Tag Archives: DVD
How to kid-proof your home theater
Every year, more than 22,000 children eight and younger are treated in hospital emergency rooms for injuries related to the instability or tipover of televisions, furniture, and appliances, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission. That’s because kids like to climb. They also like to stick food into Blu-ray player drawers and haphazardly press buttons.
Experts say that if your baby learns from day one that all those flashing lights and knobs are inaccessible, he or she won’t be as tempted to play with them later. So take these basic measures before your child starts crawling to safeguard him or her and your gear.
1. Anchor your TV to the wall
A child is killed every two weeks from tipover injuries. Usually it’s a toddler who’s climbed onto, fallen against or pulled up on furniture. So anchor your TV to
Article source: http://rssfeeds.usatoday.com/~r/usatoday-TechTopStories/~3/A9XY1ZpBhM8/1
5 of the coolest digital Easter eggs
Facebook with pirate flair
Do you have a Facebook profile? Of course you do. It seems like nearly everyone you meet these days has a digital persona to compliment the real-life counterpart, but after spending countless hours curating your virtual life online, the site can seem a little bland. Thankfully, the world’s most popular social network has a hidden treat to make your browsing experience unique: ridiculous language settings.
From your main Facebook account page, click on the small, downward-pointing arrow on the blue bar on the top of the window. A small menu should pop up. From there, click “Account Settings” and then the “Language” tab at the very bottom. Here you’ll find pretty much every language under the sun, as well as two bonus English settings named “Upside Down” and “Pirate.”
The upside down setting does exactly what you would expect: it flips all the text on
Article source: http://rssfeeds.usatoday.com/~r/usatoday-TechTopStories/~3/nCEY6X7ZaRk/1
Tip: How to copy a DVD to your PC
A: Although a DVD will show up on your computer’s desktop like any other kind of removable storage, it doesn’t work like a USB flash drive or a data CD. You’ll only see cryptically-named folders like “Video_TS” holding files that the video software on your computer probably won’t even recognize.
What you need is a specialized DVD-ripping program that will read the video information from the disc and save it in a file you can easily put on any other device: your computer, your smartphone, your iPad, whatever.
For that, I use a free, open-source program called Handbrake , a perennial favorite in this category. Select the DVD by clicking Handbrake’s “Source” button, and it should automatically detect its video content and offer to export it in a standard format that will work on most devices — although you
Article source: http://rssfeeds.usatoday.com/~r/usatoday-TechTopStories/~3/kilg-ohvpfo/1
Talking Your Tech: Kermit the Frog
He’s hip to social media
At the ripe age of 55, Kermit the Frog, a show business veteran of TV and movies, now refers to himself as a “2012 frog.” He’s been out there beating the drum for his return to the big screen, in the Oscar-winning The Muppets, by turning to such 21st-century tech outlets as Google Hangouts, Facebook and Twitter.
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MORE: Talking Your Tech
So on the eve of Tuesday’s release of Muppets on DVD and Blu-ray, we decided to pay a visit to the banjo-playing, singing frog to talk tech.
(Special thanks to Steve Whitmire, the man behind the frog.)
Facebook and Twitter Kermit pages
“Honestly, it’s my peeps. I have peeps who do that for me.” He has dictated some tweets, and he likes the 140-character limit that Twitter
Article source: http://rssfeeds.usatoday.com/~r/usatoday-TechTopStories/~3/2BiQjBuglyE/1
Projector can handle the light
Projector can handle the light
If you long for a big-picture but don’t want a big TV, a high-definition projector can help. One such model, the Acer H6500, can project high-definition 1080p video at 24 frames per second on a 300-inch space. Designed with color boosting technology, the projector makes adjustments so that colors pop, even when the image is projected on a tinted wall or in a sun-lit room. Compact enough to move from room to room, the projector delivers a 10,000:1 contrast ratio. It will go on sale this spring for about $900.
New iPad, new accessories
With the release of yet another iPad comes an endless supply of accessories to keep it safe and enhance viewing. Belkin has an eye-catching leather folio that promises to handle both tasks. Designed with protective corners to keep the iPad in place, the Cinema Leather Folio with
Article source: http://rssfeeds.usatoday.com/~r/usatoday-TechTopStories/~3/P9T6maUsRkk/1
