Top 4 Sites To Download Free, Legal Concert Recordings

The internet allows for a huge increase in connection and community as well as media – more specifically, music. With such a demand, a wave of new file sharing was born that is now called called BitTorrent. This allows users to share files easily by storing separate files, not on one person’s computer, but multiple computers with certain pieces of files on them to allow downloading from multiple locations and thus speeding up downloading. (More information on BitTorrent here.)Unfortunately today, BitTorrent has become the mainstream way for sharing copyrighted content. There are a few sites though (like LegalTorrents), that do offer torrents that are free and legal.
Today we will be looking, more specifically, at some of the sites that offer live concert recordings available for download. In order to download these files to your computer you will need a torrent client, like utorrent (Windows) or Transmission (Mac, Linux). Here they are, in no particular order:

Etree

Etree is a site dedicated to providing numerous free and open-source related material and media with torrents being one of the best sections of the site. More specifically located at bt.etree.org, Etree hosts an incredible amount of free, legal, concert recordings available for download and distribution. With a fairly large amount of leechers and seeders, Etree continually has a growing archive of torrents and live concert recordings from artists like Grateful Dead, Phish, Widespread Panic, etc.Etree is definitely one of the best resources for accessing the best free, legal concert recordings on the web.

Sugarmegs

Sugarmegs is one of the most famous archives of free, legal, concert recordings ever created. While currently hosting over 19,000 live concert recordings and approximately 4,000 bands, you will surely find what you are looking for. Bands range from the Allman Brothers to ZZ Top. Concerts can be streamed through their website, or on your computer with a .asx file. They also offer full concerts in WMA format. Sugarmegs is definitely has one of the largest archives of free, legal torrents on the web.

Internet Archive

The Internet Archive (conveniently placed at archive.org) is one of the most incredible websites that has ever existed. The main intention of the site is to archive all available media and information available to mankind (e.g. books, movies, websites, etc.) and, yes, that does mean audio. With an archive of over 54,000 live concert recordings, you are sure to find just about any genre and any type of music that is currently available to mankind.

COTapers

COTapers, while hosting a much smaller series of torrents then Etree, Sugarmegs, or The Internet Archive, has quite a large archive or torrents that are, of course free. COTapers, actually, does not host all of its BitTorrents, but only the most recent recordings. Still, the collection is more then enough to listen to for quite a while.Do you know of any other cool sites to download free music from? Tell us in the comments!

Source: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/top-places-to-get-free-legal-concert-recordings/

How to Rip a DVD to Your Computer

Say you have a movie on DVD, but you want to watch it on your phone, tablet, somewhere else. You can "rip" that DVD—or turn it into a movie file on your computer—to play it wherever you want. Here's how to do it.

Blast from the past is a new weekly feature at Lifehacker, in which we revive old, but still relevant, posts for your reading and hacking pleasure. This week, we're updating our video guide to ripping DVDs.

Ripping a movie to your hard drive can seem like a complicated task, but it's actually pretty simple. There are a lot of ways to do it and a lot of different programs out there, but our favorite method uses a program called Handbrake. It's easy to use, it's available for Windows, Mac, and Linux, and it'll convert your file into compatible formats for any device, like an iPad or Android phone. The video above should walk you through the process, but you can follow along with these instructions.

1. Head to Handbrake's homepage and download the program. Install it to your computer as directed.
2. By default, Handbrake can rip unprotected DVDs, but most DVDs you buy from the store have copy protection. To get around this, you'll need to install libdvdcss. On Windows, you can download this file separately (here for 32-bit systems and here for 64-bit systems), rename it to libdvdcss.dll, and put it in your Handbrake program folder (C:\Program Files\Handbrake). If you're on a Mac, download this file and double-click to install it.
3. Insert the DVD you want to rip, and open Handbrake.
4. Click the Source button in the upper left-hand corner and choose your DVD drive from the list. It will start scanning your DVD, which could take a few minutes.
5. When it's done, head to the "Title" drop-down menu in the upper left hand corner of the window. This is where you'll select which part of the DVD you want to rip. In the case of movies, it's usually the longest title, so just pick that one. If you're ripping episodes of a TV show, it's usually the 22 or 44 minute ones, and you'll have to rip them each separately.
6. Click the Browse button on the right side of the window. Navigate to where you want to save your movie file, and type in a file name in the box. Click OK.
7. Next, head to the bar on the right labeled "Presets". This is where you'll choose what format the resulting file will be in. If you just want to watch it on your computer, the "Normal" or "High Profile" preset is fine. If you want to watch it on something like your iPod or iPhone, though, pick the correct preset from the list.
8. Hit the Start button at the top of the window. This will take awhile, so you'll probably want to grab a cup of tea.
9. When it's done, you'll get a popup notification. From there, you can double-click on your movie file to watch it, or sync it to your device of choice. Enjoy!

