Problem with SageMC auto compression

[jelwood]

I'm trying to use the SageMC feature of Auto Compression, however, it isn't always working for me. It works for some shows, but then it doesn't work for others.

In SageMC Options I have Use Default Compression = Enabled and Auto Compression = Enabled. Then I went into the Series settings for a few shows I would like to automatically convert. I turned Auto Compress Series = Yes, Wait Until Watched = No, Wait Until Archived = No, Wait for Comskip File = No, Compression Profile = MPEG4-High Quality AVI, In-Place Compression = Yes.

Now when I look In Video Conversions - Auto Schedule, all the shows are listed. However, some of them convert and some don't. If I manually tell Sage to convert a show that didn't automatically convert, it converts just fine.

Any ideas why some shows don't get added to the conversion queue?

I have one theory, can anyone confirm, or disprove this theory? My current theory is I'm having this problem because I'm not always running the GUI. I have Sage setup to run as a service. I don't use the GUI on the main console, I play all shows through HD extenders. Because of this, the GUI isn't always running. I'm not sure how this feature of SageMC works. Is it linked into the GUI only? This could explain why it works for some shows (I happen to have an HD Extender on when it's time to perform a conversion so it works for that show). Or, is this piece of SageMC also running as part of the Service so I need to keep looking for my solution?

Any ideas would be appreciated.

[gplasky]

If you have the service running the auto compress should work. Are you doing any type of commercial skip? Maybe that is keeping the file open and hosing the compression. I'm not sure because I don't use the compresion feature.

You may want to consider this as an option:

Originally Posted by flashbacck

I assume you're talking about the autocompression that's built into sage? If you're not using it, I would recommend using the Sage Video Tools 3 STVi by evilpengiun. It's a bit more work to setup, but after using it for a few weeks, I think it's definitely worth it. IMHO, the main benefits of the SVT is that allows setting time of the day to run (which I don't think the default compression tool does), comes with some nice built in compression profiles and an autoencode profile which automatically determines the correct profile and it's easy to setup new profiles within sage.

regarding your questions:
1)A downside of compression is that, at the moment, it's not possible to do any commercial detection on non-mpeg2 videos so you'll have to setup the compression to run some time afterwards.

3) IMHO, the loss of quality in HD is easier to see just because the starting quality is so much better. But of course, you can just choose a higher bitrate compression to compensate.

Gerry

[jelwood]

gplasky, thank you for the reply. I'll give Video Tools a try.

I left the GUI up and running all night last night and not one show automatically converted, so that disproves my theory.

Does anyone know of a log or debug that I can turn on to help give me any information?

[HokiePerogi]

jelwood,

Did you ever get a resolution this your problem?

I am experiencing the same issue with my setup. Future recordings are being added to the Auto Scheduling list in SageTV, but they are not processed until I close and relaunch a SageTV client or SageTV Placeshifter. I too am running Sage as a service and have try leaving the client on my headless machine sleeping or fully open over night to see if it will work. But it does not.

[phelme]

Same here. I think this started failing with the 6.5.12 beta for me.

Any of you running SJQ concurrently? In case there is a connection there.

Originally Posted by HokiePerogi

jelwood,

Did you ever get a resolution this your problem?

I am experiencing the same issue with my setup. Future recordings are being added to the Auto Scheduling list in SageTV, but they are not processed until I close and relaunch a SageTV client or SageTV Placeshifter. I too am running Sage as a service and have try leaving the client on my headless machine sleeping or fully open over night to see if it will work. But it does not.

[HokiePerogi]

Originally Posted by phelme

Same here. I think this started failing with the 6.5.12 beta for me.

Any of you running SJQ concurrently? In case there is a connection there.

I did not have SJQ installed until this morning. I got frustrated with the auto compression not working, so I decided to have SJQ queue up the shows for the transcoder instead of SageMC. I still need to go into my Favorites and turn off auto compression now.

[jelwood]

Originally Posted by HokiePerogi

jelwood,

Did you ever get a resolution this your problem?

I am experiencing the same issue with my setup. Future recordings are being added to the Auto Scheduling list in SageTV, but they are not processed until I close and relaunch a SageTV client or SageTV Placeshifter. I too am running Sage as a service and have try leaving the client on my headless machine sleeping or fully open over night to see if it will work. But it does not.

No, I never solved this problem. I just switched to a different tool. Right now I'm using DVRMSToolBox to manage the queue. Then I'm using Handbrake to perform the conversions. For me, this was the best solution I could find.