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

[perfessor101]

In VideoRedo there is also the option on the chapter marks setup page to output frame numbers ... to videofilename.chapters

Supernatural-PhantomTraveler-8798786-0.chapters
-----
35358
48844
58841
69020
74251
75407
-----

if this is any better ?

At one point I was thinking of writing a simple program in D (www.digitalmars.com) to take the HH:MM:SS.ff timecodes and string them together on one line to use with KJakes DVD burning (but Windows XP Batch files never seem to work the way I want them to). I had moderately modified his dos batch scripts. I made it so I could author a dvd while I was burning one (to burn I was using an AutoIt3 script to automate DVDShr*nk - automatic transcoding if I had a few extra minutes)

Have a good day,

Bobby

[rsagetv99]

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

It should be working with any new DVD's you make since you installed 1.3.1, in which I updated add2dvdq.exe to output .qdvd files with readable names.

I have the latest version, I just re-downloaded the entire package last night. It has the full name of the qdvd file, but the shortcuts that are created during the processing that point to c:\nowhere.bat start out as dvd.list.0.burn...

[tdalton]

In step 5) Add the lines to the SageTV.preference file as shown in this thread. For simplicity, I recommend just using "C\:\\sageOthers" as your folder. Are you referring to sage.properties? I don't see a sageTV.preference file? In step 10) Create the folder C:\sageOthers and put a shortcut into it. I understand the concept here: put Img Burn shortcut and any other program you want to launch from Sage. So when you want to burn a DVD you use the appropriate button for single or multi-video DVD list then you go to other programs and launch Img Burn and your compilation shows up in the list?

[evilpenguin]

Originally Posted by tdalton

In step 5) Add the lines to the SageTV.preference file as shown in this thread. For simplicity, I recommend just using "C\:\\sageOthers" as your folder. Are you referring to sage.properties? I don't see a sageTV.preference file? In step 10) Create the folder C:\sageOthers and put a shortcut into it. I understand the concept here: put Img Burn shortcut and any other program you want to launch from Sage. So when you want to burn a DVD you use the appropriate button for single or multi-video DVD list then you go to other programs and launch Img Burn and your compilation shows up in the list?

5) Yeah, I mean sage.properties.

10) Not quite. What I do is create a custom windows batch file that runs imgBurn from the command line and tells it to burn the image to DVD.

[rsagetv99]

Originally Posted by rsagetv99

I have the latest version, I just re-downloaded the entire package last night. It has the full name of the qdvd file, but the shortcuts that are created during the processing that point to c:\nowhere.bat start out as dvd.list.0.burn...

Nevermind, it's working now. I guess the shows I had listed started processing before I redownloaded everthing. Sorry to bother you with this ID10T crap.

[evilpenguin]

Originally Posted by rsagetv99

Nevermind, it's working now. I guess the shows I had listed started processing before I redownloaded everthing. Sorry to bother you with this ID10T crap.

Glad to hear its working, you had me worried for a sec

[evilpenguin]

OK, here's what I've got working so far...

I have two new entries in the advanced properties file that will

1) Let you enter in the cmd to run and anywhere you put %FULL_ORIGINAL_PATH% or %FULL_OUTPUT_PATH% will be replaced with the proper path/filename. If you can think of anything else you want to substitute let me know.

2) An extension to check for to decide whether or not to preprocess the video. Right now it checks for "C:\blah\blah\originalMPEG.EXT" and "C:\blah\blah\originalMPEG.mpg.EXT"

Then, when videoRedo outputs the chapters, if you place it right next to the %FULL_OUTPUT_PATH% with a recognizable extension and tell me what format the chapter file will be in, I'll read those in and use them on the DVD.

What do you think?

[mayamaniac]

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

Iit looks like you're getting hung up on the import steps which are admittedly confusing. No worries, I can talk you though it.

