21:58:55
One of my colleagues was reading up on Windows 7 and suggested I should talk about the impending release of Windows 7 and the stopping of support for Windows XP next year. Don't panic! Windows XP support is commited by Microsoft until April the 8th 2014. However, by this time all my savvy readers will have nothing to fear as you'll be using Ubuntu, Firefox, OpenOffice, ClamAV and all those tasty little OpenSource treats that have matured into reliable and dependable technologies. So, lets keep it free!
I hope you downloaded and tried Picasa last week, with any luck you're still using and enjoying it. Another great free application for your desktop is Video Lan Client or VLC. If I could put it in a leather pouch it would be on my belt just like my leatherman. If you're sick of trying to open video files with Windows Media Player and finding that they just won't start or get stuck on downloading a codec which doesn't exist then VLC is the tool.
“VLC media player is a highly portable multimedia player for various audio and video formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, ogg, ...) as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols.
It can also be used as a server to stream in unicast or multicast in IPv4 or IPv6 on a high-bandwidth network. It doesn't need any external codec or program to work.”
You can download and install VNC from www.videolan.org . It's a must have for your desktop. Whilst it doesn't catalog and create a library of your video or DVD's it does play whatever you throw at it!
If you have a small network or want to impress your colleagues at work, you can set VLC to stream video across your network. What does this mean? Well it means you can have one computer playing video and you can then send it from that computer to all the computers on your network.
You may find that the windows version isn't as pretty as video players that you are used to, but don't worry what it lakes in looks it has in function. You can simply drag and drop any video file onto an open VLC window and it's playing. Double click a playing video to make full screen, right click to adjust the aspect ratio and other features.
If you want a reliable, configurable video player that plays any video you can, then VLC is the ticket. If you want to organise your video into a video library then there are other options available to you. Personally I think you can't go past VLC. Full Stop. It's essential for any free software collection.
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