If you're abroad and want to keep a finger on the pulse of life at home, what are your options? You might sign up for satellite TV, buy an over-priced newspaper, or read online. But sound and moving pictures somehow make you feel more "connected". Streaming audiovisual content may be the answer.
Continue reading 'Getting local news while abroad'
Tag archive for 'video'
The webcam has been around since 1991, finding gainful employment in a variety of tasks from video-conferencing to traffic monitoring. Many webcams with a "monitoring" function don't stream live video, but instead upload a static image to a web page that changes after a set period (seconds or minutes). So if you're curious to see what the weather's like in Wellington, how busy the roads are, or what the crowds are like in Courtenay Place on a Friday night, here's your chance.
Continue reading 'Wellington webcams'
Following our visit to Bangkok in February 2006 we carried on to Cambodia, primarily to visit the 12th century temple of Angkor Wat. I kept a journal on my lean, mean, messaging machine but unfortunately accidentally deleted it. Bugger! At least we still have the photos and some video, three minutes of which I'll share with you here.
Continue reading 'Angkor Wat in three minutes'
I previously blogged a solution to playing anamorphic DVD recordings under Mac OS X using VLC. VLC is not yet a Universal Binary and seems unstable on my Intel-based Mac, which is also capable of reading the DVD+RW disks that my Philips DVD Recorder uses. On my previous (DVD "minus" only) Mac, getting .VOB (MPEG-2) video of such disks was complicated and involved using a PC (shudder!). Thankfully there is a way to watch recorded anamorphic TV broadcasts on the Mac in the correct aspect ratio using none other than the DVD Player software included with Tiger.
Continue reading 'Anamorphic DVD playback revisited'
The world has too many video formats. We mere mortals are dazzled by the cacophony of audio codecs, video codecs, and file containers. Too frequently the "same" format becomes incompatible as you move from one player to another, or go cross-platform. Some Windows Media files play fine on Windows, yet trip up Windows Media Player for Mac. An MPEG-4 file made on a Mac may not play on a Windows machine. Your QuickTime files on the desktop become wasted space on the SD card in your Palm or Pocket PC. Now we have the iPod that does video, with a predilection for H.264.
Continue reading 'The elusive multi-device video format'
