An A.I. perspective on Standard VHS versus 4:1:1 sampling

is standard VHS closer to 4:1:1 or 4:2:2 subsampling?

Standard VHS video quality does not directly correlate to digital chroma subsampling formats like 4:1:1 or 4:2:2 because VHS is an analog format. However, we can make an approximate comparison based on the effective color resolution and the way VHS handles color information.

VHS Color Resolution

 VHS, an analog format, uses a composite video signal where the luma (brightness) and chroma (color) signals are combined. The color resolution of VHS is significantly lower than its luma resolution. Here’s a general comparison:

• Luma (Y): VHS can resolve around 240 lines of horizontal resolution.
• Chroma (C): The color resolution of VHS is much lower, typically around 30-40 lines of horizontal resolution.

Comparison to Digital Chroma Subsampling

When comparing to digital formats:

• 4:1:1:

  • Luma: 720 pixels per line.
  • Chroma: 180 pixels per line (a quarter of the luma resolution).

• 4:2:2:

  • Luma: 720 pixels per line.
  • Chroma: 360 pixels per line (half of the luma resolution).

Approximate Digital Equivalent

Given the much lower chroma resolution of VHS, it is closer to 4:1:1 chroma subsampling rather than 4:2:2. Here’s why:

• Chroma Resolution: The color resolution of VHS is significantly reduced compared to its luma resolution, similar to how 4:1:1 reduces chroma resolution to a quarter of the luma resolution.

Summary

While VHS does not use digital chroma subsampling, its effective color resolution is more similar to the 4:1:1 digital format. The 4:1:1 subsampling method reduces chroma resolution significantly, akin to the low chroma resolution of VHS. Therefore, standard VHS is closer to 4:1:1 than to 4:2:2 in terms of effective color resolution.

 

Tracking Roth and Traditional contributions in One Retirement Account

 I am new at trying to use the "old" way and found it confusing from the Threads available.

Simply, in as few words as possible;

1. Quicken lets you set up a new account of type 401k (x) tax deferred.
2. When you setup a paycheck using
3. [BILLS & INCOME] tab > [Add v] button > "Add Income Reminder"
4. Looking down at the bottom of the dialog click on "Paycheck setup wizard"

Choose (x) Gross amount > [Next] button

Company name: "myemployer" > [Next] button

Fill out the sections for your paycheck, adding a

[Add Pre-Tax Deductions] > Other Pre-Tax Deduction

1. Name: Broker - Traditional
2. Category: replace the word "Salary" with the "[401k Account]" you set up, type but ignore the dialog that pops up > "[401k Account]/Traditional" and press enter, press [OK], ignore the [New Tag] dialog and press [Save]
3. Amount: enter an amount if you like, press [OK]

[Add After-Tax Deductions] > Other After-Tax Deduction

1. Name: Broker - Roth
2. Category: replace the blank field with the "[401k Account]" you set up, type but ignore the dialog that pops up > "[401k Account]/Roth" and press enter, press [OK], ignore the [New Tag] dialog and press [Save]
3. Amount: enter an amount if you like, press [OK]

When a paycheck is "Action > Entered" from Bills&Income, "tagged" contributions will be placed into the same 401k account; you can tell from their tags their contribution type.

My Retirement Account does not track contributions separately until withdrawl, it lumps them into a ratio between the total of each contribution type which adds up to 100 percent.

On the day of withdrawl the current contribution ratio is used to calculate the available funds of each type from the total of the balance in the account.

A report to find out the current contribution totals can be run from;

Reports > Banking > Transaction

Select [Accounts] tab > [Clear all] button, and check the account "401k account"

Select [Tags] tab > [Clear all] button, and check the tags "Roth" and "Traditional"

Press the [Show Report] button

Select the [Date range: Year to date v] pick the [Custom to Date], press [OK]

a tabulate report will appear with only the tagged transactions for the account chosen.

—

This is a work around.

The important parts are the "/Roth" and "/Tradition" tag creation and appending to the Paycheck Cash Transfer Transaction type, not all Transaction types support tags.

This workaround does not support the Tax Planning or Forecasting features of Quicken, it allows you to manually track contribution types and reconcile with some retirement plan reports.

I find it better than nothing.

A more Robust solution would be appreciated.