1) Start fresh. Revert back to SageTV3.xml
2) Import SageTV_DVD_burnImport.stvi. To test if this is working go to the Sage Recordings or Imported Video's screen and select a video. When the popup menu opens select "Advanced Options" and then you should see the 4 DVD burning buttons appear.
3) Install and import neilm's dynamic menu. Be sure and read that thead and the wiki entry closely because one of them contains the default menu.xml file you need to get started.
4) Completely quit the SageTV,
5) Add the lines to the SageTV.preference file as shown in this thread. For simplicity, I recommend just using "C\:\\sageOthers" as your folder.
....

must it be "C:\sageOthers"? I'm using "F:\Applications\SageTV\Others", will this work?

I just installed it into the default STV following your instructions. It was quite confusing since half of the directions on this page were for SageMC. I wasted time trying to find the "Send to" button on the default STV not knowing that you were talking about SageMC . But I think I installed everything correctly, but the only problem is it's not working. When I select a show and choose "Single Video DVD", I see a .qdvd file created in the Work Folder. I can also see the ImgBurn jpeg image in the "Other Programs" menu, but thats about it. I checked DirMon's Current Status window and it shows nothing, there's no job in progress. I set DirMon to run as a Service and the service was running. Shouldn't it be doing something or am I missing a step?

[evilpenguin]

Originally Posted by mayamaniac

must it be "C:\sageOthers"? I'm using "F:\Applications\SageTV\Others", will this work?

Yeah, pretty much any directory will work. I just recommend it because its simple.

Dirmon can be a bit confusing if you haven't used it before, so make sure you check that...

a) you've saved your work
b) lower your polling time to somethign like 10 initially because otherwise you have to wait five minutes until it does stuff
c) if all else fails stop/start dirmon a few times to see if you can kickstart it

As for the setup issues, I do appologize, i'm working a bunch of things right now(updating the setup instructions, auto-configure scripts, dirmon-less operation, etc.) that are tailored towards making setup and usage much easier for people for people that have only one Sage PC and don't care about all the multicomputer crap.

[rsagetv99]

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

OK, here's what I've got working so far...

I have two new entries in the advanced properties file that will

1) Let you enter in the cmd to run and anywhere you put %FULL_ORIGINAL_PATH% or %FULL_OUTPUT_PATH% will be replaced with the proper path/filename. If you can think of anything else you want to substitute let me know.

2) An extension to check for to decide whether or not to preprocess the video. Right now it checks for "C:\blah\blah\originalMPEG.EXT" and "C:\blah\blah\originalMPEG.mpg.EXT"

Then, when videoRedo outputs the chapters, if you place it right next to the %FULL_OUTPUT_PATH% with a recognizable extension and tell me what format the chapter file will be in, I'll read those in and use them on the DVD.

What do you think?

Not bad. To make it easier for pointing to .vprj and creating .log files with the same name as the MPG, I would rather see variables similar to DIRMON, like full path including file and extension, path by itself, and file by itself no extension. That way you can build whatever you need like %path%\%file%.vprj.

The way I got it to work outside your program was as follows:

1. Create logfile with same filename.log in the working directory, this was for error checking, and to also keep DirMon from reprocessing. If you are going to create a .work file in the beginning of the process then it will just be for logging the external program.

2. Read from qdvd file to get mpg filename(s)

3. Create variations of filename like vprj, mpg, temp mpg, etc.

4. Call VideoRedo process specifying vprj file and mpg file and process into temp mpg file.

5. Overwrite mpg orignal file with tmp mpg file.

6. Delete vprj and comskip file and create new ones that say "Processed by Video Redo". That way if you play the new mpg in Sage you will not have any comskip marks (since the comercials are removed) and if you accidentally try to reprocess the vprj it will error out. Creating the new blank files also keeps Dirmon from trying to reprocess the shows with ShowAnalyzer.

7. Loop for as many mpg files as are listed in the qdvd file.

It would be nice if you could have the pre-process run during your loop statement in perl so that the same array could be used to do the videoredo processing.

If you look back at my post on page 12 you can see the scripting behind the steps, let me know how and if you want to work it into your process.

