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https://www.google.com/a/cpanel/<YOUR_DOMAIN>/DomainSettings

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EncodeHD is a an application to re-encode all types of video files for use on your home media player or on-the-go device. It aims to provide a simple interface with no fuss, and give you the best speed possible without compromising on quality. The following output device types are supported:

• Apple TV
• BlackBerry (8100) Pearl
• BlackBerry (8200) Kickstart
• BlackBerry (8300) Curve
• BlackBerry (8700) Electron
• BlackBerry (8800) Indigo
• BlackBerry (8900) Javelin
• BlackBerry (9000) Bold
• BlackBerry (9500) Storm
• iPhone
• iPod 5G
• iPod Classic
• iPod Nano
• iPod Touch
• Playstation 3
• PSP
• Western Digital TV
• X-Box 360
• Zune

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I have no idea what changed from Vista to XP, but I can no longer login using Outlook 2007.  It has something to do with Active Directory, but even using the correct credentials format (DOMAIN\AD_USERNAME) I get an error.  (If you are interested, the correct domain for GroupSpark is “MAIL”).

If you find yourself in this situation, Outlook 2003 works fine.  Plus, it reminds you of how much better Outlook 2007 is.

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• Virtual Clone Drive – double-click an ISO to automatically mount it as a drive.  Double-click a different ISO and it replaces the first.  Much easier than MS’s tool.
• ISORecorder – burn an ISO to a CD/DVD.  Very simple and reliable tool.
• TreeSize – find the large files on your hard drive

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via Lifehacker

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If you are looking for a chapter list for a DVD to use with Handbrake, here are a couple of pointers:

1. The format is [ChapterNumber].[ChapterName] (i.e., “1.Opening Credits”).
2. If you don’t want to manually enter a chapter list, search spout.com for the movie.  Via Google, just enter “site:spout.com <movie name>” (without the quotes).  You can copy and paste the chapter list into a text editor.
3. You can use TextPad (or any other text editor that does regex search and replace) to get rid of the timestamps (i.e., “[1:24]“) using the search criteria ” \[[0-9]*:[0-9][0-9]\]” (again, no quotes).
4. Handbrake adds an extra chapter at the very end.  I just name this chapter “The End”.

So, here are the CSVs I’ve done so far:

• Ice Age
• The Incredibles
• Ratatouille
• Toy Story
• Toy Story 2

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For Outlook 2003: ToodleDo causes Outlook to give a security prompt. Advanced Security for Outlook by MapiLabs lets you get around that.

If you are in an environment where you don’t have admin rights to your PC, you can Express Click-Eyes, which is a less-elegant solution, but equally effective (it doesn’t bypass the security screen – it checks the box and clicks “Yes” for you).

Also, LifeHacker posted a list of Outlook add-ons.  There are some interesting solutions on there, but nothing that interested me.

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However, I recently tried playing back some of the videos on the SageTV HD-100 extender (doesn’t this thing seem to be at the root of all of my problems?), and it failed.  Miserably.  There was no audio, and the video froze after 5-10 seconds.

I figured there must be something funky going on with the audio codec. Creative’s website, of course, doesn’t tell you what codec is used for the audio.  MediaInfo to the rescue.

It turns out it uses the ADPCM WAV audio codec.  And, of course, the HD-100 doesn’t support WAV (it’s a chipset issue, I believe).

The fix is, theoretically, pretty simple – pull out the audio, convert it to a format that, you know, anyone actually uses anymore, and mux it back in.  However, I want something that will do this all in one step, via the command line.  Luckily, Avidemux can do it.

I created a batch file with the following:
"C:\Program Files\Avidemux 2.4\avidemux2_cli.exe" --force-alt-h264 --load %1 --video-codec COPY --audio-codec MP3 --audio-bitrate 128 --output-format AVI --save "%~1 (remux).avi"
This loads the source file, copies the video stream, converts the audio stream to MP3, puts it all into an AVI container, and saves it to a new file (the –force-alt-h264 is necessary in order to avoid a prompt in the command line output; it has to be before the –load argument).  Every time I put a file on the server, it runs this.  Every now and then I go in and verify that the files converted properly, and then I manually delete the originals.

Postscript: yes, you can use AAC and put it into an MP4 container.  However, it won’t play on anything Apple, because the AVC profile used by the Vado uses CABAC.  I can’t tell you exactly what CABAC is, but I can tell you that Quicktime doesn’t like it.  I think I read that Apple TV doesn’t like it either, but I don’t recall.  iPods don’t like CABAC either, but the resolution is too high, so it’s a non-issue here.

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Luckily, there is a turnkey solution for this – ToNMT (NMT is the “Networked Media Tank”, which is essentially the same hardware as the HD-100/HD-200).  Just make sure you run it on the actual BR disc (or a complete copy of the disc), as opposed to just the Stream folder.

Alternatively, if you are just interested in seeing which stream is the movie stream, you can use BDInfo.

UPDATE: I spoke too soon – I couldn’t get ToNMT to force conversion to AC3.  Since the HD-100 doesn’t support anything else (at least in my configuration), that’s a no go.  Luckily, tsRemux will load a playlist, so I just used BDInfo to find the correct playlist.  I haven’t thought through the workflow yet, but if I come across another seamless branching disc, I’ll put together something.

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