Finished new video encoding (and DVD creating) tool. Looking for some testers

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Thu, 09/20/2007 - 1:26pm

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Joined: 18 Dec 2006

Finished new video encoding (and DVD creating) tool. Looking for some testers

Well, after just 8 short months of development (:) I finally finished the new HTPC focused video encoding tool I've been working on! What makes it HTPC focused? I'm glad you asked...

Its 100% CLI based which makes it ideal for scripting, batch processing, and inclusion into existing front ends.
Its easily expandable and customizable. If one day you find an awesome new encoding tool/command online you can write up a new profile for this tool that uses it in under 5 minutes (That's who long it took me to add a handbrake profile)
Its as smart as you want it to be. I realized after I wrote my first DVD burning plug-in that a) I didn't know what the hell I was doing and b) that there's no way I could anticipate/accommodate every one's needs. So I decided that none of the encoding decisions could be hard coded in the script. Instead I needed to create an incredibly poweful mini-syntax for inside the profile files so that I could easily distribute improvements and bug fixes without recompiling.

What I really need now is more people than just me to throw some videos at it and see how it performs. My concern really isn't with the quality of the encodes (those can be improved by just modifying the profiles) but that it handles every type of video gracefully. The stranger the video (avi w/ ac3, mkv, vorbis audio, etc.) the better

You can download it at

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=181485&package_id=...

To use it just extract it to its own folder, run profile2bat.exe, and drag and drop videos on the batch files it creates.

If the tool errors out completely it will generate a .zip file containing all of the relevant log files that you can email to me @ perl2dvd(at)gmail(dot)com. However, if a video is being created successfully but very badly, you can open up the .bat files and add "/saveZip" to the switches line to have it save a .zip file with every encode.

Oh, also, videoDVD creation is working great in this build so I highly recommend playing around with that. It will generate .img files that you can burn using your software of choice (I recommend imgBurn).

Let me know if anyone has any questions (other than when will the SageTV plug-in part will be done :-[).

Edit: Removed readme because it was scary

[/]

Thu, 09/20/2007 - 3:51pm

Meester.Rip

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Joined: 3 Oct 2006

I am gonna try it. I am not sure what all the mumbo jumbo is below your main post but I need away to turn mpgs into vobs.

So I drag my Atlantis MPG onto the videoDVD_DragNdrop.bat file right. This to me means it will create a videoDVD. So I'll let you know what happens.

I'd like to see some a walkthru on how to do something. say turn a mpg into vob files.

Thu, 09/20/2007 - 4:09pm

Apap

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Joined: 18 Mar 2007

I'll give it a try this weekend.

I hope you will have an answer to the question you dont want asked soon because that was what I was thinking while reading your post up till the last line:p

increased WAF= MoonOwlsMajic.com

Thu, 09/20/2007 - 4:35pm

waicool

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Joined: 30 Sep 2006

I'm down, although I will be camping all weekend, maybe sometime next week i will try it out. I am not a code savvy person so i won't be able to contribute that way, but i will let you know how it works for me. Question, will this be beyondTV friendly?

switched to a PS3-BD Remote, and now IT is missing!!!

Thu, 09/20/2007 - 5:48pm

xjboonie

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Joined: 9 Oct 2006

I'll give it a try also - after I get either the Saber2020 working or PVR500 back in....

Standing on the Starboard side of the Red Line.

Thu, 09/20/2007 - 6:58pm

evilpenguin

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Joined: 18 Dec 2006

PAPutzback wrote:

I am gonna try it. I am not sure what all the mumbo jumbo is below your main post but I need away to turn mpgs into vobs.

So I drag my Atlantis MPG onto the videoDVD_DragNdrop.bat file right. This to me means it will create a videoDVD. So I'll let you know what happens.

I'd like to see some a walkthru on how to do something. say turn a mpg into vob files.

I'm confused, do you need the actual .vob files for some reason or do you just want a full video DVD?

Thu, 09/20/2007 - 7:10pm

evilpenguin

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Joined: 18 Dec 2006

WAIcool wrote:

I'm down, although I will be camping all weekend, maybe sometime next week i will try it out. I am not a code savvy person so i won't be able to contribute that way, but i will let you know how it works for me. Question, will this be beyondTV friendly?

I can't think of a reason why it wouldn't be BeyondTV friendly, or friendly to any other front end for that matter. Someone would just need to do the same thing i'm doing with SageTV which is write a plug-in that incorporates it.

