Search, play, download and convert audio and video with Miro

Miro is an excellent application that in times where more and more multimedia content is uploaded on the net and many portable devices are launched day after day, the utility that this application offers is incredible. With a built-in browser engine, a multi-page searcher, a TV player and a converter, Miro is one of the most complete programs.

When we run the program we find on the left panel a number of options that allow us to access the different resources Miro has. It has its own guide and an application as well as a series of pages that we can set up as we want.

On “Web Sites” section we will see the sites we can have quick access from Miro, and from where we can download. So in a practical way we can download videos from YouTube as from the main streaming online sites.

At the same time, Miro allows you to create playlists based on online content as well as audio or video files that you previously stored on your computer.

Without doubt, one of the most interesting utilities Miro offers is the converter. With this exciting tool we can make conversions based on the most popular format profiles taking as reference the device we use. This way, we don´t need to worry about format compatibility problems, as well as the ideal size for our laptop.

As we can see, Miro is a very complete program that allows us to get the best of the web easily. Whether we want to view multimedia content, download it or convert it to take it everywhere on portable devices, Miro is an application that will give us practical solutions.

First steps to edit videos with Vegas Pro 9.0

SONY Vegas Pro 9.0 has gained a favorable position as one of the most used digital video editor programs by professionals on the industry. But beginners also use it, as if they know the basic use (load a file to be edited, make cuts, transitions and export videos) they’ll be able to edit their own audiovisual pieces.

To start editing with SONY Vegas Pro 9.0 we need to load the file/s which we want to work with (the program calls it media). To do it, we need to go to the File menu, choose the option open, and there we need to select the desired file. Once opened, the media will appear visualized on the media explorer, on the pre visualization media and on the timeline.

Once the file is open, we’ll do a cut to a transition on it. Cutting our videos is important because they give rhythm to our story, as well as determining the length of the take. On this guide, we’ll do two types of cuts: the direct cut and the cut by transition.

To perform a direct cut with SONY Vegas Pro 9.0, we’ll use two different medias and we’ll indicate how to edit them to be able to do an alternation of shots through cuts. On the file that can be seen on the upper image, we have a video that shows us the actions of a random game; on the one below, we have the stand. To alternate these two files through direct

First steps to edit videos with Vegas Pro 9.0

cuts, we’ll select pieces of one file and chose, using the timeline cursor, the moment where we want to cut the action. Once we have the cursor on the desired moment, we just need to select the S key and the software will let us know that the cut was successful because the part that follows the cursor will be colored.

Once we’ve finished with this, we need to do the same with the other video and start alternating the different pieces of the files to perform the cuts and add rhythm to our audiovisual through editing.

First steps to edit videos with Vegas Pro 9.0

The other type of cut is the one by transition, which unlike the direct cut, implies a mixture of the shots that we want to edit using fade in and fade out and has another narrative purpose. In order to do it with SONY Vegas Pro 9.0, we just need to select the pieces we want to make the cut by transition with, and add one on top of the other on the same layer. There will appear on top of the representation, blue lines as in shape of waves to use them to control the length and speed we want to give the transition.

Now the last step that we can see is the one of processing our audiovisual. To do it, we must select the piece we want to process using the time cursor, and then go to File and open the option render. The window of the option will open, and we’ll need to name our file, select the location where we want to save it and which video format we want it to be processed.

First steps to edit videos with Vegas Pro 9.0

Once we click on accept, we need to wait until SONY Vegas Pro 9.0 renders the file so we can see our piece of work finished.

Sony Vegas: an excellent option to edit digital videos

The evolution of video digitalization brought as a consequence video editing to be handy for everyone who wants to do it and counts with a camcorder and a system powerful enough to run the video editing programs. Among them, we find one of the most popular available in the market: SONY Vegas Pro 9.0.

SONY Vegas Pro 9.0 interface isn’t any different to other digital video editing programs, what makes the user experience very intuitive and anyone with basic knowledge on this subject can use it. SONY Vegas Pro 9.0 works with layers, what allows you to work audio, video and texts separately, and comes with professional quality filters, which will optimize the audiovisuals’ final result if we are amateurs or it won’t disappoint if we are professionals.

