Basenji 0.8 (Tool To Index Your CDs/DVDs, USB Devices And Network Drives), Released

Basenji is a cross-platform tool you can use to index your CDs/DVDs and USB devices so you can later search the database without having plug the media into your computer.

Basenji is very useful for those with large movies / music collections but not only. You can also use it to easily search some backups you store on removable media or your photos, etc.

Basenji features:

• Audio CD Support
• Metadata Extraction (image dimensions or MP3 tags)
• Thumbnails
• Optional daemon that automatically scans a device you plug in and adds it to the Basenji database

Basenji 0.8 was released yesterday, getting lots of useful features. These were already available (some were already there for quite a long time actually) in the Basenji daily PPA - such as the daemon that automatically scans inserted drives, but these are finally stable enough for a wide audience. Here's the Basenji 0.8 changelog:

• Added support for network drives and mountpoints
• Added option to disable the iteminfo panel
• Added option to hide hidden files
• Added support for metadata searching
• Added debugging options
• Added daemon for automated drive scanning
• Many new translations
• Many optimizations and bugfixes

Install Basenji 0.8 in Ubuntu (stable PPA)

Add the Basenji stable PPA and install it in Ubuntu 11.04, 10.10 and 10.04 using the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:pulb/ppa 
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install basenji

Also install the Basenji daemon using the following command (but the daemon is not available for Ubuntu 10.04!):

sudo apt-get install volumedb-tools

To learn how to use the Basenji daemon, run the following command:

volumedb-scanner-daemon --help

More about setting up the Basenji daemon @ Basenji Gets A Scanner Daemon Which Automatically Adds Inserted Volumes To The Database

Download Basenji for other Linux distributions and Windows @ Launchpad.

HandBrake 0.9.5 Has Been Released (Ubuntu Installation Instructions)

Handbrake is a multithreaded video transcoder that supports any DVD-like source and most multimedia file it can get libavformat to read and libavcodec to decode.

Even though it's not its first aim, Handbrake is used by many as a DVD ripper and it was voted as "best Linux DVD ripper" by the WebUpd8 readers.

Handbrake 0.9.5 was released today, bringing some very interesting new features and improvements:

• BluRay disc structure support. (No decryption support)
• Updated Libraries (x264, ffmpeg)
• SSA Subtitle support (including burn-in)
• MP3 audio now supported in MP4 files
• VOBSUB subtitle now supported in MP4 files
• Updated Presets for newer devices and better quality
• AC3 encoding support.
• Improved DVD Main Feature detection (when using dvdnav)
• Universal audio downmix support (all audio types can be downmixed)
• Point*to*Point encoding (second or frame start and end times)
• Batch Scan (Scan Multiple files at once)
• Many Bug fixes and UI improvements.

A complete changelog is available @ Handbrake forum.

Install Handbrake 0.9.5 in Ubuntu

Add the Handbrake PPA and install Handbrake 0.9.5 in Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic, 10.04 Lucid and 10.10 Maverick using the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:stebbins/handbrake-releases
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install handbrake-gtk

For other Linux distributions, Windows and Mac OSX downloads, visit the Handbrake downloads page.

Poll Results: Best Linux DVD Ripper

In our last week's poll, we asked you to vote for the best Linux DVD ripper.

HandBrake won the best Linux DVD ripper poll with 41.85% of the votes.


Here are the exact poll results:

Other applications which got votes:

• MakeMKV - 5 votes
• Thoggen - 4 votes
• Brasero - 4 votes
• VLC - 3 votes

There weren't too many votes this week - most probably because not everyone uses a DVD ripper.

Up next in our weekly poll: best Linux backup utility which will be posted later today. Stay tuned.

Best Linux DVD Ripper

It's time for another weekly poll. For this week: best Linux DVD Ripper.

The candidates are: AcidRip, HandBrake, dvd::rip, OGMRip and k9Copy. But as usual, you can enter a different result if you want to, by selecting "Other" and then entering your anwser.

The poll:

And do not forget to tell us why you find a certain application to be the best, by using the comment form below.

MultiCD Builds a Multi-boot CD / DVD With Many Different Linux Distributions And / Or Utilities

multicd.sh is a shell script designed to build a multiboot CD / DVD image containing many different Linux distributions and/or utilities. You can use it for instance to burn Gparted Live, Clonezilla and Ubuntu, all on the same multiboot DVD. When booting the CD / DVD, you will be able to choose which Linux distribution you want to boot on.

The latest version of MultiCD was released two days ago and it adds Endian Firewall and CDlinux, fixes a bug that made it so Ubuntu was nameless on the menu, and makes Slax changes default. The .tar.gz version also comes with SYSLINUX so you don't have to download it every time.

