Updated Video Conversion Settings?

[nateziemann]

I use Sage's Automatic Conversion feature heavily for many of the kids TVShows to convert from uncompressed HD files to something much smaller for loading on mobile devices when traveling.

Can someone tell me if either V7 or V9 can be updated with more modern settings for x264 High 4.1 for an MP4 container that universally supported on iOS and Android?

Thanks,
~Nate

[Narflex]

There's always been the ability to add custom transcode settings...there's examples in the properties file of the existing ones, so adding new ones shouldn't be all that hard.

And the FFMPEG that's in there should be able to encode to the profile you mention; and should playback on everything. It's probably already in there as one of the AppleTV formats I think....yeah it is, for AppleTV High Quality and also a Widescreen version for 16:9. Although I'm not sure its the H264 profile you mention; but it shouldn't exceed that profile.

[nateziemann]

I just tried the AppleTV High Quality Widescreen setting. It converted a 1280x720p file to something standard 10 years ago. 2500Kbps, 960x540, AVC (Baseline@L3.0) with only 1 Ref Frame.

If anyone has changed the settings in the properties file to include 720p with High@L4.1 can you post a comment with your settings??

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by nateziemann

I just tried the AppleTV High Quality Widescreen setting. It converted a 1280x720p file to something standard 10 years ago. 2500Kbps, 960x540, AVC (Baseline@L3.0) with only 1 Ref Frame.

If anyone has changed the settings in the properties file to include 720p with High@L4.1 can you post a comment with your settings??

You, ideally, should not alter the preconfigured settings, but add a new setting to your sage.properties file. Find the AppleTV High Quality Widescreen entry in there that you were using, and copy it to a new entry to make a 1280x720. You can start by simply changing the h= and w= settings (near the end of the string) and see if that works for you.

Alternatively, if your device can use MKV containers, the "MPEG4 HDTV-Good Quality H.264 MKV" is higher profile and uses the original resolution.

[Malfunction]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

You, ideally, should not alter the preconfigured settings, but add a new setting to your sage.properties file. Find the AppleTV High Quality Widescreen entry in there that you were using, and copy it to a new entry to make a 1280x720. You can start by simply changing the h= and w= settings (near the end of the string) and see if that works for you.

Alternatively, if your device can use MKV containers, the "MPEG4 HDTV-Good Quality H.264 MKV" is higher profile and uses the original resolution.

I just started recording in 1080i yesterday and I haven't been able to get it to transcode at all. It worked fine in 720p.

[VCRUser]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

Alternatively, if your device can use MKV containers, the "MPEG4 HDTV-Good Quality H.264 MKV" is higher profile and uses the original resolution.

1. What does a "higher" profile mean? I've seen this terminology around (for example in Handbrake), but have found no definitions.
2. A while back I tried to add back one of the profiles that had been in my Sage 6 .properties file (good quality avi deinterlaced), and it wouldn't show up on the resulting conversion menus. I don't know if I really gain anything by using deinterlacing, but it had been my standard until I updated to v9. The "good quality mkv" creates files of the same or similar size and seems to work ok for me. Any idea why my attempts to add back the older profile aren't working? I did all the usual things one does when updating .properties files, i.e. closing sage and stopping the server first.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by VCRUser

1. What does a "higher" profile mean? I've seen this terminology around (for example in Handbrake), but have found no definitions.
2. A while back I tried to add back one of the profiles that had been in my Sage 6 .properties file (good quality avi deinterlaced), and it wouldn't show up on the resulting conversion menus. I don't know if I really gain anything by using deinterlacing, but it had been my standard until I updated to v9. The "good quality mkv" creates files of the same or similar size and seems to work ok for me. Any idea why my attempts to add back the older profile aren't working? I did all the usual things one does when updating .properties files, i.e. closing sage and stopping the server first.

Sort of high level, a 'higher' profile uses some more compression tricks to get a higher quality output for the same bitrate, but typically requires a more robust decoder for playback. Some older devices may not work well (or at all) if a file is encoded at too high a profile.

[Malfunction]

Originally Posted by Malfunction

I just started recording in 1080i yesterday and I haven't been able to get it to transcode at all. It worked fine in 720p.

Is there a way to get this working with 1080i, preferably MKV?

