Cmd Line MPEG4 Encoder - ffmpeg

[JUC]

Hey Guys, I am having a few issues getting this going.
1. I can't change the location of the dump job or root in the sage properties file.
mlbdude/compress_job_folder=
mlbdude/compress_target_root=

If I change these to anything other than leaving it blank I can't select 'compress' in the sage recordings page. So, for now I am leaving them blank and I think they default to C:\.

2. Because of the above issue I have to manually place the XML file created into my 'pickup' folder. But, when I do this nothing happens...the compressor doesn't start.

3. So, as a result of this, I go into the ffmpeg_pickup folder and manually click on ffmpeg_convert
-this starts the process up and dos opens up. But, after about 10 seconds it stops BUT I at least get a log file. Here it is...
(BTW-don't laugh at the show being compressed--it was just a test file I recorded this morning).

Log File:[Listing of .xml to be processed]
C:\pickup\TheNannyTheWill-349155-0.mpg.xml

================================================================
STARTED: 2004-07-19 15:59:09
[Input Directory]
E:\\My Videos\\TV\\TV
[Input Filename]
TheNannyTheWill-349155-0.mpg
[Output Directory]
\\The Nanny
[Output Filename]
TheNannyTheWill-349155-0.avi

[Video Rate]
1800kbs
[Video Codec]
mpeg4
[Audio Rate]
192kbps
[Audio Codec]
mp2

[Executing Command]
ffmpeg -i "E:\My Videos\TV\TV\TheNannyTheWill-349155-0.mpg" -deinterlace -y -f avi -vcodec mpeg4 -b 1800 -g 300 -bf 2 -acodec mp2 -ab 192 "The Nanny\TheNannyTheWill-349155-0.av_"

[Success]
The conversion process appears to have completed successfully!!
[Error]
The movie file was not actually created like anticipated, it will be attempted next time around.
COMPLETED: 2004-07-19 15:59:17



-Unfortunately, to me, it doesn't seem to give me any valuable information. So, to recap
1. How do I edit the sage.properties file to let me select the pickup and root locations. (I am trying to set 'pickup' as target job location and 'e:\my videos\tv\tv' as the root
2. When I put the XML file in the 'pickup' folder, why doesn't the ffmpeg compressor start (I can post my ffmpeg xml file again if needed-this might be the culpret)
3. Why isn't the file being compressed correctly.
Really sorry this is long.
thanks a bunch
JUC

[mlbdude]

I looks like it is all related to not setting the properties.

mlbdude/compress_job_folder=e\:\\my videos\\jobs
mlbdude/compress_target_root=e\:\\my videos\\tv\\tv

Make sure Sage is closed when you make the edits and make sure the path's are escaped properly.

If someone has a working setup please post these lines. I will post mine when I get home.

[edbmdave]

mlbdude/compress_job_folder=c\:\\media\\tmp\\compress
mlbdude/compress_target_root=c\:\\media\\video\\shows

These are mine.. They are working..

[edbmdave]

Just another thought, Could we use UNCs for the paths? if so what should they look like... say I wanted my path to be

\\server\share\shows

what would the correct format be for the properties file?

[JUC]

Got it working...its encoding as we speak. Thanks. I wasn't using the \\'s.
One more question. Is there a way to set ffmpeg to start once a xml file is placed in the pickup location? The only way I was able to start it was to manually click on the program?
thanks
JUC

[mlbdude]

Originally posted by JUC
Got it working...its encoding as we speak. Thanks. I wasn't using the \\'s.
One more question. Is there a way to set ffmpeg to start once a xml file is placed in the pickup location? The only way I was able to start it was to manually click on the program?
thanks
JUC

I set it up in Windows Scheduler to run at midnight every night. You can set it up to run every couple of minutes if you want.

[Alex0230]

Originally posted by mlbdude
I set it up in Windows Scheduler to run at midnight every night. You can set it up to run every couple of minutes if you want.

Just to further this: Scheduling tasks (atleast for WinXP) is available by going to "Start -> Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> Scheduled Tasks".

I have mine set up to run at 3am...this is when my last recording ends and it's nice to wake up the next morning and have all my shows from the previous day compressed and organized for me.

