Another Mac app that in my opinion is horrible is MSN Messenger. It constantly disconnects. I decided to just ditch it and switch over to Proteus which is an MSN Client for mac.
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How come my Windows XP is more stable than Mac OS?
- Thread starter Hakkinen
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Calebj14 said:
yes, I use imovie to import my videos from my canon camcorder. But the files are rather huge! a 5 second video takes up 17MB!
Is there any software (hopefully freebies), that can let me compress the file, say to VCD format, which is much smaller. This way i can keep my entire holiday video on my ibook without wasting gigabytes of space.
okay. NO PROTEUS!!! NO MSN MESSENGER!!!
Please, if you REALLY need to use it, use Adium instead.
Bahhhhh...
And btw, you can use USB webcams with iChat, but honestly, just get a firewire dv cam, useful for a LOT of things.
Or just get an iSight, theyre major fun to have I absolutely love mine.
Please, if you REALLY need to use it, use Adium instead.
Bahhhhh...
And btw, you can use USB webcams with iChat, but honestly, just get a firewire dv cam, useful for a LOT of things.
Or just get an iSight, theyre major fun to have I absolutely love mine.Hakkinen said:
That's the standard DV compression rate. It does take up space. Once you've brought it into your computer, you can compress it to a much smaller level. (I don't use iMovie, so I don't know what compression levels it has available to it) On FCP, there are all the standard compression levels as is true for Avid or using something like ProCoder or Squeeze; however all of these packages cost a lot of money if you're not using it for work. You need to convert to a different format (mpeg or .mov wrapper) and set the compression level to higher. Once again, though, you need the initial space to bring over the video first before you can start compressing.
As for Safari, use Mozilla Firefox and be done with it. It's a much better browser IMO and completely stable (faster too after initial startup)
Yeah, in iMovie there's a share menu option where you can export to Web, email, LAN/DSL, or use expert settings. Lan/DSL would be good for you I guess, if you're uncomfortable with the expert settings. If you want VCD, Roxio's Toast does that and has a QT plugin that allows you to export as VCD from within QT apps.
10.3.4 makes Help a lot more usable. I can actually open it without having time to get up and go to the bathroom. It's nice now.
10.3.4 makes Help a lot more usable. I can actually open it without having time to get up and go to the bathroom. It's nice now.
I read on other forum about how to use mencoder. Sounds really complicated to use since it only runs on the terminal and i am still so new to mac OS. Probably i will go check out my friend's Toast to see if it works.Fukui said:
Any other software other than mencoder?
Because all is not right with the universe, it appears.
In regards to your fan coming on: 82 degrees F is a bit hot for computing, especially if it's humid as well. Expect your fan to run often in those kinds of temperatures. Check out the manual for the normal operating temperature your iBook was designed for...82 is going to be near the top of, or even over, that range.
All browsers occasionally run into pages they don't like. For me, all the Gecko-based browsers (Mozilla, Camino, etc) all quit when I try sending AOL webmail (not that I blame them
). One unexpected quit isn't cause for concern, especially if it always happens on a specific webpage.Any of those could potentially cause problems, with the possible exceptions of VLC and Netscape. I've never heard of half of these....when downloading from versiontracker, read the reviews and references first. If there's only one or two reviews, and a lower download count, chances are you're dealing with a little-known, and potentially problem-causing, bit of 3rd party software.
Digital video is GOING to take up space, that's why they make RAID systems and 120 GB hard drives. 17MB for five seconds may be about the going rate. Try importing into iMovie, editing there (it's free and already on your Mac!) and exporting or compressing using QuickTime Pro (less than $50, come on, you aren't going to get digital video functionality for free).
In all, I support the idea of getting at least book on the Mac to give you an idea of what your system can do. Also very helpful to me, initially, was the free Macworld subscription I was offered when I registered my system. Macworld has a lot of tips, hints, and product reviews that help you figure out what your Mac can already do, and what programs are good for the rest. I say this because it sounds like you went out and downloaded a bunch of stuff when you couldn't immediately figure out how to make your Mac do it.
Yeah, as far as the DV goes, I'd suggest importing and editing (making sure you have enough space for it before you start), and when you're done you can export it to a self-contained QuickTime movie that's compressed and get rid of the originals, or print it back out to DV tape from iMovie to preserve quality.
--Cless
--Cless
Performance
Hi,
When I first got my iBook 800 G3, it worked perfectly. After about a month, it started having kernal panics and crashing. I erased the hard disk and reinstalled. I learned that you need to repair permissions with Disk Utility (in the Utilities folder) regularly. You should repair permissions especially after installing software and updating. When updating, repair permissions before updating also.
There are three unix maintainence scripts that automatically run between 3 and 6 am. When these run, there is a lot of disk activity that can heat up your computer. If your comp is off or sleeping during these hours, then the scripts will not run. You can use a utility like MacJanitor (don't know if it works in Panther), to run these scripts at any time.