It seems like a lot of steps at first, but it really isn't very difficult—especially after your first time through. Once you've installed the libdvdcss file, for example, you can skip that step in the future.

It's just a matter of picking the right chapter from the DVD and ripping it to the right format. Note that if you're going to be ripping a lot of DVDs, you can head to Tools > Options (or Handbrake > Preferences, if you're on a Mac), and hit "Browse" next to "Default Path" to choose a location for all the other movies you rip in the future. You can also click "Add to Queue" instead of "Start" and rip multiple files at once, which is great for ripping TV shows.

Good luck and enjoy your newly ripped DVD!

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5809765/how-to-rip-a-dvd-to-your-computer

Convert FLAC Audio Files To MP3 With Custom Metadata & Bitrate

Although there a ton of different audio formats out there, many media devices such as iPods, smartphones and tablets, and desktop music players like Windows Media Player and iTunes are usually compatible with only a few specific ones. FLAC is one of the formats that not many devices and media players support out of the box. It is a lossless audio format that can carry uncompressed, high quality audio but comes at the cost of its large file size. Fortunately, there are quite a few different audio converters that let you convert FLAC to one of the commonly used audio types such as MP3 or WAV. If you’re looking for an easy way of converting FLAC to other popular formats in bulk, take Free Convert FLAC To MP3 for a spin. This small yet powerful Windows application is breeze to use, thanks to its well-designed interface, simple navigation, great output options and contrary to what its name would suggest, impressive output format support.



Besides its simple design and ease of use, the application sports a large number of output files, including MP3, WMA, AAC, M4A, OGG, AIFF, WAV, AC3, MP2, AU and AMR, which should sum up every major format out there. Getting started with the application is a piece of cake. When installed and launched, you can add a batch of files via selecting a whole directory, or using drag and drop gestures to add any files you want individually or in groups.

The application then displays the metadata information for the tracks such as name, duration, sampling rate, bitrate, channels, size etc. Next, you need to select the output format as well as its quality using the drop down menus. The application carries a set of predefined profile parameters for setting audio quality starting from lowest to highest. That said, you may also specify a custom profile of your choice by clicking the Edit button and then adjusting audio stream and metadata information in the resultant pop up window. Once ready, select the destination directory and click Convert to begin the conversion process.

Another interesting feature of the application is its built-in audio playback capability that lets you play the selected FLAC files without using a third party player. The playback section contains all the basic playback controls for next, preview, play, stop and volume, accompanied by a seek bar. There’s no playlist, equalizer or media library feature though, but then again, the app is basically a converter and isn’t intended to be used primarily as a player.

Although it’s not jam-packed with an umpteen number of features, Free Converter FLAC To MP3 works great for quickly converting FLAC files to other popular audio formats. It works on Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8.
Download Free Convert FLAC To MP3

Source: http://www.addictivetips.com/windows-tips/free-convert-flac-to-mp3/

Media Player Classic 1.7.6 Final Released for Download

Media Player Classic today received a brand new update that includes new options and plenty of bug fixes, so everyone running the app at this time should make sure that they are getting the fresh version as soon as possible. (07-07-2014)

Media Player Classic 1.7.6 comes with a new option to control subtitle renderer behavior regarding anamorphic video, while also adding a setting in the “Save Subtitle” dialog to control the export of the default style as an external “.style” file.

At the same time, it also changes some parameters concerning the text subtitles and updates the built-in modules for better stability and reliability.

It also fixes a number of bugs and issues that were affecting the dockable bars, full screen playback, auto-zooming, and a number of other features that are being used on a regular basis.

The application continues to provide support for all Windows versions, including XP, and it even comes with some improvements specifically developed for this particular OS edition. XP no longer receives updates and security patches since April 8, 2014.

Overall, this is clearly an update that comes in handy to everyone looking for a lightweight yet advanced video player, so download Media Player Classic 1.7.6 right now to see what it brings new.

Source: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Media-Player-Classic-1-7-6-Final-Released-for-Download-449786.shtml