From iMovie to YouTube, a.s.a.p.
Imagine this, if you will. You've put together your iMovie masterpiece and want to share it with friends and family. No problem, fire it through to iDVD and send them a DVD - right? But suppose it's a very short clip, or the friends and relatives in question are more of the 'casual acquaintance' variety? Is it still appropriate to physically send a DVD? This was the quandary I was in (short clips, not casual relatives) - so I decided to make use of YouTube.
Now, we know that YouTube wants the video to be in certain formats so they can convert it to the Flash movie that YouTube viewers see. On top of that YouTube specifically recommends divx or xvid video with MP3 audio to achieve the "best results". If the video or audio is in the wrong format you end up with a movie missing the video or audio (as I discovered on several occasions during this process
).The problem is finding a video and audio format which - in order of importance - (a) is compatible with YouTube, (b) is as small as possible to reduce upload time, and (c) encodes reasonably quickly and directly from iMovie without any intermediate apps such as ffmpegX.
After a lot experimentation I have found that H.264 video with AAC audio offers the best combination of encoding speed, file size (and hence upload time), and being available from within iMovie itself. The fact that YouTube accepted H.264 was a surprise to me but given the format's excellent video quality it was definitely a most pleasant one!
Here's what I did and the settings I used:
1. Start with your video clip in iMovie. Highlight the video in the Clips panel so that it is displayed in the large preview window. Click File:Export.
2. You should now see something similar to the image below. Choose 'Expert settings'. Click 'Share'.
3. You are now given a save dialog box similar to the one below. Click on the 'Export' drop-down menu and choose 'Movie to QuickTime Movie'. Click Options.
4. You should now see the Movie Settings panel as shown below. In the video section click 'Settings'.
5. Now we get to choose our video format. Set the 'Compression Type' to H.264 with a frame rate of 15 fps with automatic key frames. I have found that a 'Low' quality setting with 'Best Quality' multi-pass encoding produced video that is perfectly sufficient for YouTube. Click OK. (See that preview? That's why this blog has been kinda quiet recently
)
6. Back at the Movie Settings panel you already saw in step 4, click the audio 'Settings' button.
7. Now we choose an audio format. Unless your home video has some kind of superb stereo sound (unlikely), we can save some space here by choosing a mono format and reducing the bitrate. Set the format to AAC, choose Mono from the channels drop-down menu, change the 'Rate' (frequency) to 22.050 kHz, and choose a target bit rate of 24 kbps. Click OK.
8. Back at the Movie Settings panel again. Make sure 'Prepare for internet streaming' is deselected.
9. Still at the Movie Settings panel. In the video section click 'Size'. You'll probably need a calculator here. My source video was from a European digital camera, so it is PAL video with frame sizes of 784 x 576 (essentially a 4:3 aspect ratio). YouTube's default video size is 425 pixels wide so we'll aim for that width, which means to preserve our aspect ratio our video should be 312 pixels tall (784/425 = 576/312). Choose 'Custom' dimensions and plug in the frame size you just calculated. I also, hopefully unnecessarily, check the 'Preserve aspect ratio' box using 'Letterbox'. Raincoat and an umbrella, you know?
Check the 'Deinterlace Source Video' box. Click OK.
10. Back at the Movie Settings panel from step 4 ... hopefully for the last time. Click OK.
11. You should now be back at the save dialog box from step 3. Give your exported movie a name, and click 'save'. iMovie will now show you a progress bar for your export.
On my 2.16GHz Core Duo MacBook Pro a 3 minute iMovie clip takes about 10 minutes to export using this method, and ends up being about 3 megabytes in size. This in turn takes me about 3 minutes to upload to YouTube on my bog-standard 2 megabit ADSL broadband with it's pitiful 256k upload speed. For me that is a quick-enough process to make using YouTube as painless as possible. And it keeps the rellies happy!
Smartmovie - now with mpeg4 video
It's been a long while since I posted any 'software updated' news, but regular readers will know that SmartMovie, a movie player for smartphones and PocketPCs, is a particular favorite of mine. The good news is that this exceptional piece of software has been updated for mpeg4 compatibility. The word is that the new codec allows for higher framerates (up to 25fps) and better picture quality. Welcome news, especially considering that SmartMovie was already the best movie player available for smartphones, featuring very good quality xvid video at 10-15 fps.
MPEG2 Works 4 updated
The Mac video Swiss Army knife ffmpegX has dominated home video conversion on the Mac for quite a while now, and for most of that time its only serious rival has been MPEG2 Works. So today's news that MPEG2 Works has updated to version 4.0.5 is more than welcome! New features include:
Might be worth a look if ffmpegX isn't working out. MPEG2 Works has traditionally been strong in the areas of NTSC<->PAL conversion and VCD/SVCD creation whereas ffmpegX was better for batch processing, PSP support, H264 support (including iPod video), and, in my opinion, a more intuitive interface. However some of MPEG2 Works' new features (such as burning) have no equivalent in ffmpegX.• Added horizontal cropping aside of existing vertical under Tools section [requested by users]
• Added burn DVD after authoring option under Advanced Authoring section [requested by users]
• Improved VOB/VRO with AC3 audio > QT conversion /works faster now/
• Improved VOB > SVCD conversion /works faster now/
• Improved ReplayTV > QT conversion /one preset button from now on/
• Improved AC3 > AIFF conversion /better output/
• Improved overall performance
Both programs have the benefit of fantastic support by their authors via the MPEG2 Works forum and the ffmpegX forum.
Intel hedging bets
Intel appear to be hedging their bets by investing an unspecified amount of money into ClickStar, a 'new' startup planning to distribute movies over the internet before they come out on DVD. The company was founded in 1996, but appears to have done little since then, and clickstar.com is nothing more than a link farm. Strangely enough, Morgan Freeman is one of ClickStar's founders.
