Giving Thanks for the Free Software

Today, I just want to give props to some free software, freely available on the web that has helped me. Yesterday I mentioned the DivX codec pack, and you can download it for free from here:

http://www.divx.com/en/software/divx-plus/codec-pack

Another bit of software that has helped me tremendously is converting DVD to AVI. A small free tool is fast and quick. Here is a screen shot:


The URL for downloading this tool is:

http://convertdvdtoavi.com/

And props also go to CoolUtils.com. I needed to convert a jpg pic to an .ico icon file for Visual Studio, and it was done promptly and easily online at:

http://www.coolutils.com/online/image-converter/

Thanks a bunch. Readers of my other blog will know that I reciprocate, putting up code for RFID and mag card readers etc.

And this was lying on my desktop. If you need a green light pic for any development that you do, I created this one pictured below. Please take it if you need it.

Microsoft Codecs Bite

I just finished my rugby video application, and one huge area of risk was the Microsoft video codecs. The ones that they ship with their operating systems don't play in the sandbox well with .Net video playing code.

Specifically, when I would pause a movie, and programmatically advance the frame counter, oftentimes I would get a black screen and the movie was playing but the graphics were not being painted.

I connected a slider bar to navigate the video, and the slider bar sometimes worked and at other times, I would move the slider to a new position and hit play, and the movie would resume playing at the old position. It was hit or miss.

I finally got fed up, and converted the video .avi to div(x). Then I downloaded the DIVX codec from DIVX (quel surprise) and after installation, the video software components worked better than expected.

Not only did I get better screen resolution, but the slider worked as smooth as butter, and the degree of accuracy in frame positioning was an absolute precise delight.

You can get the free DIVX codec pack from here:

http://www.divx.com/en/software/divx-plus/codec-pack