How to edit .wtv (Windows 7 Media Center files)

There are times when I need to keep the video I recorded thru my Windows 7 Media Center TV recording, but those darn videos are sure annoying. So here's by I get rid of the commercials, or the parts of video that I don't need:

1. Convert .wtv to .dvr-ms format by right click on the .wtv file and select "convert to .dvr-ms format" (only works under Windows 7)
2. Edit the dvr-ms file using DVR Edit

And that's all.

Fiesta toilet paper: better than I expected

Just want to remind myself that the Fiesta toilet paper is actually pretty food consider its price.

JDownloaded and default directory

After you changed the default of JDownloader, remember to restart the application, or otherwise the changes won't be effective, as pasting link in the client will still point to the old default directory (before you restart the application).

Blue screen on Lenovo X60T ... as a media center?

ALmost forgot to write this down: my x60t got a blue screen and afterward it rebooted itself. I didn't know what caused that to happen caused by the time I saw it, it's already rebooted. I just want to write it down so that if the same thing occurs again, at least I have a record of it.

Lenovo S12 really suck as multitasking

I just experienced something crappy with S12 ion: the machine went nuts, all wireless USB devices failed to work, and audio playback was super choppy, all because I was listening to iTune while surfing the web. I mean, this is just crazy. Can web surfing really suck up that much CPU power. As it turns out the CPU does go all the way to max everytime I tried surfing the web on S12. And I am not just talking about using Firefox with Truecrypt. Just running regular Internet Explorer caused the CPU went all the way to the max. I think I really should avoid using S12 to surf the net while doing any other task. In fact, I think S12 should be left doing nothing but playing iTune and recording TV. With both iTune on and Windows Media Center recording video, the CPU stays about 40%, which is a more acceptable level.

Gardo GR80i is totally awesome

I am totally enjoying my Grado GR80i now. The sound isolation is just awesome. It's like breathing in new life into sounds that I was familiar with, and turns old into new.

Odd HDMI audio problem with Lenovo S12 ION

I experienced this problem after setting up the HDMI output with the S12 ION. I have the stereo system connect to my Gardo SR-8i. All is well.... but then...

I put on the headphone, listen to American Dad, and found that the sound is not stereo. Left channel is missing. What s going on.

The strange part is that the problem can be solved by going to:

• Right click on the volumn icon on system tray.
• Select [Playback devices]
• Right click on [NVIDIA HDMI Out], and select "Test", you will hear the left right test sound, and the problem with be fixed at the same time.

I have a feeling that there's something wrong with the NVidia driver. In fact meantime, beside this work around, maybe aorund option will be using the headphone jack instead.

So you can't have 3 monitor running at the same time with Lenovo S12 ION

I suddenly thought of something today: since Lenovo S12 ION has 2 video display port, is it possible to have the build in laptop display, the HDMI display and the VGA display running at the same time? The answer: nope.

I have the video displaying on a 40 inch HD TV through HDMI. The moment I plug in the VGA cable to the display port, the internal display got turned off. And when I opened the Display setting, I saw the display property saying that I could only have 2 monitor running at the same thing.

Here's why S12 is a better windows media center box than my Tablet PC

I haven't been using my Lenovo X60T Tablet as a media center for about a week. Everything works well so far. However, I always love the idea of having a plan B, so today I set up my Lenovo S12 as a windows media center too, and then I suddenly realized that S12 is a better media center for one big reason: the HDMI port.

I wasn't too thrilled about the HDMI support of S12 until I realize that having the audio routed to the television thru the pure digital way by HDMI totally get rid of the extra noise that I experienced when I use X60T. Sure it will require me to manually switch from HDMI audio mode to analog audio when I when I listen to music WITHOUT turning on the TV, but the ability of get pure sound is the price I am willing to pay.

