(Old) MediaShrink - An HTPC focused encoder

[bnh]

i really like the ability to observe the transcoding status from any client using the SageMC menus..so my thought is would it be simple enough to rename mediashrink.exe to SageTVTranscoder.exe and have the stock setup use this program instead? my guess is no without some tweaks or major parameter changes, but thought i'd ask anyway.

[evilpenguin]

Originally Posted by razrsharpe

Is there an option to save the log file for each encode (like /saveLog for the previous tool)? I tried that switch but it didn't work.

I need to rework the logging for this, i'll make it more like the last version.

Originally Posted by S_M_E

OK, I finished the manual encode and dropped the parent directory, instead of just the VIDEO_TS, and it seems to be working so there's the bug.

Excellent, i'll look into fixing that.

Originally Posted by bnh

i really like the ability to observe the transcoding status from any client using the SageMC menus..so my thought is would it be simple enough to rename mediashrink.exe to SageTVTranscoder.exe and have the stock setup use this program instead? my guess is no without some tweaks or major parameter changes, but thought i'd ask anyway.

I wish it were that easy

I need to ask Sage for a little help getting that working.

[S_M_E]

Are you going to be adding support for UNC paths too?

[evilpenguin]

Originally Posted by S_M_E

Are you going to be adding support for UNC paths too?

Yeah, I'll fix that too, I just have to reverse the slashes and the UNC paths will work.

There were a lot of little bug fixes hiding in my old code, you'll have to bear with me while I dig them all out.

[matt91]

I haven't spent much time transcoding my archived shows. However, I know that if I do it through the Sage transcoder, Sage will "know" that my new AVI file, for example, is to take the place of the previous MPEG file, and will update the wiz.bin accordingly.

If I use the /inplace switch, will it accomplish the same thing?

[razrsharpe]

Originally Posted by matt91

I haven't spent much time transcoding my archived shows. However, I know that if I do it through the Sage transcoder, Sage will "know" that my new AVI file, for example, is to take the place of the previous MPEG file, and will update the wiz.bin accordingly.

If I use the /inplace switch, will it accomplish the same thing?

Yes it will. EP's tool does the reencode in a workfolder and then when the /inplace switch is active it copies over the file to the original directory, renames the file appropiately, and deletes the original. Sagetv is smart enough to match to the filename (independent of video extension, .mpg, .avi, .mkv, .m4v). I am not sure what sage does if both the original (.mpg) and new (.mkv) file are there. My assumption would be it plays the original.

[razrsharpe]

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

There were a lot of little bug fixes hiding in my old code, you'll have to bear with me while I dig them all out.

No worries, thanks for all your hard work I really like this tool

One more question. I modified the Auto Encode profile with the following line (replaced the 3 seperate CLI#3 statements)

Encode CLI #3 =/twoPass<&>/x264<&>/clibitrate<&>3000<&>/mkv<&>/copyAudio
Encoder #3 =setOptions

I could be wrong but it looks like the bitrate wasn't being set. My resulting video wasn't the size I expected it to be and the quality wasn't great. Can you see anything wrong in the above statement. I just copied and pasted the above from my old (previous) autoEncode profile file. I also attached my customized AutoEncode.profile if you want to look at that instead. Thanks

[evilpenguin]

Originally Posted by razrsharpe

I could be wrong but it looks like the bitrate wasn't being set. My resulting video wasn't the size I expected it to be and the quality wasn't great. Can you see anything wrong in the above statement.

I changed some syntax in this version, all you need to do is uses /setOptions and the <&> no longer work, I fixed it so you can just use spaces...

    Encode CLI #3     =/twoPass /x264 /clibitrate 3000 /mkv /copyAudio
    Encoder #3        =/setOptions
    Encode CLI #6     =?>ORIGINAL:percentFilm>25&&%%SNIP:HDTVCheck%%<:>/reverseTelecine<?
    Encoder #6        =/setOptions
    Encode CLI #8     =?>ORIGINAL:videoCodec=~mpeg2video&&!ORIGINAL:videoResolution=~(1280x|x720)&&!reverseTelecine<:>/deinterlace<?
    Encoder #8        =/setOptions
    Encode CLI #9     =?>%%SNIP:HDTVCheck%%&&ORIGINAL:cropY>1080<:>/verticalScale 720<=>/verticalScale 720<?
    Encoder #9        =/setOptions

[razrsharpe]

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

I changed some syntax in this version, all you need to do is uses /setOptions and the <&> no longer work, I fixed it so you can just use spaces...

Awesome, Thanks. Spaces should make it easier to read so that's a good thing

[phelme]

FYI. I've been having some of the same conversion problems of HD-PVR TS files with mediaShrink that I've been having with SageTVTranscoder. that is, the audio and video are out of sync about two seconds. this is with H264 720P/59.94/AC3 recordings from DirecTV. Sage is looking into the ffmpeg issues on their end.

