July 2009 – Coding Friends

Firefox drop down list deletion

I have been using gmail / googlemail for a little while now and also have had some other email account with gmail / googlemail that I no longer use anymore, but in the login screen there is a drop list of previous typed username/login details and I wanted to delete these but did not know how, until I did come across this posting Delete autofills.

Basically the fix is, when you are on the login screen and selecting the login details using the keyboard up and down arrow, if you select one that you want to get rid of press SHIFT + DELETE, that is it.

It is a very cool feature but not well documented, so I thought I would also give it some air.

How to convert VOB to DVD and Burn

Convert VOB-DVD Image

To create the IFO/BUP files for the VBO files I use a program (the IFO/BUP files are the same file but with different names)

  dvdauthor -o <path-to-file> -T - To generate the Table Of Contents file (TOC)
  cp *.vob <path-to-file>/VIDEO_TS - Copy the files into the video directory
  dvdauthor -o <path-to-file> vobs

To generate multiple BUP files from the IFO files you could use something like

for file_i in *.IFO; do cp $file_i `basename $file_i .IFO`.BUP; done

Burn to disk the vcd Image
To burn the dvd files I use a program called K3B for ease of use (K3B is very self explanatory).

How to convert AVI-MPEG to VCD

This shall serve as a reminder for myself and may help others. There is different versions of audio conversion, CBR (Constant Bit Rate) and VBR (Variable Bit Rate), it seems that many DVD players perfer the CBR. Below is both versions with links to the relevant programs and example command lines.

CBR AVI-MPEG

Transcode (RPM-FIND results)

To convert the avi file into a mpeg file for a PAL 352×288 screen, there is different settings either use the ‘man’ or goto the Transcode website for viewing the conversion in more detail. The command line that I use is

transcode -i<AVI FILM> -V -y mpeg -F v,1 -E 44100 -b 224 -fps 25 -o <OUTPUTFILENAME>

This generates two files, *.m1v (the video segment) and *.mpa (the audio segment).

The options in the above command line are

-b Audio bitrate Kbit’s
-E Audio sampling rate (Hz)
-F codec
-i input file
-V use internal video codec (faster but some import modules do not support this)
-y video, audio export modules.
-fps Frames per second, 25 is for PAL, 29.97 for NTSC

Joining the OUTPUTFILENAME’s together

To join these two segments together

tcmplex -o <OUTPUT.MPG> -i <OUTPUTFILENAME.M1V> -p <OUTPUTFILENAME.MPA> -m v

This will create a MPEG file ready to be either watched or converted again into the VCD format and then burned.

VBR AVI-MPEG

The programs to download/use are obtained from these links

FFMpeg (RPM-FIND results)

If the AVI file is in MS MPeg4 v3(DIVX3)

If the INPUT file is in a MS MPeg4 v3 (DIVX3) then you have to convert the file into a DIVX format for FFMPeg to do its stuff. To convert to the required file you will need the mencoder program from MPlayer website. To convert to the required file structure use the commands below.

mencoder -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg4:vhq -oac copy INPUTFILE.AVI -o OUTPUT.AVI

The options produce a mpeg4 version of the input file using the lavc video converter. Also with the option ‘vhq’, it produces a very high quality output file.

Convert AVI-MPEG

To convert AVI to MPEG use the ffmpeg program, with the commands as below. The INPUT.FILE is in AVI format and the OUTPUT.FILE is an MPEG format

ffmpeg -vcd -i INPUT.FILE -b 1150 -s 352x288 -vcodec mpeg1video -f mpegvideo OUTPUT.FILE

With advice, the ffmpeg build version 4753 (form cvs) the parameters are:-

ffmpeg -target vcd -i INPUT.FILE -b 1150 -s 352x288 -vcodec mpeg1video -f mpegvideo OUTPUT.FIL

The options enable an VCD Mpeg type file output(-vcd) with a bitrate of 1150 (-b) and an output screen size of 352×288 (-s). The codecs to convert to are mpeg1video (-vcodec) so that it is able to be converted to an vcd image with the vcdimager program.
Note: This is still a MPEG file and not a vcd file, you have to use vcdimager below to create a vcd file to burn to disk.

