Looking For OSX Advice From Apple Owners

[Craig]

Ok, so I'm really getting comfortable on the MacBook Air, but I'm ready to start installing some 3rd party stuff. I need some suggestions from those of you that use a Mac.

First I need a Zip or RAR utility. I love WinRAR on the PC. I see that they have a command line version for Mac, but is there a simple to use version as well?

Also, I need a good AC3 codec that will integrate into QT or another open-source and reliable media player like Gom for the PC.

Thanks in advance for any input.

[ducktapeman]

Here at school we use Stuff-It alot, it's pretty good.

I've never used any AC3 stuff so I can't help you there.

Couple of things that I like are the iStat Pro widget (shows you all the status of your temp sensors, fans, etc.)

I would recommend Handbreak to pull all of your DVD on to your computer but since you don't have a superdrive.. (unless you've got the USB one...)

[Craig]

Thanks Duck,

I do have the SuperDrive but it is nice to rip DVD's to my iPhone too so I have dabbled in handbrake.

I'll check out iStat too...that was the next thing I was going to ask for.

Thanks again!

[panic!]

I've used handbrake for Windows. It works great with my Samsung Mini-DVD camcorder.

[Dopefish]

Craig,

As for RAR, ZIP, etc. utilities, I couldn't help you out there since I do it all from the terminal. OSX has built in support for extracting ZIPs, TARs, and a bunch of other formats, but I don't know about RAR.

For AC3 and other video playback stuff, I recommend Perian:
Perian - The swiss-army knife of QuickTime® components

Some other cool things are Adium (for a messenger, but it might not provide what you need business-wise):
Adium - Download

Growl is nice, and it provides pop up notifications for various things:
Welcome to Growl!


Also, since you are using a laptop, be careful about the things you have running in the dashboard. They are always active and running. This means they can drain CPU usage and lessen your battery life. The average RSS thing is fine, but all that flashy stuff is a bad idea.

If you need any custom RSS feed things for the dashboard, let me know. I made that StrafeRight RSS Widget awhile ago.

[SonicSpeed]

A few things that I can add, although my experience with Macs is limited (stupid G3's that the school has).

Few crossover Apps that are wtfpwn.

VideoLan player is the swiss-army knife of video apps. And its lightweight.
VLC media player for Mac OS X

7Zip is a good RAR system, but I don't know if there is a good Frontend for it.

[BuddhistSoldier]

WHOA! Isn't OSX based off of BSD? And if so it should have rar included doesn't it?

[Dopefish]

There's no front-end for 7zip for OSX.

VLC is terrible and ugly. He already has QuickTime, and Perian adds support for all the other formats. You might as well use that. Other than Perian, MPlayer is the best player. They have that for OSX with a nice UI as well.


Buddhist, he's looking for something with a front-end. There's CLI tools for everything, but that doesn't mean it will be useful to someone inexperienced with the terminal. StuffIt definitely handles those formats and it does have a front-end.

Maybe if I get around to it, I'll write a front-end for 7zip on OSX.

[DigitalDD]

VLC or Mplayer for video playback. you can hack the codecs into quicktime but its a hassle.

for a GUI RAR tool RAR Expander or RAR Me either should suit you well (there is also unrarX which I've never used). If you need something that handles .par files like those found on binaries newsgroups like QuickPar for windows try MacPAR.

If you use bittorrent to automate downloading tv shows you can try TV Shows

[Craig]

wow! thanks guys!! so much stuff to mess with now