I repair permissions at least once a week and more often than that if possible because I make and delete a lot of my own apps. MacJanitor is run as often as I can. After doing all these things, the computer doesn't panic anymore and software hardly crashes unless I do funny things to the system and software.
Editted: Panther is a new OS and their still working out all the new bugs. I'm running Jaguar OS 10.2.8.
gl,
Hi,
When I first got my iBook 800 G3, it worked perfectly. After about a month, it started having kernal panics and crashing. I erased the hard disk and reinstalled. I learned that you need to repair permissions with Disk Utility (in the Utilities folder) regularly. You should repair permissions especially after installing software and updating. When updating, repair permissions before updating also.
There are three unix maintainence scripts that automatically run between 3 and 6 am. When these run, there is a lot of disk activity that can heat up your computer. If your comp is off or sleeping during these hours, then the scripts will not run. You can use a utility like MacJanitor (don't know if it works in Panther), to run these scripts at any time.
I repair permissions at least once a week and more often than that if possible because I make and delete a lot of my own apps. MacJanitor is run as often as I can. After doing all these things, the computer doesn't panic anymore and software hardly crashes unless I do funny things to the system and software.
Editted: Panther is a new OS and their still working out all the new bugs. I'm running Jaguar OS 10.2.8.
gl,
From iMove goto File -> Share
On the sheet choose Quicktime and choose Expert Settings from the dropdown then click export.
At that point it will ask you what the filename should be, if you dont see the options click the Triangle to the right of that to get the extended options. From there you can choose what format to encode to and what settings. No 3rd party apps or QT Pro required. You can even download codecs such as divx and realmedia and they will be added there.
On the sheet choose Quicktime and choose Expert Settings from the dropdown then click export.
At that point it will ask you what the filename should be, if you dont see the options click the Triangle to the right of that to get the extended options. From there you can choose what format to encode to and what settings. No 3rd party apps or QT Pro required. You can even download codecs such as divx and realmedia and they will be added there.
kel said:
I'm not discounting anyone else's experience. Lots of posters here report that repairing permissions has saved their Macs. Cool.
I bought my dual-800 tower (a retired store demo) in August of 2002. It had MacOS X 10.1 on it. I installed all the updates, then upgraded to Jaguar, installed all the Jaguar updates that came out, then upgraded to Panther, and from there to 10.3.3 (I'll go to 10.3.4 this weekend). I have never repaired the permissions on my Mac, which has always run fast and reliably for me.
Lately when I install system updates, I notice it takes some time "optimizing the system" or some such -- I assume that recent updates may actually run a permissions repair behind the scenes. I've never knowingly done it, under the theory that if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
I don't go crazy installing third-party software, especially not hacks, but I do have a pile of stuff installed by now.
Hakkinen, I suspect that some third-party software is your culprit. Good luck with your iBook!
Crikey
just do it from imovie file> share> quicktime> expert settingsHakkinen said:
click share a dialog box will show up listing the settings click the export box click what kind of compression that easy
Erase the volume from Disk Utlity and then install Panther. Repair permissions, do the combo upgrade from Software Update, repair permissions. After that, download and install whatever you like, but just repair permissions before and afterwards. It sounds a pain, but it is worth it.
I suggest you install anacron which will do the cron (maintenance) scripts behind the scenes for you, and if you should ever have any wierd inexplicable slowdowns, using Onyx, clean the caches. When you restart, the system will appear slow, but it speeds up.
When you have the system working to your liking, go to Disk Utility and create a bootable disk image of your system.
If you have a string of problems after a proper re installation, suspect RAM first, and check your handbook to explain how to take out any extra RAM.
Hope that helps, because OS X is pretty much bomb proof if you play fair with simple maintenance tasks.
I suggest you install anacron which will do the cron (maintenance) scripts behind the scenes for you, and if you should ever have any wierd inexplicable slowdowns, using Onyx, clean the caches. When you restart, the system will appear slow, but it speeds up.
When you have the system working to your liking, go to Disk Utility and create a bootable disk image of your system.
If you have a string of problems after a proper re installation, suspect RAM first, and check your handbook to explain how to take out any extra RAM.
Hope that helps, because OS X is pretty much bomb proof if you play fair with simple maintenance tasks.
beg_ne said:
Just tested it, NOT BAD !
At least now I am downsize my holiday movies and keep it in my ibook!
Now its time to test out the different compression options.....
Thanks for the helpful hint, beg_ne & windowsblowsass & Cless!
I guess I don't need QT PRO anymore? Does QT PRO do a different and better job than imovie's share option?
billyboy said:
I took a look at anacron at apple's downloads, it says it does the 3am maintenance task at anytime when available. But pardon me for asking, what sort of maintenance task it handles. How will it help our ibook/powerbooks?
