Flip Video Workshop

I have included the materials for the flip video workshop on this post. Those of you who have signed up for this workshop in school link, please be reminded to bring a flip video camera with you. I only have 5 cameras and I will focus primarly on lesson plan ideas and video editing. I will spend very little time on working with cameras themselves. If you want to do some filming ahead of time and bring in your own content to edit that is fine. If you don't think this what you wanted please drop the workshop so others can take it. Any questions you can call me or email me.

Fixing VCL Player for DVD

This post is primarily for teachers, but anyone who uses a VCL DVD player can benefit from this information. Many users of VCL DVD players are running into problems with playing certain kinds of DVD's. One problem for the inconsistency is the region copyright software issued by the manufacturer. Most VCL players are designed to play primarily Region 1 DVDs. However not all DVDs are region 1. So this is one part of the problem. Refer to the list below to see the different regions that are available.
The geographical regions are as follows:
REGION 1 -- USA, Canada
REGION 2 -- Japan, Europe, South Africa, Middle East, Greenland
REGION 3 -- S.Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Parts of South East Asia
REGION 4 -- Australia, New Zealand, Latin America (including Mexico)
REGION 5 -- Eastern Europe, Russia, India, Africa
REGION 6 -- China
REGION 7 -- Reserved for Unspecified Special Use
REGION 8 -- Persevered for Cruise Ships, Airlines, etc..
REGION 0 or REGION ALL --
So when you purchase a DVD find out what region it is. Most of the time it will be Region 1 but not always, especially if it is very cheap. Cheap DVDs mean copied or pirated copies that are converted to region o to be played in all countries. In order, to fight this piracy, software and DVD companies are creating more complex system to play videos. So if you put a region 0 DVD in a VCL player it will not read it. If you put it in a standard DVD player it will not read it either.

Another problem with VCL players is that they require certain codexes to play certain types of multimedia. Video player software has a default number of codexes that play basic types of video formats. Most all video player software will play AVI, MEPG 1 and MEPG2 files. Where the problem occurs is when the video format is in a different format than can be played by the standard default codex. MP4 or MPEG4 which is HD quality is a problem with many new DVDs. If the format is in HD then you need the correct codex to play it. What TV companies call "BLUE RAY" is simply MPEG 4 or HD quality DVD's.

HOW DO WE FIX THIS?
There is no perfect simple fix. But for most problems dealing with region copyright software and most codex problems, the more basic the video player software the more format types and regions it will play. It won't solve every format problem, but it will solve many of them. The one I have found that works the best is media player classic. For those of you who may not be windows users you can try MAC version of this media player. But for our school media player classic works great.

Here is the link:
http://www.afterdawn.com/software/general/download_splash.cfm/media_player_classic

Once downloaded, extract the zip file to your computer hard drive and create a short cut to the player so you can access the software.

I hope this answers many of the questions regarding VCL player and DVDs.

Using Microsoft Word Documents

When using Microsoft Word 2003 or earlier versions, you must remember that these version save the file in a format know as .doc or document format. After using the older version, you may decide to print out a paper or document at school that uses the version 2007. Here is the problem. When you open the file/document in 2007 it will open up, but once you make changes and you go to save the document a little box appears that asks to save it in the original format or change to 2007. There is a little box at the bottom of this message that you must check in order not to loose your information. Look at the screen shot below to see where you need to click the box.

If you do not do the above, then when you save your document it will erase it because it will switch from doc format to docx format and erase you document. If you are using the all the same version that it should not matter.

Technology Tip of the Week

Many of you have noticed that our new computers have Microsoft Word version 2007. If you are like me and have the 2003 version, you may run into the problem of compatibility with the different versions. The simplest and best way to avoid this problem is always save your work in the 2003 version. If you do this, the file will open both on 2003 version and 2007 version. However, many of us get in a hurry and forget to do this. What do we do when we get home and we open the file and it looks like program language? Here is a link that will convert the file from 2007 to 2003 so you can read the file.
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/open-a-word-2007-document-in-an-earlier-version-of-word-HA010044473.aspx
Simply download and install the compatibility pact. This will allow to open your 2007 Microsoft Word file. Once you have opened the file, you should save it as a 2003 version and continue working on it. Remember the rule; you can go from old to new but you can not go from new to old.

Have a technology or research problem?

This blog is designed to help students get help with technology or research problems they encounter working with school projects. Please submit your questions to this blog and our library staff will answer them as best we can.

You can also click on the picture and submit your questions through an email contact form.

Good luck with those school projects!!