This release has been a bit of a longer haul than expected but it is finally here - β4.0.0 The Hi-Def release, amongst other goodies - read below

https://github.com/David-Worboys/Black-DVD-Archiver/releases/tag/%CE%B24.0.0
https://github.com/David-Worboys/Black-DVD-Archiver/blob/main/README.md



β4.0.0

The Black DVD Archiver - βeta 4.0 Release Notes

This is the β4.0.0 Release developed on Linux Mint and tested on a minimal Mx Linux install

New Features

Hi-Definition video is now supported (the first grey choice)
- A DVD screener copy is produced (video is resized to fit on a DVD)

A "Streaming Folder" option is now included for media player access and playback
- Source videos are converted to H264 format at their original resolution (both high and standard definition)
- Note 1 DVD filter options are not applied to streaming videos in this release
- Note 2 A Black border (12 pixels) is added to interlaced video to hide head switching noise
- This folder is best placed on a NAS (Network Attached Storage

Source video files can now be transcoded
Transcoding formats are H265, H265 and the intermediate (mezzanine) edit file format
- The intermediate (mezzanine) edit file format
- The files produced are large and high quality (visually looks the same as the original) files
- Is the format to use if problems are encountered editing video files (Not uncommon with H264/H265)

Source video files can now be be simultaneously transcoded and joined
- Transcoding formats are H264, H265 and the intermediate (mezzanine) edit file format
- Stream coping is an option if the video files are of the same video format
- There is no quality loss with this option
- MTS file joins are always transcoded to the intermediate (mezzanine) edit file format
- This is because I have often had issues with MTS files sourced from camcorders

The "Archive Folder" option is where the user stores a permanent backup copy of the source video
- These are the preservation master copies of the source video
- Archive options are:
- No Transcode
- In the original video format
- FFV1
- Uses entirely open source software to produce archival video files that are lossless copies of the
source video.
- These files are large
- Preferred format by leading video preservation organisations
- H264/H265
- These formats are lossy copies that are generally smaller than the original source video
- Not recommended unless disk space is at a premium
- Source video is split into optical disk size chunks
- Easy to burn off copies

Major performance improvements on H264/HH265 frame accurate editing
- Note 1 This is still a somewhat experimental feature and I expect more work on this in future releases
- Note 2 I recommend transcoding to the intermediate (mezzanine) edit file format to avoid problems

Changed how Project & DVD Layout information is stored
- There is an automatic migration process so this should be transparent
- Speeds up app startup if there is a large number of video input files displayed in the video grid

Bug and Stability fixes

**Notes**

It is expected to have bugs at this point
- A large amount of "under the hood" work has delayed this release and, despite testing, regressions are possible

It is expected to do the basic job it is designed and tested to do

When reporting bugs, state Linux version, distro and then clearly state the problem and how to reproduce

Refer to README.md for the current feature set and usage
https://github.com/David-Worboys/Black-DVD-Archiver?tab=readme-ov-file#user-manual

β4.0.0 Executable can be downloaded from https://github.com/David-Worboys/Black-DVD-Archiver/releases

All feedback and bug reports are welcome. These will be addressed as quickly as my time allows

Test coverage has been improved, and The Black DVD Archiver works with my test files (PAL, NTSC, 4/3 & 16/9 aspect
ratios, interlaced and progressive)
- 1080p and 1080i Hi-definition video files
- avi wrapped DV compressed,
- H264, H265 mp4 files
- MPEG2 and VOB files

Any doco or code contributions are welcome
- Code is written in Python 3.11 and uses ruff for formatting. Type hinting is mandatory.