(Old) MediaShrink - An HTPC focused encoder

[sscumming]

EP,

Thanks for the quick reply. I have saved several of the logs and have attached one with the concern noted in my previous post. The problems is that the mediashrink creates a .mkv file and the audio is missing on non major corporation mass produced DVD's.

Thanks for your help in advance.

Steve

[Fuzzy]

EP,

Been a long time since I've messed with this, but am starting to try to use it again (kids are getting a pretty impressive collection of shows that I want to shrink down, especially now that disney and such are in HD). A problem I'm running into right now is multiple audio streams. It seems that the auto profile selects one of the audio streams to use, but it seems to be choosing the wrong one. Example:

  + Getting Video Info: (Caillou-AllKindsofWeather-3695303-0.mpg)(1020257.25585938)
    - Input Line:          Input #0, mpeg, from 'Caillou-AllKindsofWeather-3695303-0.mpg':
      + videoContainer = mpeg
    - Duration Line:       Duration: 00:29:56.49, start: 0.172200, bitrate: 4652 kb/s
      + totalMin = 1796
    - Audio Info Line:     Stream #0.0[0x80], 1/90000: Audio: ac3, 48000 Hz, stereo, s16, 192 kb/s
      + audioCodec     = ac3
      + audioSampleRate = 48000
      + audioBitRate    = 192
      + audioChannels  = 2
    - Audio Info Line:     Stream #0.1[0x81], 1/90000: Audio: ac3, 48000 Hz, stereo, s16, 192 kb/s
      + audioCodec     = ac3
      + audioSampleRate = 48000
      + audioBitRate    = 192
      + audioChannels  = 2
    - Video Info Line:     Stream #0.2[0x1e0], 1/90000: Video: mpeg2video, yuv420p, 1280x720, 1001/120000, AR: 16:9, progressive, 38810 kb/s, 59.94 fps
      + ffmpeg Reported Aspect Ratio (ffmpegAR)   = 16:9
        - Estimated DVD aspect ratio {dvdAR)      = 16:9
      + videoResolution   = 1280x720
      + videoBitrate      = 38810
      + videoPID     = 1e0
      + frameRate   = 59.94
      + videoCodec      = mpeg2video
      + ffmpeg reports progressive

Two streams are present, though there is no metadata for them (both stereo AC3, language und). Default behavior for just about any player would be to choose the lowest numbered stream (0x80). For some reason, AutoEncode results in an MKV file with a single AAC, and it is the second stream (0x81) (in this case, audio for visually impaired). Even my 3 year old was asking me why some guy was talking over her show...

Is there a flag to either force which track to use, or at least have it go ahead and include both?

Thanks,
Chris

[razrsharpe]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

Is there a flag to either force which track to use, or at least have it go ahead and include both?

i dont think so... but id really like this as well... its picked the wrong track on me a bunch of times... id really like the option to include all the audio tracks...

[Fuzzy]

Handbrake itself sort of has controls for this.. (though not even it has an 'include all' switch). You have to tell it explicitly what tracks to include (-a 1,2,3). Handbrake's default (wich I think MediaShrink is using) is to pick the 'first track'. Which it doens't seem to do all that reliably.

[mp328]

my understanding was i could just drag and drop a video_ts folder onto mediashrink.exe and it should convert it, correct????


pls have a look at the log file attached

[ChaOConnor]

Okay, let me start off my by saying I screwed up. I mean... like royally.
I got all excited about automating my MediaShrink jobs of my kid's shows using SJQ3 that I never considered the possibility I'd want to cut the commercials from them. I had comskip files already run on them, did the -in place conversion, everything was good. Fast forward, had some hardware trouble, shuffled some stuff around, jacked up my wiz.bin, ended up moving my "shrunk" kid's shows to my video folder and out of the recorded TV. No big deal, can use TVE to browse them, all the metadata is there... but so are the commercials. I could go back and match up the old edl file names w/ the new file names (Show Name - SxxExx - Episode Title), but that's just a band aid and a PIA right now. So next option is to just cut the commercials myself.