Fri, 09/21/2007 - 8:32am

Meester.Rip

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Joined: 3 Oct 2006

Well the problem I have is that a while back I ripped all my kids movies to MPG. I lost chapters doing this and also media player doesn't let me fast forward, if I try to drag the slider it restarts the movie. So I was hoping that this encoder would create VOB files of the right size for burning to DVD (1,048,574 KB) and maybe have an option to create chapters at 5 minute intervals. That last part is probably asking to much. But I know movie maker will do this at a user defined setting. I know better now and I'll just keep my movies in video_ts folders and go with HTPCs

Fri, 09/21/2007 - 8:57am

captain_video

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Joined: 6 Jul 2007

I was trying to get a handle on what your app is supposed to do so I downloaded a copy. When I got to sourceforge it became clear that this is a DVD burning plug-in for SageTV. Since I use BTV4 it won't be of much use in my case. However, I don't use the SnapStream DVD plug-in for BTV either. I couldn't see spending money for something that didn't work as well as the processes I already had in place that provided far greater flexibility.

I am assuming that SageTV captures the recordings as transport streams, just like BeyondTV does. Getting them converted to DVD is a very simple task, although it can somewhat time consuming, depending on the processing power of your main PC. Basically, you have three options for saving your recordings to DVD:

1. Capture HDTV broadcasts and burn them to standard recordable DVDs using VideoReDo and Ulead DVD Movie Factory 5 or 6. The resultant discs will play back in any set-top HD-DVD player while retaining their original HD format and digital audio. There is a complete tutorial on the process over at the AVSForums in the HTPC section.

2. Capture HDTV broadcasts and convert them to standard DVDs using VideoReDo, HDTV2DVD, and the authoring program of your choice. This will convert HD content to standard 720x480 resolution for playback on any set-top DVD player. It will create a complete VIDEO_TS fileset, ready for burning to DVD, along with a separate mpeg2 file that can be used to author your own custom DVDs. This is great if you want to add more than one recording to a DVD along with menus and chapter stops.

3. Capture SDTV broadcasts and burn them to DVD. Most any authoring program will do this for you.

If you're only looking to capture the files for playback on a PC using Media Player or some other codec then you can use any of the above methods and simply keep them as a single file without going through the authoring process.

I transfer all of my recordings over to my main PC for processing via my home network. While I could do this on my HTPC using my wireless keyboard and mouse, I find it more comfortable to do this in front of a regular workstation, but YMMV.

Fri, 09/21/2007 - 10:08am

#10

evilpenguin

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Joined: 18 Dec 2006

PAPutzback wrote:

Well the problem I have is that a while back I ripped all my kids movies to MPG. I lost chapters doing this and also media player doesn't let me fast forward, if I try to drag the slider it restarts the movie. So I was hoping that this encoder would create VOB files of the right size for burning to DVD (1,048,574 KB) and maybe have an option to create chapters at 5 minute intervals. That last part is probably asking to much. But I know movie maker will do this at a user defined setting. I know better now and I'll just keep my movies in video_ts folders and go with HTPCs

Actually the chapters at 5 minute intervals is already there. What you could do is run those videos though this, and instead of burning the DVD's just "unzip" the .img files into VIDEO_TS folders. That will have the .vob's you need.

Fri, 09/21/2007 - 11:11am

#11

Meester.Rip

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Joined: 3 Oct 2006

Wow, you are right. I never thought to look at the folder structure of the image.

The menu screen it creates is a little frustrating. Once I create it I want it to just play.
Can that be disabled.
I also noticed it compressed the video quite a bit. Which I imagine is why it took so long. I am sure I can disable the compression thru these profiles. If someone happens to know what I need to change can you post the fix.

Thanks evilPenguin.

Fri, 09/21/2007 - 11:12am

#12

Meester.Rip

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Joined: 3 Oct 2006

Also what is the qdvd_dragnDrop.bat file do? I just guessed the video*** was the one I wanted.

When I tried the qdvd****.bat I got a "Died at script/perl2dvd.pl line 123" error.

Fri, 09/21/2007 - 11:37am

#13

Meester.Rip

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Joined: 3 Oct 2006

Evil. If I open the all to DVD.Profile.bat and remove the mode switch will that keep the cause the process to not compress the video? I will try it. I also see some errors at the top of the process. Something about video out. It has flown by and I can't scroll back up to it. I was wondering if the process used the GPU hardware to speed things up and maybe failed because I am logged in thru Terminal services.

Fri, 09/21/2007 - 1:21pm

#14

evilpenguin

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Joined: 18 Dec 2006

PAPutzback wrote:

Wow, you are right. I never thought to look at the folder structure of the image.

Thanks evilPenguin.

Hmm... if the videos are already in DVD format it shouldn't compress them, that's definetely a bug. And removing the mode switch won't help. Can you open up AlltoDVD.profile.bat and add /saveZip to the switches? That will make it save a zip file of all of the logs and should show me why its compressing it when it shouldn't be.

