This post is not about stealing copyrighted martial, but about backing up your personal DVDs (such as family events, etc) and converting them to a space saving file format.

There are many tools to accomplish the task of ripping and backing up your DVDs, I know, I have used most of them with different levels of success. Recently Handbrake, a multi-platform Open Source software project has been climbing to the top of the pile of different applications, through a series of constant releases and improvements, Handbrake has really set itself ahead of the pack.

If you have VLC on a Windows or Mac box, or libdvdcss on a Linux box Handbrake can copy directly from any protected DVD, however this is not needed since most home DVDs are not copy protected. Something that can be even more handy, especially when talking about legitimate uses of Handbrake, is the ability to use and folder or file as a source for encoding. There are lots of reasons why this is handy, transcoding to a more universal format, reducing the file size of an existing video and so on.

Handbrake supports a lot of great formats and containers, such as:
File format: MP4, MKV, AVI or OGM
Video: MPEG-4, H.264, or Theora (1 or 2 passes or constant quantizer/rate encoding)
Audio: AAC, MP3, Vorbis or AC-3 pass-through (supports encoding of several audio tracks)

It’s also multi-threaded and takes advantage of dual and quad core systems, which can really speed up the process of encoding your DVD to your favorite format. It also means other important tasks, like de-interlacing which gives you a much better picture do not take as long.

Check out my video for a full review:

You can catch new videos as we release them over on our YouTube channel: http://youtube.com/jupiterbroadcasting

You can find Handbrake over at their page

If you enjoyed this review, and would like to spread the word, DIGG it!

Last March Bryan and interviewed a gentleman from Hot Head Games who were about to release a new game that was coming out for all platforms, with first class Linux support. Of course we were very excited and could not wait to play. After what seemed like almost forever, the game shipped and we got our hands on it for a full review.

We all liked Episode one of On The Rain Slick Precipice of Darkness quite a bit. I especially like the episodic nature of the game, as a casual game player I prefer something perhaps a bit  shorter that gets refreshed every so often with new levels, adventures, and challenges. 

Episode 2 of the Penny Arcade game continues the dry wit and humor, combined with the familiar characters placed in a steam-punk 1920s robot butt kicking world!

Today episode two is being released for all major platforms, Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and on the Xbox 360 arcade with the exception of the PS3 for now.
I think the fact that Linux is being targeted at release for a commerical game like this is a great step for desktop Linux. While this game may not put the demand on your system that something like Crysis might, it is by all means a modern game with great graphics and sound. Releasing for four platforms on launch day is really impressive, and something we talked about in our interview with Hot Head games last March.

Bryan and I put togther our first episode of The Big Story a quick video about Episode 2, and include some screen shots and video from the game: