Essential Mac software

[tog]

I don't know how long it takes as I haven't done it, but I think Burn handles conversions like that. I use it for general burning duties.

[james_tigerwoods]

Stu R said:

They do take a fair old while sometimes, but that's a trifle slow! What mac are you using?

I used to use Visual Hub with much success, though it's been a fair while since I've had to do anything of that ilk

33% so far - started at 11 (I think it was now). It's a MacBook with an Intel 2.16 Core 2 Duo and 2Gb RAM with nothing else running...

[qube_TA]

for media conversion you can't beat Handbrake, however the slowness is most likely to be down to your CPU as Toast is quite nice at what it does (albeit 'spensive).

[james_tigerwoods]

qube_TA said:

for media conversion you can't beat Handbrake, however the slowness is most likely to be down to your CPU as Toast is quite nice at what it does (albeit 'spensive).

But does Handbrake (which I have) burn DVDs too?

I'm loathe to stop this operation just now....

[qube_TA]

DVD uses an MP2 file, so Toast is transcoding your file into that format before it starts burning anything.

So if you use HB (which is very multi-core optimised so fast) to convert your AVI film into MP2 format then once done you'll be able to burn in Toast straight away.

If you're already well into the conversion though I'd leave it, but have a look to see how busy your cores are, often with Mac Apps they don't take full advantage of all your hardware.

[Melvin Udall]

Burning the .avi to DVD should be quick. However, if you are burning it with proper menu's, chapter things, etc, it can take a while.

Edited by Melvin Udall on Tuesday 11th October 17:24

[qube_TA]

depends upon the codec of the .avi file.

if it's not MPEG2 then it'll need to be converted.

[james_tigerwoods]

Still encoding - 12 hours now....

[james_tigerwoods]

It took about 14 hours - strangely enough if I had a Windows laptop with a DVD drive, I could have use the "convert x to DVD" application which would have done it in about 2 hours.

(I know this as I've used it before - it's just that my Windows Laptop doesn't have an optical drive )

[qube_TA]

Use Handbrake then for your file conversion next time.

[JonnyFive]

My Mac seems pretty slow recently, any app to download/or already on the computer I can use and see whats running etc?

Like "Task Manager" on Windows..

[Melvin Udall]

Activity monitor is already on there, in utilities. Use that to see what is munching CPU, etc.

[marshalla]

JonnyFive said:

My Mac seems pretty slow recently, any app to download/or already on the computer I can use and see whats running etc?

Like "Task Manager" on Windows..

Open up a Terminal session and use "top" to see what's using up most CPU & RAM

(type "man top" for instructions on how to use it)

[JonnyFive]

Thanks chaps!

Quick question, does watching Youtube use Flash Player?

[Melvin Udall]

JonnyFive said:

Thanks chaps!

Quick question, does watching Youtube use Flash Player?

Yes, and no. Depends entirely on whether the file is HTMl5, and if you signed up for their html5 program. Flash can be quite intensive. Show a screenshot of activity monitor.

[CommanderJameson]

JonnyFive said:

Thanks chaps!

Quick question, does watching Youtube use Flash Player?

Yes, unless you go into the beta options doodad, which I can't remember how to find, and elect to use the HTML5 player.

[JonnyFive]

Melvin Udall said:

Yes, and no. Depends entirely on whether the file is HTMl5, and if you signed up for their html5 program. Flash can be quite intensive. Show a screenshot of activity monitor.

Flash is 7% and some others are 0.5% etc.. Guess it's cause I've been watching music on Youtube that it's slow. Will quit/restart safari and see if it's better after that.

[Melvin Udall]

7% of CPU shouldn't be an issue. How much ram do you have, and is it being used up at all?

[JonnyFive]

Melvin Udall said:

7% of CPU shouldn't be an issue. How much ram do you have, and is it being used up at all?

Where do I find that out?

[Melvin Udall]

Activity monitor... Along the bottom. How much ram is being used up. You can also see what is memory intensive in the main list.

Edited by Melvin Udall on Thursday 27th October 21:22