Online: The network websites are slowly starting to stream their popular TV shows. It was a godsend for my sister when she was working as a traveling surgical tech because she could watch some of her favorite shows and soap operas without needed a TV or cable.  And that was before the digital conversion which makes it more difficult to just hook up a TV and watch network TV. And of course, she could watch at her convenience. A couple of shows that she watched online were Lost and 24.  ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox all have full episodes of some of their shows online. Even shows on cable stations like HGTV and MTV (which also has many music videos).

There are also websites that gather different TV shows and movies together in one place, making it easier to access them. If you are a Comcast customer with high-speed internet and Digital video with On Demand, you can go to a site called Fancast that, with a little setup, lets you view a huge amount of TV shows and movies from your cable selections.  We have HBO and I can watch movies from HBO as well. Without Comcast, you can still use Fancast, it is just more limited as to what you can access. It does still have quite a few movies and TV shows.

Hulu is probably the most well-known website for video content. It has a large amount of content to choose from. Hulu also has a desktop version that I originally thought would let you download and view later without the internet but after trying it and looking at it closer, it “Hulu Desktop runs directly on your computer and does not require a web browser. It provides an alternate way to browse and view content from the Hulu Library”. In other words, you don’t need your brower like firefox or IE open, but you do still need to be connected to the internet.

For more recent movies, Amazon Video on Demand lets you rent movies for about $2.00 to $4.00 each and watch them on your PC.

But all these sites require that you are online to view their content.  So what if you want to download movies to a device like a netbook or portable video device and watch them like you would a DVD?

Download: I actually have a hard time finding easy and safe legitimate copies of movies, whether free or purchased.  Many people recommend iTunes (according to their website, most are around $10). However, even if you buy a legit copy, in order to download it to your Zen (or any non-apple device) you have to convert it which breaks the iTunes copy protected format, which is illegal. I can say though, for informational purposes only, that if you are still interested in this, go over to epiZENter and check their forums and they can help you with the software you would need.

Another inexpensive, legit option may be Starz Play (formerly Vongo), especially (and actually, maybe only) if you are a Verizon user. From the Verizon website it says: Get unlimited movies and videos for just $5.99 per month. ($9.99 per month for customers who are not subscribers to verizon FiOS or Verizon High Speed Internet). This is the FAQ for Starz Play from the Verizon website. Once you have finished downloading a Starz Play movie, you do not need to be online to watch it. Which means that you might also be able to download it to a portable device, although it says Some titles are in the service for many months, and others last a few weeks or days. Once a title expires from the service it will automatically delete from your hard drive. So I am guessing you have to use their media player and that they use some sort of encryption.  They didn’t seem to have a huge collection of recent movies.

And I’ve just heard about Roxio CinemaNow.  They were offering a free download of Terminator: Salvation a few days ago and I followed the link but it was no longer valid (for the free download). But it appears that you can rent movies from like other places, but also you can buy movies and download them, even to portable devices.  The movies look like they cost approx. $15-$20 to buy and about $4 to rent.

bitTorrents: But really, I have not found a good, free/cheap, legitimate site to download movies or TV shows to my PC or Creative Zen.  I have, however, found some good, free sites from which you can download movies or TV shows.  These sites are search engines for searching BitTorrent files. The best-known of these sites are Pirate Bay and isoHunt. BTJunkie is also supposed to be good. Unfortunately, a lot of the bitTorrents they find are not legitimate so I cannot recommend them and I am providing this for informational purposes only.

These sites work by using bitTorrent protocol (peer to peer). Here are the wikipedia entries for BitTorrent Trackers and BitTorrent protocol. It is pretty interesting reading. I am going to give you the basic instructions for this. There are many different ways and software but this is easy and works.