Onyx - i read good reviews about this at versiontracker.
Both softwares seems to be very good for the smooth operation of the Mac OS.
Anyone else have this installed and how do you like it?
So far, after installing the Kingston 512MB by my apple distributor, i have not encountered any problems. Firstly I avoid downloading 3rd party softwares, the only one i have downloaded this 2 days is MissingMpgedit but i have not opened it. Got to be careful from now on
As for my ibook's heat problem (and my warm and humid environment), I tried putting some sort of rubber bumper on the 4 corners of my ibook. The back bumpers are higher than the front, to make the ibook tilting. I am testing to see if the extra gap there can help dissipates heat.
My rubber bumper experiment to tilt the ibook up so that heat can escape underneath is not working.
The fan turned on 8 minutes ago and still running.
One thing too, my battery charger/adapter is super hot. Is this normal?
I remembered the last few times i use, it was just slight warm. But 2nd time today the adapter is super hot.
I shall probably post this on the hardware discussion now.
The fan turned on 8 minutes ago and still running.
One thing too, my battery charger/adapter is super hot. Is this normal?
I remembered the last few times i use, it was just slight warm. But 2nd time today the adapter is super hot.
I shall probably post this on the hardware discussion now.
Its possible that it may be defective. My moms AC Adapter started getting really hot (melting the wire) and wouldn't charge her PB, so we took it to the apple store and they gave her a new one free. Maybe you should have them look at it...Hakkinen said:
I would stick my neck out and say that you should take a deep breath, and try and forget about the heat thing. First up, the AC adaptor can get hot, especially when your are doing intensive work (downloading video into iMovie for instance) while charging the battery. Try to keep the adaptor in a cool place, unless it starts to not work, don't worry.Hakkinen said:
Second, about the rubber feet- don't bother. Place the iBook flat on a desk, with good ventilation all around the vents. It'll probably conduct heat away better directly through the table rather than trying to increase air flow underneath it.
Third, apologies if someone has picked up on this already, but can you give more details on the A4 wireless mouse that you have installed drivers for? Is it USB? Some USB drivers can cause lots of strange occurrences.
Hope this helps, and calm down, your mac isn't really behaving that badly- a little TLC and it'll last you a damn long time
Paulo the Limey said:I would stick my neck out and say that you should take a deep breath, and try and forget about the heat thing. First up, the AC adaptor can get hot, especially when your are doing intensive work (downloading video into iMovie for instance) while charging the battery. Try to keep the adaptor in a cool place, unless it starts to not work, don't worry.
Second, about the rubber feet- don't bother. Place the iBook flat on a desk, with good ventilation all around the vents. It'll probably conduct heat away better directly through the table rather than trying to increase air flow underneath it.
Third, apologies if someone has picked up on this already, but can you give more details on the A4 wireless mouse that you have installed drivers for? Is it USB? Some USB drivers can cause lots of strange occurrences.
Hope this helps, and calm down, your mac isn't really behaving that badly- a little TLC and it'll last you a damn long time
Well, as I mentioned, this heat problem of my adapter started yesterday. First time, I put ibook in sleep mode and charge it. So I was not doing any work at all.
2nd time, I was only browsing the web, no downloading of any video, no graphic intensive work. So both occasions I was not doing any intensive work at all.
I know adapter can get hot, but it was just too hot.
I will test out again to see if removing the bumpers are a better way to conduct heat away. Thanks for bringing that up.
My A4 wireless mouse is USB driven, it does act strange sometimes. And rechargeable batteries only last me about 3 days, at average of 6 hours usage a day. And when I open the A4 menu to do any setting, the words are distorted. I can see some of the words in the menu as they are all overlapping each other. Must be something wrong with the software.
I bought it for around USD24. Bought it because it is compact and comes with battery charger that connects to my USB port.
This is how the mouse looks like:
http://www.a4tech.com/en/product2.asp?CID=1&SCID=5&MNO=RP-1558
Anacron handles things like trimming old entries from your system's log files (so your logs don't grow excessively large - one user here reported that over 40 GB of hard drive space was dedicated to one log file!), deleting old caches that aren't used anymore, and other general cleanup tasks.Hakkinen said:
One thing about my MAC HELP. I notice when I type in a search phrase for the 1st time, the results will be displayed. But when I entered the 2nd phrase, it just hangs. And after waiting for awhile I press Enter, no response, press one or two more times, it quits.
I have to delete the .plist files again and it will work. Or I can wait for a few minutes, run Mac Help, and it works again for the 1st search phrase. Not sure what is wrong with it.
I have to delete the .plist files again and it will work. Or I can wait for a few minutes, run Mac Help, and it works again for the 1st search phrase. Not sure what is wrong with it.