Radio Ga Ga, that's me. Luckily here in the UK we have some reasonable radio stations especially the national ones from the BBC though I'm not greatly drawn to local radio or any kind of top 40 format radio. We all have our personal tastes. The internet helps give me a much broader mix of radio sources. I can listen to:

• Many UK based radio stations & use my computer to timeshift radio programs to listen back at my leisure
• Many more internet radio stations from around the world whether talk based, music, comedy, religious, political or just plain weird (I found one radio station that just plays sound effects!!)

Here's some suggestions for free software that enables you to listen to various online radio stations:

The Beeb- For BBC radio fans it's mostly a case of listening through your web browser. The Beeb keeps a healthy stock of older programmes available for you to listen to on line as well as broadcasting live. Just search for BBC listen again or BBC radio player . You will require the real player software in order to listen.

Internet radio: either listen directly from various websites such as shoutcast or live365 .
or download Apple iTunes or VLC which now has shoutcast service built in.Windows users can also use winamp .

When you record DVD's on a DVD recorder, you are recording in the mpeg2 video format.
Your Camcorder records in DV format.
Whaaaaat? More complicated than VHS vs. Betamax???
It's interesting to clarify the background as to why (always the big question).

Background:
Video compression formats-
mpeg1 (.mpeg/ .mpg /.mpe) - an older method of compressing video with image quality akin to VHS (this video method is used in the VCD format of recording video onto standard CD's, now rather outdated though improved quality using Super-VCD (SVCD) is available , giving better picture quality at the expense of shorter recording time on a standard CD. VCD format videos were more popular in China & south east asia than in other parts of the world. Consumes around 650Mb per hour of video.

mpeg2 (.mpv2/ .mp2v) - A high picture quality revison of the mpeg standard currently used to compress & store video recordings on DVD's , Freeview & PVR's. Also used in some hard disc camcorders & DVD camcorders. Consumes around 2Gb per hour of video, much less if higher compression is used but with a tradeoff in picture quality.

mpeg3 (.mp3) - An audio only compression method & the dominant audio format found online. Compresses a 650Mb CD down to approx 40Mb.
Playable on computers, mp3 portable players & nearly all DVD players & some CD Hi-Fi's capable of mp3 playback. dominant download format for audio on the internet.Other audio-only formats are AAC (higher quality audio than mp3 but taking of the same space) & the oddly named ogg which employs psychoacoustics to recreate frequencies lost by the compression method. Purist Audiophiles often forgoe these compressed "lossy" audio formats in favour of uncompressed audio formats which obviously bring track sizes back up to the 20-40Mb range. most people find it hard to hear the difference between a good compressed recording & an uncompressed one. No doubt a high quality Hi-Fi setup might reveal the inadequacies.

mpeg4 (.mp4)- A format for compressing video, achieving almost the same picture quality as mpeg2 but with a greater level of compression, enabling much samller video files. Originally used to rip DVD's & burn the entire contents to a standard CD with the result looking indistingushable to the original DVD. The dominant format of downloadable video on the internet is mpeg4 format which can only be played on a computer & some DVD players.Used also in some of the newer hard disc camcorders & used on mobile phones & still cameras on the video recording side.Consumes 650Mb an hour, often much less but gives almost the same quality as DVD. Capable of High definition recordings, which mpeg2 is not capable of. (The audio-only equivalent is AAC, as used in i-tunes & the ipod giving better quality audio than mp3).

DV (.dv)- A method of compressing high quality video. Used by all Mini DV & DV format camcorders.Digital8 uses exactly the same format but recorded onto Hi8 tapes instead of MiniDV tapes.iMovie uses this format as it is the most edit-friendly format. Professional variations are used in broadcast television (typically DVCAM & DVCpro) with High Definition(HD) variants now available. Standard DV consumes approx 18Gb per hour of video.

WMV (.avi) - Windows media video. A proprietory Microsoft method of compressing video for playback on the internet.Windows media player required for playback.Can only be played on computers.
WMA (.wma)- Windows media audio. Audio only equivalent of above.Windows media player required to playback. Some portable players & some DVD players can also play this back.

RMV (.rmv)- Real media video. A proprietory format for delivery video over the internet only.Real video player required to playback.RMA (Real Media audio) is the audio-only equivalent.

Quicktime (.mov)- proprietory video format for delivery of video over the internet. Quicktime player required. Also found on some mobile phones & video ipods.

A VOB file (.vob) -DVD-Video Object- is a file type contained in DVD-Video media. It contains the actual Video, Audio, Subtitle and Menu contents in stream form.
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Ok- back to your recorded DVD.
Recorded video is stored on the disc in the mpeg2 format but packaged into a series of .vob files. Recordings can span across one or a number of .vob files. These files are not designed for other than basic editing but can be converted to other video formats quite easily.

Mpeg streamclip can open most video format files & convert them into almost anything else along with the ability to choose the start & end part of the video you are going to convert.

Ulead DVD Moviefactory makes video DVD's & requires video files in mpeg2, quicktime(.mov), WMV(.avi) or DV formats-.vob files can also be opened directly but detailed editing is not possible hence the need to use mpeg streamclip to extract & convert specific sections of the recorded DVD for use here.

Video recorders have changed over the past year or so. VHS has been with us for a quarter of a century or more and finally some replacements have come along. There are 2 replacemnents on offer:

* DVD Recorders - recording TV (or home movies) onto a DVD disc
* PVR (Personal Video Recorder) - A video recorder without tape, usually with a hard drive inside, allowing easy recording & playback.

Computers can be useful for editing things stored onto DVD or PVR's.
Let's deal with the DVD recorder first. We have a programme that we want to keeep, maybe edit out the adverts & then burn or re-author onto a seperate DVD disc. I use a program called MPEG Streamclip which is available for Mac & Windows (& is free).
It lets you quickly re-encode sections of the disc, ready to burn back to a DVD using a DVD creation prog. it also lets you convert the size & type of video file, either for internet use or to different online video formats.
Please take the time to read the instructions for installing, especially in regard to windows. A tutorial link is listed under tutorials on the left hand side of this page.

By that, I don't mean something that moves you to tears, though maybe just using a computer does that to you. I mean animated tutorials. I'm slowly putting together some tutorials that cover the basics & to view these you will need an internet browser & the flash plugin. If you find that you can't view these you'll need to install the flash plugin from here.