Version 0.15 is now available to fix Matroska errors
10/27/12 Sat
Please download the 0.15 version of Video Monkey via the usual channels. This should fix the problem where MKV files were getting a bad framerate and therefore not encoding video. Please post comments if you continue to have issues. Hopefully this is the best Video Monkey ever!
Comments
New version of mediainfo wreaks havoc with version 0.14 Matroska files
10/25/12 Thu
Well, I’m finding that “updating” Open Source tools is something of a fools errand. I’m happy with the better performance, access to advanced filters and less buggy behavior of the new version of ffmpeg. Unfortunately, it had some compatibility issues. I fixed these in version 0.14, but one of those fixes involved updating mediainfo. The latest version of that tool has some advantages as well. But it unfortunately changed the way it reports framerate for VFR Matroska files. Not to worry. A new version of Video Monkey is on the way. I think it will be the best ever, until the next showstopper issue crops up with the tools 
Quick release of 0.14 to fix a few issues
10/20/12 Sat
The 0.13 release introduced a couple of bad bugs. The first was that the fastest encoding speed stopped working. This is due to the newer version of ffmpeg. I failed to fix the fastest encoding settings. An error was also introduced because of the change to the Snow Leopard SDK. I’m not sure if I was using the NSComboBox wrong or if a bug was introduced. But it stopped generating events when you selected an item from the metadata search box. All better now.
I also got rid of the filtering of non-alphanumeric characters from the string you type into the metadata search box. I did this because often file names have odd characters just to allow them to be legal file names, which the search engines would fail on. So now I still do the filtering when searching for show names in the filename, but not in the string you type into the search box. This is all caused by the fact that thetvdb.com is very picky and leaving out special characters can sometimes make it not find a show. For instance, "hawaii five-0" works, but "hawaii five 0" will fail to find the same show. I think they are fixing their search, so this will hopefully get better soon. But for now Video Monkey will search for the exact string you type in.
There are also a couple of other minor fixes. Check out the release notes for more details.
As always, you can get the new version by opening Video Monkey and selecting Check For Updates… from the Video Monkey menu. Or you can download it directly from the downloads page.
I also got rid of the filtering of non-alphanumeric characters from the string you type into the metadata search box. I did this because often file names have odd characters just to allow them to be legal file names, which the search engines would fail on. So now I still do the filtering when searching for show names in the filename, but not in the string you type into the search box. This is all caused by the fact that thetvdb.com is very picky and leaving out special characters can sometimes make it not find a show. For instance, "hawaii five-0" works, but "hawaii five 0" will fail to find the same show. I think they are fixing their search, so this will hopefully get better soon. But for now Video Monkey will search for the exact string you type in.
There are also a couple of other minor fixes. Check out the release notes for more details.
As always, you can get the new version by opening Video Monkey and selecting Check For Updates… from the Video Monkey menu. Or you can download it directly from the downloads page.
Video Monkey 0.13 Released with Long Awaited Custom Encoding
09/28/12 Fri
Video Monkey 0.13 is finally here!
The big feature in this release is the custom settings panel. Just go to the Output Pane of the File Info Panel and you’ll see several check boxes. Click one and you can adjust that parameter. I’ve tried to make the UI as simple and intuitive as possible. For instance, when you adjust the cropping values, the Movie Panel will reflect them so you know what the final video output will look like.
But remember, with great power comes great responsibility. There are some combinations of settings which will result in videos which will not run on the desired device, such as Apple TV. There may even be combinations which will fail to encode properly at all.
This version is also 64 bit only, which makes it much faster, but requires Snow Leopard to run.
If you already have a previous version of Video Monkey, just go to the VM menu and select Check For Updates… and you’ll get the new version. Otherwise download it from here.
Have fun!
The big feature in this release is the custom settings panel. Just go to the Output Pane of the File Info Panel and you’ll see several check boxes. Click one and you can adjust that parameter. I’ve tried to make the UI as simple and intuitive as possible. For instance, when you adjust the cropping values, the Movie Panel will reflect them so you know what the final video output will look like.
But remember, with great power comes great responsibility. There are some combinations of settings which will result in videos which will not run on the desired device, such as Apple TV. There may even be combinations which will fail to encode properly at all.
This version is also 64 bit only, which makes it much faster, but requires Snow Leopard to run.
If you already have a previous version of Video Monkey, just go to the VM menu and select Check For Updates… and you’ll get the new version. Otherwise download it from here.
Have fun!
Video Monkey repository back at github
06/12/12 Tue News
There’s been a lot of rework of the Video Monkey website over the last few weeks. I’ve moved servers, redesigned the site and moved things around a bit. That’s all done now, and I hope things are back to normal and better than ever. Please let me know if you are experiencing any more problems. I’ve also moved the source repository back to github. I had moved it to my own server to avoid disk space issues and to get more control over the repository features. But I’ve found that maintaining your own repositories, web interface, bug tracking and secure code access is a much bigger job than I’m willing to take on. Plus, github has tripled their disk space allotment. So, we’re back! Most of the issues that were opened in the bugzilla tracker have been moved into github. If you don’t see an issue you opened, please add it.
