Video/DVD notes

(Warning: The following is my current understanding on these topics based on what I read, but I don't claim nor guarantee that my understanding is correct.)

The DVD standard is 720x480 pixels for NTSC and 720x576 for PAL. Video is stored on DVDs in that resolution, regardless of whether the video is intended to be displayed on 4:3 screens (like old TVs) or 16:9 screens (widescreens). When the video is recorded in anamorphic widescreen mode, the camera spreads the 720 horizontal pixels out over a wider area, as opposed to when recording in non-widescreen mode. So with anamorphic widescreen mode, you gain a wider view, but it doesn't have more details compared to non-widescreen mode (it actually has fewer details per horizontal unit than non-widescreen).

The pixels displayed on the viewing screen are not square in size. The pixel aspect ratio defines the width versus height of a displayed pixel.

When widescreen video is recorded/stored on a DVD in non-anamorphic mode, that is letterbox mode, with black bars at the top and bottom. Letterbox mode video has less vertical detail compared to anamorphic widescreen mode.

In interlaced mode, one "frame" contains data for two "fields"... where the fields are more distinct points in time. There is an odd field and an even field - the data for both is interlaced together; one line of the frame is from one field, the next line from the other field, and so on. The camera would have captured 2 images (fields) of data and interlaced them into a single frame of stored data, with half the data from each point in time. The camera may record at 60 frames per second to produce the 2 fields for each frame, even though the TV displays at 30 frames per second.

Video should only be saved in interlaced mode when it is intended to be displayed on a television. For viewing on computers, it should be saved in progressive (=non-interlaced) mode. This may require de-interlacing of the source data.

In Sony Vegas Movie Studio, one blog says it's best to set the project properties with
Field Order = Upper Field First (This depends on how the recording device stored the data. For DV devices (digital video cameras?), it should be lower field first).
Full-Res Rendering quality = Best
Deinterlace method = Interpolate

(Don't save snapshots/still images from within Vegas; some lines get jagged edges apparently related to interlacing; I can't figure out how to prevent that. Instead play the video in WMP, pause it, and do a screen capture.)

Notes compiled from information on the following pages.

http://eugenia.gnomefiles.org/2007/10/30/understanding-pixel-aspect-ratios/
http://eugenia.gnomefiles.org/2007/09/10/de-interlacing-with-vegas/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anamorphic_widescreen
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel_aspect_ratio
http://www.michaeldvd.com.au/Articles/PALvsNTSC/PALvsNTSC.asp
http://library.creativecow.net/articles/onneweer_barend/deinterlacing.php

Windows 7 notes and tweaks

If you hover the cursor over the top edge of a window so that it changes to the up-down pointer, and then double-click, it resizes the window to the maximum height while not changing the width. This can be handy.

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I dislike that when you drag a window to the top edge of the screen, it is automatically maximized ("aero snap" feature). But I like the half-width maximization that you can get by dragging a window to the side edges of the screen; this makes it easy to tile 2 windows side by side, when you need to see both at the same time. Therefore, I won't disable this feature. This page shows how one could disable it.

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Deleting the "Extended" string value under HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\cmd in the registry causes an "Open Command Window Prompt Here" to display in the context menu in Explorer when clicking a folder. The Extended part makes the context menu only show up when you shift-right-click (that was working, but I don't want to have to press shift to get it).

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The default height of the Start Menu is less than the screen height; therefore you may need to use the vertical scroll bar to scroll through the All Programs list.
To make the Start Menu taller, you can do this:
- Open the Start Menu Properties window
- Select the "Store and display recently opened programs in the Start Menu" checkbox (don't worry; it can be unselected again at the end)
- Click "Customize" and set "Number of recent programs to display" to a large number such as 30.
- Click OK and again OK.
- The Start Menu will be taller.
- Now you can go back and unselect the "Store and display recently opened programs in the Start Menu" checkbox. That will cause the Customize window to display zero in the "Number of recent programs to display" field, but the Start Menu will remain the taller size.

(This is also mentioned here).

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To disable animations...
System Properties - Advanced (tab) - Performance (section) .. Settings (button) ... Visual Effects (tab)
- Select the "Custom" radio button and then unselect any of the following:
"Animate windows when minimizing and maximizing" and
"Animations in the taskbar and Start Menu".
"Fade or slide menus into view"

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The following registry change can be done to prevent (delay) the mini-windows from popping up when the mouse hovers over the taskbar.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ Advanced
- Create a new DWORD (32-bit) value named ExtendedUIHoverTime
- Double-click ExtendedUIHoverTime and click Decimal
- To increase the hover delay to 5 seconds, type 5000. Type 10000 for 10 seconds and so forth…
- The change may not take effect until after rebooting.

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To get the QuickLaunch toolbar to work like it did in XP...

For all the icons on the taskbar, right-click and select "Unpin...." to remove them, and do the following to instead create Quicklaunch icons.

