EyeTV Export with HandBrake script

EyeTV by Elgato is an excellent piece of software that turns a Mac into a Personal Video Recorder. You can record programs using a tuner and play them back at any time. We have an iMac stuck to the wall in our living room that acts as our TV and media player. Even the babysitter can use the PVR interface and we get to use full apps like iPhoto and Spotify on our TV.

EyeTV records video using the format that it’s sent over the air. This is currently MPEG-2 for Freeview programs, which is decent quality but reasonably large files. I’d like to be able to archive my recordings using a better encoding such as H.264. However, EyeTV’s (and Apple’s) built-in options for exporting video are pretty poor. They generally take a long time to create poor quality video at an unimpressive compression ratio.

HandBrake is an open-source video transcoder. It can transcode between many video formats and has built-in presets for compressing different kinds of video. It’s great at taking EyeTV recordings and transcoding them into space-efficient, high quality H.264 MKV or MP4 files.

Fitting the two together is a bit of a pain. EyeTV has Applescript support but HandBrake doesn’t. Instead HandBrake has a command-line version that is available for separate download (see the downloads for Command Line Interface).

I wanted to be able to choose a suitable HandBrake export preset (some of my recordings are cartoons, some are movies) and a destination folder and export several recordings at once. Since transcoding video is a CPU hog, I also wanted to use the HandBrake encoding queue, but this isn’t available in the command-line version.

Various people have written scripts to take EyeTV recordings and encode them using HandBrake, but they weren’t quite what I wanted. Most of them were intended to import the results into iTunes so that files are available to AppleTV. I did’t need this — I just want smaller files. And none of them had an encoding queue — they all ran in the foreground.

So I wrestled with Applescript (it felt like banging my head against a brick wall several times), honed my shell script skills and built the EyeTV Export with HandBrake script. The script can be added to the EyeTV scripts menu, so that you can select multiple recordings in EyeTV and export them directly. The script will prompt you for a HandBrake encoding preset and an output directory and will pass of the encodes to a background shell script that runs one encode at a time. If you have Growl (also highly recommended), the script will announce completed encoding processes in a friendly manner (otherwise it will pop up a dialog).

I hope you find it useful. Please add comments below!

Instructions

1. Download the script (or get the source from GitHub)
2. Put it in /Library/Application Support/EyeTV/Scripts and restart EyeTV (see EyeTV Applescript instructions for details)
3. Download the HandBrake Command Line Interface (HandBrakeCLI) and move it somewhere appropriate. I use /usr/local/bin/, but the script will ask you to find it if it’s not there
4. Select one or more recordings and choose “Export with HandBrake” from the Scripts menu (just between Window and Help)

MomoLondon: Mobile Entertainment Applications

A fairly slow evening, but some nice gems tucked away. Lots of interesting stats from Flirtomatic (and a few interesting ones from GetJar). Interesting to hear that Vodafone widgets will be marketed as apps to customers (but widgets to developers).

Anyway on with the notes…

Adverts for upcoming events

EcoMo — code camp

• http://ecomo09.eventbrite.com/
• September 11-12th
• Mobile Applications for sustainability

Over The Air

• http://overtheair.org
• September 25-26th at Imperial College

GetJar - some stats on downloads

Patrick Mork

• aim to make it seamless for downloads for 1500 handsets
• Half a billion downloads reached last month
  • but the Apple app store has been going for a much shorter time and reached 1.5bn just recently…
• 75% of downloaders are under 25
  • breakdown something like:
  • <10 12-13%
  • 11-17 23%
  • 18-24 28%
  • 25-34 15-18%
• 70-80% male
• all downloads on getjar are free
  • developers monetize content themselves
• no cost to upload content
• GetJar make money by paid placement:
  • 20-25% of developers bid for placement on their catalogue
• GetJar’s experience is that you must make the initial experience free to the user
  • the general public are not used to downloading apps yet so we need to provide free tasters with no bill shock
• Over 50% of users are downloading content at least once a week
• Top 10 downloaded apps in UK last month:
  1. Ebuddy
  2. Nimbuzz
  3. Google Maps
  4. Opera Mini
  5. Change Ringtone
  6. Magic Bluehack
  7. TV To Go
  8. GetJar (web site shortcut)
  9. Qeep
  10. Facebook (web site shortcut)
• which platforms?
  • 70% of getjar downloads is JavaME
  • mobile web growing fast!
• “applications is not about smartphones — it’s about everyone”
• #1 handset in Indian market: Nokia 6600
• games are growing and probably will grow faster when billing is easier
• what are people searching for?
  • often specific programs (e.g. ebuddy, mig33)
• over 30% of new people from word of mouth
• in Egypt see a lot of download for religious apps (e.g. prayer times)

Panel

• Chair: David Murphy from Mobile Marketing Magazine
• Audience:
  • few app developers
  • similar operators
  • slightly more agencies
  • one client side developer
• Patrick Mork: getjar
  • used to be at Glu and iPlay
• Andreas Constantinou: Vision Mobile (Analyst)
• Joachim Hoffman: Fjord (Services Agency)
• Mark Curtis: Flirtomatic
• Dan Appelquist: Vodafone Group R&D

How do you go about making money from mobile apps?

