STV Import: SageMC Video Tools v3.0

[Arioch5]

I got a chance to check the new version this weekend. So far, I've tried converting for DVD-Video an HD/SD/and Xvid file each file was set for a single video DVD. All three failed, I've included the error logs. I think it's the same error I was having before about a missing graphic. I've queued up another DVD process with a new menu selected just to check if there is an error with the theme I had chosen.

I've queued up a video conversion for each of the available compression methods too. I'll let you know how those turn out. Right now I'm just converting non-HD material, but I'll run an HD test once these have cleared out.

[WellThen]

Originally Posted by Arioch5

All three failed, I've included the error logs. I think it's the same error I was having before about a missing graphic.

Hey Arioch5,

I looked at the log for one of your shows. This is exactly the same error I'm getting! Whatever's wrong, we have it in common.

WellThen

[xj-boonie]

Ok, so I just tried to update to version 3.0j from 3.0i, pretty much copied everything over after closing down sage and the service. I restarted sage, imported SageMCVideoTools_v3_0.xml into SageMC_169, and then went to adjust the settings, and I had a double menu in the settings page for Video Tools, and when I looked at the options when I looked at send-to menu, there were double options too.

What did I do wrong?

[Arioch5]

Originally Posted by xj-boonie

Ok, so I just tried to update to version 3.0j from 3.0i, pretty much copied everything over after closing down sage and the service. I restarted sage, imported SageMCVideoTools_v3_0.xml into SageMC_169, and then went to adjust the settings, and I had a double menu in the settings page for Video Tools, and when I looked at the options when I looked at send-to menu, there were double options too.

What did I do wrong?

That's how I performed my upgrade too. I would suggest making sure you started with a clean SageMC_169 and then re-import the video tools. I've got no problems with the menus, just this DVD burning error that it seems a few of us have.

[Arioch5]

Originally Posted by WellThen

Hey Arioch5,

I looked at the log for one of your shows. This is exactly the same error I'm getting! Whatever's wrong, we have it in common.

WellThen

Good to hear. Maybe between our two logs we'll track down what's causing it. It's always nice to hear someone else has the same problem

[Arioch5]

Another update now that I've had time to let stuff run. I've done my video conversions on episodes of Modern Marvels for SD test this time since I forgot to turn off the mythbusters auto-encode

SDTV
Handbreak
- Transcode Stats:
+ Profile[0] = handbrake
+ Video Duration[0] = 59.9833333333333
+ Original File Size[0] = 2058605.9375
+ Encoded File Size[0] = 735396.10546875
+ Compression[0] = 35.7230131493166%
+ Total Trans Time[0] = 01:00:41

AutoEncode
- Transcode Stats:
+ Profile[0] = autoencode
+ Video Duration[0] = 59.9833333333333
+ Original File Size[0] = 2058537.9375
+ Encoded File Size[0] = 735615.478515625
+ Compression[0] = 35.734849933062%
+ Total Trans Time[0] = 02:23:07

Mencoder
- Transcode Stats:
+ Profile[0] = mencoder
+ Video Duration[0] = 59.9833333333333
+ Original File Size[0] = 2058645.9375
+ Encoded File Size[0] = 703397.421875
+ Compression[0] = 34.1679632662446%
+ Total Trans Time[0] = 03:03:16

Men w/ ComCut -
*edited waiting for updated data

HDTV
Auto
- Transcode Stats:
+ Profile[0] = autoencode
+ Video Duration[0] = 59.9833333333333
+ Original File Size[0] = 5909374.625
+ Encoded File Size[0] = 703040.439453125
+ Compression[0] = 11.8970360176833%
+ Total Trans Time[0] = 04:30:41

Mencoder
*edited waiting for updated data

Men w/ ComCut
- Transcode Stats:
+ Profile[0] = mencodercutcomm
+ Video Duration[0] = 59.9666666666667
+ Original File Size[0] = 5955844.58984375
+ Encoded File Size[0] = 1442400
+ Compression[0] = 24.2182272224067%
+ Total Trans Time[0] = 00:09:46


My overall experience is:
SD
Compression: Auto Encode crops the image a bit short, Handbreak changes the aspect ratio (makes it narrower), and mencoder though the slowest works perfectly.
DVD Video: Not currently working
HD
Compression: AutoEncode / Mencode was a little to aggressive. 6GB got compressed to 720MB, but to much quality loss IMO. This works really well if size is that important, but I think I would lean toward better quality. This is probably just opinion an I'll play with custom profiles to fit my taste. On a 65" screen from about 8' away gradients show significant blocking.
The commercial cutting on HD files introduced an audio sync issue.
DVD Video: still hoping

The attached log files are:
Moonlight - The Mortal Cure - This is the HD recording with commercial cutting that introduced audio lag.

