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Post by Felis silvestris »

Marfo has suggested to open a new topic for Mac users to look for help with various issues. If you have questions or are able to help Mac users with their problems, please do it here.
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Post by Felis silvestris »

Marfo needs help with this:
Marfo wrote:if anyone has information about which (free) programs there are available for Mac please post it. Programs for editing, making video's, GIFs etc. Preferably from people who have used them because many programs that are supposed to be free are actually trial versions. Many also have a different interface from the Windows version. Last year I have spent a lot of time searching and trying but I didn't find the right stuff yet.

If possible in a separate chapter so Mac users know where to look.
Thanks!
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Post by Marfo »

Thanks Felis!
Hopefully there will be answers soon :nod:
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Post by ame »

i am absolutely not the right person to give any advice about Mac because i know nothing about it.

... but after thinking about Marfo's question for a while it came to my mind that many of the programs which i use do have versions for Mac, too. all the programs which i use are free and i have just started using them, mostly by myself and with almost no prior knowledge or experience. these programs also have more or less helpful help-pages. i'm sure that you will be able to start learning how to use them by yourself. it cannot be somehow basically more difficult in Mac-versions than in Windows.

take a look at these:
VLC: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
AnyVideoConverter: http://www.any-video-converter.com/prod ... ideo_free/
NCHdebut: http://www.nchsoftware.com/capture/

the Solveig AVI+ seems to be for Windows only and only the trimmer is free (for clipping videos). i have just recently (about 2 weeks ago) started using that one. everything else i have done with the above programs.
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Post by Marfo »

Thanks ame, for your reply. I saw it only this morning...
Last year I tried many programs for mac but a lot were trial versions despite the words 'free'. It really ment: 'free trial' :slap:

Anyway, I already have the VLC media player. It does only that: play media. I cannot get streams to play. It has a very different interface from the Windows version. It cannot make clips. We discussed this last year in the technical 'help' pages.

AVC I also have but there are problems with synchronising sound and vision. There was also another thing about it but I don't remember what it was.
The only program I found (thanks to aita) that seemed to work is HandBrake. It can convert and make clips at the same time. You can adjust many settings, for instance, the framerate. So sound and vision are synchronised!
The only disadvantage of this program is that there is no screen. You can't see the footage you are making a clip from. You have to calculate the seconds: how many seconds from the beginning of the video your clip starts and how many seconds the clip lasts. Quite elaborate.

The last one you mention, NCHdebut seems to do one of the two things I want: make a video (clip) from screen from a stream. I made a few trials and it does seem to werk well! Some things I still have to work out. The information on the settings is not very helpful, it does not explain why you should or should not tick a box so I probably have to spend some time to find the right information. But it works!

One thing that didn't work so well is making a clip from an MKV video. The result is not very 'fluent', it looks as if many frames are missing. The birds are moving like robots on the nest, if you know what I mean. That has probably something to do with bitrate or framerate. If you or anyone has an idea to adjust this I would be delighted!

When I have tried some things and have other questions I will ask them here.
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Post by ame »

Marfo wrote:... One thing that didn't work so well is making a clip from an MKV video. The result is not very 'fluent', it looks as if many frames are missing. The birds are moving like robots on the nest, if you know what I mean. That has probably something to do with bitrate or framerate. If you or anyone has an idea to adjust this I would be delighted! ...
try increasing the frame rate in Debut. maybe that will help. i'm using Debut for making close-up clips from mkv's for example, and i use a rather high frame rate (the upper limit seems to be set at 55) in order to keeps the resolution as good as possible. of course higher frame rate will also make larger files i think it's worth it.

the disadvantage of Debut is that it will record all sounds which are running, so one has to mute all the other sounds except the one which one is recording. it will also record everything in the selected screen area, for example the mouse pointer so one has to be very careful while recording to avoid unnecessary things in the recording. 8-)
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Post by ame »

Marfo wrote:... Anyway, I already have the VLC media player. It does only that: play media. I cannot get streams to play. It has a very different interface from the Windows version. It cannot make clips. We discussed this last year in the technical 'help' pages.
...
these remarks puzzled me so that i made some survey... it can't be possible that VLC can only play media. i have a rather firm belief that VLC can do almost anything. it's only that one finds the right buttons to make it work.
- nowadays it can even record mkv-videos. :mrgreen:

i found a video where this guy shows how to make a recording of a DVD. something similar must work with streaming live camera as well. i hope this will help a bit.

in this guy's VLC window there weren't the record- and snapshot- or other control buttons. :puzzled:
there must be some way to make them visible so that recording will be only one button-click away, with no need to open any drop-down menus.

i also found this:
VLC is a free, open source application that functions as a standard media player and also allows Mac users to capture audio and video Web streams. To begin capturing a stream with VLC, launch the program, click the "File" menu and select the "Open Network..." option. Paste the URL of the stream in the designated field and tick the "Streaming/Saving" option. Click the "Settings" button and place a checkmark next to the "File" and "Display the Stream Locally" option. Select "MPEG 4" as the encapsulation method and click the "OK" button. Click the "Open" button to open the network and save the Web stream.
http://smallbusiness.chron.com/capturin ... 36826.html

or is it so that you cannot watch any live camera on the VLC? :puzzled:
how about this?


or how about this? this looks even better than the above video:
http://www.zachpoff.com/diy-resources/s ... -with-vlc/
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Post by Marfo »

Thanks ame, for your replies! I will dive into this and let you know. It may take a while, I am busy at the moment and for this kind of thing one needs full concentration :nod:
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Post by Marfo »

I have tried everything, installed the VLC web plugin, tried the suggestions ame gave (above), spent ages searching on the internet but I cannot get the VLC player to play live stream, let alone record it. I used the link for VLC on the first page of the forums. (mac osx 10.6.8, Firefox , VLC 2.2.3)
I did get it to stream for a short time, I don't know how, but there was a vague grey image with some colour.

