How to watermark a video using FFmpeg

ffmpeg This article explains how to add a watermark image to a video file using FFmpeg (www.ffmpeg.org). Typically a watermark is used to protect ownership/credit of the video and for Marketing/Branding the video with a Logo.  One of the most common areas where watermarks appear is the bottom right hand corner of a video.  I’m going to cover all four corners for you, since these are generally the ideal placements for watermarks.  Plus, if you want to get really creative I’ll let you in on an alternative.

FFmpeg is a free software / open source project that produces libraries and programs for handling multimedia such as video.  Many of it developers also are part of the MPlayer project.  Primarily this project is geared towards Linux OS, however, much of it has been ported over to work with Windows 32bit and 64bit.  FFmpeg is being utilized in a number of software applications; including web applications such as PHPmotion (www.phpmotion.com).  Not only does it provide handy tools, it also provided extremely useful features and functionality that can be added to a variety of software applications.

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“What’s Up?” I haven’t had my coffee yet…

coffee-yet-300x196 I’m well known for being a notorious, java lovin’, coffee guzzling, caffeine addict. If people came with warning labels, you would see “I haven’t had my coffee yet…don’t make me kill you” flashing across my forehead like an Apple iPhone app at times. About 80.00% of the updates to this website and articles I’ve written are powered by “Maxwell house” while the remaining 19.99% is by whatever delightful high test sludge that the local convenient store serves up.  Too bad that Starbucks is not a little closer to me, mind you Starbucks is not nearly as culturally diverse nor as interesting when compared to other Coffee Shops or Cafes. 

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Britney Spears “Scary” Bonus Track has people going WTF.

Scary-Britney-Spears So, who really is to blame for only releasing “Scary” as a featured bonus track on the Japanese Deluxe and Premium Fan Edition of Femme Fatale? The executive producers Dr. Luke and Max Martin or somebody else; such as her record company Jive Records?  People are going WTF over this on blogs and websites all over the internet, they Love this song to death, yet feel jilted and left out by the fact it’s marketed and given to the Japanese as a special bonus. This track is an amazing hidden gem of the rising sun with “hit single” glimmers all over it.  It’s the only song off the whole album, to which Britney is credited as being a writer on.

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Till The World Ends – Britney Spear’s Big Comeback from the 2008 Circus

At first I was a little skeptical of Britney Spears making a big comeback with her first single “Hold it Against Me”.   However, it was more than enough to get my attention and raise a wondering eyebrow.  Even more so, considering the fact that Lady GaGa has been dominating the charts with hit after hit, and Britney’s long time rival (Christina Aguilera) has ended up with her career in a tailspin trajectory.  Things are looking up, pretty amazingly, for Britney’s Comeback with the release of her second single “Till The World Ends” off from her new album “Femme Fatale”.  This chart climber is simply marvelous, crafty and catchy.  A lot of creativity and hard work went into the production of this song and music video. 

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Data Integration with Jitterbit

jitterbit-logo

Jitterbit is an amazing Open Source data & application integration suite. A Free Community Edition is available for download and use.

Face it, manually importing and exporting Data between applications or databases in csv text files to keep data synchronized in rather old school. It’s simply a stone age method from the primitive dinosaur era. Technology has evolved and so have the tools. You may have heard the Buzz about Data Synchronization or Data Integration. It’s well worth your time and investment to explore it. Tools such as Jitterbit can save you literally days or weeks in data migration, import, export, integration or synchronization, including the scheduled automation of such tasks.

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Migrate MS Access to SQL Server Express 2005/2008

202px-Office Access 2007 Icon

Considering that Microsoft has released Express Editions of MS SQL Server 2005 and 2008, I would hope that many people were encouraged to Migrate from using Access to MS SQL Express for their website or web application back end.

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iHTML Merchant 2.x Tip: Using Banner ADs to promote Products.

Many people devote a lot of time, energy and resources at attracting visitors to their website, the last thing they want is for customers to quickly leave and loose prospective sales.  For this very reason they have opted to not use the Banner AD management feature of the iHTML Merchant. However, the Banner AD system can be a powerful marketing tool in promoting products & services for sale on the website itself.

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iHTML Merchant 2.x – Home page modifications to boost sales

This might sound rather too much like common sense, but an e-commerce website should be focused upon presenting products and services to customers in order to generating sales. If products & services are presented right from the start on the home page, this makes a big difference in sales.

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