I guess many people, including me, did not know that free media player, VLC, can be used to create screencasts of your desktop. It may require some experimentation to come up with the right settings but you do not have to buy any special software to do it. You need download and install VLC.
1. From Media menu select Convert/Save
2. Open Media dialog will be presented and you have to switch to Capture Device tab.
3. Select Capture Mode: Desktop
4. Set desired frame rate. I used 25 fps.
5. Press Convert/Save button and you will see Convert dialog. Source will be preselected to screen://
6. Browse to select destination file
7. In Settings you need to choose profile. I got best results with “Video – MPEG-4 + AAC (MP4)”
8. Hit settings icon to edit profile.
9. My preferred settings are:
- Encapsulation MP4/MOV
- Video codec H-264, 25fps
- Audio codec unchecked since I am not going to record any audio
10. Press Start to begin recording then stop when you finished.
That was quick. A day after announcing bugs in latest firmware Canon releases update. I did not have time to really try previous one but I will probably upgrade to this version and next time wait couple more days before jumping on freshly released update
A day after its release of the firmware 2.0.3, there are lot of reports about issue with audio functionality Custom modes. Canon is working on update to address it. They recommend to register your camera so you notified via e-mail when future firmware updates become available for download.
As an every day commuter I am really happy to see this happening. The bike directions take a lot of factors into consideration:
designated bike lanes, tries to avoid areas with lots of hill climbs and drops, busy roads and intersections. In giving estimates on trip times, Google uses an average person at an average Body Mass Index level, peddling up and down the terrain. Let’s take a look at my usual morning route. I checked it with GPS logger and it is 9 miles which takes me about 35 minutes. According to Google Maps it is 11.6 mi and takes 1 hour. This feature is still in beta so I hope they will make some improvements
Canon today pre-announces the release of a firmware update for the multiple award-winning EOS 5D Mark II. Originally announced in late 2009, the update adds 24 and 25 frames per second (fps) recording to the camera’s EOS MOVIE video function, and will be available as a free download from the middle of March.
Popular web-based photo editing service Picnik was acquired by Google. Picnik does a great job of cropping and touching up photos, and it comes with a lot of fun effects. It looks like nothing changes today. They will keep supporting existing partners, including Flickr and Facebook. I just wonder how they going to merge it with with Picasa?
Firmware Version 1.2.4 incorporates the following improvements and fixes.
1. Supports the WFT-E4 II wireless file transmitter that was released in December 2009.
2. Corrects a phenomenon in which visible noise may appear in images taken by continuous Bulb shooting.
Firmware Version 1.2.4 is for cameras with firmware up to version 1.1.0. If the camera’s firmware is already version 1.2.4, it is not necessary to update the firmware. For more info go to 5D mark II firmware page.
There are two kinds of compressed files for the firmware update according to your computer’s operating system (Windows, Mac OS X). Please extract it after downloading.
Canon today announces that it is currently developing a firmware update to the EOS 5D Mark II to enable the recording of high definition 1080p video at 24 and 25fps. The decision to develop new firmware to support these features has been taken following feedback received from cinematographers and photographers.
Canon currently expects the firmware update to be made available during the first half of 2010. An announcement regarding details of the update and its availability will be made closer to the release date.
Basically it’s about name tags that have been available in web version for a while. It scans all the photos in your collection, identifies the ones with faces, and groups photos with similar faces together. It will also sync back and forth with online albums so if you already got name tags there all will be imported to your local collection.
Other features include geotags and integration with Goggle Maps. You can easily set album or photo geographic locations. Tag management has been improved which makes it more interesting alternative to commercial photo management software. last but not least is simplification of import, upload and sharing. You can actually do this in one step.
