Tech Thread - General Qs

Since the Tech Forum is a ghost town now, here's a Lounge thread for general computer-related Qs

First up:

Anyone know what's going on here? Why is the 720p copy smaller than the standard def? This isn't an anomaly btw. At least half the time this tends to be the case, but only with the animated comedies I've found.. Both copies released by the same account etc

your codecs are fucked dude.

Its a general Q

^^

Because Xvid is old and busted while H.264 is the awesome new hotness that encodes higher quality at a much lower bitrate.

Up until now, SD rips were generally Xvid while HD were H.264 - but very recently the scene groups changed their format rules and release SD in H.264. That's why there's the SD H.264 version now that is tiny in size, but the same quality (often probably better) as the Xvid.

On top of that - animated shows compress REALLY well, since you have large expanses of identical pixels.


(I personally still don't bother with HD for animated shows)

frick and I thought I was a genius for working out how to run checkdisk when my computer next starts up. Was a mish trying to get a dos prompt. Me = practically archaic.

Yeah what Kris said.

Plus on top of that, just because something is HD doesn't mean it's made at a higher bitrate then SD.

Also, a lot of animation doesn't need as much information (movement and color) to be sent per second. So the bit rate doesn't need to be as high.

haha

I have a question for all you computer geek/nerd types (or maybe average Joe could answer it too!)

I have had my laptop for about 3 1/2 years now... it still goes sweet and I had extra RAM and memory put in just over a year ago which helped a lot.
The problem that i have is that it has started getting really hot where the fan is on the left hand side and underneath most of the time if I use for more than an hour at a time (wish is obviously pretty often).
I'm not sure if I need to do something to fix it or if its time to update? I'm happy with the laptop and has everything I need so want to avoid updating if possible until I really have to.
But then if I have to get something fixed, it might be a mission here in Italy... hmmmm

any thoughts???

My laptop overheats constantly too (toshiba, they're known for it afaik).

Anyone used USB laptop coolers before? eg
http://www.ebay.com.au/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p3907.m570.l1313&_nkw=laptop+cooling+pad&_sacat=See-All-Categories

ha my laptop is toshiba too!!!
had no problem with it until only about a month ago. even if i'm watching tv shows/movies and i put it on a shoebox or something with vents exposed when i'm in bed it still seems to get really hot

Hahaha yup I rest mine on a square tupperware container in bed

could be dust clogging the fans.... or the fan itself.... or an aging graphics card

or some other technical stuff I know nothing about

update ya codecs just to be sure

whats ma codecs?? can i get it at the chemist?

1) Don't ever use a laptop on carpet or like a bed. No good at all - lap is usually fine because it's rare you block every vent, and rarer you do it for long hours of heavy work.
2) USB coolers or resting it on something (chopping boards are cheap and usually the right size btw) don't actually address the problem in TB or Yak's case, where something's actually wrong. TB, yours is probably getting old and full of dust - replacing it is usually the best option if you can find somewhere to service it, other wise buy an air duster can can while the machine is off, blow that through all the vents for a while. Move it round and shit, get that dust moving. But, that's only a semi-fix - after a few years of being caked in dust, fans get out of balance and trash their bearings, making them slower and less efficient. Replacing is the only real solution.

Yak: yeah some particular models of laptop can be prone to overheating issues, but "Toshiba's" in general are not. More of our HP's here have had heat issues than our Toshiba's for example.

I have one of those laptops too which is constantly overheating, same as my flatmate.

I remember in Perth about 3 or 4 years ago a massive forest fire started because someone left their laptop on a bed (no the bed wasn't in a forest).

Anyone got any reccos for computer speakers? Something happened to my Harmon Kardons, sound fuzzy as fk now

Logitech Z10 USB's are fine by me.

yeah, i use a laptop cooler with my HP laptop. Overheating isn't really an issue with it unless all 4 cores are going full tilt.

Yeah Logitech are fine IMO, and very reasonably priced too!