In SONY Vegas Pro 9.0 interface we can find three well-defined zones. The first one is the editing tool, where the different tools to edit are organized in contextual folders. Among them we can find: project media tab, that shows us the medias (files) that we are working with; explorer, to navigate through our computer or the net to which it is connected to look for files; predetermined transitions, useful doing the different cuts among the different takes; video effects, to add different predetermined filters to sublimate or make corrections to the images colors; the media generator, that allows generating key stills, inserting texts, creating final credits similar to the professional movies ones through the creation of a new layer digitally produced.

On the left we can find the preview button (a monitor) that lets the user visualize the evolution of his work in real time, without the need of rendered images. This option gives us the possibility to know properties of the project we are working with, as well as enabling the connection with an external device (editor monitor, tv, etc.). Furthermore, this pre visualization tool allows you to have different quality previews, to see the list with all the predetermined video effects that we have available, and shows us the security area we have to work with, or divides the screen in grids. It also lets us select any half of the screen or capture the still we are visualizing and save it.

On the lower area of SONY Vegas Pro 9.0 interface we can find the timeline and the different layers -audio and video- we are working with. On the timeline it is simple to recognize the files we have on each layer, as its representation form is clear, being the video layer represented through stills and audio layers through sound waves. SONY Vegas Pro 9.0 also offers a timecode for the audiovisual project we are working with. On the left we have a window that displays the different layers, with their properties and the possibility to rename them. On the right part we have the timeline, where we can see the progression of the editing and the different pieces of the files we are using. Below this, we can see the controllers on the left part of the screen and on the right part we find three time indicators that are: the cursor position, the final selection on the timeline, and the total time of the selection. Below the layers window we can see a speed control of the cursor reproduction.

SONY Vegas Pro 9.0 doesn’t consume too many resources from the system when it’s running, although to take major profit from all the possibilities SONY Vegas Pro 9.0 gives us, we should have a powerful computer, with a good video card. The requirements to install SONY Vegas Pro 9.0 are: to have as operating system Microsoft Windows XP 32 Bits, Windows Vista 32 or 64 Bits, a 1 GHZ processor, 1 GB RAM memory, OHCI board-compatible i.LINK® connector/IEEE-1394DV card, among other technical requirements. Sony Vegas gives the possibility to work with different video formats in our projects, among the most popular DV and the new HDV and export to DVD, MPEG 4 and VCD formats, to name a few.

Without a doubt, one of the weakest points of SONY Vegas Pro 9.0 is that its trial version is only for thirty days of use and to be able to use it, we need to provide the company with registration information to obtain the key activation order to register. This application contains very powerful tools, what puts SONY Vegas Pro 9.0 on an optimum place as regards other programs of its class, being chosen, not only by amateur users, but also by professional video editors.

Win7codecs, the codec pack that plays absolutely everything on Windows 7

Windows 7, like it happened with Vista before, is characterized for being able to play without any problems a great number of audio and video files. What’s true about this, is that many times, the codecs that it comes with by default, are not enough, not being able to play an important amount of formats (even some of the most popular ones).Fortunately, Win7codecs happened, a complete codec pack that, without a doubt, will save time and disappointments when playing any type of audio and video file.

Win7codecs installation is almost automatically and it takes a few seconds, although the initial configuration will demand our attention and certain basic knowledge if we want to personalize it through a window, at first sight, a little tiresome and overcharged with options.

However, the configuration by default, with which Win7codecs starts once the installation is over, is the most appropriate one for the intensive and correct use of media players, so we recommend not going into much detail if the information is unknown for you.

This way, with the standard installation, using Windows Media Player, Media Center or any other Windows 7 player, Win7codecs will avoid any kind of disappointment and will play almost any type of audio or video file.

One thing to take into account, because of the great number of codecs that Win7codecs offers, during the installation process, it’ll delete any other pack previously installed. The reason for this is that Win7codecs was especially developed so, once installed on the system, we could play any type of audio or video file on Windows 7, without having to worry about any particular codec.

Giving it a bigger functionality to this pack, Win7codecs will play streaming audio and video without any inconvenient. That means we’ll navigate on any site and we’ll have access to media information (online media players, Youtube videos, Myspace, or any videos portal, etc.) without the need to download or install absolutely anything.

