SageEncoder v0.4.2 01/29 - Encode .mpg to .wmv streaming files & divx

[ajuhawk]

Originally Posted by bhageman

Hate to be a PITA, but I got this error when I went to "Sage Recordings" on my Nielm webserver:

Exception while processing servlet:
java.lang.NoSuchMethodError: net.sf.sageplugins.webserver.Airing.printAiringTableCell(Ljavax/servlet/http/HttpServletRequest;Ljava/io/PrintWriter;ZZ)V
java.lang.NoSuchMethodError: net.sf.sageplugins.webserver.Airing.printAiringTableCell(Ljavax/servlet/http/HttpServletRequest;Ljava/io/PrintWriter;ZZ)V
at net.sf.sageplugins.webserver.RecordingsServlet.doServletGet(RecordingsServlet.java:226)
at net.sf.sageplugins.webserver.SageServlet.doGet(SageServlet.java:128)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:740)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:853)
at Acme.Serve.ServeConnection.runServlet(Serve.java:1530)
at Acme.Serve.ServeConnection.parseRequest(Serve.java:1505)
at Acme.Serve.ServeConnection.run(Serve.java:1394)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)

This is non-urgent since I just reverted to the previous properties files.

Which version of Neilm's webserver were you trying to use this with?

[ajuhawk]

Originally Posted by bhageman

Ok, I'm not getting the previous errors, but SageEncoder still isn't working. If I hit "Compress" in Cayars, it writes a XML file to my "jobs" folder and SageEncoder starts and here is the log:

9/8/2005 8:39:44 AM: processing D:\MyVideos\jobs\CSINY-TheCloser-1447423-0.mpg.xml
9/8/2005 8:39:44 AM: Trimming file...
9/8/2005 8:39:44 AM: Trim failed on CSINY-TheCloser-1447423-0.mpg
9/8/2005 8:39:44 AM: Encoding file...
9/8/2005 8:40:12 AM: No files processed.
9/8/2005 8:40:12 AM: Done!

Trimming fails, but I can live with that. SE says that it is encoding the file, but it doesn't write a file to the destination folder and, as you can see, says that "no file was processed".

Any suggestions? If there are any other logs I can provide, let me know.

Many thanks!

The root problem is that the trimming failed. If something isn't setup correctly to allow the trim process to complete, then the rest of the process will fail. So my suggestion is one of the following:

1) dig more into the trimming setup and resolve that.

-OR-

2) uncheck the trim box on SageEncoder and then it should encode your files.

If you choose one and need help, let me know and I'll see what I can do.

-AJ

[DRM2PVR]

Great work on the Encoder, I had a bit of time between versions to play around with it. I recently upgrade my Sage to 3.0.7 beta with Neilm's web server version 1.6 and had trouble with the compatibility. Has any progress been made recently in that area? I am eager to begin working with them again.

-Mike

[ajuhawk]

Originally Posted by DRM2PVR

Great work on the Encoder, I had a bit of time between versions to play around with it. I recently upgrade my Sage to 3.0.7 beta with Neilm's web server version 1.6 and had trouble with the compatibility. Has any progress been made recently in that area? I am eager to begin working with them again.

-Mike

I was kinda waiting for Neilm to update to webserver 1.7 as he was supposed to make plugins easier at that point, but it's been awhile and with all the v3 STV stuff I'm sure he's been busy. I'll do what I can to bump this up my priority list and see if I can't get a fix for webserver v1.6 out soonish.

-Adam

[steingra]

Can I use the SageEncoder v0.3.0 - with the standard default stv that comes with SageTV 2.2.x? I have been looking and didnt see it mentioned. I was hoping I could try it out with the default stv I am still using.

[ajuhawk]

Originally Posted by steingra

Can I use the SageEncoder v0.3.0 - with the standard default stv that comes with SageTV 2.2.x? I have been looking and didnt see it mentioned. I was hoping I could try it out with the default stv I am still using.

Yes, you can use it independant of any STV - you just will not have the ability to use certain options. However, if you plan to encode everything or use the web interface then it won't matter.

[steingra]

Originally Posted by ajuhawk

Yes, you can use it independant of any STV

Good deal. I might give it a try then. Will it work with the Neilms Web server plug in? I have that up and running. Didnt know if I need to use a different web server like IIS? Which is already installed on the computer too. Just not using it for anything at this point.

Originally Posted by ajuhawk

...you just will not have the ability to use certain options.

