Imported video files time incorrect.

[mandrews44]

Hi,

I have noticed when I use a temp network drive for storage to DVD, I can't use Imported video files normally. The video will play but I can't seek because Length, Current time are all 0:00 (See Attached Photo). If I move the file back to Sage, The video will seek as normal.

I use the following menu selection: Media Library->Imported Video Files. My import directory points to a network drive like z:\Videos. This folder is where I keep the videos until they get put on DVD (Temp storage). I would like to access them normally until they are put on DVD.

This does not happen to all videos and it is confusing me. It seems to me the video needs to be at least 1 hour in length before this will happen. However, I have seen one 30 minute show do this so I have on clue.

Any ideas?

On a side note, Ever since I installed the new drivers for the PVR-250 and 350 v15 / v16 problems, everything has been working great!

Regards,

Mark

I am using Sage TV v2.0.19.

[falchulk]

I just started to get this problem with files that sage recorded! They worked fine until Imoved them o a network drive and imported themto the library. Now they show up as being anywhere from 1 minute 20 seconds to 3 minutes 50 seconds.

[nielm]

Zero length files tend to be because the file was not complete or not readable when Sage scanned the video folder (which it does regularly) and found the new file. (at least that has been my experience!)...
This will happen more often if the creation of the file takes some time (eg copying to a network drive) because Sage rescans the video dir while the copy is taking place

My way of avoiding it is:
* copy/create file outside of Video Library directory on same drive
* move file into Video Library directory
or
* copy/create file in Video Library using temp file name
* rename file to correct name
Both methods mean that Sage will only see the file when it is complete, and so will be able to open it and see the correct length.

[mandrews44]

Nielm,

Thanks for your reply as it seems everyone else has ignored it.

Every file is complete. As I said in the earlier post, if I move the files back to the server video folders, everything works as expected. This does not happen in previous versions of Sage.

I set my favorites to limit recorded episodes to 15 so I can't add the drive to the video folders and can only keep it as in imported folder so SAGE won't start deleting saved episodes.

This also happens when I put a software enoded file to the archive folder. I know that is complete and not damaged in the copy, it is in its original location.

Here is something for you to try. I have done this and it didn't damage my files in later versions but if Save is modifying the headers (which I doubt) it might).

1> Change your video directory from a "Video Directory" to a "Library Import Directory" in Sage Setup.
2> Refresh your import new Library Folder
3> Play each video paying attention to the Length Sage says it is.

Note: All videos will play in their entirity even though Sage indicates to you they are 0 byte files. What you lose is the ability to seek through the file.

I have tried on several ocasaions to refresh the video library. Save should read the file when you hit play and not store length.

Regards,

Mark
(Hoping for more responces)

[nielm]

The files may be complete when the copy has completed, but the copy itself will take a certain amount of time...
If Sage scans the folder while this copy is still in progress, it will see an incomplete file and will be unable to determine the length, and so assumes length=0.

Sage stores the length of video library files in it's DB (it shows up in the video library/detailed info screen), and does not re-determine the length of 'known' files if you play it, nor if you re-scan (it only looks for new files, which is why renaming fixes the issue).

I might try what you suggest tonight, but I would expect lots of side-effects to changing my video directory to a library import directory. For one Sage will no longer think that those files were ones it recorded, and it will remove all those files from the 'Sage Recordings' menus, (thus breakign auto-delete, keep at most, etc).

One thing for you to try:
* Find a file with 0-length indication
* Rename it to a different name
* Refresh library folders
(Sage should see the new file name, and try to determine its length again).
* check the length in the video library/file/detailed info page
* check the length on playback.

[mandrews44]

Thanks for your help, If I wasn't so bullheaded I would have tried your suggestion before replying. It works.

When did Sage start updating the folders automatically and how do I turn that off?

Regards,

Mark

[justme]

mandrews44 wrote:

When did Sage start updating the folders automatically and how do I turn that off?

I have no idea. In general I think it's a good idea, but Sage should definitely wait until the file/files are finished being written, to get it's data.

Thanks for your reply as it seems everyone else has ignored it.

I'm sorry if you feel I or anyone else ignored your post. I just honestly didn't know anything helpfull to say when you first posted. Since then I've learned alittle about this issue and it seems that what nielm reports is the main cause of this showing up in imported videos.

I'll add a post explaining nielm's solution to the FAQ index, soon(most likely tommorrow). That's unless one of you two does it first. After all you two did notice it and come up with a workaround. I don't want to steal the credit by posting in the FAQ, without giving you guys a chance first.

