Tips

Media

Tips on all things related to media, including audio, photos, video, and streaming.

Streaming

Rerences on all content one can stream.

• Columbo: Everyone’s all-time favorite TV detective.

Home Videos via Apple TV

Share MP4 videos on your Mac with your Apple TV via the Apple TV App:

• Launch the Apple TV app and click on File -> Import… option and add the specific directory with your videos.
• Click on your Mac’s System Settings -> General -> Sharing and enable Media Sharing
• Click on the (i) icon to configure settings
• Make sure your Mac and Apple TV are on the same Wi-Fi network
• Sign in with your Apple ID if prompted
• REMINDER: Your Mac must remain powered ON in order to serve the content

Crop

How-to crop the sides of a 5-second video clip and convert it from widescreen format (e.g., 16:9) to an old-style movie format (e.g., 4:3) using a CLI program. Use ffmpeg:

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf "crop=ih*4/3:ih:(iw-ih*4/3)/2:0" -t 5 -c:a copy output.mp4

• -i input.mp4: Specifies the input video file.
• -vf "crop=ih*4/3:ih": This applies a video filter to crop the video.
  • ih refers to the input height.
  • ih*4/3 calculates the new width based on the height to maintain a 4:3 aspect ratio.
• -t 5: Optionally, limit the output video to 5 seconds.
• -c:a copy: This copies the audio stream without re-encoding it.
• output.mp4: Specifies the name of the output video file.

iPhone Ringtones

• Convert ringtone M4R to MP3: ffmpeg -i input.m4r -acodec libmp3lame -ab 256k output.mp3
• Convert MP3 to ringtone M4R (must be 40s or less): ffmpeg -i input.mp3 -t 40 -acodec aac -b:a 256k -f ipod output.m4r
• Convert WAV to ringtone M4R (must be 40s or less): ffmpeg -i input.wav -acodec aac -b:a 256k -f ipod output.m4r
• Read M4R metadata: ffmpeg -i yourfile.m4r or ffprobe -v quiet -print_format json -show_format -show_streams yourfile.m4r
• Modify M4R metadata (without re-encoding). You can ddd multiple ‘-metadata’ entries: ffmpeg -i yourfile.m4r -metadata title="My Ringtone" -c copy -f ipod output.m4r