Possible to convert hd files?

[popechild]

This was mentioned in the big 6.0 release thread, but hasn't received an answer yet. Has anyone had success transcoding an HD show using the new conversion feature in 6.0? To anything? Does anyone know if it's even possible, or is this feature only useful for SD material?

[jlabrue]

I have successfully transcoded several HD files to SD format and played them through the MVP. They look excellant. I have an occasional artifact here and there but for the most part it is flawless. I have queued up to 6 things at once and it completed them all. I did some new files and replaced some files as well. I took a 6.5+ GB HD recording and transcoded to DVD Long Play quality and it was around 1.85 GB and looked better than any analog or digital recording from cable. I LOVE this feature!

[popechild]

Originally Posted by jlabrue

I have successfully transcoded several HD files to SD format and played them through the MVP. They look excellant. I have an occasional artifact here and there but for the most part it is flawless. I have queued up to 6 things at once and it completed them all. I did some new files and replaced some files as well. I took a 6.5+ GB HD recording and transcoded to DVD Long Play quality and it was around 1.85 GB and looked better than any analog or digital recording from cable. I LOVE this feature!

That's great, but color me officially jealous. Every time I try to convert an HD file it gives a FAILED error about 2 seconds after starting. I don't suppose you did any particular voodoo magic to get it working did you?

[ToxMox]

popechild are you using UNC paths for your Sage storage?

[popechild]

Originally Posted by ToxMox

popechild are you using UNC paths for your Sage storage?

I'm using UNC paths for dvd storage, but not for tv recordings. Everything's on the same server box except for some dvds, which are on a networked server. Would using UNC paths for those affect transcoding of recorded tv episodes even though the recording directory is not UNC?

[ToxMox]

Nah...I doubt it. It was a longshot guess. Can you transcode non HD recordings?

[popechild]

Well, I went back and tried again after seeing that Kirby's starting working out of the blue and mine was working as well! Well, sort of.

I was able to convert two shows to dvd-compatible/normal, but both of them were 30min or under upconverted shows. Then I tried a 60 min full hd show (Lost) and it got all the way to the end (said 100%, but never said complete) and the Sage Transcoder crashed and it wiped it out. Tried one of the 30 in upconvert shows using mpeg4 and it worked fine. Tried again and couldn't get any shows to work on any format. Everything failed right away.

Shut down and restarted Sage. Now can't get anything to work on mpeg4 (fails right away). Trying Lost again on dvd compatible mode. About half way through now. I guess we'll see what happens...

Also: Assuming I can get this to work on a regular basis, is there any way to automate the process for all shows/a series/etc.? I'd like to have it auto-run on a nightly basis for new shows. Is there a way to command-line the SageTVTranscoder.exe app?

[nyplayer]

SagetvTranscoder is just ffmpeg under the covers.

There are many command line switches.

I have attched all the switches in text files.

[popechild]

Originally Posted by nyplayer

SagetvTranscoder is just ffmpeg under the covers.

There are many command line switches.

I have attched all the switches in text files.

Thanks, I'll dig into those when I get a chance. For now, trying to do the transconding through Sage, I've noticed a few recurring issues:

Lost failed again for me. Same issue - it got all the way to "Converting - 100%" and stayed there. CPU pegged the whole time. After a few hours, I finally manually closed Sage, which caused the conversion to disappear and re-start after I restarted Sage.

I can't promise this is exactly what always happens, but the following *appears* to happen every time:

1) If I try a 30 minute show, I can convert without any problems. At least the formats I've tried (DVD Compatible - SP and Mpeg4 - High) have never failed.

2) If I try a 1 hour show, attempting Mpeg4 - High, causes it to fail immediately every time.

3) If I try a 1 hour show, attempting DVD Compatible - SP, it gets to 100% and either crashes or I have to eventually manually shut Sage down because it never completes.

Could there be a size issue? I only have HD tuners, so all my 1 hour shows are 5-6gb each.