3.5 years... time to get a new laptop TB!



gc.

This was one of the main selling points for me on my new unit. Got myself an Acer Aspire S3 - vents through the keys and the rear, not from below. Can sit on my bed for hours without getting warm. Especially after my old laptop used to get hot after 5 min.



gc.

Yes i know!!!

Only problem is the laptops that they sell in Italy have a different keyboard.... might have to wait until I go to London next to get one.

you should be able to get one with a US-International keyboard. Those are the keyboards we use at work over here. Same layout as a US keyboard (which is what they use in NZ) but you can get a € as well as a $... you might just have to ask them to order it in for you, or you could order it online yourself. Some of the keys on a british keyboard are in slightly different positions to a US keyboards e.g., @ " \ etc... I find that a little annoying (because I touchtype) but I'm sure it wouldn't take long to get used to it.

ah yes i forgot that the brit keyboards are different.... we had them at my RWC job cos they were all brought over from UK office. the @ in the wrong place was annoying!

So i need a US keyboard then?? its the same as Aus/NZ?

Do you recommend ordering something online from the US?? i'm a bit worried about the dodgy post system here though, although i guess i can get delivered to my school and signed for.

yeah, AUS/NZ use US keyboards. You wouldn't have to order it from the US. The netherlands also uses it, so you could order it from the netherlands, but i imagine many places in italy will do an "International" if you ask for it, but they might have to do a special order. A lot of places like universities, where people write in english a lot, will use US keyboards.

Apple lets you select US keyboard in areas with silly other keyboards. Likely an easy option buying direct from places like Dell too. Retail it will be a pain in the arse.

Hmmm thanks for the advice boys... i'd rather not get an Apple... will check online sites for Dell, Toshiba etc and suss it out.
I bought some of that canned air today so will give it a blast through and see what happens. Everything works fine with my laptop so would rather avoid buying a new one until I really have to... maybe a clean out will help

Ha I actually totally forgot to add that my laptop battery only lasts about 20-30 mins if not plugged in - another bad sign??

Happens to most laptops at some point - especially if you've had a tendency in the past to use it whilst plugged in a lot. You could just get a new battery, but really it is time for a new unit.

Get yourself an ultrabook, you won't regret it. There are several on the market now from most big players, although the Toshiba one is high priced as usual. Light, fast & ultra portable. I just got myself an Acer Aspire S3 for NZD$1150 and fucking love it.



gc.

At least its not a french keyboard, those things drive me nuts.. especially because I only use an english keyboard with french windows so the labels are all wrong.. it just maps the keys differently :/

^^ hahaha yes! That tilted me so much using internet cafes in Paris.

If only there was some way we could stop this

from my experience its damn near impossible to stop stop and fitness

trust me Kris I've tried

I can see if one of the MOD's will delete the posts, but Spike was the mastermind last time of taking it to the source..

Spike, is this the same company?

Just look @ the mighty poker thread's numbers! :>

Yes its 6 pages longer than the DJCheeky thread Gummie, which must make it the longest biggie thread ever

Well the longest biggie thread ever that wasn't locked to stop it

Once upon a time we could delete multiple threads at once by simply selecting a checkbox next to them. Have to do them all individually these days it seems. Which makes that annoying to tidy up.

Oh wow -- didn't realise that.... funny that 90% of it is posts by the same 5 degens

Of course it is. Telling these stupid cunts to stop isn't going to work though, since those posts are still coming fresh almost daily.

Hmmm I'll try emailing them and putting scathing posts on their facebook page...

Just bought Apple TV yesterday Didn't realise until I got home though that it hasn't been jail-broken yet (and apparently may be a while before someone figures out how) - so I have to convert everything to mp4 or whatever arrrgh.. Anyone aware of any tech wizardry to make watching .mkv files easier?

well mkv is a container and it's likely there is no need for conversion just extraction of the mpeg file contained within. Which should save a lot of time if you can find the appropriate software.

I could be talking bullshit btw.