I don't mind doing it by hand, but I haven't been able to figure out a good way to cut from MKV files.
VideoRedo doesn't work
AviDeMux may work, but says you lose frame accuracy and when I do cut a segment, the sound and video are sped up and it ruins the show.

Any ideas? Or am I truly up the creek?

Thank in advance!

- Cha

[razrsharpe]

Originally Posted by ChaOConnor

I don't mind doing it by hand, but I haven't been able to figure out a good way to cut from MKV files.
VideoRedo doesn't work
AviDeMux may work, but says you lose frame accuracy and when I do cut a segment, the sound and video are sped up and it ruins the show.

Did you try the beta version of videoredo that supports h264?.... i think youll still have issues because your h264 is in an mkv container and not mp4 or m2ts... but you should be able to use handbrake (or something else) to take the mkv and rewrap the h264 video stream in an mp4 container (without reencoding the stream...) And then you can use the beta version of videoredo

EDIT: as a ps... maybe the autoencode profile should default to mp4 rather then mkv so videoredo will be able to read the resulting profile

EDIT 2: MKV TO MP4 without re-encoding also looks like ffmpeg will convert to mp4 without re-encoding

[ChaOConnor]

Thanks Razrsharpe! I'll give that a shot tonight!!!

- Cha

[perfessor101]

Hello EP,
Thanks for this great tool it has helped in my compression efforts very greatly ...

There are a few series I seem to be getting overcropping on ...
From the Earth to the Moon is one ...
I was curious if there was a way to set a maximum crop or if you had a previous version that cropped more conservatively? (I don't like loosing too much of the video)

Here are example pics from one such encode attached at the end ... later in the mkv I can watch two people walking and talking and all I can see are lips and necks ...

Thanks for your time,
Bobby

ps - how complex is the autocropping code? I don't know perl but could I find a way to set a maximum crop horizontally and vertically?

[hammondr]

I have several videos (recorded SD and HD content) that get compressed to mkv by handbrake and cropped to 16x16 pixels. Very annoying since the source video is lost, too.

Does anyone know how to fix this? I can't seem to turn autocrop off in either mediashrink.defaults.txt or in handbrake. I don't see how to turn off default mediashrink options. I wonder if mediashrink is mis-detecting the autocrop size and passing that to handbrake? The command-line for a bad handbrake jobs look like this:

"E:\Program Files\SageTV\SageTV\MediaScraper2\mediaEngineBins\HandBrake 9.4\HandBrakeCLI.exe" -v -i "H:/PVR03/18KidsandCounting-StarSpangledDuggars-4533782-0.ts" -o "E:/workingfolder/18KidsandCounting-StarSpangledDuggars-4533782-0.workFolder/18KidsandCounting-StarSpangledDuggars-4533782-0.scratch.40.MAIN.mkv"   -e x264 -T -x ref=2:bframes=2:me=umh -b 1500 -B 160 -E faac     --crop 13:691:0:1264

Note the extreme cropping at the end of the options.

I would be willing to turn off auto-cropping if I knew how.

Any help would be appreciated.

[evilpenguin]

Sorry about that, people have been telling me for a while that my autocrop settings were too aggressive and I didn't have enough error checking, but I've just never gotten around to fixing it.

