Video Archives - The Silicon Underground

A Roku alternative streaming device

Dave Farquhar — Sat, 29 Aug 2026 16:21:35 +0000

The privacy, or lack thereof, around streaming media has been bothering me lately. I’m sure some people would ask what took me so long. And I’m sure others would say I am overreacting. But it is a problem not very

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Insignia RCA to HDMI converter not working

Dave Farquhar — Tue, 31 Oct 2023 13:03:02 +0000

The Insignia RCA to HDMI converter or analog to HDMI converter is a convenient way to connect old devices to a new HDMI TV. I’ve reviewed it before, and I like it. In this blog post, I’ll talk about things

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Connect a VCR to a smart TV

Dave Farquhar — Tue, 30 May 2023 13:03:28 +0000

It’s not always obvious how you connect a VCR to a smart TV. But just because it isn’t obvious doesn’t mean someone won’t want to do it. In this blog post, I will explain how to connect your old VCR

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Record video in VLC

Dave Farquhar — Wed, 19 Apr 2023 13:03:34 +0000

You may have heard you can capture video with VLC, the popular open source media player. But how you do it isn’t intuitive and there’s some advice out there that doesn’t work. That said, it’s possible, and works well for

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FFMPEG can merge videos, here’s how

Dave Farquhar — Wed, 20 Jul 2022 13:03:08 +0000

Sometimes you need to merge some MP4 video files from the command line. Here’s how to use a command line tool, ffmpeg, to merge video. It may be a little harder to learn than a GUI tool. But it’s much

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Filmora not recognizing MP4 files? The fix.

Dave Farquhar — Tue, 15 Feb 2022 14:03:32 +0000

My son does a lot of video editing. His friends recommended Wondershare Filmora as being more stable than the other things he’s been using. But he had a problem. It wouldn’t see his MP4 files. If you have a problem

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FFMPEG can remove audio: Here’s how

Dave Farquhar — Wed, 26 May 2021 12:00:07 +0000

FFMPEG is a very versatile command line video editing tool. You can use it to do lots of things, and the last time I used it, I used it to convert between formats. But you can also use it to

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What is Roku TV?

Dave Farquhar — Mon, 03 Jun 2019 12:00:50 +0000

What is Roku TV? It’s a smart TV with Roku hardware built in, so you don’t need a separate Roku box to stream. Should you buy one? It depends. A Roku TV is a smart TV with the convenience of

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Are VHS tapes worth collecting?

Dave Farquhar — Thu, 25 Apr 2019 12:00:48 +0000

If you’re looking for a nostalgic hobby that won’t cost a fortune, VHS tapes are very underrated. Although not as cheap as they once were, VHS tapes haven’t exploded in value the way other 1980s technologies have. Are VHS tapes

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Why VHS beat Betamax

Dave Farquhar — Mon, 15 Apr 2019 12:00:51 +0000

It probably wasn’t the first format war and it certainly wasn’t the last. But VHS vs Beta, the battle of VCR formats, has served as a cautionary tale for more than a generation now. But there was no single reason

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