(Old) MediaShrink - An HTPC focused encoder

[evilpenguin]

Originally Posted by Slugger

Nope, the task client hasn't changed in weeks... and that's what triggers the command and deals with the output received.

Are you running the client as a service or standalone? I just got myself completely updated with SJQ and i'm not seeing any issues.

Didn't see that option documented.

Doccccuuummeenttteeeed? Hmm, i'm not familiar with that word, but I can look it up and add some

[Slugger]

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

Are you running the client as a service or standalone? I just got myself completely updated with SJQ and i'm not seeing any issues.

Service

[Slugger]

Just tried the non-service client and the same result. Thought maybe it was because one of the bins you called couldn't read from UNC path, but that wasn't it either - passing a local recording for it to process results in the same error output.

Also, mediaShrink returns code 0 in this case, really should return non-zero. Returning zero makes SJQ think the command completed successfully.

Reverting back to mediaShrink 2.0dev fixed everything (except the procs run at higher priority).

[Slugger]

If you choose to kill an active mediaShrink task in SJQ, SJQ is not able to kill the mediaShrink process nor are its children killed off. Not sure how you're creating the various child processes, but however it's being done is not compatible with java.lang.Process.destroy(). The destroy() call is made and no exceptions are thrown by the JRE so as far as the JRE is concerned it did kill the process, but they all remain running in task manager afterwards. I did test this with other processes to ensure that SJQ can kill processes and it works as expected.

Not a major issue since I doubt one would want to kill a mediaShrink job too often, but if there were a way to support it, it certainly wouldn't be a bad thing.

[razrsharpe]

Originally Posted by Slugger

Not a major issue since I doubt one would want to kill a mediaShrink job too often

1 big reason for SJQ to kill mediashrink: stalled encodes.... see here: http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...&postcount=374

[evilpenguin]

Originally Posted by Slugger

Just tried the non-service client and the same result. Thought maybe it was because one of the bins you called couldn't read from UNC path, but that wasn't it either - passing a local recording for it to process results in the same error output.

Yeah, I switched how i'm starting the mediaEngine process in the latest version, although I don't understand why it not failing on my system

I'll play around with this a bit and see if we can a way to make it work and let SJQ control the priority.

Originally Posted by Slugger

Also, mediaShrink returns code 0 in this case, really should return non-zero. Returning zero makes SJQ think the command completed successfully.

Good call, I can fix that.

Originally Posted by Slugger

Not a major issue since I doubt one would want to kill a mediaShrink job too often, but if there were a way to support it, it certainly wouldn't be a bad thing.

Perl doesn't have the most robust process managing options, but I can play around with it a bit to see if I can't get it to play nicer.

[evilpenguin]

Something worth trying: calling mediaEngine directly instead of mediaShrink, try this CLI in SJQ...

 "D:/upnp2podcast/mediaScraper/mediaEngine.exe \"%c%\" /inPlace /mediaShrink /batch /saveLog /defaultProfile autoEncode /findFileRegEx \"avi|mpg|mkv|mp4|mpeg|VIDEO_TS|ts|ogm|divx|mpts|dvr-ms\""

That make the new version work as well as let SJQ set the priority on its own.

[Slugger]

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

Something worth trying: calling mediaEngine directly instead of mediaShrink, try this CLI in SJQ...

 "D:/upnp2podcast/mediaScraper/mediaEngine.exe \"%c%\" /inPlace /mediaShrink /batch /saveLog /defaultProfile autoEncode /findFileRegEx \"avi|mpg|mkv|mp4|mpeg|VIDEO_TS|ts|ogm|divx|mpts|dvr-ms\""

That make the new version work as well as let SJQ set the priority on its own.

Ok, this call got it working via SJQ again, but the processes ignored the SJQ priority settings and SJQ sets the priority of the process via the call to java.lang.Thread.setPriority(). The output in SJQ shows that the priority is being set properly from Java so it appears mediaEngine is doing something to override those settings.

[Slugger]

Originally Posted by razrsharpe

ahhh cool ... so the question i guess is if SJQ kills the mediashrink.exe task will the handbrake tasks get killed as well? When i kill mediashrink manually i have to also kill the handbrake task... (maybe i could kill them with a batch file... mmmm)

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

Slugger would have to correct me, but i'm pretty sure that he's not just killing the mediaShrink process, but the cmd environment its running in. That should handle killing all of the children processes.

Missed this entire conversation... I actually tested this yesterday, it doesn't work. SJQ makes the Java call to kill the Process env and the JRE acts as if it succeeded and SJQ proceeds like it did (marking the task as failed, etc.), but the processes continue to run. Using the kill procedure on other exes works as expected.

[ohpleaseno]

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

Something worth trying: calling mediaEngine directly instead of mediaShrink, try this CLI in SJQ...