I've got some good fixes in my dev build related to autocrop which should prevent this type of thing and I'm hoping to release in the next two weeks (but people are going to hate me cause I changed 100% of the CLI syntax )

In the short term you can disable autocrop by going into the file ..\mediaEngineProfiles\encodingProfiles\Auto Encode.profile and removing these two lines...
Before:

    Profile           =Auto Encode
    Encode CLI #12    =ErrorCheck
    Encoder #12       =/insertFunction
    Encode CLI #1     =?>hardwareDevice<:>Auto Encode Devices<?
    Encoder #1        =/branch
    Encode CLI #2     =/autoCrop
    Encoder #2        =/setOptions
    Encode CLI #2     =?>isDVD<:>/deinterlace<&>/reverseTelecine<?
    Encoder #2        =/setOptions

After:

    Profile           =Auto Encode
    Encode CLI #12    =ErrorCheck
    Encoder #12       =/insertFunction
    Encode CLI #1     =?>hardwareDevice<:>Auto Encode Devices<?
    Encoder #1        =/branch
    Encode CLI #2     =?>isDVD<:>/deinterlace<&>/reverseTelecine<?
    Encoder #2        =/setOptions

[razrsharpe]

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

I've got some good fixes in my dev build related to autocrop which should prevent this type of thing and I'm hoping to release in the next two weeks (but people are going to hate me cause I changed 100% of the CLI syntax )

Oh bah ... any chance processing all the audio tracks (ie not deleting any track if more then one track is in the video stream) is in your dev build?

[evilpenguin]

Originally Posted by razrsharpe

Oh bah ... any chance processing all the audio tracks (ie not deleting any track if more then one track is in the video stream) is in your dev build?

That's an excellent idea, can you get me some test content? Wouldn't need to be more than 1-2 seconds of video.

Edit: Or even easier, just run it though Handbrake's format detection and post the output...

"mediaScraper\mediaEngineBins\HandBrake 9.4\HandBrakeCLI.exe" -i "D:/Test Content/QAM_480p_LB.mpg" -t 0

[hammondr]

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

Sorry about that, people have been telling me for a while that my autocrop settings were too aggressive and I didn't have enough error checking, but I've just never gotten around to fixing it.

I've got some good fixes in my dev build related to autocrop which should prevent this type of thing and I'm hoping to release in the next two weeks (but people are going to hate me cause I changed 100% of the CLI syntax )

Thank you, sir.

[razrsharpe]

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

Edit: Or even easier, just run it though Handbrake's format detection and post the output...

here you go sir thanks

E:\Docs\Video\Handbrake>HandBrakeCLI.exe -i "test.mpg" -t 0
[22:17:42] hb_init: checking cpu count
[22:17:42] hb_init: starting libhb thread
HandBrake 0.9.4 (2009112300) - MinGW i386 - http://handbrake.fr
2 CPUs detected
Opening test.mpg...
[22:17:42] hb_scan: path=test.mpg, title_index=0
[22:17:42] scan: trying to open with libdvdread
libdvdnav: Using dvdnav version 4.1.3
libdvdread: Encrypted DVD support unavailable.
libdvdnav:DVDOpenFileUDF:UDFFindFile /VIDEO_TS/VIDEO_TS.IFO failed
libdvdnav:DVDOpenFileUDF:UDFFindFile /VIDEO_TS/VIDEO_TS.BUP failed
libdvdread: Can't open file VIDEO_TS.IFO.
libdvdnav: vm: failed to read VIDEO_TS.IFO
[22:17:42] dvd: not a dvd - trying as a stream/file instead
[22:17:42] file is MPEG Program Stream
[22:17:42] add_audio_to_title: added AC3 audio stream 0x80bd
[22:17:42] add_audio_to_title: added AC3 audio stream 0x81bd
[22:17:42] scan: decoding previews for title 1
[22:17:42] scan: audio 0x81bd: AC-3, rate=48000Hz, bitrate=192000 Unknown (AC3)
(2.0 ch)
[22:17:42] scan: audio 0x80bd: AC-3, rate=48000Hz, bitrate=448000 Unknown (AC3)
(5.1 ch)
Scanning title 1 of 1...
Scanning title 1 of 1...
[22:17:42] scan: 10 previews, 1280x720, 59.940 fps, autocrop = 0/0/0/0, aspect 1
6:9, PAR 1:1
[22:17:42] scan: title (0) job->width:1280, job->height:720
[22:17:42] libhb: scan thread found 1 valid title(s)
+ title 1:
  + vts 0, ttn 0, cells 0->0 (0 blocks)
  + angle(s) 0
  + duration: 00:00:03
  + size: 1280x720, pixel aspect: 1/1, display aspect: 1.78, 59.940 fps
  + autocrop: 0/0/0/0
  + chapters:
    + 1: cells 0->0, 0 blocks, duration 00:00:03
  + audio tracks:
    + 1, Unknown (AC3) (5.1 ch) (iso639-2: und), 48000Hz, 448000bps
    + 2, Unknown (AC3) (2.0 ch) (iso639-2: und), 48000Hz, 192000bps
  + subtitle tracks:
    + 1, Closed Captions (iso639-2: und) (Text)
HandBrake has exited.

