Video Formats

There are many video formts available nowadays, and I am writing this blog to explain some of the characteristics of these video formats which include Quicktime, Avi, MPEG, MP4, Divx and DVD.

Quicktime Player View

I am going to start writing about Quicktime. This program used to reproduce video, sounds or images, has been developed by Apple. What is great about this software is that it allows you to open an extense amount of formats including (AVI, MOV, DV, 3GGP). In addition, it can also open high definition formats, such as Blu-ray. And if you count with QuicktimePro, you can save your files in a lot of formats apart from editing a wide range of movies. Apart from these awesome features, probably the outstanding characteristic that enables quicktime to be one of the tops in its category of software is that it compresses the format while viewing in a way that makes the definition the best quality achievable.

Next, I am going to explain the characteristics of the video format named Avi. This format, which stands for Audio Video Interleave and that was created by Matrox OpenDML in 1996 and is now run by Microsoft, is exceptional concerning video and music. The incredible characteristic, is that it allows to save files with multiple streaming audio and video. It can also contain these files in numerous compressions schemes such as MPEG-4 video and many others. Its file extension is .avi and it can be opened by nearly every audio/video reproducer.

After talking of how AVI was very common, and I am now going to explain hat is probably the most famous and used video and audio format, MPEG. This video format, that stands for Moving Pictures Experts Group and was created ISO and IEC to set standards for audio and video compression and transmission. It has usually a better definition than other formats, to the point that with its new version, MPEG-21, it has reached high-defintion. However, before, in order to opne files with this extension, you had to have encoders that would enable you to open it, but now it can be opened by almost every reproducer. There are also many different evolutions of the formats, therefore I will put the evolution of the formats taken from Webopedia:

• MPEG-1: The most common implementations of the MPEG-1 standard provide a video resolution of 352-by-240 at 30 frames per second (fps). This produces video quality slightly below the quality of conventional VCR videos.
• MPEG-2: Offers resolutions of 720x480 and 1280x720 at 60 fps, with full CD-quality audio. This is sufficient for all the major TV standards, including NTSC, and even HDTV. MPEG-2 is used by DVD-ROMs. MPEG-2 can compress a 2 hour video into a few gigabytes. While decompressing an MPEG-2 data stream requires only modest computing power, encoding video in MPEG-2 format requires significantly more processing power.
• MPEG-3: Was designed for HDTV but was abandoned in place of using MPEG-2 for HDTV.
• MPEG-4: A graphics and video compression algorithm standard that is based on MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 and Apple QuickTime technology. Wavelet-based MPEG-4 files are smaller than JPEG or QuickTime files, so they are designed to transmit video and images over a narrower bandwidth and can mix video with text, graphics and 2-D and 3-D animation layers. MPEG-4 was standardized in October 1998 in the ISO/IEC document 14496. See MPEG-4.
• MPEG-7: Formally called the Multimedia Content Description Interface, MPEG-7 provides a tool set for completely describing multimedia content. MPEG-7 is designed to be generic and not targeted to a specific application.
• MPEG-21: Includes a Rights Expression Language (REL) and a Rights Data Dictionary. Unlike other MPEG standards that describe compression coding methods, MPEG-21 describes a standard that defines the description of content and also processes for accessing, searching, storing and protecting the copyrights of content. See MPEG-21.

After the huge explanation about MPEG, I am going to talk about MP4 which is also very used, especially in mobile devices, such as telephones, iPods and iPads. The main difference between this format and its last version, MP3, is that MP4 is prepared to stand 4 layers of information. This means that it can support an extremely compressed video format that, as said before, can be viewed in mobile formats. This is the main difference with MP3, that is mainly used for music. The advantages of having the MP4 file extension are uncountable since no other format supports the compression necessary in order for the videos to being seen in a mobile device.

The second to last video format I am going to write about in this blog is DivX. This file extension, although it is more of a reproducer, allows you to view probably all of the video format extensions to a high quality. It is available to all of the operating systems, and it is now expanding its domain to the mobile devices area and the tablets area, and now it is also available for some of these devices. I personally have used DivX and it is certainly a great reproducer of both music and video, and the best of all is that it is completely free and that you can download it from its homepage.

The last video format I am going to write about, although there are a lot of them remaining, is DVD. Probably of all of the readers know about this format, although more than a format, it is a way of storing your music and video. This way of reproducing your video and audio mainly in your computers or your cars was very popular during the last decade, but its usage is now in decline due to the improvement of technology and the expansion of internet and the apparition of other devices such as iPods or your mobile phones that can reproduce music and video and you do not need an object as big as a DVD. However, I personally still use DVDs when I create a movie since I do not have the means to save the movie in blue-ray discs. DVDs are especially useful since they can be reproduced in nearly every computer, however, as I explained before, there are now computers that do not come with DVD readers since everything i viewed or downloaded form the internet and DVDs are therefore no longer useful to store the programs that used to be in them.

That is all about these six video formats. I hope you have liked the explanations. 

Open Office

Open Office is an open-source software that includes all types of programs, like word processors, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and even more. It is available in different languages and it is multi-platform so you can work in all the operating systems. Apart from these features, you can open, read, create, and save your work in other common files such as .doc or .ppt. Probably the best characteristic is that it is completely free of chrage.

The word processor included in the Open Office Package is Writer. It has everything that you would expect from a modern, fully equipped word processor and desktop publisher.It has applications such as AutoCorrect, AutoComplete, AutoFormat and all the fonts and styles you want.

