Category Archives: computing

General computing related how-to’s

iMovie 11 Photo Problem

Posted on by
Reply

What a fun couple of hours I’ve just spent going around in circles!

The task was to create a video of a recent family celebration consisting of a couple of bits of video and a few photos. Not an onerous task I thought and one that was eminently suited to the integrated iLife suite on my Mac.

With all the source material in iPhoto it’s into iMovie I go; create the new project, import the material into the timeline from iPhoto, apply the theme, transitions and titles and preview the finished article.

It all looked great up until the point when the photos started to appear. Although the photos showed correctly on the timeline when it actually played it just previewed the same photo each time. Okay, maybe it’s a preview issue so I rendered the movie out to check; forty-five minutes later and the problems still there!

A thorough Internet search ensued and it seems I’m not the only one seeing this problem. That’s good I thought as there’s bound to be a solution somewhere; so started my quest to find it. There were many entries discussing clearing iMovie caches and removing .plist files and I tried them all to no avail; iMovie resolutely refused to show the actual photo that was clearly visible in its timeline.

Finally, in a desperate last-ditch attempt I exported the photos from iPhoto to a folder on my desktop (as mentioned in the penultimate post on the third page here). I then imported them into the timeline from there and replaced the originals from iPhoto. Success!

It’s interesting that the integrated iLife suite isn’t entirely integrated but at least I found a workaround that meant I could finish the movie and share it with the family. I love the internet!

Poppa G

Home networking – an alternative to WiFi

Posted on by
Reply

In the early days I had a single internet connection in one room with a desktop computer tethered to it using a single cable providing all the internet nourishment I could want (as long as I didn’t want it quickly).

Things progressed and I started to want access from more devices. This complicated things slightly but fortunately WiFi arrived and touted as the answer to my connectivity prayers.

This was fine in the early days with one or two devices using the connection but nowadays everything is internet-enabled, smart TVs, Blu-Ray players, games consoles, phones, tablets; everything is always-on and fighting for a little bit of my internet connection.

The other problem with WiFi is more fundamental. I live in an older house with thick walls so there are areas where the connection is patchy or even non-existent. I struggled with this for a while until I discovered a wonderful technology called Powerline Networking. This really is true plug-and-play technology and one that I have had very few problems with – it just works!

The fundamental premise is that you put one of the plugs in a power socket in the room where your internet connection comes in and connect the two together. The signal is then sent around the whole house via your wiring to any number of plugs in other rooms (even across different wiring circuits). There are various manufacturers of these miraculous devices but I recommend that you stick to the same manufacturer for all plugs. Although there is a widely adopted standard for these devices and, in theory, you should be able to mix-and-match it’s not something I’d recommend doing.

There are a number of different products out there depending on the type of connection you need. There are plugs with multiple network sockets and there are even plugs that can act as WiFi hotspots so extending the range of any existing WiFi network. Personally, I have a number of single Powerline plugs in various rooms that connect to simple network switches and enable me to have multiple devices connected to the single Powerline plug.

This technology is incredibly easy to set-up, flexible and reliable and highly recommended if you’re finding WiFi just isn’t delivering what you need.

Poppa G