E:\Docs\Video\Handbrake>

[evilpenguin]

+ title 1:
  + vts 0, ttn 0, cells 0->0 (0 blocks)
  + angle(s) 0
  + duration: 00:00:03
  + size: 1280x720, pixel aspect: 1/1, display aspect: 1.78, 59.940 fps
  + autocrop: 0/0/0/0
  + chapters:
    + 1: cells 0->0, 0 blocks, duration 00:00:03
  + audio tracks:
    + 1, Unknown (AC3) (5.1 ch) (iso639-2: und), 48000Hz, 448000bps
    + 2, Unknown (AC3) (2.0 ch) (iso639-2: und), 48000Hz, 192000bps
  + subtitle tracks:
    + 1, Closed Captions (iso639-2: und) (Text)

Slipped in support for encoding all audio tracks if there's any ambiguity on which audio track is the main one, but I also put some brains in there since in this case it's obvious that you want the 5.1 channel 448kbs track and not the 2 channel 192kbs one.

[razrsharpe]

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

Slipped in support for encoding all audio tracks if there's any ambiguity on which audio track is the main one, but I also put some brains in there since in this case it's obvious that you want the 5.1 channel 448kbs track and not the 2 channel 192kbs one.

thanks ... and ya on this one its fairly obvious.... on others its not so much because the broadcaster (fox in my case) does something wonky to the audio stream headers and screws them all up... where the 5.1 ac3 track doesnt actually have any audio in it, but the track labeled 2.0 ac3 spanish has the 5.1 english soundtrack... its been awhile since ive seen this but boy did it piss me off for awhile ... I'm pretty sure i still have some of those messed up recordings around in their original form... I'll run one of them through handbrakes format detection and see what it spits out...

[Fuzzy]

I've noticed quite often, my local PBS broadcasts 2 5.1 streams, both english, one has audio for visually impaired on top of it. I'm not sure if the actual broadcast includes proper language tagging (wind damaged antenna currently), but from Charter QAM and Dish R5000, they are both detected as und.

[evilpenguin]

Originally Posted by razrsharpe

thanks ... and ya on this one its fairly obvious.... on others its not so much because the broadcaster (fox in my case) does something wonky to the audio stream headers and screws them all up... where the 5.1 ac3 track doesnt actually have any audio in it, but the track labeled 2.0 ac3 spanish has the 5.1 english soundtrack... its been awhile since ive seen this but boy did it piss me off for awhile ... I'm pretty sure i still have some of those messed up recordings around in their original form... I'll run one of them through handbrakes format detection and see what it spits out...

I'd like to see one of those, that'd be a case where-in you'd want to turn off my logic and just have it take both tracks regardless. I'll add a flag /allAudio that will let you override the default behavior which tries to be smart.

[razrsharpe]

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

I'd like to see one of those, that'd be a case where-in you'd want to turn off my logic and just have it take both tracks regardless. I'll add a flag /allAudio that will let you override the default behavior which tries to be smart.

just sent you an email with a video that shows this a bit... i think the root of the problem is my local fox affiliate mangles how they splice in commercials...