• PM: see various business models: adfunded, freemium, virtual currency
• AC: sharing revenue (e.g. Nokia Ovi sharing with operators)
  • sharing cost using open source (e.g. Symbian)
  • now talking of wallet sharing
• JH: funded (e.g. BBC iPlayer); ad-funded (and you have to make your service sticky)
• MC: 160m WAP pages in UK in May
  • every now and then they want to buy things
  • “every time we’ve given away flirt points we see an upsurge in spending a few days later”
  • users sent each other 5,000 ice cubes during the heatwave (at about 50p each)
  • “cost of materials was very high” :-)
  • most nights top spenders will be spending £20-30ea. to keep themselves at the top of the ratings!!
  • when we increase inventory, they respond within three or four hours
  • also do alerts (e.g. when people log in)
• DA: have been spearheading mobile widgets over past year
  • cross-platform, cross-operator
  • Voda will introduce an app store later this year with a “competitive” revenue split
  • are also launching in-app or in-widget billing events
  • when Voda launch widgets, it will be called Apps
  • Flight Control — see high scores of people playing around you (and on your twitter network)

Why does a developer develop for Vodafone and not for Nokia or SonyEricsson?

• DA: widgets mean you can make one thing for everybody
  • however, there is fragmentation for the operator APIs
  • widget specification is bedding down — next step is to get operators
  • setting up device APIs working group (Nokia, Mozilla, Google)
  • already have geolocation API standard launched in iPhone 3.0, Firefox 3, Opera 9(?)

Flirtomatic stats in May

• top handset was Nokia N95 and only 6%
• only 4 or 5 other handsets above 1%
• Vodafone is well over a quarter of our users in the UK

Is the future apps or web-based?

• PM: a mix
  • a lot of criticism a few months ago when Yahoo dropped apps apart from iPhone & BlackBerry
  • but GetJar Yahoo shortcut was doing 40-50K downloads a week, so app would have to be very good to be worth more than that
• JH: SportsTracker vs. Flirtomatic: SportsTracker needs hardware integration (bluetooth, etc)
• MC: had an appalling experience making a Flirtomatic app a few years ago with Jo Rabin
  • tried to make the service work in the tube offline
  • speed of development on web is much faster
  • games development are sold shrink-wrapped like a film — and are paid as such
  • web-based dev often gets paid by usage, or with ongoing revenue so need to be able to change things quickly

Since most widgets are free, does calling them widgets endanger the market?

• DA: you’ll be able to sell widgets through Ovi, Voda & others
• PM: Loopt — mapping service to share locations with your friends
  • make money by selling the service & helping operators sell data bundles

Flirtomatic: do you see a time when auction stuff will rival fixed price

• 25% revenue is advertising
• 75% is premium services
• about half of premium service income is auction-based

Where do you think mobile entertainment is going? What type of apps?

• DA: Casual gaming really taking off
  • Augmented reality making a lot of noise at the moment, but really in its infancy still. Will play out over a couple of years.
  • More interesting when put it together with advanced displays — in your glasses, or in your environment
  • “We could either end up in a very dystopian world or we could end up in a utopian place where the user in control and their privacy is paramount…”
• AC: augmented reality become possible due to simple sensor: compass
  • temp sensor could pick up if your phone is in your pocket
  • sound sensor could tell if you were at work or at home
• PM: frustrated that can’t get a basic cell phone reception on a train back from Northern England
  • apps must be useful for consumers
• MC: sneaky suspicion that NFC will be huge
  • Oyster went from nothing to mass market in 3 years (admittedly only in London)
  • “When TfL get a 95% revenue share, the rest of us won’t be stuck in a corner called special needs”
• JH: error handling has to be good

Are fragmenting app stores making getting money for development harder?

• J2ME development a lot better than it used to be
• PayForIt at least enables off-portal payment
• 3 UK can now go off deck

What are the next moves aside from technology?

• PM: Coming along a huge way since a year and a half ago, people now know about downloading apps
  • Apple started actually advertising download apps
• DA: Social apps will drive it e.g. Facebook
  • Flight Control local high scores shows how sensors enable cool features that drive user engagement
• AC: sensors will change how we communicate

Taking a day a week for yourself

More and more people I speak to are coming up with the same idea — that working one day a week for yourself gives you a better balance and loads more creativity and fulfilment. I ran a session at BarCampLondon6 on exactly this topic and it's good to hear more people starting to make similar changes to their lifestyle.

Here's Matt Webb's take:

Here’s my challenge. Right now, put aside 100 hours over this summer. Do it right now, in your head. Put that time aside. 100 hours. 8 hours a week for the next 12 weeks. One hour a day, or one working day a week. It’s one summer out of your entire life, it’s nothing. Okay, you’ve got that 100 hours?

Now for the next two days, go to talks and start conversations with people you don’t know, and choose what to spend your 100 hours on.

I guarantee that everyone in this room can produce something or has some special skill, and maybe they’re not even aware of it.

Ask them what theirs is, find out, because you’ll get ideas about what to learn yourself, and decide what to spend your 100 hours on. Do that for me.

Because when you contribute, when you participatein culture, when you’re no longer solving problems, but inventing culture itself, that is when life starts getting interesting.

I moved from taking one day off every other week to one day off every week at the beginning of June and even that has made a big difference. My personal project has been learning to build apps for the iPhone -- starting with the Stanford iPhone Application Programming course and Aaron Hillegass's Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X.

Through evenings and snatched half hours on the train, I've got through most of the course and am starting to explore other areas, such as adding hamcrest and OCMock to the built-in OCUnit iPhone unit tests. I still plan to build and release my own apps as I get more of an understanding of what's possible.

So Matt, I've taken up your challenge before you even issued it and I look forward to others doing the same!