After the run to the car and back, I was wet to the skin pretty much all over except the shoes. I noticed a number of curious smells coming from my suit. I was able to pick out (in no particular order):

Cologne (mine).

Barf (not mine).

Formula.

Soggy wool.

Reconstituted drycleaning fluid smell.

Cheerios and/or cheezy crackers.

Fruit snacks.

Chalk.

Now I know I’ve had the suit cleaned since then, and while I’ve accepted that I will have booger and drool marks on my shoulder until the youngest hits about 5, why do the smells remain?

Yuck.

Come home and get my hands in the dishwater as the kids finish reading books with mom. “Dada! Someone very small wants you!” comes from upstairs. The three year old is there, one-piece jammies on, hearing aids away, bottom lip out, standing on the side of the crib, pointing to the guest bed and murmuring, “Dada, bed”. He’s asking to be held on the bed while he falls asleep. This warms me up especially because this has been a Mama month, the Dada being out of favor for constantly putting on The Wrong Shoes, The Wrong Shirt, Restraining Me While Walking in Parking Lots, and all sorts of other 3-year-old infractions.

Up on the shoulder he goes, head down, arms splayed across dada, and we lay down on the bed. In 10 minutes, he’s all floppy.

I’m going to miss that all too soon.

Back Story

We finally stepped part way into the HD era, by attaching a PS3 to our SD television. Sacrilege, I know, but it’s what I have for now, and the economy isn’t getting any better this week. But, as we only have two games for it (Little Big Planet and Mater-National Racing), we have found that it has another wonderful use. The Videos menu.

(Keep in mind that I have 3 little kids in the house, and while most of their viewing is in the broadcast-DVR, I still have hopes that they will take an interest in longer attention span viewing, or at least the Muppet Show season sets and Looney Tunes sets I have waiting. But handing them DVDs is a great way to have things get destroyed. Enter digital viewing on the TV.)

So, having an Infrant ReadyNAS x600 in the garage, I bought a copy of the far more predictable TwonkyMedia server that handles all the gross stuff related to sharing your video folder with the PS3. The built-in server just wasn’t maintaining itself well, no matter how I tried. I’m sure someone can make it go, but I needed something a bit more turn-key. But the bigger problem still remained: I have something along the line of 300 DVDs between movies, television series, and home-made things. Ripping is the tetchy topic, and if you have questions we can talk via email, but the fact is that ripping even the most difficult DVDs is now possible. But now you have at least one hard drive full of DVD folders or ISO images of DVDs, and you have to turn this into something a bit more manageable.

This is the PS3 specific portion – if you are comfortable with how your player plays back and what encoder settings you can get from Handbrake, then feel free to skip forward. As clients to my encoded DVDs, the first priority was everything was to be HD resolution for the PS3 and/or my TViX 4100. There was also a smaller subset that I wanted to play back on my iPhone. After much experimenting with  Handbrake, I settled on a set of 2 encoding strings that made me happy. One was the default PS3 profile, plus chapter markers (for computer playback), plus 2-pass encoding. The other was the same, but with deinterlacing turned on, for those titles like the Muppet show that were interlaced on the discs. (If you don’t deinterlace those, then the frames come out in the wrong order when replaying on the PS3, and make things jump around forward-backward-forward and drive you to turn it off.) Fortunately, the TViX plays these files without modification, so I was set for both devices. So those two strings were written and set aside. Then I came up with a parallel pair of strings for the iPhone setting.

So I had my 4 preferred encoding settings and a pile of 300ish ripped DVD images or folders to eat through. I knew there was a problem. At PS3-2pass resolution, each encode was about 4 hours. That’s a lot of hours, and queuing each in Handbrake’s GUI takes more time than I want to do. I already knew exactly what I wanted, but I didn’t want to do it by hand.

What I Did

So I did a little digging on Google and discovered that for some reasonably old version of Handbrake, someone wrote a bash script that would turn VIDEO_TS folders into mp4’s. As time had left this little gem behind, I did some minor repairs and used that for a couple encodes. But it had some limitations I didn’t like, and didn’t work at all for Windows machines, and so on. I even modified the original VIDEO_TS script to work with ISO images, and that saved me some more work. I could then do massive batch encodes using my two scripts. I took images to work and left the far faster work computers cooking m4v’s for me over weekends and nights. It was great for saving me weeks of computing at home. But I had to custom-build the scripts for Windows via shared folders on the mac, and it still took too long to manage two scripts across multiple machines. Enter the perl experience. At work I’ve been working with cross-platform scripting for a while now by using Perl. I opened up the guts of the VIDEO_TS script again, figured out how to do what they were doing, added the new abilities of Handbrake’s latest versions, and got to work giving the Windows machines the same logic the Mac had with the bash script.

