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Carina is getting me the Mvix MX-760HD wireless HD media center for Christmas. I've long wanted some kind of low-profile media center, so I can rip DVDs and CDs and avoid all the mess of physical media; but I've been extremely picky on form factor in regular PCs, and just plain lazy about getting around to trying MythTV. Plus, I've been too frugal to actually purchase anything.

In anticipation of the device, I started re-educating myself about the options available to me for transferring and compressing DVD video to other formats. On my PowerBook, I can use Handbrake easy enough; and on my GNU/Linux laptop I can use avidemux. Handbrake is by far easier to use, but as a trade-off I lose some control. (Each is available for the other platform, incidentally.)

For example, I have a few Star Trek TNG episodes (and Space Ghost, and Sea Lab 2021, and Mystery Science Theater 3000...) on DVD that I'd like to convert for eventual storage on the media center. Handbrake makes it trivial to rip the individual episodes to discrete .mp4 files, but it copies the whole episode. I don't particularly need the opening credit sequence -- which is usually the same every time -- in every file, but Handbrake does not give me the option to remove that. I can remove the credit sequence using Avidemux, but I'm not entirely sure that the resultant file is as good as those produced by Handbrake, namely because I'm required to twiddle quantizer and encoding options about which I know nothing.

A movie ripped by Handbrake is identified by the file utility as "ISO Media, MPEG v4 system, version 2", whereas a file ripped by Avidemux is identified as "ISO Media, MPEG v4 system, version 1". I don't entirely know what the differences are, nor whether I should care. Making things even more confusing to me, Avidemux supports two different MPEG-4 codecs: libavcodec and Xvid. When using libavcodec, I usually get errors about the second pass settings I've selected, so I end up using Xvid. What's more, I can't get Avidemux to produce an .mp4 file with sound if I select the "MP4" container format; instead I need to select an AVI format. So I've got MP4 video with AC3 audio inside an AVI container: file reports "RIFF (little-endian) data, AVI, 720 x 480, ~30 fps, video: XviD, audio: Dolby AC3 (6 channels, 48000 Hz)". I have no idea if that's ideal or not.

I tried feeding the MP4 file from Handbrake into Avidemux, but that didn't seem to work any better (encoding an already lossy encoded file seems sub-optimal, even if it works). I'm tempted to give up, use Handbrake for convenience, and just keep the credit sequences.

Anyone have any encoding advice they'd like to share?

There's been some discussions building on Planet Debian and Planet Ubuntu about a proposal to include binary video drivers by default in future versions of Ubuntu. The motivator for including these drivers is to enable fancy 3D accelerated desktop eye candy, for the most part.

The inclusion of proprietary, closed-source binary-only drivers is contentious, because Ubuntu purports to be a Free Software distribution, and the lack of source for these video drivers makes them anathema, by definition. Ubuntu includes firmware for various network cards, so there is some precedent for the inclusion of non-free stuff in the distribution; though many folks rationalize firmware as something different than drivers, and therefore less deserving of freedom in some way.

It's a slippery slope, to be sure. Mako has some interesting observations. It's always interesting to hear the first-hand accounts of folks involved in the decision making that affects us, the users.

If you have an opinion on the matter, consider adding it to the AcceleratedX Comments page. This may well be an opportunity for the community to truly steer the development of a product they use.

We received new desktops at work: 64-bit Core 2 systems with gobs of RAM. Enthused, I downloaded and installed the 64-bit version of Ubuntu Edgy Eft. Overall, I'm pleased with Edgy: upstart seems a modest improvement, Firefox 2 is a decent upgrade, Tomboy is a handy little utility, and I enjoy the new car smell!

I was perhaps a bit premature in jumping into the 64-bit version, though, as some things don't work. It's a minor annoyance that the Adobe Flash plugin for Mozilla Firefox doesn't work on 64-bit systems. I haven't tried the Adobe Acrobat Reader yet, though I've read reports about it being incompatible. Most frustrating to me, however, is the fact that the Java plugin for Mozilla Firefox doesn't work, either. The HP Procurve switches we use at work use Java applets for the web-based configuration. And our network-connnected KVM switch also uses Java. So Java is rather more important than it might otherwise be.

The documented solutions (here and here) currently recommend installing the 32-bit version of Firefox alongside the 64-bit version, and installing the plugins as usual for the 32-bit version. This is far from ideal, if you ask me.

I tried to follow the instructions, but had only limited success. Java worked once, and then fouled up on subsequent executions of the applets. Since both instances of Firefox use the same profile directory (~/.mozilla), the 64-bit version would try to execute the 32-bit plugin and foul up. Frustrated, I downloaded the VMware Player and browser appliance, installed the necessary plugins into that version of Firefox, and called it a day.

The superior solution is, of course, for me to learn the command-line controls for our ethernet switches, which is fine for them but fails completely to deal with the KVM switch. Another workaround is to remote desktop to a machine with a working Java installation, but that just makes me feel quesy: rdesktop to a machine to connect to our KVM to connect to a machine ... ugh!

On a positive, though completely unrelated note, I was delighted to find Google Maps for the Palm Treo!

Update: Raritan, our KVM manufacturer, provides a stand-alone Java .jar file that connects to their KVM switches! So I can use that to access our KVM and control all our servers. Hooray!

The Ohio LinuxFest 2006 is quickly approaching! If you haven't yet registered for this free conference, do so soon! The deadline for the All Conference Pass registrations is September 21, so sign up now!

We're also still looking for volunteers to help run the check-in stations. If you'd like to give a little bit of your time to support a conference that gives you so much, send me an email! Specifically, we need volunteers to manage the check-in process after lunch. I don't expect too many late-comers, but we need someone there to greet them when they arrive!

From lxer.com, 10 Things You Could Be Doing Instead of Attending Ohio LinuxFest 2006.

Be sure to visit the Ohio LinuxFest blog for all the latest updates!