Transcoding DVD's: Enlarged Video??

[JUC]

Hi all, has anyone experienced enlarged and/or cropping of DVD's when transcoding them to the MVP? Here's my problem: I rip only the main movie from my DVD's and store them on my server. They play fine on my server. When I try to watch them on the MVP, the left and right sides of the picture are cropped off--like a few inches on each side. I only noticed it when I was watching the beginning credits and all the names were half missing. Its is either zoomed in--or cropping the sides. I'm messed around with deleting my clients folder and starting from stock but that didn't help. I'm not really sure how this could even be happening because the movie isn't being transcoded, just the audio (i think). All my other videos, tv recordings play fine. This just happens on my DVD rips.

I haven't seen this mentioned anywhere where it was only affecting the transcoding side of things. If it helps, I am outputting to a 42" HD Plamsa so it is 16:9 format. I've tried all the different AR setting on the TV but same results. I've been emailing back and forth with George (who has just been great with correspondance and helping me troubleshoot this!!) and he forwarded everything to the developers and said "they are working on it" and that it was most likely "not a problem with my configuration". Well---thats great for me but why hasn't anyone else mentioned the problem? I would think that if it was something with the build more people would have brought it up. Any thoughts and help would be appreciated?
Thanks,
JUC

[marneb17]

Yupp, same problem here.

Marneb

[JUC]

Hey, I'm not alone!!!! Well--at least I'm not crazy. Good--have you submitted a bug report yet? Hopefully this is something they can work out.
JUC

[garyellis]

I have the same problem. Today was the first time I transcoded something...
How do I contact somebody at Sage to make sure they let me know when there is a fix? Would be nice if we got AC3 onMPG's support so no transcoding was needed.

Gary

[JUC]

Garyellis--are you in the US? I'm just curious because the marneb17 is from Germany...not sure if this is related or not. As far as contacting sage: you can submit bug reports here

http://www.sagetv.com/bugs.html

or you can email them directly at support@sagetv.com

If you email them-I've been dealing with George and he has been helpful with keeping me in the loop. Basically-just telling me the devs are working on it but its nice to get an email from a company at least telling you they know there is a problem and are trying to fix it. I would definately contact them just to keep the pressure up though. I'm not sure if this is something that people just haven't noticed yet and is widespread, or is just affecting a few of us. Let us know if you hear anything.
JUC

[garyellis]

Thanks, Yes, I am in the US. I'll email mail them right now..

Gary Ellis

[_Demo_]

We know of the issue and it should be fixed in an upcoming version.

_Demo_

[JUC]

Originally Posted by _Demo_

We know of the issue and it should be fixed in an upcoming version.

_Demo_

Demo--Thanks for the update! BTW--are you now part of the sage dev team? i've seen you've been working on the MVP stuff among other things....and the whole "we" thing. Cool
later
JUC

[_Demo_]

I've been working on SageTV for close to 18 months now

_Demo_

[JUC]

Where have I been?!?!!! Well--thanks again for the updated word.

[jimbobuk]

how do you activate dvd transcoding.. it would be nice if you didn't require the surround sound to be able to transcode just the audio.. i'm guessing thats what happens?

[garyellis]

Demo..any new news on this?

Gary Ellis

[_Demo_]

Originally Posted by garyellis

Demo..any new news on this?

Gary Ellis

We have reproduced and were able to fix the issue but we need to implement detection in the core to apply correct mode based on user selection. Hopefully this will be added soon.

_Demo_

[JUC]

Great!

[JUC]

Originally Posted by _Demo_

We have reproduced and were able to fix the issue but we need to implement detection in the core to apply correct mode based on user selection. Hopefully this will be added soon.

_Demo_

one more question--since you have been able to figure out the problem, is there a temporary or quick fix for those of us who are affected--like a property or reg edit?
Thanks,
JUC

[_Demo_]

Originally Posted by JUC

one more question--since you have been able to figure out the problem, is there a temporary or quick fix for those of us who are affected--like a property or reg edit?
Thanks,
JUC

Not currently since even our fix isn't working fine. (video is on top of the screen instead of centered)

_Demo_

[marneb17]

Aloha,
yeah it is sad, that ffmpeg can't calculate the right dimensions on it's own.
I thought I could use ffdshow as a decoder for ffmpeg, but I couldn't figure out how. But ffdshow can set the right aspect ratio.
The other solution would be to incorcoprate the following script I found in the gbpvr forums. Of cource there is some stuff in there that isn't needed, but you get the idea.

@echo off
setlocal enabledelayedexpansion

set inputfile=%1
if "%2"=="" (
  set outputfile="%~dpn1.mpg"
) else (
  set outputfile=%2
)
set outputxsize=720
set outputysize=576

for /f "eol=; tokens=1 delims=~" %%a in ('ffmpeg -i %inputfile% 2^>^&1') do (
  call :findvideosize %%a
)

echo Input video size is %inputxsize% by %inputysize%
set /a newysize=%inputysize%*%outputxsize%/%inputxsize%
if %newysize% gtr %outputysize% goto usecropping
echo Resized video is %outputxsize% by %newysize%

set /a padding=(%outputysize%-%newysize%)/2
echo Top and bottom padding needed is %padding%
set /a padding=(%padding%/2)*2
set /a newysize=outputysize-(padding*2)
echo Corrected padding is %padding%
echo Corrected resized height is %newysize%

start "Converting" /low /wait /b "ffmpeg" -y -i %inputfile% -b 4000 -ac 2 -ab 224 -r 25 -s %outputxsize%x%newysize% -padtop %padding% -padbottom %padding% -f svcd %outputfile%
goto end

:usecropping
echo Resized video is %outputxsize% by %outputysize%
set /a cropping=(%newysize%-%outputysize%)/2
echo Top and bottom cropping needed is %cropping%
set /a cropping=(%cropping%/2)*2
echo Corrected cropping is %cropping%
set /a newoutputysize = %newysize%-%cropping%*2
echo Corrected resized height is %newoutputysize%

start "Converting" /low /wait /b "ffmpeg" -y -i %inputfile% -b 4000 -ac 2 -ab 224 -r 25 -s %outputxsize%x%newysize% -croptop %cropping% -cropbottom %cropping% -f svcd %outputfile%
goto end

:end
endlocal
pause
goto :eof

:findvideosize
  :: first look for "video:"
  shift
  if "%1"=="" goto :eof
  if not "%1"=="Video:" goto findvideosize
  :findvideosizeloop
  shift
  if "%1"=="" goto :eof
  set temp=%1
  if not "%temp:~3,1%"=="x" goto findvideosizeloop
  set /a inputxsize=%temp:~0,3%
  set /a inputysize=%temp:~4,3%
goto :eof

Marneb

[edbmdave]

Demo: Just curious if there was an update on this. This is the only thing I feel is lacking in the MVP, Once it is working I will be getting rid of all my SageTV Client PCs... Only running the server and MVPs.

[garyellis]

Got an email response from Demo at Sage...He said the fix for the MVP video enlarging will be in the next Sage release.

Gary