No word on how ClickStar plans on getting cooperation from the movie studios so it looks like an effort by Intel to cover their bases. Any chance Apple's unexpected success with the iTunes Music Store is the prime motivation here? It seems likely.
Video game TV adverts
Breaking Windows mentions a link to an amazing page containing over 2500 television adverts for video games. All in WMV format.
Dragon FliX
Newtech Infosystems, the people behind Dragon Burn (discussed here earlier), have announced Dragon FliX, a new competitor to DVD2OneX and Roxio's Popcorn.
H264 demo videos
The Mac Observer today linked to two great demo videos in H264 format. TMO notes:
G4 Tower Media Center
xlr8yourmac have posted a great guide to setting up an old 'Sawtooth' G4 Tower as a fully fledged media center. The setup is designed to be a CD/DVD jukebox, internet radio station, TiVo-like personal video recorder, video conferencing center, web browser and (Mac) gaming console. Of course, it can still do all the other things you might want to do with a Mac, checking email for instance.
Video-On-Demand using Mac Mini & VLC
Pausing DVD2OneX
I recently discovered, quite by accident, that DVD2OneX will pause its processing if you put the Mac to sleep! This may be old news to some people, but until these last few weeks I had virtually never put my laptop to sleep before, so discovering this was a real bonus. I've been wishing the program had this ability every since I started using it! That said, the ability to pause processing without sleeping (so the user can do something else in another CPU intensive program) would still be useful!
Movies from the Minolta DiMage X50
I went to a Pop Will Eat Itself concert recently, and for the first time had a reason to test out the video-recording abilities of the new camera. Given the camera's minimal dimensions and tiny lens, I wasn't expecting great results. However, despite the gloominess of the venue, I was (mostly) pleasantly surprised by the results!
As you can see, the picture quality was fairly good. I had the camera set to record at the maximum settings (320x240 resolution, 30fps). Watching it on the camera was fairly uninspiring, but once I had copied it over to my Mac the apparent quality improved dramatically.
I was however surprised by the size of the video clip. A 2 minute 30 second clip recorded on the camera turned out to be 86.5MB in size. I was curious as to why it was so huge, so I set about doing some investigation. Opening the file in QuickTime Player revealed that the video component was recorded in the Photo-JPEG format! I can only presume that the limited CPU power of the camera limits it to recording in largely uncompressed video and totally uncompressed audio.
The actual settings were:
Photo JPEG video, 320x240, 4700 kbps (!!!!)
PCM audio, 8 bit, mono, 7875Hz, 60 kbps
4700kbps
! That's a higher bitrate than some DVDs for an image less than a quarter of the size! And then to top it all off the audio component is of a ridiculously low quality.
I wanted to save the clip, but in a more efficient way. I also wanted to contrast it to a more modern way of storing video, so I fired up ffmpegX and ran a few conversions:
Converting the clip to an xvid/mp3 of equal dimensions and very similar visual quality resulted in a 10.6MB file comprising an 8.1MB 320x240 30fps 450kbps xvid video stream and a 2.2MB 144kbps mp3 audio stream! Given that 160kbps mp3 is generally considered to be sufficient for virtually CD-quality, you can see how much the Minolta's capabilities could be improved.
Purely out of interest I also used ffmpegX to convert the clip to DVD specifications. My 320x240 86.5MB photo-JPEG clip turned into a 720x480 75.2MB mpeg2 clip. Definitely bloated!
Fairly major ffmpegX update
ffmpegX 0.0.9s has been released! This is a significant update - it includes a new easy-to-use Summary pane, support for TiVo .ty files and the ability to export to Sony's PSP (PlayStation Portable) movie format! There are also a host of other minor improvements.
PCM to MPEG1 to AIFF to AC3
I recently encountered an unusual AVI video file, containing MSMPEG4 video and PCM audio. My favorite DVD (ffmpeg) preset in ffmpegX refused to process the file. I knew from previous experience that the DVD (ffmpeg) preset could handle MSMPEG4 video, so I surmised it was the PCM audio that was fouling things up.
Slower workaround
I worked around the problem by using the DVD (mpeg2enc) preset with 'Decode with mplayer' selected. After a slow encode (probably twice as long as ffmpeg) I ended up with an .mpv video file and another file. This second file had a truncated name, according to the settings it should have been some sort of AC3, but the mpeg2enc engine had produced a file without a suffix.
Not actually an AC3 at all
The first thing I did was drop the mystery file onto ffmpegX for identification but, unusually for ffmpegX, nothing was revealed. I then tried adding an .ac3 suffix only to have A.Pack reject the file. Soldiering on, I changed it to .mp2 and tried to open it in QuickTime Player. Still no go 
. Finally I tried an .mpa suffix. Bingo!
Hitting command-J showed that QuickTime identified the file as an MPEG1 audio file. Unfortunately my good mood was short-lived. I was unable to export it from QuickTime - the only options were movie formats. 
MPEG1?
After resorting to Google I was reminded that iTunes can play MPEG1 audio files. The first thing I did was change the iTunes import preferences to 'AIFF encoder'. However iTunes then refused to let me drag my .mpa file into the music library unless I changed the suffix to .mp2. Once I had done that I used iTunes to convert the audio file to AIFF (by option-clicking the Advanced menu and choosing 'convert to AIFF').
The Finish Line
Once I had my AIFF, I was able to drop it into A.Pack, select my two channels, and convert it into a two channel AC3 file. From there it was just a matter of using the .mpv video file and .ac3 audio file in Sizzle to author a DVD, and using Toast to burn it.
