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

[coolpup32]

well i'm still getting the same problem like mayamaniac, I have a sage server (standalone) and a client i'm trying to do all the burning and transcoding from. the client is mapping D:\ for its recordings, "\\sage\recordings". I can run the command you listed above and it works, I've set dirmon for admin / pw, both admin pw's are the same across network.. Like i've noted above i can rename the file, take the show id off then end and it works perfectly(or it did 1 time) ??? i'm confused.

I'm going to set my server to run all my dirmon stuff, instead of the way i'm trying it now, I think that should fix my problem.

[mayamaniac]

it must be a DirMon problem, when you switch to admin account for the services, make sure you stop and restart the services in the Services window (Start > Run > Services.msc).

[coolpup32]

yea, i've done all that. I've got to upgrade the version of dirmon on my server. its time to do it anyway. I'm going to start that now.

[evilpenguin]

Originally Posted by coolpup32

yea, i've done all that. I've got to upgrade the version of dirmon on my server. its time to do it anyway. I'm going to start that now.

Once you upgrade, you can also try running dirmon2 Hidden which runs as your user which gets around all of the permissions junk.

[coolpup32]

ok, i've made alot of progress. I wasted alot of time on Dirmon, i was used to the really old version. As soon as i loaded dirmon2 on my sage server and configured the service i couldnt get it to start. so i went into services and tried manually, it kept giving logon error. so i loaded up gpedit.msc and check to make sure admin had "logon as service" rights and it did not, so that could have been the problem the whole time.. i'm sure its in the dirmon forums but oh well. anyway...

I'm a lil confused with the perl2dvd.pref file. I Do NOT have to configure it on the transcoding machine do I? Just the scheduling (client) Machine? I think i'm misunderstanding your instructions. I think i'm starting to understand what the scripts are doing with shortcuts but I want to double check first.
BTW evilpenguin, you are the best!

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by coolpup32

ok, i've made alot of progress. I wasted alot of time on Dirmon, i was used to the really old version. As soon as i loaded dirmon2 on my sage server and configured the service i couldnt get it to start. so i went into services and tried manually, it kept giving logon error. so i loaded up gpedit.msc and check to make sure admin had "logon as service" rights and it did not, so that could have been the problem the whole time.. i'm sure its in the dirmon forums but oh well. anyway...

Make sure the user has a password. Won't work without one.

Gerry

[evilpenguin]

Originally Posted by coolpup32

I'm a lil confused with the perl2dvd.pref file. I Do NOT have to configure it on the transcoding machine do I? Just the scheduling (client) Machine?

Nope, i'm working on updataing the install page right now with better descriptions of everything, but in the meantime here's what needs what...

Transcoding Machine - Needs perl2dvd.exe and menuGen.exe which use perl2dvd.pref and perl2dvd.advanced.pref
Sceduling Machine - Needs add2dvdq.exe which uses perl2dvd.pref and a few lines in perl2dvd.advanced.pref
Burning Machine - Just needs image burn

[iwanthtpc]

DISCLAIMER: This may not be the absolutely best place to post this, but since I was in the midst of getting this plugin working when the following happened, I thought I would post here. Hopefully the colective brain power here can help me.


*I'm sorry If there is a lack of details but I'm in the process of packing for a trip.*

(I'm also sorry this is going to be long.)

So I installed this plugin. I seemed to have everything working correctly. I'm not going to go into details, but I could see that DirMon was kicking itself off and It would get as far as creating the directory that is the name of the show I want to burn to the DVD. At this point my computer rebooted itself. I thought I must have something set up wrong so I checked my settings. I tried the same file again. Same result. So I thought maybe the show was bad -- so I tried a different show. Same result. I noticed that I was getting a blue screen, so after the computer restarted I turned off the Automatic reboot so I could see what was blowing up. 0x00000050 (maybe not the right number of zero's) PAGE FAULT IN NON-PAGED AREA. Then blah blah blah something about NTFS.SYS.

So then I tried to reboot -- and WAM -- now everytime Windows is starting I get this blue screen error. AHHH! So I looked it up this error on Microsoft KB (at least it's close) 315335 and so I swapped out my memory, then tried disabling the L2 cache (which was suggested on some other website I found), but to no avail. I thought there must be some kind of partition problem, so I stuck it in my Dell 9150 (as a secondary drive mind you) and WAM -- that computer blows out of Windows startup on the same thing. Fortunately when I took it back out, the Dell was ok. (Otherwise I'd really be up a creek.) So i put it back in the HTPC and tried Windows Setup. When I get to the screen about Install Now, run Automated System Recovery etc... , when I try to run either one - WAM -- the same error. I tried running BartPE -- WAM -- the same error. I did run Ultimate Boot CD but the drive checked out ok, and I checked the partitions with some utility and they checked out ok. So then I got desperate and wiped out the Windows partition thinking that then I would be able to reinstall Windows. After deleting it, I started Windows setup, but unfortunately -- WAM -- the same error. (In case you are wondering There were 4 partitions on this drive C: contained windows, D: was the swap drive, E: contains all my programs -Sage, Orb, Virus scan, and G: has all the shows I've recorded -- which is ~ 200 GB worth.)

