VLC 2.0 Has Been Released, Download Links Inside

We have followed the latest VLC development ever since Videolan pushed the first build of the media player’s new version to the public ftp server. It did not take long after that initial release before the first release candidate build was made available.
The developers today have released the final version of the media player. Interested users can download it directly from the official website where it is available for Microsoft Windows, Apple Macintosh and Linux operating systems. The 64-bit version of Windows has not been posted yet on the VLC 2.0 download page. Only a 64-bit Mac OS X version has been posted yet. It is not clear if the developers have postponed the released of the 64-bit Windows version, or if they plan to release the first official 64-bit release for the operating system in one of the next releases instead.
The release notes lists all the important changes of VLC 2.0 Twoflower sorted into groups such as video, audio, formats or professional users.
The developers have added experimental Blu-Ray disc support to VLC 2.0. It is experimental because of its limitations. This first version does not support menus yet, and does not ship with AACS and BD+ DRM libraries that are needed to play back copy protected Blu-Ray discs.

Other changes include a rewritten video output core and modules, new video outputs for Windows 7, Android and iOS, and multi-threaded decoding for H.264, MPEG-4 and WebM. The developers have added support for several professional codecs and formats, including HD and 10bits codecs as well as SDI and HD-SDI card support for input on Linux.
Mac users benefit from extensions support and OS X Lion integration, continued support for OS X 10.5 and Power PC users, and support for all QTKit devices.
VLC 2.0 improves the decoding performance on multi-core processor systems, systems that support gpu hardware decoding and mobile hardware the player runs on. A click on Tools > Preferences > Input & Codecs > Use GPU accelerated decoding reveals whether gpu hardware acceleration is enabled in the media player. It is turned off by default.
Users who do not want VLC to remember which videos they played in the media player can disable the history feature in the Interface Settings under Save recently played items.
Have you worked with VLC 2.0 already? If so, what is your opinion of the new release? Oh, and if you prefer direct links to the downloads, use this link.

DriverIdentifier, Scan Your PC Hardware For Driver Updates

I’m not a big fan of applications that scan a system for hardware driver updates, as it can happen that updates are suggested that are either not compatible with the installed hardware, or not beneficial to the system. These programs have their purpose, but only for users who care to double-check suggested driver updates before they install the drivers on their system. Users who just blindly install the suggested drivers may

DriverIdentifier is a free application that scans all drivers currently installed on the system to compare their versions with the latest recorded version in the service’s database.

The program needs to be installed on the system before it can be run. A click on the Scan Drivers button checks the PC’s hardware and installed drivers. This takes about 30 seconds before results are opened in the default web browser. That’s one of the issues that some users may have with the program, as some would prefer the list to be displayed on the desktop and not the web.

The web page lists general information about the PC at the top, and below that a large listing of drivers that are installed on the system.

Drivers are listed with their name, the manufacturing company, the version and release date. Outdated drivers are listed at the top, with every other driver listed below that. Download links are listed for all outdated drivers to download driver updates directly or find updates with the help of the Google search engine.

There is unfortunately no option to filter out drivers, for instance all Microsoft first-party drivers, to improve the accessibility of the list.

How is DriverIdentifier comparing to a software like DriverEasy? DriverEasy displays results in the program window on the desktop, which is way more comfortable than a web listing. The software furthermore filters results by unknown or outdated drivers, and lists download and installation options right in its interface.

The downside is that the free version does not support backups or uninstallation of drivers, limits the available bandwidth for driver downloads and does not create system restore points when driver updates are installed.

DriverIdentifier is compatible with all recent 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Microsoft windows operating system.

Update: Please note that the program will install a toolbar and modify the default search provider and homepage if you do not disable the installation by selecting the custom option instead of the quick installation option.

Merge Subtitles and Movies With Movie Subtitler

Movie subtitles repositories are popular sites on the Internet, as they provide users with movie subtitles in many different languages. This can be useful if you got hold of a movie in a language that you do not understand for instance, if you want subtitles displayed to learn a language, or if you are hearing impaired and need subtitles to enjoy movies.

Subtitles come in two flavors. They are either hard coded into movies, or available as separate files. Both have their distinct advantages and disadvantages. Separate subtitles for instance allow you to disable the subtitle whenever you like in a movie, and to edit them in case you have spotted an error. Their main disadvantage is that there are many different subtitle formats available, and that most video players do not support all those formats. This is especially true for many home DVD players.