However I do still believe that codecs are still involved in this issue in some cases. For instance I have several OGMs that had 0 length times. I tried nielm's suggestion and it didn't work. So I looked at the file and realized that they were using AC3Filter. When I went into AC3Filter's setup and told it to defer to other AC3 capable codecs before trying to load, then nielm's suggestion worked when i removed and re-added. I tried this with several OGMs that had 0 length and they also updated but only after I demoted AC3filter's priority. I admit my system has too many codecs(I like to have them available to test out users troubles) and that this may be an issue. Still it seems that Sage may be using one codec to import and then another to play the same file sometimes. Is this possible or is this just some weord coincidence?

Also do we have any Dshow experts who have Studio access. I have several OGMs with mutliple audio tracks. I've been able to set most to use english on playback. However a few insist on Japanese(I'm an anime fan). Is there a way for Sage to control the audio/sub selection thru it's UI. It seems like it should be possible as these filters settings are accessable to WMP thru it's options(not just their tray counterparts), so I'd assume they(the audio stream selector filters) use a standard interface that Sage could connect to. This would also be usefull for files that have imbedded subs. You could select the desired sub stream and turn it on and off from Sage, instead of needing to use the tray representatives of these filters. I'd post this as a request to one of the Custom STV threads, but there are more important/interesting things being worked on there right now.

My last thing has to do with MKV files. Has anyone gotten them to import with anything but 0 length. I know MKV files are rare, but I've got all the neccessary filters. Is this something I should just give up on and remux them as OGMs, since their internal AV streams are standard formats. I just hate to go to all the trouble of remuxing all these files.

Any advice would be great,

/justme

[Opus4]

Originally posted by justme

I'm sorry if you feel I or anyone else ignored your post. I just honestly didn't know anything helpfull to say when you first posted.

I just thought I would second the notion that if not many people reply, it usually means that no one is sure of the answer, not that it is being ignored. If I have nothing useful to say, it seems better to not comment than to post "I don't know"... otherwise I could sure do a lot of posting!

The idea that SageTV sees the file in the middle of a copy & then gets the file info wrong makes sense, but I guess it would be good for it to include checking the file details when it rescans the next time -- checking at least the file length seems like a simple way to see if a file has changed. (Unless the full length of the file is reported in the middle of a copy & then it simply gets no good data when it opens the file to get details.)

- Andy

[mandrews44]

Hi,

While I appoligize for assuming the post was being ignored, it would be nice to have the problem acknowledged as the second poster did which would give me the idea others are seeing the issue. I realize there may not be an immediate resolution which is OK.

I am happy the problem has been identified and a workaround posted.

Regards,

Mark

[justme]

I think another thing(that delayed a reply) is the fact that this was posted in a less visable area of the forum. That is going to signifigantly limit it's visability to people and thus the liklihood of a usefull answer. I think that if no one makes the FAQ post by tommorrow, that I'll move this thread to the SageTV Software section of the forums at the same time I make the FAQ post. As there is nothing in this thread that warrants it being in this section, IMO. Far more users can benifit from this threads presence if it's in the SageTV Software section of the forums.

/justme

Mod's Note:This thread was moved from another area of the boards. Hence the strange statments I've made above. I decided there was no need to delay it's movement and that the info here can help others. So I moved the thread earlier than I originally planned when I first made this post.

[thatdude90210]

I've seen this too in the import video library. I never tried renaming the video... my own workaround was to move the video to another directory, refresh library, move back, and refresh.

[nielm]

I have just started playing with MKV's (I converted an existing Xvid/MP3 AVI to MKV) and sage recognised the length correctly, and played back the first few minutes OK...

So there does not seem to be something generically wrong with using the container, maybe still something wrong with yout codecs?

[justme]

Ok that's good news. But bad news as for how to track it down. I hate digging into all the detials of this codec/wrapper junk. I just want to watch my files. Any suggestions on where to start? The files playback fine in zoomplayer. I'll have to check about WMP. I'm sure I have the latest versions of the MKV splitter/demuxer. Maybe I'll do some more checking on the exact audio/video formats/bitrates used by the mkv files in question.

[justme]

I added an entry to the FAQ to cover the most common causes of this. My great thanks, to Nielm for finding the workaround. I still don't have my multi-audio stream MKVs working(I suspect it's due to the MKV version of the Morgan stream switcher) but at least we have a FAQ entry to cover the issue with Mpegs.

/justme

[spaceghost]

Sorry to bring back an old thread, but wanted to check if anyone else has my problem....not really a problem, more like a nuisance bug.

I have converted 40-50 .ts files into XVID. I have them imported correctly. Actually, I've imported them several times as I've been adding to the folder. Using the workaround above yields a good rescan..

...or you could just remove the folder from the list of available import folders in sage...do a media refresh...wait until those files are removed (sometimes have to go into the media library, then back to the main menu a couple of times). Then add the directory back to the list and reimport.

