HandBrake is a cross-platform utility for ripping and encoding DVDs in high quality, compressed video formats including XviD and H.264. And the latest version of HandBrake lets you use the powerful application to encode any video file, no DVD required.

There are a handful of other changes as well, including a GUI for the Linux version, improved video quality, and more control over audio tracks. Queued jobs are also saved to your disk so that if Handbrake crashes, you'll be able to recover the list of queued jobs without starting from scratch.

HandBrake 0.9.3 is available for Windows, Linux, and OS X with Intel and PPC versions available for OS X 10.5.

[via TUAW]

I'm a big fan of John T. Haller's Portable Apps.com, and I was very excited by one of the apps that appeared in its RSS feed last night: AppCompactor.

It is, of course, portable, open source, and designed to integrate with the PortableApps suite. AppCompactor fuses UPX (for exe, dll, and other binary files) and 7zip (for jar and zip files) to compress portable applications. Not surprisingly, it's been used to package the other programs in the suite.

Using the default options, AppCompactor reduced my CCleaner portable folder to about 760k (about 40% its original size) and pummeled my ArtWeaver to trifling 3.1mb - a 10mb reduction. Both programs launched much more quickly from my Kingston Data Traveler, and they functioned exactly as they had before: no errors, no headaches.

AppCompactor can't work it's magic on everything, though. It didn't manage to reduce a single byte with FastStone Capture or Spybot, and it only reduced AdAware SE by 60kb. For curiosity's sake, I also tried portable version of Photoshop CS3 and Office 2003, and had little success with them either, saving only about 1mb on each.

Since it utilizes UPX, apps that were previously packaged using that type of compression (like the Gimp or Firefox) probably won't see an appreciable reduction.

Still, when it does work, it's fantastic. It's an incredibly simple way to boost launch times for some of your portable apps and provide extra megs of free space on your flash drive. A few megs might not seem like much on a 16 or 32gb drive, but space is space - and more is always welcome in my book.

If you frequently find yourself browsing on a low-bandwidth connection, you can potentially speed up your browsing experience by using the compressing proxy server at Toonel.net. The concept is simple: install their application on your computer (versions are available for Windows, Mac, Linux, Sun Solaris, and even Windows Mobile and Symbian), then set your proxy settings to point to your localhost IP address on port 8080 (127.0.0.1:8080). Once you do, all of your web traffic is routed through Toonel.net's server, which compresses it before it gets to you.

The compression used is lossless, which is required to ensure the pages show up as expected, though there are image-specific options that allow you to change the compression that is applied to JPEG and GIF images. This is likely only worthwhile on a very slow network, since it takes the server a bit of time to recompress images before your browser can download them, but could be handy on a struggling network.

I wouldn't recommend running Toonel.net full-time, or even at all if you're always on a broadband connection, but if you find yourself struggling with a lack of bandwidth, this is a great trick to have in your back pocket.

[via TechRadar]

WinZip is sort of the Xerox/Kleenex of the compression world. While many geeks prefer alternate file compression utilities like 7-zip, TUGZip, or WinRar, you're more likely to find WinZip installed on any given office computer. And with the launch of WinZip 12, the developers have shown that they still have a few tricks up their sleeves.

Probably the biggest changes in WinZip 12 have to do with its handling of image files. WinZip now has the ability to compress JPEG files by up to 25% without any quality loss. There's also a new Zip from Camera Wizard that makes it easier to grab files directly from your digital camera without copying them to your hard drive first.

You can also edit images using the WinZip explorer window and send selected files via email or FTP with a click.

WinZip 12 also supports additional file formats. Users can now extract 7z files as well as CD and DVD ISO and IMG disk images.

[via CNet]

Want to watch your DVD collection on your iPod, iPhone, PSP, Smartphone, PDA, or Zune? DVD Catalyst is a simple Windows application that can rip a 2 hour movie from your DVD and apply video compression so that the file fits on your portable device's storage card and still looks halfway decent on your mobile screen.

DVD Catalyst offers one-click DVD ripping and encoding. Just launch the program, select your portable device, slide a DVD into your disc drive, and click the little green button. The program will choose the best resolution, bit rate, and other settings for you.

