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HandBrake 1.0.0 Released

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Re: HandBrake 1.0.0 Released

#51
post #44
post #41

HandBrake found me a defective RAM module on my PC: it freezed in the middle of video conversion - every single time on exactly the same video position. After further investigation I found the "bug" in my RAM...

That's actually super interesting! I honestly wish I knew more about RAM to understand how that one process exposed the bug. :(

MemTest86 showed me my RAM is defect at exactly 1 bit: whatever you wrote to this bit, you got 0 back. During video conversion HandBrake used this part of RAM and could not cope with false data read from RAM... and froze...

Since I used this machine to backup my data on DVDs I got many errors in my data on backup. But since I had a copy of everything on another HDD I throw the DVDs away and backed up everything again (after replacing defective RAM module and reinstalling OS and SW on my machine).

Re: HandBrake 1.0.0 Released

#52
I hope this fixes the issue I, but seemingly few others have, which is that the sound drifts behind the video getting progressively worse as the video continues.

By 60 minutes in the sound is a full five second behind the video.

Re: HandBrake 1.0.0 Released

#53
post #41

HandBrake found me a defective RAM module on my PC: it freezed in the middle of video conversion - every single time on exactly the same video position. After further investigation I found the "bug" in my RAM...

How is that even possible with virtual memory and paging? Why would the same video data or whatever go to the same physical location every time?

Re: HandBrake 1.0.0 Released

#54
I often wonder if archivists are out there somewhere, armed with HandBrake, ripping every DVD they can find into a digital format for preservation beyond the life of the disc.

I've been fascinated with some projects that have tried to recreate the original theater experience of the original Star Wars,[0] or groups trying to capture classics that influenced Chinese cinema but haven't been widely reproduced, like Red Heroine.[1]

If everything moves to streaming though, even that could become impossible. Wonder how long until they'll stop printing DVDs...

[0] http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:b1Dmiou...

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Obpyt_tYxCU

Re: HandBrake 1.0.0 Released

#55
post #46
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing makes me want to go out and pirate something purely as an act of defiance than unskippable piracy warnings.

For me, it's definitely the un-skippable advertisements. Like, as a software developer and user, I despise when an API is exposed that allows an application or website to suspend expected behavior in favor of custom hijinks, but to me, that's exactly what ignoring my menu and main-menu buttons is.

Especially when it is enforced by licensing terms. At some level, it is just a bit that gets interpreted by the software as "ignore these user commands". It is very reasonable to make a player that listens to the user commands, even if that bit is set. At a different level, it is a requirement under the terms of the patent licensing to implement this "feature", or else be in violation of patent infringement.

Re: HandBrake 1.0.0 Released

#56
post #41

HandBrake found me a defective RAM module on my PC: it freezed in the middle of video conversion - every single time on exactly the same video position. After further investigation I found the "bug" in my RAM...

How is that even possible with virtual memory and paging? Why would the same video data or whatever go to the same physical location every time?

I can imagine bunches of possibilities. Paging can make things hard to predict, especially when multiple programs are allocating memory, but it doesn't make the system non-deterministic, nor does it make hitting the same physical address impossible.

One possibility is that he didn't restart the program between retries, and the memory in question was already allocated. Another possibility is that he only ran handbrake and nothing else, and the OS was in more or less the same state both times. It could be that the problem was triggered by stack allocations rather than heap allocations and the video block in question caused a large-ish recursion that hit the problem, and would be likely to hit the problem no matter what was running since it's somewhat rare to have large stack allocations.

Chances are it was actually none of those things, but they're real possibilities anyway.

Re: HandBrake 1.0.0 Released

#57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've used to work with a team that used HandBrake for transcoding - from what one of the developers told me HandBrake handles weird video formats better. Some of the videos would have troubles with ffmpeg which would produce "broken" transcoded videos, videos without audio and some other issues that I don't remember now. Myself personally, I feel quite comfortable with ffmpeg and I never had any problems with it so w…

The issues you bring up are not deficiencies with ffmpeg, but rather the user. One can prevent all of the issues you cited with the correct ffmpeg commands and an understanding of how media codecs and containers work.

An issue that causes the user to misuse the software can rightfully be considered a bug.

If a user types 3 + 4 [Enter] into a desktop calculator and gets 8, they probably would think the calculator is defective. If the calculator's manual documents that the 4 and 5 key had to be swapped for a legacy manufacturing reason, then who is at fault, the calculator or the user?

Confusing flags and poor defaults that cause the user [1] to misuse the software are "bugs" too, regardless of whether the author intended it to work that way.

[1] We're talking about the collective user here, a UI will never be intuitive to 100% of your users, but if only 5% of your users understand it that's a problem.

Re: HandBrake 1.0.0 Released

#58

I often wonder if archivists are out there somewhere, armed with HandBrake, ripping every DVD they can find into a digital format for preservation beyond the life of the disc. I've been fascinated with some projects that have tried to recreate the original theater experience of the original Star Wars,[0] or groups trying to capture classics that influenced Chinese cinema but haven't been widely reproduced, like Red H…

Rest assured that there are archivists ripping their discs losslessly somewhere in the dark corners of the internet. Hidden because the copyright mafia will otherwise ruin their lives.

Re: HandBrake 1.0.0 Released

#59
post #41

HandBrake found me a defective RAM module on my PC: it freezed in the middle of video conversion - every single time on exactly the same video position. After further investigation I found the "bug" in my RAM...

How is that even possible with virtual memory and paging? Why would the same video data or whatever go to the same physical location every time?

Before ASLR this wasn't unusual at all.

Re: HandBrake 1.0.0 Released

#60
I'm a little surprised they aren't signing their MacOS releases. It's even documented on the download page, "We are not currently able to sign the HandBrake downloads". I wonder if it's a philosophical choice or a legal one? It seems like a failure of Apple's Gatekeeper though: either because such a popular app is not able to be signed, or because it's not signed and yet so many people run it anyway.
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