[JUC]

Thanks. Now that I got this working I have a few more questions.
First off, I was amazed at how fast this thing compressed the files--it took only 9 minutes to compress a 474mb file down to around 250mb (this was for a 1gb/hr recording of a 1/2 hour show!!! But, the quality is only so so--at every scene change I get blocks. I will try later with some different settings. Please post if you have a good one.
Questions/issues:
1. Is there anyway to make the new file show up in the recordings page?
Right now I need to refresh and it shows up only when I go to the video library.
2. I opted not to delete the original for now. Here's the strange behavior--if I play the original from the recordings page--it is fine. It has a timestamp of 30:00 and all is good. If I play the new compressed file from my video library--it is good--right timestamp and info. But, if I play the original file from my video library--there is no info and when I start to play it it plays...but I can't FF or it will stop playing (the timestamp shows up as only 1 minute). Can anyone reproduce this? I guess it doesn't really matter if it plays fine in the recordings page and since I will probably be automatically deleting these files anyway but it seemed strange.
Thats it for now.
Thanks
JUC

[mlbdude]

Has anyone encoded a movie or something 2 hours or longer? I loose audio after about 10 seconds when I encode my 3.2 per/hr movies. I want to know if it is just me or not .

[mlbdude]

1. Is there anyway to make the new file show up in the recordings page?

Not in this version of Sage.

But, if I play the original file from my video library--there is no info and when I start to play it it plays...but I can't FF or it will stop playing (the timestamp shows up as only 1 minute).

Explain this more. If you don't delete the origional you should still see the origional in Sage Recordings and the compressed one in the Video Library. You should not see the origional in the Video Library.

Is it possible you have your Library and Video directories overlapping?

Once we are confidant all is working at the level, we will look into more options to allow for a better use of the selected bitrate. For now though you can raise the bitrate to kill the blocks.

[Alex0230]

Originally posted by edbmdave
Just another thought, Could we use UNCs for the paths? if so what should they look like... say I wanted my path to be

\\server\share\shows

what would the correct format be for the properties file?

There seemed to be an issue with UNC and using it in Java....to get around this I mapped the drives.

I'm using the File class to get at the folder and the components of the folders.

Here is a quote from getting thie fileList method:

The canonical pathname of a file that resides on some other machine and is accessed via a remote-filesystem protocol such as SMB or NFS may or may not begin with one of the roots returned by this method. If the pathname of a remote file is syntactically indistinguishable from the pathname of a local file then it will begin with one of the roots returned by this method. Thus, for example, File objects denoting the root directories of the mapped network drives of a Windows platform will be returned by this method, while File objects containing UNC pathnames will not be returned by this method.

[JUC]

Yes, I do have them overlapping--should I not be doing this? I can't remember why I did that anyway.
JUC

[mlbdude]

You don't want to do that . In fact, if possible, you would want the Sage Video folders to be on their own partition. If not different root folders should get you by.

[JUC]

Good to know. Thanks a bunch, and if you or anyone has had good luck with different settings for the compression please post.
JUC

[Crashless]

Has anyone tried playing the FFMPEG files on a MVP?

[mlbdude]

Originally posted by Crashless
Has anyone tried playing the FFMPEG files on a MVP?

I know the MVP does not support MPEG4 by itself, but I did hear about it coming out with some kind of real-time trans-coding back into MPEG2. Can anyone find the spec sheet on that?

[edbmdave]

Originally posted by mlbdude
Has anyone encoded a movie or something 2 hours or longer? I loose audio after about 10 seconds when I encode my 3.2 per/hr movies. I want to know if it is just me or not .

I did (It took about 2.5 hours to encode. I have not watched it yet, but will tonight. Will let you know if I have the audio problem.

[JUC]

Is anyone able to watch TV through sage while compressing videos? I'm guessing probably not...hence using scheduled tasks to run at night. I just get a black screen--no lockups and I can close out of sage but... I probably won't be able to rip and encode a DVD and watch Sage either huh?
JUC

[mlbdude]

If anyone can figure out how to do 2 pass encoding let us know. It would allow much greater quality if it work like it does in XVid or Divx. We could probably talk Alex into updating his compressor to do it .

http://ffmpeg.sourceforge.net/ffmpeg-doc.html

[mlbdude]

Originally posted by JUC
Is anyone able to watch TV through sage while compressing videos? I'm guessing probably not...hence using scheduled tasks to run at night. I just get a black screen--no lockups and I can close out of sage but... I probably won't be able to rip and encode a DVD and watch Sage either huh?
JUC

Make sure you are using the latest update to the compressor posted here
http://forums.sage.tv/forums/showthr...0171#post50171
This should allow you to use Sage while it is going. However, I would still recommend having it run overnight.