So does anyone have any suggestions? The really unfortunate part is that I'm going to be out of town all week, so my wife isn't going to be able to watch her favorite show - Project Runway. Sometimes I hate computers. I

Thanks for all the help in advance!

[thomaszoo]

I think I must be missing something obvious. I am stuck on step 3 of the instuctions! I cannot find "easySingleComputerSetup.exe" which will read mysage.properties file and populate perl2dvd.pref with resonable default values. I've looked all through the downloaded files several times. Thanks.

[evilpenguin]

Opps, may bad!! I started updating the install page on Friday, didn't get a chance to finish, forgot about it, and went camping

I'll have this all sorted out by tommorow morning as well finally getting out a new version.

As for iwanthtpc, it sound like your harddrive is knocking on heaven's door Sorry man, but there really isn't anything you can do when it gets that bad.

[mayamaniac]

Iwanthtpc, I say bit the bullet and not rush this problem, fix it when you have more time. If you have time, plug the drive back into the Dell and backup everything in E: and G: to the Dell (assuming you have space), your wife can watch on the Dell at least.

My guess is the NTFS partition table is messed up or some bad sectors happening and you probably need to wipe everything clean and repartition it. And I hope its not a maxtor.

[ekiwi]

whilest my dvds are burning fine they seem to end up alot smaller than i was hoping

attached is the log file of an example

original mpeg is about 6.5gb
final image is 2.6gb

some things i may do different than others

i am in a pal country
i record with above average bitrate the log reports 7040
but this is less than the max entry in advanced prefs which lists 7800

the thing i find interesting in the log is

Transcode Stats:
Video Duration[0] = 128.171666666667
Actual Bitrate[0] = 2743.99282212658
Target Bitrate[0] = 4774
Actual File Size[0] = 2637766
Target File Size[0] = 4589843.85
Percent [0] = 57.4696239393852
Total Trans Time[0] = 01:14:38


the actual versus the target ended up 40% off

any ideas this is not an isolated incident of the 6 dvds today the only one that is close to 4.7 is one that wasnt shrunk

[evilpenguin]

7/16/06 v1.4
* Updated all STVi's to keep the DVD burning options in their own pop-up menu
* Fixed a bug with Other Programs STVi where it would minimize to the task bar every time.
* Added support for preprocessing videos so people who want to work on cutting commercials can. Consider this experimental
*Added the ability to run without dirmon by kicking off dvd creation process from "Other Programs" menu.
*Added easyDVDSingleComputerSetup.exe which will populate your perl2dvd.pref file with good default values as well as add the other programs folder to your sage.properties file
* Fixed a bug where the script would try reading commercials out of an empty comskip file

Pretty much the point of this version is to make things easier for people to use/install so let me know if you like it!

I also updated the install page to include TONS of pictures. Hopefully it will help make things simpler. I'll be continually updating that this week, as well as probably starting a page on the sage-communities wiki so feel free to give me some constructive criticism

[evilpenguin]

Originally Posted by ekiwi

any ideas this is not an isolated incident of the 6 dvds today the only one that is close to 4.7 is one that wasnt shrunk

I checked out your log file and it looks like i'm telling ffmpeg the right bitrate, its just not listening to me .

Open up your perl2dvd.advanced.pref file and find the line...

MPEG bitrate correction coefs=550

This is the number I subtract from my calculated bitrate to handle the semi-constant bitrate difference in NTSC, but clearly its not working for PAL. Try lowering this number to see if you can fine tune the output to be about ~90-95% the correct size. I'd recommend starting with -500 and working down from there.

[gplasky]

I saw this line in your latest (1.4RC1)perl2dvd.advanced.pref. Is this a misspell or does it need to be like this?
Use Old Meathod to check if SDTV shows can be transcoded (0 means false, 1 means true) =0

Should it be Method?

Gerry

[evilpenguin]

Originally Posted by gplasky

I saw this line in your latest (1.4RC1)perl2dvd.advanced.pref. Is this a misspell or does it need to be like this?
Use Old Meathod to check if SDTV shows can be transcoded (0 means false, 1 means true) =0

Should it be Method?

Gerry

Nope, that is definitely not necessary. Feel free to change it

[thomaszoo]

I downloaded and installed everything this evening and did a sucessful burn!

Evilpenguin, you are the man! Thanks.

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

Opps, may bad!! I started updating the install page on Friday, didn't get a chance to finish, forgot about it, and went camping

I'll have this all sorted out by tommorow morning as well finally getting out a new version.

As for iwanthtpc, it sound like your harddrive is knocking on heaven's door Sorry man, but there really isn't anything you can do when it gets that bad.

[evilpenguin]

Originally Posted by thomaszoo

I downloaded and installed everything this evening and did a sucessful burn!

Evilpenguin, you are the man! Thanks.

Glad to hear it Did the updated install page help, or just make things more confusing?

[thomaszoo]

This install page absolutely helped me. I did get a little confused in a couple of places (nothing new for me), but everything ultimately made sense. Great job on both the app and the instructions.

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

Glad to hear it Did the updated install page help, or just make things more confusing?

[evilpenguin]

BruenerXII sent me another great update to the default STV Other Programs Import so I added it to the v1.4 download. If you want the new version you can redownload perl2dvd or you can just grab the standalone version from this thread.