I own a Microsoft Xbox. I have Microsoft Windows on my PC. You would think getting the 2 to talk to each other nicely would be easy but I went through many a night of encoding, decoding, configuring and going to bed defeated before finally getting this craptastic process to work.
Here’s a quick summary of what I went through. First off, having a not so legit copy of Windows XP was certainly not a good place to start. This meant I couldn’t use the Zune Software or Windows Media Player 11 to share anything to my Xbox. I tried installing Tversity using this guide but couldn’t get it to work. I’m guessing that the Spring Xbox Dashboard update broke something with it. This was annoying so I decided I’d try using the legit 64bit version of XP I got from a Microsoft conference a while back. At the time when I got it I don’t think service pack 2 was out yet so it ran like shit as well a lot of vendors not having 64 bit drivers for it. All in all it was still an annoying experience having to install 64bit versions of some programs but not others but it did run a lot better. Having a legit copy of windows would now let me share movies to my Xbox with Zune or Windows Media Player 11. No wait a second, there’s no 64 bit version of the Zune software so it’d have to be with WMP. What? You can’t share mpeg4 files through WMP but you can with Zune? Well that’s great. Way to go billion dollar company. It is pretty amazing that the company that makes the 64bit version of the OS doesn’t also make all their programs 64bit compatible. Not to mention that the 64bit version wasn’t making encoding to WMV format any easier. Clearly this 64 bit version of windows didn’t help me at all.
I went back to my 32bit, non-genuine version of windows with the hopes that I could at least encode a movie that would play on my Xbox. I eventually got SUPER to produce a file that played on my Xbox. To transfer the file to my xbox I used a 128meg USB flash drive I had. After a good week of dicking around with all this crap I finally got it working. Instead of using SUPER now I just made a batch file that uses ffmpeg directly and I bought a 4gig USB flash drive yesterday to handle those longer movies and so I could encode things to very high quality.
Copy the following to a batch file, changing the path to your ffmpeg, then drag and drop any video to it and it will produce an mpeg4 file that works with your xbox. I made it so the command will start with low priority so that you can still use your computer while it encodes too.
START "I'M IN UR PUTER, ENCODIN' UR MOOVEEZ" /LOW "C:\Program Files\eRightSoft\SUPER\ffmpeg" -i %1 -vcodec mpeg4 -b 2048 -r 24 -acodec aac -ab 96 "c:\%~n1.mp4"
“Let’s limit our attention to one application–any application–at any time”
Because Mac’s desktops can be very distracting, this application is a lifesaver for anyone who really needs to get work done with no distractions.
This seems pretty cool, I haven’t tried it yet but want to. I was also curious to use digg’s “blog it” feature so I figured I’d “blog it” with this story to a) try the “blog it” feature and b) remember to try this little app. Update later on how it goes, looks like the “blog it” thing worked. And yes I intentionally used the term “blog it” a stupid number of times on purpose. Now go and “blog it”.
What this section will be is basically an archive of what’s hot in comedy. By hot I mean things that my friends and I quote, or the whole world quotes all the time or make reference to on a regular basis. There have been a lot of things in the past that get forgotten about and this will try to insure nothing gets left behind again. Some things that come to mind right now are:
My current 3rd gen 15gig iPod works fine and getting a new iPod would be pretty stupid on my part. What’s nice about this is of course the video playback ability. Being able to watch tivo’d stuff on the way into work, when I actually take public transportation, would be fantastic. I have a $50 credit to use at the Apple store too so for $199 this could be mine.
There are a couple reasons I’d like to get an Xbox but the main one of course is Guitar Hero 2. I wasn’t aware they were even coming out with this for Xbox. Story and Screenshots.
Gears of War would also be nice to play, as well as the media center crap that would allow me to watch stuff from my computer on my TV. GH2 doesn’t come out until March so I’m hoping the $299 price tag comes down a bit, though why would it in 2 months.
