Google Galaxy Nexus

Google and Samsung just announced a few days ago there new Galaxy Nexus phone and Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich! From the demos of new features and how slick the hardware is its making me want one of these new phones. There are some things that bugged people such as the name is backwards to the other Nexus phones out (Nexus One, Nexus S) but meeh not that big of a problem.

There was a few problems with the demos but things like voice dictation worked good but the guy tried doing it too fast and it had the first word wrong. Also the face unlock didn’t work but that could have been other things.

But as for new things such as the fonts, task switching, camera app, menu buttons, and power of the phone I can’t wait for this. You can get some info about it on the Google site  ( http://www.google.com/nexus ) or check out the YouTube video in this post. Also Twit.TV did some good commentary along with the announcement video check it out at ( http://youtu.be/lD79yTFS2-0 )

They did not have full specs of the phone or what cell phone companies in the USA would have it, but it sounds like there will be one for CDMA companies (Sprint and Verizon) and a HSPA+ version (T-Mobile, ATT&T, almost every other cell company around the world) But they did say it would have a desktop dock like the Nexus One, this is something I use every day with my Nexus One still.

Can’t wait hope it won’t cost too much and I can get one on T-Mobile unless someone wants to give me a hook up 😀

Handbrake Windows 7 + 8 64-Bit DVD Ripping

So if you are into getting your DVDs onto a computer for viewing on the go or just because you want to box up those disks and you can’t find the show on Netflix or what not you have heard of Handbrake for converting video files. But when working with it on Windows you had to get a program called DVD43 that would unlock your DVD so you could make a backup of the video. The only problem is that it doesn’t work in Windows 7 + 8 64-Bit or other 64-Bit Windows so what do you do?

I have found on the Handbrake forums a post that says all you need is one DLL file and you can get things going. Glyxor on the forums talks about using libdvdcss.dll from the GStreamer install to get this to work.

Here are the step by steps to get things up and running.

  1. Download (64 bit) Handbrake for Windows from http://handbrake.fr/downloads.php and Install it. Take note of the install location.
  2. Download the libdvdcss 64-Bit from VideoLan at  http://download.videolan.org/pub/libdvdcss/1.2.11/win64/libdvdcss-2.dll and move it to your Handbrake install location. ( C:\Program Files\Handbrake )
  3. Rename the libdvdcss-2.dll to libdvdcss.dll in your Handbrake install folder. ( C:\Program Files\Handbrake )
  4. Start Handbrake, put in your DVD and go from there. For a good Handbrake for Windows tutorial go to https://trac.handbrake.fr/wiki/WindowsGuiGuide

Note: Make sure you download the Handbrake 64-bit version, and rename the DLL to libdvdcss.dll its what worked for me.

Note: Some have said you can just get the libdvdcss from http://download.videolan.org/pub/libdvdcss/ I tried it with the latest version and all I got was garbage video, even tried with the name libdvdcss-2.dll and libdvdcss.dll and no luck. If you use a different version then latest let me know and I’ll give it a try. The one I have for the download dose work with the newest version of Handbrake.

Note: For MAC OS users if you have problems ripping DVDs you can also do the same trick to get it to work, just download the libdvdcss from http://download.videolan.org/libdvdcss/last/macosx/libdvdcss.2.dylib and rename it to libdvdcss.dylib and put it in the /usr/lib/

Ubuntu / Mint Linux: I have switched to Linux Mint and after installing Handbrake I was able to just make copies of some of my disks with no extra library’s I’ll list the steps below, you may also need to enable “Community-maintained free and open-source software (universe)”. Also the process may be much faster, nothing scientific but it didn’t take as long on the same system to rip a normal length movie.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install handbrake-gtk

Now you should be able to make copies of your DVDs and all should be good, if you have a newer computer it should take about 30-50 minutes a movie, it took me 34 minutes to make a backup copy of Avatar on my system so times will vary. Hope this helps this problem was making me upset because some of the other copy tools just suck and give you a slow copy that looks like garbage.


UPDATED:

12/21/2016 – I have done a little testing on Windows 10 64-bit and this wasn’t working for me, I didn’t have a lot of time to test things so you may have better results. It seems that LifeHacker.com has ripped off the entire artical from me now and nolonger link here as the source, shame on them. I also don’t post on this site but once every few months now so meh. I may look into getting this working again on Windows 10 now that I have moved over to it full time.

06/12/2014 – This should work on Windows 8 64-bit systems, but not tablets that use the ARM processes such as the Windows Surface. The libdvdcss still hasn’t been updated for Windows to the current build 1.2.13 so just keep using 1.2.11 and enjoying Handbrake.  Also I’m adding how to get Handbrake on Linux Ubuntu based systems.