That’s why programs like Subtitle Converter are popular as well. For hardcoded subtitles it is the other way round. They cannot be edited or disabled anymore, but load in any video player that supports the format the video has been created in.

Movie Subtitler is a free portable program for the Windows operating system that can add a subtitle permanently to a movie file on your computer.

You need to select a movie file and subtitle for that video from your computer first after you have started the software. The program supports avi and mpg videos, and srt and sub subtitle files. A click on the apply subttitles button merges the video and the subtitle so that it is permanently embedded in the video file. The processing may take a while, depending on the length of the movie and the performance of the computer.

This process can be useful if you want to watch the movie on your home DVD player or in a media player that is not supporting subtitles.

Movie Subtitler is compatible with all recent versions of the Microsoft Windows operating system. You can download the latest program version from the developer website.

VLC Media Player 2.0 Final To Release This Week

Back in January we reported that VideoLan was about to release VLC 2.0, and that a first release candidate was to be released in that week. This release candidate has been out for about a month now, and VideoLan is preparing to ship the final version of VLC Media Player 2.0 later this week.

The developers have already pushed a Linux test version of VLC 2.0 to the test servers indicating that a release is near.

The new version of VLC will introduce several new features to the client that should get lots of users excited about the release. Probably the biggest feature addition is support for Blu-Ray media that users can then play in the video player, provided that their computer has a Blu-Ray drive. VideoLan notes that the feature is experimental, and that copy protected Blu-Rays won’t play in this version of the player.

Other features include ports of VLC to Android, iOS and 64-bit versions of the Windows operating system, C-64 SID file playback support, and a switch to Direct2D video outputs on Windows 7 and Windows Vista systems.

Changes do not stop here though, the official changelog lists more than a hundred changes and improvements over previous versions of the video player. If you are interested in a summary of those changes, check out our VLC 2.0 coverage from back in January.

VLC users can check for updates frequently under Help > Check for Updates or on the official VideoLan website where the new versions will be available for download once they have been released.

Adventurous users can download the release candidate from the following address: VLC Download Server

The Linux version is listed in the root directory. Windows and Mac users need to click on the respective directories for downloads for their operating systems.

Some Windows users have reported that the VLC 2.0 RC1 is running slow on their systems. They managed to resolve the issue by enabling GPU decoding in the options. This can be done by clicking on Preferences > Input & Codecs > Use GPU accelerated decoding.

System Explorer, A Lightweight Task Manager Alternative

When we first reviewed System Explorer back in 2007, we came to the conclusion that it was a great Task Manager, Process Explorer and Autoruns hybrid. The developers of System Explorer have released version 3.8.0 yesterday, and I would like to use this release to publish an updated review here on Ghacks.

System Explorer is offered as a portable version and installer. The latest version brought full support for 64-bit operating systems, making the software compatible with all versions of Windows from Windows XP on.

When you first start System Explorer you get the option to run a security scan on the system. This optional scan checks all running processes against an online database. Results are then displayed in the Processes tab next to each process.

The program itself divides information into tabs at the top. The four tabs Tasks, Processes, Performance and History are displayed by default, with options to add new tabs with a click on the tab-bar’s plus icon. Here you can enable a good dozen additional services, from auto start entries to installed software, all open connections or installed system drivers.

The process manager displays all running processes in tree form by default so that you see dependencies right there. Each process is listed with its name, cpu and memory utilization, security status, process id and start up parameters if available. A filter at the top allows you to hide Microsoft process, services or processes from all users. A real time search lets you find process fast, and the convenient right-click context menu offers to check a file at online virus scanning services Virustotal or Jotti, or on Google, Process Library or the service’s own process database.

It is furthermore possible to change process affinities and priorities temporarily or permanently, and to end, suspend or restart processes right from within the interface.

The performance tab informs you about the processor and ram usage. One interesting aspect is the highlighting of the process that is taking up most of the system’s Ram and swap (which is Firefox in this case).

The autoruns tab displays all auto-start programs and scheduled tasks. You can hide Microsoft items here to get a better overview of third party programs that are run during system start.