Even if I extracted an mpeg though I'd still have to convert to mp4 for ATV to play it though I think?

If your TV is DLNA capable I'd install Plex Media Server on your computer, hook up your TV to the network and play the files through the DLNA on the TV. You may be waiting a while for a Jailbreak and then the software that runs on the new Apple TV. Saying that, I'd still try to install the older versions of iOS on the ATV, worth a shot. Download AppleTV2,1_4.4.4_9A406a_Restore and use Seas0nPass to create the file and restore it to the ATV and then install Plex Apple TV client.

Not worth a shot it seems. You might be waiting a while though and screw converting everything.

How essential is anti virus on computers and can you get away with just using free stuff ?

How about format the Apple TV and install linux with XBMC on it. Then you could just play whatever you like on it without all these silly rstrictions.

If you are smart and tech savvy, almost worthless except for viruses that are transmit through broken protocols (blaster worm virus comes to mind), in which case anti-virus wouldn't have protected you anyway.

It's hard to get a virus unless you click on stupid shit or download stuff that's not verified, or use lots of random portable harddrives with potential infections on your pc

Needs to be jailbroken to do this, no?

.

OK cool ... and what if you're browsing sites like redtube? Not that I am obviously, I'm just curious of course ;-p

Possible confusion with the first ATV that had a 40GB hard drive and USB port here.

Bahahahaaaaa

I dont totally agree with this.
I get the odd virus alert just by surfing ...sometimes non malicious websites that you trust become vectors unwittingly.
free AV is perfectly available and ok to prevent this, why not have one.

Shut up It'd be perfectly fine if it's jailbroken like ATV2 can be.
If it's not possible to convert mkv's quickly, I might have to return it, sigh..

Do you have a mac pech? if so "smartconverter" app is really good, and fast.. as i think it really just changed the wrapper instead of re-encoding the whole file. It has a AppleTV preset too

Nah only PC :/ I did some quick forum browsing and a lot of people recommended 'Handbrake' which worked fine, but took like 15-20 mins to convert one half-hour show

yes handbrake is good, but very slow. SmartConverter is the best i've found but as it's a app i think it's only for mac. Stupid that they would limit streaming to only one or two codecs. But there are other benefits of apple tv isn't there?

Yep, you get the odd false positive...

I disagree with antivirus because I believe they are largely ineffective if you have a clue. Also they don't actually protect against anything that's new

They interfere with drivers for graphics cards, computer games and a lot of other non-standard software.

sorry to interupt your TV talk, but just to let anyone who cares know ( maybe noone)... blowing air through the vents of my laptop has solved the hot problem! doesn't get hot now! wahoo!!
battery still sucks but i can live with using it plugged in all the time.

Handbrake is indeed the best option for Windows (and for Mac as well imho) but I have plenty of CPU to throw at it.

There's no other real option other than waiting for the Jailbrake, at which point you'll be able to install XBMC or Plex on the ATV.

What's stupid about it? They don't care about people watching stolen media, they build their device to work within their ecosystem.

Try SmartConverter for simple conversions, you don't get to change any settings as it's only presets, but it's really fast.

Yep but they should allow their ecosystem to play all codecs, it wouldn't be hard. And there's plenty of media out there that isn't pirated or illegal which is made with different codecs.

You haven't addressed WHY they should, just said "they should because". There's even no way on the ATV to browse any other media storage.

Besides which, anything you're downloading today in x264 with MP4 container (which all pirated TV is being released in now) WILL play happily on an ATV via iTunes, as per the discussion at the start of the thread.

Why? because essentially itunes is a Media Library and playout. And ATV is a system to stream itunes to your tv right? So it's just a media player for your tv, so it should be able to play ALL media.

No. ATV should be able to play whatever iTunes stream nothing else, unless they make the ATV a full blown media center which right now its not.

