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Advanced SearchUser Name pcharles
Member Since 2001-09-07
Total number of Feedback Posts: 16
Total number of comments: 1
Last 10 Feedback Posts by pcharles [ Search for All ]
HandBrake 0.5.2 (Mac OS X)
If you install a codec in QT, such as divx 5.1, you should be able to play this without any problems. Otherwise, use VLC, which even allows you to send full screen video to a separate display. If you use one of the AVI-MOV converters, I have found these cause the most problems. I have used Handbrake in conjunction with Media Cleaner 6 to squish entire movies onto my PocketPC. I've not gone much further down, but a 2 hour movie looks good at 320 by 180 and 75MB. [alert admin]
Friday, February 20 2004 @ 01:55 PM PST
HandBrake 0.5.2 (Mac OS X)
I've been using this software and Cleaner to make copies Stargate that run on my PocketPC. By creating 200MB files with 432 across the top and then compressing them down to WMV files that are 320 across the top, using cleaner, I've been able to take my favorite show on the road. I keep trying all the others, but this one is so much easier to use.
What would be nice is an option to export to WMV and quicktime formats directly from Handbrake. I'd pay money for that feature as it would save me buying Cleaner. Incidentally, Cleaner has to be the worlds slowest encoder, so if you want good small QT files, get Sorenson, it is about 5 times faster on the same file.
Saturday, February 14 2004 @ 04:18 PM PST
Cleaner 6.0.2b1 (Mac OS 9, Mac OS X)
Ugh! While I have not had the stability problems described by others, I cannot believe it takes over 10 hours to convert a 45 minute video file to a 320 x 240 (160kbps) WMV version 7 for my PocketPC. I can convert the same file using Sorenson Squeeze in under 2 hours with the same, if not better, result. [alert admin]
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Thursday, February 12 2004 @ 09:43 AM PST
Revolution 2.1rc1 (Mac OS X)
A very nice tool that IS FREEWARE 
I spent a long time trying to determine which programming tool to try. I had no background in programming beyond a simple goto loop on my C-64 many years ago. It is frustrating to read reviews from children who know nothing about this application other than it is not C++.
I downloaded RealBasic, bought the books, and after about two or three weeks was able to follow the books and create the applications, but I could not create applications of my own, so I bought more books and searched the internet. On one occasion I downloaded revolution 1.3, which claimed to be much easier than Real Basic, but it seemed a little clunky to work with. Since then, Revolution 2 has been released with the improved interface and additional tools, so I gave it another try and have been happy with the results.
My project was a simple periodic table of the elements. What sold me on this application was the simplicity with which I could build the table and color the buttons. I could not make RealBasic do that at all. I was sold on it and although THEY DO HAVE A FREEWARE VERSION, I decided to register the application. Yes, it is expensive, but so are all the other third party development environments, and they are running a $75 special at the time of writing.
If you want to develop a cross platform application, you might want to give this a try instead of RealBasic because I think that for many people the scipting approach would be easier. Furthermore, learning this willl help you on your path to Cocoa/Applescript development because the languages are somewhat similar. I hope that one day I can write Cocoa/Objective C applications, but to be quite honest most people do not need to waste their time. Revolution and RealBasic are improving at such a rate that you may want to stick with them unless you plan to work for Microsoft. It is hard to choose between Revolution and RealBasic. Revolution is clearly simpler to use because it uses the English Language and has a quicker learning curve. RealBasic creates smaller applications that may have a cleaner lines, but it is more confusing because the code is more like a "real" programming language and so it has a slower learning curve. I'll probably try RealBasic again in the future, but for now, Revolution provides the more user friendly environment with more development options.
Revolution has full support for SQL databases, but it would be nice to have a build in database similar to RealBasic.
The main problem right now is the lack of manuals and books. The online manual is nice when you have plenty of screen space, but there are no Revolution specific books. However, you can pick up an old hypertalk (hypercard) book and find that it to be very helpful. RealBasic on the other hand has loads of book, none of which I found really helpful.
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Thursday, August 21 2003 @ 08:31 AM PDT
iView MediaPro 1.5.7 (Mac OS 9, Mac OS X)
After fiddling with these things for a while longer, just a couple of minutes with Tri-Catalog addresses most of my need. It is still not a cheap application, but costs the same as iView Pro and half of Portfolio. The way it catalogs is useful in that it retains the file structures. [alert admin]
Wednesday, June 25 2003 @ 05:30 PM PDT
iView MediaPro 1.5.7 (Mac OS 9, Mac OS X)
I have spent the last few days comparing this to Portfolio and trying to decide which to waste my money on. At the moment I am not overwhelmed by either, but this one definitely loses.