The new script, stupidly named encode.pl, now handles pretty much anything that Handbrake can handle – or at least anything I encountered. First, you queue a directory. It simultaneously queues VIDEO_TS directories, ISO images, wmv/avi/mov/etc. files for encoding. Then it proceeds to do discovery via Handbrake about what it should encode. It does this by querying the title list for the duration and then applying a filter for length. For instance, my default setting is anything between 20 and 600 minutes, but that can be tuned with the –minimum or –maximum settings. Then it goes through them one by one, handing the whole thing off to Handbrake to be encoded. As each one finishes, it goes to the next one. No mess, no fuss. Until you run out of hard drive space that is. Can’t help you there.

So then I had to tune the way I organized my DVD images for feeding into this thing. My ReadyNAS had enough space at the time, so I put things into distinct folders. In the media share, I had a Videos folder. Inside I created the following:

/Volumes/media/Videos/todo/…

…/deinterlace/long

…/deinterlace/episodes

…/long

…/episodes

- and here’s why. The long directories were for things that I wanted only the titles that were over an hour and ten minutes. This let me get a single file for all of the Looney Tunes shows, strung together, instead of a pile of 7-9 minute shorts. There are enough per DVD to make it frustrating to have to return to the menu for each new show. Kids will just give up, and so will I. They already have a title with all of them together, so I just added the –minimum 70 setting when I do the long directories.The episodes directories were for things no longer than an hour. These are the opposite of the long things. So for cartoons, sitcoms, and other 22-44-minute episodes, I don’t want the whole DVD as one title, I want each show as an individual m4v file. That directory got the –maximum 50 setting. This pretty much handled everything except for a couple odd cases that I just encoded more or less by hand with the GUI – mabye 3 discs total.

For output directories, I created:

…/m4v

…/iPhone

Now, because I had central storage for both the input directory and the output directory, I also considered using multiple computers. I was able to use the 4 computers under my desk to all work on a central queue. I would go to each computer, mount the share, and put together the encode string for that machine, and set it running. Each computer when it starts an encode creates the file it’s starting on, and then starts the Handbrake line. I had to do this because with 2-pass encodes, the output file is not present until the second pass starts. Because of this, if you have computer A starting on title 1, then computer B might start on it too. If the file is present, then computer B says, “Oh, that one’s there, let’s start the next one.” So you get a cheap claim-before-starting system built in if encoding to the same destination. Then another thing came up. I could do encodes on my laptop while away from the main servers. So I added the ability to keep a log of what’s encoded and copy that to remote locations (*cough* work) and still not get double encodes. It’s not a perfect system, but it’s better than nothing.

The Interesting Part

So the result is a semi-distributed way of encoding a seriously big pile of movies into a standardized format using both Macs and PCs, possibly central storage, and getting a pile of files with at least standardized names.

I’ve actually considered trying to add a way to use STAF to auto-distribute encodes to available systems, but that takes a bit more time than I have at the moment. But that could allow you to have a central “encode controller” and some “encode slaves” that you hand out single encode jobs to. It’s within reach, I just need an hour here or there to try it.

Anyway, here’s how you use it:

perl encode.pl -i /Volumes/media/Videos/todo/long -o /Volumes/media/Videos/m4v --minimum 5 --maximum 70 -e "-Z PS3"

or the equivalent in Windows paths:

perl encode.pl -i M:\Videos\todo\long -o M:\Videos\m4v --minimum 5 --maximum 70 -e "-Z PS3"

-i for an input directory

-o for an output directory

-e for anything you want to hand directly to the encoder. “-Z PS3″ is the default PS3 string, but be careful with “-Z ‘iPhone & iPod Touch’” because the shells differ in quote handling. Try it on a single command line to get it right and then keep it around in a text file somewhere to be sure. Also, because of the funny quoting problems, I usually try to make the -e setting the last one I hand in.

–minimum is the minimum time in minutes that you want to approve a title for encoding

–maximum is the opposite. Note that minimum and maximum ignore seconds.