PAL Divx 3 avi file to NTSC vcd

Thanks to Marc for this

ffmpeg -i FILE.AVI -b 1150 -r 29.97 -s 352x240 -aspect 16:9 -vcodec mpeg1video -f mpegvideo FILE-NTSC.mpeg

If MPEG file is bigger than 700MB

If the MPeg file is over the maximum size of the cd, then I use the program mencoder from MPlayer. With the options as below

mencoder -oac copy -ovc copy INPUT.FILE -o OUTPUT.FILE -endpos 670mb

At the end of the copy it should say the frame that the mencoder finished on for the first file. Place that value in the line below (in the VALUE) to create the second value.
I usally subtract about 10 frames just to make sure.

mencoder -oac copy -ovc copy INPUT.FILE -o OUTPUT2.FILE -ss VALUE

Both of the files, INPUT & OUTPUT are mpeg files

This will create a MPEG file ready to be either watched or converted again into the VCD format and then burned.

Hope that helps, and this also servers as a reminder to me 🙂

How to convert AVI-MPEG to DVD

This shall serve as a reminder for myself and may help others. The software that I have used is

Transcode (RPM-FIND results)

  transcode -i<AVI FILM> -V -y mpeg -F d -E 44100 -b 224 -fps 25 -o <OUTPUTFILENAME>

This generates two files, *.m2v (the dvd video segment) and *.mpa (the audio segment).

The options in the above command line are

-b Audio bitrate Kbit’s
-E Audio sampling rate (Hz)
-F codec (d = dvd)
-i input file
-V use internal video codec (faster but some import modules do not support this)
-y video, audio export modules.
-fps Frames per second, 25 is for PAL, 29.97 for NTSC

If the audio is in the AC3 Codec then you may need to reduce the bitrate for encoding. This is done with a profile file dvd.prof, which containts the following entry.

   max_bitrate=4000000.0

this will reduce the bitrate to 4000 kpbs. The profile is passed to the transcode program within the 3rd parameter to -F, also the parameter -A means to use the internal AC3 codec.

  transcode -i<AVI FILM> -V -y mpeg -F d,,dvd.prof -m <OUTPUTFILENAME.AC3> -A 0x2000 -fps 25 -o <OUTPUTFILENAME>

Joining the OUTPUTFILENAME’s together

To join these two segments together

  tcmplex -o <OUTPUT.VOB> -i <OUTPUTFILENAME.M2V> -p <OUTPUTFILENAME.MPA> -m d

If using the AC3 codec then

  tcmplex -o <OUTPUT.VOB> -i <OUTPUTFILENAME.M2V> -p <OUTPUTFILENAME.AC3> -m d

This will create a MPEG file ready to be either watched or converted again into the DVD format and then burned.

Hope that helps, and this also servers as a reminder to me 🙂

How to convert DVD to AVI

The program required to change a DVD to AVI format is called “transcode”, below is a link to the homesite and also a link to any rpm’s that have been build and lurking on the RPM-FIND

Transcode (RPM-FIND results)

Usually the first block of the DVD is the whole, or if not a big part, of the movie thus would be better to do a test run on the second block. The second block is tested by using the “-T 2” parameter. To ascertain the bitrate/information from the DVD for the conversion the command line is ( I am assuming that the DVD in mounted on /dev/dvd)

     
tccat -t dvd -T 2,-1 -i /dev/dvd | tcextract -x ac3 -t vob | tcdecode -x ac3 | tcscan -x pcm

tccat parameter’s

-t Type of input
-T Title/chapter
-i Input device

tcextract parameter’s

-x Codec
-t Source file format (vod = mpeg stream)

tcdecode parameter’s

-x Codec

tscan parameter

-x Codec

The tccat program places the dvd media onto the standard output for the 4 pipping command line. The tcextract extracts from the standard output (the output from tccat) and extracts/demultiplex the stream and places the output back onto the standard output for the tcdecode program. The tcdeocde converts the output
from the tcextract pipe into the raw format for the tcscan program to display the different aspects of the output stream and displays the results on the standard output(the console).
The tcscan program displays information about the video and also the audio. The audio information includes the audio gain that is required for the conversion so that the audio is not to low/loud :).

