Eldritch

Always up for good news.

Something like this shouldn’t be surprising to see. But it is nonetheless. It’s a start at least. Too little too late. But it’s a start.

The 2023 and 2024 bullshit is starting again. I just hope more people are inoculated to it then were back then. Because this shit isn’t going to stop before 2028 if ever.

Harris was a horrible candidate and lost because of that. If only she was the worst we had to deal with. Lotta people still regretting being manipulated into voting for trump or abstaining in areas their votes might have mattered.

And never will if they’re waiting for Russia to tell them.

If it’s something I really want. Absolutely.

These days handbrake is pretty much all you need. We’ve come a long way since my days moderating over on the Doom 9 Forum way back in the early 2000s.

Codec wise there really isn’t anything that would be more recommended for black and white. Black and white are colors. 16 million Shades of Black and White are still 16 million colors if that makes any sense. So a color encoder is generally going to do just as well. You’re not really going to save that much just because something is black and white.

The codec that you might want to choose will generally depend more on the resolution of your content, and the hardware you intend to play it back on. Older Hardware might only support h264. Also DVDs, anything newer than h264 doesn’t really save you a lot of space. And takes more time to encode. H264 also uses smaller macro blocks which are generally preferable for lower resolution. When it comes to HD or 4K sources. Then h265 or AV1 should probably be your go-to’s. Unless again you are limited by playback hardware.

The settings again depend a lot on your content. If it’s largely static scenes with Talking Heads. You can get by with some pretty insanely low bit rates. If it’s an action movie with lots of motion all over the place explosions etc etc etc. You’re going to need every bit of bitrate you can get.

When it comes to basic settings? Under the video dialogue in handbrake. Whenever you select and encoder towards the bottom left there is a slider labeled preset. Which is sort of misleading. It is the motion estimation quality. You would generally never want it set to anything higher than medium and preferably closer to slower. As the name implies slower is slower. But it performs much better motion estimation. Which will create less blocking and artifacts when constrained for bitrate. Leaving more for those blacks which are often the first thing sacrificed.

Bitrate wise. And easy rule of thumb is previous generations bit rate. Ripping DVD in h264 a VCD bitrate of 1–2 Mbps is pretty solid. 1080p? DVD bitrates of 5-9 Mbps in h265 or AV1 will save lots of space and keep excellent video quality. 4k, 20 to 35 Mbps h265 or AV1. A bit wasteful but generally visually lossless. If you take the time and do 2 pass you can go lower still.

Yes, to put it mildly technically. Blacks and dark bits are often the first things quantized to hell in modern codex. They’re one of the areas that the eye is generally least sensitive to. And they will be one of the first things to show if you over compressed too much.

Bigger size is usually better. Unfortunately an encoding is only as good as the person who did it. There’s any number of filtering or higher quality settings that can be used. But people often avoid to save time.

So you’re better off to find groups or individuals who’s work you like. And sticking with that. On Modern CPUs you can rip through high def video faster than real-time speed if you set the quality low enough. And the bitrate High enough. But an experienced encoder knows the combination of filtering and settings to use to bring out the maximum visual quality with minimal file size.

And when it comes to that I tend to do all my own encodings.

Yup. I use Picard and Nicotine regularly. Then drop in grease monkey in your browser with a couple of user scripts for discogs and bandcamp. You’re a tagging machine.

Good catch. I need to check speech to text a little more thoroughly

This politician’s lack of clarity and decisiveness is disgusting. Tucker Carlson literally has defended this eras Hitler.

I highly suspect they used and already existing mine. Which is cheaper still. Unless it said somewhere in the story about them digging the mine specifically for this.

Gestures to American conservatives.

I’m with ya. But people are people. It’s probably more likely than either of us would imagin or hope.

I’d hope not. Militant revolt to oust the military rule of course. But if they let the military rule again. It’s going to be the same thing. To a hammer everything looks like a nail.

If they get another chance, the people should rule.

It benefits them short term. No more no less. What good is hard science that hasn’t yet been monitized to their bank account right now?

The only problem with that is he’s not planning on ever having someone after him until he’s dead

True, but when a strongman cracks. Its never good for them.

They would have to truthfully acknowledge it as a war. Something they still deny. Instead choosing the euphemism limited Military action. So I don’t see this happening. Which it’s just silly to consider the first place. They didn’t have an actual plan going in. How are they going to have a plan getting out.

Only just. As a child of the seventies and eighties. He retired a bit before I became a teenager. The worst you’d generally have to worry about with him might be issues of framing and omission. And generally never intentionally or with malice. That’s almost unimaginable today. Where its S. O. P.

They are wholly owned now by people who already have money. Or who stand to make money while keeping people ignorant. But absolutely. Compare the coverage from 20 years ago to today. It’s clear, the failure that is. And the coverage 20 years ago wasn’t good. But at least they were out there embedded and Reporting something. Now they’re all just sitting back home waiting to be told. Because the boss won’t spend money to go out there and Report.

I agree. While Iran has fomented unrest elsewhere. They’ve never been as boots on the ground and directly engaged with it as the United States has.