DVD burning mod (7/14/06 - v1.4.2)

[rsagetv99]

Originally Posted by mkanet

Okay, I think Im tempted to try it. But, have a few questions and concerns:

I only have one SageTV machine which records and plays back TV. I'd like to know what programs require to stay in memory external to sageTV. I was hoping that everything is loaded and loaded through sageTV as needed... like when it needs to use the DVD burning engine. Does this addon require Directory Monitor to run 24/7 external to sagetv if I already have sageTV's transcoder builtin?

Thanks,
Michael

None are required to stay in memory. You could kick off a scheduled task to start DIRMON at a certain time if needed. DIRMON is used to monitor your system for queued jobs waiting to be processed. You can also run DIRMON 24/7 and have the Perl2DVD process only run during certain hours. This will cut-down on your processing needs during peak hours.

[mkanet]

Im a bit confused... What is there to schedule?? I thought you can just select a TV show from detailed info and select to have it burn (immediately and discretely burning it in the background).

Also does directory monitor and the burning engine exit from memory quietly after its finsihed burning? I can't have the DVD burner tiied up 24/7 since I use it for other things too.

Thanks again!!

[ekiwi]

this system uses a 2 part process.

first part schedules a transcode if needed and the creation of the image file this is facilitated by using dirmon. dirmon runs external to sage. when you set up dir mon you can put limits on when it runs tasks ie in the middle of the night or during the day or asap.

you can queue up many of these to happen they will happen sequentially and will created the images on the hard disk for you.

this part of the process can take a LONG time depending on how much compression is required etc.

the second part is the actual burning of the dvd this happens immediatly when you start it and basically takes as long as your drive takes to burn a dvd ( at 4x it takes about 15min). and you can start it as soon as the first dvd is processed by the first stage, or at any time in the future. as it requires you to put dvd's in the drive it is not automatically done at the end of the first part.

this is the "one at a time" part of the process and for obious reasons you shouldnt start (if it will actually let you) a second burn while the first one is taking part.

whilest dirmon could be stopped and started when needed i would suggest you run it constantly, it has little impact as all it does as its name suggests is look at one or more directories and sees if any file matches a certain requirement and if it does it starts an external app. You can control how often it scans your system to see if anything needs to be done.

all other tasks close and are removed from memory once completed

so as you suggest you could be watching a dvd while it it trancoding another one the only time your dvd would be unavailable is while it is doing the actual burning and i assume this is one of the many reasons it is a two part process

hope this helps you understand how it works

[mkanet]

ekiwi, thanks for taking the time to explain. I think this solution is unnecessarily complex just to put TV recordings onto a DVDs. ..just my opinion.

Currently, I just drag 'n drop a TV show into Nero Vision, put a blank dvd in the DVD-Rom, and push the 'Burn' button.

[ekiwi]

explining how things work and using them are two completely different things

you will find in this thread people grandmothers and the computer illiterati can use this. sure they dont understand it but they can make dvd's

I have bought and have used nero and there is no way my grandmother even if she wasnt dead could use it. finding files starting apps draging files building menus none of that is easy for someone that dosent use computer. sure you will get better control over everything but it sure aint easy for the illiterati. and you cant do it from the couch with a few button presses on the remote

this system if you can navigate the menus in sage you can make a dvd how can you call this complex

plus you dont have to buy it.

give it a go make a dvd from the couch what have you got to loose

now that i have taken the bait eaten it and spat it out ill go back to
RANT MODE OFF

[dblaine2]

To extend what ekiwi stated this program makes customizable themes and menus while keeping the xml output for shows (descriptions, etc) - not just dumping mpg's to dvd's.

Of course, you don't have to use it

[dblaine2]

evilpenguin,

I had to revert to the older add2dvd.exe program - the new one just hung and caused sage to hang too.

[ekiwi]

yeah my sage hung as well

[owilsky]

Originally Posted by ekiwi

yeah my sage hung as well

yes, same problem here...

[FuzzyBS]

Originally Posted by ekiwi

yeah my sage hung as well

It creates 2 add2DVDQ.exe processes and leaves Sage with an "hourglass", but if I End Process on one of the add2DVDQ.exe's, it releases Sage.