Using MultiCD is very easy: simply download the script (please note that starting with version 5.x, you can download MultiCD in two formats: single script called "combined" and a script with a plugins folder called "separate"), put in a folder along with the supported ISO images (or symbolic links) and then make it executable and run it:

chmod +x multicd*.sh
sudo ./multicd*.sh

Make sure your ISO files are among the supported distributions listed HERE.


For more info and download, visit MultiCD.sh homepage | For support, visit it's thread @ ubuntuforums.org

QDVDAuthor 2.1.0 Released

'Q' DVD-Author is a GUI frontent for dvdauthor and related tools. The goal is to provide an easy-to-use, yet powerful and complete interface to generate DVD menus, slideshows, and videos to burn on a DVD under Linux.

QDVDAuthor version 2.10 was released two days and it's a bug-fix release, but the author describes it as "the best QDVDAuthor release yet".


Bugs fixed in version 2.1.0:

• BUGFIX: Slideshow creation, Fixed auditranscoding for slideshow vids if the audiformat is SAMPLE_FMT_U8.
• BUGFIX: configure script, had issues using the -j switch ( instead of the --cores )
• BUGFIX: Slideshow ialog, Some audifiles caused the [Edit] dialog not treturn tthe calling function.
• BUGFIX: suppress "Not JPEG: /tmp/01.png" message.
• BUGFIX: Slideshow creation, properly init audio-output-sample_fmt.
• BUGFIX: Clone ButtonObjects would not clone the modifiers.
• BUGFIX: Configurator, Fixed the graphical configurator tool.
• BUGFIX: Crashing bug for ButtonObjects with shadows and overlay objects.
• BUGFIX: Fixed StructureItem when creating a ButtonObect.
• BUGFIX: Crashing bug when changing colors on MaskObjects after using the button-dialog.
• BUGFIX: Fixed rendering of MaskObjects on Images with OverlayObjects.
• Added possibility tmodify multiple objects in the TemplateWizard ( required for the ReflectionPond template )
• BUGFIX: Crashing bug when using MovieObjects.
• Added context menu items ta ButtonObject whose main object contains a ShadowObject or an OverlayObject.
• BUGFIX: HDRCreme does nlonger work.

Download QDVDAuthor 2.1.0 | Ubuntu users: add the GetDeb repository and install QDVDAuthor 2.1.0 (or upgrade).

HandBrake DVD Ripper And Audio / Video Converter Updated To Version 0.9.4, Adds 64bit Support

HandBrake is a free, open-source video transcoder for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. It supports any DVD-like source and most multimedia files and can convert into the following formats:

• File format: MP4 and MKV
• Video: MPEG-4, H.264, or Theora (1 or 2 passes or constant quantizer/rate encoding)
• Audio: AAC, MP3, Vorbis or AC-3 and DTS pass-through (supports encoding of several audio tracks)

Among HandBrake features are:

• Chapter selection
• "Soft Subtitles" (not permanently rendered to frame)
• Integrated bitrate calculator
• Picture deinterlacing
• Cropping and scaling
• Grayscale encoding.

HandBrake 0.9.4 was released a few days ago, and it includes over 1,000 changes since the last release, including soft subtitles (rips subtitles and you can turn then on or off), constant quality encoding (for better quality video and no need for 2-pass encoding), a live preview mode (so you don't waste your time encoding only to find you had a setting wrong) and something many people have been waiting for: 64-bit support. 64-bit builds tend to perform approximately 10% better than 32-bit. Unfortunately, the 64-bit version seems only available for Linux and Mac OS X for now.

For a complete list of changes, head over to the HandBrake 0.9.4 release announcement.


Download HandBrake (Packages available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux: Ubuntu .deb and Fedora .rpm - both with a GUI or command line).

DVD Authoring Made Easy With Bombono DVD [Linux]

Bombono DVD is an easy to use open-source (Linux only) application for DVD authoring which you can use to create DVDs with menus, chapters, re-auhoring (import from other DVDs), burn the DVD and so on.

The main features of Bombono DVD are:

• Excellent MPEG viewer: Timeline and Monitor
• Real WYSIWYG Menu Editor with live thumbnails
• Comfortable Drag-n-Drop support
• You can author to folder, make ISO-image or burn directly to DVD
• Reauthoring: you can import video from DVD discs.

To install Bombono in Ubuntu, paste the following commands in a terminal:

sudo echo "deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/muravjov-il/ppa/ubuntu karmic main" | sudo tee-a /etc/apt/sources.list
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys BBAB22E8
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install bombono-dvd

If you use Ubuntu Hardy, Intrepid or Jaunty instead of karmic, replace 'karmic' in the first command above, with 'hardy', 'intrepid' or 'jaunty'.

Direct Ubuntu Jaunty download: if you don't want to add the repository, you can just download these .deb files:

• amd64: bombono-dvd_0.5.2-1~ppa1~jaunty1_amd64.deb (1.2 MiB)
• i386: bombono-dvd_0.5.2-1~ppa1~jaunty1_i386.deb (1.2 MiB)

Direct download for other Ubuntu versions -> see Bombono PPA.

