RIAA kills youtube-mp3.org

[g1]

Bob, you know how to do it the 'simple' old way. Coax into VHS machine. So you need a receiver for digital 'over the air' broadcasts with coax out and an analog tv. All cheap and readily available.
Now you throw a curve ball and you want HD too.
Well, if you wanna go all high tech, you have to live with the high tech methods. Maybe this is not a valid analogy but I can't record MP3's on cassette and play them in my truck either.

[Steve A.]

Warning: Old Curmudgeon Rant

thanks for everyone's answers on the recording thing. i have to admit, i'm not a big AV-tech consumer. i'm going to step out on a limb for a minute and out myself as one of the small minority of odd people who doesn't watch the boob tube. Instead of wasting time with TV, I read books. A lot of books. I might catch the TV news a couple of times a week, maybe watch the weather channel for a few minutes in the morning if the weather is changing.

Oh my god... TV news? I stopped watching news on TV back in the late 70's when Roone Arledge introduced "infotainment" on ABC, vowing instead to get my news from newspapers and magazines. It actually wasn't so much of a Crusader Rabbit campaign as a natural response — I always wanted more information on certain stories but it was never there despite the promised "more at 11."

Yes, there have been a few exceptions like the news broadcasts in PBS and "60 Minutes" back when it offered information not available elsewhere in the media.

what masquerades as the evening news on TV in the USA amounts to nothing more than political propaganda, where the agenda is set by the producer of the news segment. there's no objectivity any more -- the American news is nothing more than a vehicle got media moguls to tell people what to think. If I want to watch news I'll turn on the BBC, because their coverage of news about America is very different than what we're allowed to see here. while the BBC is on I might end up catching an occasional Dr. Who episode, but that's about it.

Oops, I spoke too soon... my bad! But "political propaganda"? Besides a few questionable news networks on the left as well as the right, most networks are businesses motivated by greed and not political agendas. "Money talks, bullshit walks."

i don't own a tablet, i don't have any need for a portable platform, and i just can't get any serious computing work done on a device that lacks a keyboard. To me they seem like they'd be popular with people who want to passively consume programmed content, but to me that classifies tablets as a toy, or as an entertainment delivery device. the kind of thing that doesn't really interest me.

But tablets do have keyboards, virtual ones on-screen or optional physical ones that connect via USB or bluetooth. My tablets have more computing power than the PCs I had in the 80's and most of the 90's, and with an OS much better than Windoze!

I have a big thing about content creation vs content consumption, too, but I think it has more to do how you use a device like a tablet or a computer. With a PC I was chained to my computer desk (laptops never worked for me perhaps because I always used my dining room table as a workbench and had a hard enough time carving out a space for a dinner plate so a laptop was definitely out of the question.) So having a tablet connected to the internet through my wifi has freed me up to do my computing anywhere in my condo.

Speaking of passive content consumption would you include research on Google or Wikipedia? I am very curious by nature and am always looking things up, not just issues which are often political but general or specific topics which might arise while browsing or in conversation, both on-line and real-life.

To me passive content consumption involves drinking the kool-aid... if you question what is presented and further pursue any questions raised I no longer consider that to be passive.

Getting back to keyboards, I finally learned how to touch type in 2009. That was unfortunately short lived as later that year two fingers on my left hand went numb from ulnar nerve damage which also made me give up the guitar and switch to lap steel for several years. I eventually regained enough sensitivity in those fingers to start playing electric guitar again but the two fingers on my right hand are still completely numb from the ulnar nerve which was permanently damaged in 2006.

So with touch typing out of the question for me if I need to punch out keys one at a time I can do it better on my Samsung Tab 4 7.0 tablet than on a physical keyboard because it gives me the feedback that I don't get from my fingertips (besides the damaged ulnar nerves my fingerips have very little feeling due to peripheral neuropathy.)

