STV Import: SageMC Video Tools v2.0.1a (2/02/07)

[Halstead]

Me again.

First, let me say that over the weekend, I burned 2 multi-show DVDs and compressed a lot of HD and SD- thanks so much for this awesome plug-in, Evil.

Now, on to the the inevitable issue-

I'm trying to set per-series settings, and it won't let me choose anything other than the default (2-pass Xvid). When I click the + and - keys, nothing happens.

This only seems to affect series settings- I can access all of the profiles fine when i reach them though Send To/Compressed Video.

When I switch back to default Sage compression, I can switch between profiles just fine.

2 questions:
1) has anyone else seen this and
2) is there a way to set the series compression profile manually from within an ini or properties file?

Please let me know what other information I can provide.

Thanks,

[evilpenguin]

Originally Posted by Halstead

Me again.

First, let me say that over the weekend, I burned 2 multi-show DVDs and compressed a lot of HD and SD- thanks so much for this awesome plug-in, Evil.

Now, on to the the inevitable issue-

I'm trying to set per-series settings, and it won't let me choose anything other than the default (2-pass Xvid). When I click the + and - keys, nothing happens.

This only seems to affect series settings- I can access all of the profiles fine when i reach them though Send To/Compressed Video.

When I switch back to default Sage compression, I can switch between profiles just fine.

2 questions:
1) has anyone else seen this and
2) is there a way to set the series compression profile manually from within an ini or properties file?

Please let me know what other information I can provide.

Thanks,

Can you look in your SageTV.properties and SageClient.properties and see if either of them has an entry that lists all of the profiles from the perl2dvd.mencoder.profiles file (2-Pass Xvid, 2-Pass x264, 2-Pass Divx, etc). It should be evilpenguin/compress/profile_list or something like that.

That's where it populates that list from so if it's missing, that's probably the reason you can't see 'em.

[Halstead]

So, I'm attaching the properties file of my SageTv server and the client that does the transcoding. when I look at the transcoder/formats/ section, sure enough, it's the standard SageTV options. I've tried copying the files and running your installer again (on both machines), to no avail.

[evilpenguin]

Originally Posted by Halstead

So, I'm attaching the properties file of my SageTv server and the client that does the transcoding. when I look at the transcoder/formats/ section, sure enough, it's the standard SageTV options. I've tried copying the files and running your installer again (on both machines), to no avail.

Hmmm, they both have the correct profile list but its still not working, weird. Let me think about that one for a while.

[Halstead]

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

Hmmm, they both have the correct profile list but its still not working, weird. Let me think about that one for a while.

Thanks. I haven't tried transcoding from the other two clients, but let me know if you want their properties files as well.

Also (and I doubt it matters since the setup asks me to find the SageTV directory) my server install is in an old school /freytechnologies folder.

The profiles show up just fine when I go to manually compress the files, btw.

[lobosrul]

Evil,

I figured out why HDTV compression doesnt work with this plugin.

Basicaly, there are always problems encoding from digital TV (whether HD or SD). The only way I've ever really had success is running the mpg's thru VideoRedo before encoding.

After your tool runs the file thru ffmpeg the output is screwed up. So I thought, well I'll just write my own STVi plugin, and skip ffmpeg and go straight to mencoder. Well that doesnt work either, the output avi's seem to be ok, but for some reason edl cuts are ignored. If i run a quickstream fix via VideoRedo then voila mencoder works flawlessly.

The good news is VideoRedo can be run via a script called from a batch file.

The bad news is its not a free program.

[evilpenguin]

Originally Posted by lobosrul

Evil,

I figured out why HDTV compression doesnt work with this plugin.

Basicaly, there are always problems encoding from digital TV (whether HD or SD). The only way I've ever really had success is running the mpg's thru VideoRedo before encoding.

