Some time ago I wrote about encoding video files to suit both the AppleTV and Sony’s Playstation 3. It was a bit of a painful task back then, but now, it’s pretty simple.

First, install Handbrake (if you haven’t already)

Open your video file or DVD, open the presets in Handbrake, and choose “Regular -> High Profile”.

This preset will encode an MP4 to suit both the AppleTV and the PS3. Note that you will need to ensure you set the exported file name to .MP4 (will possibly be .m4v by default)

No other changes are required to the settings! The exported file will suit playback on AppleTV and on PS3.

One thing I noticed is, that when playing back using XMBC on the AppleTV, I can get the Dolby Digital audio track to work. But I cannot get the PS3 to find the same audio track, therefore playback on PS3 is stereo only. (does someone have some tips for getting this working on PS3?)

MPEG Streamclip is a free app that converts several types of video files into different formats.

I wanted to be able to play my files on both the PS3 and the AppleTV, so I created a preset that looks something like this (exporting to MPEG4)

My file is roughly half the size of the original source, looks good, and plays on multiple platforms. win!

Brandon Holland has just released Couch Surfer 0.3.

Here are some new features:

• accelerated scrolling holds up and down
• improved Bookmark support, now with support for adding current page
• history support
• back menu
• USB keyboard support for text entry dialogs.

The best part is that once Couch Surfer 0.3 is installed, USB keyboard feature is available to all other plug-in’s.

You can get the new software update from Brian’s software page here.

Adobe launched the Adobe Media Player 1.0 today. Adobe’s Media Player is a standalone Video Jukebox application that runs under their AIR platform. The Media Player is compatible with both PCs and Macs.

In many ways, the Adobe Media Player mimics iTunes Video and Podcast functionality by providing users with an all-enclosed application that provides access to network shows and podcasts. Content is sparse at the moment, but Adobe has partnered with a number of content providers such as CBS, PBS, MTV and more. Unlike iTunes, however, Adobe’s Media Player is not presently a “store” and offers free and ad-supported content. Adobe, however, has said that it plans on adding payment systems later to offer purchase and rental options.

The player supports playback for FLV and h.264 encoded content at up to HD quality (1080p, 720p). Content may be available for streaming or download with and without DRM depending on the rights granted by the content providers.

Predictably, there will be many iTunes users who don’t see the point of transitioning to a different player, but what this represents more than just another media player is the first effective cross-platform Digital Rights Management (DRM) video platform alternative. As much as end users dislike DRM, the lack of an additional cross-platform video DRM has hindered some features on Mac. Notably, Netflix stated that the lack of a publicly-available Mac DRM solution was what prevented them from offering their streaming service to the Mac. It’s not clear if Netflix will necessarily adopt Adobe’s DRM, but this may open up additional alternatives to Apple’s iTunes for content delivery on the Mac.

Article Link

http://www.tracyvalleau.com/itvr

iTVRemote replaces the eyetv controller with a small, easy to use and simple controller. Check it out

• Converts a variety of different audio file formats including wav, mp3, ogg, flac, aac, wma, au, aiff, ogg, msv, dvf, vox, atrac, gsm, dss and other formats into mp3 or wav.
• Import multiple file formats at the same time and convert to one output format.
• Automatically normalise audio while converting.
• Import and convert a playlist (m3u and pls).
• MPEG Layer-3 encoder supports constant or variable bit rates from 8 to 320kbps with optional error correction and stereo modes.
• WAV encoder support sample rates between 6000 and 196000Hz in PCM or a number of other codecs.
• Up to 32000 files can be converted in one batch.
• Optimized CPU usage and efficient code for fastest conversion times.
• Switch Sound File Converter integrates directly with other sound software programs including Express Burn for CD Recording, Express Rip for Direct CD Ripping, WavePad for Sound File Editing, RecordPad for Professional Sound Recording and Express Scribe for Typing Voice Recordings.
• Can be run from the command line for automation and other programming applications.
• Switch audio file converter is intuitive and easy to use interface.

Ever wanted to make a backup copy of your DVD’s? Here’s a couple of valuable apps to get you on your way.

“MacTheRipper is a free DVD ripper (extractor) for Mac OS X. It can extract commercial DVD movies to your hard drive, minus all the copy protections and region controls put in place by DVD publishers. You can then use various tools to burn the movie back to DVD-R for use in DVD players, or convert the movie to different formats for playback with a variety of devices. MacTheRipper is intended to backup DVDs you have legally purchased for personal use.”

Check it out at http://www.mactheripper.org/

“With DVD2one you can make a movie-only or full disk copy of your DVD for personal use on a single DVD-Recordable.” Key features include:

http://www.dvd2one.com/

Occasionally I come across two avi files (divX / Xvid) that I’d like to join together. It’s annoying.

Lets say you have two movie files, part1, and part2 (or CD1 and CD2 as the case may be) and you like your home theatre mac to be well organised without “parts” to movies. You really want those two files to just be one file.

Join them together with this free app I found called D-Vision. D-Vision is actually “donationware” meaning if you like the app you can donate (if you feel like it). The web site is in french however the software is english, the download is easy to find, and if you prefer you could probably download it from another repository like macupdate or versiontracker.

D-Vision is primarily a GUI to encode Divx 3, Divx 4, Xvid and h264 with Mencoder however it does have various other useful tools such as joining video files together, segment files, repair files, convert audio, etc.

My experience with joining DivX files has been great. While not 100% perfect it does the job really well and doesn’t take very long to process the job (which you can queue in a job queue, which is cool). I really recommend this app. Some say they prefer it over the infamous “Handbrake” app.

From the www.squared5.com site

“MPEG Streamclip is a powerful video converter, player, editor for Mac and Windows. It can play many movie files, not only MPEGs; it can convert MPEG files between muxed/demuxed formats for authoring; it can encode movies to many formats, including iPod; it can cut, trim and join movies.

MPEG Streamclip can also download videos from YouTube and Google by entering the page URL.”