Julia & Tania Online Blog

A couple months ago we got digital TV (Yeah, we know; we’re so behind the times!). The colours were vibrant, pictures were clear. Everything was great. Then we tried to record it with the Magic TV PVR (a recorder of digital channels), and suddenly everything became jumpy and pixelated. Before the PVR was connected (or was connected but was off), the pictures were clear, but when it was connected and turned on, all the digital channels became pixelated and unwatchable.

    We did a little research and it seems the pixelated pictures could be caused by the aerial not being able to pick up weaker digital signals or it could be the TV cable. Since we didn’t want to fork out money to buy a new aerial to test out the first theory, we decided to go buy a new TV cable.

    We went out to trusty old Dick Smith and got one of their Titanium Series TV cables. They had promoted the cable as having better conductivity and reduced signal loss due to its construction; so we bought that. We even got a shorter one so that the signal doesn’t have to travel as far, reducing further loss. We connected the cable to the PVR and we were so pleased to find that we were able to watch digital channels whilst the PVR was switched on and during recording and playback!

    So, if you find that when you turn on your digital video recording device and all of a sudden your once clear pictures turns pixelated, maybe try getting a better TV cable to see if it improves your picture.

If we understand Stan Walker’s “Black Box” correctly, the song uses a plane crash and the black box used to keep records of the flight to symbolise a failed relationship, secrets, and surviving the “crash” of the relationship. If that is the meaning, why is the music so upbeat when the lyrics seem so serious, and at times, angry? We just don’t understand why the song is arranged such a way.

    Does anyone think that the lyrics don’t match the feel of the music?

It’s been over a week since the last episode of Chuck’s second season aired in New Zealand. It’s been a tough week; we haven’t been able to eat, sleep or carry out basic tasks because we haven’t had our Chuck fix—just kidding. We do miss it though. It is such an entertaining series. We love everything about the show: the humor, the action, the characters, the relationships; each and every episode never fails to keep us watching and wanting more.

    So to find out that due to low ratings and stiff competition from other networks Chuck had been facing possible cancellation in the US, we were surprised. How can NBC (the network carrying Chuck) think about axing Chuck after revealing that the once clumsy Chuck can now take down a team of trained spies without so much as a bead of sweat appear on his skin?

    Fortunately, thanks to a fan-initiated campaign, Chuck was saved from such an outcome. It seems NBC has decided to order thirteen more episodes of the series, making up Chuck’s third season. Although the season contains as many episodes as the first, it is definitely not a full season, falling short of nine and with budget cuts. We may have a third season, but Chuck’s future doesn’t look very promising.

    In saying that, we urge fans of the series to sign the online petition to save Chuck from future cancellation located at PetitionSpot.com. Currently there are 41,000+ signatures (target: 100,000). We’re not sure if these online petitions get noticed, but maybe with enough signatures, it will; and we fans can persuade NBC to keep it on past this short third season.

Sign the Renew NBC Chuck petition and save Chuck!

The Sony Video Walkman does not appear to support videos with embedded subtitles or externally-stored subtitles (soft subtitles/softsubs). The only option available for this device then is to burn the subtitles onto original video frames (hard subtitles/hardsubs). So, for this entry, we’re going to suggest a way to hardsub your video footage so you can watch it on the Sony Video Walkman; this is not meant to be a step-by-step tutorial, but an overview of what is needed to hardsub videos.

There are four programs you’ll need – all are completely free to download online:

1) Auto Gordian Knot (AutoGK)
2) VirtualDub
3) Handbrake
4) SubRip

Brief explanations of what each of these programs are for:

AutoGK and VirtualDub

    Together with VirtualDub, AutoGK is used to burn the subtitles onto the video footage and converts the file to an AVI video format. A note: when you download the full package, it’ll come with three more installers: VobSub (a plugin for VirtualDub to do the hardsub), AviSynth, and the XviD codecs. Make sure you install all of these if you haven’t got them on your computer already as they will be called upon by AutoGK during the hardsubbing and conversion process.

Handbrake

    We talked about using this program in a previous post, “Finally! A video converter for the Sony Video Walkman!“. This is the converter we’ll use to encode the AVI file produced by AutoGK to MP4 (or any one of the other formats accepted by the Video Walkman).

SubRip

    If you have a DVD, a VOB file, or some other video file with embedded subtitles, you can use this program to extract the subtitles and save it as a subtitle text file (for example, an .srt file) for inputting into AutoGK. This program isn’t necessary if you’ve other means to obtaining a subtitle text file, for example the internet.

Hardsubbing

    Now that you have all the required programs, plugins and codecs installed, you can begin hardsubbing. Grab your source file (video footage) and subtitles and input those into the appropriate fields in the AutoGK program; select the audio track/language track you wish to use, define the output size before adding the job to the queue at the bottom of the program’s interface. That’s pretty much as hard as it gets as AutoGK does everything else. At the end of the process, you’ll get an AVI file with burned-on subtitles.

Converting to a format compatible with Sony Video Walkman

    Take the AVI file AutoGK produced and get the Handbrake program to convert the file to a format the Sony Video Walkman accepts. Remember, make sure that you do adhere to the supported file format specifications outlined in the Sony Video Walkman user manual; make sure you do not exceed the maximum resolution, framerate, bitrate, or file size stated. If you do exceed them, you’ll find that the file won’t play on the Video Walkman.

Last words

    Apparently in the AutoGK program, you can select – what we assume – embedded subtitles from your video footage. If you find that embedded subtitles from your source file do appear in the program’s “Subtitle track(s)” section, you could try using those instead of external ones. Since our video footage was just video footage with no embedded subtitles, we used an external subtitles file for the subbing. To input external subtitles, you’ll need to bring up the “External Subs” field by pressing CTRL+F8 as the field is not readily displayed.

    There are also Advanced Settings for AutoGK which allows you to configure the output resolution, codec, and audio type. We left them all as default: “Auto Width”, “XviD”, and “Auto” (respectively). We figured if we wanted to change anything we’d do that in Handrake where we do the final conversion.

Well, there you go. This is one way of getting subtitles on the Sony Video Walkman. We know people don’t like hardsubs because 1) it takes hours to encode a 1-2 hour video; 2) you can’t turn subtitles on and off; and 3) you lose multilingual support; but when it’s the only option, it’s the only option.

    For those of you who are looking to hardsub for this device, we hope that this has been somewhat helpful. If anyone has any questions or need some help, don’t hesitate to send us a message. Also, if anyone knows another way or there is in fact an alternative to hardsubbing for this device, please do let us know too.

Well, that’s a wrap! Enjoy watching your subs!