GitHub - obelisk-complex/histv-universal: An overengineered oversimplified hardware-agnostic frontend for FFMPEG
github.com
An overengineered oversimplified hardware-agnostic frontend for FFMPEG - obelisk-complex/histv-universal

Me again :P

Honey, I Shrunk The Vids is a streamlined video conversion tool built on FFMPEG, with smarts built in for standardising all files put through it to a standard target bitrate into either .mp4 or .mkv containers, in either h.264 or HEVC format. Comes in GUI for desktop and CLI for headless operation. The idea is that you can point it at a folder full of folders full of videos and hit “Start”, and trust that when it’s through you’ll have videos compatible with devices back to ~2014, smaller (or at least no bigger) than they were before, and with accurate MKV tags where appropriate.

The application has gone through some more major revisions since my last post, and I thought people would like to know! The first thing you’ll notice is the visual refresh:

Screenshots

image

image

image

image

There are no more menu tabs; all options are exposed in a single side panel. Also, I added exotic filetypes for inputs: mts, mpg, mpeg, vob, flv, 3gp, 3g2, ogv, rmvb, rm, asf, f4v, y4m, apng, webp. That’s right, you can convert basically anything FFMPEG supports to convert to MKV or MP4!

I’m particularly proud of the webp support. FFMPEG can’t decode animated WebP natively (or at least, the most popular binaries can’t; maybe someone has a fork that’s fixed it), so HISTV:

  • Parses the RIFF container itself,
  • Decodes each frame through ffmpeg’s static WebP decoder,
  • Composites them with correct alpha blending and disposal, and
  • Pipes the result to the encoder.

Temp files are completely avoided for storage/IO reasons; variable frame timing is preserved, so smooth per-frame progress is retained from source.

The one filetype I left out was .yuv, because that’s raw data, no container or headers, and the user would have to enter the correct dimensions for each video (which defeats the core purpose of Honey, I Shrunk The Vids, so it’s out of scope for this project).

The theme engine has been simplified, with only 6 keys down from 16, and everything named more intuitively so it’s easier to tell what changes what. As well, a Linux user reported their FFMPEG wasn’t discovered properly, so ffmpeg discovery now uses login-shell PATH resolution (previously macOS only), fixing detection when ffmpeg is installed to locations like ~/.local/bin.

Bunch of bugs got squished (for example the encoder would switch when toggling the new “Precision Mode” checkbox), and several more efficiency passes were made with more hand-edits than ever. This is the cleanest, leanest build yet, and the most featureful.

Finally, I added “-full” versions for each platform. These come bundled with FFMPEG, if you want just a single download.

Also, I’ve flirted with the idea of signing the Windows executable so Windows Defender stops complaining about it, but I don’t yet see a reason to give Microsoft money for that. You can just click “More Info”, and then “Run Anyway”.

I’m running out of ideas for future updates, but if anyone has requests just drop a comment or open up an issue! And, as always, I’m here for questions. I hope you find it useful!

  • RheumatoidArthritis@mander.xyzEnglish
    8·
    10 hours ago

    Nice job and congrats on the webp parser. You made Converseen but for videos :)

    Windows cert -> you can also give your money to other companies, the cert doesn’t need to be from MS. But who cares, ask Windows users to buy it for you if they choose to continue using that OS.

    • obelisk_complex@piefed.caOPEnglish
      5·
      10 hours ago

      Thank you very much, that’s very kind! 😊

      I didn’t know I could get the cert from elsewhere, I appreciate the heads up; my experience lies mainly in networking, rather than software. I’ll open that possibility back up, then. It’d be a first for me, and I’m getting a real taste for firsts with this project!

      I’m not taking anyone’s money, though, even Windows users (right now, that includes me… I’m working on it lol). I’m doing this purely for the love of the game!

      • Victor@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        3 hours ago

        Good luck with your eventual transition to Linux! Check in with Lemmy communities if you want help with anything!

      • AirBreather@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        7 hours ago

        Since you’re still a Windows user at least for now, and assuming that you’re planning on continuing to be open-source, I can recommend Certum for this. https://shop.certum.eu/open-source-code-signing.html

        I gave up trying to initialize the USB thingy using Linux (I tried regular Arch [btw] and an Ubuntu distrobox IIRC), but once I got through the initial steps using Windows, I was able to sign ongoing builds with Linux just fine. It took a LOT of trial and error since there seem to be very few people who simultaneously

        • pathologically dislike using Windows regularly
        • still want to make it easier for people on Windows to minimize Windows Defender complaints when running software that they build
        • have the motivation and resolve to send a lot of PII to one of a handful of companies whose longtime business model is based around reputation and trust in order to get a usable certificate
        • are stubborn enough to go out of their way to still figure out how to do a subset of this stuff on Linux
        • are capable of actually succeeding at that, and
        • are willing to show how they did it in a way that should be reasonably easy enough to understand and adapt to your situation

        I didn’t renew after my first year - I switched from publishing an executable to publishing it on the web, so I no longer had a need for it - so I don’t know how things have changed (if at all). Most of my information came from eventually stumbling upon this wiki page for a Ruby-based tool where they figured out the last bits I needed to get it to work.

        • It also has instructions for initializing the USB thingy on Linux too, so if I were to renew, I’d give that a fair shot… but seeing “icedtea” and a link to a web application that no longer resolves, I’d still only recommend it if you can use a Windows machine once a year.
        • obelisk_complex@piefed.caOPEnglish
          2·
          3 hours ago

          This is super helpful (and I see that “btw”, you got a smile with that one (⁠☞ﾟ⁠ヮﾟ⁠)⁠☞). Thank you for the heads up and ask this detailed information! I’m excited to check out Certum.

          there seem to be very few people who simultaneously - pathologically dislike using Windows regularly - still want to make it easier for people on Windows to minimize Windows Defender complaints when running software that they build

          Describes me to a T 😅 My career is rooted in support, so my pathologies include trying to make things end-user easy.