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Adventures in Video

I’ve been working a bit with video transcoding and editing lately. It all started when I got an iPad in November. I wanted to watch my Windows 7 Media Center recorded TV Shows on the iPad in a different room. It has since blown up into a part-time hobby.

Here’s basically how it’s evolved:

  • Wanted to watch TV Shows on iPad
  • Installed StreamToMe/ServeToMe to do this
  • Found that StreamToMe didn’t support .wtv files, so installed WTVWatcher to convert them automatically to .dvr-ms files
  • Smiled gleefully as I was able to watch my shows!
  • Found out StreamToMe can stream almost anything – set it up to stream entire video archive and music archive to iPad
  • Smiled gleefully as I was able to experience ALL my media without having to transfer files to the iPad built in storage
  • Found out StreamToMe can stream over the internet. Set that up, smiled gleefully, etc.
  • Wanted to watch my DVD collection on iPad
  • Installed HandBrake to transcode DVDs into h264 files that take up very little space and StreamToMe can stream out.
  • Smiled gleefully, etc.
  • Wanted to watch movies I didn’t have in my library.
  • Subscribed to Netflix, smiled gleefully, etc.
  • Upgraded from streaming account to disc account. Smiled gleefully, etc.
  • Installed OpenDNS on my home network. Banged head on wall for a month before finding out Netflix+DD-WRT DNSMasq+OpenDNS = no streaming. Fixed it. Smiled gleefully, etc.
  • Found out I was running out of hard drive space with TV Shows and stuff.
  • Installed Lifextender to auto-remove commercials. Smiled gleefully, etc.
  • Used HandBrake to transcode commercial free .dvr-ms files into .m4v x264 files – sometimes getting files that were less than 10% of the original size.
  • Smiled gleefully, etc.
  • Wrote a ‘blog post about it.

This has been totally super cool. Recorded TV, without commercials, less than half the original size with the same quality and streamable over the internet to my iPad wherever I am. FREAKING ROCK.

Cool links related to this post:

I won’t go into any details here, but I will answer questions in the comments if you have any.