Up until recently, only a commercial version of DVD Catalyst was available. But now there's a free version with a limited feature set. If you want advanced features like the ability to set 2-pass conversions, split videos into multiple parts, or adjust the volume and framerates, you might want to shell out $15 to $20 for a full version. But if you're looking for a quick and easy way to cram a few dozen DVD movies on your iPod, DVD Catalyst Free might be all you need.

[via Palm InfoCenter]

There are probably hundreds of programs that let you convert video files from one format to another. RockPod 08 Lite is another one of them, but it has a few features which make it an ideal choice for anyone looking to cram a few videos on their mobile device.

First of all, RockPod features profiles for common mobile devices like iPods, PDAs, Zunes, PSPs, iPhones, and the Eee PC. The last one's a bit silly since the Eee PC is basically a small computer which can handle any video, but all of these settings are kind of arbitrary. Essentially the RockPod developers picked video resolutions and codecs that they thought would work well on each device.

Second, instead of wading through a series of menus to choose the frame rate, bit rate, and other settings, RockPod lets you pick a file size. That's it. Want the finished video to be 64MB or 768MB? Just choose your preferred file size from the drop down menu and RockPod will do the rest. Obviously the larger your file, the higher quality the audio and video will be. But if your goal is to fit as many videos as possible on a small memory card, by all means, try to squeeze Fellowship of the Ring onto a 64MB memory card.

If you like to have a bit more control over your video settings, we'd recommend checking out another encoder like PocketDivXEncoder, MediaCoder, Super, or VirtualDub. But for ease of use, it's hard to beat RockPod.

[via Eee PC.Net]

Stomp, billed as the ultimate video recompressor for the Mac, has just been upgraded to version 1.4.

Stomp is a wonderful piece of software for performing quick and painless video compression. There are a number of presets, such as iPhone, Apple TV, and YouTube, or Web for easy email-able videos (because we're all tired of receiving one gigabyte DV files of your baby's first steps). Stomp also includes video effects, cropping, and a set-and-forget batch processing mode.

Stomp 1.4 has a few choice new features:

• New support for any QuickTime movie exporter, which means you can export your file as an MPEG-4, AVI, or WMV (if you have Flip4Mac installed).
• Added support for the Elgato Turbo 264 device (the USB dongle).
• Speed improvements to the encoding process.

The new version is a test release so the old cartographer's adage applies: here there be dragons. The demo will leave a nice, shiny watermark on any video you compress. Removing said watermark will cost you $29.95.

Requires Mac OS X 10.4 or 10.5.

As far as compression utilities go, most distinctly fall into either very good or or very bad. ZipGenius, however, manages to somehow make it into the middle. It comes in two flavors: the suite and standard edition. Since the suite is filled with extras like a file-cutter and FTP add-on, we're going to focus on the core compression utility that comes with the standard edition.

First, let's start with the good. It does what it says it does. It supports up to 20 formats for decompression, including 7z, and can compress in about as many formats as most of its competitors. Its graphical interface is very "XP" in every sense of the word - which is nice if you like that look. Fortunately if you don't, there are skins available. The utility is straight-forward, easy to use, and best of all, free.

The bad: during the installation there is an irritating pop-up prompt after the license agreement that verifies that you are responsible for all damages as a result of using this program. Quite a turn-off. The fact that it even has skin support might seem like excess, considering that a compression utility is not something you spend a lot of time looking at unless you like compressing and decompressing stuff all day.

The worst part, however, is that there is nothing that really sets ZipGenius apart from its other competitors. 7-Zip and ALZip do almost everything as good or better than ZipGenius. But, that is not to say that ZipGenius isn't a fully fledged compression utility. In fact, if the other utilities weren't available, this might even be a good choice.

Overall, ZipGenius is okay. If you like a user-friendly interface and enjoy skinning your compression utility, ZipGenius might be for you. But if you're looking for pure function and power, the alternatives might prove more rewarding.

Anything you can do offline, you can do online these days. Whether you can do it better is another story.

YouconvertIt is a new web-based file conversion service. Like Zamzar, YouconvertIt lets you upload audio, video, image, or document files and convert from one format to another. Just select the file from your computer to upload, select your target format, and the web service will send you an e-mail when your new file is ready to download.