Conclusions
The Mac used to boast a system where, no matter what you changed the name of a file to, double clicking it would always open the correct application. We used to brag about this to PC users. Why am I now, fifteen years later, messing around changing file extensions?
Uncripple your G5 superdrive
Macbidouille are reporting that most G5s shipping today are equipped with an artificially crippled DVD burner. By removing the drive and installing in a PC, they were able to flash the firmware and upgrade it from a ordinary 8x DVD-R burner to a dual-layer 16x DVD-R burner! Re-install it in the Mac and use Patchburn to enable it in the iApps.
Compression Master reviewed
The Ken Stone Index recently posted a good WMV-centric review of Compression Master, including comparisons to Discreet Cleaner, Sorenson Squeeze, and the Telestream's Flip4Mac.
DVD Freedom
Vito LaVilla (no, I don't know if that is a person or a company) has released a DVD ripping application named DVD Freedom. Interestingly, it appears to have a Mac Classic version in addition to the OS X version. There is also a Windows version
. Unfortunately, the initial reviews are poor. I gave it a test run, but after it took 30 minutes to rip 52MB (out of a 6.3GB DVD), I cancelled the operation. MacTheRipper would have finished the entire DVD in that time.
WMV in Quicktime, looks promising
A few months ago I mentioned the announcement of Telestream's Flip4Mac, a QuickTime component for the WMV9 format (Windows Media Video). There was some question as to whether or not the product would actually appear or not, but Telestream proved all the doubters wrong! The software was duly released in December, but as feared it was an export component only. All is not lost however! I noticed today that Telestream are working on a WMV importer for release in the first quarter of 2005! This is great news
Sizzle not Sizzling
I encountered this oddity in Sizzle 0.1 today. After launching the app I found that the 'Add Chapter' button was greyed out. After quite a lot of head scratching and poking around Sizzle, I finally discovered that it was caused by having the 'Use Custom Chapter Times' checkbox selected under the 'Other' tab (from a previous authoring session) without having a chapter selected in the 'Chapters' tab.
MacTheRipper defeats ARcoSS
Last month I mentioned the new ARcoSS protection scheme appearing on some DVDs in Europe. At the time I said there were no Mac DVD rippers which could defeat ARcoSS, but that the MacTheRipper team were working on it. Well, they've done it
. MacTheRipper version 2.6 includes, among other things, the ability to rip ARcoSS discs.
MovieGate joins the DVD transcoding crowd
The French app MovieGate has quietly included DVD transcoding options in their latest release (English translation here). Given that it uses the same open source tools, I would expect the results to be similar to ffmpegX's DVD9>DVD5 tool.
Archiving with Medical-Grade DVDs
MacInTouch had an interesting reader submission recommending Verbatim's MediDisc DVDs. Supposedly these are used for medical imaging and are certified for longevity.
I'm reproducing the entire entry here since by tomorrow MacInTouch's link will have broken:
I work in a small post-production studio and we use DVD media for archival purposes every day. Our brand of choice for Data archive is Verbatim's little known "MediDisc" line of DVD media. This media is DICOM certified for use in long-term medical records storage (including medical imaging) for compliance with HIPPA requirements.
Yes, the media is significantly more expensive than the consumer-grade 100pk DVD-R/+R spindles typically available at retailers such as WalMart & Best Buy, but is saving a buck really worth it when it comes to long-term data integrity?
Furthermore, we store the DVD discs in Tyvek disc envelopes (the same that Apple is now using for software distribution in packages such as Final Cut Pro HD) and place them upright in a light-tight storage container. Tyvek envelopes are currently regarded as the best storage option for protection of CD/DVD recordable media. Information Packaging is a good source for these envelopes.
Note that these DVDs aren't actually all that much expensive. I've seen them listed at a few places for as little as US$70 for 50 packs. Granted, a lot of those shops have been out of stock...
DVDRemaster 2
DVDRemaster 2 was released today. The authors have posted an intriguing speed comparison here.
iPod killer
John Dvorak reports on X2's MEGA View 561. This device sounds great, think of it as the fusion of the iPod photo with TiVo. It looks good too - and all for US$399, although versions with larger hard drives would be welcome. Oddly enough, this device is smaller in every dimension than the Archos Gmini 400 but it has a 3.5" screen as opposed to the Gmini's 2.2". It's also quite a porker - it weighs in at about 50% more than the larger Gmini.
Automatic downloading with BitTorrent
I missed this when it came out three weeks ago, but there was an interesting article on Engadget about setting up automatic downloads of TV episodes via BitTorrent and RSS. They are doing it on a PC, but the BitTorrent client they are using is Azureus, a java client which also works on OS X.
CrystalPlayer Mobile for UIQ
An updated version of the CrystalPlayer video player was announced today. No horizontal playback, and another proprietary video format - no thanks. See my earlier take on the advantages of SmartMovie over VICS Video Player.
A glance at SheerVideo
I recently read a reference to lossless video codec named SheerVideo. I've never used a lossless codec before and I know nothing about them. SheerVideo has a 20 day free trial available, so I thought I'd have a look. The first thing I noticed was that the installer didn't work! This must be a common problem, since there is an included document titled "Manually Installing SheerVideo". The instructions consist of where to put the codec files.
Update 8/12/04: Andreas Wittenstein of BitJazz contacted me about the installer problem and directed me to an updated v2.0.2.1 version on BitJazz's website. The new version installs without a hitch! How's that for great service?!
What's the big deal?
