Brother MFC-xxxx whichever is available. Plug in the ethernet or connect to wifi and go. No drivers.
We’ve had a decade+ of solid use, the couple of times we’ve had issues we’ve had reasonably priced local service.
It’s because they’re lower-end “business” machines rather than any-level “consumer” grade crap.
We’ve had a bad run with off-brand toner shitting up the machine though. We probably spend about $600/year on genuine toner. But we do a lot of printing. I shudder to think what our inkjet costs would be though.
If you don’t need immediate printing facility, you might find printing ad hoc at Stationery Warehouse or the public library more cost effective!
Second the Brother MFC. We’re really happy with ours. Before that we had a HP LaserJet which actually was that bad either. I guess just avoid the cheap inkjet machines.
Reencoding video will always put a lot of strain on your computer, regardless if it’s Handbrake or some other tool doing the conversion. With that said, it also depends a lot on the settings you use to transcode.
Can you share what video settings you tried in Handbrake?
Ok, so two things stand out.
First, you’re using placebo as your encoder preset. This is slow, stupidly slow.
Searching for some comparisons between the different presets that show how slow it is was more difficult than expected, most people don’t even test this setting. Found one comparison here anyways luckily. The first graph (red line) shows how many fps/second were achieved on average. The fastest preset they tested, veryfast, is 68 times faster than placebo.
For reasonable values I’d use medium or slow, which are still 20 times or 10 times faster with minuscule quality differences. Also see the FFMPEG FAQ on why placebo is stupid.
Now for the second thing. I get why you put 0 as CRF, but that’s not a good idea. You’ll most likely have a bigger file in the end than what you started with.
The bluray itself does not contain enough details to actually need such a low CRF. 17 or 18 is visually lossless, as in you won’t be able to tell the difference with your eyes. For my encodes I use 20 most of the time, as it still more than good enough. Reasonable values, if you want a smaller file size are up to ~28.
TLDR: use slow with CRF 20 as a starting point.
I hope some of this made sense to you and sorry if it comes over as too agressive.
Still, hope this helps you get what you want.
Edit: One more thing I thought about. You can use the hardware encoder in your GPU if you want. However, that will come with worse quality and bigger files than encoding on the CPU. Still something you might want to look at just to compare.
I…uh…feel like a dumbass now. I didn’t know a lot of this. When I first started using Handbrake, a lot of articles I read suggested to use Placebo / CRF 20 if I wanted no loss in quality. I also do this when I rip DVDs and the file sizes and everything have always been perfectly reasonable. Though I suppose maybe that was because DVDs are 480p max typically and those naturally have much smaller file sizes than Blu-rays hold.
I just don’t want a loss in quality, that’s all. :(
Also,
TLDR: use slow with CRF 20 as a starting point.
Thanks. You didn’t come across as agressive to me. :) I appreciate the information. I’m no noob as I’ve been ripping DVDs for years using Handbrake but I am very much a beginner when it comes to ripping Blu-rays, which seem to be a slightly different beast than the former, so I’m glad that everyone is so willing to share tips. :)
for simple code snippets chatgpt can give you a really nice performance boost. plain routines where there is more syntax to write than actual cognitive thinking to do can be perfectly outsourced.
Probably I’m misreading it, but isn’t this kind of answer basically saying “google it”?
I don’t want to sound rude, but my english is kind of failing me, I’m just curious, but what’s the point?
One of the reasons of this kind of public forum is to share knowledge and experiences. ChatGPT is a closed, private, garden where the answer will just die.
I could get a “I don’t really know the answer but I used ChatGPT and it gave me this:” followed by a script, or something like that.
I know, this is off-topic and I’m sorry, I’m just really interested in Why, considering it’s said multiple times in this comment section.
chatgpt is built on the foundations of stackoverflow etc. therefore yeah it is kind of googling it.
however the nature of the generative approach of chatgpt gives you tailored answers.
when you google your question you get abstract answers for other related questions. with an explanation of how doing it. e.g. when I dont understand something but want to I will google it - to gain knowledge.
but with chatpgt you can specify - hey I want a functiom that does this and that in prints me a string/double using that format. chatpgt gives me exactly what I want - without fiddling with format strings etc. anithet example is regex. for my field of experience I am no core developer, therefore for me everything is a tool to get what I want. chatpgt can give this me in a more comfortable way. I dont need to master regex. but it is very helpful. therefore Im outsourcing that kind of work.
One of the reasons of this kind of public forum is to share knowledge and experiences. ChatGPT is a closed, private, garden where the answer will just die.
I agree that for a general standpoint this is valid. however for such simple questions we do not need new forums asking about the already discussed stuff. this is just repetition and we do not like duplicates (which is why forum rules are strict about this)
so I dont see any issue here.
could get a “I don’t really know the answer but I used ChatGPT and it gave me this:” followed by a script, or something like that.
that is the total responsibility by the user and has nothing to do with chatgpt. its the same as running ambiguous linux commands as sudo. its not the fault of stackoverflow, the reddit thread or linus itself. its the users fault.
therefore if such thing you mentioned happens. but it can be rejected - one should now about the culprits and strenghts of chatgpt.
edit: as you can see the top voted comment is a human made answer (could also be a chatpgt bot?).