I am sure that for many people this program is useful. However, when cataloging disks with thousands of images in folders and subfolders such as the Clip Art CDs, the Portfolio program wins. It seems a little slower, but what it is doing is more useful. As Portfolio imports files it uses their file and folder names and structures to create categories and keywords. This saves hours and hours of work that would be required with iView . . . . . . . If I could have easily figured out how to create useful catalogs.
I love iPhoto, and for photographs I think that the ease of use that iPhoto brings, cannot be matched by this obtuse application. However, if you plan to use removable media then iPhoto is useless. iPhoto does not handle all kinds of media such as eps, the format of my clip art (Art Explosion), but neither does the basic version of iView! iPhoto also copies files to your hard drive and that is a bad idea when you are trying to catalog about 34CDs of files. Having said that, my hard drive is big enough to handle that and it is an option if I get really sick of Portfolio before I pay that insane price!
The options in this area are limited and neither iView nor Portfolio are stars or good value, but Portfolio does offer more features and greater import options than iView, which appears to just import things. iView is faster at doing this though, but that is because it is not building all the catalogs.
There appears to be some other options on the market such as DiskCatalogMaker, SimpleImageX, DiskListerX, DiskCatalog, and TriCatalog, which I will be looking at next. If it can read EPS files and assign a folder structure for under $200 then I am happy! [alert admin]
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Wednesday, June 25 2003 @ 03:56 PM PDT
()
to get the Perfection 3200 to work with Omnipage X?? I need to scan multiple pages into one PDF document. Omnipage X is the only application I know that does this.
I bought the P3200 because it was supposed to be TWAIN, but it does not ship with TWAIN drivers, so now I am stuck with a superb scanner, but it does not work for me.
Omnipage X works with Photoshop Plugins in Classis mode, and this would be a great appoach except that this scanner uses TWAIN in OS9 and so I cannot use that route. It has become a very expensive mistake. [alert admin]
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Friday, April 25 2003 @ 05:24 AM PDT
SilverFast Ai Epson Perfection 3200 6.0.2d08 (Mac OS 9, Mac OS X)
the scanner it ships with is very disapointing. I bought this because it was a TWAIN scanner and all I got was an Epson Scan Plugin Utility and this useless Silverfast SE. I cannot even collate and print with it. All I wanted to do was collage images into one PDF file and I cannot do it! The sooner we get a full twain driver for this scanner, the better it will be. [alert admin]
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Friday, April 25 2003 @ 05:18 AM PDT
OmniWeb 4.1.1 (Mac OS X)
adequate for anyone who feels obsessed with avoiding Internet Explorer, but if you need to do anything remotely sophisticated, it is virtually useless. Just a few of the problems are: This browser incorrectly displays the JAVA & CGI content from course administration tools such as WebCT. This browser is barely faster than Explorer, despite its very limited capabilities. This browser has none of the "cool" features found on Explorer, Netscape, or Chimera. In particular they have no tabbed browsing. This browser crashes more than any other browser I have used, including Chimera, which is not even at full release. This browser has a price tag greater than FREE, which considering that is it less functional than most free browsers, is too expensive. Save your money for .Mac! The only saving grace is that it is Cocoa and supports Services. When Chimera gets their services running and hits full release, this will be an obsolete browser, unless they can fix the page rendering and add tabbed browsing. By that time, IE will be at version 6 written in Cocoa and offer tabbed browsing, and the whole discussion will start again. [alert admin]
Tuesday, October 01 2002 @ 02:25 PM PDT
iMol 0.2 (Mac OS X)
truly beautiful application. I'm not familiar with a lot of the higher level requests of others commenting, but from a teaching perspective I find this surpasses RasMol and any of the other viewers I have used. Particularly for aesthetics, speed, and ease of use. Great Work! Ten Stars! [alert admin]
Tuesday, September 03 2002 @ 05:31 AM PDT
Last 10 Comments by pcharles [ Search for All ]
Oh! Crap! I am sorry for posting twice. Anyway, people might be interested in an application called "Tri-CATALOG." It costs about the same as iView Pro, but is much nicer to use.
Original feedback item : Read More
Wednesday, June 25 2003 @ 05:23 PM PDT