What’s true is that despite its incredible results when playing practically almost any type of audio and video formats in the most varied range of players (installed on the PC or online), Win7codecs doesn’t come with an own player, something that could’ve given this codec pack a title of “complete utility”. Apart from that, it is highly recommended to have installed Win7codecs on the computer to guarantee stables, clean and successful reproductions, thanks to its complete audio and video codec pack.

Video editing made easy with Windows movie maker

Windows Movie Maker makes home movies amazingly fun. With Movie Maker, you can create, edit, and share your home movies right on your computer. Build your movie with a few simple drag-and-drops. Delete bad shots and include only the best scenes. Then share your movie via the Web, e-mail, or CD. Using third-party software you can even take movies you’ve made and turn them into DVDs. You can also save your movie back to the video tape in your camera to play back on a TV or on the camera itself.

Upon running Windows Movie Maker, a windows-like interface will be displayed. WMM interface is divided into three panes. On the right, there is a preview window and on the left we have a Movie Task panel including several shortcuts for editing tasks.

Movie Task is divided into four parts and each of them contains several tasks. Now, let´s get started. Click “Capture Video” and then “Capture from Video Device” if you don´t have any videos. If you do have videos or images, click “Import Videos” or “Import Pictures” or “import Audio or Music”.

With this guide, we´ll start by importing an existing video file. After the import process has finished, we can see the imported videos/images/audio in the Collection pane (the one located in the center of the screen). We can start editing them by dragging them to the Timeline on the bottom of the screen.

Once we arranged the video, images and audio in the desired order, we can start combining all the elements on the timeline.

If you do not wish to use any effects or transitions, we can also join them manually one after another by dragging them to the timeline in the desired order by trimming the timeline elements with the arrows next to each video, image or audio file. We can also choose the option “Make an Automovie” (found on “Edit Movie”) for the program to do it automatically.

However, if you want to give your projects a personal touch, we can use several types of effects and transitions by clicking “View Video effects” and “View Video transitions” in the “Edit Movie” task. To use effects and transitions, simply drag them into the elements of the timeline.

Once we wrapped up the project, go to “3. Finish Movie” and “Save to my computer/CD/DV Camera/the web” or “Send in e-mail”. Finally, choose a name for the file and the program will start encoding (creating) the project.

Windows Movie Maker is a user-friendly application for video editing that applies for novice and experienced users alike. Starting creating movies and slide shows from your photos and videos, and share them with your friends and family.

Total Video Converter, MediaCoder and Quick Media Converter The best video converters supporting all popular video formats.

Either with a PC or a mobile, converters popularity grows by the day by allowing users to convert and plays video on mobiles quickly and easily. However, variety can sometimes be the issue, having trouble picking one out of thousands of converters. On the other hand, not all mobile support most popular video formats, that´s why we need a converter to convert video to some of the most popular video formats such as MP4, 3GP, MPEG, WMV, AVI, FLV, DV, Etc.

In this round-up, we will review three of the most popular and efficient video converters: Total Video Converter, MediaCoder and Quick Media Converter. Either we convert one or multiple files, these applications allow you to convert video files with a wide range of settings.

Quick Media Converter is a powerful and quick –as the name indicates- converter that features a nice, clean interface for novice and experienced users alike -an aspect which is certainly not found in Total Vide Converter and Media Coder, mostly the latter.

Another aspect of Quick Media Converter worth mentioning is the “easy mode” (for first timers) and “expert mode” (for experienced users) profiles.

It´s not easy to counter the simplicity and features of Quick Media Converter, but Total Video Converter will not go down without a fight.

Total Video Converter delivers an interface not as easy-to-use as Quick Media Converter, but still accessible to most users by features “Simple” and “Advanced” modes. Though Total Video Converter is very efficient and features a wide range of encoding settings, conversions might not be as fast as we would expect.

Despite this shortcoming, Total Video Converter is still one of the most popular converters, including features such as: preview; convert specific part of a video; modify aspect ratio and more. The software is designed to convert video for your mobile video player as 3gp, mp4, PSP, PS3, iPod, iPhone etc and also VCD or DVD player, XBOX360.