Hi @ChatGPT , write a bash script that extracts date of modification including seconds from all .jpg and .mp4 files in the current directory and prints it out
It sends only the comment where the bot is referenced (no context, no chaining. Each comment is a separate prompt) and it does use the private account of the creator. In the topic where it got announced you can see that at some point it ran out of limit and started generating using 3.5
I wouldn’t install a program for this if your use case is simple. You will end up relying on it when there are already some built in tools that can get you 99% of the way there.
Bash scripts placed in ~/bin or ~/.local/bin
Can have simple or complex scripts setup to do whatever you want
Easily called from terminal or automated through cron or systemd
Environment variables set in -/.bashrc
Great for storing common paths, strings, etc.
Can be easily incorporated into bash scripts
Aliases set in ~/.bashrc
Ideal (IMO) for common commands with preferred options
for example you could setup your most used rsync command to an alias: alias rsync-cust=“rsync -avuP”
Edit: rephrased to not discount the tools shared. I am sure if you had a specific reason to use them they could be helpful. But I think for many users the above options are more than enough and are supported pretty universally.
Yeah, potentially overkill, but all the power to anyone who wants to try them out. Freedom of choice is one of the best parts of Linux.
And sorry for the long response. It’s hard to gauge the proficiency that someone might have with Linux, so I tend to lean towards detailed explanations just in case
You could use stat to get this information based on the file itself. And with jhead for example you can get the additional meta data in the files, stored in the EXIF and IPTC tags.
Well, if the file sizes are too big you need to reencode them. That’s just how it is, regardless of the software you’re using. If your computer is too slow at that, you may want to use faster settings. For example, you could use a codec that’s hardware accelerated by your GPU.
I understand that. That’s what I was talking about with Handbrake. Problem is, when a single 23 min video file is 5 GiB in size, having Handbrake re-encode that just takes too long.
(I tried doing it and the estimated time remaining around start was something like 3 days worth of having my computer run 12 hours a day without stopping. I want to make the file sizes smaller, not burn out my computer components. Lol.)
Depending on your hardware you should be able to have Handbrake use your GPU to reencode the video much faster than your CPU. If you have Nvidia it would be Nvenc, Intel is Quicksync, and AMD is VCE. If you select one of those as your codec it should go much faster. Check the hardware encoders section on the Handbrake documents handbrake.fr/docs/en/1.4.0/…/video-nvenc.html . Even if you were using windows you would run into the same problem at some point you are limited by how fast your hardware can process the video and no software can make up for that.
I used to transcode blu-ray movies with handbrake in H.264 using an i7-950 and it only took a few hours for a 2 hour movie.
Try using the x.264 encoder in handbrake set to constant quality mode. Set the CRF to around 20-22 and use the fast preset.
The slower presets significantly increase the encode time with only a small decrease in file size.
Keep in mind that the RF values will be completely different if you use other encoders like H.265 or even H.264 with a hardware acceleration encoder. For 1080p, 20-22 is indeed appropriate but lower res like 480p will require a lower RF like 16-18 for the same quality. Meanwhile 4K will be fine with 24. Again, assuming you use the x264 encoder which is not hardware accelerated. For best results, I’d really recommend playing around with the settings and see what works best for you.
Handbrake’s speed depends entirely on your settings. For example, in the video tab next to video encoder you can select codecs like H.264, H.265 or AV1. The newer the codec, the more efficient and space saving your result will be but also the more time it will take. You may or may not also see the same codec twice but with NVENC or some other hardware feature next to it. Those will be significantly faster. If you have a choice between multiple hardware acceleration options, I’d recommend picking Nvidia > Intel > AMD for the best results. If none appear, you could buy a newer graphics card that support those features if budget allows. Other than that, something else that also significant affects how fast Handbrake will be is the preset option in encoder option (also in the video tab). You can select everything from placebo to slow to fast to ultrafast. The slower the higher the quality but also the slower it will be. Faster presets will be faster but will offer lower quality.
You can link the makeMKV libs to handbrake so it's a one step process disk -> compressed form.
