Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Audacity on OSX

Since last summer there is a new version 1.3.12 (beta) so we are going to use that in the lab. So off to http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ to download.

Hey the new book on Audacity 1.3 from PACKT just arrived as i typed this..how cool is that? Ok we download the 1.3.12.dmg file and open the disk image. We create an Audacity folder in Applications and copy all the files there.

Libraries

While audacity is good as is, it cannot handle MP3 and other files because of IP laws. So we need to download two libraries - LAME and FFmpeg. The LAME library file gets copied to the audacity folder and then in audacity you select audacity,preferences,libraries and click LOCATE and point it to the libmp3lame.dylib file. It will remember the location. FFmpeg comes in a dmg which has a pkg that can be installed. Once that is done click the LOCATE button for FFmpeg and it is automatically detected. Click OK and yer done.

One thing i am excited about is using Audacity to record telephone interviews using Skype or Google talk. I've finally got my external iSight camera hooked up to the mac pro (which replaced the dual G5 this spring) and it's quite impressive. Not as bright as the iSight in the mac pro notebook (which replaced the macbook this spring) but really nice.

Select Audacity, Preferences, Devices and select the iSight under Recording device. You also have to turn off all skype notifications.

Select Skype,Preferences and click the Notifications tab. Untick the Play Sound checkbox.

Enough for now..time for a snack

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Media Server III

I've installed the TVersity media server on the HP DV9000 laptop so that i could play with the internet a/v settings and also to be able to demo it in class. First we copied over some pic, audio and video files in the usual my nnn windows folders and set them up in the TVersity library.

Next we dragged liam's youtube videos, my flickr photos to the library. The Tversity media server can be accessed from the program client but also from a web browser:

http://localhost:41952/flashlib/ gets you the very nice flash interface
http://localhost:41952/medialib/ gets you to the plain html interface
http://localhost:41952/admin gets you to the admin panel

The HP remote is a disappointment, it only works in hp dvd player. So we plug in the media center remote which uses a windows ehome infrared transceiver. Of course xp has no driver and can't find one. Off to the web and we find lots of people looking for the driver. Microsoft has one but their web site only works with IE. I goto their update site and it has me download a Windows Genuine Advantage plug-in, to "enhance the download experience".

Ok done. Now microsoft gets me to download some tool and run it. Which gives me a code i have to paste into the page. Geez - how to get in customer's way. Finally i can download Update Rollup 2 for eHome Infrared Receiver for Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 (KB912024) which gets me WindowsXP-KB912024-v2-x86-ENU.exe which i run. Which gives me an error message ' setup has determined the service pack version of this system is newer than the update you are applying' No need to install this update' - oh yes there is because windows cannot run the remote! arggh windows hell.

looks like a registry hack solution here http://it.megocollector.com/?p=8 but time for a break
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We did find that XBMC supports the hp remote, so the win client version works