About That Advertising Comeback…

After cratering for more than a year, the ad business is back. But it’s not back everywhere. And it’s probably not as strong as you think it is.

That’s the takeaway from a note by Barclays analyst Anthony DiClemente, who has knocked down his ad estimates for 2010. It’s the most modest of reductions–he’s now predicting five percent growth for U.S. ad spending, instead of 5.5 percent–but it’s a contrast to most other ad predictors, who have been revising their forecasts upward for some time.

If you spend most of your time watching Web publishers and TV networks, you might not see it: Everyone from Google (GOOG) to GE’s (GE) NBC Universal have been reporting very good growth numbers. So what gives?

Everything that isn’t on the Web or on your TV screen, DiClemente says. The radio, magazine and newspaper businesses have been reporting lousy results this year, and that’s enough to drag down the rest of the business (click images to enlarge):

We’ll get more info about the state of the ad market next week, when a swath of big media companies, including CBS (CBS), News Corp. (NWS), Time Warner (TWX) and AOL (AOL) turn in their Q2 report cards. But even if you assume that those guys report healthy-looking numbers, it’s important to remember that they are based on very weak comps from the previous year. Which means that industries that are still posting declines are really, really, down. DiClemente spells it out in this chart:

Useful, sobering numbers. We’ll refer back to them next week.

Here’s an Idea: The iPad Sombrero Program–and Get an iPad Sombrero or Parasol at No Charge

That’s the warning given to new iPad owners in the device’s user manual and Apple’s support forums as well–a warning that evidently went unheeded by a trio of early adopters who are now suing the company claiming the iPad doesn’t operate properly at high temperatures.

The suit, which seeks class action status, alleges that the iPad does not live up to a “reasonable consumer’s expectations.” From the complaint, which is embedded in full below:

“The iPad overheats so quickly under common weather conditions that it does not function for prolonged use either indoors, or in many other warm conditions, for a variety of common uses such as, but not necessarily limited to, an e-reader, e-mail tool, Web browser and/or game/entertainment unit. … Nowhere in any of Apple’s press releases and nowhere in any of Apple’s advertising materials which market the iPad to consumers does Apple mention that the iPad is virtually unusable when sitting in particular environmental conditions (e.g., in direct sunling in connection with virtually any ambient air temperature) since it turns off, sometimes after just a few minutes of use.”

In other words the iPad gets hot in the sun.

And if its temperature exceeds its operational threshold it overheats, just as a candy bar left on a car dashboard melts when it exceeds its operational threshold. Because of this, the plaintiffs claim Apple is guilty of fraud, negligent misrepresentation, deceptive advertising practices, intentional misrepresentation, breach of warranty, and unfair business practices under the Unfair Competition Act.

Now, reports of iPads overheating are not new.

But then neither is the concept “things get hot in the sun.”

Or RTFM.

How to Remove DRM from WMV

Windows Media Video (WMV) was developed by Microsoft and these files are playable using Windows Media Player. There are numerous portable media players available which support WMV playback. You can use a .WMV file for either streaming or downloading. Downloaded Windows Media Files come with the protection by the DRM License itself. If you try to play it for the first time on your PC, then Windows Media Player will try and look for the license on the PC.
It's explicable that you would like to remove DRM from WMV files. You can play a windows media video file without obtaining a license from the digital rights management server. There are several ways of achieving this task of removing of DRM from WMV. Here are a few of freeware to help you to remove DRM from WMV:

1. freeme2
freeme2 (Download freeme2) is a free and open source DRM remover. It is used to remove DRM from Windows Media audio and video files. freeme2 is a command line application. You need to learn how to use console applications to run it.
How to use freeme2 (drag-n-drop)
Drag-n-drop method is much easier than the one using command line console:
Put your DRM protected media files in the same folder as Freeme2.
Extract your license keys. You can do this with drmdbg. If you use drmdbg you can take the drm2-i.key file generated by drmdbg, rename it to drm2.key and copy it to the FreeMe2 folder.
Drag your sample.wma file onto FreeMe2.exe. It starts up and runs fine.
How to use freeme2 (command line console)
Put your DRM protected media files in the same folder as freeme2.
Run the Windows command console: Hit "Start"->hit "Run..."->type CMD->Hit the "OK" button.
Then, once in the command console, chage the directiry by using the "cd" command to the directory where your FreeMe2 is located.
Extract your license keys. You can do this with drmdbg.
Type the following in the command line console: "freeme2" (without quotes) and press the Enter button.
2. Aiseesoft Total Video Converter
Aiseesoft Total Video Converter is a powerful video and audio converter for all popular media formats including: WMA, WAV, WMV, M4A, M4P, M4V, AAC, M4B, 3GP, AVI, ASF, MP4, FLV, MP3, etc. so users can easily enjoy the DRM protected formats with their mobile players like iPhone, iPod, PSP, etc.
How to use Aiseesoft Total Video Converter.
Click "Add File" to import files to the program.
Click "setting" to customize the parameters for output audio and video.
When you finish all the necessary settings, you can start conversion. The selected files in the file list will be automatically converted one by one after you click Start button. if you convert files that bought from iTunes Store, you need to do some setting as the image shows.
please click here to learn the full guide.



