Vector 22: Don Melton on transcoding video

Vector is our cross-platform, cross-site podcast where we talk about the technology that matters to all of us. In this episode, Don Melton, former Engineering Director of Internet Technologies at Apple, deep-dives into his non-browser-based passions: Blu-Ray, transcoding video, H.264, and managing massive amounts of media. Bottom line, if you want to get your videos onto your devices, and you're not afraid of command-lines or codecs, you're in for one hell of a ride. But, yeah: Warning: Contains extreme nerdery.

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Show notes

• transcode-video.sh: Don Melton's shell script for OS X to transcode a video file (works best with Blu-ray or DVD rip) into MP4 (or optionally Matroska) format, with configuration and at bitrate similar to popluar online downloads. Requires HandBrakeCLIand mediainfoexecutables.
• detect-crop.sh: Don Melton's shell script for OS X to detect crop values for a video file to use with mplayerand transcode-video.sh. Requires mplayerand mediainfoexecutables.
• convert-mp4-to-mkv.sh: Don Melton's shell script for OS X to convert an MP4 video file into Matroska format with a single audio track. Requires mkvmergeexecutable.
• HandBrake and HandBrakeCLI: Convert video from nearly any format.
• HandBrake and HandBrakeCLI: nightly builds.
• MediaInfo: Display technical and tag data for video and audio files.
• MKVToolNix: Tools for Matroska, including mkvmerge.
• MPlayer: Media utilities and player.
• Homebrew: Package manager for OS X to install MPlayer, MediaInfo and MKVToolNix.
• MakeMKV: Convert/rip video that you own into the portable and open Matroska format.
• Plex
• XBMC
• OpenELEC (Open Embedded Linux Entertainment Center)
• X264 Settings
• Scene Rules: warez

Guests

• Don Melton of donmelton.com

Hosts

• Rene Ritchie of iMore.com

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