Mac OS X v10.6.4 Update

I was not sure if there was anything worth upgrading but it is always better to be up to date. This time it was a little over 300MB so update was quick.

The 10.6.4 Update is recommended for all users running Mac OS X Snow Leopard. It includes Safari 5 and general operating system fixes that enhance the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac, including fixes that:

    •    resolve an issue that causes the keyboard or trackpad to become unresponsive
    •    resolve an issue that may prevent some Adobe Creative Suite 3 applications from opening
    •    address issues copying, renaming, or deleting files on SMB file servers
    •    improve reliability of VPN connections
    •    resolve a playback issue in DVD Player when using Good Quality deinterlacing
    •    resolve an issue editing photos with iPhoto or Aperture in full screen view
    •    improve compatibility with some braille displays

For detailed information on this update, please visit this website: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4150.
For information on the security content of this update, please visit: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222.

Poor man's video straightening

I needed to fix crooked horizon in few of my videos I made while I was vising Europe recently. I took a look at tools I got at hand right now and none could do this or I could find easy way to make it happen.

1. First I tried MPEG Streamclip. My first choice for image conversion. It can only do rotations of 90 degrees multiplications.
2. Quicktime Pro got similar feature but no rotation by arbitrary angle.
3. iMovie is the same rotate left or right and nothing else
4. I couldn't find how to make it happen using command line tools like ffmpeg or mencoder
5. Browsing official websites for Final Cut Express or Adobe Premiere Elements (no Mac version) did not give me answer if these tools can do it.

I checked VideoHelp site and many people pointed to VirtualDub. I decided to give it a try since I could run in in virtual machine.  There are few problems if you got video in Quicktime format so I am presenting my recipe:

Converting files to AVI with Motion-JPEG and MP3 codec. After trial and error I figured out that it will be opened by VirtualDub.
Applying Rotate2 filter and Saving output as AVI
Converting back to Quicktime in MPEG Streamclip.
Importing to iMovie and cropping and exporting as Quicktime with Photo-JPEG and AAC codecs. In result I got movies downgraded to 720p but still ended up with HD quality.