3. AnalogWhole
AnalogWhole (Download AnalogWhole) is a free Windows application that allows you to consolidate all your music into iTunes as MP3 files. Any music that is playable in Windows Media Player can be re-recorded as an MP3 file. Just tell AnalogWhole where your music library is, and it will automatically re-record the files as an MP3 file. In addition, it will add the converted song to iTunes for you.
With AnalogWhole you can convert all those WMA or WAV files you have that won't play on your iPod into MP3 files that will play on iPod.
The way AnalogWhole works is pretty straightforward. Almost all PC soundcards have the ability to simultaneously play music out one channel while recording music on another channel. The standard Windows audio mixer component allows the output channel to be routed back into the soundcard input channel. AnalogWhole uses the COM interface to Windows Media Player to play the music file and while it is playing, it records it and encodes it as an MP3 file. All tagging info (i.e. artist, song title, album et cetera) is transferred to the MP3 file as well.



4. Automate unDRM.
Free DRM removal from .WMV, .ASF, .WMA (Windows Media audio/video files). Included in the download pack: drmdbg, drm2wmv, DecryptIt.
You can Download Automate unDRM here.
Automate unDRM v2.0 can't crack DRM license. You must have VALID license files on your harddrive and be able to play the DRM protected files without restrictions. Automate unDRM v2.0 is intended to be used to make fair-use backups only. Please do not abuse this rule.
Automate unDRM is used to automate the DRM removal process by drmdbg and drm2wmv. drmdbg and drm2wmv don't convert your original Windows Media audio and video files, they just remove DRM header of the media file, so you get lossless conversion of DRM protected media files.
Automate unDRM works only with Windows Media Player 9 or 10.00.00.3646 (unless you update your drbdbg.exe).

5. FairUse4WM
FairUse4WM (Download FairUse4WM) can't crack DRM license. You must have VALID license files on your harddrive and be able to play the DRM protected files without restrictions.
FairUse4WM is intended to be used to make fair-use backups only. Please do not abuse this rule. FairUse4WM is a GUI version of drmdbg (DRM removal tool). drmdbg doesn't convert your original Windows Media audio and video files, it just removes DRM header of the media file, so you get lossless conversion of DRM protected media files.
FairUse4WM supports Windows Media Player 9, 10, 11 (individualization version up to .3930).
Basic requirements: Only works on individualized DRM file.
Requires Windows Media Player (WMP) 9, 10 or 11 beta 1 and 2. Although there is no support for WMP 11 final. Works with both individualized content and some DRMv1 files. Does not work with Win98 or similar.
The program's functioning can be verified by stripping DRM protection from Demo files from ezdrm.com, as well as those from other Microsoft Solution partners.
Note that some Windows Media Player installations will have multiple ECC key-pairs, so you will likely have to "Extract Keys" using multiple licensed files. If you find a file that doesn't convert, try extracting keys with it. Once your whole set of keys is extracted, you will no longer need to run Windows Media Player per file.

How to convert MTS/M2TS video

MTS or M2TS format is the equivalent of h.264 or MPEG-4 AVC. It is a fairly new High Definition codec that provides greater compression than the regular MP4 and others. Those two High Definition format always be used on HD Camcorder, such as Sony, Canon or Panasonic.

As they are HD video, most of our video editor such as windows movie maker can not edit it directly. And also you can not upload it to youtube.com and share with your friends.

So you need to convert them into normal video format, such as wmv, mp4, avi and so on.

