Sony DCR-DVD 105

I just got a Sony DCR-DVD 105..

Most of the reviews that I read for this product were positive and in CNET.com, the average user rating for this product was 7, which is not bad. What ’s consistent among all the reviews was the great video, audio quality and its 20x optical zoom. The only problems I read about it were transferring the video and editing the video in the PC. It doesn’t have a Firewire or USB port coz all files are saved into the DVD and customers complain about the software provided which is Nero Express 6.

I Google searched about this and found suggestions on how to transfer and edit the video files but they didn’t provide a clear solution to it. So what I did was make a short recording using the camcorder, finalized the disc and loaded it into my PC. I looked for the VOB file and copied it into the PC and converted it into a WMV file using WinAVI Video Converter. Then I edited the WMV file using Ulead Video Studio 10.

Transferring files to PC:
1. Load finalized disc into CD-ROM
2. Browse disc and search for VOB or JPEG files
3. Copy & paste to any folder in your hard drive
(VOB files can be opened using Cyberlink PowerDVD or any DVD playing program)

Editing video files in your PC:

You’ll need:
1. video converter
2. video editing software

Steps:
1. Load finalized disc into CD-ROM.
2. Browse through the disc and look for the VOB file/s.
3. Using a video converter, convert the VOB file to AVI, MPEG or WMV file.
4. Edit the file (AVI, MPEG or WMV) using the video editing software.

There are video converters and video editing software that you can download for free. All you have to do is do a search in Google. Another option is todownload the trial version of commercial products. If you’re looking for the Picture Perfect software, leave a comment or contact me and I’ll tell you where you could get it.

Google lets users create My Maps

Mountain View (CA) - Google has launched a new personalized touch to its online maps tool that allows users to create customized maps with specific locations and pictures.

---

The idea is to let users pinpoint specific landmarks and attach associated pictures to them. For example, a family could chart their cross-country trip on Google Maps and post an image of each location. Users can choose whether to make their maps public or private.

Maps can be customized by specifying the scale of the map, the order the landmarks appear in the sidebar, and even the design of the landmark icons on the map. Every user-created map can be toggled between map and satellite views.

Other map sites, including Yahoo Maps, have offered similar functionality and until now, was their main feature that differentiated them from Google Maps.

In the past, Google has customized its online maps service by creating specialized maps for events like the 2006 election and the World Cup. My Maps is effectively the same thing, bringing the customization feature to individual users for the first time.

The first official announcement came from Google's Frank Taylor at the official blog of the similar Google Earth service. He wrote, "The end result of this new update is that Google Maps and Google Earth are coming closer together in many respects."

---