Windows XP Mode on Win7 with VirtualBox

 Windows XP Mode was a freely activated copy of Windows XP from 2001 that ran on Windows 7 Pro and Win 7 Ultimate in the old Connectix Virtual PC. Microsoft acquired Connectix Virtual PC and made it into a a standalone installation package which had to be installed separately from an installer that contained a Windows VHD image of a Windows XP machine called Windows XP Mode.

Windows XP Mode did not need to be activated online, since it relied upon a new version of Activation called OEM BIOS Locking.

The Microsoft Virtual PC software has a form of virtual BIOS which contains the activation key for Windows XP Mode, so after installation was complete within the Virtual PC instance it would autoactivate, or already be activated.

VirtualBox is a slightly more advanced virtual machine kit which comes from Oracle, but also runs on many Windows, Linux and MacOSX and MacOS platforms.

VirtualBox also has a way of loading a BIOS image if dumped from a running systems memory using a tool like SLIC Toolkit. By modifying the dumped image and adjusting the Virtual Machine Settings using the VBoxmanage.exe tool to load it.. the Windows XP Mode image can be loaded into Virtualbox on not only Windows, but Linux, MacOSX and MacOS.. 

The Windows XP Mode VHD must be converted first however using the VBoxmanage tool to clonehd the image and export it as format VDI.

The placement of the BIOS activation string within the modified BIOS dump also moves around slightly from VBox 4.0 to 5.1-5.22 to 6.0 by a single or more bytes. The BIOS is compiled differently for each version of VBox. This technique is known to work on those versions, but the latest version is 7.0 and it is not known if it can still be made to work on that version.

VirtualBox is also know for supporting USB pass thru and offers a more robust long term way of supporting XP SP3 as activated on more varied and modern os platforms in the current year.

DV 4:1:1 and 320x240 NTSC Video Capture

Sampling 720 x 480 over an actual 320x240 full color picture.

320 x 2 = 640

240 x 2 =480

640 x 480 : 720 x 480 is over fit more than 2:1

Color Alone 160 x 120 : 720 x 480 is over fit more than 4:1

 

(sencore)

320x240 : 160x120 = Luma: Chroma

4:1 from 720 x 480 is a Perfect fit for full color capture

NTSC is field based so has more horizontal than vertical information per unit of time

"mixing" fields to "simulate" Progressive images is incorrect, artifacting is inevitable

DV is frame based storage it "does" compress the interlaced video into progressive frames.

4:1:1 more properly captures 100 percent of the Luma, Chroma and Temporal resolution without distortion

Even if capturing a theoretical 400 or 500 TVL, 720x480 is still over sampling and the increased resolution is in the Luma dimension, not the Chroma, bandwidth allocation is fixed.

 

(sencore)

720 x 480 DV 4:1:1 is still more than enough to capture everything available 

The shape of the pixels captured for an NTSC signal are appropriate for the dimensions of the signal information available and skew more towards the horizontal dimension where there is more information.

The shape of the pixels captured for an ATSC signal are appropriate for the dimensions of the signal information available and skew more towards the vertical dimension to encompass the change in format from interlaced to progressive.

4:1:1 DV is appropriate for 4:3 Aspect and 720x480 digital capture

4:2:0 HDV is appropriate for 16:9 Aspect and 1280 x 720 digital capture

in plain simple language, DV video is appropriate for NTSC 4:3 video capture

in plain simple language HDV video is appropriate for NTSC 16:9 video capture

there is a "Reason" why these standards were developed, they are "overfit" for their purpose

While "live" Broadcast can in theory exceed what can be stored on Video tape in many cases, most of that available on VHS never stored the maximum available and it is already lost.

Using M4B Audiobook files in Windows 7

Apple basically came up with the MPEG-4 container format MP4 but also came up with the M4B to host audiobooks in AAC format with Artwork and tags of information about the books.

Windows supports M4A format files with basically most of the same functions for storing AAC and Artwork and tags of information, but do not contain the ability to store Chapters or a Bookmark as in an M4B file format.

Within Apple the iTunes program properly handles M4B format and exposes Chapter navigation and stores the last played position as a bookmark.

On Windows the iTunes for Windows program does much the same thing.

However probably the best M4B file format "viewer" or audiobook playback is found with VLC - Video Lan Client 2.2.6 "Umbrella"

In VLC its possible to navigate the chapter marks on the playback timeline as they show up as short vertical grey lines across the bottom of the timeline.

The Playback menu has a complete Chapter menu for jumping specifically to any chapter.

And Custom Bookmarks can be created and written to the M4B file and then referred to so that Playback could jump to a specific Custom Bookmark.