I’m also working on a new release with some nice bug fixes and exciting new features. Stay tuned...
Version 0.12 fixes Leopard compatibility problem
08/09/11 Tue News
I just switched to Lion and didn’t install the 10.5 (Leopard) SDK. Consequently the 0.11 release of Video Monkey used the Lion SDK and the result wouldn’t run on Leopard. All that should be fixed now, so all you Leopard holdouts can start using Video Monkey again 
I’ve also refined the bitrate/frame size calculations, so you should get better quality encodings for all sizes. There are a few other bug fixes that snuck in as well. Check it all out in the release notes.
I’ve also refined the bitrate/frame size calculations, so you should get better quality encodings for all sizes. There are a few other bug fixes that snuck in as well. Check it all out in the release notes.
Version 0.11 Released, fixes many format bugs
08/06/11 Sat News
Here is the promised 0.11 release with several bug fixes for annoying problems, like the inability to create files for the 1st generation Apple TV, and not being able to make full size MPEG-4 files. I've also added a long standing patch from Lars Koerkemeier which adds Growl support. See the release notes for the full list.
I'm currently working on DVD Authoring and Advanced Settings, but I wanted to get this release out first for those of you who are suffering from them.
Have fun, and don't forget to file bugs...
I'm currently working on DVD Authoring and Advanced Settings, but I wanted to get this release out first for those of you who are suffering from them.
Have fun, and don't forget to file bugs...
Video Monkey is Now Hosted at marrin.org
07/25/11 Mon News
A few of you may have noticed me moving bugs over to my new bugzilla database. I've never liked github's issue tracker, so I hope this will make it much easier to keep track of bugs. The downside is that, in order to submit a bug, you have to register for a bugzilla account. Fortunately this is really easy and it will make simpler to communicate about bugs, add yourself to bugs you're interested in tracking, etc. I am trying to integrate bugzilla registration with videomonkey registration. But for now they are completely separate.
Going along with this, the Video Monkey repository is now on marrin.org, along with a gitweb browser. I've updated all the links on the site. Please check it all out and let me know what you think. Also let me know if you find any trouble using the new system.
Going along with this, the Video Monkey repository is now on marrin.org, along with a gitweb browser. I've updated all the links on the site. Please check it all out and let me know what you think. Also let me know if you find any trouble using the new system.
Video Monkey 0.10 Solves Problems on Leopard
03/17/11 Thu News
Video Monkey has always been for Leopard and above. Leopard supports 64 bit so I thought I had it made. I wasn’t thinking about the 32 bit Macs still supported by Leopard. No problem, I thought. I’ll just make Video Monkey “universal” - capable of working on both 32 bit and 64 bit Macs. Not so fast. To do that you’d need to make a universal version of ffmpeg, the core of Video Monkey’s encoding function. That is much harder than it sounds, and in fact I’ve spent the last 3 weeks unsuccessfully trying to do just that.
Turns out that the build tools for ffmpeg create a 64 bit executable on Snow Leopard (which is a pure 64 bit OS) and a 32 bit executable on Leopard (which is a hybrid). Sounds perfect? Maybe, but the 64 bit executable SL builds is not compatible with Leopard and I have been unable to convince Leopard to build me a 64 bit ffmpeg, which I assume would work on both. For applications built with XCode this is a simple problem – you simply build on Snow Leopard with a Leopard SDK. But ffmpeg doesn’t use XCode. So I’ll have to try harder or find an ffmpeg guru in the crowd.
In the meantime, here is a version that is 32 bit only. It should work on both Leopard and Snow Leopard. Please let me know if it doesn’t. While going through all this pain I also found the time to fix a few of the bugs some of you have posted with 0.9.
Thanks for supporting Video Monkey!
Video Monkey 0.9 is (finally) here
02/15/11 Tue News
The 0.9 release has many new features (check out the release notes). But by far the biggest and most requested (and the least well tested
) feature is support for other video formats. I urge you to try this new feature out and let me know how well it works for your use case(s). I have limited ability to test some of the file formats, like PSP and Tivo. They should all successfully encode but there’s no guarantee they work on the intended device. I’m looking forward to your feedback and improving this much requested feature. I’ve added a new topic on the forum to make it easier to carry on this conversation. Please use that to let me know how it’s all working. I’d also like to hear if you’re having good results with the new formats!But there are many other features in this release as well. A/V offset is a feature I’ve wanted for a while. I often come across videos with bad lip sync. This feature will fix the worst of these sorts of files, where the offset between audio and video is fixed throughout the content, but it can’t handle advanced features like different sync points throughout the video. Still, this simple adjustments works well in many situations.
This version also includes a very fresh copy of ffmpeg. I think I’ve finally cracked the code for building ffmpeg for use with VM so hopefully I can do a better job of keeping up with bug fixes as they come out. This build of ffmpeg should also handle true multithreading. So many of you will see a performance boost.
This release also has a couple of teasers. In addition to the continued tease of DVD creation, the format menu also shows a custom encoding item. This will eventually allow you to customize the encoding beyond the presets in the other formats. Hopefully these features will be out soon.
Have fun!