Can you possibly let me know which options are not available if I am using standard STV? Thanks

Originally Posted by ajuhawk

However, if you plan to encode everything or use the web interface then it won't matter.

Sorry. I am not sure what you meant by this...can you clarify a little more for me. I am not sure what *wont matter*

THANKS!

[ajuhawk]

Originally Posted by steingra

Good deal. I might give it a try then. Will it work with the Neilms Web server plug in? I have that up and running. Didnt know if I need to use a different web server like IIS? Which is already installed on the computer too. Just not using it for anything at this point.

You can use any web server that will host html pages.

Originally Posted by steingra

Can you possibly let me know which options are not available if I am using standard STV? Thanks

The main option you'll be missing is the ability to set the encode flag from within SageTV. However, if you use Neilm's web interface (I still need to update the code to work with his latest release, however it works fine with previous versions) then you can still select certain files to encode that way.

Originally Posted by steingra

Sorry. I am not sure what you meant by this...can you clarify a little more for me. I am not sure what *wont matter*

The "won't matter" was directed at not having the ability to select which shows to encode from within Sage if you are happy with one of the other methods. i.e. if you plan to encode all your shows or you plan to use the web interface then you won't miss the ability to select them from within sage.

Hope that clears it up a little

[steingra]

Originally Posted by ajuhawk

You can use any web server that will host html pages.
The main option you'll be missing is the ability to set the encode flag from within SageTV. However, if you use Neilm's web interface (I still need to update the code to work with his latest release, however it works fine with previous versions) then you can still select certain files to encode that way.

OK on the web server. I will probably use IIS. Since I have been using it since version 2.x. I have more experience with it.

Yes, I am using Neilm's web interface. Whatever the most recent download was...I honestly cant remember since I do this stuff mostly late at night. Things get a little fuzzzy at 1AM...So I guess you are saying I wont be able to select files that way to encode. I guess it would be nice to do it that way. Once you get it updated. I was thinking that would be a good way to do it. Dont know if I should *uninstall* the version I have, and download a previous one....I dont think there is really anything to uninstall with Neilms web server. So maybe I can give that a shot.

Originally Posted by ajuhawk

The "won't matter" was directed at not having the ability to select which shows to encode from within Sage if you are happy with one of the other methods. i.e. if you plan to encode all your shows or you plan to use the web interface then you won't miss the ability to select them from within sage.

I dont think I want to encode all shows...but I am not decided yet. Just coming up to speed on all these options, and things to try. I would tend to think I would rather just choose specific ones to encode and make available over the web interface. I think that would get me by for a while.

Originally Posted by ajuhawk

Hope that clears it up a little

Getting more clear

THANKS!

[steingra]

Originally Posted by ajuhawk

The main option you'll be missing is the ability to set the encode flag from within SageTV. However, if you use Neilm's web interface (I still need to update the code to work with his latest release, however it works fine with previous versions) then you can still select certain files to encode that way.

Just to clarify, I cant use SageRecorder with version 1.6 of Neilm's web server, right? I have version 1.6 of Neilms web server installed. And its working fine on its own.

But If I have to, I will remove that version and install whatever version you say will work with SageRecorder.

Thanks

[ajuhawk]

Originally Posted by steingra

Just to clarify, I cant use SageRecorder with version 1.6 of Neilm's web server, right? I have version 1.6 of Neilms web server installed. And its working fine on its own.

But If I have to, I will remove that version and install whatever version you say will work with SageRecorder.

Thanks

Version 1.4 is the last one I tested with (and am currently running) - I'm going to spend some time this afternoon and see if I can get it working with 1.6, hopefully it won't be too bad. I was originally putting it off because Neil was going to make plugin's easier, but he's been busy with other projects.

[ajuhawk]

I took a look at the latest code Neil has available on Source Forge and it looks like he's getting close to releasing a version that has the Sage Encoder hooks built in. As such, I think I'll let people wait for that release instead of trying to find an archive of his version 1.6 code to edit. Hopefully it comes out soonish though

[steingra]

Originally Posted by ajuhawk

I took a look at the latest code Neil has available on Source Forge and it looks like he's getting close to releasing a version that has the Sage Encoder hooks built in. As such, I think I'll let people wait for that release instead of trying to find an archive of his version 1.6 code to edit. Hopefully it comes out soonish though

OK, well I have plenty of other things I can be experimenting with, and if after all that is done, this work isnt done, I will just downgrade to the 1.4 version of the web server...
THanks!