Sharing recorded TV across network: possible, but not on WiFi

I tried playing recorded TV (recorded using Windows Media Center on Windows 7) from my Lenovo S12 and it played fine, but ONLY when I connected to the wired network. 802.11g doesn't have enough bandwidth to make the playback smooth. And since my netbook does not have 802.11N, that's not an option. A bit lame I guess.

Can't run Need For Speed Shift on DELL M6400 with 64 bit Windows 7

Trying running Need For Speed Shift on DELL M6400 with 64 bit Windows 7, and failed. Couldn't get the game bootup. Not big deal, even though it's a bit irritating.

Messing with audio setup, so that I can enjoy everything on my bed

I was messing with all sort of cable this morning, trying to find the best setup so that I can enjoy music from my iTune library while I am on my bed. And then I realized something:

• Whenever aduio (notice that it's an anlalogue signal through a 3.5mm cable) route through my JVC amprefier, I will get crazy hizzing noise. The ONLY way I can get rid of the hissing noise is by directly connect to the headphone jack through an ultra long extension cable. So that's what I did. Now I have 2 audio connectors next to my bed, one for audio signal from TV, and the other one directly from the notebook, mainly for listening to iTune music.
  
  
• Even with a direct link to the headphone port, I still got a little bit noise once in a long while, but that's something genearted by the computer, and not something can do by manipulating the analogue chain. In fact, that kind of noise seems to be application dependent. I heard different kind of noise when switching from application to application.
  
  
• I still have to deal with the fact that the a slightly move of the headphone splitter may mess up my music listening experience. It's not the end of the world but still it's a bit irritating.

In fact, now that I think about it, maybe it's better to enjoy music from the iTune library using my netbook instead. The audio experience seem superior.

Google desktop search seems to do the magic

I started trying Google Desktop Search and was pretty pleased with the feature. Some features that impressed me are:

• Hot key works with apps like "Remote Desktop Connection"
  For some reason Launchy stopped working with some application short cut mapped to "All User", like "Remote Desktop Conenction". However, the Google launch bar has no problem launching it.
• Search actually works
  I searched "SMR, bitmpa" and it instantly pull up a note that I wrote a while ago. Sure the index took almost a day, but since it's running on the background at night in the office while I was happily sleeping in my bed at home, I can care less.

I was originally planned on trying out "Copernic Desktop Search 3.2.1 - English" as plan B, but looks like I don't have to as of now. I will still, though, mixing between Launchy and Google Taskbar.

Got blue screen of death on Windows XP 64 bit

I got my first Windows XP 64 bit blue screen of death in my life. To be fair, I only started using Windows XP 64 bit last Tuesday. Sigh.

Crashing O!Play

Somehow I managed to crashed O!Play a few times by fast forward and fast backward. Wonder why I am so good at crashing stuff.

Nero Liquid TV: Great WinTV-HVR 950Q, and totally ignore the Tivo app

I just received the Nero Liquid TV package. To me, to Tivo PC part is nothing. Based on what I read, almost everyone bitches about how shitty the package and how unreliable the software is. However, the harddware that comes with the package, which is WinTV-HVR 950Q, seems to work pretty well. In fact, I just got it running properly on my Lenovo S12. The USB hardware was instantly recognized by the system. All I need to do is install the Windows Media Center support executable.

I tried watching live HDTV and record video, and they worked pretty well. I am now testing the scheduled recording.

By the way, based on what I read, the enclosed Tivo remote control is a piece of shit. I tried, and yes it require special driver, which Thank goddess I have another remote control to do the job.

Need For Speed Shift not so speedy on Lenovo S12 ION

Tried playing Need For Speed Shift on my new Lenovo S12 ION, and found that it's not so good a gaming experience. Sure the game runs in full screen and everything renders, but the frame rate is terrible. I tried lower the resolution and lower the quality of the texture, but it didn't allow me to do full screen, and the frame rate still wasn't too smooth. So I think I'll pass. It's so much better playing the same game on PSP instead.