BTW tablets offer a level of multitasking not available on a PC... if you use 2 of them! I can research an issue on one tablet while creating a document on that issue on another tablet, and shoot information back and forth between the two tablets via wifi. Hence my ubiquitous pair of Samsung Tab 4 7.0 tablets.

unfortunately, it looks like all of the solutions that have been suggested so far for recording HDTV are complicated devices that require computers, feature some corporation's proprietary interface, and require some measure of jumping through hoops to use them, creating accounts, creating passwords, etc.

Welcome to the 21th Century! Actually the ClearClick HD Capture Box I mentioned last night requires no computer, no proprietary interface and/or jumping through hoops... you connect the box to an HDMI source with an HDMI cable and it will copy it in real time to a USB drive which you can then plug into a modern TV or blueray player (anything which can play an MP4 file through a USB port.)

Capture Video From Gaming Devices & HDMI Sources (No Computer Required)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01IYJLP0M/

i have a disabled family member, and one thing that i've learned is that these electronic devices have become needlessly complicated and unfriendly to older people and to people with any sort of disability. the process of turning on a TV used to be simple -- pull the knob out to turn on the TV, twist it to adjust the volume, and rotate the big knob to change channels.

Getting up and walking to the TV to turn it on, adjust the volume and change channels is not an option for many people with disabilities but I do agree that remote controls are generally much too complicated these days with all of those damned buttons. Ironically enough many tablets can be used as a TV remote control with a very simple interface on the display that responds to your choices. Here is an overview of what is available today...

10 best TV remote apps for Android - Android Authority

And here is a screenshot of the Smart IR Remote (there are less complicated displays if you are controlling just your TV and not the Smart lights in your viewing room.) BTW if you have an old unused smartphone around it can often be repurposed as a wifi-only Android device but as most of them lack the IR blaster they could only be used as a remote for a wi-fi connected smart TV.



Smart IR Remote ? AnyMote 4.5.9 APK Cracked for Android

I don't need another account and another password in my life.

I think that you take this account/password thing WAY too seriously. Set up a free email account that you use strictly for registering website accounts and the ilk. Choose an arbitrary password that you use for all of the website accounts that do not involve money or require any kind of personal information besides a verifiable email address.

Most forums require an account if you want to post a question or reply. With your objections to accounts and passwords I'm surprised that you joined MEF since we lost many of the long-time AMPAGE contributors who refused to go along with the mandatory registration required to post, which was quite controversial at the time.

i'm highly trained -- i have a doctorate in hard science

But I guess if you were to tell us exactly which field that might be you would have to kill us, right? Hey, if you don't want to tell us that is certainly your right but your lack of specificity is intriguing...

Steve A.

[bob p]

Bob, you know how to do it the 'simple' old way. Coax into VHS machine. So you need a receiver for digital 'over the air' broadcasts with coax out and an analog tv. All cheap and readily available.

My cable comes in using an F-type connector into my cable box. I need a cable box to decrypt the TV signal that's coming down the wire. My cable box has an HDMI output that connects to the HDMI input on my TV. that's the "standard" hookup.

The cable box does have the coax output, which I could use to feed a VHS recorder. And my TV does have a coax input. But if I try to play an NTSC recording into the TV, I get a little square of blurry Lo-Def TV in the middle of a big dark HDTV screen.

AFAIK you can't buy an analog TV any more. I own a really nice 35" Mitsubishi CRT that would be great ... if I could buy the chip needed to fix the vertical deflection amp, but I can't find the part or the service manual.

Now you throw a curve ball and you want HD too.
Well, if you wanna go all high tech, you have to live with the high tech methods.

I don't think of it as a curve ball -- all I'm asking is that the TV industry make a recording machine that works with the current TV technology. The did that on-purpose when we had NTSC TV, and they're not doing that on-purpose now that we have HDTV. It's not like this is my fault.

[bob p]

I think that you take this account/password thing WAY too seriously. Set up a free email account that you use strictly for registering website accounts and the ilk. Choose an arbitrary password that you use for all of the website accounts that do not involve money or require any kind of personal information besides a verifiable email address.