There seems to be very little information about SheerVideo available online, but after reading what I could find, including this seemingly-incomplete review, it seems that uncompressed video is usually used in professional video post-production where video might be edited any number of times so a lossy codec cannot be used when saving the file between edits. Apparently uncompressed video suffers from huge file sizes which require extremely fast SCSI hard drives. We're talking hundreds of gigabytes for 2 hours of video here. By comparison, all codecs used in home video editing are compressed, including DV files which are probably the largest files (of any sort) most home users will ever experience. 2 hours of DV video is around 25 gigabytes. Apparently one of the things that makes SheerVideo stand out is that the files are small enough to be able to use (relatively) slower but inexpensive firewire hard disks instead of faster but expensive SCSI ones. A couple of months ago I wrote about DIY RAIDs for uncompressed (HD) video.
How large are we talking about?
I wanted to see how large SheerVideo files were in comparison to some high quality video I had lying around on my hard disk. I also wanted to see a lossless codec in action. This is what I found:
Source: 70.7MB - Photo-JPEG, 45 seconds, 720x486
Output: 173.2MB - SheerVideo
Output: 432.3MB - Uncompressed AVI
Export time: 45 seconds
Source: 49.8MB - MPEG2, 21 seconds, 720x480
Output: 233.4MB - SheerVideo
Output: 511.8MB - Uncompressed AVI
Export time: 45 seconds
Source: 13.9MB - DV, 4 seconds, 720x576
Output: 50.8MB - SheerVideo
Output: 118.8MB - Uncompressed AVI
Export time: 8 seconds
Just out of interest I also tried it with a low quality clip:
Source: 20.4MB - Sorenson 3, 47 seconds, 640x480
Output: 483.9MB - SheerVideo
Output: 1081.2MB - Uncompressed AVI
Export time: 60 seconds
In all cases the SheerVideo exported in the same amount of time as the Uncompressed AVI. Also the quality of both exported files were indistinguishable from the original (except for one thing, read on). What I did notice was that the SheerVideo files were slightly brighter than the original, but apparently this might be a QuickTime playback bug to do with gamma correction.
Will I ever use it?
Very rarely. On some occasions I've had problems converting partially corrupted mpeg1 files downloaded from the internet. A direct conversion from mpeg1 to (for example) divx will fail when it hits the corrupt data, but I've found that exporting the mpeg1 to Uncompressed AVI and from there to my desired format usually bypasses the problem. In the future I suppose I will use SheerVideo instead of Uncompressed AVI, but as the file is merely an intermediate file and gets deleted soon afterward the smaller size of the SheerVideo will be less significant.
New DVD player
The old Hitachi HTDK170 suddenly stopped working recently. For once a device of mine failed just before the guarantee ran out, rather than just after! Argos were very good about replacing it - it only took a few minutes and what's more they gave me an improved version - the HTDK185!! Not only does the new player have a built-in Freeview decoder, I discovered today that it recognises miniDVDs! In fact it was the same miniDVD that failed to play on the old HTDK170. The new player even put up a graphic saying 'miniDVD' when I inserted the disc.
Ripping a DVD, defined
I noticed in my RSS feed today this CultOfMac entry about Shepmaster's 'Ripping a DVD' tutorial. CultOfMac have also posted a rebuttal by one Alexander Malov.
The cause of this misunderstanding is a misuse of terms. 'Ripping' a DVD is merely copying a DVD to your harddisk - something you cannot do via drag and drop due to the CSS encryption on the DVD. As well as decrypting CSS, a good ripper should also remove any Macrovision protection and DVD region coding. Modern rippers like YadeX and MacTheRipper can also remove the more recent RCE protection. If you live in Europe, you also have to worry about the newly implemented ArccOS protection system. As far as I know, the only ripper able to defeat ArccOS is the next version of MacTheRipper, which is due Real Soon Now™.
What Shepmaster's tutorial is describing is ripping a DVD, followed by re-encoding the very large (usually 5 to 8 gigabytes) ripped DVD's mpeg2 video and (usually) ac3 audio streams into a much smaller 3ivX video and AAC audio file. This final file isn't playable on a normal DVD player, and is usually sized (by controlling the bitrate of the 3ivX) to fit onto 1 or 2 CD-Rs. On a 667MHz G4 I would expect this process to take anywhere from 12 to 24 hours.
What Alexander Malov's rebuttal is describing is ripping a DVD, followed by transcoding the mpeg2 video stream into another, lower bitrate, mpeg2 stream (small enough to fit onto a single layer 4.7 gigabyte DVD-R), and burning it onto DVD-R with Toast. This final disc is playable on a normal DVD player. On a 667MHz G4 I would expect this entire process to take about 2 hours.
Also worth noting is Alexander Malov's final comment suggesting DVDBackup. I simply cannot agree with this. MacTheRipper and YadeX are both well-supported, full featured, modern rippers. 0sex (that's a zero) is a slightly obsolete ripper but useful for its imaging functions. DVDBackup is irrelevant these days. All the other rippers can do everything DVDBackup does, but DVDBackup cannot remove RCE or ArccOS and has reported problems on OS X 10.3. I've personally experienced this problem, but to be fair it seems to only affect people who did upgrade installs of Panther.
But I digress ... the basic issue here is that Shepmaster's tutorial, despite being extremely thorough, has a misleading title. The tutorial itself is superb but strictly not for beginners. I can also personally verify that this particular tutorial has been on his website for at least several months, probably closer to a year.