Note that almost everything is optional. You can open the perl code and change to your favorite defaults. On the Mac, the default input and output directory is ~/Movies, on PC it’s in My Documents. The pitfall of using the output directory as the input directory is if you cancel any encode, you’ll try to re-encode anything you’ve finished in the last pass. So try to keep them separated for sanity’s sake. I ended up one morning with MY_MOVIE.ISO_T2(through7)_T1.m4v trying to figure out what the heck went wrong.

So here you are readers, a new and improved mass encoder script for using Handbrake to eat massive piles of DVDs with one or more computers and Handbrake. Enjoy!

–edit

A little more experience added a few more things.

1. Favorites, so you can save your favorite encoding strings by name. Mine are PS3 PS3-d PS32 iPhone and iPhone-d with predictable results. But this is easier to type. So replace your -e arg with a favorite -f iPhone and you can save yourself a world of hurt. But -e still works as it did before.

2. Partial encodes are saved to blah.part.m4v until they complete, when they take on the name of their finished product. This was supposed to handle the situation of an unfinished encode displacing the encoder’s next pass, but alas, something doesn’t consider it an error when it’s interrupted *cough handbrake* so I’ll have to work on that some more.

Upload to follow shortly.

First observation – babies are heavy. I mean, ours is only rated as a 23 pounder, but man, water for 3 plus the pack plus the camera plus one lens ended up somewhere in the 60 pound range, I’m sure. Now, I know I’m out of shape for this kind of thing, but my stars.

Second observation – the superzoom lens and camera did okay for where we were. I put it on ISO 400, program mode, and just let it go. This is after all, what it was meant to do. The 18s are a little warpy and fade more than I like in the corners, in the middle it looks pretty good actually, and on closeups it just looks average. The contrast is never great, the colors are not wonderful but not bad, and it’s just not a sharp lens; but I didn’t really expect it to be. I’ll reserve speculation for later in the article. Once we got near the top, I switched out the 18-200 for the 12-24 to get the view from the top in. I did a quick-n-cheesy pano spin of the view for stitching once we got home, recovered my breath, showed the kids San Francisco, Oakland, and our house in San Jose all from one view (nice!) and then we turned back for the shade and refreshing downhill walk to the van. (See July08 folder on www.smurfless.com for more/bigger.)

Third observation – the 12-24 is a nice lens for tripod work, but on the D2x, it’s just not fast enough for shady walking shots. I should have switched to auto-ISO or gone to ISO 800, but I didn’t, and that cost me some none too good shots of us descending. Honestly I don’t miss those pictures, but it did reinforce my geeky desire for the new D3/D700 generation with all the extra ISO horsepower they hold. It also reminded me that for day tripping, I should just switch to my auto-ISO custom setting every time instead of thinking I’d remember to adjust. I was too busy trying not to have a stroke.

But a new camera would knock my 360 precision template out of line, I must not succumb. I must resist! But I am weak. I may be able to wait until the next generation comes out, but it’s hard to say. At least the D2x continues to work, where my D1x just plain ate batteries like candy. The D2x is still after all this time a reliable beast, and 12 megapixels is quite a big image for all its perceived weaknesses compared to newer cameras.

So part of why I’m rattling this off is that I wanted to compare this to the ounce-counting camp. Am I really getting a chance to do something better for the what, 5 pounds of extra gear I’m hauling with me? I’ve seen decent pictures come out of point-n-shoots, and what I’m doing is essentially the same work, but the images are bigger, more clean, and believe it or not, easier on the eyes. I’m certainly getting more exercise, but is it worth it? I guess that’s subjective, but I certainly got a couple shots I’m happy I took with a decent camera. Once the kids can carry themselves, I can easily see carrying a tripod with a light ballhead as well, although perhaps not my 360 Precision. And while I liked having the full range of the zoom, I think I’d only use it on scouting for “real pictures” using heavier lenses and a tripod, because I’m just not happy with it as a fine picture lens. I feel that the far cheaper 28-105 gives far sharper pictures although without the fun VR and -S suffixes. The contrast is better, the falloff is about the same, and the images are just plain sharper. Plus it feels lighter. Maybe I’m nitpicking, but I think next trip I’ll just go with the 28-105. And besides, once I get a full frame camera, the 28-105 remains a full-resolution lens. And it’s cheaper. It’s hard to argue those if you’re shopping.