To run a conversion test on the second block (“-T 2”) for converting into the divx5 format and also testing the audio gain, the audio gain from the above tcscan is placed into the parameter “-s”.

transcode -i/dev/dvd -x dvd -T 2,-1 -V -B 1,0 -Y 76,8 -s 2.340 -t 83920,dvd1 -y divx5 -w 1618

and then finally the film

transcode -i/dev/dvd -x dvd -T 1,-1 -V -B 1,0 -Y 76,8 -s 2.340 -t 83920,dvd1 -y divx5 -w 1618

transcode parameter’s

-i Input device
-x Video input module
-T Title/Chapter
-V YUV internal encoding
-B resize n,m,M (M = 8,16,32) height = n * M, width = m * M
-Y Select encoder clipping border
-s Audio gain
-t (n,base) Split the outputted film into frames (n) with base name (base)
-y Video export module
-w Encode bitrate

Hope that helps, and this also servers as a reminder to me 🙂

Hello World

This is a tutorial that will create the text “Hello World” within the current document of a OpenOffice Writer document.

To be able to get into the editor, if you click Tools->Macros->Organize Macros->OpenOffice Basic and then select Edit on the module1 within MyMacros->Standard.

The code required builds up an object to document and also a network object server that communicates with the document frame (createUnoService) the objects within the parameters e.g com.sun.star.frame.DispatchHelper are services that enable communication with dispatch object which in-turns ‘talks’ to the document object.

The code

sub helloworld
rem ----------------------------------------------------------------------
rem define variables
dim document   as object
dim dispatcher as object
rem ----------------------------------------------------------------------
rem get access to the document
document   = ThisComponent.CurrentController.Frame
rem ----------------------------------------------------------------------
rem Create a universe network object service with the frame.
dispatcher = createUnoService("com.sun.star.frame.DispatchHelper")
 
rem ----------------------------------------------------------------------
rem The type is a text string and the value of the string is Hello World
dim args1(0) as new com.sun.star.beans.PropertyValue
args1(0).Name = "Text"
args1(0).Value = "Hello World"
 
dispatcher.executeDispatch(document, ".uno:InsertText", "", 0, args1())
 
rem ----------------------------------------------------------------------
rem Create a new paragraph
dispatcher.executeDispatch(document, ".uno:InsertPara", "", 0, Array())
end sub

if you open up a new document and then goto the macro editor (click Tools->Macros->Organize Macros->OpenOffice Basic and then select Edit on the module1 within MyMacros->Standard) insert the code into the editor. To run the code, click on the Tools->Macro->Run Macro, then select the Helloworld subroutine from the MyMacros->Standard->Module1.

That is it, and the start of tutorials for OpenOffice being 🙂

HTML + CSS

An Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) is basically styles of a page within a block of text. The cascading part means that the last value for a set style will be the value taken, e.g. if at the top of a style sheet there is a value of black for the back ground colour and then white is below that, the white value will take precedence over the black.

Here is a example of styling within the tag body.

<html>
       <title>Background colour</title>
       <body bgcolor="#BCBCBC">
              hi world
       </body>
</html

And this is an example with CSS within the html code.

<html>
       <title>Background colour with css</title>
       <style type="text/css">
              body 
              {
                     background : #DCDCDC;       
              }
       </style>
       <body>
              Hi World
       </body>
</html>

There are many styles options within the html styling list, hopefully shall cover most of these in the future.