Cyber-shot DSC-S650

Specifications :

• Brand : SONY, S-Series Cyber-shot camera
  
• Mega pixels : 7.2 Mega pixels
• Zooming : 3x Optical Zoom
• 2 inch. LCD Monitor
• Media Type : Memory Stick Duo, Memory Stick PRO Duo
• High Sensitivity ISO 1000
• Spot Metering, Scene Selection Modes
  
• Looks : Cool and Sleek
• Accessories : Sony Original 1GB Memory Stick
• Recommended goodies : Original Sony Nickel-Metal Hydride, Rechargeable Batteries, Sony CycleEnergy Battery Charger, Sony Carrying Case LCS-BDA.

"It is easy to use and likely to appeal to anyone looking for a less expensive camera from one of the leading brands" by http://www.cameras.co.uk/
I myself use this Camera and simply cannot resist myself in adoring its high picture quality and a option for lot of custom settings for professional quality snapshots.

For More Info. & do check out the Pictures/Videos taken from DSC-S650

Webcam and MPlayer

Ubuntu really shocked me today when it recognized my integrated webcam automatically, which I discovered via Ekiga application.. Ok so drivers set, what I need now is record videos and take snapshots.. Mplayer as the title indicates does this all, the versatile player which can load video devices too. Lets begin with our task :


Viewing :


Fireup this command to bring up your video streamer:

$ mplayer -fps 15 tv:// -tv  driver=v4l2:device=/dev/video0

You can replace your video fps(frames per second), device and driver value as per your convenience.

Specify the video dimensions :

$ mplayer -fps 15 tv:// -tv driver=v4l2:width=640:height=480:device=/dev/video0

Horizontally inverse the stream i.e. mirror effect :

$ mplayer -vf mirror -fps 15 tv:// -tv  driver=v4l2:device=/dev/video0

View Fullscreen :

$ mplayer -aspect 16:10 -fps 15 tv:// -tv  driver=v4l2:device=/dev/video0
$ mplayer -aspect 16:10 -vf mirror -fps 15 tv:// -tv  driver=v4l2:device=/dev/video0

Then press 'f' key to enter Fullscreen. NOTE: Enter aspect value as per your screen resolution ratio eg. 4:3, 16:9, 1:1


Snapshots:


Take snapshots while streaming by pressing 's' :

$ mplayer -vf screenshot -fps 15 tv:// -tv  driver=v4l2:device=/dev/video0

Mirrored :

$ mplayer -vf mirror,screenshot -fps 15 tv:// -tv  driver=v4l2:device=/dev/video0

The files will be saved in your current directory with name "shot####.png", where #### is for index number.


Video Capturing:


For video capturing you will need a companion of mplayer named "mencoder", install it if you don't have one. So here is the way you start your recording:

Without sound:

$ mencoder tv:// -tv driver=v4l2:width=640:height=480:device=/dev/video0 -nosound -ovc lavc -o filename.avi

With sound:

$ mencoder tv:// -tv driver=v4l2:width=640:height=480:device=/dev/video0:forceaudio:adevice=/dev/dsp -ovc lavc -oac mp3lame -lameopts cbr:br=64:mode=3 -o filename.avi

You can combine other subtags like vf, aspect, fps to enhance your video.

This is all, you can try a different short program too for video/photo capturing : VideoView.

This post took from me a lot of manual reading and googling but am happy to present it before you. Here are the major sources : Gentoo Wiki, Mencoder -vf and mplayer manuals.

Compaq Presario C773TU Notebook PC

Today I bought a new Notebook : Compaq C773TU as the title says, so here I present a brief review on it.

Specifications:

• Intel Core 2 Duo T5550 (1.83 GHz)
• Intel 965GM Express Chipset
• 2 MB L2 Cache
  
• Memory - 2 GB PC2 DDR2 (667 MHz)
• Hard Drive - 160 GB, 5400 RPM
• CD/DVD RW, 8x Double Layer DVD Writer
• 15.4" Widescreen TFT, 1280x800 WXGA
• FreeDOS

My computer aka gnutop which I thought was appropiate name for it, has a good sound quality with a powerful integrated Web camera. I have installed Ubuntu 8.04 on it along with pre-installed FreeDOS (I will remove it later 5 GB is not a big deal for me now). Ubuntu is running fine with its default Gnome Environment + Compiz Effects. I plan to install Fedora 9 on it once I get its DVD, till then enjoying the interface of Ubuntu and power of apt.

I picked this laptop because of its powerful configuration, it didn't bundled Vista for which I had to pay extra bucks, and at last but never the least is its low cost. In all a perfect laptop for a college going student.