This is not a big blow for me. After all, I never intended to get S12 as a good machine. Older games like Portal works very well though.

What I learned from backing up and partitioning the DELL M6400

I spent some time messing with DELL M6400 trying to things like :

• Setup dual boot of both Windows XP 64 bit and Windows 7
• Backup partition of the original state so that the original OS partition and OS boot sector can be preserved
• Shrink Partitions in a way that make sense to me

Through out the process I learned some stuff:

• You simply CANNOT have multiple clean independent boot partition of Windows XP and Windows 7 by setting Active partition and then hide and show various partition accordingly. It just does NOT work that way. So eventually I have to settle with keeping the original XP 64 bit, but create a separate clean partition to host Windows 7. The Windows 7 will properly use the installed partition as C drive (although the original partition will become boot partition that drive letter can't be changed. I will continue observer this dual boot setting.
• Some how only the Safe Mode of ACronis Disk Director and TrueImage Home 10 on USB drive works for both my Lenovo S12 and Dell 6400.
• Don't do OS Selector installation using the USB drive. I did that a few times, didn't realized that the OS selector turns out being installed ON THE THUMB DRIVE (since at that moment the thumb drive is the bootup OS, and messed up the thumb drive.
• My 32Mb SD card simply CANNOT being used as a boot disc for Acronis Disk Director and such. Tried so many time, and finally give up.
• Backing up MRB is SO IMPORTANT because it allows me preserve the boot sector so that I can truely roll back to the original stuff (instead of leaving the dual boot behind)
• Still learning what's new and special about 64 bit.

My real life experience with 802.11n

I got a new office laptop (Dell M6400), and with that it comes with 802.11N adapter. Since I also brought a new 802.11N router at home, being a geeky as I am, it's obvious that I will try to use my office laptop to figure out how much advantage the 802.11N gave me. Result: better than 11g, but not like super better.

I have 9 files, each almost 90M, with total 771Mb. With 802.11G, it took 12 minutes to copy those files from my desktop to my laptop. With 802.11N, it took 8 minutes, it's an improvement, but not a dramatic improvement.

Looks like when I copy stuff across the network, I really should go for the old school Ethernet cable.

Strange HDMI problem with Lenovo S12 ION edition

I didn't realize that using HDMI with Lenovo S12 ION edition can be such troublesome.

First I connected the S12 to my newly brought Samsung 40 inch TV, and found that there's some flicking color problem. It seems like SOME color was not disappeared probably as they "twinkle" like stars on the sky. It's not a super huge problem but since I definitely see the effect, it will affect my enjoyment. It only happens, thought, when I use the max 1080p resolution. If I lower the resolution to a point, then the twinkle effect will be gone. Also notice that the problem doesn't exist when I use the VGA connector instead of the HDMI cable.

I know both the cable and TV are OK, because I use the same cable with my Asus O!Play and it worked awesomely well.

However, even stranger the problem happened when I tried to connect S12 to my 24 inch DELL monitor. The DELL monitor didn't even recognize that the HDMI had been connected! However, it had no problem showing signal form Asus O!Play.

So I pretty much concluded that there's something funky with the S12 HDMI port. However, I am not wasting time returning it and such.

Once again, I should have brought a netbook from a local store instead of getting it online.

Strange Codec problem with Lenovo Ideapad S12

So I continue messing with this new toy, and found that it runs Portal pretty well. At least gaming is possible on this box, although I am not seeing myself doing much of that on this box.

I also mess with video playback. Strange how that HD quality .mkv files did NOT get played smoothly on the box. A few nice still was rendered but the frame rate was terrible. Plus, Windows Media Player have problem playing the mkv file.

Solution? I installed "Combined Community Codec Pack", and now the Windows Media Player can play mkv file without problem on S12 ION edition, and I don't see any drop frame rate at all.

