G33K-TRICKS: Others
Showing posts with label Others. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Others. Show all posts

Friday, June 24, 2016

Audio Testing Links for headphones and speakers


How to Test your Headphone and Speaker




Found a  nice Audio testing Website which I wanted to share with you all.


There are plenty of Audio test files which you can directly run over your browser and then you can put your Headphones or Speaker to test.



For Audio tests on your headphones 
http://www.audiocheck.net/soundtests_headphones.php


List of other Sound / Audio tests
http://www.audiocheck.net/soundtestsaudiotesttones_index.php

Saturday, April 16, 2016

How to change the resolution of videos or images : Quick and easy steps


Change the Image and Video Resolution using FFMPEG Tool



Changing the video resolution can also be termed as Scaling the Video / Resizing the Video.
How to change the video resolution
Image Resizing

One of the easiest way for manipulating the videos is to use FFMPEG tool.
FFMPEG is a free software that can produce libraries and programs for handling multimedia input. It can decode, encode, transcode, mux, demux, stream, filter and play pretty much anything that humans and machines have created.


You can download ffmpeg tool from here based on your OS

FFMPEG uses the libswscale library to scale the input video.
[The scale filter forces the output display aspect ratio to be the same of the input, by changing the output sample aspect ratio.
If the input image format is different from the format requested by the next filter, the scale filter will convert the input to the requested format.]

For all the options available with FFMPEG scaling you can see
http://ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg-filters.html#toc-Options-1


Examples:

ffmpeg -i input_file.avi -vf scale=320:240 output_file.avi


With the above command the aspect ratio will also change. If you want to keep the aspect ratio same after changing the video resolution you have to specify only one component, either width or height. And have to set the other component to -1.

Example:
ffmpeg -i input_file.jpg -vf scale=320:-1 output_file_320.png

The above commands will work with Image files as well.
You can change the image resolution using the ffmpeg tool too.

You may also like visit few other pages:
http://g33ktricks.blogspot.com/2016/03/how-to-disable-microsoft-onedrive.html
http://g33ktricks.blogspot.com/2016/03/hack-web-sites-using-hexjector.html
http://g33ktricks.blogspot.com/2016/03/how-to-view-cams-for-free-all-over-world.html

Tuesday, April 5, 2016

[Free] [Updated 2023] List of OTT HLS M3U8 test URLs


HLS (HTTP Live Streaming) M3U8 URLs for Testing

HLS Sample URLS for Testing

Introduction:

Video real time is an essential piece of the cutting edge web. It's all over: on PCs, TVs, cell phones, and even on wearables like VR sets. It needs to work perfectly on each gadget and system type, be it on moderate portable associations, WiFi, behind firewalls. HLS is developed by Apple Inc., which is HTTP based media streaming protocol. Apple's HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) was made precisely in view of these difficulties. 

Practically all cutting edge gadgets come blessed with present day equipment that is sufficiently quick to play video, so speedy and unwavering quality rise as the most serious issue. Why would that be? Before more than couple of years, the standard method of putting away and distributing video were UDP-based conventions like RTP. This demonstrated tricky from multiple points of view. Here are few of them- 
- You need a worker (daemon) administration to stream content. 

- Considering the global public over the internet, you will need a streaming daemon service running in different parts of the world to cater them.

- And most firewalls by-design permit just standard ports and system traffic types, such as http.

Why Legacy streaming system is floppy:

Efficiency is the biggest issue here. The actual size of the video data is getting high and consiquently increases the file size. Transferring files with big size is a challenge on its own and areas where the connectivity is poor or high bandwidth is not available, its difficult for the users to view such high bitrate, high resolution videos.So, we need a solution that would download the amount of video which is approximately the same which can be played. Other way would be to reduce the resolution as mentioned above but here the bandwidth is not completely utilised and its getting wasted. Here comes the role of Adaptive Bitrate Streaming 
As the name suggest, the media bitrate area calculated on the fly and used for rendering the media stream.

A special thing about HLS is that, the HLS packet can easily pass through firewalls or proxy servers as it is HTTP based request and not like UDP based protocol like RTP. Its an ABS (Adaptive Bitrate Streaming) protocol which uses m3u8 files to describe media streams which underneath uses HTTP hence the name HTTP Live Streaming.

The HLS is comprised of M3u8 PlayList which is plain text file format made to organize collections of MP3 files and Media files for various stream.

HTTP Live Streaming i.e. HLS is not open standard likewise most of the technology from Apple, thus it is difficult to find the content from the Open source Community.

Overall, if you see, the MPEG-DASH and HLS test streams OR the .m3u8 streams are very important for you to test your solutions. These streams on this site are good source for you to test various format as well.

Below, I am sharing collective list of sample HLS Files and List of Publicly available HLS streams including DASH streams for you to help with your development.

What is HLS Streaming?

HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) is a streaming protocol developed by Apple for delivering live and on-demand media content over the internet. It is widely used for streaming video and audio content to devices such as smartphones, tablets, smart TVs, and desktop computers.
HLS works by breaking the media stream into small chunks and sending them over the internet using HTTP. Each chunk is typically a few seconds long and is encoded in a specific video format, such as H.264, and an audio format, such as AAC. These chunks are then stored on a web server, and a playlist file, usually in M3U8 format, is generated and sent to the client device.
The playlist file contains a list of the available chunks, along with their URLs and metadata, such as duration and bitrate. The client device requests the playlist file and uses it to download the chunks one by one and play them in sequence. The client device can also adapt the quality of the stream based on the available bandwidth, which means that the video quality can be adjusted to match the network conditions.
HLS is widely supported by web browsers, mobile devices, and streaming media players, and it is compatible with both iOS and Android devices. It is also used by many popular streaming services, including Netflix, YouTube, and Amazon Prime Video.