The spreadsheet software is called Calc. It is easy to use for newcomers, and experienced users appreciate features like AdvancedDataPilot technology or an Intelligent Sum Button.

The presentations porgram is called Impress. Its name describes perfectly the application sicne it has all kinds of special effects, a multi-pane view, and has 2D and 3D clip art.

The graphics software is called Draw. In this program you can do everything form a simple sketch to a complex plan. You can manipulate everythign yuo do, rotating it and creating photrealistic images. Due to its smart connectors, it is also easy to create a flow chart, organisation charts, and network diagrams.

The base program offered in the Open Officce Packet is called Base. With this program you can create and modify tables, forms, queries, and reports. It offers a choice of using Wizards, Design Views, or SQL Views for beginners, intermediate and advanced users.

Open Source Initiative (OSI)

The Open Source Initiative (OSI) is a non-profit global corporation that intends to build bridges among different constituencies in the open source community and promote the use of open source software.


But first of all, what is open source software? The open source software are programs that are free to the public and that can be used by anyone. In other words, they do not have a private license, therefore they are perfectly legal because they are public and free. The definition used in the web Webopedia is the following: Open source refers to a program or software in which the source code (the form of the program when a programmer writes a program in a particular programming language) is available to the general public for use and/or modification from its original design free of charge.


There are open source programs of all kinds: text editors, for creating presentations, for calculations, desktop publishers, to draw, and even to being able to create animated images.


There is an incredibly extended list of open source programs but among this list we can find the most commonly known and used: Open Office, Google Sketch Up, Scribus, Scratch, and many more.

Design of a football field in Google Sketch Up

The multiple programs Open Office offers

Scribus, an open source desktop publisher

A game created in Scratch

Apple will overtake HP

I have read an article in Computerweekly about how Apple will overtake HP as top supplier of computers in the world.


This article tlaks about how in the second trimester of 2012, Apple will pass HP as the world's largest supplier of computers. The reason is that Apple's growth in the last four quarters was incredible from 9% of the share to 15% of the worldwide share, and the pads, especially iPads are potentially increasing the PC demands, thus overpassing in half a year the domain of HP.


“Pads, particularly the iPad, have radically changed the dynamics of the PC industry over the past year, already propelling Apple into second place in the worldwide PC market in the third quarter of 2011," Tim Coulling, analyst at Canalys said. 


Canalys also predicts a growth of the market with the intruduction of ultrabooks. HP released its new ultrabook last week, priced at $899.99 the company probably expects to make competence towards the powerful Apple with this release.


However, the floods in Thailand, place where many computers are made and shipped, will probably reduce shipments of desktops, netbooks and notebooks.


Still, HP continues to have the largest share of the market with 19% in the third quarter of 2011, however Apple and Samsung were the only UK PC suppliers to show an increase in their shares, with 22% and 40% respectively.

My Summer Holidays

I always start these kind of essays by saying that it has been the best summer of my life, and it is probably true, but the thing is that each summer gets better and better, therefore, I could say that this has been the best summer of my life.. I've been to many places; Cadiz, Laredo, Germany where I was in a summer camp near Berlin and the U.S (New York, Washington D.C. and Boston).

My summer started after a long month of June full of language and school exams. I missed the last day of school to go to Chipiona, a little town in the region of Cadiz. This was a typical trip, nothing new, since I've already gone there for 3 years. The stay there was awesome; I already had friends there so we did various interesting things and we      had a great time together.



After Chipiona, and a long car journey back, I went to Laredo, place where I pass most of my summer. The plan there is what I usually do; go to the beach, practice sport, all that kind of staff. A significant difference with other summer in Laredo is that I have met a lot of people who are very nice and ended up being close friends, so I couldn't ask for more.



However, my whole summer was not spent in this town of Cantabria. Since I am learning German, I decided with my parents to go to a summer camp in Germany. The summer camp was called GLS and it was situated near the Wolzig lake, at about 70 km from Berlin. The time spent there was outstanding. I met a lot of people from all over the world, made good friends, spoke in many languages, learned a little bit of other languages, and, most important of all, had a good time while learning. I am willing and expecting to go next year.



You might think that my summer was already very busy, but it wasn't all. One week after coming from Germany, with tiredness from partying all day, I flew to the U.S, more specifically to New York. Most go the time I spent it in Manhattan, since it is the most turistical and most well-known part of the state of New York, however I also visited the other suburbs of the state; the Bronx, Brooklyn, etc. My impression of New York: completely astonishing. I could not even describe it with words. It is just so amazing, and especially compared to Bilbao, so different. The way of life, food, buildings, people, everything is extremely the opposite from

Bilbao, in my opinion, and also from Spain. And when you see places like Time Square, the Empire State, or the Statue of Liberty, you kind of get a shock because seeing them after all the times you've seen them in movies and in TV is really shocking and I could say even emotional. My stay in New York was not only marked by New York. I also made day trips to both Washington D.C. and Boston. Both were spectacular cities. Probably I enjoyed more visiting Washington because seeing the White House, the Lincoln Memorial and the site from the Memorial, where Martin Luther King made his famous "I Have a Dream Speech" is astonishing.

And after all of this busy and tired, nevertheless, incredible trip, I went back to Laredo to recuperate strength and prepare myself for the starting of the school year. And so, the days passed on, each day ended up being better than the last, and just like a snap of your fingers, the vacations ended, and I was back in school.

Easter Holidays

Below is a podcast with what I did this Easter vacations:

Javier's Easter Holidays Podcast

New Podcast!

Here is my first podcast in blogger. Hope you like it!

PODCAST