This post has arisen due to a back and forth between some one who emailed me about converting video. This post is going to be quite a mish mash of different topics which explains who you can use a very powerful encoder/de-coder to convert video files on your Mac. This isn’t a well oiled application it is more a hack to get things to work. However it is really useful.

The which I will be dicussing today is called ffmpegX, its a program designed to bring together Unix power tools for converting video. Its not a stand along applications. As a result you also need to download some extra binaries located here, and mpeg2enc binary located here. When you download and run the program for the first time it will ask you for three files. These files are located in those two packages.

You are now ready to run the program, its actually quite simple to use once as you get it set up. As you would expect your add your file you want to be converted, set up all of the settings as required, and hit go. You can convert the video file to a variety of formats, including AVI, DivX, 3GP, FLV, MOV and RealPlayer.

What sets this app apart from other programs is the depth of settings available to you. Under the video tab you are given far more options that other apps. This is the same for audio, filters and the tools section. All of the settings allow you to fine tune the settings as you see fit.

This app is designed for more advance users as it does have a lot of advance settings. Its a lot more advance than using something like iMovie (if it can do video conversion, not used the app in a while). I would recommend you check it out if it is something that may be useful to you, however it does take a little bit of work to set up and run.

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Converting Movie Files Quickly And Easily

Mac Tricks And Tips

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Just a simple post today, but one you shouldn’t take light heatedly. Anyone who ever has a Mac will know that you generate a long list of passwords and other pieces of information when you install or upgrade the operating system. The problem with this is that you usually end up with a sheet of paper that doesn’t make much sense a couple of months later. This is were your Mac Cheat Sheet comes in.

You can find this cheat sheet online at Apple’s Website, the file is located here. I recommend you fill out this sheet and hide it. It is designed to be used when you going into a Genius Bar, but it serves as a good reminder.

Some of the options on the sheet are a little simple, but I would pay particular attention to the Account section. This contains the main passwords you would usually forget.

It is simple, but it does serve as a good reminder. When you have completed, remember to put it in a safe place. I recommend you put it in the box your Mac came in.

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Mac Cheat Sheet

Mac Tricks And Tips

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This post today is from a recommendation by Kirk, he asked if I could show you his plugin which he has written. I was only to happy to help. In a nutshell, it is a Quicklook plugin which changes the thumbnails in finder to one which looks similar to the ones in Windows, its called Mac OsXP Folders. At this point you are screaming “Windows, Hell Noooo”. But the result is quite interesting and is useful. Its worth checking out anyway.

This plugin is designed to look through a folder, find all of the images and then display them in a 2 x 2 grid on the folders cover. Similar to the image below. This means then you can quickly look down a list of folders and see what images are included in each folder.

There are a couple of problems with this plugin. For example it does override any other plugins you may be using. For example if you have a Quicklook plugin that displays a list of items in a folder, this plugin will override that and replace it with a static image when you hit space. As well as this it does take a bit of manual work to install and uninstall the plugin, although that is me just being lazy.

Check the plugin out. It is free although he does ask for donations. There is a list of improvements which he plans on adding to any future releases. It might be a Quicklook plugin you may end up using.

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OSXP Folders – Plugin For Windows Style Folders

Mac Tricks And Tips

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