Is there something I do not understand? Maybe I used the wrong settings?
I assume the Youtube streams for the Latvian cams cannot be used in VLC?

It is driving me mad :banghead:

edit: I have been searching again in the VLC "Documentation" and found this sentence: "Note that "Capture" is not available as an option in Mac OSX because VLC does not support live streaming of audio or video under Mac OSX"
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Post by Marfo »

A question about the youtube links. I don't think this is only a mac problem so I'll post it also on the technical questions forum.

Recently I have updated my iPhone to the latest IOS version (9.3.2). Since then some of the Youtube camera links I have bookmarked do not work anymore.: the time is 4 hours earlier. I have deleted my old bookmarks and tried to make new ones several times. As soon as they are bookmarked and I open them the time is 4 hours earlier. This is about the Latvian Black stork, Goshawk, Latvian Osprey. The new Stork webcam (Toonekurg) doesn't work at all on the iPhone, btw.
I can open the youtube links with youtube of course, but then I have to go back and forth between Youtube and Safari all the time, especially for the forums. That is unpractical and time consuming.
Now I don't think this is only a mac problem. There are many differences in the (availability) of links for these cams. The only links that work and have always worked on the iPhone are the Merikotkas links: both the iphone link and the pontu player html. link.
The Latvian WTE cam link works, but only the pontu player link.
For the other three (L. Black stork, Goshawk and L.Osprey) there is only a Youtube link available. These have the problem I mentioned above: when bookmarked the time is wrong. Now this could be an iPhone problem. But: the other cams have the youtube stream 'through' the pontu player link, that works. Is it possible to have that for the other cams as well? Could someone ask the technical people?

edit: solved see post: viewtopic.php?p=478037#p478037
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Post by Sapsan »

Good morning,
none of my last years windows 7 connections with various webcams (kalakotkas, merikotkas, black stork, bussard) work with my new iMac OS Sierra PC.
Not being a computer/internet expert, I wonder what is the reason for not finding access to the various 2017 nest-cams.
any advice would be thankfully appreciated.
regards Hans
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Post by Bea »

Good morning Sapsan,

there were changes in some links for this season, you can find the currently available links for all systems in the first posts of every topic.

Buzzards viewtopic.php?p=515032#p515032

Osprey2 viewtopic.php?p=516221#p516221

White tailed Eagles viewtopic.php?p=504053#p504053


Estonian Black Storks, Osprey and some other Estonian webcams are still offline, so none of last years links will work yet.
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Post by Sapsan »

Hallo Bea,
thx. for yr. answer. I'm afraid you are not quite right. In the meantime I found access to both the last years osprey and WTE nest cameras.
I have live coverage showing both nests actually being (still ?) empty but waving in quite strong wind.
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Post by Bea »

Really? Which which adress you found access to Mai/Mati nest? (kalakotkas)

For me it looks as if only Irma/Ivo nest (kalakotkas2) is already online :puzzled:

Estonian Black stork is still offline, too.

The way to the links for Estonian buzzards and WtE I showed you already in previous post.
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Post by Sapsan »

I am only talking about

tv.eenet.ee/hls/merikotkas.m3u8

and

tv.eenet.ee/hls/kalakotkas2.m3u8

servus
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Post by Sapsan »

Bea,
can you or someone else tell me whether the camera links which I mentioned before are the actual live cams or are they non-live videos ?
I wonder that both eagle nests at this time of year (end of March) have no residents yet. This is unusual to my opinion.
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Post by Bea »

http://tv.eenet.ee/hls/merikotkas.m3u8

This is the link to the 2017 live cam at the Estonian White tailed Eagles cam -Seeadler- (Anna and Uku`s nest in 2016), but it is not used as a breeding place this year. They probably decided to build a new nest on another place.

Link to the forum for this nest
viewtopic.php?f=18&t=864
Here you can read about all events this year

----
http://tv.eenet.ee/hls/kalakotkas2.m3u8

This is the link to the 2017 live cam of one of the Estonian Osprey nests -Fischadler- (Irma and Ivo´s nest in 2016). Ospreys have not yet returned from migration, the are short before migration or just in the beginning. We still have to wait until they return to their nests and then we will see who is going to breed here.
Probably we will see the first ospreys here in the beginning or mid of April.

Link to the forum for this nest
viewtopic.php?f=56&t=877
Here you can read about all events this year
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Post by Sapsan »

Good Morning Bea -
I need to come back to your latest post from March 24.
The WTE camera link http://tv.eenet.ee/hls/merikotkas.m3u8 does not work. When klicking on this, the result is: Not Found.
The link to the kalakotkas2 cam, however, works properly.
Do you have any explanation for the WTE cam problem ? Is there a problem ?
regards
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Post by ame »

hi sapsan!

the Estonian WTE camera stopped working some time ago. there is some sort of technical problem. Urmas wrote the little that he knows about it here ( a few posts above your question):
viewtopic.php?p=519050#p519050

at the moment no-one can see the camera.
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