More iSight stuff
While prowling around for iSight related goodies, I found this somewhat frivolous but in-depth article at MacDevCenter. It covers pretty much everything you would (and a lot you wouldn't) expect to do with an iSight. A lot of great stuff, but for me the highlight was iChat Streaming Icon, which among other things can turn your buddy icon (as it appears to your buddies) into a video of yourself! It's tiny and slow, but it's live! No more need to set an 'away from keyboard' message, they can see from your icon that you're not sitting in front of your Mac!
iGlasses for iSight
In an attempt to have video conferences with family back in Hong Kong I bought an iSight last week. The device has received almost universal approval and as expected my early tests were all positive. I am looking into the actual video conferencing software, but in the meantime the iSight's one major flaw has been poor performance in low light situations. For whatever reason, there is no way to control any of the iSight's settings from within iChat or OS X itself so there is not much you can do about it apart from turn on more lights. Kensington's SightLight is marketed as a cure for this, but a much better solution is to install the $8 iGlasses. This amazing app provides a wide range of controls for the iSight, from exposure to white balance. The results are astonishing - the sample screenshots on the product webpage are not exaggerations!
New MKVToolNix
MKVToolnix has been updated, although there no mention on the developer's site about what's been added.
Cinematize 2
Cinematize 2 is out! The new version has some great sounding new features, including speed improvements and new export and clipping options.
iMovie the VCR
There was a nifty little hint on MacOSXHints today about how to script iMovie to start recording TV shows at specified times. Unfortunately you need some sort of Analog-Digital bridge or a DV camera with DV passthrough (which my 6-year old Sony PC10 doesn't have).
Real Mplayer
There was a nifty tip on MacOSXHints today - apparently the codecs from the latest RealPlayer are usable in Mplayer. This is useful if you want to convert streaming RealVideo but the codec is too new for Mplayer.
575MB/sec
How does 575MB/sec transfer rate sound to you? If you're interested in editing uncompressed HD video you'll need transfer speeds not too far off this number. Mike Curtis over at HD for Indies had a very informative article on how to achieve this with a home-built 2.7TB RAID with a PowerMac G5 for under US$3,000.
Mac WMV, finally?
Macworld had an article yesterday about Flip4Mac, an upcoming (late 2004) Windows Media Format tool that allows importing, exporting and playback of wmv files in Quicktime. Macworld's report concentrates on the ability to encode wmv files, however in my possibly biased
opinion it's the flexibility of having wmv import and export Quicktime components (if that is indeed what they are) that is the big news here.
Superdrive DVD-RW without Firmware Updates
MacInTouch had a report today about a workaround for Apple's crippled superdrive firmware which doesn't allow DVD-RW. Normally you would hop over to the Superdrive firmware page of the incomparable Cynikal and download a firmware update to enable the RW features of your drive, however if you're worried about ruining your drive, or your drive is too new for a firmware update, then the MacInTouch solution may be more appropriate.
Edit: due to MacInTouch's terrible layout and constantly changing URLs (the above link from yesterday is already broken!) I'll repost the relevant passage here:
If you put a fresh DVD-RW in your Superdrive, it spits it back out. However, get a friend with a DVD-RW on a PC to write something onto it. This will mount on your Mac just fine. And guess what? Toast will now erase it and from now on it can be used like any DVD-RW! It's as killer workaround that I have tested with no problems.
Dual Layer DVDs on OS X 10.3.5
Insanely Great Mac reported today on an article on the French site MacBidouille about burning DVD-R dual layer discs on a Pioneeer DVR 108 using OS X 10.3.5. You can find an English translation here. Points of interest include support only by Toast and DragonBurn (no Finder or iApps), and Toast 6.0.7 only being able to burn a maximum of 8GB onto the disc (which took 27mins).
Hue/Saturation for iMovie
MacUpdate reported today on an update to HSL, a hue/saturation plug-in for iMovie.
iStablize 1.1 released
iStablize 1.1 has been released. The website says "iStabilize is a software video stabilizer for MacOS. It stabilizes movies by removing unwanted shaky motion and smoothing the image path".
Slow 12x/16x DVD burning on G3/G4 Macs
The Accelerate Your Macintosh site explains why 12x and faster DVD-R burners will burn at slower than expect rates on G3s and G4s. G5 owners don't need to worry
(All the more reason to get one!)
Archos' video iPod
Having had the chance to play with a relative's Archos Video Recorder early last year, I've kept an eye out for Archos news. The Video Recorder I played with was impressive despite the large size - the current 40GB model appears to be slightly smaller but still weighs in at 350g (12.5oz).
However, Archos' new product is in a different league. The €400 Gmini 400 weighs in at a mere 160g (5.6oz) and features a 20GB hard disk and 2.2" 220x176 pixel 262,000 colour screen. Interfaces include USB2.0 and a CompactFlash slot and it can play MP3, WMA and WAV audio and Mpeg4, Xvid and Divx video. It can also play Mophun games, either on the onboard screen or on a TV.
RealVideo to SmartMovie
I missed this story on MacOSXHints while I was away on holiday, but I just noticed it tonight. Converting RealVideo to anything else on the Mac has always been hard, but this guy is reporting success converting RealVideo internet streams to SmartMovie AVIs using the command line encoder Mencoder.
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Brand spanking new DVD2OneX
Big news! DVD2OneX 1.4 has been released! It apparently features the new selective ratio engine from the (PC only) DVD2One 1.5, as well as some speed improvements.
Lens your P800
There is a great looking gadget on MobileWhack today! Some outfit called Brando Workshop (based in Hong Kong no less!) are selling a Camera Lens Kit for cellphones. The lenses, including a weak telephoto and a macro, just stick over your phone's camera lens.
MacTheRipper 2.0.1
I just received an email announcing MacTheRipper 2.0.1 with a download link. The homepage hasn't been updated yet though...
Edit: a thread has been posted on DVDRHelp.com about the new release.
ffmpegX 0.0.9n
Due to my recent absence this is a week late, but worth noting nonetheless - ffmpeg 0.0.9n has been released. The main updates are MOV xvid/mpeg4 and MOV/3GP AAC encoding using the faster ffmpeg engine.
