of your browser.

Ok, that bit out of the way... The software is pretty comprehensive and there is even a screen capture software (currently without sound) that does a very good job. Most of the video converting areas are geared up to converting from DVD to video file formats, (you can only do this with DVD's you have permission to copy, of course)

The 'Mobiles' area allows conversion from just about any file format to a format specific to that device. Batches of files can also be converted to a reasonable MP4 video format using for example, the 'video to Android' and selecting a resolution that suited my needs. The options for quality of rendering: economy, standard or high are available. Standard is pretty good for most needs, if you are using a small screen economy is probably good enough for most. So far I can say outputs work great on my HTC android phone using standard quality setting.

There is nothing strictly for any video to PC use, although I actually found the MP4s from the mobile conversions worked well on PCs. I think the trick is to use the mobile converters and select an output resolution that is closest to your needs on the PC.

It's certainly worth looking through all the various options available, as the programmers have made a big effort to keep the interfaces simple and easy to use.

Yes you can capture some video streams from the web...What I will remind users is that capturing media from the web without the correct permissions from the original authors is most likely in breach of copyright (on many levels - hosting company, creators and owners). Ensure that there is some creative commons licence (or similar) associated with its use. The commonly used version is attribution-non commercial (which is fine for educational use). Avoid Share-alike, unless you wish to distribute your work with the same licence (it's a requirement for using this creative commons agreement I'm afraid). For all other materials, assume that you cannot use it to be on the safe side. The other option is to contact the owner and ask...

Oh and there is even some interesting 3D converters they are developing, but needs the traditional glasses for it to work... ;)

A big thank you to Freestudio for an excellent set of resources. I hope to see many more developments in the future!

Testing Toshiba Technologies

I was lucky to stumble across a Toshiba demonstration today (at Plymouth University), a chance to play with some new technologies. It included a mix of their laptops and also the new Qosmio F750 Toshiba Laptop 3D. Which interestingly requires no 3D glasses (a bit like the Nintendo 3DS). Where it differs to most 3D systems is that the webcam follows your eyes in order to obtain the best 3D effect. Interestingly if too many people crowded the screen it made for a more confusing picture. That said, it was very impressive and even at odd viewing angles there was some 3D effect. I felt the overall image made the characters, backgrounds and foregrounds in the film feel a bit like flat animated 2D objects placed at varying distances, although the depth of field was certainly effective. I cant say at the moment that I'm convinced with 3D, its a big improvement over older attempts, but it still looks a bit synthetic. There is of course the concern that some may still feel a bit nauseous watching for any length of time.

They also brought along the Toshiba Thrive tablet (pad), using Android 3.1, which I was pleased to see. It was relatively quick and smooth, but probably not quite up to its competitors, such as the Asus EeePad and Motorola Zoom. I felt the screen was a little washed out, but this is only a minor point. It had a range of connectivity including SD Card, HDMI, USB and the ability to swap batteries easily (the back cover could be changed to any colour you like). It was claimed that battery life was around 8 hours, but there was no means of testing how well that worked today... Thanks to all involved for letting me crash the party...

Peer Assisted learning using PDAs moves to Coverack geology fieldtrip

View Coverack (PDAs) in a larger map - N.B. a few icons have photos (select to view)

I have been working on another project (similar to the Kingsands geology fieldwork) with Dr Meriel Fitzpatrick and Dr Mark Anderson utilising GPS enabled PDAs, its a mobile assisted teaching resource for geology students. This time the location is a coastal village called Coverack in Cornwall (UK), unlike Kingsands which was a small section of beach north of Kingsands. This location covers over half a mile, as shown on the map from point 1 to 7. A few of the site locations have images of the PDAs being tested, click to show. A larger map view is recommended in order to view these photos. The blue line is where I was wandering between sites 3 and 7 during some opportune testing, but give some idea of how the devices are used as participants move between the sites.

This project received a teaching and learning fellowship in 2010, and is now flourishing into a working educational resource. Thanks also go to Tom Shelmerdine who also helped to gather a construct a lot of the data used in this resource.

This noble fieldwork resource will be tested with students in the latter part of March 2011.

More details available on the PedRIO database

Tested To Destruction "TTD": mobile devices good enough for fieldwork?

Image of a Trimble fieldwork kit
used by Geology student here
at Plymouth University

Many of you may have probably wondered what electronic devices are durable enough to take out in the field, without having to attach numerous protective covers.  If you watched the Gadget Show last night you would have seen the team testing a number of mobile devices out in the field and I can assure you they were not handling them carefully.  If a device can take this sort of abuse it has a good chance of lasting on just about any of our field trips!

Devices (that survived...even being subjected to explosives!) included:

* Kodak Playsport camcorder -  also reviewed on CNET UK
* Garmin Oregon 450T (GPS) - also reviewed on Free Geography Tools

The full test can be seen on video via Gadget Show blog. I'll leave it up to the viewers to decide what they would choose!

YouTube Editor, how does it fair?

I created this video to demonstrate how simple short films can be made using the new YouTube Editor. Ok its a little basic, only allows 7 video clips to be included in the time frame, there are no transition effect and there is no audio editing other than an 'AudioSwap' feature that allows users to add creative commons music. For this example I only used 4 original clips taken on a Canon 550D camera that I uploaded directly from the memory card. The clips were then shortened further (using the YouTube editor cutting feature) and pieced together on the (max 7 video) time frame, its all drop and drag!

