Start Nautilus browser inFluxbox

Run

nautilus --no-desktop --browser  &

Convert m4a to mp3

yum install faad2  (if its not already installed).

faad filename.m4a

lame -h -b 192 filename.wav filename.mp3

Remove WGA notification

run winodws\system32\wgatray /u

Then delete

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Notify\WgaLogon

Then delete the following in system32

wgatray.exe
wgalogon.dll
dllcache\wgatray.exe
dllcache\wgalogon.dll

And if
SoftwareDistribution\Download\6c4788c9549d437e76e1773a7639582a
exists, delete that whole dir and reboot

Play h.264 on slow computer (mplayer)

mplayer -vo xv -ao alsa -lavdopts fast=1:skiploopfilter=all video.mkv

or

mplayer -vfm ffmpeg -lavdopts lowres=0:fast:skiploopfilter=all video.mkv

I've had better success, framerate and quality with the first one.

Suspend Windows XP from the command line

rundll32 powrprof.dll,SetSuspendState

Rip DVD and convert to XVID with mencoder

Play dvd directly from .ISO file

mplayer dvd://2 -dvd-device Grandizer.iso

Detect crop area in video (for 20 - 30 seconds)

mplayer dvd://2 -dvd-device Grandizer.iso -vf cropdetect

Take the detected crop area and place in the crop=xxx:xxx:xx:xx parameter below. Scale 704:304 is for widescreen.

mencoder dvd://2 -dvd-device Grandizer.iso -vf crop=704:464:10:10,scale=704:304 -ovc xvid -xvidencopts bvhq=1:chroma_opt:quant_type=mpeg:bitrate=1355:pass=1 -oac copy -o /dev/null ; mencoder dvd://2 -dvd-device Grandizer.iso -vf crop=704:464:10:10,scale=704:304 -ovc xvid -xvidencopts bvhq=1:chroma_opt:quant_type=mpeg:bitrate=1355:pass=2 -alang en -oac mp3lame -lameopts br=128:cbr -o grandizer_convert.avi

Mencoder / ffmpeg resizing random bits

mencoder -o tmp.avi -oac copy -vf scale -zoom -xy 176 -ovc -


ffmpeg -a .avi -sameq -vcodec xvid -acodec mp3 -s 320x240 .avi

mencoder -v 1.vob \
-alang en \#language english
-vf yadif \#yadif deinterlacer
-ovc x264 \ #codec x264
-x264encopts subq=4:bframes=4:b_pyramid:weight_b:pass=1:psnr:bitrate=1800:turbo=1 \ #1800 bitrate gives a good size to qualit ratio
-oac copy \ #for now only copy the audio
-ofps 24000/1001 \#approx 23.9 fps
-slang en \
-o /dev/null


Second pass:

mencoder -v 1.vob \
-alang en \
-vf yadif \
-ovc x264 \
-x264encopts subq=5:partitions=4x4:8x8dct:frameref=3:me=hex:bframes=4:b_pyramid:pass=2:psnr:bitrate=1800 \
-oac mp3lame \ #mp3lame audio codec
-lameopts abr:br=256:vol=7 \ #256kbits bitrate
-ofps 24000/1001 \
-o 1.avi #write everything as avi for now

10.6. Rescaling movies

Often the need to resize movie images emerges. The reasons can be many: decreasing file size, network bandwidth, etc. Most people even do rescaling when converting DVDs or SVCDs to DivX AVI. If you wish to rescale, read the Preserving aspect ratio section.

The scaling process is handled by the scale video filter: -vf scale=width:height. Its quality can be set with the -sws option. If it is not specified, MEncoder will use 2: bicubic.

Usage:

mencoder input.mpg -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg4:mbd=2:trell -vf scale=640:480 -o output.avi