I just have to come right out and say it: VisualHub is one of the best darn things to happen to video encoding since DVD Jon worked his magic. It's a fantastic app that rocks the house when it comes to encoding videos - especially in batches - and it just got a lot cooler with a v1.24 update. Along with a healthy dose of other new features and fixes, the VisualHub crew has introduced a new high-res format for getting the most out of a widescreen H.264 file that can play across multiple devices and screen sizes. All the details and a few sample videos are provided at this VisualHub product page, but the short of the long is: this new format will allow you to encode one file that looks great on small screens like iPods and PSPs, but will also look crisp and detailed when scaled up to a screen much larger like the TV your XBox or Apple TV are connected to. As anyone who has a Mac in the basement with VisualHub chugging away on a batch of DVDs can probably tell you, this new format could very well be music to one's ears. As icing on the cake, custom settings files are even provided on the afore-linked product page so you don't have to dig around and figure out this new format for yourself.
This isn't the only new thing in v1.24, however. Full support has arrived for: 8-core Macs, full-res PSP videos at 480 x 272, speedbumps for certain encoding outputs and much more. As if VisualHub wasn't already more than worth its $23.32 price tag, these updates should entice both serious and curious customers to make the leap for a license. Of course, a VisualHub demo is available for a test drive.
The iPod is the 21st century Walkman and it seems that Sony isn't content to let Apple potentially dominant the internet communication market with the iPhone. They have teamed up with BT (that's British Telecom to you) to offer a number of new features on the PSP. The new features include video and voice calls, though all the features depend on being connected to the internet in order to function. Might this make the PSP into an iPhone competitor? Considering that 28 million of these little things are out there, it just might.
Online video sales may take in about a third of a billion dollars this year. Sony wants in on the action. According to today's Financial Times, Sony is making plans to enter the video download market, specifically to provide content for its existing 20 million plus PSP installed base.
Amazon's movie download service, as well as video content providers like MovieLink and CinemaNow have pretty much been resounding failures. So what will Sony do differently? For one, they intend to distribute their movies in a memory-stick friendly form, storing up to 10 feature films on a 4GB stick. For another, they won't require any hardware upgrades to the existing equipment in order to purchase and play movies.
I'm pretty unclear about how they intend to manage their digital rights with this setup. And 10 movies on 4GB sounds over-compressed. A two-hour iTunes movie is about a gigabyte in length. 400MB sounds more like what you'd expect coming out of iSquint or Handbrake. It would, of course, be lovely if their content would play back on the iPod as well as the PSP, but I'm not holding my breath.
Mark/Space, purveyors of popular Missing Sync middle-man software that lets more than just iSync-friendly devices shake hands with your Mac, has just announced yet another version in their lineup: Missing Sync 1.0 for the PSP. In addition to all those games, movies and music files you're lugging around with Sony's hot little gaming machine, you can now synchronize Address Book, iCal events and tasks, notes (with their included Notebook app), WebSnacks™ (a website downloader that can include RSS feeds for offline viewing), iPhoto albums, iTunes playlists, game backups, and even track content across multiple memory sticks. To top it all off: Mark/Space even included a Universal Binary video encoder if all those other goodies are already boring you.
If all of this has your PSP thumbs 'a tappin' and you're ready to download a demo, you might be disappointed by a Mark/Space tradition that's always irked me: as far as I can tell, no demo is available; you either have to take the plunge and drop the $29.95 for a license, or gaze at the product page from afar, never to open a Missing Sync for PSP .DMG file of your very own.
VisualHub is a feature-packed and 'universal' video converter for Mac OS X from the maker of iSquint. From its website: "VisualHub bridges the gap between numerous complicated video formatting standards, and people that just want to get the job done - just what you would expect from the Mac." It boasts fast conversion from nearly every video format to iPod, PSP, DV, DVD, AVI, MP4, WMV, MPEG and Flash (what: no animated GIF?), and brags about ts three-step conversion process: click, drag, click.
Fortunately, VisualHub also offers advanced features like bitrate control, frame cropping and audio quality. Xgrid is supported for those with multiple Macs on a network and CPU cycles to spare, while QuickTime Pro and other plugins need not apply.
VisualHub's long list of features don't stop there, however, so check out Techspansion's product page for the full feature list and samples of its work. A demo is available, while a full license will cost you a mere $23.32 USD.
When it comes to turning a DVD into a movie file, Handbrake's name is hailed far and wide for its ease of use, speed
and overall quality. Recently, Handbrake's developer took these praised aspects and raised the bar by releasing Instant Handbrake (beta), a one-stop, brain-dead-easy app for converting a DVD to
iPod/PSP-compatible video.