Online DVD rentals in the UK
The Register today reported the merger of two of the UK's online DVD rental companies, MovieTrak and Qflicks, supposedly in preparation for US pioneer Netflix's arrival later this year. As mentioned elsewhere, I'm a fan of LoveFilm.com. Other outfits include Video Island and Screen Select. While looking up their websites I had a chuckle at the inevitable hyperbole:
Screen Select - "Join the UK's number 1 online DVD rental service"
Qflicks - "Largest DVD Selection in Europe - over 20,000 titles"
MovieTrak - "Europe's first online DVD rental company"
Video Island - "Rated UK's No.1 DVD rental service"
LoveFilm - no bold front-page claims, but the FAQ mentions "over 20,000 titles - that's virtually every DVD available in the UK"
Converting Ogg (ogm) and Matroska (mkv) video
So ... you've obtained an .ogm or .mkv video file and you want to convert it to something else (in my case either a DVD or a SmartMovie .avi for the P800). These .ogm and .mkv files are Ogg media files and Matroska video files respectively. Both are container formats like .avi or .mov and can contain various types of video and audio.
The Mac video Swiss army knife ffmpegX does not (yet) like ogm or mkv containers, so you need to demux the video and audio streams before converting them. The apps you need to demux are OGMTools and MKVToolNix by Shawn Holwegner. These are both ports of Linux apps by Moritz Bunkus. This means they are command line apps, but don't worry! They couldn't be simpler to use.
Just download the installer packages, unstuff, and install. They will install several ogm and mkv tools into your /usr/local/bin folder. You don't have to worry about that, all it means is that they are easily accessible. Now all you have to do is open a Terminal window, and (if you have an ogm file) type:
ogmdemux (including a space at the end - do not hit enter!)
Now drag your ogm file into your terminal window. This will fill in the correct path to the file. Hit enter to begin the demux process.
or (if you have an mkv file)
mkvextract tracks (including a space at the end - do not hit enter!)
Now drag your mkv file into your terminal window. This will fill in the correct path to the file. Do not hit enter. Continuing on the same line, type
1:video.vid 2:audio.audHit enter to begin the demux process.
For both .ogm and .mkv files the demuxing process will take a minute or two for a 700MB file. When the process is complete, you will have the demuxed audio and video files in your home folder.
Once you have your separate audio and video, ffmpegX should be able to convert them to whatever format you desire - unless your audio is in the ogg vorbis format, in which case I would recommend you download and install this Ogg Vorbis for Quicktime plugin, and then use iTunes to convert your ogg to an mp3. To convert your ogg launch iTunes, option-click the Advanced menu, choose 'convert to mp3' (if this says something other than mp3 you need to change your iTunes import preferences), and finally choose your ogg.
Note: ffmpegX should be able to recognise your .vid and .aud files, but if you need to you can use ogminfo and mkvinfo to find out what type of video and audio are inside your ogm or mkv.
Edit: correction to the mkvextract instructions thanks to Jasper's comment below.
Encoding for SmartMovie
Okay ... I've made some progress on SmartMovie. After spending hours reading every scrap of information I could find on the net, I've come up with a couple of processes for encoding SmartMovie files on OS X. There seems to be some sort of obscure bug in ffmpegX which means we have to demux and process our audio seperately before remuxing the final file.
Note: depending on the aspect ratio of your source movie, these are the resolutions you want to aim for when resizing (step 4 below)
4:3 -- 272x208
3:2 -- 320x208
1.66:1 -- 320x192
16:9 -- 320x176
1.85:1 -- 320x176
2.35:1 -- 320x128
METHOD 1
Pros: Works on a wide variety of formats
Cons: Needs QuickTime Pro, only works on movies you can open in QT Player
Required software:
DivX 5.1 Mac codec
ffmpegX 0.0.9h
QuickTime Pro
1. Open the movie in QuickTime Player.
2. In the Movie menu choose Get Movie Properties (cmd-J)
3. Select 'Video Track', select 'Size', click 'Adjust'
4. Drag the corner of the video until it is the correct size for your aspect ratio (see chart above), click 'Done'
Exporting video from QT Player
5. In the File menu choose 'Export', select 'DivX AVI', click 'Options'
6. Uncheck 'Audio', set framerate to 12.5, click 'Settings'
7. Set 'Encoding bitrate' to 120kbps, click OK
8. Click 'OK'
9. Change the name in the 'Save As' box, click 'Save'
Exporting audio from QT Player
10. In the File menu choose 'Export', select 'Sound to AIFF'
11. In iTunes, option-click the Advanced menu, choose 'Convert to mp3', choose your AIFF file. An mp3 version of your AIFF will appear in your iTunes library.
