Technical request: For Mac users

jappen - man - it's changed my life .

I haven't done a stroke of work all day catching up on all the posts I didn't handle because i couldn't join the files. The Jigsaw app has worked a treat. Thank you for your guidance. I even tried the MAC support site for a joiner and no one came up with this app. By jingo - it's gonna be a long day.

B

Hi fellow Macsters,

I hope to be able to offer a more useful post soon.

For now I can only report I have Jigsaw and ChunkJoiner and VLC and so far it's very hit or miss, mostly miss, trying to get Johnny's great Galitsin uploads (avi.000, avi.001 etc) to work. The joiners appear to work, but the resulting file usually won't play in VLC or QT.

Do I understand correctly, the problem is that uploaders face a 100 meg limit at RapidShare? Or?

Hmm. Maybe we Mac users could create our own video sharing thread? These vids could be easily split in two in QT Pro, and then uploaded as regular files, removing the need for splitting, RAR etc. Right?

I have had reliable success with this program for RAR files:
http://unrarx.sourceforge.net/

You just drop the RAR's on the application icon in the dock, and you get your movie. Very nice, very Mac-like.

Thanks for this thread, I'll post again if/when I learn anything more useful.

I've never owned anything but a Mac! Unfortunately I have to use a
Windows laptop for work. I Hate every second of working on that thing.
Why do people continue to buy that crap?

Ignignokt wrote:

Well let's see... 95% of all the personal computers in the world use the Wintel platform. 99% of all the software development is for that platform, with Mac applications ported over as an afterthought. You can buy a powerful Dell PC for 1/10 the price of a comparable Mac.

Curiously, in recent years, the MAC hardware has become more and more like a PC. IDE drives, industry-standard memory, and now even Intel CPUs. The only factor that makes them different right now is the operating system. That makes it very hard to justify the price difference.

I'm sorry, but when I read about Mac-users not being able to read a file, I compare it to American tourists going to Rome and complaining that nobody speaks English.

Yeah The Operating system thats the key! Thats why I love them so much.
It actually works. With windows I don't know how much time I spend sitting there wondering if its actually doing something, only to find out it wasn't.

Elmo wrote:

What is this Elmo you dirty toad, you fucking up my thread?

Useful info for Macérs = welcome
Rants to defend flawed products causing hairloss and general frustration = not welcome

Just for the record, whatevers inside these porn-surfing-tools is irrelevant, my Mac LOOKS GOOD, and sexiness goes a loooong way!

jazzrap wrote:

Hi Jazz, thanks for contributing.

Everything I´ve DL´d of the honorary Mr. JonnyB works just swell for me. I only use Jigsaw for the files that must be combined to work. I use StuffIt for the RARs and ZIPs.

jappen wrote:

Not a rant at all. I own a G5 running OS-X.

I also use it for very select purposes and when I need to deal with the rest of the world, I use an XP machine that it also never crashes. My comment was more a statement of economics than anything else. Price and proprietary architecture of both hardware and software have always been the reason that Macs are less popular than PCs.

Thanks Jappen. I didnt' know Stuffit will do RAR, appreciate the tip.

Yes, I don't know what my problem was in the beginning, but it was probably me. Jigsaw seems to be working on the Galitsin files now. I have no idea how I could mess up with Jigsaw as it only does two things, but I managed somehow.

Next question. After I Jigsaw, I get files that will play in VLC, but not in Quicktime. The VLC player is OK, but I like to edit with QT Pro.

So, is there any way to export out of VLC to a format QT will read? VLC isn't as intuitive as QT, and I've yet to figure out the export feature. I tried the VLC site, but it's mostly over my head video tech speak wise.

Also, this is primitive, but screen capture works for exporting if you're desperate to export from VLC, and don't know a better way.

I use this, and they have a free demo:
http://www.ambrosiasw.com/utilities/snapzprox/

PS: I like that Macs are less popular. We get fewer viruses. I've never installed virus software on any machine once in 10 years of constant mac use. That's worth some bucks for me.

Plus, you have no hope of adopting an artistic pose of snobby superiority when you use the same garden variety platform as "the masses".

Finally, I think it's hilarious that a spell check is required on a porn forum. Lots of librarians here I guess, huh?

jazzrap wrote:

I turned mine off in the personal options after about two days. It didn't like anything I typed, whether I used American, UK, or Canadian English. My posting productivity increased immediately.

jazzrap wrote:
VLC is an odd duck... rugged enough to open just about anything, but if the original file is weird/corrupted, VLC can fall apart in a second. I'm no expert, but I'm finally getting the hang of the "Streaming/Transcoding Wizard" to export files. In my case, I'm ripping DVD's (.VOB files) but the process should point you in the right direction.

1. Open your source file with VLC.

2. Go to Preferences to adjust file output parameters like size, bitrate, frames per sec., etc. Be careful in here! If you fiddle around with the unknown, VLC will spit-up it's cookie and say good-night.

3. From the File menu, open Streaming/Transcoding Wizard, chose "Transcode/Save to file" and click Next.

4. Choose the file on your playlist you want to transcode (Export). Partial extract seems to be a helpful feature, but I can't get it to work. Click Next.

5. Pick the Video/Audio Coding options you desire. Not all options will work with your source files, you'll need to experiment. My best luck (only, so far) seems to be with MP4. Adjusting the bitrate here doesn't seem to do anything – take care of that in preferences. Click Next.

6. Pick the Encapsulation format. The available options are based on your previous coding choice. Click Next.

7. Choose your transcoded File Destination. Don't click local playback unless you're running an NSA super-computer. Click Next.

8. Verify your choices. Click Finish.

Watch the timeline indicator on the VLC - Controller Panel creep upward for progress. Clicking "stop" will halt the Transcoding, leaving a workable portion of the exported file, but it won't resume transcoding from pressing "play".

That's all I can say on the subject. Good luck.

Hey, thank you very much for your detailed tutorial. Much appreciated.

Some of that I had figured out, but other parts, like the preferences were still a mystery.

So far, no luck. But I'll keep working on it. It's not a big deal, I just enjoy fiddling with video tools.

You're right VLC is a weird duck. It does seem like an advanced program, but it's almost like somebody wanted to make it obscure on purpose.

Again, much appreciated for your extra effort!

Elmo wrote:

Elmo, another proud owner of a G5

Good man Elmo, you´re much smarter than Markino and Werf would have me bellieve

I agree with you, theres not enough nifty software for Macs, especially in the porn-utilities department. But on the other hand, they work! I´ve had PCs since my first Commodore 64 basically and just switched to an iMac G5. Never ever going back... the level of frustration has just diminished to 0.001 compared to my PC days. And the money? Sure you pay more for Macs and I think its worth it. Anyway, money has the nice quality of allways returning somehow

To all good dudes in this thread, thanks for contributing! I´ve found several helpful tips here. Still can´t solve my main obstacle though, the broken uploads to Rapidshare (my connection is unstable and very slow for uploading to RS). Which basically means Im not upping half of what I would do to this excellent forum if I could sort out this problem.

So, I repeat my cry for help; Anyone know of an uploader for Mac that will work on RS, enable me to continue broken uploads etc?