1. Right click on a empty space on the taskbar and click on New Tool.
2. In the Folder line, type or copy:
%userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch
3. Click on the Select Folder button.
4. You now have a Quick Launch toolbar on the taskbar.
NOTE: Click on the arrow to see your Quick Launch shortcuts.

6. To Remove Quick Launch Toolbar Icon Text or Title -
A) Unlock the taskbar.
B) Right click on the Quick Launch toolbar title name, then uncheck the Show Text and Show Title by clicking on them. (See screenshot below step 5B)
C) Lock the taskbar.

8. To Have Quick Launch Toolbar on Left Side of Taskbar -
A) Unlock the taskbar.
B) Left click on the dotted lines of the pinned taskbar programs of the left side and hold, then drag it to the right past the Quick Launch toolbar and release.
C) The Quick Launch toolbar is now on the left side of the taskbar.
D) Left click on the dotted lines of these and hold and drag them to make any adjustments to how you want them place on the taskbar.
E) Lock the taskbar.

Then save your desktop theme - the page says you need to do that.

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I like that with Window 7, you can use drag and drop to rearrange the open programs/buttons on the taskbar. But you can't separate different instances of the same program - they are all grouped next to each other, even if they were started at different times, after other programs were started. You can only drag and drop the whole group.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/Change-how-buttons-appear-on-the-taskbar
"You might notice that multiple buttons representing the same program remain grouped together on the taskbar, whether you've chosen to display the expanded button labels or not. In previous versions of Windows, windows appeared on the taskbar in the order you opened them, but in Windows 7, related windows always appear next to each other. "

It makes sense that some people would like that functionality, but I prefer to have them shown in the order I opened them, not always next to each other, and to be able to drag and drop individual instances of a program.

There's a program "Taskbar Tweaker" at the bottom of this page that lets you do this. In the program, select the "Don't group" option. The settings also include an option for running the program at startup.

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KatMouse is a nice little utility which lets your mouse scroll the window which is under it, even when that window does not have the focus. This is especially useful for Windows Explorer, as you can click in the left pane to open a folder, and then scroll the right pane without first having to click there to give it focus.

WizMouse is another utility similar to KatMouse. It apparently includes functionality for horizontal scrolling (of non-focus windows?), but that part does not work for me. It also does not work for scrolling non-focus windows when the Task Manager has focus; therefore I prefer KatMouse.

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I've been having a problem with "TrustedInstaller.exe" ("Windows Modules Installer") causing continuous hard drive activity, for up to an hour or more (until I terminate the process).
My Windows Updates configuration is set to check for updates but ask me before downloading or installing them. There were no updates in progress at the time of the excess hard drive activity.
I also have Indexing ("Windows Search") and Superfetch disabled.
I haven't been able to figure out what is causing the problem.
For the time being, I've disabled the Windows Modules Installer service, but I need to remember to turn it back on. Otherwise I may not get any more updates.

Update: Today I restarted the Windows Modules Installer service, and TrustedInstaller started back up with a lot of disk activity, mainly in the c:\windows\system32\config\COMPONENTS** files, and also the c:\windows\winsxs\ files.

Based on this page, the COMPONENTS files correspond to the HKLM\COMPONENTS hive of the registry. So for some reason TrustedInstaller appeared to be continuously updating that part of the registry. After about an hour, the hard drive activity stopped, and the TrustedInstaller process was no longer running. TrustedInstaller has not restarted again in the last hour, so hopefully it is finished doing whatever it was doing, and won't start again.

where is it?

I don't understand why Windows has removed the menu-bar from most of its programs. Am I more daft than the average user, or do other people also have to randomly click on the various icons in the program window, as well as right-clicking everywhere in the window, while trying to find the darn File-Open or Edit-Undo** (etc) options?

So... I've double-clicked a video file, and it opens and plays in Windows Media Player. But where is the File-Open option in order to open a different video file? I don't want to open a Library or create a library, I just want to open a file in a folder on my C: drive. I can't figure out how to do it except by switching back to my Windows Explorer window and double-clicking the other video file there!

And why, in WMP's "Now Playing" view, is the little icon for "Switch to Library" in the top-right corner of the screen, but when you click that and open the Library view, the "Switch to Now Playing" icon is shown in the bottom-right corner, instead of the top-right corner which would have been consistent?

AAHHH!!! I FOUND IT!!!! In the Library view, in the lower left-hand corner where it shows the current file-name, right-click the file-name, and it then displays a context menu which contains File-Open! Naturally, the file-name is in the bottom-left of the Library view, because if they had put it in the top-left corner, it would have been consistent with the Now Playing view, and nobody wants consistency in their user inteface, right?!
When you right-click the file-name in the Now Playing view, the context menu does NOT contain File-Open. Tricky, tricky media player, haah!!! But I found it anyway, you idiotic user interface!!!

** (updated) There's a little curved arrow icon near the top left of the window; that's how you access the Undo function.