Guide to The PMDG MD-11 FMC

My first thought would be a question... is there actually a part 2 to the tut?
It's a bit confusing trying to figure it out by looking at the YouTube page.

haha, yes there is. there's a link to it in the description on the youtube page.

Thanks for that Traches -- but now be a sport, First Officer and put the link here so I don't have to run around in circles again

Please, I'm in a foul mood hating Microsoft and Java because they won't stop pestering me with updates and rebooting

part 2 here 🙂

and to get java to shut up, hit start, run, type msconfig and hit enter, go to the startup tab, and uncheck Java(TM) whatever (along with anything else that you don't want to run on startup.) Next time you restart it shouldn't bother you...

Now we're talking - see, I had the wrong part two, thought my senses had left me. Thanks for the link.

Thanks for the msconfig hint though I am way to modern and am using anyone of my half-a-dozen apps to do that for me. That Java nuisance only appeared because it had updated - all fixed, thanks for the thought.

Now, let's do this properly.

I've been using VideoSlurp ==>>
http://www.videoslurp.com/download_youtube_videos.php to download from YouTube but find that by using VS, I'm actually downloading the clip twice which is a waste. Can you suggest a better solution?

Secondly, the downloaded (saved to your HDD) clips - do you change the .flv into another, better file format?

Finally, which media player do you use to playback these YouTube clips in particular?

I currently retain the .flv format and playback in either MPC or JetAudio. They're both great for other purposes but for the .flv files they're unsatisfactory.

Won't you share some more of your secrets?

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Oh no, you're not getting off that lightly. That was only the beginning.

I have often wondered how others follow a YouTube tut and run the sim simultaneously... I only have one computer and can't see myself getting a laptop just for that purpose -- or should I? "Overkill" comes to mind.

The ideal fantasy would be to convert the .flv file into a format my standalone DVD player recognizes and watch the tut on my TV while executing the instructions in the sim. I'd be quite happy to wallow in this luxury but more importantly... how do you do it?

They call me "The Destroyer Of Boredom" 😀

This is how I do it 🙂
Dual monitors and a whole lot of ram are really nice. The laptop was only there to look cool, I don't actually use it all that much.

I'll be honest, I don't download youtube videos very often. If I were to do it though, Keepvid looks like as good a solution as you can get. Changing video file formats is a real PITA, the solution I would recommend to you is the open source VLC media player. This is by far the best media player you can get-- it'll devour any file format you throw at it (including .flv) and doesn't use a lot of memory. link to their page:

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

Once you install it, you do have to do "open with" and pick VLC from the list of programs, but from then on you should be good to go just double clicking.

Burning a standard dvd that you can play in a DVD player is a bit more involved than making a regular data dvd, but it's not all that hard. The program you need to do it is the also open source program DVD flick, and you can download it here:

http://www.dvdflick.net/

It's not too hard to figure out, but there's a guide on their website ( http://www.dvdflick.net/guide/index_en.html ) that talks you through it.

All this is of course assuming you have a dvd burner 😀

Or if you're too lazy to go through all of this, you can just run FS in windowed mode and get good at alt+tab...

Traches wrote:

This is how I do it 🙂

No need to be such a show-off

Apart from VideoSlurp I've looked at many others though they were nasty little programs targeting innocent schoolkids with their hidden malware crap.
KeepVid is about the only one I hadn't come across. Ostensibly it has the advantage over VS that you can choose between .flv or .mp4 when you're downloading. I've tried it but with a clip that was inferior in the first place, you can't see a difference when playing back. Other than that, it seems to work on the same principle as VS -- you're still downloading the same clip twice before it ends up on your HDD. Bummer.

Thanks for the VLC link, been using it for a long time and agree with you, it's one of the must haves. A wee problem I encountered recently when playing an .mp4 in VLC... the picture was a bit jerky -- no, no, no, I was NOT playing FSX... anyway, the only player on my system that handled that .mp4 beautifully was JetAudio. It also managed to produce sound to an old, badly made .avi where other players couldn't. It's quite a little beast with all kinds of options if you wanna try it look at FileHippo.
BTW, whenever I install a new media player, I NEVER associate any files with it and have been lucky so far, no conflicts.

DVD Flick must be one of the very few apps I haven't tried yet - open source - looks good, thanks for that, you've finally taught me something new 🙂)

Failure is NOT an option!! and this:

... you can just run FS in windowed mode and get good at alt+tab...

is failure.
What do you think I've been doing during the "Pre-YouTube" era when every tut was either a word doc or a PDF? ...say what? Printer? What's a "printer"...?

I do appreciate you input Traches thanks for that. Just to recap then, ignoring the cosmetic laptop, you watch the tut on one monitor while executing it on the other?

Sorry it took so long to reply, been busy lately 🙂

Yeah, I don't know if there's a way to get around downloading the vid twice. However, there are much more knowledgable people than I when it comes to downloading youtube videos, seeing as the first time I did it was when I was figuring out how to answer your question! 😀

Sorry that VLC doesn't work well for you, I've never had a problem with it! Every system is different though... But yeah, DVD Flick is pretty awesome, it lets you make standard DVD's from regular video files very easily. It's like nero, except free!
🍻

Looks like DVDflick is your path to luxury... I'd download a whole bunch of videos you want to watch and throw them all on one disk, making the menu is really easy. That way you won't burn through a bunch of DVD's!

Or else, if your video card has an S-Video out and your TV has an S-Video in you could set it up as another monitor and roll like I do. 🙂

I'll usually run FSX on one monitor and have the overhead panel on the other (like in the pic) or my flightplan, or whatever tutorial I'm working through, or manual/checklist I'm looking at, or whatever website I'm wandering, or itunes, or whatever movie I'm watching, or dirty pictures of pretty women, or... i guess you get the idea 😎

So the moral of the story is really that in order to take advantage of a YouTube tut, a setup is required that most people don't have or don't know they're capable of. Who said technology makes life easier

Your tut is one of the better ones I've come across regarding FS in general. You're about to establish a fan base and before you know it, they'll want you to make a tut for every new add-on that's published.

BTW, my TV does have an S-Video in -- whether my video card has an S-Video out still remains a mystery. I've got two 8800 GTs in SLI config. The specs sheeet http://www.nvidia.com/object/product_geforce_8800_gt_us.html doesn't seem to include that info. I'd be surprised if this card had no S-Video out seeing that it's less than 3 years old.
Just noticed that my monitor might be able to help:

I can't really look at it right now without switching everything off as the inputs behind the monitor are facing down (6 o'clock).

Well, thanks for your time - you can have a few of these now 🍻

I believe the 8800GT has an S-video out, or it has an adapter that came with the card for S-Video. However, I'm not sure how setting up dual monitors with an SLI setup would work... I've never done SLI so I don't have the slightest clue about the tricky stuff like that.

I was thinking about making a guide that picks up where the last one left off and goes all the way through power down at the destination, but I don't know if I'm quite that motivated yet... Also I don't have FSX installed ATM because I was having a few issues and uninstalled it, then started playing with X-Plane and never reinstalled... 😂

Thanks for the beer, it will be much enjoyed I promise 😀

Dude the PMDG MD-11 is so danm confusing. even with manuals and such.

Haha, it's not so bad once you learn it... i'm gonna do a complete guide to it before too long.