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User Name jsevakis
Member Since 2002-09-02
Total number of Feedback Posts: 11
Total number of comments: 0
Last 10 Feedback Posts by jsevakis [ Search for All ]
VideoK 1.3.4 (Mac OS X)
Oddball program with limited utility 
Boy, this is an odd one. First, I'm well aware of the need for some decent denoising in the Quicktime world. I often have to boot up VMWare so I can use Windows video processing utilities like AVIsynth to clean up my video before I do my encoding. Denoising does do wonders for compression, and I would not do web video without it if I had a choice. A decent alternative on the Mac side would save me a lot of time and trouble. I can't see myself using this program, though. FIrst of all, its interface is bizarre and wonky, full of bad English and nonstandard interface choices. The installer even forces you to add the program to your dock, which is just not cool. There's also a stunningly useless info window, that tells you the file type of your input file (gee thanks, couldn't tell THAT from the file name!) and its source aspect ratio. (No mention of its frame rate, compression format, or anything useful.) There are no settings, other than Quicktime's standard export options. The program also handles 4:3 aspect ratio strangely, resizing everything to 16:9 for display. As for its output, I tested it with a noisy direct-from-camera h.264 clip, and exported using one-pass h.264 at medium setting. (I would never use Quicktime's h.264 codec for web, but it was just a test.) The file size was quite a bit smaller than doing the same directly from Quicktime Player: 9.6 megs rather than 12.3. The video quality was very slightly softer and blockier, but I really had to strain to notice a difference. The thing is, there's no point to making this a program at all. The filter itself might be quite useful, if it simply acted as a Quicktime filter that one could check during export. That way it might be used directly from Final Cut Pro or another program without an intermediate step. Having its own interface limits its usefulness, and THIS interface is just a liability. For a program that already has limited utility, this just has too many problems to be useful. Sorry, I'm sticking with my Windows-based solution. [alert admin]
Tuesday, July 21 2009 @ 11:48 PM PDT
DVDxDV 1.0941 (Mac OS X)
I've been using this product in a professional worksetting for about 6 months now, and it has saved us countless hours of hassle when working from DVD's as a master video format. (Yes, what I'm doing is legal. :p) It's not perfect (some chroma data will get left behind one frame, and converting from single VOB files takes way too long), but it's still THE only piece of mac software out there that can deal with just about ANY interlaced MPEG 2 video and convert it into something usable in Final Cut Pro.<p> Now, if this software could only deal with subtitle tracks, it would be my favorite piece of software ever. [alert admin]
Post a comment | More Info | 4 of 4 users found this helpful
Wednesday, December 08 2004 @ 09:19 PM PST
Quicksilver 1.0b29 (Mac OS X)
Don't be fooled by the plain-sounding description. This app will change the way you use your Mac forever. If you're the type that uses keyboard shortcuts at all, this app is a must-have. It's essentially a system-wide keyboard shortcut for most of the important things on your Mac.<p> Its easy plug-in interface is easily the best part of the app. Click a link on the QuickSilver homepage, it's installed. No cleanup, no drag-and-drop... nothing. This app could seriously give Mac users another interface advantage that will take Microsoft years to copy correctly. Apple, are you listening? [alert admin]
Sunday, September 12 2004 @ 12:08 PM PDT
Monolingual 1.2.5 (Mac OS X)
Delocalizer, although it hasn't been updated in a few years, is still the best utility to get rid of excess lingual bloat on OS X. While this is a nifty little program, the fact that it can delete even the most basic input methods and languages that are required by nearly everything (including OS X itself) as easily as it can the most obscure and least missed language files makes me uncomfortable even having this on my system, let alone using it.<P> I can't say I'm really enamored by the interface, either. It's a little too simple, and without any safeguards -- this thing in its current state may cause more pain in the world than it will solve. I'm worried. This program worries me. [alert admin]
Sunday, August 29 2004 @ 09:57 PM PDT
DVDpedia 1.0.0 (Mac OS X)
Great interface, fast entry... the only thing I'm missing is HTML export support, which I have to admit is really important. [alert admin]
Tuesday, February 03 2004 @ 02:13 PM PST
Avid Free DV 1.1.0.1050 (Mac OS X)
I don't get it. Freeware that you have to register, doesn't seem to work on the current version of OS X, has tons of potentially conflict-causing framework extensions, and has no features. I tried this thinking I would at least be able to learn the archaic AVID interface (I've been a pro Final Cut editor for 4 years), but without trim and slide tools, this doesn't even function as a learning tool. And since I can't even get it working, it serves as a waste of hard drive space and my time. Avoid this like the plague. [alert admin]
Post a comment | More Info | 1 of 1 users found this helpful
Saturday, January 24 2004 @ 06:34 PM PST
MPEG2Works 3.3.3 (Mac OS X)
Great tools, but some need work.
I bought this product for the PAL to NTSC conversion, and although the output looked great, it no longer held sync with the audio, and even though I had set the bitrate higher than the source material, the resulting M2V file was less than 1/3 the size!! (Huh?!) It also completely ignored PCM audio tracks. Still, some very useful tools in here I'm glad to have in my video file utility closet. Once the bugs get ironed out of the new conversion feature and NTSC equivalents get added for some PAL-only features, this will be much more useful to me. [alert admin]
Saturday, January 10 2004 @ 02:57 PM PST
D2X 0.2.5b3 (Mac OS X)
It works, and does bring back memories, but it's reeeealy slow. I mean, I'm getting around 5 FPS on my dual-proc 1.25 mhz G4 w/ ATI 9600... And for a twitch shooter like this, that makes it pretty much unplayable. If you can get the speed up and gamepad support working, this'll be amazing! Until then, it's a nice experiment. [alert admin]
Monday, September 15 2003 @ 08:55 PM PDT
Poisoned 0.3 (Mac OS X)
Free, open source, no ads, no spyware or hijack-ware. Beats PC Kazaa hands-down. Finally tips the scales and makes Mac THE platform for filesharing! Wishlist: better Gnutella connectivity (the craptacular Limewire still connects to many more users), OpenNap, Napster and Carracho network support, non-forced sharing of the downloaded items folder (I use my desktop folder, there's some sensitive stuff on there), better filtering interface. Other than those little quibbles, I am a very very happy man. [alert admin]
Sunday, July 20 2003 @ 12:30 PM PDT
BootCD 0.5 (Mac OS X)
and with a little tinkering, allowed me to create a bootable Norton 7 CD, something even Symantec couldn't do! Now, if only it allowed you to change the name of the computer on the login window... I'd love to make an unbranded help CD for the office... [alert admin]
Thursday, January 16 2003 @ 08:56 PM PST
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