At the time of producing this, the Editor was in its early stages of development. Yes its crude, but the results are very reasonable. Unfortunately videos created in this way are not available for MP4 download, BUT, if you did not use AudioSwap the MP4 download option does appear.

I think key points to remember are:

• Uploads can be time consuming if using slow connections.
• The editor will currently only allow 7 separate video clips to be pieced together in the final item. Keep them short, as you are only allowed a max of 10 mins total for a 'complete' video.
• No editing of the sound is available as yet. Although royalty free music is included and can be added by drop and drag.
• The video created with the editor does not currently appear as something that can be re-edited.
• Processing of your final work can take time, thankfully you can happily turn off your PC while it chugs away and view later!
• videos created in this way (and using the AudioSwap) are not available for MP4 download, if you dont use AudioSwap, its not a problem... (N.B. and single videos that you have uploaded can be saved as an MP4 - worth knowing if you wanted a simple converter)
• Completely FREE!!!!!!

Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010 Beta testing

MS Office 2010 Beta is now available! After being invited to Beta test I decided to sign up. It comes in both 32bit and 64bit flavours suitable from Windows XP (SP3) right up to Windows 7 (32/64bit). Microsoft say that the 32bit works well for all platforms ... lets see.

This version comes with most of the familiar items: Word, OneNote, InfoPath, PowerPoint, Access, SharePoint Workspace, Outlook, Publisher, Communicator and Excel. The layout has changed and notably the big button on the left top corner has gone. For example, in Word, selecting the File tag gives you this (select image to enlarge):


This is back on the 'Home' tag:

Most Office 2007 users may be pleased to find a fairly familiar layout.

Another feature that has been added that I would describe as a 'Google Doc -ness' , whereby co-authoring is available allowing users to share and edit documents at the same time online, could be a very interesting feature.

Fanciful text effects anyone? :)


A note for those wanting to install the 64bit version. I use Office 2007 and even though Im using 64bit Windows 7 I had this error:


Although Microsoft ask for a clean install for testing, I can report that the 32bit version allows you to install 2010 alongside your existing Office :) Which is what I have done here.

I had one error opening Word for the first time:


But after this, Word open without a hitch, so far so good...

A rather fun element to the Beta testing is the ability to send a screenshot to Microsoft, either choosing to 'Send a Frown' or 'Send a Smile' depending on your experience:


Its still in beta, so lets see how it goes... ;)

Triple boot Windows 7 RC (64bit), Ubuntu and Windows XP

After a relatively successful beta test of Windows 7 and the warning from Microsoft to change to the latest iteration, it was time to try the release candidate...

Ok, how did I do the triple boot?
I already have Windows XP on an old PATA 200Gb Maxtor drive and was reluctant to over write this. The main drive is a SATA 1 Tb Samsung, which I intended to use as a dual boot with Windows 7 and Ubuntu 9.04 (64bit). To start with Microsoft requested a complete clean install of Windows 7 Release Candidate, and considering that I had Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) on a dual boot previously, I thought it was time to upgrade both.

The first step was to back up all the important files you need for later. I then used GParted Live 0.3.4, a really excellent (free) Linux based partition tool. I wanted to split the 1Tb drive into 3 partitions, the 'main' partition for windows 7 at ~500Gb and the the other two approximately 250Gb each for Ubuntu and for 'an other' (I'm always looking to test other operating systems).

Just a note on the GParted bit...to save headaches...I found it was in fact easier to format just 2 partitions to NTFS, Ubuntu will work out the partitions later and you are left with the ability to set your final partition to 250Gb with a simple slider ;) (hey presto - 3 partitions). Why? I know you can format any which way using GParted but I found that Ubuntu airs on the side of caution and tries to add another partition if you have already catered for Linux operating systems, its just nice to keep things tidy. After all, I'm going to try to break the software in testing later.

From previous experiences I prefer using the Grub boot loader, advantageously this installs as standard on Ubuntu. This made for an easy decision on installation order, install Windows 7 first then Ubuntu last. The reality? It worked, Ubuntu 9.04 had no problem recognising the old PATA 200Gb (with XP), plus Windows 7, it then installed itself and quite happily set up grub. All that was needed was a simple tweak in Grub to set which operating system boots first, ...enter the terminal and sudo grub.

Grub tips
There are a lot of useful tips on the ubuntu forums and Grub site when I did the install, but recently I found this handy post that simplifies the process. Remember that if you put one 'section' of code above another, that will shift the order closer to the top of the boot loader window. The first section of code (one at the top) always boots first by default (e.g. just below: ## ## End Default Options ##). If you you want to tweak a little further, rename the 'title' to something more meaningful for your purposes.

Windows 7 Beta, any good?

I finally got around to installing Window 7 Beta (64bit) on my home PC and joined the Microsoft beta testers. In a nutshell I am finding it surprisingly good, and importantly very stable. The only issues I found was that the operating system got a little confused between my two on board LANs, nothing that the on board troubleshooter couldn't work out... But this glitch kept re-occurring... One for the Microsoft people to work out on the driver front.

What about using and installing software?
Well all the Microsoft Office 2007 components work beautifully. There was a slight glitch after putting on Adobe Web Standard CS3 suite, as I later discovered that the control panel was not functioning properly. It was all down to Adobe Cue, however disabling this by renaming a file did the trick!

To be fair on Win7 (it is in Beta) and Adobe (only meant for Vista at most) so I was very surprised that so many applications actually worked. All this aside Win7 is in fact a very stable and fast booting/shutting down operating system. Everything Vista was meant to be. So far so good :)