OT - Excellent video file (avi mpeg etc) conversion utility

[Bill]

In message , Grimly Curmudgeon writes

some radio programmes being made available by the presenter and a friend of his.

The friend only used a Mac and was providing m4a suffix files. To inspect and listen to these files I used Adobe Audition, so had to convert the files back to wave format. As SUPER was on the machine, I tried that, but conversion results were audibly poor. Reluctantly, I was forced to install iTunes, which gave far superior and quite adequate decoding results on my test files produced after I sent a test CD to be encoded and put up on the website..

It did make me worry about the quality of some of the codecs installed behind the SUPER front-end.

[lemel_man]

I went to a computer fair the other day and was amazed at the low prices being asked for "old" desktop machines: 2Ghz for about £20. Similar vintage laptops were around £100.

[Mark]

True. And one which applies to all software. Even the big players are not above suspicion.

[Mark]

I use SUPER but it does have some strangeness. You get the runaround when trying to download it in the first place. It does "phone home" but that may be just to check for updates.

It has the annoying habit of keep moving its window back to the centre of screen when I move it out of the way and it asks you twice whether you want to exit.

It does put a watermark on the beginning of video clips which might be annoying.

[Pete]

I also use SUPERc - have done for years. It isn't perfect - but it is great value for money!

[Scott M]

IME, spyware is never that subtle. They will *promise* to install a marvellous piece of software but do no such thing. Fully fledged bits of software are just that; some company somewhere is trying to get its paid-for products out there and will use freebies to do so.

And, @Dave, as per various other messages; a desktop with a good enough spec to run modern codecs and modern software easily, costs peanuts. It doesn't even have to be particularly new; there haven't really been any great technological leaps forward in the hardware in the last 5 years. A decent lump of RAM (1GB up) is two/thirds of the battle. And running XP instead of Vista or Seven.

[John Williamson]

The documentation for the version I use says it's just checking for an open port for streaming, should that be the output mode selected. Any firewall stops it dead with the right rule, though.

It hides under other stuff quite easily. And it's not the only program I run that asks you "Are you *really* sure you want to exit?" "Really,

*really* sure?" I'm looking at you, Nokia's programmers. They then hide it in the Taskbar for another go at survival.

I've never seen that. I'm not saying you're wrong, as I use a fairly old version.

[Mark]

Mobile phone software is an abomination and I only install if I have to. I've never installed anything from Nokia.

The worst was the Sony Ericisson PC suite which replaced the "USB root hub" drivers with their own version which stops other mobile phones from working (and some other USB devices). It was a bugger to get rid of and I had to reinstall almost all other software that uses USB to get things working.

It was introduced in a recent version.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Mark saying something like:

Oh shit, yes. I had that piece of useless crap too and it fubared the USB ports. I ripped it out with extreme prejudice and used MyPhoneExplorer which has been fine for years.

[Macabre of Auchterloonie]

Probably, but would cost a lot more than a secondhand pooter with a much farter processor. (Often to be had free from various free/exchange groups or ads in local papers.

Now you're talking, but even up-to-date distros can present quite a steep learning-curve.

[The Natural Philosopher]

No sure what a farter processor is, apart from our dog..but I got a video card that gave me ten times better video speed for 30 quid.

Nothing to do with Linux, everything to do with the card, and, most especially , its drivers.

Nvidia do good chipsets and very good drivers.

IF the application is, for example, looking for various acceleration options, and they are there, it will use them. If they are not, it has to do the computation itself.

If you have onboard intel graphics , get a cheap GEOFIRCE card.

ATI are ok, but intel onboard - often the de facto in cheap consumer level made PCs - is dire.

[Andy Burns]

My Intel gfx can quite happily play HDTV (1920x1080 50 de-interlaced frames per second)

[The Natural Philosopher]

so could mine but flash was a non starter