Use a song as a ringtone for the iPhone

April 6, 2009

NOTE: This is the my more detailed explanation of the process. If you’re looking for the quicker tutorial, from which this post was inspired. go here: http://www.pcworld.com/article/156234/turn_any_mp3_into_an_iphone_ringtone.html.

I wanted a way to use a song as a ringtone on my iPhone, and I didn’t want to pay for the priviledge. There is the option to download, for a fee, a song from the iTunes store, and pay another small fee to use it as a ringtone.

I don’t like spending money if I don’t have to, especially when it’s so easy to use one of your existing songs as a ringtone in about 30 seconds, once you get the hang of it and do it enough times. Here’s how.

1. First, find the song you want to set as a ringtone, and watching the playback timer, find the 30 seconds of the song you wish to use for the ringtone. i.e.: If a song is 3:38 in duration, maybe you only want from 0:23 – 0:53.

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2. Left-click the song you want as a ringtone to select it. Right-click it, and choose ‘Get Info’.

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3. On the ‘Options’ tab, put a checkmark in each box beside ‘start time’ and ‘stop time’, and enter those 30 seconds mentioned earlier, and click ‘ok’.

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4. Right click the song again, and choose ‘create AAC version’. The new AAC version of the song will appear directly below the original song, and will be 0:30 long.

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5. Right click the AAC version of the song, and left click ‘copy’. Right click and choose ‘paste’ in whichever folder on your computer you want to keep a copy of your ringtones.

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6. Right click on the AAC song you just pasted into your ringtones folder, and left click ‘rename’. Change the extension to “.m4r”, and press enter to make the changes.

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7. You will get a prompt confirming you want to change the file, click ‘yes.

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8. Back in iTunes, Right click the original AAC version of the song you copy&pasted, and choose ‘delete’.

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9. Right click the original song, and choose ‘Get Info’.

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10. Go to the ‘options’ tab, and uncheck those two boxes beside ‘start time’ and ‘stop time’, or every time you play that song from now on, it’ll only play those 30 seconds. Obviously, you don’t want that. Then click ‘ok’.

11. Go back to your ringtones folder outside of iTunes, and double left-click that “.m4r” file. It will automatically open in iTunes and be shown as a new ringtone.

12. Now, all you have to do in sync your iPhone with your computer. To use the new song as a ringtone on your iPhone, under ‘settings’, and ‘sounds’, and ‘ringtone’, choose your new ringtone, so your iPhone will begin using it. (as shown below)

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Best Bit Rate to Rip or Encode CDs or DVDs

July 29, 2008

According to Tech Guy Labs….

“Apple’s AAC is better than MP3, [but comes down to personal preference.]

Start at 128kbps. But go at least 160kbps, even with AAC. Makes a significant difference, but only takes up 25% more space. Patrick Norton [of Revision3] says that 320kbps is the max you can encode and hear a difference, . Leo says you can’t really hear any difference above 192. But Leo is older than Patrick.

Use Variable Bit Rate encoding (VBR) will waste less space and is an option in iTunes.”


Dubbing VHS tapes to DVD

May 16, 2007

a combo VHS-DVD Recorder is a good way to go. Absolutely – that’s the best way to do many tapes. I like the Panasonic recorders.

 source: techguylabs.com


Transferring video from an analog camcorder to the computer

March 4, 2007

You can get an external box like the Moviebox, or you can get an internal TV tuner like Hauppage[http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00008OOWC/leoville0f-20]. Another choice would be to get a DV camera with something called analog passthrough.

source: leo.am


Can’t delete empty podcast folders in iTunes

March 3, 2007

The thing to do is to go to the podcasts section and delete the podcast itself. The folders are there because you are subscribed to the podcast.

source: leo.am


DVD playback problems

January 11, 2007

There are 3 different problems. It sounds like, if it’s not playing correctly, it’s not being correctly formatted to be a standard DVD. Maybe the frame rate isn’t the correct value and such. Your program isn’t doing what it’s supposed to do. Take a look at DVDDemystified.com

It’s impossible to burn DVD’s on a PC that every player can play. Some older ones could only read -R’s, some only +R’s and some couldn’t play any recorded ones at all. A lot of them can’t play discs that aren’t Finalized correctly by the PC burner and lots of burners don’t finalize correctly. You can download DVDInfoPro and check his discs, if they look OK then he should go to videohelp.com and check the capability of his players. If his discs are correct he may have to upgrade to newer players.

source: leo.am


Any Way to Edit Content on CD or DVD After Disc is Finalized?

January 11, 2007

Once you finalize the disc in your DVD camcorder you can no longer record on it, so be prepared to bring several discs. You’ll also have to make a copy of the disc before you give it away. It’s a standard DVD so you can rip it with any DVD ripping software. To edit the resulting VOB files you’ll either need a video editor that understands VOBs (like MPEG Video Editor or AVS), or a converter to convert the VOB into an MPG file (AVS makes these as well).

source: callforhelptv.com


Save YouTube Videos

October 8, 2006

METHOD 1-VIDEO DOWNLOADER_____________ 

:: Links ::                                                                                   Firefox                                                                                     VideoDownloader (Extension for Firefox)                                      MediaCoder                                                                               FLV Player (eliminates need to convert) Instructions                                                                             

Download and install all of the free tools listed above.                  Go to a site (such as Youtube, MySpace…).                                 Search and find a video you would like to keep.                             Follow the instructions below.

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Click the VideoDownloader Button in the lower

right-hand corner of your Firefox Browser window.
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A window will pop-up. Click the button that says

‘Download Link.’

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Click ‘Save to Disk’ and then click ‘OK‘ in the ‘Downloads‘ window.

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NOTE: If the file you download does not have

the extension .flv, then rename the file (F2) and

end the name with .flv.
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● You can stop here if you have a .flv compatible player. If you

want to play the file in a media player or play in your DVD player,

you will need to convert it.

Start up MediaCoder.

Drag and Drop the .flv file(s) into the large white

area, or click ‘file’, then ‘add file’.
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Click the ‘Video‘ tab in the lower left-hand section                        on the window and select the codec you wish the                        converted file to be formatted as in the ‘Format‘                         drop-down menu.

Click the large ‘Start‘ button (third from the right

at the top of the window) to begin transcoding the video(s).

 

Image Hosted by ImageShack.us                                                               Once a window pops up saying that the                          transcoding has completed, then you are done!

  Now that you have the videos in .AVI format,

you can use Nero, or some other DVD video burning

program to burn these videos onto a DVD so you can

watch them on any standard DVD player!

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FLV Player (eliminates need to convert)

[Page created by K-Space™ Via Phat Hippo @ dvdhelp.us]

METHOD 2 – LEECHVIDEO_____________________

Easily save and convert videos that play in Internet                   Explorer or Firefox.  

:: Links ::                                                                                  Leechvideo (for IE and Firefox)                                                   FLV Player (eliminates need to convert) Instructions                       ● IE: Just hover your mouse over the currently playing            video and click on the LeechVideo icon on the video to                open the ‘save as’ dialog .● FIREFOX: click blue “v” in                  lower right hand corner.

You can choose to save the video in iPod format (.mov),             PSP format (.mp4) or ‘none’ format and the software will                do the rest.

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Click ‘browser’ to search for a ‘save directory’ where                    you want the converted file to be saved.                                         To make it easier to find the file, you can rename the file.              Click ‘download!’ to automatically download the file                    and convert it.                                                                             A pop-up will appear informing you the file has been converted. Click ‘ok’ and click ‘close’.


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