Here I know a really powerful MTS Converter and M2TS Converter
And the process of operation is really easy and fast.

Part 1: How to convert MTS video
Step 1: Load Video
Click "Add File" to load the video that you want.

Step 2: Choose Your Output Profile and Settings
From "Profile" drop-down list you can choose your output profile according to your need.
For example, if you have a iPod and you want to convert video for it, you need to choose "iPod" from the profile list and then it also provides the second chance to specify your iPod generation.
You can also click "setting" adjust the settings of your output video, such as "video/audio encoder", "Video/audio Bitrate", "Channels", "Resolution" and so on..

Step 3: Conversion
After you have done all the steps above you can click "Start" button to start your conversion.

Part 2: How to convert M2TS video

Step 1: Add File
Load your M2TS video.

Step 2: Choose Profile and Settings
Select your output profile according your need and adjust the settings of your output video if you like.
(the default setting works well)

Step 3: Start Conversion
Click "Start" to begin your conversion.

Here I also recommend you a really nice HD Video Converter, which can convert HD TS, HD MTS, HD M2TS, HD MPEG, HD WMV, HD MPG, HD MP4, QuickTime HD MOV, HD H.264, HD RM video, etc

How to Put Youtube videos on iPod, PowerPoint ,etc for free

This guide will show you how to download video content from numerous sites (youtube, Google Video,etc) and convert videos to iPod on Mac using two methods. It is pretty simple for according to the following statements.
iPod, iPhone accepts mp4 video detail as follow: MPEG-4 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per sec., Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48 kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats.
PPT accepts: mpeg, asf, avi, wpl. wm, wmx, wmd, wmz, dvr-ms, mpv2, mp2v, mov, etc

1. Using free online YouTube converter
The first method is using a website to convert youtube video to iPod or powerpoint for free, Of course, you can also convert other media videos.
This is good for you when you only have one file to convert or you can't install the programs necessary for conversion. My favorite is zamzar converter.
You don't even need to download the video file to your computer. Enter the URL of the video to the box, choose the format you want to convert youtube videos to (iPod accepts mp4 video. So choose the format 'mp4'), and Enter your email address , then click 'convert'. The output file will be sent to your mailbox after the conversion.



Another free online converter I like is media convert.
But you can't convert big video files using free online converters. It is up to 100MB. And the quality of the output files is so.

Tip: How to put pictures and photos to iPod, iPhone
1. Download iTunes from http://www.apple.com
2. Plug your iPod in to iTunes
3. Make a folder on the computer with all of the photos you want on your iPod (Name it something you with remember!)
4. Click on the iPod icon in iTunes
5. Click on the Tab "Photos" on the top.
6. Check the box "Sync photos from:"
7. Chose the folder all of your photos are in.
8. Click apply, then eject your iPod and enjoy your photos!

2. Using iPod video converter for Mac
The Second Method is using iPod video converter software to convert Youtube videos to iPod on Mac for free.
For this you need the following:
1. A video to download.
2. iPod Video Converter (Mac OS X version / Windows PC version).
Step 1: Download the videos
The downloaded file might be two formats: avi and flv . iPod and iPhone only support mp4 format. So you need to convert the videos to MP4 files.
PowerPoint understands .avi. If it the file is .avi, you do not need to convert it to put it on PPT. But most videos will probably be in .flv format. You can't embed Flash in PowerPoint. These will need to be converted to .mpeg or .avi format.
To do these conversions, you will need video converter which is capable of doing the conversion.

Step 2: Converting The Video to iPod, iPhone, Powerpoint, etc
Great, now you have located the file and downloaded it to the desktop. What's next? Well, you need to open up your freshly installed Aiseesoft Video Converter for Mac.
Click the "Add File" button to add the video files that get from the video sites to the program by automatically selecting an appropriate encoder for the video files you want to convert to.
Select the output format on the output format list. Aiseesoft iPod Video Converter for Mac can convert videos to almost all popular video players like iPod touch, iPod classic, iPod nano, iPhone, Apple TV, PSP, PS3, Youtube (web), Creative Zen, iRiver PMP, Archos, various video mobile phones and many other digital video and audio players. If you want to put videos to PowerPoint, you need to convert the videos to avi or mpeg formats.
This process only lasts a few minutes at the most.
If you want to convert several videos into one file, what you need to is to click'merge into one file' option . As we know, the mp4 format is high conpatible with iPod, iPhone, Apple TV, PSP, so it the best format for converting to iPod, iPhone, etc.

