Super Duper Video Converter

[Chris Gohlke]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=33380' target='_blank'>http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=33380</a><br /><br /></div><i>"THERE IS open source software to perform almost every task. But Windows users always expect a fancy graphical interface. "SUPER" provides just that, allowing you to effortlessly convert video files between every format, for free. The open source ffmpeg converter is awesome, supporting almost every video and audio codec on Earth. But like every other linux program it's a command line application -also known as "text mode" back in the old DOS days-. Command line applications are very powerful, giving programmers and code hackers plenty of simplicity - you can pipe the output from one program to another in the traditional unix fashion, run it as a web server task via CGI, you name it. But for the end user, it also means that the current generation of windows "button clickers" feel left out. Not anymore. I found a nice windows graphical user interface dubbed "Super" which includes compiled windows executables of ffmpeg, MPLAYER, ffmpeg2theora along with other related open source libraries into a simple installer for it. The result is "Super", described, pardon the redundancy, as "A simple GUI to ffmpeg, mencoder, mplayer, x264, mppenc, ffmpeg2theora &amp; the theora/vorbis RealProducer plugIn". "</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/super-0.jpg" /> <br /><br />Super is not really a converter program, but instead is a pretty front end for some of the best free converts out there. It looks like it seamlessly lets you use lots of different tools without having to bother with the command line interface. Have any of you tried out this program yet? If so, what do you think of it?

[jizmo]

Downloaded this a few days ago and all I get is just errors.

WMV, MPG, XVID, MOV to any mobile 3gp format just fails with a cryptic error. I've tried disabling the directx from the menu, but it doesn't help.

I have the latest FFDShow installed and all the possible formats play well on my PC, even when played from Super(tm) application.

[Jason Eaton]

lin-a-what?.... =)

Okay, I joke. Sorry for the tangent but how is Linux these days? Has it got to the mom and pop level or still a bunch of arcane commands that you need a reference guide to do things with?

Be honest, last time I asked this I got a 'sure it is' but the person giving the response probably thought it was easy for 'him'. Looking for a soup to nuts solution where the end user can do the general things like' email, surf the web, write some word-like documents, the usual personal document managment, and no baby-sitting the kernel ever couple of days.

Now back to your regularly scheduled thread....*click*

[Felix Torres]

lin-a-what?.... =)

Okay, I joke. Sorry for the tangent but how is Linux these days? Has it got to the mom and pop level or still a bunch of arcane commands that you need a reference guide to do things with?

Be honest, last time I asked this I got a 'sure it is' but the person giving the response probably thought it was easy for 'him'.

Linux is the same old same old; still displacing UNIX installs the world over, still generating very little software revenue for its backers, still losing ground to Windows server, and still stuck on cinder blocks at the starting line in the desktop race; a distant fourth in a three-car race. ;-)

So, no, no changes; it is still a computer science/glasshouse geek's dream system and a real-world end-user's nightmare. If anything, it seems to be losing ground, as most of the **IX work is still targetted at catching up to deprecated versions of Windows and MacOS.

Best example of their mentality is the blurb about the "Super" shell in this post; Windows users are categorized as "button-clickers". Kinda hard to meet end-user needs if you have no respect for them and their expectations, right? And with the basic Linux desktop app-design philosophy *still* following the metaphor behind this particular app--wrapping a Gui front-end around a pre-existing command line app--things are not likely to ever change. It's all so...80's...

Sometimes the whole **IX world seems like its stuck in a Groundhog Day kinda time warp where ZZtop and Mullets still rule. ;-)

It seems that for all the effort and hype behind GNOME and KDE, for all the attemts to bring the **IX community into the 1990s model of Object-oriented programming and code design, you just can't get those boys away from their command line teletype emulators.
&lt;shrug>

At least it keeps them off the streets. :twisted:

As for the "Super" shell, I could use a good video converter app, but I'm not a button-clicker so I guess its not meant for me.

[jeffd]

meh, I give it a thumbs down. The UI is complex as hell to confuse any new comer (or scare em off outright), yet still manages to omit several encode options like number of passes.

Anyways I tried it on my HD crysis videos encoded in WMV, I wanted to encode them into 640xvid so I can take and play them back on my ZVM. I kept getting errors at different times in the encode. Whats worse is the program uses one generic error screen outlying possible symptoms wich is in most cases, useless (overload of the cpu? since when do programs fail when the cpu hits %100?!).

[Damion Chaplin]

Sometimes the whole **IX world seems like its stuck in a Groundhog Day kinda time warp where ZZtop and Mullets still rule. ;-)... At least it keeps them off the streets. :twisted:... As for the "Super" shell, I could use a good video converter app, but I'm not a button-clicker so I guess its not meant for me.

Thank you, Felix, that made my day. :lol:

[sojourner753]

I've been looking a few converters the past few days. I have a pesky Matroska movie with subtitles that I'd like to convert.

Some of them (including this one) convert it okay but always leave out the subtitles.

The one that I like the most is RiverPast's Video cleaner (http://www.riverpast.com/en/prod/videocleaner/index.php). But alas, I would have to pay $80 to get the "professioal" version that supports subtitles. And I have no way to see if it works with my subtitles.

The search goes on.