HandBrake 1.0.3 Has Been Released

For those who don’t know, HandBrake is an open-source multiplatform multithreaded video transcoder. It is used for converting DVD or Bluray discs to formats like MP4, MKV, H.264, MPEG-4 or other formats. You can also encode audio files like AAC, MP3, Flac, AC3 etc

The latest version available is HandBrake 1.0.3, which brings only bug-fixes and stability improvements.
All platforms:
Video:

• Fixed H.264 decoding using Libav where the initial GOP was dropped
• Fixed 2-pass x265 encoding where the source header incorrectly specifies frame rate
• Fixed 2-pass encoding with bob deinterlace and constant frame rate
• Fixed a seek issue in Libav while reading MKV sources with embedded subtitles
• Fixed multiple issues preventing Libav from opening WMV sources properly
• Fixed miscellaneous issues in Libav
• Fixed memory leaks in OpenCL
• Improved sync for streams delayed by a large amount

Audio:

• Fixed a Libav crash encoding AAC at very high bitrates
• Fixed a potential hang in Libav while decoding AAC
• Improved Libav audio sync with MP4 sources containing edit lists
• Improved mapping of single channel layouts to single channel layouts

Linux:

• Fixed a potential crash when selecting video encoders
• Fixed various controls not applying values properly

Installation instructions:

Up to date handbrake packages are available via some third party PPA, so installing the software and keeping it up to date on Ubuntu 16.10, Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 14.04, Linux Mint 18.x, Linux Mint 17.x and derivative systems is easy. Just add the PPA to your system, update the local repository index and install the handbrake-gtk or handbrake-cli packages, depending on what you need to install:

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:stebbins/handbrake-releases
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install handbrake-gtk

Or, to install only the command-line tool, do:
$ sudo apt-get install handbrake-cli

Optional, to remove handbrake, do:
$ sudo apt-get remove handbrake*

Source: http://linuxg.net/install-handbrake-on-ubuntu/

This Simple Tweak Will (Apparently) Make Firefox Faster

Want to make Firefox faster on Linux? There’s apparently an easy way to do just that.

Forcing Firefox to use hardware acceleration on Linux results in a noticeable boost in the application’s overall responsiveness, according to a recent post on Reddit.

I can’t say I’ve ever noticed Firefox to be particularly unresponsive on my system, but then I probably don’t use it enough to be able to tell.

Naturally this fix is not going to improve a flaky internet connection, but it might result in an appreciable boost in interaction and general responsiveness.

Enable Hardware Acceleration in Firefox

Firefox comes with hardware acceleration disabled on all Linux distributions (alright, citation needed, but anecdotally this does seems to be the case).

Firefox 57 will apparently be the first release to enable hardware acceleration in Firefox on Linux out of the box — but as Firefox 53 has only recently popped out of the release hatch, that’s still some way off.

So, to enable hardware acceleration in Firefox on Linux, right this flame-tailed second (but first be aware that WebGL has security risks or something).

Pop open your browser, type about:confg in the address bar, and hit enter/return.

Using the search box to find the layers.acceleration.force-enabled setting. Double-click on the ‘false’ listed under the ‘value’ column to set it to ‘true’.

Be sure to quit the browser completely before relaunching it.

Now, with layer acceleration turned, carry on your web browsing as normal. Do things feel fractionally faster? Is switching between multiple tabs more fluid?

I’m interested to know, so share your experiences in the comments.

PS. If things go wonky after enabling this (e.g., screen blanks, unresponsiveness, high CPU usage, etc) just repeat the steps above, this time changing  the ‘value’ setting from ‘true’ to ‘false’.


Source: http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2017/04/small-tweak-makes-firefox-linux-run-much-faster?