Utility: MediaShrink v3.0 - An HTPC focused encoder

[evilpenguin]

Originally Posted by phelme

running 3.04 MediaShrink

I'm having lots of crashes lately in HandbrakeCli.exe on my networked PC that handles nightly compression. Anything changed in the last month or so in MS that might be causing this? The files are compressed over the network via the UNC path. Never been a problem until recently.

It's always crashing in the same lib file, I'll grab the dump and log files next time it happens.

I've actually started seeing a lot more HB crashes recently also, not sure what the root cause is though. That's why I added the new HB crash detection so that SJQ can compensate.

FWIW, Handbrake 9.5 dev seem to work on the same files that crash in 9.4, so hopefully once that's released things will start working better.

[panteragstk]

Love this utility, but cutting commercials isn't working for me. Here is a log, and the batch file I'm using. Thanks

[mp328]

how many of you have installed SJQV4 and ruined mediashrink compatibility with it ....

well i was one of the people that didnt read the update info message when it popped up and i started wondering why no shows were converted anymore...

any one gonna make it work again with the new version for us that arent that good with all the variable commands and what not??

[KryptoNyte]

I noticed that the native Handbrake application does not have any adjustment for audio gain. With the package of apps here in Mediashrink, is there any way to increase the video's audio gain by a factor of 1.5, 2, or maybe even more right in the batch file?

[KryptoNyte]

Has anyone been able to use the /tee command to show Handbrake's progression since the 3.0.4 release? Every time I attempt to use, even with local hard drive video files, the encode fails right at the end, and then deletes the working directory prior to moving the completed file back beside the source video file.

[ldw58]

EP,
Now that handbrake 0.9.5 (and ffmpeg encodings seem substantially faster) will it be incorporated into MediaShrink?

Thanks for the great solutions!

[evilpenguin]

Originally Posted by ldw58

EP,
Now that handbrake 0.9.5 (and ffmpeg encodings seem substantially faster) will it be incorporated into MediaShrink?

Absolutely! Hopefully i'll have some time to look at it this weekend.

[KryptoNyte]

Not sure if this is an option, but this gent mentioned he had found a piece of software where he was able to increase audio gain.

http://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...&postcount=134

[phred1]

For making this post short - I need help!

I'm using Handbrake for encoding since I haven't been able to find and combine the right (working) settings for mediaShrink. I think I mix things up . Can someone assist me in which settings to use for achieving this when converting my DVD collection:

Profile 1
Handbrake base preset: Normal (strict anamorph/auto crop/x264/chapter markers etc)
+ mkv container
+ decomb
+ 1-pass video encoding, CRF 20
+ AC3 passthrough audio
+ all subtitles included (or just the Swedish ones)

Profile 2
as above but with
+ 1-pass video encoding, CRF 22
+ AAC stereo audio

Thanks a bunch!

[ldw58]

For what it's worth, I have been using Handbrake.95 extensively but missed some of the features of MediaShrink's implementation (specifically, having a working directory & handling errors more gracefully).

I took some of the command-line switches I was using with HB95 and the MPG files that my SiliconDust tuner produced and put them into MediaShrink and have been pleased with the results. Here are the settings I use for Handbrake.95 and MediaShrink:

/batch /centralWorkFolder v:\hb95cache /container mp4 /inPlace /saveLog /Profile "autoEncode" /findFileRegEx "avi|mpg|mkv|mp4|mpeg|VIDEO_TS|ts|ogm|divx|mpts|dvr-ms" /handbrakeFullCommand "-C 1 -O -t 1 -c 1 -f mp4 -4 -w 1280 --loose-anamorphic -e FFMPEG -q 4 -r 29.97 --pfr -a 1,1 -E copy:ac3,faac -6 auto,dpl2 -R Auto,Auto -B auto,160 -D 0.0,0.0 --subtitle 1"

I replaced the handbrakecli.exe within the Handbrake9.4 folder. I did it at first just to see if it would work and was pleased with the results but the defaults didn't seem to be taking advantage of some of the new options that HB95 offered.

A few notes:
- Although my perception is that the FFMPEG output quality is adequate (at best) it is substantially faster than the x264 encoder.
- I've encoded a few dozen MPG files so far and have noticed fewer artifacts with FFMPEG than I used to get with x264.
- When using the x264 setting my high-def TS files produced by my HD-PVR have a tendency for the audio to go out of synch with the video. This is exactly the opposite of what I found to be true on HB4. I've had audio/video go out of synch with HB95 using x264 without any involvement of MediaShrink so this seems to be a fundamental problem with the new release.

[KryptoNyte]

I noticed the same thing with the audio sync, LDW, but on the same note, I also noticed that my recorded TV programs (mpeg2 stream from Time Warner HDHomerun/SageTV) also exhibit this issue, but only after knocking the commercials out with VideoRedo.

I'm not sure I've seen it happen without commercial deletion ... maybe very minor out of sync.

[BKeadle]

EP:

Is there a way to combine multiple .MP4 files together to make one? I have a folder, say:
TVShows\January 05, 2011 - Jimmy Wales - The Daily Show\*

that has part1.mp4, part2.mp4, ... part5.mp4 which are all segments of one show. To get these to play in SageTV as a single show, I think I need to join these .MP4s into one, yes? Will MediaShrink let me do that from a command line? I'd like to script the process on certain found folders.

[nyplayer]

EP,

If you are planning on a new release can you look at including Constant Quality as an option instead of just bitrate. Constant quality gives outstanding video results.

[SWKerr]

Originally Posted by nyplayer

EP,

If you are planning on a new release can you look at including Constant Quality as an option instead of just bitrate. Constant quality gives outstanding video results.

2nd this request.

[KryptoNyte]

Originally Posted by nyplayer

EP,

If you are planning on a new release can you look at including Constant Quality as an option instead of just bitrate. Constant quality gives outstanding video results.

Could you already be using this option by using the HandbrakeFullCommand?

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

Could you already be using this option by using the HandbrakeFullCommand?

By using the HandbrakeFullCommand you bypass using mediashrink autocropper which does a better job than just the handbrake autocrop.. what I did was make an adhoc change to the handbrake snips file.. and am using CQ.

[KryptoNyte]

Ah. Two things I didn't put together;

1) By using fullcommand, all other mediashrink settings are now null
2) There was two different methods used for autocrop

You folks had any luck figuring out how far along the encode is with 3.04?

[ohpleaseno]

Is there a way to have logic that looks at the Folder Name one level above the VIDEO_TS folder and use that for the file name? It would make transcoding DVD folders so much easier.

[scott2020]

Hi all,
Great utility! I did have a question about using this with AnyDVD.

AnyDVD is decrypting on the fly and I can see the VIDEO_TS folder and such on drive letter X:. I can play videos from the DVD after AnyDVD does it's thing. However, if I drag and drop the VIDEO_TS folder from the X: drive, processing shows Handbrake failing due to not supporting encrypted DVD's. I thought AnyDVD decrypted it already on the fly? I might just be missing an easy step. I can rip the DVD to a folder using AnyDVD and then drop that folder onto Mediashrink and it works great. I did set the options for work folders so it did not attempt to use the DVD for work folders and temp files.

Thanks!

[razrsharpe]

Originally Posted by ohpleaseno

Is there a way to have logic that looks at the Folder Name one level above the VIDEO_TS folder and use that for the file name? It would make transcoding DVD folders so much easier.

you can probably do that by wrapping the mediashrink exe in a bat file that figures it out and then renames the resulting file after mediashink finishes.