Music And Video | Technology Blog

StreamDrag Music Search Engine

December 17th, 2008

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There are so many possibilities on the Internet to search for and find the music that you are looking for that it is almost impossible not to find it unless you prefer to listen to local bands or rare stuff. Even then the chance is quite good to find what you are looking for online. StreamDrag is - yet another - music search engine that is utilizing the vast Youtube archive to fuel the search engine.

Everything - that means the search, results and playback - happens on the same page which is excellent for finding some music very quickly. One could argue that it is also possible to go directly to Youtube but there are some differences. One is that StreamDrag provides access to a very intuitive playlist that can be used to play multiple songs in a row without leaving the page.

Results are displayed almost instantly and of great quality. Songs can be played right there or added to the playlist to play multiple songs in a row. It is furthermore possible to loop songs or the playlist. The only other control on the page is the volume bar which can be used to change the volume of the songs.

XBMC Media Center Final

November 20th, 2008

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The final version of the XBMC has been out for a while now. We covered an alpha release back in August and it is time to check on the final release and promote the product further. It may sound a bit biased but I’m using the XBMC for years on my old modded Microsoft Xbox system. While it has seen some gaming in the past the main reason for modding the system was to add the XBMC to the Xbox to be able to watch movies and videos that have been ripped or downloaded on the television and not on the computer.

XBMC has been expanded since then and it can now be installed on various platforms including Windows, Linux or Macintosh computers. It is intended to be used for media PCs (like the Xbox but with additional features) that stream the media to the television but it can be installed on any computer meeting the requirements obviously.

The interface has been designed with usability and wow effect in mind. Links to video, music, images, settings and plugins are available from the main menu. The first three entries lead to similar sections of the media center. The user has to first pick at least one data folder that contains files that can be read by the player. This takes a few seconds at most and it is possible to navigate with the keyboard, mouse or gamepad in the menus.

Winamp Minitube Adds Youtube Videos To Music

November 20th, 2008

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Minitube is a Winamp plugin that unfortunately works only with Winamp and not with related music clients like AIMP2. The plugin searches Youtube automatically once a song starts playing grabbing the first result from the video portal and starting to play it on the desktop in its own window.

It would be rather chaotic if both the music player and the video would be playing the music; This is why the developers have made the decision to either play the music in Winamp and mute the video or mute Winamp and play the video with sound.

Minitube has a few additional options that can enhance the experience. It is possible to set the connection to low or high bandwidth, start the video in a window or fullscreen or to automatically hide the player if no video is found or skip to the next song instead.

Download Music From Imeem, Deezer or Jiwa

November 16th, 2008

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Freezer is a small portable application that runs on Windows XP or Windows Vista computers. The tiny 73 Kilobyte software program listens on port 8800 and turns any streaming music request of the websites Imeem, Deezer or Jiwa into a download.

The proxy setting has to be configured in the web browser so that all http traffic is routed through the localhost proxy at port 8800. Firefox users would click on Tools > Options > Advanced > Network > Settings to open the proxy configuration.

They would then select the manual proxy configuration and enter localhost and port 8800 under HTTP Proxy. They should make sure to revert the settings to No Proxy again when they stop using Freezer.

Youtube High Quality Playback

November 14th, 2008

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If you visit Youtube you might have noticed the “watch in high quality” link beneath some videos on the video portal. The high quality link leads to a video with a better resolution and quality that is more enjoyable to watch than the low quality versions. High quality videos on the other hand demand a faster Internet connection which is probably the main reason why Youtube has not enable the high quality option by default.

There is however an easy way to enable Youtube high quality playback for all videos that have been uploaded and processed to deliver high and low quality versions. Always clicking on the “watch in high quality” link is the only option for users who do not have an account at the video portal.

That quickly becomes annoying if you watch dozens of videos a day. Users with an account can define the quality in the user’s profile. That’s the easiest and best way for users with a broadband connection who always want to watch Youtube videos in high quality.

Track Album Releases Automatically

November 12th, 2008

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The Internet can provide music fans with lots of information about their favorite artists including tour dates or upcoming albums. The website Muspy can help you with the latter by tracking the album releases of selected artists and sending out information whenever a new album release is announced.

The service requires registration which is a quick and painless process. After signing up and in artists can be added that the user wants to track. The database of artists and releases is directly taken from MusicBrainz which ensures that most artists will be found and can be tracked.

The releases of all entered artists can be tracked afterwards. Notifications can be received by email or RSS news feed if that is preferred. Additionally only certain release types (albums, singles, compilations, live etc) can be monitored.