Since the initial flood, it has been determined that there was indeed no DoS attack – unless you consider skyrocketing popularity driven by TUAW and Digg to be a DoS attack (and it certainly looked like one!).

Server response has somewhat returned to normalcy at this point since the initial 12-hour onrush, though things may be touch-and-go for the next few days as folks continue to download our first MediaFork release.

In other technik news, we have finally been contacted by titer. I will state simply at this point that our discussion went extremely well and everyone will ultimately benefit. 🙂 More news on this in coming weeks.

I would like to sincerely apologize to our end-users for any inconvenience this afternoon’s site disruptions may have caused. While reaction to our beta release has been extraordinary (both in terms of volume and positive response), our site came under DoS attack around 3:45PM ET this afternoon and has mostly recovered about two hours later.

I have deployed measures to prevent this sort of disruption in the future, including improved memory and process management of Apache threads and rollout of CBand bandwidth limiting/throttling. This does regrettably mean that legitimate users will get a “site busy” message from time to time, but this should only be temporary and site operations will resume normally.

Thank you for your patience and understanding – and interest in MediaFork!

Old open source projects never die, they just get new names.

We’re proud to announce the first public beta of MediaFork!

Download MediaFork 0.8.0 Beta 1:

• Mac OS X (Universal Binary)
• Linux (CLI)
• Windows (CLI)
• Source (svn revision 298)

We’re all very excited to get an application out there for the community to stress-test. It is a beta, and we can’t guarantee any particular level of functionality or stability, but we think you’ll enjoy it. Highlights include full 640*480 iPod video, anamorphic encoding, and newer, faster copies of x264 and ffmpeg.

Please visit our forums to report bugs, suggest features, ask questions, or join development. We are also available on IRC.

MediaFork is a GPL’d, multiplatform, multithreaded DVD to MPEG-4 ripper/converter, available for Mac OS X, Linux, and Windows. It is based on the source code to HandBrake, written by Eric Petit and Laurent Aimar.

New in this release:

• Updated libraries (meaning better quality, hopefully fewer bugs, and increased speeds)
• iPod 5.5G support
• Revamped graphical interface (Mac OS X)
• Anamorphic encoding with pixel aspect ratio
• Brighter color reproduction in QuickTime
• Lists disks by DVD name instead of by drive name (Mac OS X)
• Titles output movies based on the DVD name (Mac OS X)
• 32Khz audio output
• Constant rate factor encoding with x264
• New preference item to turn deinterlacing on by default (Mac OS X)
• New preference item to select the default audio language (Mac OS X)

Fixed:

• Reading straight from a DVD (broken in our earlier alpha)

Broken:

• Encoding multiple audio tracks
• Auto update (please ignore this for beta 1)

To do:

• Instant MediaFork (or equivalent functionality) release
• Automatic update functionality

For a complete list of changes, visit our Trac timeline.

Please stay tuned to this blog, especially graphic designers. We will soon be holding a contest to choose a new icon for MediaFork (Mac OS X and Windows). Prizes will include: a sense of pride in a job well-done, artistic immortality, and a warm feeling of self-satisfaction.

Thanks for your interest in MediaFork! We hope you enjoy it!