11/10/2012 – Seems that the link to the for the win64 libdvdcss-2 was changed and the latest is not in the version 1.2.12 so I have fixed the link to version 1.2.11 that I have found to work on most movies. (http://download.videolan.org/pub/libdvdcss/1.2.11/win64/libdvdcss-2.dll) not (http://download.videolan.org/pub/libdvdcss/last/win64/libdvdcss-2.dll)

10/06/2012 – I have tested Handbrake 0.9.8 with libdvdcss 1.2.11 and was able to open an older movie (Ocean’s Twelve) and was able to get it to rip just fine, but when I tried a new movie (The Avengers) VLC (2.0.2 32-bit and 2.0.3 32-bit) crashes, Windows Media Player will open it but it is garbled (even there ads for other videos they want you to buy), and Handbrake gives an error “No Title(s) found. Not sure if this is some of the problems people are seeing but it looks like those jokers over in Hollywood are trying to screw us over again.

One note also it did play on my Xbox 360 S so they must have done something to make it work for non-computer systems. And another note after trying it on the Xbox Windows Media Player did play it without trying to load it with Handbrake or VLC.

After more playing in VLC there is a problem with the Menu (VLC Forum) you can get it to play if you check the “No disc menus” box but then you have to try and find the right Title out of 99 different ones. This error must have something to do with the buggy language menu that first plays on the disk. It also seemed to lag and skip around a bit when changing chapters once I got it playing. In Ubuntu 12.10 with VLC 2.0.3  same problem with it crashing or not loading right and being all garbled.

When looking for more on this problem you can also use this for MAC OS to get Handbrake working again by copying the libdvdcss to the /usr/lib/ directory.

05/24/2012 – Updated for full 64-Bit Handbrake

03/030/2012 – Reduced steps and added my copy of livdvdcss.dll as a zip that I know works.

OLD STEPS:

  1. Download Handbrake from http://handbrake.fr/downloads.php and install the download you go of the newest version. Take note where you installed this.
  2. Download GStreamer WinBuilds from http://code.google.com/p/ossbuild/downloads/list ( I got the newest GPL version ) and install the what you downloaded. Take note of where you installed this.
  3. In Windows Explorer go to the location GStreamer was installed ( C:\Program Files (x86)\OSSBuild\GStreamer\[version] ) then into the bin folder and find the file libdvdcss-2.dll and copy it to the clipboard.
  4. In Windows Explorer go to the location Handbrake was installed ( C:\Program Files (x86)\Handbrake ) and paste the libdvdcss-2.dll and rename it to libdvdcss.dll
  5. Start Handbrake, put in your DVD and go from there.


Natural-Selection 2 Build 180 Video

Just saw that there was an update to the Natural-Selection 2 Beta to build 180, it looks like it is getting better each build. I may have to get in a few games and see how things are working. Below is a NS2HD video of the changes and some new game play.

Never Gonna Give You Up

I was going through music for DJ gigs and though of Never Gonna Give You Up by Rick Astley also know as Rick Rolled and that video of the song on Youtube.com has over 34 million views! That’s crazy that so many people have ended up watching that video because they wanted to or by getting Rick Rolled. Any ways here it is just to get you in the mood.

PS here is something to creep you out

Nintendo Wii U E3 Trailer

Nintendo has release there demo of the new and updated Wii U at E3, it is mostly a new controller. The system will have support for HD video, older Wii games, and USB ports for new stuff. But the main thing they are building is a new controller that has a touch screen, camera, and motion sensors. It seems that it is mostly about having one of the new controllers and a bunch of Wii controllers that you should already have if you own a Wii. I’m sure if you want a second Wii U controller it will run around $100.

As for the games it looks like there are a lot of new ways to build games with or without the main system, and you can have 5 people playing in a demo game where they would chase down the 5th person with the new controller. Should be fun, but I still love PC gaming!

Battlefield 3: Operation Metro Map E3 Trailer

Looks like EA has a new Battlefield coming out, Battlefield 3. From the trailer at E3 2011 it looks like it will be a modern city battles rather than some of the older open field battles. This should help keep players fighting each other and not just wondering around looking for that one good sniper kill. This new shooter will have big compotation with the new Call of Duty game coming out this winter also.

After looking at it some more this trailer is just one map but it’s still cool, if this is going to be the multiplayer game play!

 

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Trailer

Once again another COD game is coming out, this time they blow up the USA, EU and a bunch of other things! I’m sure there is going to be a multi player mode that millions of people will be hooked on, I just hope that they will make the maps small enough for the few people they get in a game now that you can’t host you own 32 player frag fest. O the good old days of running out tossing a grenade and blowing up 3 n00bs! Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 will be out November 8th 2011. Its big competition will be Battlefield 3.

 

Tomb Raider E3 Trailer

Tomb Raider on Xbox looks like it should be fun, and the trailer has lots of hot wet shots of Lara Croft to help you want to play it! Just hope it’s not a bunch of jumping back and forth and killing tigers like the original game was. Looks like this will be on all the big systems too so that’s cool, GO PC!