12. Drag the mp3 from your iTunes library onto your desktop, delete the mp3 from iTunes
Finishing up with ffmpegX
13. Drag the mp3 from your desktop onto the ffmpegX icon
14. In ffmpegX select the 'Audio file to mp3' preset
15. In the Audio tab enter an Audio bitrate of 32kbps, click Encode
16. In the Tools tab, click the first 'Browse' button, choose the AVI file you created in step 9
17. Click the second 'Browse' button, choose the mp3 from step 15
18. Choose AVI in the drop-down menu next to the 'Mux as...' button
19. Click 'Mux as...'
METHOD 2
Pros: Does not require QuickTime Pro, can encode directly from a vob
Cons: Limited to mpeg 1 and mpeg2
Required software:
ffmpegX 0.0.9h
0sex (only if you wish to encode a movie from a vob file)
Doing everything with ffmpegX
1. In the Tools tab, click 'Browse', choose your mpeg or vob file, click 'Demux'
2. Drop the video file (the m1v or m2v created in step 1) onto the ffmpegX icon, choose the 'Xvid' preset
3. In the Video tab, set bitrate to 120kbps, 12.5fps, screen size according to the aspect ratio of your source movie (see table above), click 'Encode'
4. Drop the audio file (created in step 1) onto the ffmpegX icon, choose the 'Audio file to mp3' preset
5. In the Audio tab, set bitrate to 32kbps, click 'Encode'
6. In the Tools tab, click the first 'Browse' button and choose the avi file created in step 3
7. In the Tools tab, clock the second 'Browse' button and choose the mp3 file created in step 5
8. Choose AVI in the drop-down menu next to the 'Mux as...' button
9. Click 'Mux as...'
After both methods you should end up with a file named 'yourmoviename.muxed.avi'. This movie should play at full screen in SmartMovie.
Using the values I've given above you should get about 10mins of video per 9MB file size. The video shows some compression artifacts and the audio is slightly tinny, but both are acceptable. You can experiment with changing the video and audio bitrates to achieve whatever quality is suitable. For example for a music video you would probably want to increase the audio bitrate to at least 64kbps, while for high speed, wide angle footage (like sports) increasing the video bitrate will help.
A 21 minute episode of the Simpsons encoded with the above settings comes out to 18.1MB (12.1MB video, 4.8MB audio, plus overhead)
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Full screen video on the P800
After a lot of time and effort, I've given up trying to figure out the VICS video format. It looks like the only way to encode it will be with the proprietary PC-only encoder. So after looking around a bit for an alternative player I've discovered an app called SmartMovie that can not only play full screen video, it does it with better (in my opinion) quality picture than VICS.
After some testing I've concluded that SmartMovie is pretty impressive - given a decent bitrate the full screen video is of eye-popping quality. The app is advertised as being an xvid player, but I have learnt that it can also play DivX 5.1 video.
As far as content generation goes, the software package includes an encoder for the PC platform. I've tried it out on a PC at work, and it works very well and is amazingly fast. Unfortunately there is no Mac equivalent so we'll have to work out a manual method of conversion, however I'm not too worried - xvid and divx encoding on the Mac is pretty good these days. I've had a few brief stabs at converting to a format SmartMovie accepts, but ran into a couple of bugs with ffmpegX. I'm confident I'll get it worked out soon though! Watch this space
DVD clips onto VHS
Emma recently asked me if I could compile a selection of clips from amongst our DVDs that would illustrate various aspects of life in the future for her Religious Studies students. After thinking about it for a while and viewing a few scenes we decided to rent a few more select titles. We find the DVD-by-post service of LoveFilm very useful as the local Blockbuster is quite small and only has a limited selection of non-chart titles.
The final caveat was that Emma had to have three identical copies of these clips which ruled out me just sitting there pressing the record button on the VCR at the correct times!
Getting hold of all the clips
I started by figuring out which DVD chapters contained the scenes we wanted and then using Cinematize to export those chapters. The process is very quick (a couple of minutes each) and you end up with mpeg2 QuickTime files. The extracted clips are interesting - there is a faint dithered effect you don't get when watching the DVD itself, but the quality is otherwise excellent. It's as if it is a perfect copy but with a smaller colour palette.
I could have used a plain vanilla DVD ripper such as 0sex instead, but I would ended up with vob files or elementary mpeg streams which I would have had to do more work on to get them into an editable format. The quality may have been slightly better without the dithered effect, but Cinematize was the quick and dirty option. Additionally Cinematize lets you preview which chapter it is that you're extracting (although the preview is limited to fifteen or thirty seconds which isn't always enough). With 0sex you'd have to skip through the film beforehand and write down the chapter numbers.
Editing out unwanted material
The one other odd thing about the mpeg2 clips that Cinematize outputs is that many mpeg editing programs will not accept them as 'true' mpeg2 files (for instance the mpeg splitters mpgtx and Gumby). I eventually solved that by using Goldberg to cut out the unwanted parts of each chapter. Goldberg doesn't seem to be a 'true' mpeg splitter, but it does the job if you aren't worried about file sizes (using Goldberg to cut an mpeg in half will only reduce its size by ten or twenty percent). Note that you need Apple's mpeg2 decoder for Goldberg to play mpeg2 files.
One clip that we really wanted to use had one instance of foul language which we had to cut out. This is harder than it sounds. Since I had iMovie experience from doing the wedding video I at first tried to use that before discovering that iMovie isn't designed to handle widescreen formats. After much trial and error I ended up imported the clip into Final Cut Pro (which I've never used before) where I was able to reduce the volume to zero to blot out the offending word. After this single edit I re-saved the clip as a QuickTime file. Importing an mpeg into FCP and re-saving loses some quality, but the final result is still pretty good.
Creating titles
Finally I used iMovie to create some titles on black backgrounds to place in between each clip. These just contained the name of the movie to inform the audience what clip was coming next and also to serve as spacers in between clips so searching via fast-forward would be easier. Unfortunately as iMovie only operates in 4:3 format, there is a bit of a flicker when Cellulo changes resolution as it moves from a widescreen clip to a 4:3 title. In hindsight instead of using iMovie I should probably have tried to figure out how to do the titles in widescreen format in FCP.
Getting it all onto VHS tapes
Emma's school doesn't have any DVD players, so I had to get it all onto three VHS tapes. The simplest solution I could think of was to simply put all the clips and titles into a playlist in Cellulo and then connect my laptop to the VHS recorder via the S-Video output for a straight analog recording. On the playback settings for the FCP-edited clip I had to set the playback size to 110% of screen size since the FCP output had a thick black border around it and enlarging it made it fill the screen.