[mayamaniac]

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

Yeah, pretty much any directory will work. I just recommend it because its simple.

Dirmon can be a bit confusing if you haven't used it before, so make sure you check that...

a) you've saved your work
b) lower your polling time to somethign like 10 initially because otherwise you have to wait five minutes until it does stuff
c) if all else fails stop/start dirmon a few times to see if you can kickstart it

As for the setup issues, I do appologize, i'm working a bunch of things right now(updating the setup instructions, auto-configure scripts, dirmon-less operation, etc.) that are tailored towards making setup and usage much easier for people for people that have only one Sage PC and don't care about all the multicomputer crap.

I figured it out what the problem was, its a drive mapping problem. I forgot to mention that I'm running the STVi in SageTV Client, which is a different machine than the server, and I don't have the same letter drive mapped. I guess its time for me to switch to all UNC paths just to avoid future problems with any other plugins. I remember I had to map the letter drives for comskip STVi to work also.

One question concerning the DVD processing, I assume that beside processing the DVD menus, there shouldn't be any processing/transcoding/converting if the show or source is already recorded in DVD Standard or DVD Long Play settings, correct?

[evilpenguin]

Originally Posted by mayamaniac

One question concerning the DVD processing, I assume that beside processing the DVD menus, there shouldn't be any processing/transcoding/converting if the show or source is already recorded in DVD Standard or DVD Long Play settings, correct?

Well, there's a little processing involved because at the least I need to take the MPEG2 video and add 'nav packets' to it, but that's a very quick process and will go as fast as your harddrive can copy the file. However, occasionally a video, even if it is in DVD format, will have some type of error that will require it to be completely transcoded to repair and I run a test to detect those.

[evilpenguin]

Originally Posted by rsagetv99

Not bad. To make it easier for pointing to .vprj and creating .log files with the same name as the MPG, I would rather see variables similar to DIRMON, like full path including file and extension, path by itself, and file by itself no extension. That way you can build whatever you need like %path%\%file%.vprj.

It would be nice if you could have the pre-process run during your loop statement in perl so that the same array could be used to do the videoredo processing.

Right now i've got it being called in the first loop before I actually do any ffmpeg'ing. That should be exactly what you need.

As far as more substitution strings, you got 'em...

Example filename: D:/TV/Nova.mpg
%FULLFILESPEC% - D:/TV/Nova.mpg
%FULLFILENOEXT% - D:/TV/Nova
%DRIVE% - D
%PATH% - D:/TV
%DIRECTORY% - TV
%BASENAME% - Nova
%EXTENSION% - mpg

[mayamaniac]

EvilPenguin, I'm getting this error:

\\Server\TVRecordings\24-Day2Midnight100AM-5006300-0.mpg: I/O error occured. Usually that means that input file is truncated and/or corrupted.

Any ideas what is the problem?

I thought the problem was because I wasn't using UNC paths, but after switching to UNC paths, it still gave me the same error. Has anyone successfully ran this STVi on SageTV Client?

[perfessor101]

Here's a sample text file with output from Videoredo's chapter Outputting Option ...

Using the format (HH:MM:SS.ff) the file and it's contents are
BladeTheSeries-DeathGoesOn-8944294-0.chapters
-----
00:09:29.13
00:20:50.15
00:26:36.01
00:32:04.07
00:37:30.25
00:43:35.12
-----

If this would be easiest for everyone using VideoRedo ...

Bobby

[evilpenguin]

Originally Posted by mayamaniac

EvilPenguin, I'm getting this error:

Any ideas what is the problem?

I thought the problem was because I wasn't using UNC paths, but after switching to UNC paths, it still gave me the same error. Has anyone successfully ran this STVi on SageTV Client?

Things to check
1) Is that the correct file, like charactor for charactor. There are places in the script where I strip charactors out of strings and even though I shouldn't be doing it to a file name, it's possible.
2) Are you running dirmon as a service as a user or as local user? If you're running it as local user then any process kicked off by dirmon will be unable to access the network, hense the UNC paths won't work. You can fix that by setting up the service to run as a user with network privledges such as yourself.
3) If #2 didn't make any sense another way to test it would be to open up a command prompt and run perl2dvd.exe by hand.