When I tried adding an airing to a multi-video DVD list, it creates dvdList (if necessary) and adds a line for the airing before it hangs.

Bruce

[evilpenguin]

yeah my sage hung as well

Should be fixed and both downloads have been updated with a newer, less broken, version of add2dvdq.exe.

[rsagetv99]

I have written a kixtart script to automate the removal of commercials from shows based on VPRJ files. It works off the creation of the qdvd file, and processes the file before the Perl2dvd process starts. If anyone is interested I can post it.

You have to have VideoRedo for it to work.

[perfessor101]

Hello,
Currently I'm using three different dos batch files for commercial removal.
The first runs through all not verified VPRJ files and I confirm the commercial cuts dropping in a *.cut file (marker) so I can finish processing all new VPRJ files before Dirmon takes over.
The second batch file makes a *.slice file for every *.cut file (*.slice is a dirmon trigger file).
The third batch file is called by Dirmon to do the actual cutting (calling vp.vbs video.vprj temp/video.bak /t1 /q for every *.slice file) fully automated.


However looking at this mess of batch files and having heard of Kixtart before, I was curious what your script was like and if I could translate or clean up mine by using kixtart.

Thanks for your time,
Bobby

[rsagetv99]

Originally Posted by perfessor101

However looking at this mess of batch files and having heard of Kixtart before, I was curious what your script was like and if I could translate or clean up mine by using kixtart.

It looks like you are removing commercials from every file, the purpose of my script is only to remove them for purposes of putting them on DVD. I would like to know a little more about your process and the theory behind it - I was kind of confused by what you meant by non-verified video-redo files and adding *.cut and *.slice files.

Anways, I have ShowAnalyzer set to automatically create .vprj files during the commercial detect process. These are the files that I use to have VideoRedo remove the commercials from the file.

My script is run by Dirmon every 10 minutes and it checks for new .qdvd files, similar to the way that the perl2dvd process works except the program I run is kix32 with the following command line options: E:\Kixtart\vredo.kix $qdvd="%FULLFILESPEC%" $logfile="%PATH%/%BASENAME%.

Below is the vredo.kix script that is called by DirMon:

REDIRECTOUTPUT($logfile,1)
Open(1,$qdvd)
Readline(1)
$line2=Readline(1)
While @Error=0 and $line2<>""
$CCount = Instr($line2,".mpg!!!")
$mpgvdo = Left($Line2,$CCount)+"vdo"
$mpg = Left($Line2,$CCount)+"mpg"
$vprj = Left($Line2,$CCount)+"vprj"
$cskip = Left($Line2,$CCount)+"txt"
? $qdvd
? $line2
? $ccount
? $mpgvdo
? $mpg
? $vprj
?
shell 'cscript //nologo "C:\Program Files\VideoRedoPlus\vp.vbs" $vprj $mpgvdo /t1 /q'
If Exist($mpgvdo) AND Exist($mpg)
DEL $vprj
DEL $cskip
Move "$mpgvdo" "$mpg"
Open (2,$vprj,5)
Open (3,$cskip,5)
Writeline(2,"Processed by VideRedo")
Writeline(3,"Processed by VideRedo")
Close(2)
Close(3)
EndIF
$line2 = Readline(1)
Loop
Close(1)

Shell '"C:\Program Files\SageTV\SageTV\perl2dvd.exe " + $qdvd + " C:\Program Files\SageTV\SageTV\perl2dvd.pref"'
exit

As you can see I am calling the perl2dvd process directly from the script instead of from Dirmon, so I do not have to wait another 10 minutes after the VideoRedo process finishes for DirMon to start the Perl2DVD process. I also create a logfile in the same folder as the .qdvd file so that DirMon will not start the VideoRedo process after it is already started.

I am writing this as I walk out the door, so it may be confusing, let me know if it is.

[evilpenguin]

Ahh, that was a good vacation... now where was I?

todo -
* Better multi-Computer diagram/description
* Video preprocessor (Video Redo) support
* Simplify setup/usage (automatic configuration/optional dirmon-less operation)
* Figure out why 3.5 hour show had a few minutes cut off the end
* Redo default STV import burn button placement
* Put together a menu pack so people aren't stuck with bluetwo

Did I miss anything?

