Tag: Linux

Categories
Device Hardware Laptop Linux Solutions Ubuntu

Getting the Latest Ubuntu Graphics Drivers on Samsung NC20

Official Ubuntu circle with wordmark. Replace ...
Image via Wikipedia

To get the best graphics performance out of your Samsung NC20, you will need to install the latest graphics drivers.  These drivers unfortunatey are not easy to find on the web, so here is a step-by-step installation instructions for driver installation on Ubuntu 10.10.  Special thanks to the wonderful folks at Ubuntu Forums(Wonderful source, thumbs up to the contributors).
{adinserter 2}
The steps explained below were taken from post #542 from this Ubuntu Forums page.

  1. Download this zip file via_chrome9_drv_u1010_v2.zip and unzip it
  2. Open a terminal window and change into that directory (“cd ~” for home dir)
  3. Install the “dkms” package from Ubuntu package repository
    $ sudo apt-get install dkms
  4. Install the kernel driver:
    $ sudo dpkg -i chrome9-drm_87a.55689-maverick1_all.deb
  5. Install the X.org driver:
    $ sudo dpkg -i --force-confmiss --force-confnew xserver-xorg-video-chrome9_87a.55729-maverick1_i386.deb
  6. Update /etc/X11/xorg.conf file
  7. Copy the provided xorg.conf.nc20 file to xorg.conf
    $ sudo mv /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.backup
    $ sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf.nc20 /etc/X11/xorg.conf
  8. Reboot Ubuntu
  9. Check if it’s working: Open /var/log/Xorg.0.log in a text editor. If you see several lines containing “VIA(0)”, then the new driver is being used.

Also note:

  • The sample xorg.conf.nc20 is only installed if you add the “–force-confmiss –force-confnew” options to dpkg.
  • Although VIA marks the source code this hacked driver is based on as stable, I cannot guarantee it to be bug-free. Use with caution.
Enhanced by Zemanta
Categories
Media Open Source

How to Add a Watermark to Video in Kdenlive (Step-by-Step)

Protecting your original video content from unauthorized re-uploads and branding your creative projects requires a clean, professional watermark. If you are using Kdenlive—the powerful, free, open-source video editor—adding a custom logo or a transparent graphic overlay to your timeline is incredibly straightforward.

Whether you are trying to insert a corporate logo, a social media handle, or a semi-transparent text overlay, modern versions of Kdenlive handle this using the built-in Transform effect ecosystem.

In this guide, we will walk through the exact pipeline to import, overlay, position, and blend a watermark onto your video project without degrading your timeline’s playback performance.

Step 1: Prepare Your Watermark Asset

Before touching the timeline, ensure your watermark or logo is formatted correctly:

  • File Format: Use a high-resolution PNG file or an SVG vector graphic. The asset must have a transparent alpha channel background so your logo doesn’t block out your video with a solid white or black background bounding box.
  • Aspect Ratio: Crop out any excess transparent margins around the outer edges of the graphic to make positioning accurate inside Kdenlive.

Step 2: Import and Arrange on the Timeline Layout

  1. Open your active project in Kdenlive.
  2. Drag and drop your transparent watermark PNG file directly from your local directory into the Project Bin panel.
  3. Locate your primary video tracks. For a watermark to sit on top of your video, it must live on a video track positioned physically above your main footage.
  4. Drag the watermark asset from the Project Bin down onto Track V2 (assuming your primary footage sits on Track V1).
  5. Hover your cursor over the right-hand edge of the watermark image clip on the timeline until a resize handle appears. Click and stretch the image asset along the track timeline so its duration precisely matches the full length of your video clip.

Step 3: Scale, Position, and Blend via the Transform Effect

By default, Kdenlive will display your logo at its full native resolution, which usually crams up the center of the viewport monitor screen. We will use the Transform effect to downscale and anchor it neatly into a corner boundary.

  1. Go to the central Effects workspace tab (if you don’t see it, select View -> Effects from the top application menu window).
  2. Type Transform into the effects search utility bar.
  3. Click and drag the Transform effect card, then drop it directly on top of your watermark image clip on the timeline track.
  4. Make sure your timeline playhead slider indicator is resting over the watermark asset clip so you can see your live structural adjustments inside the Project Monitor preview box.
  5. Move over to the Effect Properties panel on the side interface:
    • Size/Scale: Change the percentage value from 100% down to something subtle (typically between 10% and 20% depending on your asset resolution properties).
    • Positioning: Inside the Project Monitor window, click right in the center of the bounded logo asset and drag it smoothly into your chosen display corner (such as the top-right or bottom-right quadrant canvas margins).
  6. To make the graphic blend elegantly like a television broadcast bug rather than an intrusive image block, go to the Opacity properties bar inside your Transform configuration panel. Slide the value down from 100% to a semi-transparent sweet spot between 40% and 60%.