I had a solution like that in place. But recently every web site has decided to require it's own set of arcane password requirements. At first it was alpha + numeric characters. Then it was alpha + numeric characters AND upper/lower case letters. Now it's alpha + numeric characters AND upper/lower case letters AND "special" characters. And some sites require more than 8 characters and some require the use of number-generating key fobs. Sure it's a great idea to have a pattern that you use on unimportant sites, but even that policy can get defeated when some site arbitrarily changes the rules, issues special password requirements for their site, and that scuttles your master plan. Passwords are an ASSPAIN. I'd rather not register on most sites than jump through the hoops.

But I guess if you were to tell us exactly which field that might be you would have to kill us, right? Hey, if you don't want to tell us that is certainly your right but your lack of specificity is intriguing...

I have a good reason to be cloak and dagger about this. I got stalked once by a psychopath, had tires slashed on my cars and received death threats both online and in the mail. So I don't give out enough information about myself to make me identifiable -- especially on a public forum where it's not possible to edit your posts after a day or two. If you want more transparency we can do that via PMs but I don't do it on an open forum. FYI I don't like the forum policy that makes it impossible to go back and edit posts when it's necessary. There's nothing on this forum that needs to be carved in stone for perpetuity, but we don't have a choice about that anymore. This site doesn't offer post editing any more so I prefer to not say things that I don't want to be published online forever.

[asfi]

DVI is nothing more than an HDMI equivalent port that's got a different shape. That's because the use of HDMI port requires a royalty of about 5-cents per port to be paid to the consortium that invented HDMI. Nvidia was too cheap to pay that 5-cents, so they created DVI as a competing standard. AFAIK you still cant' record it. I'm not familiar with pirate video forums, but those might be the people to ask.

Incorrect. DVI was introduced in 1999 and HDMI didn't hit the market until 3 or 4 years later. HDMI was created as a superset of DVI with various features (including, yeah, the copy protection) added to make it more suitable for consumer electronics use.

NVIDIA wasn't even involved with the DVI standard. Where do these weird alternative facts materialise from?

[nosaj]

I had a solution like that in place. But recently every web site has decided to require it's own set of arcane password requirements. At first it was alpha + numeric characters. Then it was alpha + numeric characters AND upper/lower case letters. Now it's alpha + numeric characters AND upper/lower case letters AND "special" characters. And some sites require more than 8 characters and some require the use of number-generating key fobs. Sure it's a great idea to have a pattern that you use on unimportant sites, but even that policy can get defeated when some site arbitrarily changes the rules, issues special password requirements for their site, and that scuttles your master plan. Passwords are an ASSPAIN. I'd rather not register on most sites than jump through the hoops.



I have a good reason to be cloak and dagger about this. I got stalked once by a psychopath, had tires slashed on my cars and received death threats both online and in the mail. So I don't give out enough information about myself to make me identifiable -- especially on a public forum where it's not possible to edit your posts after a day or two. If you want more transparency we can do that via PMs but I don't do it on an open forum. FYI I don't like the forum policy that makes it impossible to go back and edit posts when it's necessary. There's nothing on this forum that needs to be carved in stone for perpetuity, but we don't have a choice about that anymore. This site doesn't offer post editing any more so I prefer to not say things that I don't want to be published online forever.

Did you marry her?

nosaj

[asfi]

[QUOTE=Steve A.;465361][....] someone posted "a few of the China 2 input 1 output splitters on here do bypass HDCP" in response to some users who were getting HDCP errors. Very interesting...

For sure. I searched on "HDCP stripper" and this came up in the first page of results:

https://www.amazon.com/BG-520-splitt.../dp/B0089DSLMY

Twenty bucks! Go nuts.....

[Gnobuddy]

I have a good reason to be cloak and dagger about this. I got stalked once by a psychopath

Very sorry to hear that. I hope you got rid of the creep without too much trauma or damage to your life.

