Cmd Line MPEG4 Encoder - ffmpeg

[mlbdude]

Warning: This STV may cause shows that are recorded to be deleted right away and NOT added to your Sage Recordings list. I noticed this over the last couple of days. Can't find a patten for it yet nor can I confirm it is something with the STV but It seems to be new behavior.

[Alex0230]

Originally posted by mlbdude
Warning: This STV may cause shows that are recorded to be deleted right away and NOT added to your Sage Recordings list. I noticed this over the last couple of days. Can't find a patten for it yet nor can I confirm it is something with the STV but It seems to be new behavior.

I have yet to experience this but I can not confirm nor deny my poor programming skillz... If you absolutely want to overried the delete, you should be able to in the properties.xml file.

<Delete_Source_On_Success>
<Value>False</Value>
<Enabled>True</Enabled>
</Delete_Source_On_Success>

Enabling the individual properties will allow you to override what's in the recording's xml file.

MlbDude...do you have all your shows set to delete from source or just some? Maybe I coded a condition wrong....I'll check it out.

[JUC]

mlbdude, you mentioned we need to configure the properties.xml file.

"<Pickup_Location>m:\compress_jobs</Pickup_Location>"

-what exactly to we need to configure in this line...the drive letter or pickup_location (is this the root directory or something else)

sorry this is a really bad question but I would love to try this new feature out. I'm not all too familiar with XML but I should be able to edit the file if I can find out what to change.
Thanks for both your efforts,

JUC

[mlbdude]

Originally posted by Alex0230
I have yet to experience this but I can not confirm nor deny my poor programming skillz... If you absolutely want to overried the delete, you should be able to in the properties.xml file.

<Delete_Source_On_Success>
<Value>False</Value>
<Enabled>True</Enabled>
</Delete_Source_On_Success>

Enabling the individual properties will allow you to override what's in the recording's xml file.

MlbDude...do you have all your shows set to delete from source or just some? Maybe I coded a condition wrong....I'll check it out.

I think this has to do with the STV. But I am not sure. For some reason, a couple of shows that were recording (I saw them) were gone the next day. However, these were shows that were NOT setup for compression. It could just be a coincidence but that has never happened to me before.

[mlbdude]

Originally posted by JUC
mlbdude, you mentioned we need to configure the properties.xml file.

"<Pickup_Location>m:\compress_jobs</Pickup_Location>"

-what exactly to we need to configure in this line...the drive letter or pickup_location (is this the root directory or something else)

sorry this is a really bad question but I would love to try this new feature out. I'm not all too familiar with XML but I should be able to edit the file if I can find out what to change.
Thanks for both your efforts,

JUC

That should match the location you setup Sage to use as the dump location for the XML jobs. I think I forgot to list the two sage.properties that you use for this (it defaults to something). If someone can post them I would appreciate it. If not I will do it when I get home.

One for Job dump location, the other for compressed target root.

[JUC]

Also, If someone can post an example of what their configured pickup location line to that would help me out alot. As mentioned previously I know very little about XML and don't know whether to include the <>'s and _'s (I'm thinking the _'s are for spaces).

-lets try an example. If my dump location is M:\Videos\SageCompress
would I enter
"<M:\Videos\SageCompress>m:\compress_jobs</M:\videos\sagecompress>"

-Thanks, I don't expect a tutorial on XML but any help would be appreciated. This feature will finish out my needs and requests for Sage and I would LOVE to get it going.
JUC

[edbmdave]

Originally posted by JUC
Also, If someone can post an example of what their configured pickup location line to that would help me out alot. As mentioned previously I know very little about XML and don't know whether to include the <>'s and _'s (I'm thinking the _'s are for spaces).

-lets try an example. If my dump location is M:\Videos\SageCompress
would I enter
"<M:\Videos\SageCompress>m:\compress_jobs</M:\videos\sagecompress>"

-Thanks, I don't expect a tutorial on XML but any help would be appreciated. This feature will finish out my needs and requests for Sage and I would LOVE to get it going.
JUC

The correct way would be:
"<Pickup_Location>m:\videos\sagecompress</Pickup_Location>"

[JUC]

Ah...wonderful. Thanks a bunch!!
JUC

[edbmdave]

MlbDude: I have not seen any errant deletions you warned about. So far everything is working as I would expect.

I am a little disappointed with the compression ratio. (This perhaps is from my expectations based on DivX). I am seeing about a 50% reduction in size. Is there some way to better this? Will we be able to choose MP3 for the Audio? It would seem there would be some additional size savings there.. But all that aside all is working as I would expect it. I am going to configure a couple favorites to use the autocompression and deletion when done. Will report back on that.

[mlbdude]

Originally posted by edbmdave
MlbDude: I have not seen any errant deletions you warned about. So far everything is working as I would expect.

I am a little disappointed with the compression ratio. (This perhaps is from my expectations based on DivX). I am seeing about a 50% reduction in size. Is there some way to better this? Will we be able to choose MP3 for the Audio? It would seem there would be some additional size savings there.. But all that aside all is working as I would expect it. I am going to configure a couple favorites to use the autocompression and deletion when done. Will report back on that.

