What to do about EncodeHD / WMA?
It’s been ages since I’ve had the energy to spend quality time on either EncodeHD or the Workstation Migration Assistant. This is partly because I’m so busy with work, that when I get home I don’t actually have the brainpower to do it, and it’s partly because my heart isn’t in it anymore – although that could be systemic of being so busy
So at this point I’m wondering if I should just open-source both apps. This might (hopefully) relieve me of some unwanted extra stress (do you know how many support / feature request emails I reply to a week?!), and also hopefully entice others to pick them up and continue development, or at the very least, tailor to fit their needs.
It might also give me time to work on new projects. I’ve got something in the wings at the moment, something similar to Microsoft’s AppLocker – but haven’t had a chance to finish it. And also, I’d really like to have more time to dig deeper into OSX and iPhone development.
So, what do you guys think? Comments would be most welcome.
Dan
Hi Dan, Im sure a lot of people are keeping an eye on your updates and do indeed want you to progress forward with them, but its understandable that you don’t have all the time in the world and to be honest I dont know how you manage to fit in everything in and sleep and go to the pub etc.
I basically found you a long time ago out of a want for a replacement for visualhub which I still use in macos and I also wanted to make some HD WMV’s.
It would be great if you could find the time to evolve the apps you’ve made but I do understand new things come along that interest you and you dont want to be tied up supporting tons of apps that you provide for free.
Thanks for all your work!
cheers
I for one have found both apps incredibly useful. Kudos to you for creating them.
I think it’s understandable that the app development has slowed somewhat, due to life factors (work, etc). In my opinion, if your heart isn’t in it, or you are tired of developing them and wish to look at other projects, you should probably open source them. That way if someone wants to pick up the mantle and run with it, they can. It will also mean that the projects live on and don’t fade away.
All that being said, it shouldn’t detract for the excellent job you’ve done so far with both projects, which have been very very useful to me and many others.
Cheers!
Dan, thanks for continuing to put out great products like encodeHD. I use it everyday to convert .mkv to .mp4 files. I love the program and I hope you continue to update it. I guess the only thing I would like to see added would be the ability to make wmvhd. I have had NO issues with your program since day one.
If you decide to make it open source, I am a fan of open source. I just hope it does not become bloated with crap that no one uses.
Again, THANK YOU for a great program that I could not live without.
Andrew
Hey, well I didn’t comment before cuz I told you how I feel on Twitter. As a general rule, I’d say try to open source as much of everything you can. The more code out there the better the community becomes.
Dan, I use EncodeHD everyday to re-encode video and audio files and it’s a great tool, by far the best and the easiest to use of many alternatives out there (both free and paid) for Windows.
While I’d like to see you keep upgrading the tool, I understand that time may not be there for you. I’d be of the idea of you open sourcing it if you don’t want or can’t keep working on it as you’d like to. That way your great work won’t be lost and people can pick up some work and improve or update the tool as needed.
Thanks again for your work on this great tool, it does not go unnoticed!
Dan.
Thanks for all your time and hard work creating EncodeHD. I use this program regularly for my video encoding needs, and it has yet to fail me. I’m even using it as I write this post! For what it’s purpose is, it works flawlessly and I’m VERY pleased with it.
I’m almost always in favor open source, and this is no exception. I love the program and would hate to see it fade away.
I’m a novice programmer myself in my second year of college. As my skills increase I would like to someday contribute to EncodeHD and perhaps any other projects you open source.
Thanks again for all your hard work, Dan!
dan i too am a happy user of encodeHD but i honestly use encode360 more, for one good reason 5.1+ audio.
i have harped before about simply making Encode360 par tof Encode HD and i feel that it is still something that needs to be done.
there is NO reason to continue updating the WMV9 encoder base simply because there is nothing to update really, the updates come from updates to the mkv structure and audio structure. i never understood why you stopped working with encode360 only to put out a program that can not do one of the biggest and most saught after features of encode360, the multi channel audio for WMV files.
i honestly havent looked in a while but i know of no other program that can do that.
sure i can do a 2:1 ratio of mp4 movies to wmv in terms of storage size but that doesnt matter to me all that much if i can get 5.1 audio.
i dont like seeing HD content but listening to 2 channel audio… it just ruins it.
dont quit for anyone but yourself, and if you decide to make it open source, i would do it, maybe someone else can get their hands dirty and give you ideas for how to improve your version of the program.
I tried replying to this a while ago but my comment got blocked because I was at work. Then I just kinda forgot about the blog post. I always love the option for open source software and I think migration assistant could benefit from it. I don’t know if I would be able to even know what to do with the source myself (seeing as I haven’t programmed anything for years) but it would still be a neat opportunity.
I don’t know what else could even be added to the software (you have done a great job), but it is amazing what the open source community thinks of.