 "D:/upnp2podcast/mediaScraper/mediaEngine.exe \"%c%\" /inPlace /mediaShrink /batch /saveLog /defaultProfile autoEncode /findFileRegEx \"avi|mpg|mkv|mp4|mpeg|VIDEO_TS|ts|ogm|divx|mpts|dvr-ms\""

That make the new version work as well as let SJQ set the priority on its own.

FYI, I tried this and the batch script from the SJQ thread that nplayer (I think it was him) suggested. With both, I still get the "no audio or video" issue.

My original claims over in the SJQ thread of everything working great were a tad premature.

Are there any other logs or debugging I can send your way that I haven't yet?

[nyplayer]

EP,

With the new SJQ _RELINK.... is there any chance that in the future you can add an option to set the destination of the encoded file besides side by side?

[ohpleaseno]

I'm going to paint my WHS green and call it "The Mystery Machine".

I've been running SJQ with it calling mediaengine directly and I've had 14 successful encodes in a row. The only issue is the one reported of it running at normal. It seems that my install is working fine for me now minus that one small bug.

Zoinks!

[Slugger]

Originally Posted by nyplayer

EP,

With the new SJQ _RELINK.... is there any chance that in the future you can add an option to set the destination of the encoded file besides side by side?

Wouldn't the /outputDirectory switch do this already? From page 17 in this thread:

### Output Options-----------------------------------------------------------

    /inPlace                Replace the original video when complete
    /outputName <name>      Name for output file.  Default is same as original
                            with new extention.
    /outputDirectory <path> Directory to place encoded video.  Default is same
                            path as original.

[ChaOConnor]

Originally Posted by ohpleaseno

I'm going to paint my WHS green and call it "The Mystery Machine".

I've been running SJQ with it calling mediaengine directly and I've had 14 successful encodes in a row. The only issue is the one reported of it running at normal. It seems that my install is working fine for me now minus that one small bug.

Zoinks!

LOL! So what is your SJQ setup exactly? I want to get it going on my WHS as well and would appreciate your setup to start mine from.

Thanks!

[ohpleaseno]

Originally Posted by ChaOConnor

LOL! So what is your SJQ setup exactly? I want to get it going on my WHS as well and would appreciate your setup to start mine from.

Thanks!

I'll post it when I get home. It's basically EP's ruleset for selecting what to encode and his client setup to call mediaengine directly.

I run SJQ in service mode with WHS also acting as the client. I'm actually considering repurposing a box out of unused parts to offload all of the video processing to a separate machine. Yes, a fully-functional computer who's only job is to run mediashrink. Who said that Sage was complex to set up?

After that it involves a lot of incense and laying of hands. Every so often I have to turn my WHS 36 degrees on it's horizontal axis to allow for declination with the moon.

[ChaOConnor]

Originally Posted by ohpleaseno

I'll post it when I get home. It's basically EP's ruleset for selecting what to encode and his client setup to call mediaengine directly.

I run SJQ in service mode with WHS also acting as the client. I'm actually considering repurposing a box out of unused parts to offload all of the video processing to a separate machine. Yes, a fully-functional computer who's only job is to run mediashrink. Who said that Sage was complex to set up?

After that it involves a lot of incense and laying of hands. Every so often I have to turn my WHS 36 degrees on it's horizontal axis to allow for declination with the moon.

LOL Thank you, I now realize my problem... I failed to account for the tidal shifts as related to their influence on encoding tasks. ;-)

Appreciate the help, look forward to seeing your setup. I too was wondering about setting up an additional client, but for now will be happy to just get it work w/ WHS.

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by Slugger

Wouldn't the /outputDirectory switch do this already? From page 17 in this thread:

### Output Options-----------------------------------------------------------

    /inPlace                Replace the original video when complete
    /outputName <name>      Name for output file.  Default is same as original
                            with new extention.
    /outputDirectory <path> Directory to place encoded video.  Default is same
                            path as original.

That was it thanks.

[evilpenguin]

I'm kicking around a much nicer set of CLI options that will allow for cleaner profiles. Let me know if anyone has any thoughts...

The biggest benefit is that I can prevent user supplied options from getting clobbered by the automatic ones (the reason /verticalScale wasn't working before).

Simple Usage: Drag and drop videos on MediaShrink.exe 
CLI Syntax  : mediaShrink.exe [options] <File|Folder> <File|Folder>

### Basic Options-----------------------------------------------------------

    /saveLog                Save log file when complete (default)
    /saveAll                Save all temp files when complete
    /batch                  Disable some features intended for running manually
                            that can get in the way of automated execution from
                            Dirmon2 or SJQ (default)

### Output Options-----------------------------------------------------------

    /inPlace                Replace the original video when complete
    /outputName <name>      Name for output file.  Default is same as original
                            with new extention.
    /outputDirectory <path> Directory to place encoded video.  Default is same
                            path as original.
                            
