DVD & Video
The biggest issue you're likely to come across when ripping and converting DVDs is copy protection. Unless you drop a wad of cash for some commercial software that can rip and decrypt, converting your DVD's is often a two-step process. Enter DVD43. This handy little app will run in your system tray on startup and automatically decrypt your DVD's as they are placed in your optical drive. Once you see the green smiley face in the system tray, (typically just a few seconds) your disc is ready to be converted. This mean you can use Handbrake, VidCoder, or some other software to convert your DVD to a video file in essentially a single step process.
In my post here on How to Geek I focus more on the how to use DVD43 to copy the DVD to the hard drive without ripping software, but the primary idea is to decrypt on the fly so you can convert the movie or video in one step.
Ripping DVDs may not be new to you, but you may not be aware that when you rip a DVD to your Hard Drive, you can play those rips on your PC without converting them to MP4, AVI, ISO, etc. A lot of Media Players and Media Center apps will allow you to play these VIDEO_TS files natively, just as if the DVD itself were sitting in your optical drive. In my post over at How to Geek, I take a look at how to rip DVD for free using HD Decrypter and how to play them back on your PC with some common media player and media center apps. 
We've been hearing rumblings about Hulu subscription service for months and today Hulu officially announced it's availability. Never fear free Hulu fans, this Plus service is intended to be complimentary. It's essentially an extra tier for those that want the new addition features and programming. And for those extra features and programming you'll need to pony up $10 / month.
File this under cool, but unproductive. One of the many capabilities of VLC media player is the ability to set a video as your desktop wallpaper. To my surprise, not only does this work very well, it isn't a noticeable drain on resources. I could watch a movie while working with a few open applications without any issue. Here's how it's done.
I often played around with "Photoshopping"myself or friends into movies scenes, famous paints, etc. Usually I relied on being able to download images from the web to be able to do this. With VLC, it really easy to grab a screenshot yourself. Of course, you don't have to be into it for the Photoshop shenanigans, maybe you just want cool desktop wallpaper, or whatever. One of the readers over at How To Geek had a really clever use for movie screenshot from VLC. He used them to create a pattern for his wife's cross-stitch based on the intro to the British comedy "The IT Crowd."
Sidenote: Folks from the U.S. with a Netflix account who have never seen the IT Crowd, can check it out the first 3 seasons for free on Netflix Instant. It's worth a look, especially if you have ever worked in IT.
Taking a screenshot, or snapshot, in VLC is pretty easy. When playing a movie simply select Video from the menu and click Snapshot. By enabling the advanced controls you can also take a snapshot directly from the the main interface with just a button. You can even advance or reverse the video frame by frame to get the perfect shot.
Check out the full article for all the details.
I was pretty anxious to try out the Miro Video Converter when I first heard about it. Being a new Droid owner I'm constantly on the prowl for new and cool ways to use my Droid. Especially ways to convert video for the Droid.
The appeal of the Miro Video converter is, besides being free, is its insanely easy user interface. You can simply drag and drop your video file on the the application, select your device from the drop-down list, and click Convert. That's it. There aren't any advance settings to muck with. That won't appeal to the more advanced users, but this app isn't targeted at them.
So, you like to croon along with your tunes? Hey, doesn't everybody? If you'd like to have the lyrics to your songs displayed right in Windows Media Player, check out the aptly named Lyrics Plugin. It's a pretty simple plug-in without any bells and whistles. The full lyrics are displayed on a single screen, rather than scrolled across like with a Karaoke machine. You'll have to scroll down if the lyrics sheet is too big to display in Media Player.
Read the full How-to article or download Lyrics Plugin for Media Player and check it out for yourself. (It's also available for Winamp)
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