Sat 11/25 14:06:43.842 [AWT-EventQueue-0@14d7830] Added for transcoding:MediaFile[id=34574190 A[34334937,34334579,"The Gifted",21247@1120.21:00,60,T] mask=TV host=DynamoHum encodedBy=Hauppauge Siena Video Capture Great-H.264 format=MPEG2-TS 0:04:59 2500 kbps [#0 Video[H.264 29.97003 fps 1920x1080 16:9 interlaced id=1011]#1 Audio[AAC 48000 Hz 2 channels MAIN idx=1 id=1100 at=ADTS-MPEG2]{Trivia=, SeriesInfoID=14133989, TagLine=, MediaType=TV, SeasonFinal=false, CollectionOverview=, IMDBID=, CollectionName=, TrailerUrl=, UserRating=0, Quotes=, MediaProviderID=tvdb, MediaProviderDataID=328552, EpisodeCount=0, ScrapedBy=Phoenix, MediaTitle=The Gifted, DiscNumber=0, ScrapedDate=1511233262980, CollectionID=0}] J:\sagetv\TheGifted-threatofeXtinction-34334937-0.ts, Seg0[Mon 11/20 20:59:00.010-Mon 11/20 22:01:00.010]]
Sat 11/25 14:06:43.851 [Ministry@4f4869] Initiating xcode for J:\sagetv\TheGifted-threatofeXtinction-34334937-0.ts
Sat 11/25 14:06:43.855 [Ministry@4f4869] Set Transcode format source=MPEG2-TS 0:04:59 2500 kbps [#0 Video[H.264 29.97003 fps 1920x1080 16:9 interlaced id=1011]#1 Audio[AAC 48000 Hz 2 channels MAIN idx=1 id=1100 at=ADTS-MPEG2]{Trivia=, SeriesInfoID=14133989, TagLine=, MediaType=TV, SeasonFinal=false, CollectionOverview=, IMDBID=, CollectionName=, TrailerUrl=, UserRating=0, Quotes=, MediaProviderID=tvdb, MediaProviderDataID=328552, EpisodeCount=0, ScrapedBy=Phoenix, MediaTitle=The Gifted, DiscNumber=0, ScrapedDate=1511233262980, CollectionID=0}] dest=matroska 0:00:00 0 kbps [#0 Video[h264 4500 kbps progressive]#1 Audio[ ]{CompressionDetails=-coder 1 -flags +loop -cmp +chroma -partitions +parti8x8+parti4x4-partp8x8-partb8x8 -me_method dia -subq 1 -me_range 16 -g 250 -keyint_min 25 -sc_threshold 40 -i_qfactor 0.71 -b_strategy 1 -qcomp 0.6 -qmin 10 -qmax 51 -qdiff 4 -bf 3 -refs 1 -directpred 1 -trellis 0 -flags2 +bpyramid-mixed_refs+wpred+dct8x8+fastpskip-mbtree -wpredp 0 -rc_lookahead 0}]
Sat 11/25 14:06:43.860 [Ministry@4f4869] Using 5 threads for the transcoder
Sat 11/25 14:06:43.864 [Ministry@4f4869] Automatically adding -deinterlace option to transcoding process
Sat 11/25 14:06:43.873 [AWT-EventQueue-0@14d7830] processOptionsMenu optionsMenu=default:BASE-50504|OptionsMenu:Conversion Started Dialog
Sat 11/25 14:06:43.879 [Ministry@4f4869] Ministry is waiting for 180 sec
Sat 11/25 14:06:45.882 [Ministry@4f4869] Ministry is waiting for 180 sec
Sat 11/25 14:06:50.765 [AWT-EventQueue-0@14d7830] processUserEvent-UserEvent[select] evtTime=Sat 11/25 14:06:50.789
Sat 11/25 14:06:50.775 [AWT-EventQueue-0@14d7830] KillTranscoding for:MediaFile[id=34574190 A[34334937,34334579,"The Gifted",21247@1120.21:00,60,T] mask=TV host=DynamoHum encodedBy=Hauppauge Siena Video Capture Great-H.264 format=MPEG2-TS 0:04:59 2500 kbps [#0 Video[H.264 29.97003 fps 1920x1080 16:9 interlaced id=1011]#1 Audio[AAC 48000 Hz 2 channels MAIN idx=1 id=1100 at=ADTS-MPEG2]{Trivia=, SeriesInfoID=14133989, TagLine=, MediaType=TV, SeasonFinal=false, CollectionOverview=, IMDBID=, CollectionName=, TrailerUrl=, UserRating=0, Quotes=, MediaProviderID=tvdb, MediaProviderDataID=328552, EpisodeCount=0, ScrapedBy=Phoenix, MediaTitle=The Gifted, DiscNumber=0, ScrapedDate=1511233262980, CollectionID=0}] J:\sagetv\TheGifted-threatofeXtinction-34334937-0.ts, Seg0[Mon 11/20 20:59:00.010-Mon 11/20 22:01:00.010]]

[Malfunction]

Originally Posted by Malfunction

Is there a way to get this working with 1080i, preferably MKV?

I suspect the issue is with the interlacing, too bad the cable box can't output 1080p. :P