Tag: Media

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Handbrake 0.10.0

HandBrake icon

Handbrake, the Open-Source tool for converting video, has reach a version 0.10.0. Yes, it is Handbrake 0.10.0.

Encoders
We are introducing several new encoders with this release and replacing others.

  • Intel QuickSync Video
    is a hardware based H.264 encoder that is available on Intel CPUs. Currently, QSV is only supported on Windows but we hope to bring this to Linux users in the future. Thanks to the good people at Intel for making this possible!
  • H.265
    is now available through x265 1.4. While this encoder is still fairly new, we have seen some promising results come out of it. It’s still under heavy active development and is only going to improve over time!
  • VP8
    using the libvpx encoder. We have now deprecated Theora (VP3) in favour of VP8 which is a more modern encoder offering better quality encodes at lower file sizes.
  • LibFaac
    Has now officially been removed due to GPL compatibility issues, and replaced with the libav AAC encoder as the new default for Windows and Linux. In addition, we have added the FDK AAC encoder for Windows and Linux as a optional compile-time option. The Mac release will continue to use CoreAudio as the default.
  • As usual, we’ve updated a number of the core libraries including x264 and libav

Handbrake is available for OS X, Ubuntu and Windows.

As a content creator, I certainly am thankful to the people who have been working on Handbrake.

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Netflix Announces $1 Price Hike

Netflix announces price increase with streaming plans.

From Netflix email:

Hi SLACKER,

In order to continue adding more movies and TV shows, we are increasing our price from $7.99 to $8.99 for new members. As a thank you for being a member of Netflix already, we guarantee that your plan and price will not change for two years.

You can review your membership details at any time by visiting Your Account. As always, if you have questions, we are happy to answer them. Please call us at any time at 1-888-357-1516.

–The Netflix Team

Netflix Price Hike 20140509

Even at $8.99 per month, Netflix is still a bargain.

Considering that Netflix has recently signed peering deals with Comcast and Verizon, the extra $1 should be justified to Netflix.

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Los Angeles Times don’t know who Slayer vocalist is.

UPDATE 2013-02-23:
Los Angeles Times finally noticed the error and changed the caption to:

Heavy metal band Slayer performs at the Long Beach Arena in 2006. (Christine Cotter / Los Angeles Times / July 22, 2006)

——-

Los Angeles Times apparently don’t know who Slayer vocalist is (screen capture below). According to L.A. Times Randy Blythe is the vocalist of Slayer instead of Tom Araya. Well, unless L.A. Times knew that Araya had been replaced by Blythe in Kerry King Project.

Randy Blythe is the vocalist of Lamb of God.

LA-Times-dont-know-who-Slayer-vocalist-is

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Incestuous Tech Journalism

Wall Street Journal suspiciously omitted the 65 Millions figure off its latest hit-piece on Apple. Tech-sites quickly jumped on the news without using the salt shakers. Sadly tech-journalism is prone to circular logic.

Remember what the tech journalists said about “the next iPhone” back in March 2012?

 

NBCNews – Will the next iPhone be simply named ‘iPhone’?

 

Then these so called tech journalists seem to think that the next iPhone after iPhone 4S would be called “The new iPhone” or simply iPhone.

Note: Forgive us for linking to Gizmodo and CNET.

A lot less people are being critical of what the mainstream press say. There’s a sickening notion of:

If Wall Street Journal published it, then it must be true.”

Wall Street Journal has been wrong on many occasions. Every year since the first introductions of the iPhone in 2007, the rumor of “smaller” iPhone lives on. Whoever made this news up are laughing their asses off, rolling on the floor every time someone reported it.

The current state of tech journalism is far from what it was intended to be. Now it is all about page hits, exclusives and first to report. There are those who know what tech companies are planning and they are not talking. Those who are within Apple’s inner circle are keeping their mouth shut about the next iPhone. Whether or not it would have been called “iPhone 5S” or “iPhone FU”, no one outside this circle know. Anything you read about the iPhone 5S coming this Spring is a complete fabrication of desperate tech journalist wannabes.

Remember, it only takes one to publish unsubstantiated story before the other pick them up and ran with it.I t is an incestuous tech journalism.