I could have obtained a prettier final result (with cross fades between scenes, fade-outs at the end, etc.) if I had imported the whole thing into FCP to edit and author as a DVD, but that would have probably take ten times as long for a minor benefit. After recording the DVD onto VHS tape the quality of each clip would have been the same as my current method but it would have pretty transitions between scenes. Oh well, it would have been nice but not worth all the extra work.
Powerbook Superdrive self-install
The DVD/CD-RW drive in my laptop started malfunctioning due to a crapped out CD laser, probably from burning too many SVCDs! After some research I replaced the faulty drive with a Matshita UJ-815 CD-RW/DVD-RW/DVD-RAM drive. Getting the new drive to fully integrate with OS X was tricky, so I took a few notes along the way...
Installing a UJ815 DVD-RAM drive in a Powerbook G4 under OS X 10.3
This was inspired by djjuice at the SpyMac.com forums and AirForceRed at the MacNN.com forums. AirForceRed's original post was here. djjuice's original post was here, but djjuice himself has apparently edited out the revealing passage. It was so difficult finding information about this procedure but in the end so satisfying getting the drive to work under OS X 10.2 and later OS X 10.3 that I wanted to save the method for posterity (and in case the original thread at MacNN ever vanishes!)
Important Note: Before you start this process make sure you have the DiscRecording.framework mentioned by AirForceRed and djjuice.
You will also need a T8 Torx (star-shaped) screwdriver. I ordered one online, but in a pinch a set of mini flat-head screwdrivers will do the job.
The Hardware
First you need to obtain a Matsushita UJ-815 (also known as a Matshita UJ-815 or a Panasonic UJ815) DVD-RAM drive. I got mine at DFWDepot for a grand total of US$342.96 (which included the approximately $60 charge for next-day UPS delivery to southeast England). I dealt with Terry Harrison and apart from what I believe to be an honest mistake with shipping charges (albeit still unresolved - watch this space) everything went smoothly.
Update: the mistake DFWDepot made may have been honest, or maybe not, but in any case in addition to the UPS charge of approximately $60 for shipping from the US to the UK, UPS tacked on another $75 charge for the local delivery from the local airport to my house. This second charge was apparently to pay for a local courier company (it wasn't UPS who actually delivered it to my door). I had to pay the second charge in cash on delivery.
The next step is to install the drive. There is a slick installation instruction document (in PDF format) available from MacResQ. The document for older (400-667Mhz) SVGA Powerbooks is here, while the one for newer DVI (667+Mhz) Powerbooks is here. My torx screwdriver took a lot longer than the drive itself to arrive, so I ended up opening my Powerbook with the 4th largest screwdriver in a typical set of 6 mini-flathead screwdrivers. After that it was easy, with the possible exception of the power cable (unplugging it is slightly fiddly, I used to screwdriver to carefully lever it out), and the whole process only took a few minutes.
The Software
Once you've installed the drive you need to find out what it's called by your system. Fire up Terminal and type
drutil infoThe drutil tool will display the name of your newly installed drive. For the UJ815 you're installing this should be 'DVD-RAM UJ-815A'. Remember this information exactly (copy and paste it into TextEdit if you think you can't be exact).
Now turn your attention to the DiskRecording.framework you acquired earlier (you did remember to acquire it right?). Control-click it and select 'Package Contents'. Dig down through the folders and find a file called DeviceSupport.drprofile (it's located in Versions / A / Frameworks / DiscRecordingEngine.framework / Versions / A / Resources). Launch TextEdit and open the DeviceSupport.drprofile file and do a search for 'DVD-RAM'. The first instance you find should look like this:
<key>DRDeviceProductName</key>
<string>DVD-RAM SW-9571</string>
<key>DRDeviceVendorName</key>
<string>MATSHITA</string>
You will be replacing the text DVD-RAM SW-9571 with the text that the drutil tool returned earlier (DVD-RAM UJ-815A). Once you've done that, save the file.
To finish the procedure you need to replace the existing DiskRecording.framework with the one you've modified. The easiest way is to boot into OS9 and then just replace the old version (found at /System/Library/Frameworks) with your modified one.
Reboot into OS X and you're done! Disc burning in the Finder should work now.
Notes
The drive is very noisy at first when you eject discs, and the disc doesn't eject all the way (it 'sticks' a little so you have to give it a light pull to get it out). However after using it for a few weeks the mechanism loosens up and both of these problems go away. The drive is now considerably quieter than the old combo drive it replaced.
Note that if you later update your system software you may have to repeat this procedure (if the update replaces the framework), although hopefully Apple will recognise this drive in the next version of OS X 10.3.
Update: I recently upgraded to OS X 10.3.2 on a fresh install of Panther and copied over my old home folder, including preferences etc. Somewhat surprisingly, the DVD-RAM drive works in the iApps and the Finder under the new install. It seems that it is now supported in 10.3.2, although the framework seems identical to the old one, and System Profiler still claims the drive is unsupported. YMMV.
iMovie wedding video
A friend kindly agreed to video Em and I's wedding day with my digital video camera so since we got back from our Honeymoon I've been playing with iMovie. It's been pretty time-consuming, but good fun along the way and we now have an 80 minute wedding video as a result. iMovie is astonishingly easy to use, but when I did get stuck Dan Slagle's iMovie FAQ was incredibly useful.
Powerbook G4!
I got my Powerbook G4! Quite the upgrade from the old PowerMac 8600/250. Now that I have a DVD drive I've become interested in transcoding DVDs into Divx and SVCD formats. Matt Haveri's SVCD FAQ provides a comprehensive and up-to-date coverage of the subject of SVCD on the Mac
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