Preparing Multimedia for Sony DAV TZ130 DVD player USB

Bear with me while I attempt preparing a mencoder command that converts my multimedia files into something that this darn DVD player can understand.

mencoder -mc 0 -noskip -vf expand=:::::16/9,scale=720:480,hqdn3d,harddup -ovc xvid -oac lavc -channels 6 -xvidencopts fixed_quant=3.8:me_quality=6:noqpel:nogmc:trellis:chroma_me:
chroma_opt:hq_ac:vhq=4:lumi_mask:max_key_interval=300:quant_type=mpeg:
max_bframes=2:closed_gop:nopacked:profile=asp5:autoaspect:bvhq=1
-lavcopts acodec=ac3 -o outfile.avi

The player thinks about playing the file..... then stops thinking and returns to the menu. :(

This works, but only 2 Audio channels:

mencoder -mc 0 -noskip -vf expand=:::::16/9,scale=720:576,hqdn3d,harddup -ovc xvid -oac mp3lame -xvidencopts fixed_quant=3.8:me_quality=6:noqpel:nogmc:trellis:chroma_me:
chroma_opt:hq_ac:vhq=4:lumi_mask:max_key_interval=300:quant_type=mpeg:
max_bframes=2:closed_gop:nopacked:profile=asp5:autoaspect:bvhq=1
-lameopts vbr=2:q=6:aq=2 -o output.avi input.m4v

Halaal Gelatine – Should you know better? (Part 2)

This post is a follow on from here.

After some informative comments from a reader, Emre Metin, I've decided to highlight some of the things that he's researched on the topic.

Emre referenced the following sources:

1. Bazmool M. The Fiqh Principle of Istihala – Changing from impure to pure, (translated by Moosa Richardson and a fatwa given by Shaykh al-Albaani)


2. Venien, A., & Levieux, D. Differentiation of bovine from porcine gelatins using polyclonal anti-peptide antibodies in indirect and competitive indirect ELISA. Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Analysis, 2005;39:418–424.


3. Zhang G, Liu T, Wang Q, Chen L, Lei J, Luo J, Ma G, Su Z. Mass spectrometric detection of marker peptides in tryptic digests of gelatin: A new method to differentiate between bovine and porcine gelatin Food Hydrocolloids,2009;23:2001-2007

The crux of the argument is summed up in the following statement from Emre:

According to Islam, when something changes its composition until it can not be related to its source, it is considered as a completely different material. This is called istihala.

The paper referenced above in [3], finds that it is possible to identify the source of Gelatin by looking for "marker peptides" that will point the source of the Gelatin as being either Bovine or Porcine. So, has the Gelatin then in face been changed in composition to the point that "it can not be related to its source" ?

Allah knows best. Let's not deceive ourselves thinking we can deceive our Creator?