Video (RSS)

Video related posts.

Blog moved to WordPress and new domain...

I've moved my blog to my own domain and onto a WordPress engine, CS + SPAM was driving me nuts!

Catchup posts: Oh yes, I've been in Japan for a couple of months, first 2 weeks of photos are uploaded on Flickr, I still havent had a chance to upload the thousands after.

Whats more, I've actually written some information about me so you can finally find out my sad sad way of life. See About Thushan Fernando.
posted Sunday, June 29, 2008 2:57 PM by Thushan Fernando

DRIVERS: Creative X-Fi Drivers for Windows Vista updated!

After so long, Creative have updated their X-Fi drivers for Vista.

Changes

This download is a driver providing Microsoft® Windows Vista™ 64-bit and Windows Vista 32-bit support for Creative Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ series of audio devices. For more details, read the rest of this web release note.

This download supports the following audio devices only:

  • Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic
  • Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer
  • Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum
  • Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty®
  • Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Pro
  • Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum Fatal1ty Champion Series 
  • Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite Pro 

Current release features:

  • X-Fi Crystalizer™
  • X-Fi CMSS®-3D
  • MIDI Playback
  • EAX® Effects
  • PCM stereo output through Optical Out
  • Line-in connectivity
  • SPDIF passthrough is supported on both Vista 32-bit and Vista 64-bit
  • Recording capabilities

Fixes:

  • Resolves an issue for Windows Vista 64-bit systems with 4 GB RAM 
  • Resolves loud speaker noise when restarting your computer
  • Resolves an issue that causes OpenAL games not to respond

Known issues:

  • Applications from the original Sound Blaster X-Fi CD (for Windows XP) will not work with this download.
  • The following are not supported:
    • Decoding of Dolby® Digital and DTS™ signals (Cyberlink® PowerDVD™ or InterVideo® WinDVD® is required)
    • DVD-Audio (PowerDVD may support selected DVD-Audio content)
    • EAX or DirectSound®3D (Download Creative ALchemy to restore this feature in Windows Vista)
    • 6.1 speaker mode (not supported by Windows Vista)


Download page for x64 | Download page for x86 | Other OS's

posted Wednesday, November 07, 2007 7:36 AM by Thushan Fernando with 0 Comments

GAMES: Crysis Demo released!

Crysis I was planning to call it an early night tonight but alas the Crysis demo was released moments ago. Weighing in at about 1.7Gb it comes with 1 single player level and the Sandbox2 editor. So I'm here sucking it down the pipes at ~1.2Mbs... the anticipation is killing me...

Download from the mirrors:
Dont forget to checkout the Crysis System Requirements page. Something about Saturday (or friday) game releases, just like UT3 was released a couple of weekends ago. I'd be up till about 9/10am playing (remember we have to turn our clocks forward one hour today!) and before you know it its already sunlight on a Sundy morning, time for church...

UPDATE
*WOW* What an insanely great visual feast! Awesome graphics, great gameplay and I hung onto that flare you pickup on the beach for a while (it never runs out!!!) you drop it when you get to the forest again and the cut-scene starts but go back and pick it up for the next stage when you cloak up... confuses the hell outta the two guards you come across.
posted Saturday, October 27, 2007 3:20 PM by Thushan Fernando with 1 Comments

SOFTWARE: PCMark Vantage Released!

FutureMark the cluey guys who make Benchmarking apps like 3DMark and PCMark have released PCMark Vantage aimed purely for Vista.

Download a copy and see what you get:-)
posted Saturday, October 20, 2007 10:55 AM by Thushan Fernando with 2 Comments

FIX DIRECTSHOW: 'Class Not Registered' 0x80040154 error code

A friend at work was having some issues with his dev box today, working in video means we're constantly messing around with DirectShow filters, capture devices etc. etc. So things break every now and then and we deal with it like normal _sane_ developers (i'll leave you to think of how thats done).

Today however when we uninstalled a certain capture card software (that shall remain nameless...) he found that almost all his filters and video decompressors were messed with. Attempting to use them in GraphEdit would give the dreaded 'Class Not Registered' error message. So being the cool people we are, we got a copy of Paul Glagla's Filmerit and had a looksy. To our surprise there were almost 50 broken filters. So naturally we went through and tried to register them manually. But no luck.

Then I had a double look at what Filmerit was trying to say (now this screen shot is a reproduction of what happend, not the exact shot from his box!):

Filmerit 3.08 Dialog showing broken filters - caused by me on purpose.
Filmerit 3.08 Dialog showing broken filters - caused by me on purpose for 'emulation'.

Notice the 'Server File' has an error, this isnt the 'filter' thats causing it but rather the container itself. The uinstaller had some how managed to unregister a core DirectShow component. Naughty naughty (now do you see why I didnt mention the company name?)!