[perfessor101]

Hello rsagetv,
Yes, I am removing commercials from every recorded file ... depending on how much you record it only takes 15 to 30 minutes a day of editing. (Today 20 recordings took 30 minutes with interruptions)

Here's my batch files and I'll comment on them as I go along ...

I call this batch file to start checking the commercial cuts ...

-----MultiCVprj.bat ---- Multiple Check VideoProject Files -----
; S is the drive letter I use for SageTV recordings \\Thorpe\SageTV is the UNC path
s:
cd \

; I use a for loop with *.vprj as the filespec and
; If the process hasn't already been done (videofile.done)
; And if there is not already a good file (videofile.good)
; And if the mpg file still exists
; Call Check VideoProjectFile (cvprj.bat)

for /f "tokens=1 delims=." %%i in ('dir /b *.vprj') do if NOT EXIST %%~dpni.done if NOT EXIST %%~dpni.good if EXIST %%~dpni.mpg (call c:\testing\cvprj.bat %%~dpni.mpg)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

And this is the file that it calls ...

-----------CVprj.bat ---- Check VideoProject Files -----------------
; calls VideoRedo from the command line with the vprj file which opens VideoRedo in editing mode with ShowAnalyzers Guesstimated cuts. Control-P saves edits and Control-X exits.
"C:\Program Files\VideoReDoPlus\VideoRedo.exe" %~dpn1.vprj

; and assuming all went well and the commercial cuts are where I want them I drop a marker file (videofile.good)
now >%~dpn1.good
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Then I call this file to take all the files with "good" commercial cuts and produce a videofile.slice file which is the file extension that actually triggers Dirmon to do the automated commercial removal.

----------- QueueToCut.bat ---- ----------------------------------------
s:
cd \

; another for loop with *.good as the filespec which for every videofile.good drops a videofile.slice for triggering the final batch file from Dirmon (if there is no videofile.done existing)
for /f "tokens=1 delims=." %%i in ('dir /s/b *.good') do if NOT EXIST %%~dpni.done (now >%%~dpni.slice)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

The last batch file is called from Dirmon which calls videoredo to start the automated cutting and also tries to implement an in place file replacement at the end.

-----------VRDH.bat ---- VideoRedo Helper ------------------------
; drop a marker file to tell dirmon processing has started on this file
echo starting >%~dp1%~n1.cutting

; calling VideoRedo automated and saving the commercial cut video to a temp directory within the same directory (if the temp directory exists)
c:\testing\vp.vbs %~dp1%~n1.vprj %~dp1temp\%~n1.mpg.bak /t1 /Q

; I touch the commercial removed file date and time to the original (GnuTools)
touch -r %~dp1%~n1.mpg %~dp1temp\%~n1.mpg.bak

; then I move the original file to the temp directory (on the same drive, so very fast) (or if you omit this line the commercial cut version overwrites the original)
move %~dp1%~n1.mpg %~dp1temp\%~n1.mpg

; then I move the commercial cut video back into the originals place
move %~dp1temp\%~n1.mpg.bak %~dp1%~n1.mpg

; then I move the videofile.vprj file to the temp directory with the original video
move %~dp1%~n1.vprj %~dp1temp\%~n1.vprj

; then I take VideoRedo's chapter output file and move it into the original directory with the commercial cut video. ;This file lists chapter 'cut marks' for where each cut took place in the final video (might be good for perl2dvd to chapter mark where the cuts took place)
move %~dp1temp\%~n1.mpg.chapters %~dp1%~n1.chapters

; then I drop in a marker file to signify the process is done and not to be repeated
now >%~dp1%~n1.done
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pretty convoluted I know, but it seems to work and it saves me about 25 - 30% of the required hard disk space without re-encoding the video (so if I want to burn it later, I can do it from the original recorded video).

This way I also know when I'm watching SageTV recordings that all commercial cuts are correct and I don't have to worry about missing any of the parts which were mismarked. Hit Play and don't touch the remote until it's finished.

So to bring it back to this thread ... VideoRedo produces chapter files in two formats dvdauthorXMLfile and text. The text file lists the timecodes for each cut mark/point and I was curious as to how hard this may be to import into perl2dvd as the chapter marks used by dvdauthor.

Thanks for your time,
Bobby

ps -- I can provide examples of the VideoRedo Chapter files if needed ...