So, I think it’s time to either hand the VR off to my wife who would probably get full use of it and then sell off the other two lenses she has (kit + 70-300 junker) or just sell it and not disturb what she has going. Either way, I think it’s not going back in my kit. I think I want a medium telephoto that doesn’t suck, which I hear the 80-200 f/2.8 is the answer to.

First, my car is “older”. 11 years. It’s a nice sports car, but the
engine won’t last forever, and the power is definitely off it’s
original spec. The body and interior are in great shape, but the
engine is going to need a good deal of improvement to get back to
“sports car” condition. It’s
due for an oil change, so I can talk to my mechanic shop about it
then. But there are used M5s for 30ish and even less… and they would
fit more kids, sit just as well at the train stop under a cover, using
more expensive parts and tires, and attracting more attention of the
kind of people that should probably not see a used M5 covered at a
park-n-ride. So maybe I should go look into econoboxes, right? Well,
my common daily drive is to elementary school for a dropoff, then to
the train station to park until 6:30 when the shuttle comes in, or a
50 mile round trip to work, and I rarely go out at lunch.

But let’s back up a bit. Why in the WORLD am I looking at cars? My car
is fine. It’s probably fine for another 100 kilomiles (currently at
106.5 kilomiles). It looks fabulous, sounds great, has the aftermarket
bluetooth adapter, iPod adapter (the kind that does NOT stink), and
aside from the looming threat of a coolant system rebuild (plastic
gets old after 10 years), it’s fine. But I looked up how much it is
for carbon fiber body panel replacements to cut some weight off, maybe
shed a few pounds of stuff to drive back and forth, accelerating and
decelerating at every stop and turn, but the fact is that $800 for a
new hood and $900 for new, less safe doors aren’t really my thing. A
new exhaust would pep the engine up a bit, paired with a cold-air
intake it’d be a nice less-expensive upgrade to keep it feeling lively
while I run it into the ground for good.
And back to the car – it’s paid for. Do you see why I’m worried? I
should not be looking at cars at all seriously. But I’m not sure I’m
doing anything other than just looking at what’s there now so that in
3 years when I’m starting to get serious about a replacement, I’ll
know what the off-lease cars I’m looking at were when they were new.
Because I’m completely sure I’m not going to buy any car for 60k, no
matter how cool the new M3 looks, or how absolutely I would love to go
burn off the tires and an entire tank of gas on route 9.

My camera is fine. So it’s not worth the MSRP any more, as there is a
new bumped up version of it out plus another very significant model
improvement (D3), but the camera is slightly over 12 megapixels,
handles GPS and panoramas flawlessly, again, is paid for, and my
biggest complaints about it are pretty much trivial (see previous
post). I would like to get a couple of my lesser lenses sold off and
replaced by their bigger brothers in f2.8 or f1.x range, but that’s a
serious outlay for what amounts to just plain better pictures that I
still don’t have enough time to get to until the kids are older. And
yet yesterday, I whipped up a text list of the 5 lenses I’d like most
to get, amounting to some stupid amount nearing $10,000. Why? Why do I
need to have this roadmap in front of me?

My house (townhouse/condo technically) is fine. It’s perfect for how
we live at the moment. But my wife wants a yard, and I want to spend
less than 50% of my paycheck on housing – more if you include property
taxes. And I see houses – actual 2500+ sft houses in other areas of
the (county, country) that would give us both options, but with the
standard array of problems getting to them. 1. Jobs – present and
future, 2. Real-Estate selling issues, 3. Real-estate agent fees, 4.
schools, etc. etc. etc. But yet I look. Not often, not seriously, but
I look.

So as to why, I’ve got a couple theories, and you know how my theories
go. Feel free to stop reading any time you like.

First, I’ve always been a looker. Maybe I’m a toy-voyeur, loving to
look at things that aren’t mine. I don’t feel like that’s the right
answer. Maybe I’m bored. I personally think that’s it. I just like to
see what’s out there, what’s coming next. Where are we taking what we
learned last year and making it better.
Maybe I’m a moron.
Second, there are specific problems with the things I have that make
me want to improve them. I’m not saying what I have is bad, but I’m
always adjusting things, fiddling with them to make them fit better
with what I want. But when I get things
to the way I want them and mostly leave them alone until I don’t like
them again.

So, comment away. Do you do the same thing? Is this behavior I should
abhor in the future? Am I just the archetypal wasteful American, doing
his thing, leaving wanton destruction in his path while searching for
perfection? Or am I just human?

So far he’s gotten through about 6 hours of Lord of the Rings.