I have found I still get good results by dropping my bit-rate to 1200 and audio to 128. MP3 with ffmpeg requires some additional configuration that we want to avoid for now, but you would be surprised how small those MP2 audio parts are.

There is a bug that won't let you change the audio bitrate but try setting the video bitrate lower.

I am hoping the deletions are just a coincidence, but I wanted to warn you all just in case .

[gbutters]

Originally posted by Alex0230
I couldn't seem to use the start command when creating a process in java, nor in vb. I think this is because "start" is a part of the command line shell and not really an executable on your machine (atleast I couldn't find it). I have a windows api work around I'm attempting though..

I'm really closed to be finished guys...just gotta iron out some last minute things with MlbDude and I'll post RC1.

See this article for using the start command.

http://www.javaworld.com/javaworld/j...229-traps.html

[Alex0230]

Originally posted by gbutters
See this article for using the start command.

http://www.javaworld.com/javaworld/j...229-traps.html

I'll look in to that...that makes send to pass command line args in to it. : ) I just didn't think about it, I should actually give you guys more control over that too.

[Ryokurin]

Ok, I have the STV installed and I know its the correct one as it has the compression options I also have ffmpeg_convert in the sage tv folder. I went and changed the convert.properties file to point to java at 'C:\program files\java\j2re1.4.2_of\bin\java.exe' with everything else in it not touched. The Pickup location in properties.xml has been set to E:\

However im not seeing where you can set the location for where the STV will create the xml job or even the auto compress option. Also if I try to run ffmpeg_convert manually you see the program enter the taskbar for a second then it just exits. What exactly am I doing wrong?

[Alex0230]

I've added a new flag to the properties.xml along with a new var to the code:

//default value is the original program
String starting_program = "ffmpeg_convert.exe";

Add to the properties.xml the following element above the </properties> tag for example:

<Starting_Program>
<Value>cmd.exe /c start /wait /low</Value>
<Enabled>True</Enabled>
</Starting_Program>
</properties>

If enabled is True, then the program will use whatever is in <Value> in place of "starting_program = "ffmpeg_convert.exe";". Otherwise, the program will default to what is currently being used....

The start command sets the priority better than my api attempt does in ffmpeg_pickup. You have to use "cmd.exe /c" to get to the command prompt from java and then you can use the "start /wait /low" command. It is VERY IMPORTANT that you use the /wait command as right now the program waits for the process to finish before going on to the next recording to compress.

I'm attaching a new version of the ffmpegProcess.class as well as the source and a sample of my properties.xml.

BTW: Here are the formats available for ffmpeg:

Output audio/video file formats:
mpeg vcd vob mpegts crc image imagepipe ac3 h263 m4v h264 mpeg1video mjpeg s16le s16be u16le u16be s8 u8 mulaw alaw rawvideo null mp2 rm asf asf_stream avi wav swf au gif mov 3gp mp4 mpjpeg singlejpeg dv flvyuv4mpegpipe nut

Input audio/video file formats: mpeg mpegts image imagepipe ac3 h263 m4v h264 mpegvideo mjpeg s16le s16be u16le u16be s8 u8 mulaw alaw rawvideo mp3 rm asf avi wav swf au gif mov dv 4xm flv psxstr RoQ ipmovie wc3movie yuv4mpegpipe nut

Output image formats: pbm pgm ppm pam pgmyuv yuv jpeg gif
Input image formats: pnm pam pgmyuv yuv jpeg gif

Codecs:
Encoders:
ac3 mp2 mpeg1video mpeg2video h263 h263p flv rv10 mpeg4 msmpeg4v1 msmpeg4v2 msmpeg4 wmv1 wmv2 mjpeg ljpeg huffyuv asv1 asv2 ffv1 rawvideo pcm_s16le pcm_s16be pcm_u16le pcm_u16be pcm_s8 pcm_u8 pcm_alaw pcm_mulaw adpcm_ima_qt adpcm_ima_wav adpcm_ima_dk3 adpcm_ima_dk4 adpcm_ms adpcm_4xm

Decoders:
rawvideo h263 mpeg4 msmpeg4v1 msmpeg4v2 msmpeg4 wmv1 wmv2 h263i flv rv10 svq1 svq3 wmav1 wmav2 indeo3 mpeg1video mpeg2video dvvideo dvaudio mjpeg mj
pegb mp2 mp3 mace3 mace6 huffyuv ffv1 cyuv h264 vp3 asv1 asv2 vcr1 cljr 4xm mdec roqvideo interplayvideo xan_wc3 real_144 real_288 roq_dpcm interplay_dpcm xan_d
pcm pcm_s16le pcm_s16be pcm_u16le pcm_u16be pcm_s8 pcm_u8 pcm_alaw pcm_mulaw adp cm_ima_qt adpcm_ima_wav adpcm_ima_dk3 adpcm_ima_dk4 adpcm_ms adpcm_4xm

Supported file protocols: file: pipe:

Frame size, frame rate abbreviations: ntsc pal qntsc qpal sntsc spal film ntsc-film sqcif qcif cif 4cif

Motion estimation methods: zero(fastest) full(slowest) log phods epzs(default) x1
--------------------

Also thanks again to gbutters for the "cmd.exe" in java information...