Unlike Zamzar, YouconvertIt doesn't appear to have a file size limit (although that may change), and currently has no advertising (which will definitely change). Oh yeah, and you can convert units like miles, kilometers, inches, and feet.

The service is definitely fast and convenient. But you get a lot more control over your file conversions if you're using desktop software. If you're converting a document from HTML to text, this might not matter so much. But if you're converting a WAV to MP3 or MPEG-2 to MP4, there's no telling what kind of file size/quality you're going to get with these web-based services. If you need to convert a file and you don't happen to have a good desktop program handy, YouconvertIt will do in a pinch. But we wouldn't recomment it if you regularly need to convert/compress multimedia files.

[via AppScout]

UK company Zgroup claims to have perfected technology which allows digital audio files to be shrunk to one quarter of their original size. Forgive us if we're a little doubtful.

Company CEO Jamie True said in a press release today, "'ShrinkMyTunes addresses important and specific needs for anyone with a music collection and will be particularly popular with owners of iPod minis and shuffles, as well as new iPhone customers. There are currently over 11 million people in the UK alone that own an MP3 player and this sector is continuing to experience high growth."

The product will reportedly be available online and through HMV stores this fall.

In an industry where the list of HD formats and sizes has already expanded beyond the arguable boundaries of sensibility, Multichannel News has dug up some interesting details on how ABC will be flexing this format just a little more with a new HD online venture. With full episodes of some shows set to debut online in July, ABC will be bending the rules of HD by providing their shows at 1280 x 720 (the minimum dimensions to warrant the HD label) and 24 frames per second - but compressed between 850 Kbps and 2 Mbps. As Multichannel News points out, the HD you get at home via cable and satellite providers is typically compressed at 12-19 Mbps in MPEG-2, with the new and more efficient MPEG-4 standard (which uses the H.264 codec) requiring at least 5 Mbps.

Unless there is some serious other video voodoo going on here, compressing shows to files sizes that are less than half the required specs could backfire on ABC's first foray into online HD content. There's a fine line between doing things efficiently and doing things right, and when it comes to providing video content to consumers who are specifically looking for high quality content, quality is one of the few things you can't sacrifice. Subaru might as well introduce a lineup of "rally-tuned" sports cars but check the all-wheel drive at the factory in the name of shaving budget costs; it just isn't right.

I hate crippleware. I hate nag-ware, and all kinds of related vermin from the netherworld. Among them, WinZip for years has bugged the snot out of users instead of just providing a good product for free like the cool kids. Sure, they have their reasons, but those reasons are why you don't hear about WinZip anymore. They are old news. Now you hear about 7-Zip, which I do like, even better than WinRAR, for my many unzipping needs (on my computer at least).

Today, at least for me, a new little app enters the fray, called ALZip. AL has got some serious options built into the app, which makes it a bunch more customizable, and I suppose some would even say better. The goodness meter doesn't stop there, it keeps going.
Compression is simple, the interface is clean and looks like my four-year-old would like it and could run it. LifeHacker's Download of the Day is a keeper. Go unzip your AL!

If you work with images often, you may or may not be familiar with pngcrush, an open source utility that pushes PNG image compression to its limits. Excellent though it may be, pngcrush works on the command line, and if you're used to working in GUIs, that might slow you down. Over at his blog, though, Neil Turner shows how you can set up a "Crush" action on your Windows context menu for instant PNG-crushing action. It's very straightforward and, if you're in the habit of publishing big PNGs, very handy.

If you run a website and you're looking to eke every last bit of performance out of your web server that you possibly can, one of the best ways to do so is to lighten its load. And although it might seem like a little thing, tightening up your CSS file can reduce page downloads on your site by up to 30 or 40kb, (depending on the state of your CSS file). Multiply that over the thousands of visitors you get, and it's quite a bit of savings. Plus, it helps the page feel more responsive to your viewers.

There are a lot of CSS optimization programs out there, and luckily the folks at Blogging Pro have done a rundown of some of the most popular. The list reviewed includes CSS Optimizer, Icey CSS Compressor, Icey CSS Compressor, Flumpcakes CSS Optimiser, and CleanCSS. Although it's worth checking out how each fared, if you're looking for a quick link to the winner, check out Icey CSS Compressor. With an average CSS file compression of 50%, Icey's CSS Compressor blew away the competition. Check out the rundown here.