With the new year approaching and my life in a state of numerous changes, it’s probably a good idea to get my goals for 2007 down on paper, or even better, my online web journal.
The biggest goal I have for myself is to finally get on stage alone and attempt to make people laugh. This of course is known as stand up comedy. I’ve had this goal ever since moving to Boston and every year I tell myself the same thing, just as I’m doing now, that this year is the year I’ll finally do it. This year is different though. I’m so sure that it is the year that if I don’t do it this year I will be letting the dream die and not pursuing it or thinking about it anymore. Do I really want to do it? Yes. Then why haven’t I? Beats me. Am I scared? Kinda. Scared of what? Well all my eggs are in 1 basket on this one. If I ultimately fail I need to find a new dream and a new thing to pursue, and that Shaun, is the most terrifying. So what? Exactly. So you’ll do it then? You bet. Living with not doing it is getting annoying and really, what’s the big deal. I’ve seen plenty of people succeed and fail. Just do it and shut up already.
Another goal is get another comedy group together. I’ve learned quite a bit from being involved with Tales from the Script and it’s also helped in getting me excited to do it again. I also have a lot of ideas for it before even starting so that’s also exciting. I can’t really start too much up until the Tales from the Script shows are over but until then I’ll be fleshing out ideas and getting things together to be able to show people what I have in mind.
Another goal is to take some kind of vocal lessons where I can 1) learn how to yell properly and 2) learn how to sing for real. One thing I retreat to when I’m bored or in a situation that is just not holding my attention is I’ll picture myself on stage, belting out a low growl before the breakdown kicks in then the place goes ape shit. I like making songs at home but they’re mostly instrumentals since I don’t know how to scream properly. Knowing how to really sing would be helpful with any performing I do too as well as stand up. I have some comedy song ideas I’d like to write but it’d also be nice to play them eventually too.
Hey 2007, I have come here to kick bubble gum and chew ass, and I’m all out of ass.
Well what do you do when your friends who are originally from Las Vegas are there visiting family and invite you out for New Years? You go of course! Because of schedule conflicts with the sketch show I’m in, Tales from the Script, I was not able to be in Vegas for New Year’s. Instead though, I decided to head out there anyway during the week. It’s perfect really, I’ll be blowing off my last 2 days of work and it’s optional work week so there shouldn’t be much expected of me, I haven’t been to Vegas in over 2 years, so I’ll get to go back there and best of all I’ll be hanging out with Phil and Lucy, 2 of my favoritest people I know. Since I just watched Snatch yesterday all I can think about is how I’ll get to be Franky Four Fingers, gambling with ladies up close to me and the sounds of Elvis’s Viva Las Vegas filling the air. I’m very much looking forward to the trip and it’s pretty much my Christmas present to myself as well as a way to get away from Boston for a bit before I start my new job on January 8th. I tell you, there’s nothing better than deciding to go to Vegas and buying a plane ticket 3 days before you’re going to make you feel more alive. Big thanks to Phil and Lucy for inviting me and I’ll be sure to post some crap from Vegas.
Tales from the Script is a sketch show put on by ImprovBoston (though actually it’s located in Cambridge, but no one wants to go to ImprovCambridge). I’m very excited about this show and have been very involved in making it happen. From editing music to turning PSD files into working html, as well as learning lines and acting, I’m the Shaun of all trades.
One reason this show is so exciting for me is it’s the first thing I’ve auditioned for and got the part, all on my own. Some of the sketches were written by my author friend Sara Faith Alterman. I give her most of the credit for me getting the part. She invited me to audition as well as being there while I auditioned. I think my only goal during the audition was to make her laugh, as long as I did that I was happy. In doing so though I made everyone else laugh too and proved I’d be a good fit for the sketch show.
If you’re in the Boston area please be sure and stop by ImprovBoston on any Wednesday night during January 2007 at 8PM. Tickets are only $5 but the entertainment value is worth about $9. That’s a whole $4 you’re saving.