Last but not least, we have Mediacore, an universal batch media transcoder, which nicely integrates most popular audio/video codecs and tools into an all-in-one solution. Although MediaCoder an overloaded interface (some options are unnecessary for the average user) it features blazing-fast conversions due to its multi-threading design, optimized for multi-core processors (average CPU utilization on quad-core processors over 90%), making it the ideal software for converting long videos or even entire movies. Moreover, MediaCoder features a subtitle editor for you to add subtitle to any video or movie.

Each of these converters have their pros and cons, but still, each of them manage to pull at least one exclusive features.

Quick Media Converter includes a tool to capture audio and video. Total Video Converter is recommended for ripping DVD movies and MediaCoder allows you to enter the URL address of a video and convert it to another format on the fly.

In short, each of them offers different tools and settings to suit any kind of user. Nevertheless, we would get Quick Media Converter due to its conversion speed and user-friendly interface, Total Video Converter for its wide range of video formats and MediaCoder for its high-quality conversions.

Which player is worthy of your multimedia files

A multimedia player enables you to play movies, music, video clips, TV shows and any audio and video file. Multimedia players have become essential applications for any PC delivering the highest audio and video quality. Next, you´ll get to know the most popular players covering all multimedia aspects. We introduce you to Windows Media Player, Winamp, iTunes, Songbird and VLC Media Player. These players present features of their own, some of them allow users to manage their files, and others feature hundreds of plug-ins.

Windows Media Player

As with almost every type of program in the world of the PC, the influence of Microsoft Windows is strong when it comes to choosing a multimedia player. So what better place to begin talking about these programs than with the one that is installed by default on this operating system?

Windows Media Player strength lies in the use and management of multimedia files, mainly thanks to its Media Library, with which users can arrange and catalogue their files, thereby making it easier to find exactly what they want to play. What’s more, it features tools for ripping and burning CDs, together with another for synchronizing with portable devices.

This player also comes with a collection of accessories and enhancements with which you can, among other things, change various aspects of the audio output, link the program to Windows Live Messenger, and more.

Without a doubt, the weakest aspects of Microsoft’s media player are the options for playing podcasts and the lack of features it offers users for playing videos.

Winamp

Historically, Winamp has always been the most popular multimedia player, thanks to its winning combination of interesting tools, low resource consumption, and ease of use.

Nowadays, Winamp comes with various different tools for playing audio and video, podcast subscription options, playlists, m3u support, support for streaming radio, a multimedia library, and synchronization with all sorts of mobile devices.

As if all that wasn’t enough, this player also stands out for the large amount of plug-ins that can be added to it, thus achieving unique sounds, professional-standard automatic track mixing, and much more.

iTunes

iTunes is the multimedia player of Mac OS, which Apple has now ported to the Windows platform, resulting in a rather strange hybrid.
In themselves, the player’s features are good. It has multiple features for playing audio and video, supports podcasts, plays internet radio stations from all over the world, and can burn and rip audio to and from audio CDs. Plus, it features a wide variety of options for the Apple iPod and iPhone, even if the same can’t be said for other portable devices.

However, after using it for a while you can see that, despite being a great player, there’s no justification for the amount of system resources that it uses up, mainly due to the fact that it is not a program that has been designed for use under Microsoft Windows. Add to this certain other limitations and it becomes very clear that Apple launched iTunes thinking almost exclusively about iPod and iStore users, rather than the possible needs of those users open to other options.

Songbird

If by now you were thinking that there’s no player out there capable of beating the ones already mentioned, you’d be very wrong. Just as Web 2.0 continues to make headlines, Songbird could be described as a sort of Player 2.0. The central portion of its user interface features a Mozilla-based web browser, complete with tabs, that is sure to make this program a hit.

Songbird is able to play some of your favourite tracks even if you don’t have them stored on your PC since it provides you with access to sites where you can search for and play free-to-download songs and other audio files. What’s more, you’ll have a large number of online plug-ins at hand which will notably enhance and build upon the performance of the player.

It goes without saying that this program also comes with support for many different audio and video formats, along with different models and types of portable media devices.

VLC Media Player

Last but not least we have VLC Media Player, a program that may not look like much of a threat to the other players talked about here but that, once you start to use it, you’ll see just how handy it can be to have around.

VLC doesn’t have any library for organizing and administrating your multimedia files. Instead, you simply make a playlist to listen to right now or load a previously saved one. The user interface is pretty basic – and not in the least attractive to be honest – but, despite this, this program is one of the most popular media players around.