Love and hate with Lenovo S12 ION edition

Still not very pleased by the hinge and viewable of the Lenovo S12 since it makes it harder for me to view the screen while I have my netbook lying on my lap. Guess I just need sometime to get used to it. I am, however, very pleased with the speaker and keyboard. And the screen size is just right for seeing what I need to be productive. The reflective nature of the screen turns out to be not much an issue to be.

I actually hope that the button on the mouse pad can be moved to the left and right hand side of the trackpad area. Some people hate that kind of design, but I am one of those exception.

For surfing the web, typing text (like what I am doing now), playing MP3 file or something like that, the CPU consumption wasn't high at all. I was originally worry about the CPU not being able to keep up with what I want to do, as yesterday I did some serious multitasking by mapping a virtual drive, and then use it to install Office 2007, and found the machine had CPU consumption went all the way to the max.

Viewable angle and Tablet

I didn't realize how much I enjoy the tablet (touch experience) , large viewable and 180 degree hinge of my tablet PC until I start using my new S12 netbook. The more I use S12 the more I miss my tablet. Don't get me wrong, S12 is not bad. As a netbook it doesn't the job very well. I job think that the Tablet provide me better experience when using it on my lap. Sometimes you just don't know if you enjoy something unless it actually try it. Simply reading and comparing specification just doesn't cut it.

Clean install Windows 7 Ultimate in Lenovo S12 ION edition

So I received my Lenovo S12 Netbook with ION support today. Being a person who's sort of obsessive compulsive, I instantly wanted to wipe my machine machine and start installing Windows 7 Ultimate edition from scratch.

My first hurdle is the bootup. It seem Lenovo create some create 100Mb partition as bootup partition, and use it to boot up the actually Windows 7 partition. Maybe that's their way of providing system restore. But I don't want their ugly restore with all those nonsense software. So I used my Windows 7 install thumb drive, and found that my new install created install partition didn't bootup properly.

Eventually I had to:

• Move the partition 100Mb partition from first to anything but first parititon. I moved it behind my main new partition.
• Create a big huge partition as the first partition, and set it to active.
• HIDE all other partitions (my plan is to delete them all once the system is stabilized)
• Use the Windows 7 USB Installation, but make sure you WIPE the new big partition clean.
  

After then I got successful installation. Notice that I kept almost all the old partition in tact so that I can roll back just in case.

Also notice that when using USB thumb drive to bootup Acronis Disk Direction or True Image, I have to use the SafeMode instead of the full mode, or otherwise the internal harddisks won't show up properly.

Right now I am struggling about why the heck the camera isn't being recognized, and also there's an item missing support in the device manager list. Still trying to figure out what the heck that is.

There's also one thing that kind of disappointed me: it DOES NOT has a PCI Express slot which I THOUGHT it has. Well not a deal breaker, not something that will keep me from buying the device but it still suck.

Update: Finally found the "missing driver". It's the "Energy_Management". Installed it and then energy saving mode seem to work, and the missing driver disappeared. Also the webcam actually works if I use it in Skype. The key is that I may need to turn it on by pressing Fn Esc.

Tried the Windows 7 rating. Score is 2.2, but it's mainly because the Processor scored 2.2. The gaming graphic is actually the impressive 5.3 (especially for netbook), and hard disk transfer speed is rock solid 5.6.


Finally, I need to install these software:

iTune 9
Microsoft Office 2007
FastStone Photo Viewer
KM Player

So far I am enjoying this bad boy.

Workflow of moving media around

I start to really appreciate the fact that one of my external harddisk (S drive) has both eSATA and USB 2.0 connector. That allows me to more content from my desktop to the external box without too much of plugging and unplugging.

WTF EEE PC 900 USB speed

I just found out something ridiculously nonsense. The speed of copying 4 files between 2 USB drives on the EeePC 900 takes an hour, while on the same machine, copying across the 100BaseT network takes 4 minutes!!! Something is seriously wrong with the USB on that damn EeePC 900.