If anyone wants to see a log file for anything I've discussed here let me know. I've got a lot of data posted now and I didn't want to post anything else unless someone wanted is specifically. Hopefully, this helps people get an understanding of the different profiles, and can be used to find some of the small bugs that still exist.

[electronics4lif]

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

• Known Issue – I forgot about commercial cutting in video DVD's

Nope, I forgot to add that. Once I get some reports back that all the other DVD stuff is working working, i'll pop that in.

Just raising my hand to say I would enjoy this feature. Thank you for all of your hard work.

[TechBill]

Can you use mplayer mencoder with this tool to compress/trancode videos?

I have not install the tool yet but wanted to ask to see if I can use mencoder with my own custom command line string added to this tool command string.

I need the -subcc added to it so it will burn the closed caption into video itself and mencoder support this feature. It will also support -sub as well too as long you provide a subtitle file in the same dir.


Bill

[evilpenguin]

Originally Posted by Arioch5

My overall experience is:
SD
Compression: All worked well, AutoEncode gave fastest results.
DVD Video: Changing menu's didn't help. Also, a file set to Video DVD even though it errored out was compressed replacing the original!
HD
Compression: AutoEncode was a little to aggressive. 6GB got compressed to 720MB, but some artifacts were present. This works really well if size is that important, but I think I would lean toward better quality. This is probably just opinion an I'll play with custom profiles to fit my taste.
The commercial cutting on HD files introduced an audio synce issue. The audio lagged the video after conversion slightly.
DVD Video: Same as SD.

That's some good data, a few thoughts/questions in no particular order...

1) I think we can all agree DVD burning is f'ed up at this point, lets move on
2) 333 mb per half hour is just what I found to be an nice compromise between size / speed / quality so that's the default for the autoEncode profile. However, you can customize the bitrate for that in the advanced options so you can make a custom autoEncode with a higher bitrate (i.e. AutoEncode for HDTV w/ custom bitrate = 2000 kb/s)
3) mencoderCommCut just takes the video and stream copies it minus the commercials so there's no actual conversion going on, hense why its so fast.
4) On the same note as #3, cutting commercials from a show before its compressed is a bit of a shot in the dark. Sometimes it will work perfectly, sometimes it will introduce audio sync issues/video artifacts, and sometimes it just won't do anything. And the part that makes it hard for me is there's no way for me to detect any of those issues before/during/after to try and compensate. I've found that the best thing is compress the videos first, and then run them through the commercial cutting. Some people have complained that it causes the cut points to be slightly off (~1 sec), but its never bothered me.
5) For the HDTV w/ audio sync, did you compress and cut commercials at the same time or just use mencoderCommCutt on the original?
6) Do you still have some of your compression logfiles you can post, the original file size looks messed up and it makes me wonder if you accidentally were working with videos that were already compressed. I know i've made that mistake a few times
7) For the video DVD, can you expand on what you mean when you say

Also, a file set to Video DVD even though it errored out was compressed replacing the original!

because that sounds pretty bad!

[evilpenguin]

Originally Posted by TechBill

I need the -subcc added to it so it will burn the closed caption into video itself and mencoder support this feature. It will also support -sub as well too as long you provide a subtitle file in the same dir.

Hey, i'd be happy to impliment this for you, can you PM me with some more details/links on the process?

Originally Posted by WellThen

OK, I tried simplifying my UNC recording paths to not contain spaces, and tried again. I think I'm getting the same error, but this time, I noticed the zip file with the logs. I'll attach it here. If you could look at the logs, it would be great.

Thanks!

The issue definetly seems to be UNC path or network permissions related. I'll try and go through everyone's log files and set up some tests to narrow it down.

Originally Posted by electronics4lif

Just raising my hand to say I would enjoy this feature. Thank you for all of your hard work.

Once I fix the bigger issues with DVD burning, i'll take a look at this.

[TechBill]

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

Hey, i'd be happy to impliment this for you, can you PM me with some more details/links on the process?

Great. I'll PM you some more on about it tonight when I get off work.

Thanks!
Bill

[toricred]

What's the status on the Wait for EDL feature? For now can we set it in the properties file?

