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article photography software review

PhotoShop CS5 content-aware aka seam carving aka Liquid Resize fun marketing

Adobe PhotoShop CS4 introduced an implementation of the content-aware / Seam Carving / Liquid Resize algorithm. It is a powerful filter to remove object, or resize full pictures without stretching all the objects or squeezing faces for portrait. It is a very powerful photo editing filter. But .. to be honest, I didn’t find the option in CS4, so it is well hidden, anyway, it is well known I m not an addict of Adobe photo software. The funny story today is the announce of PhotoShop CS5 in a few days, and adobe released an impressive YouTube demo about the new filter.

But here is a very funny ironic video about that filter, watch it, it is very funny :

If you want a free implementation of the Seam Carving filter ( the real one ), you can download VSO Photo Gallery

And for people interesting to read long and interesting case study, I add a link to the Princeton university about latest algorythm
discovered: http://www.cs.princeton.edu/gfx/pubs/Barnes_2009_PAR/index.php

Categories
article photography youtube

Canon 5D mark II new firmware 2.0.3 available for download

The long time awaited firmware update for Canon 5D mark II is available for download

Download Canon 5D mark II firmware 2.0.3

This firmware was important for a lot of people as it brings new HD video mode.
The Canon 5D mark II is quite popular, despite it is a photo camera, to be used to create excellent quality video, for example :

or

“CITY OF LAKES” The Official Trailer from PACIFIC PICTURES on Vimeo.

Firmware 2.0.3 changes :
Adds or changes the following movie frame rates.

NTSC:
1920×1080 : 30 fps (changed – actual 29.97 fps)
1920×1080 : 24 fps (added – actual 23.976 fps)
640×480 : 30 fps (changed – actual 29.97 fps)
PAL:
1920×1080 : 25 fps (added – actual 25.0 fps)
1920×1080 : 24 fps (added – actual 23.976 fps)
640×480 : 25 fps (added – actual 25.0 fps)

Adds a function for manually adjusting the sound recording level (64 levels).
Adds a histogram display (brightness or RGB) for shooting movies in manual exposure.
Adds shutter-priority AE mode (Tv) and aperture-priority AE (Av) mode to the exposure modes for shooting movies.
Changes the audio sampling frequency from 44.1 KHz to 48 KHz.
Fixes a phenomenon where communication between the camera and the attached lens is sometimes interrupted after manual sensor cleaning. (This phenomenon only affects units with Firmware Version 1.2.4.)

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article blu-ray

DVDFab PassKey, alternative to DVD43 and AnyDVD HD ?

DVDFab team is very active during a few weeks, after a beta release of their popular DVD-to-DVD, Blu-ray-to-Blu-ray and DVD or Blu-ray to Mobile copy tools DVDFab 7, they just announced in their forum the release of DVDFab passkey beta, available for download.

What is DVDFab Passkey ? consider it as a driver to decrypt on the fly the encrypted disc, indeed the originals DVD and Blu-ray discs are protected and can’t be read without an extra tool or a genuine video player.


DVDFab Passkey, alternative to AnyDVD and DVD43

Here the different solutions :

  • Use a rip tool, which will only decrypt and save the file to your local hard drive, but it takes a lot of space, and you will have to read again the information a second time to make a conversion. Exemple : DVD Decrypter
  • Use a “driver Style” solution, it will side by side with another software of your choice, it works in the background and just intercept the calls to the DVD or Blu-ray drive to serve the file decrypted. It is a nice solution to read directly the files with the tool of your choice. For example VLC doesn’t support decrypting, but with a driver-level tool, you can use any existing application, it can be required to bypass the area limitation. The most popular software are AnyDVD HD from Slysoft, and DVD43
  • Use a software already including a decrypt feature, so you don’t have to worry to launch another program, but you are binded to that software and his capability to make the decryption part correctly : Exemple DVDFab platinum

So is DVDFab passkey will take some market share in this very specialized market ? I installed it on 2 computers, and didn’t face a problem, I used it to remove the area protection for a Blu-ray ( from USA ) and so I was able to play it on a european Blu-ray PC reader

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article ecommerce emarketing

Fabrice Meuwissen interview for Avangate

I did an interview for Avangate a few days ago, and that interview has been published today.
Avangate is one of the biggest and most active e-commerce platform for software vendors. Reselling the top software available all over the world

“Fabrice Meuwissen is the co-founder of VSO Software , a company which produces the popular ConvertXtoDVD video converter. He is a developer & marketing person who has been involved in software development and distribution since 1997 and started using an e-commerce platform back in 1998. Fabrice also set the bases of BrainFight, a webmarketing consultancy agency mainly addressed to software vendors

 Fabrice Meuwissen portraitFabrice also set the bases of BrainFight , a webmarketing consultancy agency mainly addressed to software vendors.

Adriana Iordan: Can you please tell us a little about your background and how you got into software marketing & development?

Fabrice Meuwissen: I’m 35 years old and am from France. I’ve been involved in the computer software market since 1993.

Since finishing my studies in software development (1997), I have been involved in software development and distribution for my personal projects and through the various companies I worked for. I have started to use an e-commerce platform since 1998 at a time when internet connection was only possible with a modem and not yet with a DSL line. I have always worked for companies with international software distribution, both B2B and B2C.

In 2003 I set up VSO Software together with Jacques Vignoles we spent time developing a very popular …”

Read the full Interview of Fabrice Meuwissen for Avangate