What Would Courtney Wear?

Apparently the answer to that question is compelling enough to warrant a new blog–or “social experiment,” as Love describes it–called Whatcourtneyworetoday.com. The site is a photographic chronicle of Love’s wardrobe choices on the tour for Hole’s new album “Nobody’s Daughter.” Given her social media history, a site called Whatwillcourtneytweetnext.com would be much more interesting in a train-wreck sort of way, but whatever.

Nokia Conducting Search for New CEO

Mobile phone maker Nokia Corp. (NOK) has launched a search for a new chief executive, people familiar with the situation said Monday.

The move comes as the current chief executive, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, struggles to find traction for the company in the market for high-end smartphones.

While Nokia continues to sell more cellphones than any other manufacturer, it has failed to keep up with advances by such rivals as Apple Inc. (AAPL) and makers of smartphones running Google Inc. (GOOG) operating software.

The Espoo, Finland, company’s failure to get back in the race has taken a toll. Its stock rose eight cents to $8.82 in 4 p.m. New York Stock Exchange trading Monday but is off nearly 42% since April 19.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

The Facebook Movie Is a Money Maker for Twitter

You won’t see ads for the upcoming Facebook movie on Facebook. But you can see them on Twitter: “The Social Network,” Sony’s Mark Zuckerberg-inspired drama, is currently a “Promoted Trend” on the messaging service.

It’s not surprising that the movie is using Twitter as a launching pad. Hollywood studios have been some of the prominent, um, friends of Twitter’s new ad platforms.

Twitter launched Promoted Trends–the most conventional ad platform it has used so far–with a “Toy Story 3″ campaign from Disney’s (DIS) Pixar, and Disney was also the first to use Twitter’s new “@earlybird” e-commerce promotion, for “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.” News Corp.’s (NWS) 20th Century Fox has bought Promoted Trends time for its “Predators.”

It is a little surprising that Sony is buying ad time now for a movie that won’t show up until the fall. All of the earlier Twitter movie campaigns have been timed to films’ opening weekends, which makes sense, given Twitter’s “whatishappeningrightnowatthisverysecondimustknownow” vibe.

But given that Internet typists like myself are busy typing away about the ad buy, it’s obviously a success.

And! A good excuse for me to show off the new trailer for the David Fincher/Aaron Sorkin collaboration, featuring a choral version of Radiohead’s “Creep.” Looks excellent.

How to use Mac The Ripper to rip DVD to iPod, iPhone, etc. on Mac

Part 1. Use MacTheRipper to minus the copy protections for free
Mac The Ripper is a free DVD ripper (extractor) for Mac OS X. It can extract commercial DVD movies to your hard drive, minus all the copy protections and region controls put in place by DVD publishers. Mac The Ripper removes CSS encryption, Macrovision protection, and sets the disc's region code to '0' for region-free by default, and is capable of removing RCE region protection as well, making an unrestricted copy of any DVD movie you own. It doesn't rely on the DVD drive to get the CSS decryption keys, so that means that you do not need to play the DVD with DVD Player in order to rip it to your hard drive unprotected. MacThe Ripper is also capable of removing UOPs, or User Operation Prohibitions, which are the settings that prevent you from skipping or fast-forwarding certain parts of DVDs, such as FBI warnings, previews, logos, intros, etc. Mac The Ripper is also able to extract discs with the new ARccOS protection, as well as DVDs that have been damaged or improperly mastered.
WARNING: Disabling UOPs can break the navigation on certain DVDs. If you disable UOPs, be sure to verify the DVD with DVD Player before you burn it to DVD±R disc.

Step 1. install MacThe Ripper
Download it from: http://www.Mactheripper.org. To install Mac The Ripper, simply mount the .dmg archive by double-clicking it, and copy the Mac The Ripper application from it to your Applications folder (or wherever you want it ), along with this Mac The Ripper Manual if you need it.
Step 2. convert DVD for free
To use Mac The Ripper, you should insert your DVD movie into your DVD drive and launch the Mac The Ripper application. Then, you should set the RCE options if applicable. If Mac The Ripper displays 'DISC RCE: -CLEAR-' after scanning the DVD in the drive, you can leave the 'RCE Region' popup menu on 'OFF', as it is by default. Only (and always) set the 'RCE Region' to 'OFF' when it says that RCE is '-CLEAR-'.
Once you've selected the type of extraction and options you want, you can go back to the 'Disc' tab and click the 'GO!' button (or hit the 'Enter' or 'Return' key) to start the extraction.