#!/bin/bash
# Intention: replace aacs decoding with makemkv's superior libmmbd programatically
# elevate privilages to sudo
[ "$UID" -eq 0 ] || exec sudo bash "$0" "$@"
# test if libmmbd is installed already, exit otherwise
libmmbdpath=$(find /usr -name libmmbd.so.0)
echo "libmmbd path is $libmmbdpath"
if [[ ! $libmmbdpath == *"/lib/"* ]]; then
echo "libmmbd not found, please install makemkv first"
exit 0
fi
# test if libaacs is installed already, set desired path otherwise
libaacspath=$(find /usr -name libaacs.so.0)
echo "libaacs path is $libaacspath"
if [[ ! $libaacspath == *"/lib/"* ]]; then
libaacspath="/usr/lib/libaacs.so.0"
else
echo "libaacs found, you must uninstall libaacs"
exit 0
fi
# test if libbdplus is installed already, set desired path otherwise
libbdpluspath=$(find /usr -name libbdplus.so.0)
echo "libbdplus path is $libbdpluspath"
if [[ ! $libbdpluspath == *"/lib/"* ]]; then
libbdpluspath="/usr/lib/libbdplus.so.0"
else
echo "libbdplus found, you must uninstall libbdplus"
exit 0
fi
# if we made it here, it's time to take action
# softlink mmbd to aacs
ln -s $libmmbdpath $libaacspath
# softlink mmbd to bdplus
ln -s $libmmbdpath $libbdpluspath
echo "successfully set up libmmbd as the system decrypter"
exit 0
I apologize. As grateful as I am that you took the time to write all this out, I must admit I am still very much a Linux noob and so all this is way beyond my abilities. :/
While in this case it is the solution (and Kata1yst really seems to know what they’re talking about), I feel like there’s a need to remind people every now and then to be careful with shell scripts. There’s loads of instructions on the internet where they suggest just to pull random script from the internet and pass it trough as is to run with root privileges. When you do something like ‘curl stackoverflow…|bash -’ it’s quite literally the same than letting a random guy from the street to your computer and let them do whatever they want with it.
Yeah, that’s totally fair. My prior comment was about that exact script, which you and I can both see isn’t malicious, but OP can’t since they don’t know how to read it yet.
It’s good to point this out. No matter how often reminders are written people still will go and download and run random programs without vetting them. Frankly, I blame how software is distributed for Windows for this general acceptance of blind faith in other peoples’ code without a trusted third party like e.g. the Debian maintainers validating that it works as intended.
I’m a middle-aged truck driver. I’ve been using Linux Mint (Cinnamon) now for about seven years as my only operating system (without dual booting) since Windows XP Pro became totally obsolete. Granted, I’m a hobbyist programmer and lifelong computer enthusiast. However, there are definitely some easy to install and use distros out there these days.
Lenovo is renowned for their excellent linux compatibility. I’m sure you’ll get a bunch of proponents here saying the same.
BUT, oh boy. Don’t get me started…
Too late. Having used various models of thinkpads in recent years, their inconsistent keyboard layouts will drive you absolutely insane. I swear, at this point they’re just fucking with us.
I’ve got one in pieces somewhere, that has/had the ~ key next to the FN key on the bottom row! How the fuck are you supposed to use Linux if you’re ~ key is down there? It’s fucking stupid.
Not to mention their keys have a tendency to break off with just the mildest of fist slams.
AND the latest work-issued recent model is fucking with us again! It has the FN key ON THE LEFT SIDE of the Ctrl key on the left. Who does that? The Ctrl is always the left-most bottom key. Now, every time I fucking go to press Ctrl+something, I end up hitting FN instead.
Fucking morons! At this rate this laptop will also end up in pieces.
So, tldr; Stay the fuck away from Lenovo if you want to use Linux and not end up in prison for vehicular homicide.
Oh :( As annoying as that is I can’t bring myself to completely take it off the board. Thanks for the warning, though! Nobody’s mentioned that so far :)
It’s not like other keyboards are better, I know why they are pissed and while it is annoying, Thinkpads X, T and P series are great linix machines.
What I don’t like is soldered RAM. I got T490 after almost a decade of using X220, because it, at least, had one ram slot. Now I am rocking 48GB of ram in reliable hardware which os completely supported in linux (except bt having some issues, but still).
What issues are you having with BT? I recently bought a second hand T490 and Fedora with KDE has been great! I have not extensively used BT, but I always use a BT keyboard and it has been fine :)
I have X1 Carbon Gen 6 and I love the laptop overall, I’ve been using it for 4 years so far. I don’t mind having fn and ctrl swapped, but my keyboard has also a stupid placement of PrntScr. It’s on the bottom row, right to the space bar. I can’t count times when I accidentally opened spectacle 50 times, because I hold the wrong key.
I have also happened to have a try with some newer thinkpads and they felt like the company made them worse on purpose. The material felt cheap, keyboard choppy and the trackpad absolutely abysmal with its lack of precision.
With the hardware support under Linux… yeah, they do work, but when you pick a new model, expect some missing features, worse power management, quicker thermal throttling etc. For me it significantly improved over time. With 10yo refurbished thinkpads Linux is great though, they say
Funny, I seriously considered getting one over the past year, but the past couple of months I’ve been reading all kinds of complaints about them. Seems there is a problem with consistent quality.
The Fn and Carl keys can be switched in software. I have a work-issued Lenovo with a similar layout. They can be soft-swapped in the BIOS. There’s also a desktop utility to do the same but I don’t know if they have a Linux version of it. I totally agree, the physical layout is annoying but it has a simple fix.
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