[perfessor101]

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

Ahh, that was a good vacation... now where was I?
* Figure out why 3.5 hour show had a few minutes cut off the end

Did this happen to a recording that you have access to?
I was having problems with a 'hard audio error' during recordings which made all the videoplayer software I tried except for ITunes think it hit the end of the file prematurely (SageTV, PowerDVD, Windows Media Player 10, ATI Player).
The only way for me to watch those files was to run VideoRedo QuickStream Fix on them.

I was having a problem on my system with the Hauppage WinTVPVR 500MCE drivers (two Hauppauge WinTV PVR 500MCE cards on Windows XP 2005 MCE OEM). When I did a reinstall of windows XP and switched to the WinTVPVR 150 drivers, which are more recent, the 'hard audio error' disapeered.

So I guess the first question I should have asked : When you watch the video recording in SageTV does it play to the end?

Although thinking about it last week I watched Meet Joe Black from beginning to end, but when I tried to perl2dvd it I was missing the last few minutes ... the first thing I did was to VideoRedo Quickstream Fix it and then perl2dvd had no problems with the video. (But maybe if I just perl2dvd'd it again ...)

So may it be a videorecording problem instead?

Hope you find a solution,
Bobby

[rsagetv99]

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

Ahh, that was a good vacation... now where was I?

todo -
* Better multi-Computer diagram/description
* Video preprocessor (Video Redo) support
* Simplify setup/usage (automatic configuration/optional dirmon-less operation)
* Figure out why 3.5 hour show had a few minutes cut off the end
* Redo default STV import burn button placement
* Put together a menu pack so people aren't stuck with bluetwo

Did I miss anything?

AFAIK you didn't miss anything, but I had mentioned this earlier, and had not gotten back to you. Regarding a missing "Close" icon after importing your STVi. On my PC, it was just as you said, the "Close" Button was off the screen, however on my mother's PC the "Close" button is completely gone, haven't figured hers out yet.

To fix the problem on my PC, could you spread your buttons across that screen like 2 on the left and 2 on the right? If you have any suggestions for my mother's PC let me know.

While on the subject of buttons, I was thinking it would be nice if the "Process Multifile DVD" button could be changed to "Add to Multifile & Process DVD", then just have that button add the show you are on to the Multifile list and create the qdvd file. This would save a few clicks.

EDIT: I almost forgot, your latest release minimizes Sage to the systray during the burn process, and does not bring it back up afterward.

[evilpenguin]

Originally Posted by rsagetv99

I almost forgot, your latest release minimizes Sage to the systray during the burn process, and does not bring it back up afterward.

Minimizing shouldn't happen unless the lnk and jpg end in '_m', which should only happen if you have explicitly set the appropriate setting in the advanced properties file to '_m'. By default it just uses whatever sleep meathod you have set in sage screensaver settings. I'm fairly sure that this is working properly.

As for the waking sage up again, you would need to go into the advanced preference file and enter in the full path to your SageTV(Client) (i.e C:\Program Files\SageTV\SageTV\SageTV(Client).exe). Otherwise my script assumes you can handle getting Sage back in focus and doesn't do anything.

[rsagetv99]

Originally Posted by perfessor101

Pretty convoluted I know, but it seems to work and it saves me about 25 - 30% of the required hard disk space without re-encoding the video (so if I want to burn it later, I can do it from the original recorded video).

As long as it does what you want and you understand it, it doesn't matter how convuluted it is.

My only question is, how are you checking/modifying the commercial cuts? It sounds like you have your script open all non-checked files in Video Redo - which probably plays the show autmatically - and you watch to see if showanalyzer accurately marked the commercials; What if you Showanalyzer is inaccurate, do you have to manually mark the begging and end of the commercial? Not that I have an automated way of doing it, I was just hoping you did. Sorry if you do and I missed it.

Since the timestamps in the comskip files are in a different format than the ones in VideoRedo, EvilPenguin would need to convert the VideoRedo timestamps. I think the conversion is something like <videoredovalue>/333666=<comskipvalue>. Alternatively(or in the meantime), I could script something that would take your file and convert the values to comskip values and then create a comskip file with the chapter marks then delete the file at the end of the perl2dvd process.