HandBrake Video Conversion Software

I've been working in my spare time recently on finishing up my Excel smart search app, and today I got to the point where I wanted to show it off to some friends. The problem is that it turns out it's rather difficult to find free software that also doesn't have malware, when it comes to screen capturing and converting video formats.

For capturing the video in the first place, I ended up going with a program called HyperCam 2. It's not the best software in the world, and it's not open source. It is free, though, and it works for what I need for the moment. One small problem with it is that it outputs in fully uncompressed AVI video. For a 2 minute video at 720p, we have a file that is 250MB. I began looking around for conversion software.

When you google "avi to mp4", you get a massive list of really crappy software which either costs money, is loaded with malware, or both. The problem is that these sites have gotten very good at SEO, and even places like cnet's download.com doesn't really scan them well. On further research, though (involving actual forums), I found an program called Handbrake, and it's absolutely wonderful.

Handbrake is an open source project housed at Sourceforge.net. It's a very small download, and it installed in 15 seconds (including the time it took me to click Accept Terms). It has a pretty simple interface. You select the source file, select the location and name of the new file. You choose what format you want to convert it into, and then click Convert. It took about 20 seconds to convert my 2 minute video. And file size went from 250MB to 5MB. That's a rather incredible reduction. (Granted, I did select Optimize for Web, and the new video is just very slightly more blurry because of that. When I didn't optimize, the video ended up about 30MB). See the screenshot below to check out what it looks like.



As someone who has written several WordPress plugins that I let people use for free, I very much appreciate kind words from someone who benefits from them, and in turn I try to give positive feedback for freeware that I benefit from myself. Hence this post. HandBrake is lightweight and works like a charm, plus it's malware free. Give it a try next time you need to convert video.

Game of Thrones Review

Game of Thrones is an HBO produced show. That means you can be sure of two things. The production value is sky high, and so is the level of nudity/sex. Unfortunately the two can't be divorced it seems, so we live with it, and enjoy the show itself. And enjoy it I did.

I burned through both seasons in a single week once I finally started. I was hooked. It achieves a perfect level of grayness in which there are some definite protagonists I can root for the entire time, without going entirely black and white. Characters surprise me, do bad or good things unexpectedly, and are just generally enjoyable to watch.

It was of course depressing when Ned Stark died at the end of season 1, but we got past that as new heroes rose up to defend the north. Really the one big problem I had with the show was it's fuzziness on some of the topics. Religion was confusing because there are three main religions, an old, a new, and a newest. But some refer to the middle as the old religion, and some refer to it as the new. The show never really explains it well enough. I had to go to the wiki online to really figure it all out.

I don't hold it against them too much though, because there's SO much to cover. The world and backstory are massively in-depth. With only 10 episodes a season, it's difficult to cover everything.

Overall, I'd give the show an 8/10.
 

Transformers 3

Transformers 1 was great. The story was a bit weak, but it was consistent. The acting and special effects were great. Transformers 2 had great special effects, decent acting, and no story ... at all. It was confusing at the time, until someone told me about an interview with Michael Bay in which he admitted they were in such a rush to put out a 2nd movie that they skimped on the storyline.

So going into Transformers 3, my expectations were sort of mid level. I knew that I'd have plenty of eye candy; Michael Bay never skimps on the explosions. I wasn't sure though if it would have any sort of decent plot to go along with them though. I was quite pleasantly surprised. The plot made sense internally, and made sense with the previous movies. It was a bit trite at times, with things seemingly thrown in just to move things along, but overall it worked.

It started out slowly, and I admit I quickly grew tired of Sam's bitching about his poor life. He has plenty of money, a super hot girlfriend, and have saved the world twice. I also thought this new girl was a bit hard to buy. Where is Megan Fox? They pay a few sentences to her, allude briefly to a breakup, but we don't get anything in the way of closure, which puts a dent in the integrity of the story in my opinion. But it's a small dent, and I eventually forgot about it. Another complaint I had with her though, stayed and got worse throughout the movie. She's a wimp. Fox was hot, AND a badass. The new girl was a damsel in distress. She made up for it a little bit at the end by doing something which I won't spoil, but overall, the writers really could have upped her badass levels a bit.

My favorite scene in the entire movie is right before the final battle between the 2 primes. Optimus finally arrives and in a matter of 30 seconds kills 6 or 7 decepticons. Boom, boom, boom, without breaking a sweat. There's a character who isn't lacking in badass-ness.

Overall, much better than number 2, debatably better than number 1. The change in girls hurts it, but the better plot really helps, and the special effects are great as always. I'd recommend seeing it, but don't pay 14 bucks to see it in the IMAX.