You can disable programs that are loaded during log on with a single click.

You can configure System Explorer to replace the default Windows task manager. The program is then opened when you use the Ctrl-Alt-Esc hotkey to bring up the task manager.

System Explorer is one of the top task manager replacements for the Windows operating system. You can download the latest program version from the developer website.

Messenger Plus! Is A Skype Chat Log Viewer, Call Recorder And More

Skype is a popular voice over IP software that you can use for a number of purposes. From audio and video calls over the Internet, to landline calls or messaging. The software has been recently acquired by Microsoft and it is expected that the Redmond company will integrate the technology into several of its core products.

If you have used Skype throughout the years, you have probably identified a few areas of improvement. Messenger Plus! for Skype is a free plugin that adds several missing features to the software.

The plugin attaches a small toolbar to the left of the Skype window which links to various plugin features, and a few web links that you may not be interested in at all.

The first six icons and the last of the toolbar link to the features that the plugin adds to Skype. Recording lets you record Skype audio and video conversations, with options to automate the recording in the program options. You need to click on the record button by default to start a recording. The third button links to the directory all recordings are saved into on the system.

The share button allows you to add animations and winks to Skype. This feature requires Flash to be installed on the system to function properly. The plugin ships with 35 animations that you can preview in a window before sending them to people you communicate with on Skype.

The last feature adds a log viewer to Skype. If you use Skype to chat regularly with contacts, you may have noticed that Skype displays all messages on a single page. There is no sorting available, for instance by date.

The log viewer, once activated, keeps track of your chats and displays them in an easier to access interface. It is for instance possible to select a specific month, day or user directly without having to double-click on the user in Skype to fiddle around in the interface to find the message you are looking for.

Even better, you can search, preview and print any conversation, or export them into text, html, csv or xml files.

You may want to pay a visit to the plugin’s options page. Here you can for instance change the recording quality, enable automatic recording of incoming calls, or disable automatic updating.

I have already mentioned that you find a few links in the toolbar that redirect to the website of the developer. It is easy enough to ignore those. You may also want to pay extra attention to the installation process, as you may end up with a new toolbar, search provider and browser homepage otherwise.

Interested users can download Messenger Plus! for Skype from the developer website. The program is compatible with all recent versions of the voice over IP software.

Get News Notifications On Your Desktop With Feed Notifier

RSS feeds are dying. That’s what I’m hearing left and right. Many say that social networking sites have replaced them. And while social networking sites like Twitter or Facebook may be useful to stay up to date, they are nowhere near as accessible as a feed reader. You first need to follow users who post the news that you are interested in, then need to wade through everything they post to find the news, and lastly stay on the social networking site or use a desktop app to avoid missing news.

Feed Notifier is a news notification app for the Windows operating system. When you first start it up you are asked to add feeds to the program that you want to monitor. This is done with a right-click on the program’s system tray icon and the selection of Add Feed. You can also open the options to add feeds there.

Feeds can only be entered one at a time which is a severe limitation, especially if you want to monitor hundreds of feeds. You could combine multiple feeds with Yahoo Pipes to reduce the setup time.

You can configure the polling interval and notification border color for each feed individually. A popup is then displayed in the lower right corner of the screen whenever new content has been added to one of the added websites and services.

Controls are displayed at the bottom of the popup that allow you to go back and forward, and to pause the automatic updating. A click on the news title or blog name takes you to the site in the default system browser.

The popup appearance and behavior are configured in the preferences as well. Here it is possible to change the maximum title and body length, change the duration the popup is displayed or display it in another position or on another monitor.

Feed Notifier won’t check feeds if the computer has been idle for at least 60 seconds. It would not make sense to display news on an idle computer, as it is likely that the user working on it is currently not present. The option can be disabled if that’s preferred.

Filters can be configured for all feeds or individual feeds. These exclude news matching select keywords. This can be useful if you want to reduce the number of news popups throughout the day.

Feed Notifier is different in this regard from other feed readers such as RSS Owl or Google Reader. It is not a program that you open to read up on all the news item that have been posted since the last time you have taken a look. Its realtime approach works best if only a handful of news feeds are monitored. If you monitor hundreds, you probably end up spending more time looking at new news popups than working on the computer.

Interested users can download the open source software Feed Notifier from the developer website.