How to Rip and Convert DVDs Using VLC Media Player

VLC Media Player is arguably the best media player available and it's totally free and open-source. In addition to playing damn-near any video file you can imagine, this wonderful little guy also has a built-in streaming client/server. That may not mean much to you, but we're going to use these capabilities to rip almost any DVD and convert it into a small, usable file all in a single (albeit complicated) step.First off, you can get VLC here. Windows users can also get this "portable" version, which...

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How to Find, Play and Download Free Music Online Using Songbird

Update: While this tutorial certainly still works, Songbird has gone through some substantial changes since this was written and much of it can be accomplished more easily by using the search function at skreemr.com (which is available immediately in Songbird now, btw).This is a variation on an old trick using the new open-source media player, Songbird. There are tons of places to find guides on using Google search-modifier strings to find exactly what you want, be it songs, programs, pictures,...

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The Easy Way to Download Commercial-free TV shows with BitTorrent using Miro

The Easy Way to Download Commercial-free TV shows with BitTorrent using Miro1. Getting StartedThe best way to download TV shows online is to use BitTorrent. However, it can be a pretty complicated process, requiring you to search various torrent trackers for the torrent files and then fiddle with often-complicated torrent clients. Instead of all that, I'm going to show you how to do it all through a single free, open-source program called Miro (download it here).One of the great things about Miro...

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