So now I checked my machine to see which file its meant to goto, turns out its 'qcap.dll' is the culprit (which is in your system32 folder). Register this component and voilla! all those broken filters will be fixed! To be sure, unregister the component first and then force it to be registered again.
C:\>regsvr32.exe /u "C:\Windows\System32\qcap.dll"
C:\>regsvr32.exe "C:\Windows\System32\qcap.dll"
Note, that Filmerit wont fix an issue with DirectShow itself, only for broken filters.
posted Wednesday, July 11, 2007 6:46 AM by Thushan Fernando with 1 Comments

Safari on Windows... I want my Pinwheel!

So Apple released Safari for Windows, w00t w00t! (sorry i tried hard to pee my pants but i've got nothing)

Boasting insane performance (page rendering @ 2.14 seconds vs 3.67 on Firefox or the woeful 4.63 on IE7 and the utter disastrous 6.22 for the worlds fastest browser, Opera!).

With claims like 'Safari is the fastest web browser on any platform.' and :

you know i'm going to take a look at it!

So i went ahead and downloaded the beta (Safari only, i use QuickTimeAlternative - unfortunately it looks like Apple got angry at the people using it and barfed - HAHA!). Install it and see what you think.

My impression. ROFLMAO. I'd like to see where they pulled those rendering times from (ok on second thoughts maybe not!). Looks like they've ported the entire Mac environment (see exported functions for CoreFoundation.dll, CoreGraphics.dll). They even use the 'POSIX Threads for Windows32 Library' (pthreadVC.dll).

While they've emulated everything (from the annoying titlebars, woeful attempts at doing menus, Mac themed form elements and that annoying resize chevron on the bottom right corner) they forgot the Pinwheel! I want my Pinwheel of DEATH damnit! (oh yeah please, if it BSoD's dont go blaming Microsoft!) There's something strange about the text-rendering compared to firefox/IE.

Whats more - I'm a dual-monitor junky - you may find that moving a Safari window to the other (secondary) monitor and attempting to maximise it will actually cause it to minimize. WTF? the only way to bring it back is to move that window to the original monitor and resize it. Oh yes, its beta too, so maybe they'll fix all these things before release? *cough*

Its good to know/be-reminded about what your missing out on once in a while by not using a Mac. 1. Blazing Performance, 2. Elegant UI, & 12. Security. Well i had my laugh for the day.
posted Tuesday, June 12, 2007 6:38 AM by Thushan Fernando with 5 Comments

Microsoft PhotoSynth

Out of Microsoft Research, Microsoft Live PhotoSynth, an insanely cool research product. See the official website for more information or try the demo(5.5Mb).

I'm speechless. WOW. *pees pants*.
posted Thursday, June 07, 2007 3:39 AM by Thushan Fernando with 5 Comments

Media Rights Technologies Issues Cease and Desist to Microsoft, Apple, Adobe and Real Networks

What *is* the world coming to? MRT or Media Rights Technologies Group has taken marketing to a new level with their "secure" product as was stated in this press release.

Let me pick out the important bits...
MRT and BlueBeat have developed a technological measure which effectively controls access to copyrighted material. That product, the X1 SeCure Recording Control, has been tested by the industry's standards bodies, the RIAA and IFPI, and has been proven effective against stream ripping, while protecting privacy and limiting infringement liability for users, distributors and academic institutions.
OK so what?
Media Rights Technologies (MRT) and BlueBeat.com have issued cease and desist letters to Microsoft, Adobe, Real Networks and Apple with respect to the production or sale of such products as the Vista OS, Adobe Flash Player, Real Player, Apple iTunes and iPod.
You what now?
MRT asserts Apple, Microsoft, Real and Adobe have produced billions of these products without regard for the DMCA or the rights of American Intellectual Property owners, actively avoiding the use of MRT's technologies. Failure to comply with this demand could result in a federal court injunction to any of the above named parties to cease production or sale of their products and/or the imposition of statutory damages of at least $200 to $2500 for each product distributed or sold.
So if they dont use your product your going to sue them? ROFLMAO. The guy behind it is pictured on the team page.
With his strong background in mathematics, Mr. Risan began development of the technology that evolved into Media Rights Technologies' patent-pending software. He is responsible for the development of all technology patents and engineering at the company, as well as forming strategic relationships, interacting with industry standards bodies, and developing general business opportunities. While launching an Internet music service, Hank encountered the gravity of music piracy wrought by the proliferation of software recording applications. Supported by advanced mathematical skills and extensive business experience, he then designed the technical solutions that solve a very large industry problem.
Some hanky panky stuff. Instead of me rambling on I'll leave it to John Welch's post which I fully agree with, Hank sounds like a desperate tool nothing more, feel free to read up on his adventures in his blog too!
posted Sunday, May 13, 2007 6:42 AM by Thushan Fernando with 0 Comments

Spiderman 3 Live from Red Carpet

Word on everyone's mouth is SpiderMan III, if you havent already check out the trailers, its pr