  /centralWorkFolder <path> By default all encoding work will be done in a 
                            directory next to the original video.  If you can
                            set this option to force mediaShrink to do all its 
                            work in a specified directory.  Useful if you have
                            recordings stored on a NAS.
                            
    /container <container>  A/V container to use
                              - mkv : Uses mkv container (default)
                              - mp4 : Uses mp4 container

### Video Options ------------------------------------------------------------

    /vcodec <encoder>      Set the video encoder
                    (Default) - x264   : Uses x264 encoder
                              - ffmpeg : Uses ffmpeg encoder, roughly divx

    /vbitrate <kbs>         Set video bitrate (Default 1500)             

    /vProfile <profile>     Set the video encoding parameters
                              - HQ      : High Quality, slow encode speed
                    (Default) - Normal  : Good Quality, resonable encode speed
                              - Apple   : Handbrake's Universal Apple video options
                              - iPhone  : Handbrake's iPhone video options
                              - iPod    : Handbrake's iPod classic video options 

    /onePass                Do a one-pass encode, faster
    /twoPass                Do a two-pass encode, slower/higher quality

    /xRes <###>             Scale video to ????x#### (Y Res is auto-calculated)
    /yRes <###>             Scale video to ####x???? (X Res is auto-calculated)

    /IVTC                   Uses Handbrakes variable frame rate encoding
    /noIVTC                 Blocks usage of IVTC by autoEncode
    
    /denoise                Uses Hanbrakes denoise filter
    /noDenoise              Blocks usage of denoise by autoEncode

    /decomb                 Uses Hanbrakes decomb filter (Selective Deinterlace)
    /noDecomb               Blocks usage of decomb by autoEncode

    /deinterlace            Uses Hanbrakes deinterlace filter
    /noDeinterlace          Blocks usage of denoise by autoEncode

    /noAutoCrop             Disable Automatic Cropping
    
    /noSubtitles            MediaShrink will automatically attempt to attach
                            all subtitle/CC tracks it finds since its a pretty
                            harmless operation.  Set this if you want to disable
                            
    /burnSubtitles          Burn subtitles straight right onto the video.

### Audio Options --------------------------------------------------------------

    /acodec <encoder>      Set the audio encoder
                              - faac   : AAC codec (Default Stereo/SDTV)
                              - lame   : MP3 codec
                              - vorbis : OGG codec
                              - ac3    : AC3 passthough (Default HDTV)
                              - dts    : DTS passthough

    /abitrate <kbs>         Set audio bitrate in kbs (Default 160)          
    


### DVD Options ----------------------------------------------------------------

    /forceTitle <#,#,...>   By default mediaShrink will automatically attempt to 
                            detect which titles to encode, however, every once
                            and a while it gets it wrong.  For those cases you 
                            can specify just the DVD title numbers you want to 
                            encode sepeated by commas.
                            
### Commercial Cutting Options -------------------------------------------------
    REQUIRES VIDEOREDO TO BE INSTALLED
    
    /cutComm                Attempt to cut the commercials.  If no edl or vprj
                            file exists it will attempt to make one using comskip
    
    /onlyWhenVprj           Only cut if a vprj file already exists (default) 
    
### Defaults -------------------------------------------------------------------

    HDTV (1080i or 720p):
      /container mkv 
      /vCodec    x264 
      /vBitrate  2500 
      /vProfile  HQ
      /xRes      720 
      /aCodec    ac3  
      /onePass 
    
    SDTV (480p) or SDTV in HDTV (Black Bars on the side:
      /container mkv 
      /vCodec    x264 
      /vBitrate  1500 
      /vProfile  Normal
      /xRes      540 
      /aCodec    faac 
      /aBitrate  160  
      /onePass

[ohpleaseno]

Typo

/noDeinterlace          Blocks usage of denoise by autoEncode

[ohpleaseno]

Bear with me on this one.

Say I have an .mkv encoded with dts audio. In my living room, I have Sage hooked up to my DTS capable receiver and it is no problem.

I just bought an LCD and another HD-200 for my bedroom. I obviously can't play the dts track on the TV, so I was wondering if mediashrink had the possibility down the road to be able to take the .mkv, look and see if the only audio is dts, take out the dts, encode to ac3, add the ac3 to the original mkv preserving both the original dts and adding the new ac3.

I know this isn't the intended use of mediashrink and goes beyond the brilliance in its simplicity, but it is a very powerful tool with the simple switches that you can put in to change profiles, I didn't know if this could be a possible encoding profile.