Step 3, finish extract movie from DVD.



You can find a folder in the save location. The output files extracted by MacTheRipper are saved as .VOB format .
Tip: RCE region protection
region 1: North America; U.S. territories; Bermuda
region 2: Europe; Western Asia; Kingdom of the Netherlands; Egypt, Japan, Lesotho, South Africa, Swaziland; British overseas territories, French overseas territories; Greenland.
region 3: East and Southeast Asia
region 4: Oceania; Central and South America; Caribbean; Mexico
region 5: Africa, Central and South Asia, Belarus, India, Mongolia, North Korea, Russia, Ukraine
region 6: Mainland China

Part 2. Convert the .VOB files to other video, audio formats compatible with iPod, PSP
After using Mac The Ripper to minus the copy protections, we can use Aiseesoft Video Converter for Mac to convert .VOB files to formats that compatible with popular players such as iPod, iPhone(iPhone 3G), Apple TV, PSP, Zune, etc.
Step 1:
Download and install Aiseesoft Video Converter for Mac
Note: If you just want to convert .vob file for iPod, You can choose this powerful iPod video converter for Mac. It can convert .VOB file to iPod video and iPod audio on Mac OS with powerful functions and fast converting speed!
Step 2:
Run Aiseesoft Video Converter for Mac, click 'Add File' button to import the .VOB files, choose the output format, then click 'Start' to start the conversion. If you want to put the video on PowerPoint, you can choose .avi as output format.
Tip: Aiseesoft DVD Ripper for Mac can rip DVD to all popular video and audio formats directly. It can rip DVD to videos including MP4, AVI, MOV, M4V, 3GP, MPG, MPEG, FLV, etc and can convert DVD audio to MP3, M4A, AAC, AC3, etc. It is more easy to use than Mac the ripper. You can download it for free and have a try.
Step 3:
After the conversion is finished, You can transfer the converted files to the players. For example, use iTunes to transfer the mp4 video to your iPod, here are the steps:
1. Open iTunes and click "File" to add your converted videos to iTunes library.
2. Plug in your iPod to computer, then iTunes will detect your iPod as a device.
3. Select your iPod device on the left panel of iTunes, click "Movies" tab, check the videos you want to sync and click "Apply", done.
Recommend: DVD Converter Suite for Mac: all-in-one solution to convert DVD and Video to MP4, AVI, FLV, MOV, MKV, ASF, directly for your iPhone, iPod, PSP, iPod touch, Zune, etc. on Mac OS X.

How to import music from iPod to iPod without iTunes

Ever since iPod was released, millions of people have been crazy about it. There appeared some assistant tools to manage iPod without iTunes:
1. Aiseesoft iPod Manager for Mac is one of the best Mac tools that can transfer Mac to iPod Shuffle, iPod backup for Mac. It is the best for iPod iTunes Mac software.
2. Aiseesoft iPod Transfer is another Windows all-in-one tool including iPod to iPod Transfer, computer to iPod Transfer and iPod to computer transfer.

Part One: How to manage iPod without iTunes on Mac. (Transfer Mac to iPod Shuffle, iPod Backup for Mac)
1. Download and install Aiseesoft iPod Manager for Mac.
For Intel:http://www.aiseesoft.com/downloads/mac/ipod-manager-for-mac.dmg
For Power PC: http://www.aiseesoft.com/downloads/mac/ipod-manager-for-mac.dmg
2. Connect iPod to Mac via USB.

Transfer Mac to iPod Shuffle:



Select “Music”, “Video” or “Picture”. Then click “Mac to iPod” to choose the files you want to transfer to iPod. Click “Open” to finish the transfer.

iPod Backup for Mac:



Select files you want to backup. Click “iPod to Mac” and find the place where you want to transfer your iPod files to your Mac and click “Open”.

Part Two: Computer to iPod Transfer, iPod to iPod Transfer, iPod to Computer Transfer for Windows users
1. Download and install Aiseesoft iPod Transfer.
2. Connect iPod/iPhone to computer.

