Building FFMPEG with support for Decklink Capture and QuickSync encoding (Skylake edition)

Linux, Technology

NOTE: this document covers Intel’s Media Server Studio 2017. If you want to use Media Server Studio 2016 with an older processor, see this article.

With the release of Media Server Studio 2017, Intel provides Linux with the ability to leverage QuickSync on Skylake processors. This is a welcome development, as Skylake’s graphics capabilities are significantly better than previous generations of Core processors.

This article outlines how we built ffmpeg to capture video from a Blackmagic Design DeckLink mini and encode it using Intel’s QuickSync technology (h264_qsv).

Continue reading Building FFMPEG with support for Decklink Capture and QuickSync encoding (Skylake edition) →

Building FFMPEG with support for DeckLink capture and h264_qsv encoding

Linux

NOTE: this document covers Intel’s Media Server Studio 2016. If you want to use Media Server Studio 2017 with a Skylake processor, see this article.

ffmpeg has come a long way since the pre-1.0 days. With its elaborate system of routing filter outputs, its ability to capture video from video cards, and support for GPU-based encoding, it has become quite the powerhouse in the video world.

This article outlines how we built ffmpeg to capture video from a Blackmagic Design DeckLink mini and encode it using Intel’s QuickSync technology (h264_qsv).

Continue reading Building FFMPEG with support for DeckLink capture and h264_qsv encoding →

Galaxy S7 default config not using full display resolution

Technology

I recently discovered that my Galaxy S7 Edge was reporting its display resolution as 640dpi, when I expected it to be approximately 534dpi. What’s the big deal, you ask? Well, it’s causing dynamically sized elements on screen to be approximately 17% bigger than they were intended to be drawn. Some users might like this, as it will make elements just a little easier to tap on. But others might not like it, because you can’t display as much information on the screen.

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Ruuvu: building an Alexa Skill for IMDb ratings with alexa-app

Technology

We’ve enjoyed using our Amazon Echo for the past few months. Its built-in features provide some useful and fun capabilities, but the availability of the Alexa Skills Kit promises to really help the device maximize its potential. ASK allows third-party developers to build “skills” to add all-new features to Echo. Naturally, I couldn’t help but take a stab at building an Alexa Skill myself.

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Why is changing the hostname for a WordPress site so hard?

Technology

Recently, some changes at work have me doing more WordPress work than I’ve ever done before. I am mainly helping a group within our division deploy the sites they are building for clients. After doing a few of these, I’m just stunned by how difficult it is to move a site from one domain to another.

Given how common it must be for WordPress developers to develop a site on one hostname, e.g. “dev.MYCLIENT.com” or “MYCLIENT.ourdevenvironment.com”, before moving it to its final destination, it’s really hard to believe how hard WordPress makes this.

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Building a custom CentOS 7 kickstart disc, part 1

Linux

Note: this series of articles applies to CentOS 7; for CentOS 6, see this series.

CentOS (and of course, it’s upstream distro, Red Hat Enterprise Linux) has an extremely powerful, but somewhat poorly documented, tool for rapidly deploying machines and managing their configuration: kickstart. Kickstart lets you build a custom installation that can run hands-free. So not only is the installation quick and easy for you, you can be confident that your machines are configured exactly the way you want them to be.

Continue reading Building a custom CentOS 7 kickstart disc, part 1 →