I had a similar encounter with a psychopath myself, who stalked me online for several years.

This is actually something that has been on my mind ever since people started spraying every tiny detail of their lives all over the Internet. Statistically, roughly one in twenty people is a psychopath - about 5% of all people. Psychopaths have no normal compassion or empathy or morality, and enjoy manipulating other people, but most of them probably don't take it beyond the level of high-school cruelty. In a normal real-world lifetime, each of us crosses paths with many psychopaths, but most of the time, they get so little interaction with you that they have no reason to start hounding you (maybe you both attended the same boring meeting, or parked your cars in adjacent parking spots, or something else trivial and unimportant.)

The Internet is different. A couple of billion people have access to it. That means that anything you put on the Internet might be seen by up to fifty million everyday, average, psychopaths. That's a lot of psychopaths to give a reason to notice you.

Much worse, let's say one in every thousand of those psychopaths is truly sick, and has progressed from pulling the wings off flies during their childhood to torturing and killing people for fun as adults. The math is simple - one in a thousand out of fifty million is 50,000. So anything that you put up for public viewing on the Internet might potentially be seen by fifty thousand of those one-in-a-thousand, really really extremely dangerous psychopaths. The kind of people whom you really, really, really don't want to ever notice that you exist.

-Gnobuddy

[bob p]

NVIDIA wasn't even involved with the DVI standard. Where do these weird alternative facts materialise from?

My bad. Change it "Display Port" and everything will be correct as written. Nvidia created Display Port to avoid paying interface royalties.

[Steve A.]

Re: HDMI and MP3s

Bob: I just saw an ad for an HDMI to analog converter box that should allow you to record shows on your VCR or on a thumb drive plugged into the USB port. I am not familiar with modern cable boxes having dropped cable in 2010 so this might not work for you. Here is an article on "the 7 best" converters for 2017...

https://www.lifewire.com/best-digita...-boxes-3276142

BTW you mentioned that one of your complaints about MP3 was that it was proprietary (or whatever you actually wrote.) While it had been patented by Fraunhofer, those patents expired earlier this year. In any case LAME has been around since 1998 with their free MP3 encoder which has been very popular. (When given a choice in a program between the licensed Fraunhofer encoder or LAME I always choose LAME.)

Like all MP3 encoders, LAME implements techniques covered by software patents owned by the Fraunhofer Society and others. The developers of LAME did not license the technology described by these patents. Distributing compiled binaries of LAME, its libraries, or programs that derive from LAME in countries that recognize those patents may have constituted infringement, but since April 23, 2017, all of these patents have expired.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/LAME

One of my biggest complaint about the MP3 format is that it adds 2 second pauses at the end of a song. But the main reason I hate it is that you cannot edit it for anything besides length without losing fidelity. (When you edit the content with a program like Audacity or Audition it must be reëncoded to be saved as an MP3 file.)

I am very OCD about music — it has to be just right! I love collections of old blues and soul songs from the 50's and 60's, with some songs sourced from vinyl rather than the original tapes. Quite often there will be noticeable pops and clicis that bug the sh*t out of me so I will edit them with Audacity or ClickRepair. No sense trying to do that with an MP3 file.

I have a friend who ripped his entire collection of blues CDs to MP3s, first at 128kbps and then 2 years later at 192kbps. Geez, had he ripped them the first time in a lossless format like WAV or FLAC he would not have had to rip them a second time. (With a program like dBpowerAMP you can convert WAV or FLAC files to a dozen different formats in whatever resolution that you want.)

https://www.dbpoweramp.com

MP3 is not a format appropriate for archives! However it is very convenient for casual listening, like on portable players. I also like how some CD players can handle discs burned from MP3s — I could put a half dozen or more full albums on a CD and listen to them in my car for hours!


Steve A.

P.S. Did you notice how I typed "reëncoded"? Very easy on my Android tablet... I just hold down the "E" key on the on-screen keyboard and I get my choice of 10 different variations with accents, etc. Not very easy to do on a desktop unless you can remember all of the ASCII codes, etc.