By default it's set to crop the video when necessary (4:3 for iPod, 16:9 for
PSP), depending on which device you specify, but you can elect to maintain the video in its original size. Video
formats are MPEG-4 or H.264 for the iPod, and MPEG-4 for the PSP.
Like its big brother, Instant Handbrake is
free and available here.
ffmpegX, my video encoder of choice, has released a new version (0.0.9w) that is a Universal Binary (I bet it encodes like lightening on one of the now Intel Macs). This
version only supports OS X 10.3 or higher, so you pre-Panther folks will need to use an older version.
Other
than the Universal goodness that this release brings, the other big news is that ffmpegX can now encode Flash video for
use on blogs (or anywhere else that supports it).
The price? Free $15 (turns out it is
shareware. Who knew?).
Roxio announced Popcorn 2 is a
Universal Binary now.
Popcorn is a
little app that'll supposedly move content around to your mobile stuff— a PSP, iPod, or "mobile phone."
I couldn't get a list of supported phones, but I'm assuming it won't convert your movies to ASCII so they show up on
Nokia's from 2000. Popcorn also says it'll grab your unprotected DVD content. Now, I haven't used Popcorn, but will it
just refuse to rip store-bought DVD's? Ugh, I'm beginning to hate DRM too... If
anyone knows the answer to these burning questions, leave your experiences in the comments.
Apps that convert video for portable devices just keep getting smarter, and Forty-Two DVDVX Plus v3.0 is a prime example. Recently updated to
version 3, I think this just might be the perfect tool for the job, whether you're rolling with a 5G iPod, a PSP, a
Nokia series 60 phone or a handful of other devices. They main feature that makes Forty-Two DVDVX Plus (could that name
get a little shorter, please?) so appealing in my eyes is that, on top of encoding for all these different devices, it
also handles batch encoding of both movies files and individual chapters from a DVD. But wait, there's more: its UI has
that easy-to-use "inspired by iLife" feel to it, and it offers a bunch of other goodies like automatically
adding files to the iTunes library and Automator actions, as well as a choice of format, quality, resolution and
more.
I'm encoding some stuff into H.264 with the demo right now, but just from playing with it I'm really
impressed. This should definitely give both iSquint and that Automator action I found
earlier a run for their money - which, of course, is the only ding here: Forty-Two DVDVX Plus will set you back a cool
$19.99 (upgrades are only $9.99). But if you're serious about all this video on the go stuff and are looking for one
app to encode everything from local files to DVD folders, chapters and DVD's themselves - Forty-Two DVDVX Plus just
might be the app for you.
Last week, I mentioned the HomebrewPSP Converter from the same people that make iPSP, and commented on how I thought they would soon have an update that would allow users of PSPs running v1.5 firmware to run homebrew apps and emulators without having to swap memory sticks.
Well, my prediction was right. Get it now. It even has the option to automatically put the converted game on a PSP that you've mounted on your Mac. Very nice.
I just have to come right out and say it: VisualHub is one of the best darn things to happen to video encoding since DVD Jon worked his magic. It's a fantastic app that rocks the house when it comes to encoding videos - especially in batches - and it just got a lot cooler with a v1.24 update. Along with a healthy dose of other new features and fixes, the VisualHub crew has introduced a new high-res format for getting the most out of a widescreen H.264 file that can play across multiple devices and screen sizes. All the details and a few sample videos are provided at this VisualHub product page, but the short of the long is: this new format will allow you to encode one file that looks great on small screens like iPods and PSPs, but will also look crisp and detailed when scaled up to a screen much larger like the TV your XBox or Apple TV are connected to. As anyone who has a Mac in the basement with VisualHub chugging away on a batch of DVDs can probably tell you, this new format could very well be music to one's ears. As icing on the cake, custom settings files are even provided on the afore-linked product page so you don't have to dig around and figure out this new format for yourself.
The iPod is the 21st century Walkman and it seems that Sony isn't content to let Apple potentially dominant the internet communication market with the 
Mark/Space, purveyors of popular Missing Sync middle-man software that lets more than just iSync-friendly devices shake hands with your Mac, has just announced yet another version in their lineup: Missing Sync 1.0 for the PSP. In addition to all those games, movies and music files you're lugging around with Sony's hot little gaming machine, you can now synchronize Address Book, iCal events and tasks, notes (with their included Notebook app), WebSnacks™ (a website downloader that can include RSS feeds for offline viewing), iPhoto albums, iTunes playlists, game backups, and even track content across multiple memory sticks. To top it all off: Mark/Space even included a Universal Binary video encoder if all those other goodies are already boring you.
When it comes to turning a DVD into a movie file, Handbrake's name is hailed far and wide for its ease of use, speed
and overall quality. Recently, Handbrake's developer took these praised aspects and raised the bar by releasing 
ffmpegX, my video encoder of choice, has released 
Roxio announced 
Holy cool!