Yep agree. And thats why i'm saying Itunes should be able to play all media

I use Avast for antivirus, Malwarebytes Anti-Malware for malware and Zonealarm for firewall. Avast gets updated definitions pretty much every day. All are free and haven't caused any issues with my laptop, although network discovery keeps defaulting to on even though I turn it off every time.. I think it's because of Zonealarm.

Just use AVG?

My dad got a virus while using AVG so I don't trust it.. I read way more good reports about Avast than AVG and I've had Avast installed for a year and a half and I'm still sweet!

Been using no anti-virus, haven't had a virus since blaster worm

i have never installed anti virus software and i have never had a virus.

I am however running a mac

Ditto, however I have noticed a few articles recently claiming that viruses which affect the osX platform are becoming increasingly more popular. As far as I know, they sure still very basic ie:require users to open dodgy files which can be avoided with a small amount of common sense.

Anyone on here using a Mac that has either a) managed to infect their system, or b) bothered to install antivirus software?

Yeah i'm guessing they will become more common in time.

I believe the latest and biggest exploit is Java based meaning it can be exploited from the browser environment.. IE going to a dodgy website:

http://www.fudzilla.com/home/item/26793-hackers-come-up-with-new-mac-virus

clutching at straws though really innit.

Not quite sure what you are getting at Smiley but since you are a frothing fanboy I shall simply ignore your comment

Not really, to compare the scale, it's higher rate of infection than Conficker was on Windows.


http://daringfireball.net/2012/04/flashback_eword

But that article PD listed was hilariously bitter.

Here's the thing....how do you know you are fine? You know how modern infections work? Lots of the common in-the-wild infections work by first, disabling your antivirus, then going ahead and doing their thing, usually making your machine part of a botnet. This can go on with you having NO idea anything is happening.

Except I'm not.

Infact that annoys the hell out of me. If you point holes in the somewhat ridiculous bullshit that both pc and android zealots spout, you must be some sort of fanboy. This malware/virus/whatthefuck ever is making news because it's ONE muthafucking example. Meanwhile I'm not having my CPU cycles or more importantly my HDD raped by some useless piece of antivirus software. I'm sorry, but thats just a plain fact.

Woohoo now THATS the sort of reaction I was after

heh.

I guess it's because I'm stupid enough to occasionally read comments in tech articles that relate in some way. They are probably written by 15 year olds who know dick or just socially retarded adults. On both sides. It winds you up enough eventually to let someone have it.

I agree though its a pretty bitter article..

I used to be a geek but I've lost most of my geeky knowledge over time so I probably don't know how modern ones work. I have Zonealarm running all the time and do a full scan with the Malwarebytes and Avast software regularly.. surely one of those 3 would have picked something up?

Smart viruses disable everything.

Windows Security Essentials is just as good as anything else free and is not annoyingly spammy like most of the shit out there. No need to d/l third party "protection" that is little more than spam/bloatware.



gc.

And how many VIRUSES have people had that were NOT the result of clicking on something retarded?



gc.

None, people are fucken retards when it comes to this shit. Can't remember the last time I had a AV on any of my pc's at home.

I just use AVG, consider myself something other than a retarded user, and get the odd alert!
I would think everyone should at least run a scan regularly if they choose to gain a few extra measly processing cycles by not running real time protection.

I just freaked myself out about all the threats and if my laptop's got enough protection... one article said malware can be delivered through online videos.. hope I didn't get anything through watching all those YouTube videos!

through a site like youtube ? no.

It's misleading to say it can come through streaming online videos, dodgy streaming video applications maybe, but not actual videos themselves.

AVG can be pretty bad for false postitives too.. we have to whitelist a portion of our software every release due to that fact however out of the 42 av engines I ran it through only AVG reported it as a false positive.

Hardly misleading.. general-audience victims don't care about which part of the video delivery process gave them the virus, only that they got a virus

So my ex flatmates laptop has got two viruses since she bought it and she's had to get somene to come fizx it ... pretty sure she'd not dowloading anything sat all ... what are opther things tghat might cause this?

Being click-happy