VLC has an xml based Playlist system and a concept for a Media Library that deviates a little from Apple iTunes and Windows Media Player.

First there is the "Media Library" Playlist, disabled by default. It is a special xml playlist stored in the folder with other user interface configuration options; 

Example:

C:\Users\jwillis\AppData\Roaming\vlc\ml.xspf

It gets created by turning on the feature under;

Tools> Preferences >"Show Settings -  [x] All 

Then traveling down to branch [+] Playlist and checking > Use media library

The ml.xspf file gets populated by one of two ways:

1. right clicking with a mouse in the main window and selecting + files or +folders

2. by drag and dropping files or folders on the main window

Then shutting down the VLC client and restarting it will have automatically saved those choices in the ml.xspf file and reload them in the > "Media Library" branch of the [Media Library]

note: VLC will continue to default to loading nothing and focus there on start up, you have to click on the Media Library / Media Library in order to see that it saved your previous media choices.

You can default the Playlist under Media Library / Playlist to refer to a personal xml format .xspf file, but it will not open it.. unless you set the "Default stream" option under:

Tools> Preferences >"Show Settings -  [x] All 

Then traveling down to branch [+] Playlist and filling out "Default stream [ ________ ]

With a specially formatted  "Reverse slash" path prefixed with a file: operator like this -

file:///C:/Users/jwillis/AppData/Roaming/vlc/ml.xspf

And checkboxes that include "Auto start"

But that will also immediately start playing the Playlist.

If you do not it will offer you the choice to open the xspf file to list the choices, but it will not by default display the contents unless clicked upon.

Using the other method with Media Library is frankly closer to what you would expect, you just have to remember to travel to the folder under Playlist to see the most recently saved collection of media.

 

Getting Intel NUC DCCP 847DY -DYE Bluetooth working with Headphones for Windows 7 x64

This took a long time to figure out. Here are the basics;

The NUC arrives with [ Intel(R) Centrino(R) Advanced-N 6235 ] its a dual Ethernet Card and Bluetooth Adapter.

When you install the Ethernet drivers, it does not install a Manufacturers driver for the Bluetooth Adapter, instead it installs a generic Microsoft driver which does not include Bluetooth Profile Providers for the various functions of the device. Thus you could pair a headset with the adapter, it would show up in the Devices and Printers section, but it would have no profile providers and not appear as an audio device.

The fix is to find a complete manufacturers Bluetooth driver with Profile Providers and then pair the device.

 

TLDR - get the Lenovo 

Intel(R) Centrino(R) Wireless Bluetooth(R) 4.0 + High Speed Adapter Software for Windows 7 (32-bit, 64-bit), XP - ThinkPad T431s, X230s

Its large,  298 MB but its worth it.

It comes from 2013 but it does install, separate and side by side to the existing and working Ethernet driver and it installs a complete set of Bluetooth Profile Providers.

A few tips;

Any pre-existing paired devices will not be "fixed" simply by installing this after they are paired and showing up in the Devices and Printers.. you have to remove them, reboot and pair again.

During the install there is an EXE and an MSI phase.. so it looks like its installing multiple packages using multiple methods.

After package install and pairing, Device Manager will show an anemic looking "Bluetooth Audio" device, which is a little odd for a Bluetooth device the Bluetooth Profile Providers don't usually show up in Device Manager.

All oddities aside this Lenovo driver package seems to follow the Bluetooth design guidelines to a "tee" and integrate with Windows 7 x64 very well.

Final Tip!

When downloading from Lenovo, it will popup a box asking for a Serial Number, lots of text .. ignore all of it. Go to the very bottom and click [Cancel] and a banner will appear over the same page you were launching the download from. It warns this software may not work with your hardware - click the download link again, it will begin downloading.

Qnap vs Synology - NAS Storage systems

From my perspective; both are based on Linux, both are companies based in Taiwan. The QNAP OS (Qnap Turbo Station) is intuitive for Apple Mac users, The Synology OS (Disk Station Manager) is intuitive for Windows users. 

Qnap is more a build it yourself solution that lets you select from many hardware options and sticks to EXT4, everything is an add-on. It supports more traditional RAID levels and can appear bare bones. RAID drives need to be identical in size.

Synology is more a complete solution out of the box preconfigured hardware with fewer options, with access to BTRFS out of the box. RAID drives can be different sizes and leverage SHR (Synology Hybrid RAID) 1 and 2. So in that way its closer to having Drobo like features.