How to Download bitTorrent files: Go to Isohunt to find the movies you want to watch (and get the isohunt toolbar if you want, to make it easier to find) Note: torrents from axxo and fxg are particularly well done.  If  you scroll down the home page, there is a list of top searches on the right side and you can see that axxo and fxg are top searches. When you find something you want to get (like if you do a  search for a title), you will get a list.  To the right of each one is a number and a star and another number.  The first number says how it was rated (can also have negative numbers for especially poor ones). The second number is the number of comments for that copy. When you find one that has a positive rating, click on it and read the comments to make sure it is a good (and real) copy. The “kingben” and “axxo” ones (if real, check comments) are usually good.  You should also check what files they download to make sure it is an .avi file.  some of them are zipped using .rar and you have to go find the software to unrar them.

If you want a rar, go to WinRar and you can download a trial copy to unrar it.

Then click on Download .Torrent and then Open. When the uTorrent popup pops up, just click OK and utorrent will start downloading it.  It will take a while to get it downloaded. It’s probably a good idea to start some uTorrent downloads before you go to bed.

How to Play on PC/netbook: Download the VLC media player to play the videos http://www.videolan.org/mirror-geo.php?file=vlc/0.9.2/win32/vlc-0.9.2-win32.exe The VLC media player has the best ability to play a wide variety of video formats and that is why I recommend VLC media player. Many times the downloads cannot be viewed correctly in the Windows media software and this is much easier. Then you can open the VLC media player, pick media/open file and open your movie and watch it. It has a fullscreen mode too.

The downloaded files can be transferred to a netbook along with the VLC media player and then played at your convenience, without needing internet access. The downloaded files can also be transferred to a portable media device, like my Creative Zen. But before they can be loaded to the Zen, they have to be run through video conversion to put them into a format that the Zen can read.

Convert file to Zen readable format: The easiest way to convert the files is by using the Badak file conversion program.  Badak is a simple video transcoder. It is free and although it is not the prettiest looking software, it really is the easiest and best that I have found so far to convert videos to a format a Zen can play. Just click on the “Open Preset” button at the bottom left of the window (next to the “Settings” button). Then click on the Creative Zen in the list of settings and it will be set for the proper settings for the Zen.

To convert a file, either click the “Add File” button at the top and add the file, or drag the file to the top and drop it in the window. You can change the Setting Destination to another folder if you want.  And unless you change it (in File Name Header), all files will start with [Z].

Now just click start and it will convert the file to Zen compatible format and put it in the setting destination. It takes a little less than an hour to convert a regular 2+ hour movie and about 15 minutes for an hour (42 min) TV show. It also cuts the size of the (typically .avi) file in half.

Then you can attach the Zen to the USB port, open it to show files and folders (or go to the drive it creates) and load the video to My Videos.

That is all you have to do! Now you can watch your movies or TV shows on your netbook or Zen or other portable media player.

~Susan Mellott

I have used it when taking road trips so I can watch videos or listen to music or audiobooks.  It keeps any photos and will display in slideshows of your choice so it is also works as a small digital picture frame. It plays FM radio stations and has a date/time. clock/alarm, and an organizer feature. It also has a microphone for recording notes and things.

This is my Zen. It came with the short mini USB to USB cable. I believe it also came with some earphones. I added a set of earphones that store very well without tangling (they pull out and lock and then zip back into the round case). I got them in a Brookstone store at the airport for about $25.  I highly recommend buying the Creative Hard Plastic Case for Zen, Zen MX (Clear) to protect your zen. I attached a lanyard to mine so I can hang it around my neck. It is about the size of a conference name tag.

I have the Creative Zen 4 GB Portable Media Player (Black). It is not the latest version of the Zen nor does it have the most storage, even for the regular Zen.  But it has everything I need or want.  The Creative Zen X-Fi 16 GB Video MP3 Player with Wireless LAN and Built-In Speaker (Black/Silver) has wireless access, built-in speakers and improved audio. The X-Fi stands for Xtreme Fidelity Audio technology. You have to get at least the 16 GB version to get the wireless lan capabilities. It is described: You can now stream music and photos wirelessly from your PC to your player within a home network. With the Zen X-Fi, experience the sound of perfection wherever you go. Stay connected with friends on Yahoo Messenger or Windows Live Messenger on the go (at region-specific public wireless LAN hotspots). This is interesting sounding but I think it is a very basic access and not that worth it to me. It is easy to transfer files with mine and the rest doesn’t cut it since we have a Droid that does much, much more than that.