Are you using the latest ffmpeg build?

[evilpenguin]

Originally Posted by phelme

FYI. I've been having some of the same conversion problems of HD-PVR TS files with mediaShrink that I've been having with SageTVTranscoder. that is, the audio and video are out of sync about two seconds. this is with H264 720P/59.94/AC3 recordings from DirecTV. Sage is looking into the ffmpeg issues on their end.

Are you using the latest ffmpeg build?

Kinda, Handbrake uses ffmpeg code for reading in the videos so it would make sense that they'd both fail.

[razrsharpe]

Is it possible to have a central work folder as before? I've found it really useful when encoding something that lives on a network share.

[razrsharpe]

Originally Posted by razrsharpe

So I finally got around to watching one of the encodes (recent episode of Numb3rs). The video was encoded with a customized autoencode profile (attached) using the mencoder from your download (from nov 08). I did not notice any significant AV sync issues. Occasionally I thought I saw something very minor, but I it wasn't any worse/different than any other video. I am usually *VERY* anal about sync and the show was not distracting/annoying to watch at all.

BTW, I have watched more shows that I've encoded using mencoder and I definitely see a fairly consistent minor AV sync issue. And you're right it's REALLY annoying. I've gone back to using handbrake now

[evilpenguin]

Originally Posted by razrsharpe

BTW, I have watched more shows that I've encoded using mencoder and I definitely see a fairly consistent minor AV sync issue. And you're right it's REALLY annoying. I've gone back to using handbrake now

Yeah, I'm right there with you 720p IVTC isn't worth losing sync over.

Originally Posted by razrsharpe

Is it possible to have a central work folder as before? I've found it really useful when encoding something that lives on a network share.

Yep, its on my todo list.

[mikesm]

Any chance we can see the capability to queue programs for compression and burning from SageMC the way that videotools in SageMC used to do? Even if Sage could use your tool instead of their own transcoder, the dvd burning function doesn't exist in it...

It would also be cool if when you inserted a DVD on a client or the server that you got a SageMC popup asking if you want to play rip or rip/shrink? I am trying to find a simple way for my wife to do this sort of stuff instead of me having to manually do everything with nero, etc...

thx
mike

[Arioch5]

If anyone else is curious it's not meant for .vc1 files from BlueRay discs. I tried one since I can't get sage to play them right now and can't launch an external player with the MovieInfo Screen mod.

I'll try some HD-Homerun files and DVD's this weekend and let ya know what I find.

Is there currently a flag to run MediaScraper on the file as well? Currently Video_TS folders make weirdly named files. Seems like such a shame with MeidaScraper sitting right there just begging to properly name the output files

[bialio]

Hey EP - Tried this out last night on a TV Series DVD. The output seems to be just one of the episodes from the disc - here's the log. I don't know if it shows anything useful.

The quality of the rip is amazing though - so much better than what I'm used to from Sage's built in encoder.

btl.

[reggie14]

EP-

This is a neat little tool. I saw you posting on the Handbrake forums a bit. Haven't you noticed that these forums are a *much* friendlier place?

Based on your SDTV profile, it doesn't look like you ever do variable frame rate encoding for DVDs. I have TV show DVDs that are sometimes telecined (Star Trek DS9, for example), so VFR is important for these DVDs.

Which brings me to the next question. How do you decide if something is telecined? Only some scenes on the DS9 DVDs are telecined. So, when I rip and encode those DVDs I have to make sure I have VFR turned on and Handbrake will detect which scenes are telecined. It seems like the more foolproof method, at the expense of speed, it just to turn VFR on all the time (except, perhaps, for 720p material, since you have problems detelecining that).

[deanm]

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

What it is:
Working on backing up your DVD's? MediaShrink can help you there too. It'll scan the DVD and automagically encode the main movie, include the main audio as well as any commentary tracks, and attach the closed captioning as a subtitle track. Working with TV show DVD's? No problem there either. It'll automatically pick out all of the episodes on the DVD and encode each of them individually.

Hi Evilpenguin.

Great tool and thanks for all your hard work.

When using MediaShrink is there anything I need to do to get MediaShrink to pick out all of the episodes from a DVD and encode each of them individually? Every TV Show DVD I have tried will only pull out the biggest/longest episode and nothing else.

I would also like to be able to D&D files direct from the DVD Drive (With AnyDVD) is there a switch you set up to copy files into a default folder?

Dean.

Look like biabio beat me to it. Looks like same problem.

[matt91]

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

Good catch, I just need to add a call to outputModes at the end of the profile. I'll get that fixed, but until then I think this should work...

Scott - I just emailed you my .profile and log file because I'm still having the same issue - the file doesn't get copied back to the original folder. I updated the profile per your instruction.

thanks for any hints.
Matt