In light of folks asking about capping and software used, I have decided to put this thread together with links and info for various software used by the various members. I have tried to break it up into a couple of groups for easy searching.
If you have any others, tack on to this and I'll merge your info in with credit.
If you have any software specific issues, please make a separate post with your question.
Media Players
There are a number of media players out there. The most common one is the Windows Media Player. If you have windows, you'll see it pre-installed. There are others that you can use...
VLC Player:
A lot of people with codec issues should use this because it has built in codecs. It doesn't use the systems codes. VLC Player, the player that plays everything! (Credit to Donkeed)
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
Divx Player:
For those clips with Divx codecs, you can download the Divx player.
http://www.divx.com/divx/windows/
Quicktime Player:
For those clips that play with QT Player.
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/
Codecs
The bane of some of our members is when they have downloaded the clip they wanted and can't play it because of no codec available. You want to know if you have codecs installed and working? Try the g-spot. No, not on your girlfriend. (Credit to Donkeed) G-spot the codec appliance:
http://www.headbands.com/gspot/
Need the codec? (Credit to Donkeed) Free Codecs at...where else:
http://www.free-codecs.com/
File Joining and Splitting
If you have a Rapidshare account, you already may know that it has a 100MB file size limit and they accept split files. Here are a couple of programs you'll need to join clips to gether or to split a file to upload.
HJSplit:
This is a free file splitting and joining program. The file extension of an HJSplit part is always XYZ.avi.001, XYZ.avi.002, etc.
http://www.freebyte.com/hjsplit/
Winrar:
The .rar files are joined with this program. The file extesion looks like XYZ.avi.part1.rar, XYZ.avi.part2.rar, etc. There is a fee for the full version but I have been able to get along without it.
http://www.rarlab.com/
Stream Recorders
You can save any kind of web streams with the following programs.
Orbit Downloader:
Found by Roop. You can record any stream type you want. The best part of all is that.... IT'S FREE!
http://www.orbitdownloader.com/
WM Recorder:
If you want to record any stream that is windows based like live HSN show, this is good for that. To get full use of it, you'll have to pay.
http://www.wmrecorder.com/
Replay Media Catcher:
I use this one to grab flash videos like the HSN Week in Review clips. To get full use of it, you'll have to pay.
http://www.applian.com/replay-media-catcher/index.php
Dscaler:
For capping live feeds with a lot of options including card specific settings use Dscaler, the best way to cap live feeds, IMO (credit to Donkeed):
http://deinterlace.sourceforge.net/
DVD Ripping
The programs listed below can only rip the vob file from vids that have no security codes. This means if you record the DVD yourself.
SmartRipper:
This is a free program. I like this program. You not only can rip the full title but you can go and click certain chapters of each title to rip. What this means is that if a chapter is full of crap you don't want anyway, you simply uncheck that chapter and it won't be ripped from the DVD.
http://www.afterdawn.com/software/video ... ripper.cfm
File Converting
Virtual Dub Mod:
This another free program that allows you to convert the DVD VOB (MPEG2) file or any other file into avi. You can also edit your clip there as well. If you run with the default parameters, be ready for avi file sizes in the GBs!
http://virtualdubmod.sourceforge.net/
Media Coder:
BPM uses the FREE Media Coder to convert to XVid:
http://mediacoder.sourceforge.net/download.htm
Clip Editing
Womble MPEG Video Wizard:
BPM uses this to edit his clips:
http://www.womble.com/products/mvw.html
Windows Movie Maker:
If you have windows, you most likely have this program already pre-installed.
Cap Making
For capping live feeds with a lot of options including card specific settings use Dscaler, the best way to cap live feeds, IMO:
http://deinterlace.sourceforge.net/
I use the Nero DVD Player to make my caps and for those with Dell computers would get Sonic DVD Player as part of the programs installed. Nero makes the caps in BMP format which leads to Cap Batch Converting.
Cap Batch Converting
ACDSee:
I find this to be a good program to batch rename and batch convert my BMP caps to JPG. You'll have to pay for this program to get full features.
http://www.acdsee.com/
Pixillion Image Converter 1.0:
http://www.tucows.com/preview/516172
Credit to Roop. Further commentary from Roop...
Freeware (means free), copy and drag program for batch image conversion, works to a tee. convert to or from bpm, jpg, png, gif, etc.
The catch with freeware is usually it's bait for non-freeware programs they'll want you to try. So they add options to download other programs. Don't bother. They'll also add a few folders to your start menu program files, these aren't programs downloaded onto your pc, just the folder links for them, they're unwanted "suggestions".
If you click on these you'll see a prompt box asking if you want to install such and such. The three folders you'll see are: "Telephony Related Programs", "NCH Software Suite" and "Audio Related Programs", just delete them. The program works fine.
Cap Batch Downloading
From Arondight, you can download from all these image hosting sites:
- fotki.com [Albums]
- albums.photo.epson.com [Albums]
- photobucket.com [Albums]
- imageshack.us [Individual Image Pages]
- imagevenue.com [Individual Image Pages]
- pictiger.com [Individual Image Pages]
- paintedover.com [Individual Image Pages]
- imagehosting.gr [Albums and Individual Image Pages]
- shareapic.net [Albums and Individual Image Pages]
- shareavenue.com [Individual Image Pages]
- echo.cx [Individual Image Pages, imageshack echo really.]
- servimg.com [Individual Image Pages]
- freeimagehost.eu[Individual Image Pages]
- imagehaven.net [Individual Image Pages]
- 10pix.com [Individual Image Pages]
You can see the full feature list, the help page and download from
Auto Downloader