The secret lies in the large bundle of codecs that it comes with and which let it play practically any multimedia file that you can get your hands on. No matter what challenge it’s faced with, VLC responds without hesitation, consuming very few system resources whilst achieving an enviable play-back quality.

Choosing just one single player would mean missing out on the features and possible benefits of all the others, for which reason combining more than one and then making use of the features that you need or want the most is surely the best answer when it comes down to kitting out your PC.

In this way, it´s important to know which player is the most convenient according to the multimedia content we wish to play. We consider that Windows Media Player, Winamp, Songbird and iTunes are all great players with similar features and the same audio and video quality level. Only VLC makes a difference thank to the user friendly codec installation. But as we all know, the appearance in a player is also important, that´s why Winamp and iTunes are both great looking players with a wide variety of wonderful skins and great functionality.

DirectX

The evolution of PC gaming couldn´t have been possible without DirectX. This set of drivers contains all the necessary files to run games properly. Although some games include DirectX on their CD/DVD, others may not, so make sure you always have the latest version to play the latest games.

Microsoft DirectX is a collection of application programming interfaces (APIs) for handling tasks related to multimedia, especially game programming and video, on Microsoft platforms.
DirectX contains several APIs and these are constantly updated by Microsoft as they add new features to some of the APIs.

The components of DirectX are:

- DirectDraw: for drawing 2D Graphics (raster graphics). Now deprecated, though still in use by a number of games and as a video renderer in media applications.
- Direct3D (D3D): for drawing 3D graphics
- DirectSound: for the playback and recording of waveform sounds. DirectInput: for interfacing with input devices including keyboards, mice, joysticks, or other game controllers.
- DirectPlay: for communication over a local-area or wide-area network.
- DirectMusic: for playback of soundtracks authored in DirectMusic Producer.
- DirectShow for multimedia playback and streaming media, DirectX Transform for web interactivity, and Direct3D Retained Mode for higher level 3D graphics.
- DirectSetup: for the installation of DirectX components.

DirectX updates enables PC users to run the latest games. Among its features, it supports Pixel Shader and Vertex Shader – as long as they are supported by the video card. The first a type of shader program, often executed on a graphics processing unit. It is typically used for effects such as bump mapping and color toning, which provide crisper and more realistic graphics. Vertex Shader on the other hand is a graphics processing function used to add special effects to objects in a 3D environment.

As previously stated, DirectX is updated regularly, so it´s important to check for new versions from time to time.
On the other hand, we can access DirectX control panel by typing “dxdiag” on “Run…”. To do so, click on start > Run… and type dxdiag. Once there you can perform several tests for API (i.e. sound, graphics, network, etc).

Nowadays DirectX has become a must-have for any PC gamer out there since games implement new features as Microsoft releases new API updates. The latest versions of Direct3D, namely, Direct3D 10 and Direct3D 9Ex, are only officially available for Windows Vista, but still you need to update DirectX 9 even if you´re running Vista.

Convert audio and video with MediaCoder

Nowadays, it is pretty common that when we want to play audio or video files these are set up in non-recognized formats by PC players or different mobile devices. MediaCoder is a universal batch media transcoder, which nicely integrates most popular audio/video codecs and tools into an all-in-one solution. This way we can convert and compress different files to conventional formats.

MediaCoder supports MP3, Ogg Vorbis, AAC, DivX, Xvid, WMA, QuickTime, RealAudio, and many more that can be converted to any type of format compatible with other electronic devices such as mobile phones, PDA, PSP, DVD or VCD player among them.

MediaCoder features a user-friendly interface divided in different working areas. On the top we found the tools bar with the necessary options to set up our files. For this specific set up, we have some options located at the bottom with the necessary controls adjustments for the file parameters we want to change. In the central part of the screen we can locate the files we extract from the computer or any portable disc for its later conversion. To the left we found a detailed list with some properties as, size, format and file duration.

With MediaCoder you will be able to choose between different parameters according to your set up preferences. Here we offer some advice about them. The steps we must follow in a video file are: Choose “video”, we recommended you to select XviD format, set up an average quality (700/800 Kbps), and as mode, “Quality-based”. For MP3 chose “Audio”, you can also choose the coder: MP3HD. To finish, click on “Add” located on the tools bar at the top and chose the files you want to convert or compress, click on “Start”, if you want to clear the file list click on “Clear”.