Edit
Updated files 7/19/2004 10:55AM (-7 GMT)

[JUC]

okay, I am having trouble getting the compression to start. Sage outputs a valid XML file for me to where I set the dump file c:\ . I edited the properties.xml file to note that c:\ is where it will pickup. Java is also directed into the right place. I edited sages properties and specified the root folder as well. I tell sage to compress, it outputs the xml file but then nothing happens. I am fairly certain it is not compressing in the background because I am getting no CPU usage either.
thanks
JUC

[mlbdude]

Originally posted by JUC
okay, I am having trouble getting the compression to start. Sage outputs a valid XML file for me to where I set the dump file c:\ . I edited the properties.xml file to note that c:\ is where it will pickup. Java is also directed into the right place. I edited sages properties and specified the root folder as well. I tell sage to compress, it outputs the xml file but then nothing happens. I am fairly certain it is not compressing in the background because I am getting no CPU usage either.
thanks
JUC

Post your ffmpegpickup.log (located in the folder you put the compressor) file and we can troubleshoot it.

[JUC]

I think that's the problem. There is no log. I put the compressor in the sagetv folder. My Java path is set to c:\program files\java\j2rel.4.2_04\bin\java.exe
which should be correct.
My compressor properties.xml file is copied below: Let me know if you need any more info. Thanks

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
- <properties>
- <!-- Use . to specify the application path
-->
<Pickup_Location>c:\</Pickup_Location>
<Pickup_File_Extension>.xml</Pickup_File_Extension>
<Create_MY_File>True</Create_MY_File>
<Activity_Log>.\activity_log.xml</Activity_Log>
- <Exe_Command>
- <!-- The @symbols are for dynamic settings
-->
- <!-- DO NOT CHANGE THE CASE OF THE SYMBOLS, ie @INPUT does not equals @input
-->
- <!--
Original Value
<Value>ffmpeg -i @INPUT -deinterlace -y -f @OUTPUT_FORMAT -vcodec @VCODEC -b @VIDEO_RATE -g 300 -bf 2 -acodec @ACODEC -ab @AUDIO_RATE @OUTPUT_FORMAT</Value>
/Original Value

-->
<Value>ffmpeg -i @INPUT -deinterlace -y -f @OUTPUT_FORMAT -vcodec @VCODEC -b @VIDEO_RATE -g 300 -bf 2 -acodec @ACODEC -ab @AUDIO_RATE @OUTPUT_FORMAT</Value>
<Enabled>False</Enabled>
</Exe_Command>
- <Output_Format>
<Value>avi</Value>
<Enabled>False</Enabled>
</Output_Format>
- <VCodec>
<Value>mpeg4</Value>
<Enabled>False</Enabled>
</VCodec>
- <ACodec>
<Value>mp2</Value>
<Enabled>False</Enabled>
</ACodec>
- <Video_Rate>
<Value>600</Value>
<Enabled>False</Enabled>
</Video_Rate>
- <Audio_Rate>
<Value>128</Value>
<Enabled>False</Enabled>
</Audio_Rate>
- <Library_Path>
<Value>.\Library</Value>
<Enabled>False</Enabled>
</Library_Path>
- <Delete_Source_On_Success>
<Value>False</Value>
<Enabled>False</Enabled>
</Delete_Source_On_Success>
- <Starting_Program>
<Value>cmd.exe /c start /wait /low</Value>
<Enabled>True</Enabled>
</Starting_Program>
</properties>

[Alex0230]

I made the fixes here:

http://forums.freytechnologies.com/f...0171#post50171

There were some unhandled exceptions causing the problem....the problem really was not designed to be run from "C:\" directly or any folder that may have conflicting xml files.

I HIGHLY recommend creating a folder called "pickup" or something where you can dump the xml files too so that the program will be assured that only the proper xml files will be in that folder. This will avoid issue with a possible infinite cycle because the program rechecks for xml files that are still in the folder after each execution.

Also, if you use the favorites compression option...additional folders are created for keep track of the favorites.... This may be confusing if you visit your C: drive and see all those folders and start deleting them.

[edbmdave]

Should we open another thread for this?

I have now encoded/compressed 8 files. and seen some blockiness when there is fast action/transitions in serveral cartoons (South Park, Sealab 2021). Are there any FFMPEG experts that can help get the quality of the compressions working? Should cartoons, fastaction/sports/, and other categories have different profiles for compression to obtain good quality?

[mlbdude]

Any single pass MPEG4 encoding will have that. I think ffmpeg may support two pass encoding though which would help. It is just a matter of having enough bits to render the frame properly. I would not expect the quality to match the source.

Something else that will help is we will be adding output size to the configuration. If you output to something like 512x??? the bits will go farther.