"That two developers independently decided to write simple GUI
transcoding applications should come as no surprise. Video
transcoding is increasingly in demand as more and more portable
devices have the graphics hardware to support it and digital
content distribution skyrockets. Command line encoders like FFmpeg
and MEncoder can perform almost any conversion, but require the
user to know exactly which options to enable, and, in most cases,
demand that every codec switch be specified or else they fail to
produce a usable result. That leads to obtuse (and extremely long)
commands that are difficult to get right and even more difficult to
troubleshoot. Several graphical transcoding applications have
appeared for Linux desktops in recent years -- Thoggen, OGMRip,
K9Copy, AcidRip, dvd::rip, HandBrake, and WinFF, to name a few --
but as both Taylor and Schaller commented, all have their
shortcomings.
"Some, like Thoggen, OGMRip, and Oggconvert, are limited to
specific output codecs. Others, like dvd::rip, attempt to offer
every option under the sun, making them difficult for casual users
to use. "There are dozens of GUIs that are essentially the same
confusing options with a nice graphical label. To me that doesn't
really help," Taylor observed. "The point of Arista is not to be
everything to everyone, just to be a simple way to transcode your
media for various devices. That's it."
