Cmd Line MPEG4 Encoder - ffmpeg

[edbmdave]

Virtual Dub would be AWESOME. We could then use either / both DIVX and XVID based on personal preferences....

[Alex0230]

If someone came up with a skeleton for a vdub script with the data we currently have access to...I could enable a flag in the props file that would create these scripts and use vdub for the compression instead of ffmpeg.

That shouldn't be too hard to do, the hardest part, like mlbdude said, would be to come up with the scripts in the first place.

[Ryokurin]

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 .

Confirmed. The file I had was a 4.1 gig file. Dropped out after 10 seconds. For those wondering the size otherwise however, it was a 1.6 gig file.

[justme]

This audio issue can't be common to ffmpeg, without going un-noticed. Did all the people who get the audio error get their ffmpeg.exe build from the same source(place not code). I just wondering if it's an error in the compiled exe being used. I remember the file size numbers correctly it seems like going over 2GB causes audio issues, and if true 2GB can't be a coincidence. I've seen errors like that pop up in other ealry ports of Linux based apps.
I can't believe we don't have at least one Doom9/MP4 "expert" in our SageTV community.(This was not meant, in any way, to put down the great work done so far. Thanks guys.)

/justme

[mlbdude]

I have tried two builds each a different version myself. I would agree it should have been something noticed though. I would like to see if someone can get a version of ffmpeg put together that supports MP3 audio instead of MP2. That might help.

[edbmdave]

Actually I had the same thought. Given that they (FFMPEG) are using the LAME encoder and I have been using it successfully for years. I would think that a good test as well. (I wish I new enough to compile this stuff... or even had a compiler to try...)

[mlbdude]

In case anyone is interested, here is a feature comparison between the different MPEG4 variants. Surprisingly ffmpeg holds up well. If only we could figure out how to use it better

http://www.mplayerhq.hu/%7Emichael/codec-features.html

[Alex0230]

You can make your own compiler for ffmpeg.....you have to download MSYS and install it. Then within there you can do it, it's pretty much like a linux shell. I would recommend copying the source into the msys directory for each directory access. Then you just "./configure" and then "make"...and the executable is made. The instructions are on the ffmpeg site.

[edbmdave]

I won't be able to give this a try until tomorrow (travelling today) but will try tomorrow...

[JUC]

Hey All, I am trying to add the lines in the properties.xml file to lower the priority ffmpeg. I added the lines:

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

I am using Open XML editor and when I go to save it gives me this error:
[Fatal Error] properties.xml[5:3-12]: End-tag without Start-Tag

-I assume this has to to with the last </properties> entry but I don't know why. Any help?
thanks
JUC

[Alex0230]

I only gave </properties> in the example to show that it needs to be above </properties> for those who do not understand xml that well.

This is the actual data you want to add only:

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

Sorry for the confusion....in my properties xml, all the elements are sub elements of the big element <properties></properties>. So everything to add to the xml file needs to be between these tags.

[JUC]

Thanks, I was just putting it above the <properties> rather than between them
saves fine now.

[gbutters]

Originally posted by Alex0230
I only gave </properties> in the example to show that it needs to be above </properties> for those who do not understand xml that well.

This is the actual data you want to add only:

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

Sorry for the confusion....in my properties xml, all the elements are sub elements of the big element <properties></properties>. So everything to add to the xml file needs to be between these tags.

You need to add /min for it to start hidden. Like this

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

[justme]

Anyone built a ffmpeg.exe with MP3/lame support yet? I'm also curious to see if mp3 audio would have the drop out issue on large files like the mp2 appears. I don't have the skills(or even access ATM) to build a exe from source. But here's a quick quote from the ffmpeg doc site.

Also the audio stream is MP3 encoded so you need LAME support which is enabled using --enable-mp3lame when configuring. The mapping is particularly useful for DVD transcoding to get the desired audio language.

If building a ffmpeg.exe with mp3/lame support is an issue... What if we just processed the original mpg's audio stream with lame and then muxed in the video from ffmpeg(having ffmpeg process the stream video only).? I realize this is not as neat, so native mp3 encoding in ffmpeg would be best.

Also has anyone tried using the copy* stream command(for audio) on one of the files that's had audio droput issues. I believe that this would supposedly just copy the mp2 audio stream untouched. I haven't had a chance to actually try the Sage STv compressor, so I don't know exactly which params you're doing, if any to the audio. I'm just going by some of the docs I've read online. I'm no expert at this so sorry if any of these ideas are pointless or stupid.

* -acodec copy

[davey_fl]

also guys will this work if you install it with the sage client - or is it the sage server only?

[mlbdude]

Originally posted by davey_fl
also guys will this work if you install it with the sage client - or is it the sage server only?

I only run it with on my client machine with the client dumping out the XML jobs.

[Alex0230]

http://geocities.com/avimedic/

Here's something that says it can "fix" avi files. One of the fixes is missing audio...someone want to give it a go?

[lovingHDTV]

Ok,
Here is a virtualDub script I worked up. Now I'm no virtualDub expert, but I did find a nice little VBscript that will create this run file for you if you have a vcf file to control what you want virtualdub to do.

I used the mpeg2-virtualdub from here:
http://fcchandler.home.comcast.net/

After installing this virtualDub I ran the attached script in a cmd window like:
VirtualDub.exe /svirtualdub.jobs /x

This will run virtualdub execute the file, then exit.

It worked on my test clip. I don't claim that I used the best encoding methods, I just put something in there to see if it would work. I used DivX5.2, slow and audio mp3 at some bit rate.

I figure if this works, then we can worry about what parameters to run in order to get the "best" encoding.

I hope this makes sense to someone.

[lovingHDTV]

Hmm lost my attached file.

Here goes again.

rename it to .jobs and remove the .txt had to change it to get it to upload.

[davey_fl]

man it would be fantastic to get virtualdubmpeg2 working, that's currently what I use to convert.