"C:\Program Files\SageTV\SageTV\perl2dvd.exe" "J:\Path\To\qdvdfile.qdvd" "C:\Program Files\SageTV\SageTV\perl2dvd.pref"

...or you could just wait a week until I have my dirmon-less operation working

[evilpenguin]

Originally Posted by perfessor101

Here's a sample text file with output from Videoredo's chapter Outputting Option ...

Using the format (HH:MM:SS.ff) the file and it's contents are
BladeTheSeries-DeathGoesOn-8944294-0.chapters
-----
00:09:29.13
00:20:50.15
00:26:36.01
00:32:04.07
00:37:30.25
00:43:35.12
-----

If this would be easiest for everyone using VideoRedo ...

Bobby

That will be prefect, just place the .chapters file right next to the output file and i'll read 'em and put them on the DVD.

[coolpup32]

Originally Posted by mayamaniac

EvilPenguin, I'm getting this error:

\\Server\TVRecordings\24-Day2Midnight100AM-5006300-0.mpg: I/O error occured. Usually that means that input file is truncated and/or corrupted.

Any ideas what is the problem?

I thought the problem was because I wasn't using UNC paths, but after switching to UNC paths, it still gave me the same error. Has anyone successfully ran this STVi on SageTV Client?

I too was having this problem, I was using mapped network drives and thought it was an UNC thing, so i tried that with no luck. But try this, I dont know if this is what i did to fix it or i did something else... but i removed the show ID off the end of the filename and tried it, I dont get the error and it starts authoring. But anyway try that and let us know! (btw. renaming the file will prolly make it go to "my videos" instead of "recordings", i guess since sage thinks its orphened or whatever)

[mayamaniac]

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

Things to check....
2) Are you running dirmon as a service as a user or as local user? If you're running it as local user then any process kicked off by dirmon will be unable to access the network, hense the UNC paths won't work. You can fix that by setting up the service to run as a user with network privledges such as yourself.

...or you could just wait a week until I have my dirmon-less operation working

I was using DirMon service mode with the LocalSystem account. I switched to my user login and password, but DirMon service would not run. So I tried the administrator account and that worked. I'm not sure why my user account didn't work since its also an admin account. But anyway, Dirmon started. So I went into SageTV, and picked a recording and set to Single File DVD, I looked at DirMon and noticed it fired of the job right away. I checked the Work Folder and noticed a test mpeg was created. I immediately knew it was a success!

It was a 3 hour long show, the original filesize was 7.41 gig at DVD Long Play. Here's the job stats:

AMD64 3000+
WinXP, 1GB DDR2

Transcode Stats:
Video Duration[0] = 179.993333333333
Actual Bitrate[0] = 3080.40890403348
Target Bitrate[0] = 3400
Actual File Size[0] = 4158398
Target File Size[0] = 4589843.85
Percent [0] = 90.599988494162
Total Trans Time[0] = 01:52:55

It also picked up my comskip data and made them into chapters. It did a good job of compressing 3 hours of content into one DVD. I do notice the quality loss, but it is still good enough for viewing.

Overall, I'm damn impressed at the work you've done Evilpeguin. Its amazing that you found all these freeware apps and put them all together in a simplified plugin to burn a show to a DVD. This is awesome.

[evilpenguin]

Originally Posted by mayamaniac

I was using DirMon service mode with the LocalSystem account. I switched to my user login and password, but DirMon service would not run. So I tried the administrator account and that worked. I'm not sure why my user account didn't work since its also an admin account. But anyway, Dirmon started. So I went into SageTV, and picked a recording and set to Single File DVD, I looked at DirMon and noticed it fired of the job right away. I checked the Work Folder and noticed a test mpeg was created. I immediately knew it was a success!

There's nothing I love more than success stories (well, maybe praise ). I'm glad you like it