After your tool runs the file thru ffmpeg the output is screwed up. So I thought, well I'll just write my own STVi plugin, and skip ffmpeg and go straight to mencoder. Well that doesnt work either, the output avi's seem to be ok, but for some reason edl cuts are ignored. If i run a quickstream fix via VideoRedo then voila mencoder works flawlessly.

The good news is VideoRedo can be run via a script called from a batch file.

The bad news is its not a free program.

Yeah, you're right on the money. There's got to be some combination of ffmpeg and mencoder that will take care of this, but I just need to do a lot of trial and error to figure it out.

[Halstead]

FWIW, I've had no trouble recompressing HDTV (from my HDTV Wonder) using v2.0d of this STVi and this version of MEncoder for Athalon 64s:
http://ffdshow.faireal.net/mirror/mp...3.Athlon-64.7z

I've been producing both 1 and 2-pass Xvids.

[lobosrul]

Originally Posted by Halstead

FWIW, I've had no trouble recompressing HDTV (from my HDTV Wonder) using v2.0d of this STVi and this version of MEncoder for Athalon 64s:
http://ffdshow.faireal.net/mirror/mp...3.Athlon-64.7z

I've been producing both 1 and 2-pass Xvids.

Have you been using mencoder with edl cutlists?? I had success with mencoder, except it ignored the edl list.

I have an HDTV wonder, and i tried a couple of the optimized mencoder builds.

[Halstead]

Originally Posted by lobosrul

Have you been using mencoder with edl cutlists?? I had success with mencoder, except it ignored the edl list.

I have an HDTV wonder, and i tried a couple of the optimized mencoder builds.

I apologize- I thought my prefs were set to use .edls for everything, but they're actually set to DVD only (and I haven't created one of those from an HD file yet).

[technazz]

Ive installed this plug in and its not working the way it suppossed to *I Think*

When I send a single show to be burned it creates create a .qdvd file in my qdvd folder and a shortcut and a jpg in your sageOthers folder.

The short cut is invalid when I double click on it in the sageOther folder.The thumbnail does not show up in Other Programs but it is in the directory. I do get a folder with the Filename to be processed in the Other Programs menu.

Has anybody seen this?

Ive dragged a mpg to the Batch file and it created an Image file fine.


Technazz

[evilpenguin]

Originally Posted by technazz

Ive installed this plug in and its not working the way it suppossed to *I Think*

When I send a single show to be burned it creates create a .qdvd file in my qdvd folder and a shortcut and a jpg in your sageOthers folder.

The short cut is invalid when I double click on it in the sageOther folder.The thumbnail does not show up in Other Programs but it is in the directory. I do get a folder with the Filename to be processed in the Other Programs menu.

Has anybody seen this?

Ive dragged a mpg to the Batch file and it created an Image file fine.


Technazz

It sounds like you don't have dirmon2 setup correctly, go into the dirmon2 GUI and make sure it's started in the last tab.

[technazz]

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

It sounds like you don't have dirmon2 setup correctly, go into the dirmon2 GUI and make sure it's started in the last tab.

Yes it is. Its not processing anything but its started. The config of DIRMON looks like your example.

The shortcuts the STVI creates are you suppossed to execute them? They are in the sageOther they are not valid

Technazz

[evilpenguin]

Originally Posted by technazz

Yes it is. Its not processing anything but its started. The config of DIRMON looks like your example.

The shortcuts the STVI creates are you supposed to execute them? They are in the sageOther they are not valid

Technazz

No, dirmon is supposed to execute them, the Other Program icons are just status indicators.

Check your qdvdFolder to see if there are even any qdvd files in there for dirmon to process.

[technazz]

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

No, dirmon is supposed to execute them, the Other Program icons are just status indicators.

Check your qdvdFolder to see if there are even any qdvd files in there for dirmon to process.

Ok conversions seem to work now after a reboot. With the IMAGE file that was created there was NO sound when I played it back in WMP. (I used daemon tools to mount the *.IMG file).

Also my status Icons arent showing up in the Other Programs. The shortcut and icon are there with the same name. What could it be?