Computer to iPod Transfer
Click “computer to iPod” button to seek the files or folders that you want to import to iPod and click OK.

iPod to iPod Transfer
Pick the files that you need to transfer. Just click “iPod to iPod” button and it will show you the folder of another iPod that you want to transfer to. Click OK. The transfer can be finished automatically.

iPod to Computer Transfer
Check the file(s) you want to export in the file list. Click “iPod to computer” button to select the destination of the exporting files and start exporting files.

Hope it helps you!

How to compress DVD-9 to DVD-5 for Mac

We often use DVD to store video and data file. Varieties of DVDs are sorted by the way data stored.

DVD-9 holds 8.5GB and is supported by the DVD+R and DVD-R formats. It is also known as Single-Sided Double Layer (sometimes called Dual Layer). The official names are DVD-R DL and DVD+R DL.

DVD-5 holds 4.7GB and is supported by the DVD+R/RW and DVD-R/RW formats. It is also known as Single-Sided Single Layer.

If you want to compress Double Layer DVD-9 to Single Layer DVD-5 on Mac, you must use one Mac DVD Copy software. Download this Mac DVD Copy to have a try;

Buy NowFree trial(Intel PPC)

How to compress DVD-9 to DVD-5 for Mac

Insert your DVD and select the copy DVD mode

Select souce: Choose DVD-video disc from the source pop up menu.

Select target: From the “Target” pop up menu, select the DVD disc, and on the type of DVD disc, please select the disc type “D5(4.7GB)”(there are three types of DVD discs: D5(4.7GB) Disc, D9(8.5GB) Disc and customized disc.)

Start to compress DVD:Click “Start Copy” button to begin your DVD compressing.

learn more on: how to edit DVD file with DVD Copy for Mac.

Conan O’Brien’s Awkward Parting Gift for NBC: An Emmy Nomination

Who knew Hollywood had such a wry sense of humor? But here’s the evidence: The TV industry folks who vote for the Emmy awards have nominated Conan O’Brien for a statuette.

As in Conan O’Brien, the former NBC employee whose brief stint as host of “The Tonight Show” ended badly, and expensively, for the network. It seems to have worked out okay for O’Brien, though–he got a very big severance check, an infusion of online adoration and, eventually, a well-paid gig at Time Warner’s Turner (TWX).

And while it would be a little, um, awkward if O’Brien actually won the Emmy for best “variety, comedy or music series” (he’s up against Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Bill Maher and “Saturday Night Live”), there is some upside for NBC here. The GE (GE) unit is broadcasting the Emmys in late August, and the potential car-crash nature of the award show might bring in some more eyeballs.

Outage at Amazon.com

Amazon.com has been limping badly for a few hours now, and anecdotal reports of downtime are flying across Twitter. According to an Amazon support staff forum post, “We continue to experience an issue that is impacting customers’ ability to place orders on the Amazon.com website as well as the display of item details within Manage Your Inventory within your seller account. We appreciate your understanding as we work toward resolution.”

Amazon Goes Shopping, Comes Home With Woot

Woot.com, the commerce site that made its name featuring one big deal a day, announced today (in entertaining fashion) that it is being acquired by Amazon.com, where, like Zappos and Audible, it will continue to operate as an autonomous subsidiary. Amazon invested $4 million in Woot in 2008. Details of the deal were not announced.

How to play Videos on Xbox 360

How Can I Watch Videos on my Xbox 360?
There are two ways you can watch videos on your Xbox 360:



1. Download video from the Xbox Live Marketplace. Some of these videos are available for free while you may have to pay for others. Microsoft is in control of what videos are available through the Xbox Live Marketplace.



2. Stream videos from your Windows Media Center PC by using your Xbox 360 as a Media Center Extender. You are in control of what videos you want to watch, however there are restrictions on what kind of video you can playback. See below for more details.



Is there any way I can play my own videos WITHOUT a Media Center PC?.
No. Without a Windows XP Media Center PC, you can only play back the movies Microsoft offers in the Xbox Live Marketplace.

Do I need additional hardware/software to playback video on my Xbox 360?
Yes. You will either need the optional Xbox 360 Hard Drive to download/watch video from the Xbox Live Marketplace or you will need a PC with Microsoft Windows XP Media Center as your OS in order to stream video from your PC.