Actually I hate that "feature" on my Samsung Tab 4 7.0 because there is no way to disable it... hit a virtual key a bit crooked and it comes out like țhīś. Arghhh!

EDIT: I had to type out a 2 paragraph request for customer service yesterday on my PC using a real keyboard and it was a real ordeal for me because I have very little sensitivity in the ring and little fingers on both hands (and not much fingertip sensitivity at all because of peripheral neuropathy.) In retrospect it would have been much easier to type it up on my tablet using just my right index finger and then shoot it over to my PC using Evernote.

[Steve A.]

[....] someone posted "a few of the China 2 input 1 output splitters on here do bypass HDCP" in response to some users who were getting HDCP errors. Very interesting...

For sure. I searched on "HDCP stripper" and this came up in the first page of results:

https://www.amazon.com/BG-520-splitt.../dp/B0089DSLMY

Twenty bucks! Go nuts.....

Thanks for the heads up! One of the user reviewers said it worked well with the Hauppauge Colossus 2 PCI Express HD Recorder which will create h.264 video files in up to 1080p resolution on your PC (currently selling for $134.xx on Amazon.) *****

http://hauppauge.com/site/products/data_colossus2.html

Since Bob had brought up the issue HDCP (copy protection) I had been wondering how people were recording TV broadcasts to upload on the internet... with these two devices anyone can join them!

Steve A.

P.S. 10 years ago I was recording Family Guy on my DVD recorder every Sunday night and then editing out the commercials and burning them to a DVD with menus for my own personal archive. There was one opening segment that was incredible, which included having Stewie infiltrate bin Laden's command cave (with Osama like a stand-up comic joking about a suicide bomber who called in sick!) That was probably the best/funniest 2 minutes of television that I ever watched!

A few years ago I decided to post that clip on Facebook since I could not find a link to it on YouTube figuring that since I recorded and edited it myself there would be no embedded codes indicating that it contained copyrighted material. And what the heck I was exercising my legal rights under Fair Use laws- correct?

Well, within 45 minutes Facebook deleted my post. "How did they do that?!?" I later figured out that facial recognition software must have recognized Stewie and the copyright holders had any videos with his face deleted.

I was worried that I would be punished or banned or even arrested but nothing like that resulted from of the incident... Whew!

***** One user reviewer said yesterday that the splitter did not strip the HDCP crap with his Slingbox and Xfinity X1 cable box. A few other reviews that it did not work as a HDCP stripper so there could be compatibility problems with some gear, but Amazon has a great policy on returns and it is only 20 bucks if you just want an HDMI splitter anyway...

[g1]

Well, within 45 minutes Facebook deleted my post. "How did they do that?!?" I later figured out that facial recognition software must have recognized Stewie and the copyright holders had any videos with his face deleted.

Could also be possible someone just reported your post?
And you mean Stewie from Family Guy ?

[Steve A.]

Could also be possible someone just reported your post?
And you mean Stewie from Family Guy ?

Yes, it was Family Guy. I will correct my post. Thanks!

Because it was deleted so quickly I don't think that Facebook had time to review and act upon a complaint submitted manually. I suspect that there are companies that will enforce copyright protection for their clients using facial recognition software and then automatically filing complaints to Facebook, YouTube, etc. I would guess that Facebook has a policy to temporarily delete posts upon receiving a complaint from some of these companies until they have a chance to review the posts themselves.

Of course all of that is just speculation. However I do have a friend who posted 100's of videos she made at local blues shows on YouTube but her account was suspended when she posted one video of herself singing a Prince tune at a karaoke bar. So there are companies that do enforce copyrights for their clients by reporting uploads made to YouTube and presumably Facebook as well. (After dealing with YouTube for 2+ weeks she eventually got her account reinstated.)

BTW I did find one video of that clip on YouTube but it was very poor quality as it had been made by someone shooting a video of his TV.

Steve A.