Adding an option to disable the menus should be possible, but not high on my list right now.

qdvd_dragNdrop.bat is nothing you need to worry about. Its just something I use to make SageTV and Dirmon2 work for my plug-in.

Thanks for playing around with this for me!

Fri, 09/21/2007 - 1:27pm

#15

Meester.Rip

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Joined: 3 Oct 2006

History of my Mpegs. They started off as Video_TS volders\multiple vobs. I used CloneDvdMobile to stitch them together to make one vob and renamed the vob to .mpg. This allowed them to be played on extenders but lost the fast forward, chapters and subtitle capabilites. So now I want to convert them back and atleast have some form of chapters and fast forward abilities. Which you have given back, thanks. But I don't want to risk quality for compression.

Fri, 09/21/2007 - 2:56pm

#16

evilpenguin

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Joined: 18 Dec 2006

captain_video wrote:

I was trying to get a handle on what your app is supposed to do so I downloaded a copy. When I got to sourceforge it became clear that this is a DVD burning plug-in for SageTV. Since I use BTV4 it won't be of much use in my case. However, I don't use the SnapStream DVD plug-in for BTV either. I couldn't see spending money for something that didn't work as well as the processes I already had in place that provided far greater flexibility.

Nope, I think you're getting the wrong idea about this. Yes, I am writting a DVD burning plug-in for SageTV and yes the plug-in will use this tool heavily but the tool is by no means tied to SageTV. Its simply something I wrote to make my life easier. I like to think of this tool as a CLI version of mediaCoder

Also, I know there are many other ways to get videos on to Video DVD but mine has the advantages of a) its free, b) its as easy as draging a video onto a batch file, and c) the menus are awesome (that may just be my opinion though )

Fri, 09/21/2007 - 3:35pm

#17

bbig119

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Joined: 21 Jan 2007

evilpenguin,

I've been waiting months to give this new version a try. If you're still looking for testers I'll be happy to give it a shot when I get a chance. Just let me know.

Tue, 09/25/2007 - 8:41am

#18

Meester.Rip

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Joined: 3 Oct 2006

I am try to convert atlantis again and hopefully it won't compress this time. I do have this in the beginning of the dos session
* Sage Directory = C:\Documents and Settings\Phillip\Desktop\perl2dvd_v3_0a
* Setting logfile = \\Whs\Videos\Movies\G\Atlantis\ATLANTIS.videoDVD.log
Warning streams need a type !!!!
Using SSE optimized IMDCT transform
Using MMX optimized resampler
The selected video_out device is incompatible with this codec.
Try appending the scale filter to your filter list,
e.g. -vf spp,scale instead of -vf spp.
Limiting audio preload to 0.4s.
Increasing audio density to 4.
[swscaler @ 00B9E570]SwScaler: using unscaled yuv420p -> yuv420p special convert
er
New_Face failed. Maybe the font path is wrong.
Please supply the text font file (~/.mplayer/subfont.ttf).
subtitle font: load_sub_face failed.

And then it just keeps writing this to the screen
1 duplicate frame!
1 duplicate frame!
1 duplicate frame!
1 duplicate frame!
and so on until it completes. Is this correct?

Fri, 10/19/2007 - 8:54am

#19

Meester.Rip

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Joined: 3 Oct 2006

Evil. Any chance you can post or email me a zipped version with just the stuff needed to convert MPegs into VOB files with chapter or an image. I built a Vista box and it is freaking annoying that I can't use fast forward or chapter skip with power dvd or the MCE interface.

I am trying to avoid installing anything I don't need. And I would have to chase down the software for working with .lz files.

Thanks.

Mon, 10/22/2007 - 12:57pm

#20

Meester.Rip

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Joined: 3 Oct 2006

Today I dragged a 6 gig mpeg file to it and it created a 1.5 gig .img file is that the outcome I should expect? I'll view the file later to see the quality. If it is OK I probably will convert the rest of the kids movies with this tool.

Mon, 10/22/2007 - 2:57pm

#21

evilpenguin

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Joined: 18 Dec 2006

Out of curioustiy, what kind of mpeg is it: HDTV or really long SDTV?

edit: Actually, if you could open up the videoDVD_DragNdrop.bat and modify the switches line to say

set SWITCHES=/saveLog

redo that DVD then send me the resulting log file @ perl2dvd(at)gmail(dot)com it would be much more helpful.

Mon, 10/22/2007 - 3:46pm

#22

Meester.Rip

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Joined: 3 Oct 2006

These are DVD movies run the clonedvd mobile app to make one large mpeg. This allowed media extenders to play the file. But once I figured out I lost chapters and the ability to fast forward I decided to put them back into a VOB file.

I have a file encoding now. I'll send the log when it is done.

Finished new video encoding (and DVD creating) tool. Looking for some testers

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