Download Bombono for other Linux distributions (openSUSE, ArchLinux, AltLinux and source files)

Other DVD Authoring applications:

• QDVDAuthor - Linux only
• DVDStyler - Windows and Linux

[via WebDevOnLinux - French version]

Get WinX DVD Ripper Platinum For Free [Limited Time Offer]

WinX DVD Ripper Platinum is the advanced version of WinX DVD Ripper. It is a professional DVD ripper which could rip different DVDs to popular devices such as Sony PSP, Apple iPhone, iPod, Apple TV, PDA, Zune, mobile phone, rip the content of DVDs to all popular video formats as AVI, FLV, WMV, MPEG, MP4, RMVB, 3GP, etc.

The original price of WinX DVD Ripper Platinum is $24.95. Now it is totally free available from Sep. 15 to Sep. 30 (give away for half month). Without registration code and you don't need offer any of your information. Just download it and you can backup your DVDs right away.

WinX DVD Ripper Platinum key features:

1. Rip DVD to popular video formats as AVI, FLV, WMV, MPEG, MP4, etc.
2. Rip DVD to popular portable devices including iPhone, iPod, PSP, PDA, Zune, Mobile phone, etc.
3. Support automatically detecting, connecting and transferring converted videos to portable devices.
4. Rip DVD audio into MP3 music file.
5. Support grabbing screenshot from DVD video.
6. Enable to remove or choose subtitles for output videos.
7. All video/audio parameters adjustable for users optimizing video quality.
8. Supper fast ripping speed, up to 300%-500% real time.
9. Best video/audio quality.
10. Easy to use and 100% stable.
11. Multiple DVD source supported as normal DVD, CSS protected DVD, region 1-6, commercial DVD, Sony ArccOS DVDs.
12. 100% Clean, No Spyware, No Malware, No Adware and No Virus.

WinX DVD Ripper Platinum works on Win95, Win98, WinXP,W indows2000, Windows2003, Windows Vista Starter.

Download WinX DVD Ripper Platinum for free

[via instantfundas]

Create Professional Looking DVDs With Free Application DVDStyer [Windows & Linux]

DVDStyler is a cross-platform (works on Windows and Linux) free DVD authoring application for the creation of professional-looking DVDs. It allows not only burning of video files on DVD that can be played practically on any standalone DVD player, but also creation of individually designed DVD menus.

Features:

* creation and burning DVD video with interactive menus
* support of AVI, MOV, MP4, MPEG, OGG, WMV and other file formats
* support of MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, Xvid, MP2, MP3, AC-3 and other audio and video formats
* support of multi-core processor v1.7.3
* allows using MPEG and VOB files without reencoding, see FAQ
* allows put files with different audio/video format on one DVD (support of titleset)
* user-friendly interface with support of drag & drop
* flexible menu creation on the basis of scalable vector graphic
* import of image file for background
* placing of buttons, text, images and other graphic objects anywhere on the menu screen
* changing the font/color and other parameters of buttons and graphic object
* scaling of buttons and graphic objects
* coping of any menu object or whole menu
* dvd scripting

Download DVD Styler [Windows, source files]

Download DVD Styler for Ubuntu (.deb): Jaunty: i386 or amd64 || Intrepid: i386 or amd64 || Hardy: i386 or amd64

(Or you can add the PPA repository, following these instructions)

[via techie-buzz]

Simple DVD Slide Show Maker for Linux: Imagination

Imagination is a lightweight and simple DVD slide show maker for Linux.

Imagination is incredibly simple to use. Just start it up, then click the top-left button to create a new slide show. A new dialog box pops up, asking you for a name (and location to save) your new slideshow, along with the format and a couple other options. You have the choice to save your slideshow as either a VOB (Video Object), for direct burning to DVD, or as a Flash Video, for uploading to video sharing websites such as YouTube). And you're covered whether you live in Europe or the US, as Imagination supports both PAL and NTSC video formats, as well as 4:3 or widescreen.

Once you've created your slideshow, you'll want to add images to it. Simply click the picture icon in the toolbar and select one, or as many images as you like. Once in your timeline, images can be reordered by drag and drop. There are three options you have per slide - transition type, transition speed and slide duration.

The transition type is how Imagination shows the change between slides, and you have options such as cross fade, push in, wave, and more. Transition speed is controllable by selecting from fast, normal or slow. And slide duration is the amount of time your image will be shown on screen, not including time spent transitioning from the previous slide or transitioning to the next.

The latest beta release of Imagination is 2.0b1 released on 22/08/09 featuring Ken Burns effects allowing infinite number of stop points, text on the slides along with some text animations, ability to cut/copy/paste the slides and other improvements.


Download Imagination

Ubuntu users can install Imagination from the official Ubuntu repositories:

sudo apt-get install imagination

If you use another Linux distro, you must compile the packages from HERE.