Those of you successfully converting HD, are you able to convert 1 hour shows? What formats? I'll try the "DVD - Long" that it looks like jlabrue used successfully and see if that'll finish successfully...

[foolio]

Is there a toggle in ffmpeg to ignore stream errors? I am partially successful with HD recordings - sometimes I'll get partial files, 15 minutes, 20 minutes. I think it may be due to glitches in the recorded stream

[popechild]

Well, I'm still unable to transcode hour long HD shows using the mpeg4 settings. I CAN do it on 30 minute shows though, and I can do even hour shows to other formats (like PSP and Ipod). Any more suggestions?

[jlabrue]

Originally Posted by popechild

Well, I'm still unable to transcode hour long HD shows using the mpeg4 settings. I CAN do it on 30 minute shows though, and I can do even hour shows to other formats (like PSP and Ipod). Any more suggestions?

I went back in mine and I CANNOT convert HD to any of the iPod settings. I have gotten an MPEG4 to work (all 1 hour) I continually have success with the DVD flavors.

[ldavis]

This thread kinda died. Did the problem die also 'cause I'm having the same issues with .14. Upconverted shows do fine, but true HD shows fail 100% of the time for me. I have also seen the 100% complete hang happen to me. What was the problem resolution if any? Is anyone having any success with HD?

[Narflex]

You should try 6.0.15.

[ldavis]

Originally Posted by Narflex

You should try 6.0.15.

I just upgraded and it failed also

[camus]

I have about a 75% failure rate on transcoding anything. The two that were successful had no audio or the audio was way off.

[ldavis]

Originally Posted by camus

I have about a 75% failure rate on transcoding anything. The two that were successful had no audio or the audio was way off.

Strange thing for me is upconverted HD works almost 100% of the time. What is different about it. It is still 1080i. But to your point, I have been able to get a few successes but with the audio really messed up also.

BTW Narflex, I have been trying to come up with a way to compress HD for several years and even when I have been able to get a method that will reliably compress the video the audio is wayyyy off (like sometimes several minutes). This problem does not seem to be unique to Sage but I sure would like to see this work.

[ldavis]

Well, I have to go back and correct my earlier post. I do get a pretty good success rate on upconverted shows but now that I go back and watch the shows my audio is way off also 100% of the time

Narflex,

This really is not a Sage specific problem. I have been trying for years to find a way to compress HD programming. I have tried WM Encoder, Xvid, Divix and others with the same result. Even when the encoding works the audio is wayyyyyyyy off (100% of the time) and this seems to be related to jumping around in the timeline. Other people report success but I have not found a workable solution no matter what I do. The new transcoder feature I thought was going to give me a simple way to encode shows to dump to DVD. This is not so much a complaint as it is a cry for help. Please!!!

[rfutscher]

I use VideoReDo to do a quick stream fix, this fixes any audio delay problems. Then I edit out the commercials. VideoReDo is a MPEG frame editor and does not trans code the file.

I then bring the edited HD show into Nero and burn the DVD. Nero figures out how much to re compress the show to get it to fit on the DVD. I then have a standard DVD that plays back on any of my DVD players.

Originally Posted by ldavis

Well, I have to go back and correct my earlier post. I do get a pretty good success rate on upconverted shows but now that I go back and watch the shows my audio is way off also 100% of the time

Narflex,

This really is not a Sage specific problem. I have been trying for years to find a way to compress HD programming. I have tried WM Encoder, Xvid, Divix and others with the same result. Even when the encoding works the audio is wayyyyyyyy off (100% of the time) and this seems to be related to jumping around in the timeline. Other people report success but I have not found a workable solution no matter what I do. The new transcoder feature I thought was going to give me a simple way to encode shows to dump to DVD. This is not so much a complaint as it is a cry for help. Please!!!

[evilpenguin]

Its worth mentioning that the thing my DVD burning plug-in does best is HDTV->DVD. The video looks great, the commercials get cut, and the AC3 sound is perfectly in sync.