Step 4: Export Your Watermarked Video Asset

Once the design layout satisfies your aesthetic needs, you are ready to compile the final binary file:

  1. Click the Render button in the main application tool bar (or press the system hotkey shortcut Ctrl + Enter).
  2. Choose a modern web container format like MP4 (H.264 / AAC) from the format selection menu lists.
  3. Confirm that the export toggle option for Full Project is checked rather than a small selected guide zone loop range.
  4. Select your target output path location directory, type a final filename, and click Render to File.
How do I make a watermark look professional in Kdenlive?

To make a watermark look professional, use a transparent PNG logo and apply the Transform effect to scale it down to around 15%. Crucially, reduce its Opacity setting to between 40% and 60% so it blends softly into the video background.

Why does my watermark graphic have a solid black background in Kdenlive?

This occurs if your logo asset was saved as a standard JPEG or flat format lacking an alpha channel. Re-save your graphic design asset out of an image editor as a 24-bit transparent PNG file to remove the solid background bounding blocks.

Does adding a watermark slow down Kdenlive rendering export times?

Because the Transform scaling and opacity adjustments require very little computing mathematical computational power, adding a static watermark track overlay introduces virtually zero performance degradation or added file render processing times.

Categories
Linux

Determine Mounted Filesystem Types on Linux



In linux its very easy to lose track of filesytem types if you have been using it for a while. With the advent of ext4(and NTFS) systems its hard to guess which filesystem type is running on each partition.

One of the easiest ways to determine the filesystem type of a mounted filesystem is to use the mount command. The output of the command is of the type:

haas@techhacks:~$ mount
/dev/sdb8 on / type ext4 (rw,errors=remount-ro,commit=0)
proc on /proc type proc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
none on /sys type sysfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
fusectl on /sys/fs/fuse/connections type fusectl (rw)
none on /sys/kernel/debug type debugfs (rw)
none on /sys/kernel/security type securityfs (rw)
none on /dev type devtmpfs (rw,mode=0755)
none on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,noexec,nosuid,gid=5,mode=0620)
none on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev)
none on /var/run type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,mode=0755)
none on /var/lock type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
/dev/sdb6 on /media/Windows type fuseblk (rw,nosuid,nodev,allow_other,blksize=4096,default_permissions)
/dev/sdb9 on /home type ext4 (rw,commit=0)
binfmt_misc on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
/dev/sda1 on /media/ext type ext4 (rw,nosuid,nodev,uhelper=hal)



As you can see, second last column displays the file system type. For example first line [/dev/sdb8 on / type ext4 (rw,errors=remount-ro,commit=0)] can be read as follows:

  • /dev/sdb8 : Partition
  • / : File system
  • ext4 : File system type
  • (rw,errors=remount-ro,commit=0) : Mount options
Enhanced by Zemanta



Categories
Web

Download Online Videos using ClipGrab

Clipgrab is an program that downloads videos from popular online video sites like youtube, vimeo ect and saves the video in the format of your choice. The application is very straight forward to use and provides a good set of options that make it easy for the user to customize their download.

Clipgrab requires the user to simply type in the url of the video. This can be copied from the web browser. Once done, Clipgrab gives the details of the video including the different sizes its available for download and the different formats it can be converted to. Hit the “Grab this Clip!” option to download the video.


Clipgrab also monitors your clipboard to pick up urls when ever they are copied. Then it throws a notification asking you if you want to download the clip.

Clipgrab is available for Linux, Windows and Mac and can be downloaded from here: http://clipgrab.de/start_en.html

For ubuntu systems you can use the PPA repository to download Clipgrab:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:clipgrab-team/ppa

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install clipgrab

Enhanced by Zemanta



Categories
Linux Ubuntu

Use htop For Better Memory Usage Details on Linux


htop is a simple and wonderful tool to view the current memory usage on a Linux box. The tool is upgraded version of the top command, providing users some interactive menus and even mouse based control of sorting and menu access.

To install htop on your ubuntu system, execute the following command in a console:
sudo apt-get install htop
Run htop via a console.

Enhanced by Zemanta