M3U8 /  HLS(HTTP Live Streaming) streams for testing:

The HLS test streams (.m3u8 streams)  are difficult to find. Here is a quick list of streams that you can use for testing m3u8 format. Copy paste the links to your browser for downloading them.

[EDIT]
Added few more direct links which include m3u8 file format

AES HLS proxy simulation (Thanks to MS Azure):  Likewise other platforms, Microsoft(MS) and Azure Media Services have also been working really hard with DASH. They have come up with MPEG-DASH and below is the link. 
      Dynamic
      Static
DASH Industry Forum:MPEG-DASH Test Vectors 

New HLS DATA sets from different sources


There are different university that are also working HLS and we are lucky to have such data set available to us. Thanks to the researchers for their work.

University Klagenfurt, ITEC DASH Dataset: It was one of the first MPEG-DASH dataset available and now it also has MPEG-DASH. You can see the content with Full movie length  in different resolutions till 1080p. 

Telecom ParisTech, GPAC: UHD HEVC DASH Dataset: These guys have UHD HEVC dataset, which they created under 4Ever project . The DASH sequences provided by them is  HEVC encoding from 720p30 @ 2Mbps up to 2160p60 @ 20 Mbps. They have content with 1080p60 and 10 bits 2160p60The dataset content is distributed under the terms of the Creative Common by-nc-nd Licence.
BBC MPEG-DASH Test Data: BBC have been leading in forefront on MPEG-DASH and they do actively work on it. BBC uses MPEG DASH in their productions and have shared us the RnD link.

Youtube :
 Why would Google be behind. Youtube. Google Movies uses  MPEG-DASH mostly. They do have DRM protected content which utlizes MPEG-CENC and Widevine.

GPAC MPEG-DASH Dataset: From the content which they had shared, its very easy to use and test. Their content includes ISO Base Media File Format as well as MPEG2-TS.



Do let me know in comments, if you find the links useful. Credit goes to Apple, Akamai, Unified Streaming, Dolby, Azure for generating and hosting these free HLS m3u8 URLs for the community.

You can refer to RTSP URL sample pages here

You May Also like my Post : HOW TO Speed Up your Browser

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Sunday, March 27, 2016

Tips on Go Green and Save Energy


How to Save Energy and Go Green

    Save Nature , go green
  • Avoid the car: When taking a short trip, choose to walk, cycle or use public transport. This reduces your carbon footprints and is also good for your health
  • Check your tyres: Fully inflated tyres can reduce a car's fuel emissions by up to 5%. Maths is the answer
  • Drive slower - and smoother: Staying within the speed limit and smoothly accelerating can save up to 25% of a vehicle's fuel use
  • Use energy-saving light bulbs: These compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) use up to 75% less energy and last 10 times longer. The LEDs are another great inventions and LEDs are the best option that we have for saving power
  • Switch off when you leave: Lighting an empty office wastes enough energy to boil water for 1,000 cups of coffee and doubles a company's annual electric bill
  • Recharge you batteries: If not disposed of carefully, batteries can be harmful to the environment due to the acids and metals used in their manufacture. Rechargeable batteries are safer, last longer and therefore cheaper
  • Go solar: It may seem expensive, but the government and many states offer programs and rebates to offset the costs
  • Turn out the Sun light: Switching off one bulb for one hour saves up to 22,000 watts per year
  • Keep your cool: It takes a refrigerator three minutes and a freezer 30 minutes of high-energy use to cool down after being opened for just one minute. So, try avoiding to keep the refrigerator open for more time un-wantedly
  • Unplug your charger: 95% of the energy used by a phone charger is wasted by being left plugged in
  • Make fast food: (Not the Fast-Food) Cooking quicker uses less energy - switch from the grill to the toaster, from the oven to the microwave
  • Consume responsibly: Avoid buying products that are excessively packaged
  • Print double-sided: Using both sides of the paper is highly effective and easy. It reduces your paper consumption by up to 50%. Again simple maths :)
  • Plant a tree: Trees make a big difference by continually removing carbon from the atmosphere. It is a worth while long-term in initiative. Although, just for fun fact - it's the algae around the globe that produces Oxygen more than the trees and plants.
  • Reduce paper consumption: Think before you print. On average, each worker uses 50 sheets a day. Recycle and reuse, or don't print
  • Take shorter showers: Making your shower one or two minutes shorter saves up to 2650 litres a month
  • Stop dripping: 10 drops a minutes wastes up to 6 litres of water everyday
  • Turn off the tap: Doing this when brushing teeth or shaving saves water, because a running faucet wastes 10 litres of water a minute
  • Bring out the clothesline: Take advantage of nature - a clothesline takes longer than a dryer but uses no energy, produces no emissions and is free! With each load, an electric dryer generates more than six pounds of greenhouse gases
  • Shop fresh: Fresh produce requires less packaging and can help improve your diet and overall health
  • Pay bills online: Easy and saves your time to go to billing location

You may Like to see my other post: Energy Savings Tricks