Does it support video streaming through Windows Media Connect?
No. There are video sharing capabilities built into Windows Media Connect, however, Microsoft has chosen to ONLY allow you to share Audio and Pictures through Windows Media Connect. You CANNOT stream videos through Windows Media Connect to your Xbox 360.



What kind of videos can I play using the Media Center Extender?
Microsoft Windows Media Video (WMV) 7, 8, & 9
- Maximum resolution of 1920x1080 (1080p) at 30 frames per second.
- Windows Media Audio Standard or Windows Media Audio Pro audio.
- WMV content may be Windows Media DRM-protected.
- Bitrates up to 8 Mbps.
WMV Image 1 & 2
- Maximum resolution of 800x600
MPEG-1
- MPEG-1 layer I and II audio.
MPEG-2, DVR-MS
- Maximum resolution of 1920x1080 (1080i).
- MPEG-1 layer I and II or AC-3 audio.
- Bitrates up to 19.2 Mbps.

Does it support avi? Divx? Xvid? Quicktime? H264?
No. The Media Center Extender in the Xbox 360 only supports playback of DVR-MS, MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and WMV video.

How can I watch these other (avi, divx, xvid, etc) videos on my Xbox 360?
You have to convert these videos into the video formats the Xbox 360 Media Center Extender can playback. We recommend you to use Aiseesoft Total Video Converter (for Mac OS, choose video converter for Mac ) to convert all popular video formats to xbox 360 video and audio files perfectly with just a few clicks.



Does the Xbox 360 support direct video streaming through Windows Sharing/Samba Shares?
No.

Can I watch DVDs through the Media Center Extender?
No, you can only watch DVDs by using the Xbox360's DVD drive.

Can I use a DVD Disc Changer through the Media Center Extender?
No. This functionality is not available in through the Xbox 360's Media Center Extender. You can only watch one DVD at a time by using the Xbox360's DVD drive.

Will My DVDs be available on the XBox 360?
"No. We did not implement the ability to remotely play back a DVD from a MCE to an XBox 360 Extender so it did not make sense to make My DVDs available. I certainly understand how cool it would be if you could put your MCE and full loaded DVD changer in a closest and use XBox 360's to watch your DVD collection from any room wirelessly but this is something that's going to have to wait until a future release." - Matt Goyer - MCE Program Manager

Can the Xbox 360 play video off the Xbox 360 Hard Drive?
Yes, but only video downloaded from the Xbox Live Marketplace or preloaded on the Xbox, not your own videos.
Can you hook up an external hard drive to the Xbox 360 and play videos off that?
No.

Recommended Products for you:
DVD to iPod Converter for Mac
It's a specially designed iPod conversion program to Convert DVD to iPod touch, iPod classic, iPod nano, convert DVD to iTunes on Leopard.
iPod Video Converter for Mac
It can convert MP4, MOV, 3GP, AVI, RM, MPEG, and FLV to iPod video with high output quality and various features.

How to watch and play Internet videos on iPod touch and iPhone(3G)

Why do iPod touch and iPhone(iPhone 3G) can not play internet video besides youtube? The reason you can't view videos from other videos sites besides youtube is that they run on something called "Flash". iPhones and iPod Touches can't support Flash because of their software. This is why Apple created the YouTube application on your home screen.
Luckily, someone has done their best to fix this problem.
iTransmogrify! is a bookmarklet for iPhone and iPod touch which transforms embedded Flash content into direct links to natively supported formats. That means YouTube videos and MP3s can now be played from the iPhone's Safari web browser with just a few clicks. The iTransmogrify! bookmarklet recognizes and converts a variety of embedded Flash content from web pages so they will play on iPhone and iPod touch.
Currently supported formats include: YouTube, embeds and YouTube pages, Blip.tv, Revver, TED talks and embedded TED talks, Many embeded flash MP3 players ,Kink.fm podcasts, Flickr badges (videos are unsupported) , The Test Suite has more sites.
To install the bookmarklet, just drag the link to your Safari or Firefox Bookmarks, IE users should right click and choose “Add To Favorites” After adding the link, sync your iPhone or iPod touch.



Grab it now: iTransmogrify!
You can also add iTransmogrify from your iPhone!
Then, whenever you find a broken video, just select the bookmark to convert it.
Now, you can watch and play internert videos such as Blip.tv, Revver, TED talks and embedded TED talks, Many embeded flash MP3 players, Kink.fm podcasts, etc on iPod touch and iPhone.
More information, source code and bug-tracking is available on the iTransmogrify Google Code page.

