RoboTastic

AVCHD/MTS performance in VLC

admin — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 20:15:33 +0000

Here is a trick for dramatically improving AVCHD / MTS files using VLC. I was getting a lot of skipping on my macbook and now I have buttery smooth playback.

Thanks to this post on the Photography Within blog, I’ve now found a trick that enables VLC to play these files very smoothly – you just have to change one setting:

Go to Tools > Preferences
In the lower left of the box click the checkbox “Show settings – All”
Then go to Input & Codecs > Other Codecs > FFmpeg and look for the option called “Skip the loop filter for H.264 decoding”
Change it from “none” to “all”
Restart VLC

Premiere, After Effects & Dynamic Link and FPS problems

admin — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 02:10:27 +0000

So I am working on a project in Premiere Pro CS4. I imported a composition from After Effects using Dynamic Link. When I exported the final movie the portion from After Effects rendered as just a black screen. Turn out the problem was that the After Effects FPS did not match the Premiere Time Line FPS. It took me forever to figure this out.

This is the tip that help me figure it out:

Apparently in 4.2.1 there is a bug that if the fps of the Dynamically linked comp is not the same as the sequence fps…it won’t render the comp.

I changed the comp from 30fps to 29.97 to match the sequence and it rendered.

Mac + Firefox 3.5 = Wrong Color

admin — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 05:19:14 +0000

Firefox 3.5+ on the Mac cannot automatically detect what monitor profile you are using and just assumes the profile is sRGB. So even though Firefox 3.5+ does Color Correction correctly, it won’t work correctly because it doesn’t know what the profile your monitor is.

Here is an example:

In order to get things working right you have to tell Firefox where the correct profile is. To do that you have to enter “about:config” in the location bar. Then set:

gfx.color_management.mode to 1

gfx.color_management.display_profile to the location where your profile is.

Your profile is either here: /Library/ColorSync/Profiles/Displays/

or: /Users/[username]/Library/ColorSync

Airport Extreme

admin — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 20:12:20 +0000

Well, I may have finally crossed over to full on Mac Addict status. I went and got an Airport Extreme… a wireless router from Apple. I looked around and I had a hard time finding another router that did all that the apple does and was much cheaper. There are definitely comparable routers out there, but if I can buy apple for the same amount of money, why not! Also since I am a federal employee I got a $20 discount.

Right now I have it setup in a spare room. I have it wired to a USB hub and have two drives and a printer hooked up to it. It is pretty much like a little server. I had a little trouble getting Airdisk to work at first for Time Machine backups. It seemed to work after switching around the password scheme used for the disk.

So now I have made 3 different apple purchases in the last year. I have also got a Mac Mini and a MacBook. No a bad year.

Mac Mini Home Theater

admin — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 11:55:30 +0000

We got a 32″ TV

admin — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 02:17:14 +0000

Well after looking around at small TVs we finally decided just to get a 32″ Samsung, the 32b460. So far it works great and has a great picture. It cost the same amount as the 26″ Sony TV. It is about 6″ wider, but we could still fit it on the dresser no problem. Photos to come.

Small LCD TVs 22″ & 26″ With Good Viewing Angles

admin — Thu, 14 May 2009 02:08:27 +0000

So we are in the market for a new TV for the bedroom. We have an old 13″ TV, but it will stop working once everything goes digital.

We picked up a Vizio VA22LF from Target. It is a 22″ LCD TV with 1080p… pretty impressive. The only problem is that the viewing angles aren’t the best. We have it on a dresser and the colors get all distorted if you are sitting on the ground. This is because of the type of panel in smaller LCD TV. They tend to be TN type panels which have color shift when viewed at off angles. That said, this would be a great TV for using as a monitor/TV on a desk.

The smallest TV I have managed to find with a good viewing angle is a 26″ Sony. Both the Sony KDL-26M4000 (2008) and KDL-26L5000 (2009) have 178 degree viewing angle both horizontally and vertically. I think they are using an ISP type panel. Either way these are the only 26″ or smaller that had decent viewing angles. The only problem is that it is 720p. The resolution is not a problem if your just using it as a TV, however it is not much if you are going to use it as a monitor.

Round up of the Tweets

admin — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 03:59:59 +0000

Trying to figure out how to get more people to leave comments on cookography #

Round up of the Tweets

admin — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 03:59:59 +0000

I really have to leave more time when going to the airport. #
Funny book title I saw: how to profit during the coming rapture. #
Made it back to DC, so ready for weekend, so done with vegas #

Round up of the Tweets

admin — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 03:59:59 +0000

Someone should open a grilled cheese restaurant. You could have fun combos, like adding saurkruat and calling it a german. #