Anyway, my problem is with every file I've converted except for 2. Those 2 files have a frame rate of 29.990 and they list the running length correctly. These were IMAX films if that helps anyone determine the source frame rate.

The problem files ((40 to 50)-2) have a frame rate of 23.976 and the running length is listed as somewhere close to half the actual length. The whole file is there and it plays all the way thru fine. If I skip ahead, the skip amount is in correlation to 2x that of the normal skip (eg a 3minute skip actually skips more like 6minutes) which really isn't a problem.

It appears Sage has an issue with listing the correct length of files with a frame rate of 23.976. For reference, WMP, Media Player 2 (the old WMP),Media Player Classic, Windvd 5 & 6, & Gspot all list the correct/same length. Also, these are on shared folders on another computer from Sage. I am not running the service. Using Sage 2.2.6.

[Ericvic]

I'm having a similar problem. This is happening on multiple files but I will explain the details about 1. I'm running the latest trial version of Sage. I have Indiana Jones that I converted to Xvid and in all other applications it shows a time of 1:55 but in Sage it shows 43 minutes. When I run it the whole movie is there just the time is off. I have removed it from the media directory, refreshed, put it back with no difference.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Eric

[justme]

The only thing that I've found to fix/workaround my issue with incorrect times on my MKV files was to use Haali's MKV(actually now almost a full avi/mp4/mkv/ogm) splitter. By installing(check the option to tell Haali's to disable standard MKV splitter) Haali's filter and importing the files into SageTV I get the correct(non zero) durations. However for some reason Sage currently chokes on Haali's splitter when used for playback in SageTV(same file works in WMP). So after the successfull re-importing, I then uninstall(this re-enables the standard filters) Haali's and let Sage use the standard MKV splitter for playback. This yeilds the correct duration(gotten from importing with Haali's) and plays fine(FF/RW work normally).

I don't know if this would help you as all my duration mis-reads were 0 duration. I haven't had any that were just wrong but not 0. Also I don't know if this would make any difference if your using a .AVI container instead of MKV, since your post didn't mention the container.

The handling of imported videos like OGM/MKV/DIVX/etc. is is one area I'd love to see improved in SageTV 3.x. If you can consistantly reproduce this behavior with that file then maybe Frey Tech Support can use the info to improve Sage's handling of imported videos. I know once they start beta testing 3.0, I'm going to make a pain of myself about this issue. It's nothing too big but it's got to be simple to fix if they get the right feedback. After all these same files work fine in WMP using the default DShow filters, of course WMP doesn't have to support a server/client architecture.

/justme

[wbarber69]

I'm having the same problem I open just about any imported video and it stops almost instantly telling me that the video has finished to workaround I have to go back to imported folder hit play and then immediately hit pause the rew untill back to beginning of file. this a ridiculous problem with the newer versions of sage 2.2.6 -2.2.7 for sure in my studies haven't had the time to install and try 2.2.8 yet but I never had a problem like this with 2.1.10 and it seems to have started around the same time that this thread was reopened actually I've had countless timing problems (none that weren't fixed by a simple restart cept for this one) since the time changed a few weeks ago.

[spaceghost]

Originally Posted by wbarber69

I'm having the same problem I open just about any imported video and it stops almost instantly telling me that the video has finished to workaround I have to go back to imported folder hit play and then immediately hit pause the rew untill back to beginning of file.

Had this problem earlier...wasn't reading the imported directory correctly. removal, rescan, import--worked on those (mpeg2 HD files).

[wolfgang187]

finally got all my movies working. been having this problem for awhile now. tried all suggestions to no avail. ive copied, moved, renamed, and rescanned a million times. My solution is easy if you don't have too many movies with the problem. i had 33 effected movies and it took me about an hour and a half to fix...

make sure sagetv is closed while doing this!!!
download a progem called virtualdub and open the effected movie file. under the video menu select direct stream copy. under the audio menu make sure direct stream copy and source audio are both selected. Then under the file menu, choose to save as avi. name this whatever you'd like, but make sure you save the avi to the same directory as the effected movie. This will make a new movie file. The process took me around 3 minutes for an average length movie on a p4 2.4 1/2 gig of ram. i recommend watching your new movie file before deleting the original effected file. if everythings ok, delete the original movie and rename your new file to the one you just deleted.
open sage and rescan. everything should be good now.

This may seem like a massive pain (and if u have a crapload of movies it probably will be) but if nothing else has worked give it a shot. I dont know whats special about these files that makes sage display the incorrect time to begin with, but i think xvid files joined with certain programs may be the problem. whatever the reason, im just glad i can watch the freakin goonies again