Explore the different options and functionalities of MediaCoder. This application is very easy to use. Explore MediaCoder and you will improve your files taking advantage of them in the proper format for your device.

The video´s software your PC need

The change from analog to digital had a significant influence on the video, by having a PC you can see movies before its opening, complete series seasons, home videos made by digital or mobile phones, music videos and many more. The only requirement needed to take full advantage of this possibility is having the proper software that supports the multiple options the video files has (format, compression, codec used, etc).

We will show you here different applications so you can play any video you have (VLC Media Player) solve any format compatibility problem (Combined Community Codec) avoid DVD protection (DvdFab HD Decrypter) and burn discs with your favorite videos (CdBurnerXp).

VLC Media Player

VLC Media Player is a multimedia player very easy to use that also features a user-friendly interface. This software has many options to play files in multiple formats, including DVD and streaming video.

VLC Media Player includes its own codec pack being able this way of playing a wide range of video formats without depending on the Windows codec. One important feature to mention is that it is able to play the incomplete videos we are downloading from Emule, allowing us to see if we are downloading the video we want.

This software is useful to play videos and audio but has being developed to the video side adding new options like the subtitle reproduction and the capacity of playing several audio tracks on a movie.

Combined Community Codec Pack

Combined Community Codec Pack is a complete codec pack which was initially designed for the reproduction of anime videos, and now it has become one of the most popular codec packs in the world. Unlike other packs, Combined Community Codec only installs on our system the necessary codecs, taking a minimal disk space while avoiding compatibility issues with other codecs on our system.

Before installing Combined Community Codec, the installer detects possible codec issues with your system -previously installed codecs that is – avoiding further codec troubleshooting. Combined Community Codec includes among its features two complete multimedia players: Media Player Classic and Zoom Player Standard. With these players you can take full advantage of the codecs included in the package, such as: Haali Media Splitter (DirectShow filter for MKV, MP4, OGM and AVI), VSFilter (for SSA/ASS, SRT y VOBSUB subtitles), Ffdshow CCCP (for H.264/AVC, DivX and vid) and WMV9VCM (for Windows Media). Apart from having standard codecs such as Divx, Xvid and AVI, CCCP offers free audio and video players and an application for making movie subtitles.

DvdFab HD Decrypter

This useful tool allows ripping all kind of DVD movies and videos to the PC to play it, share and burn it later in other disc. Besides offering the possibility of having on our computer any DVD we want, it rips incredible fast and easy.

DvdFab HD Decrypter offers many options to rip, between them we can choose to do it to the entire disc, only on the main part of the movie, on some episodes, with a particular language and subtitle and more. It stands out by doing the rip beyond any protection the disc might have being these CSS, RC, RCE, APS, UOPs or Sony ARccOS.

CdBurnerXp

CdBurnerXp is another amazing burning tool. CdBurnerXp supports CDs and DVDs both DVD and DVDRW, as well as the possibility of creating ISO files. It also allows users to rip audio CDs.

The interface is very easy-to-use, It´s divided into several modules allowing you to drag and drop files. Another important aspect of this burner is that it consume very little system resources. You can also create boot disks and includes a bin/nrg to ISO converter.

Without a doubt, the popularity of Nero suite makes of CdBurnerXp unknown software, nevertheless, its low resource consume and stability makes it highly recommended.

Any Video Converter

Any Video Converter is really useful to convert our movies or videos to the different formats present nowadays, since it can convert video files between many formats.

This tool has many features worth mention: it allows converting a great amount of formats, between them, the popular “mpg”, “avi” and another formats for complex devices. In addition to this, it offers the preview option for the videos we are going to convert and select the segment or part of the video we want to convert in case we do not want to convert the whole video.

It´s use is very simple as it features a user-friendly interface, but despite this, we must say that this software presents some disadvantages. Compared with other software, Any Video Converter does not offer any option to modify the output video qualities, though this does not interfere with its performance.

As we could see, with these software you can make any action regarding videos. They are a good choice when dealing with videos and taking full advantage of our computer.