[TechBill]

I got an issue with Advanced Compression Options.

In custom profile advanced option or "Send to Compress" then enable then Advanced Option before selecting encoder.

The box come up with Title Advanced Compression Options on the top and on the bottom is 2 buttons "Encode" and "Cancel" but rest in the box is blank.

I re-imported the Video Tool several time with same result.

I am going to try to downgrade SageMC to see if that is the issue next but wanted to post it here to see if anyone know a fix for this issue?

Thank you
Bill

[Arioch5]

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

That's some good data, a few thoughts/questions in no particular order...

1) I think we can all agree DVD burning is f'ed up at this point, lets move on
2) 333 mb per half hour is just what I found to be an nice compromise between size / speed / quality so that's the default for the autoEncode profile. However, you can customize the bitrate for that in the advanced options so you can make a custom autoEncode with a higher bitrate (i.e. AutoEncode for HDTV w/ custom bitrate = 2000 kb/s)
3) mencoderCommCut just takes the video and stream copies it minus the commercials so there's no actual conversion going on, hense why its so fast.
4) On the same note as #3, cutting commercials from a show before its compressed is a bit of a shot in the dark. Sometimes it will work perfectly, sometimes it will introduce audio sync issues/video artifacts, and sometimes it just won't do anything. And the part that makes it hard for me is there's no way for me to detect any of those issues before/during/after to try and compensate. I've found that the best thing is compress the videos first, and then run them through the commercial cutting. Some people have complained that it causes the cut points to be slightly off (~1 sec), but its never bothered me.
5) For the HDTV w/ audio sync, did you compress and cut commercials at the same time or just use mencoderCommCutt on the original?
6) Do you still have some of your compression logfiles you can post, the original file size looks messed up and it makes me wonder if you accidentally were working with videos that were already compressed. I know i've made that mistake a few times
7) For the video DVD, can you expand on what you mean when you say because that sounds pretty bad!

1) Yea it's just such a cool feature i can't help but try hit that DVD button every chance I get

2) I tried setting a custom bit rate the other night but when I pull up the advanced menu, something seems wrong. It says select custom bit rate but there isn't a field to enter anything. Have you seen this before? I could try re-importing but I doubt that's it because I use to see all the advanced options. (Running lattest SageMC is this a menu error introduced recently?)

5) I just hit the MenCutCom profile.

6-7)

OK I'm fairly certain all of the SD content was pre-compressed. That explains the odd files sizes, I must have forgotten to turn off auto-compress. I'll go back and edit that post to remove the 'wrong' data. I'll instead check this time to see how the SD looks w/o double compressing it

[TechBill]

This is what I see when I open Advanced Compression Options in the photo attached to this post.

Bill

[Arioch5]

Originally Posted by TechBill

This is what I see when I open Advanced Compression Options in the photo attached to this post.

Bill

Yup that's what I just posted, but that picture is much easier to understand.

[evilpenguin]

Originally Posted by TechBill

This is what I see when I open Advanced Compression Options in the photo attached to this post.

Bill

Hmm... looks like something's missing, i'll take a look at it

[saltlyck2]

I'm encoding for my Blackberry 8830. Anyone have some settings that will work for that? Just asking before I spend lots of encoding time trying to find the right mix. Low or med quality is what i'm looking for. I've encoded with sageMC's default encoder to MP4 then converted that with the Roxio software that came with the BB. It's still mp4 but the original Mp4 encoding from sage won't work and I'm not sure why.

Any ideas or direction would be greatly appreciated.

[evilpenguin]

Originally Posted by saltlyck2

I'm encoding for my Blackberry 8830. Anyone have some settings that will work for that? Just asking before I spend lots of encoding time trying to find the right mix. Low or med quality is what i'm looking for. I've encoded with sageMC's default encoder to MP4 then converted that with the Roxio software that came with the BB. It's still mp4 but the original Mp4 encoding from sage won't work and I'm not sure why.

Any ideas or direction would be greatly appreciated.

http://www.blackberry.com/btsc/dynam...C&kcId=KB05419

So basically you'll want
Mencoder w/Advanced Options:
+ Avi
+ Mp3
+ Xvid
+ AutoCrop
+ Reverse Telecine
+ Vertical Scale = 180
+ Two-Pass
+ Output Mode = Folder
+ Specify Output Folder

[toricred]

What's the status on the Wait for EDL feature? For now can we set it in the properties file?