If you want to watch your own videos on iPod touch or iPhone, you can follow this step by step guide: How to convert all video files and extract audio from video on Mac OS X ?
If you want to play dvd movie on iPod touch or iPhone, you can follow this guide: How to rip DVD to all sorts of video and audio files on Mac OS X?

Recommended iPhone 3G Software Links:
DVD to iPhone 3G Converter for Mac
DVD to iPhone 3G Converter for Windows
iPhone 3G Video Converter for Mac
iPhone 3G Movie Converter for Windows
DVD to iPhone 3G Suite for Mac
DVD to iPod touch converter for Mac

How to convert FLV to iPod, iPhone, PSP, etc. on Mac OS X

What is FLV?
Flash Video (FLV) is the name of a file format used to deliver video over the Internet using Adobe Flash Player and has extension FLV. The most recent public release of Flash Player supports H.264 video and HE-AAC audio. Flash Video content may also be embedded within SWF files. Notable users of the Flash Video format include YouTube, Google Video, Yahoo! Video, Reuters.com and many other news providers.
How to play .FLV files on Mac?
If you want to play FLV (Flash Video) files on your Mac, you'll need to use a player that can handle FLV files. Here are two recommendations (both of them are FREE):
VLC Media Player
The VLC Media Player is a free, cross-platform media player that supports a large number of multimedia formats, without the need for additional codecs. It can handle FLV, WMV and VOB files to name a few.
Perian
Perian is a free, open source QuickTime component that adds native support for many popular media formats including FLV, MKV, AVI, DivX, 3ivX, FLV1, FSV1, Flash ADPCM and many more.
How to Convert Youtube FLV Videos to iPod, iPod touch, iPhone on Mac OS X?
As we know, most of the video files downloaded from these online video hosting sites are in the format of Flash Video (.flv). For whatever reasons, such as prefer to view and store the videos in mpeg format, or want to play the offline video clips in portable player such as PSP, iPod, and iPhone, or simply don’t like to view it with FLV Player, then there is a need to convert the .flv video format to another format such as .avi, .mov, .wmv and .mpg. So, how can you convert your flv video to all popular video formats easily and quickly? Please follow this step-by-step guide:
Step 1: Download FLV Video Converter for Mac, then run this program.
We recommend you Aiseesoft FLV Converter for Mac, which can convert all video files (including .flv format) from one format to another perfectly. Compared with other FLV converters, this Mac FLV video converter provides you with better output quality, more advanced functions and higher conversion speed(>300%), it also has more friendly and easy-to-use interface.
You can download free trial Version here: for Mac intel users, for Mac PowerPC users.
Then install and run this program.
Step 2: Load the FLV files you want to convert.
Click the "Add File" button to browse your computer hard disc and add the .flv video files you want to convert to the program.
Step 3: Choose the output format
After you added FLV files, you can select an output format for each video file and specify a directory on your computer to save the output files. This Mac FLV Converter supports comprehensive output video formats including AVI, MPEG, WMV, MP4, XviD, 3GP, etc. You can choose "*avi", "*mpg", etc. as the output format as you want. Apart form this, You can just select the format according to the device name.
for exapmle, you can select 'iPod Touch MPEG-4(*.mp4)' when you want to convert FLV to iPod touch on Mac.
Or you can select 'iPhone 3G Video MPEG-4(*.mp4)' when you want to convert FLV files to iPhone 3G on Mac. The default setting works well.
Step 4: Advanced settings(optional)
Of course, if you don't want to use the default video and audio encoding settings, just click the "Settings" button to customize these settings.



Step 5: Edit your flv files(optional)
Aiseesoft FLV Converter for Mac can help you set video brightness, contrast, saturation, Hue, volume, crop video, trim video and even merge multiple files into one single file before the conversion.
you can know more here: How to crop, trim video files on Mac OS X ?

Click the “Start”button to start conversion.

How to download flash videos from video sites for free?
You can download the flash video (.FLV files, the default video format that most video social sites are using) from online video host into your local hard disk. With some tricks, it’s now very easy to download the videos hosted and shared on online video sites such as YouTube and Google Video.
You can follow the 2 guides:
Guide : How to get videos from video sites for free?
For windows users, use Free YouTube Downloader