Thanks

Technazz

[belleboyd]

I installed the video tools yesterday .. and after some babying of Dirmon2 ... I finally got it go. It's a great tool ... thanks EvilPeguin!!

There's one small issue that I don't understand. I compressed the 3 showings of "The Lost Room" with 1 pass DIVX and burned to DVD. I did all 3 at once( as a multiple). It worked but I don't have any video stream. Just the audio. The burned DVD doesn't play them either and the MPGs are gone. I have the divx codec on my machine .. other compressed files play fine. Also -- am I meant to get a "dvd" out of this or just the compressed files on a "data" dvd?

I attached the job log.. is this what you need to see? I hesitate to do any other series shows as I would hate to lose them.

Thanks!

[evilpenguin]

This STVi does 3 things…

1) Create Video DVD’s
2) Compress Videos
3) Compress Videos to Data DVD’s

If you pick one, it will take the shows and turn them into a DVD you can play on any standalone DVD player without affecting any or your original recordings.

If you pick 2 or 3, by default, the script will replace the originals with the compressed versions and if you pick 3 the script will also make a data DVD that contains the compressed videos and all their metadata.

As for the videos playing only audio… well that’s not cool at all. First of all, you get a gold star for posting a problem AND a logfile, secondly according to the logfile the final file size is about 700mb which says to me that the video is definitely in the there somewhere, its just not playing in Sage. Do me a favor and try playing the video back in VLC and check out the stream info to see what it says about the video and audio tracks.

[belleboyd]

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

This STVi does 3 things…

(snippage.....)

As for the videos playing only audio… well that’s not cool at all. First of all, you get a gold star for posting a problem AND a logfile, secondly according to the logfile the final file size is about 700mb which says to me that the video is definitely in the there somewhere, its just not playing in Sage. Do me a favor and try playing the video back in VLC and check out the stream info to see what it says about the video and audio tracks.

Thanks for the clarification on what the tool does. I figured it was that. I barely know what's going on with this software so I just wanted to be sure.

As to the stream problems... uh ... what *is* VLC? And where do I get it? Just FYI: I tried playing the files thru Nero Showtime and only got the audio there too.

I know next to nothing about video streams ... but I guess I'm about to get a lesson.

Thanks!


EDIT: I found VLC (Video LAN... right?) Installing .. I'll post again later.

[evilpenguin]

Originally Posted by belleboyd

Thanks for the clarification on what the tool does. I figured it was that. I barely know what's going on with this software so I just wanted to be sure.

As to the stream problems... uh ... what *is* VLC? And where do I get it? Just FYI: I tried playing the files thru Nero Showtime and only got the audio there too.

I know next to nothing about video streams ... but I guess I'm about to get a lesson.

Thanks!


EDIT: I found VLC (Video LAN... right?) Installing .. I'll post again later.

Do me a favor, try installing xvid and see if that helps.

Edit: Also, I really think that for speed vs. quality 2-pass xvid is really the way to go. Its what I use for all of my shows.

[belleboyd]

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

Do me a favor, try installing xvid and see if that helps.

Edit: Also, I really think that for speed vs. quality 2-pass xvid is really the way to go. Its what I use for all of my shows.

You are probably right. I was just trying out all the bells & whistles....If there's a button I gotta see what it does ... This is not a big deal. I will record this show again on Sunday from SciFi. If this is a bug I thought you should know about it.

I already have Xvid and DivX installed. VLC will play the video ... and says that it is using FMP4 as the codec. I attached a screenshot. Should I find this FMP4 codec for possible future use?

Also note that in VLC the sound gradually slides out of sync with the video. By 10 minutes in the lag is about .5 second. I think the issue has more to do with doing the compression and burn across my network. I may change some paths around and see if that helps.

Thanks for an GREAT plugin. I may not need to hit the computer fair tomorrow for cheap HD storage... I'll just buy something else.
(The husband is gonna kill me.)