Filed under: Multimedia, Software
VisualHub 1.31 adds Surround Sound for "Take 2"
An upgrade to one of my favorite (and most useful) video compression and conversion utilities, VisualHub (which we've mentioned a few times), has brought with it support for 5.1 Surround Sound on the just-released Apple TV "Take 2." Despite not actually owning an Apple TV, I find myself happy for our video-converting, Apple TV-owning readers, and for the fact that any 5.1 AC3 audio I should happen to create won't be lost for that lucky audience.
The release notes also include some speed improvements for artwork tagging large (150MB+) videos not intended for the 'net, as well as a fix for aspect ratio conversion on Tivo-destined video. VisualHub 1.31 is a free upgrade for registered users. And for newcomers for whom it would be of use, it's worth every penny at the palindromic price of $23.32.
Visit the VisualHub website for more information.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Quix said 12:25PM on 2-13-2008
Thank you Techspansion for adding this so quickly! And thank you Apple for joining us in the 21st century with real digital 5.1 surround. I finally have a reason to go out and buy an Apple TV. Pending reviews, of course, on whether the 5.1 digital sound really is that.
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jus10 said 12:53PM on 2-13-2008
I rented Transformers last night. 5.1 is 5.1. My receiver gleefully lit up with Dolby Digital 3/2.1.
Its interesting how Apple is doing this. They're putting two Audio Tracks into a .mp4 (one of which, AC3) is not kosher according to the standard. The other one is stereo AAC.
Handbrake is also working on it but reading their forum, it is going to be a bit before this is possible. There currently isn't a way of muxing AC3 into mp4 there.
superberg said 12:27PM on 2-13-2008
Man, I love VisualHub. Best consumer-level compression app ever.
It also has the very best manual of all time!
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Scott said 12:53PM on 2-13-2008
I'm just curious, what source video would you be compressing with VisualHub that would make this feature good for the Apple TV? it doesn't rip DVDs, does it? Can it process .vob files from a straight DVD rip?
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Jorge Asch said 1:45PM on 2-13-2008
You can drop VOBs or a whole (unencrypted, of course) VIDEO-TS directory. You can also get HD files (in MKV) of the Internet that has 5.1 audio.
Right now I am trying out the settings, and hoping to see an improvement over audio.
Simon Arch said 1:38PM on 2-13-2008
VisualHub doesn't rip DVDs (Handbrake does, for now) but it does understand VOB files.
Scott said 1:42PM on 2-13-2008
Sweet..I didn't realize that. So you could use Mac the Ripper to rip and then compress it with VisualHub and still maintain the 5.1 surround sound? I've been looking for that solution for about a year now.
Simon Arch said 4:18PM on 2-13-2008
Yep. I'd just use MTR to rip the main feature with the Title-Chapter option under "Mode", with the "Merge Chapters" option ticked to make one big VOB, and then throw that one file at VH.
Scott said 11:06AM on 2-14-2008
@Simon
Forgive my ignorance, but I don't see a "merge chapters" function anywhere in MTR. I set it to "Main Feature" to only rip the movie itself. Is that the same thing?
Simon Arch said 3:49AM on 2-15-2008
Scott, here's what you do. Launch MTR. After it scans the disc, click "Mode". Below that there will be a popup menu which says Full Disc Extraction. Click that menu and choose "Title - Chapter Extraction". Another popup menu will appear there. It should default to the main feature. A drawer will pop out when you select this option, and at the bottom there will be a check box (already selected) which says "Merge Chapters".
Hope that helps!
Johnny said 12:59PM on 2-13-2008
Can anyone tell me if VisualHub, aside from this new feature, is worth the money over HandBrake? From downloading the demo, it appears the interface is a little more simple in VisualHub, but doesn't offer as many options (which most of us don't need anyway). I can't actually use it, however, as it has a 2 minute limit on the demo. It also wouldn't go past searching for the main DVD title which turned me off unless that is just where it stops for the demo. Is it faster? Better quality?
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Scott said 1:49PM on 2-13-2008
I ripped the Simpson Movie DVD using HandBrake's Apple TV preset and when I played it back on my Apple TV, there were more than a few sections where the frame rate slowed very obviously. I may have had to do with my Macbook facilitating the rip (it's a first-gen so it's a little old) but I'd say if you can do an uncompressed DVD rip with Mac the Ripper and then compress it with VisualHub, you'd probably see better results. I'm no professional though..
Simon Arch said 2:01PM on 2-13-2008
Well, here's the thing. Handbrake is a one-trick pony. It's designed to convert DVDs into compressed files (.mp4, .avi) and that's it. VisualHub on the other hand can convert almost any format video to another format, including DVD. It's pretty flexible. Of course, if you don't need that, there's no real reason to buy it. And if you just want to convert existing videos to iPod-compatible files, VisualHub has a free version called iSquint. http://www.isquint.org/
I use both Handbrake and VisualHub and consider them both indispensable.
mmendoza27 said 9:01PM on 2-13-2008
I just bought VisualHub last week to start porting .avi anime files to my iPhone. It is the best program ever! It's fast and it's effective.
It's extremely flexible, I will probably be converting the HD version of Transformers that I downloaded to put on my cousins PS3. You should totally buy it if you do regular encoding, it rips on a Core2Duo!!
Cameron Williams said 1:08PM on 2-13-2008
Tried to get the update, but the installer failed to download ffmpeg131installer.dmg correctly either automatically or manually. Anyone have a link to the file?
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Tyler Loch said 1:50PM on 2-13-2008
Our server's getting hit pretty bad right now. I've shifted some stuff around and your download should run better as of a couple minutes ago.
blessingx said 1:45PM on 2-13-2008
Why don't they work as quickly on the most requested feature for years now - subtitle support? If they did I might actually feel like I didn't lose my money when I bought this thing.
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Thierry said 5:29AM on 4-09-2008
blessingx, VisualHub DOES support subtitles !
You just need to know how to do it.
take a Divx or XviD in .avi format. Find the fitting .srt file with your subtitles on the web. Give both files EXACTLY the same filename, and put both files, and only these two, in ONE and the same single folder on your mac. for example : kingkong.avi and then kingkong.srt.
Now open VH. Use Avdanced Settings.
Click on Force then select Quicktime Decoding.
Now Just click Start and you're done.
You're welcome.
Flash Boredom said 2:12PM on 2-13-2008
I love VisualHub. It's the swiss army knife of video convertors. And geez, it's less than $25 (costs less than going out for a movie and a couple of cocktails!) with an active support forum and a developer that cares. Does a terrific job of converting video_ts folders to ipod/apple tv/tivo- you name it.
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Brian said 9:58PM on 2-13-2008
wonder if the 5.1 will work on the Xbox 360? I use connect360 to share all my videos to the 360 and it works great. All of the videos I had previously ripped in AppleTV work perfect on the 360, I can't wait to try it with AC3 5.1
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