[ajuhawk]

Originally Posted by steingra

OK, well I have plenty of other things I can be experimenting with, and if after all that is done, this work isnt done, I will just downgrade to the 1.4 version of the web server...
THanks!

If it comes down to it, maybe I can persuade Neilm to do a release of the webserver sooner rather then later...I'm going to test out what he has so far just to see what state it's in, so I'll know more in the coming weeks/months.

[mkanet]

Does this addon encode in realtime like Orb Networks? www.orb.com

Orb provides realtime WME9 video/audio encoding, mov, AND realtime 3GP encoding for mobile phones. It doesnt encode anything unless you start watching it. It also allows you to stream your videos via port 80 (even if your PC is using port 80). It's basically optimized for any bandwidth.

[ajuhawk]

Originally Posted by mkanet

Does this addon encode in realtime like Orb Networks? www.orb.com

Orb provides realtime WME9 video/audio encoding, mov, AND realtime 3GP encoding for mobile phones. It doesnt encode anything unless you start watching it. It also allows you to stream your videos via port 80 (even if your PC is using port 80). It's basically optimized for any bandwidth.

Sage Encoder does not encode realtime like Orb - basically you tell it what you want encoded and then you have to wait until it's done. I did try out ORB just to see what it was like and it definately works. A few things that Sage Encoder does different:

1) No reliance on an external service, you control the look, feel, content, etc - it's all on your computer/webserver
2) the quality of the encoding is set by the user, ORB's quality wasn't that good, in my opinion, and there's no way to adjust it that I can tell.

Just my take, anyone interested should definately check orb out as an option though.

[mkanet]

The reliance on an external service is actually a great feature. No weird TCP ports to deal with, it all goes through port 80 which makes your videos available behind the strictest firewalls. This makes it also great if you already have a web server on port 80 at home.

ORB uses state of the art compression, actually, its the best available currently and uses maximum quality for the bandwidth you give it.

For me, I have a fast DSL and stream my HDTV videos on the fly at close to DVD quality. Sound is comparable to CD quality.

It's really a waste of resources to encode every possible video; plus you have to wait for it to be done. Real-time, you can watch a video anytime you want, anywhere you want.

Originally Posted by ajuhawk

Sage Encoder does not encode realtime like Orb - basically you tell it what you want encoded and then you have to wait until it's done. I did try out ORB just to see what it was like and it definately works. A few things that Sage Encoder does different:

1) No reliance on an external service, you control the look, feel, content, etc - it's all on your computer/webserver
2) the quality of the encoding is set by the user, ORB's quality wasn't that good, in my opinion, and there's no way to adjust it that I can tell.

Just my take, anyone interested should definately check orb out as an option though.

[ajuhawk]

Originally Posted by mkanet

The reliance on an external service is actually a great feature. No weird TCP ports to deal with, it all goes through port 80 which makes your videos available behind the strictest firewalls. This makes it also great if you already have a web server on port 80 at home.

ORB uses state of the art compression, actually, its the best available currently and uses maximum quality for the bandwidth you give it.

For me, I have a fast DSL and stream my HDTV videos on the fly at close to DVD quality. Sound is comparable to CD quality.

It's really a waste of resources to encode every possible video; plus you have to wait for it to be done. Real-time, you can watch a video anytime you want, anywhere you want.

For clarification, Sage Encoder generates a web page, which allows access to the encoded files via port 80, so there is no problem there.

I only did a quick test here at home (Cable, but fast enough that I was suprised by the low quality of ORB) so I can't really quantify it, you obviously have more experience with it.

As for resources - Sage Encoder has the option of only encoding the shows you want, via the web interface, or all shows, it's the user's choice.

There are definately lots of options out there that should be explored by the end user. Hopefully Sage Encoder will be of use for a few.

[abasu2003]

I haven't exactly been following this thread mainly becasue I prefer divx to .wmv but now that you have divx support, i was wondering if you have an in-place compression built in, such that the files stay in sage.

Do the originals get deleted? I guess its not too much of a hassle if they don't to manually do the in place hack that nielm outlined.

[ajuhawk]

Originally Posted by abasu2003

I haven't exactly been following this thread mainly becasue I prefer divx to .wmv but now that you have divx support, i was wondering if you have an in-place compression built in, such that the files stay in sage.

You have the option of using 1 or 2 output directories. One of those could always be the same as the input directory.

Originally Posted by abasu2003

Do the originals get deleted? I guess its not too much of a hassle if they don't to manually do the in place hack that nielm outlined.

No, the originals don't get deleted at this point. It would be easy to add that if it's desired.