I have the 4 GB version and I added a 2 GB SD card for extra storage.  This is plenty enough for me.  On the basic 4 GB drive I have 5 audiobooks, 9 full length movies and am loading a zencast video at the moment (to try it out).  On the memory card I have about 55 pictures, 4 audiobooks and 2 movies and have about 550 meg left. I just have no need for more than this. On the Creative website they have a comparison of the different Zen players to help you decide which is right for you.  Mine is not on there since it was the very first version. You can still buy them though.

This is a picture of my Zen on a piece of paper to get an idea of its size.  The bag is a bag I use to carry it and it’s bits in.  It is just a small makeup bag.

I like almost everything about my Zen. I think Creative is a good company that makes solid products. The one thing that is a little awkward with my original Zen is that the memory card is not integrated into the rest of the storage.  In order to load it, you have to put the Zen on Memory Card/Removable Disk and then it connects as a regular drive.  The regular drive on the Zen attaches to the PC with the different directories for videos, music (audiobooks), etc.  The memory card has all the different styles of content all mixed in together and is not as well organized.  In addition, I had a problem listening to my WMA (iPod compatible) audiobooks from it. It gave an error that it was copy protected.  The MP3 audiobooks worked fine from it and both kinds work fine from the regular storage. It is nice that it will play both since I can download both versions from our library and not all audiobooks come in both versions.

There is a lot more information on the Zen that you can view on the Creative Zen 4 GB Portable Media Player (Black) page. Just look through the customer supplied images. They show many different functions and have descriptions that describe the Zen thoroughly.

To get the media from the PC to the Zen, the easiest way is to attach the Zen and go to Explorer. The Zen shows up as My Zen. Go into Storage Media and the different folders relate to the different options on the Zen.  This is an example of my audiobooks that I had copied to my Zen. Click on the image to get a full size view.

Most people have downloaded audio files to an MP3 player, but it is a little different getting video content.  To see how to download content such as movies, etc. to your PC and then to your Zen, see my upcoming/next post.

Ommm, baby,

~Susan Mellott

This came from the ACPL’s Innovation Through Technology Blog.

ACPL Youth Services Tag Cloud from Kaygraphic on Vimeo.
Check it out!

~Susan Mellott

Brought to you by JibJab (Starring You!), I present: Unnecessary Force, starring Sean Robinson. Supporting roles by Nat Robinson as the Chief, Susan Mellott as Victim #1, Julian Casserley as Victim #2 and Dorothy Lubbes (my mom) as Victim #3. With a guest appearance by Rush Limbaugh.

Note: This requires an extremely high-speed connection. Watching it on my wireless connection at home, I lose rather large pieces of it. Just so you know.

WordPress Note: When I embedded this in my post, I had to turn off the Visual Editor in WordPress (self-hosted) in order for it to display correctly. You can do that by going to Users, editing your user and unchecking the “Use Visual Editor” checkbox at the top left. You can re-check it after you have published your post, but be careful about re-editing your post with the Visual Editor on. This is the same issue that you run into when you try to embed a YouTube video in a self-hosted WordPress blog post.

JibJab Note: And in case you were wondering how to embed a JibJab Movie in your post, after you have created the movie in JibJab, click on the word “Embed” to the right of the movie, under Publish. It will create the code for you which you then copy in its entirety and paste into your post where you want it to appear. (Turning off the Visual Editor first if you are using a self-hosted WordPress blog, i.e. one that isn’t through wordpress.com)

Enjoy!

~Susan Mellott

While he was there, Sean Robinson and Kay Gregg, who have been creating the “Conversation with” youtube series of conversations with influential people in the library and web 2.0 field, videotaped a conversation with Stephen Abram. They have finished the editing and have just released this interesting video with Stephen Abram talking about his lifelong fascination and love of libraries and library science.

~Susan Mellott