STV Import: SageMC Video Tools v2.0.1a (2/02/07)

[evilpenguin]

Originally Posted by darc87

Big thanks for all your hard work.

Where do I find this "other programs menu"? Forgive my ignorance but I am still very green.

Edit: Oh i'm sorry, I forgot I was in the SageMC section, I thought you were a default STV user ignoring my beautiful directions

To add the other programs menu in SageMC go to the main menu, right click to bring up the pop-up window, and enable it in the list.

[pvrpenguin]

What a great STV import for SageMC!!! Awesome job!

Is there a way to set this import up so that an ISO image gets created that could be burned manually on another computer at a later date?

[evilpenguin]

Yep, once the plug-in is finished making the DVD's it just spits out an .iso and a batch file. However, you're more than welcome to ignore the batch file and just burn the .iso at your leisure.

[FidgetyRat]

I'm interested in completely automating the process. I think I should be able to setup a Dirmon2 rule that would automatically run ImgBurn on the .iso file after it is created. Sound crazy?

I figure, send to->burn dvd should do just that without anymore user input.

[evilpenguin]

No, that's not that crazy of an idea. The only gotcha would be that the computer that does the transcoding would also have to be the computer burning.

I'll consider adding it in as an option.

[FidgetyRat]

Yes that is the case. My server does all of the work from record to transcode to burn. Bonus to the full automation is a happy girlfriend as well as the lack of batch files which tend to hate me with the passion of the furies.


I attempted to install last night but had issues with the setup script. I had to manually edit my files.

One problem I encountered was when it read my sage.properties file to locate the other programs folder. It had a parsing issue and read it as something like

C:\SageTVOtherprograms instead of C:\SageTV\OtherPrograms

Also, the setup script forcefully uses "qdvd folder" as the work folder. The ability to change that would be nice since my work folder is on my raid array. but since you can just edit the file afterwards its no biggy.

[evilpenguin]

Originally Posted by FidgetyRat

One problem I encountered was when it read my sage.properties file to locate the other programs folder. It had a parsing issue and read it as something like

C:\SageTVOtherprograms instead of C:\SageTV\OtherPrograms

Can you post the exact line from your sage.properties file so I know what the original was?

Originally Posted by FidgetyRat

Also, the setup script forcefully uses "qdvd folder" as the work folder. The ability to change that would be nice since my work folder is on my raid array.

I'll add that option.

[FidgetyRat]

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

Can you post the exact line from your sage.properties file so I know what the original was?

Sure, I can do that tonight (At work at the moment).


Once again we the sage community thank you for this awesome plugin!. My family uses me as a source of backups if their VCRs miss a recording. DVD+RW is a beautiful thing.

[darc87]

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

Edit: Oh i'm sorry, I forgot I was in the SageMC section, I thought you were a default STV user ignoring my beautiful directions

To add the other programs menu in SageMC go to the main menu, right click to bring up the pop-up window, and enable it in the list.

That worked. Thanks.

[FidgetyRat]

The line from my sage.preferences is

mlbdude/other_programs=C\:\\HTPC\\SageTV\\OtherPrograms

As stated above, it had problems parsing that and came up with something like C:\HTPC\SageTVOtherPrograms
and of course came with about 3 errors that the folder could not be found

[evilpenguin]

Originally Posted by FidgetyRat

The line from my sage.preferences is

mlbdude/other_programs=C\:\\HTPC\\SageTV\\OtherPrograms

As stated above, it had problems parsing that and came up with something like C:\HTPC\SageTVOtherPrograms
and of course came with about 3 errors that the folder could not be found

Thanks, I'll get that sorted out over the holiday. In the mean time you can set that preference manually in the perl2dvd.pref file

[FidgetyRat]

Yes I did. Thank you. Most things can be fixed manually such as the dirmon2 using the default working directory (found that out the hard way).

I am noticing that this plugin is much more difficult to setup and use then the previous. I will list a few snags and problems below that other people might have as well.


Dirmon2 starts the building process but ignores the work directory and places the dvdList.0.workfolder in with my TV Recordings where it doesn't belong. Can't seem to find a setting in the prefs to fix that.
Does cutting commercials take a full transcode? Seems like the plugin has been chugging away for 30 minutes. IF so, does this plugin still allow for chapters based off of .edl and not actually cutting? I really want the .iso process to be as fast as possible. Especially with SDTV which should fit without transcoding.






I have an error or 2 in the qdvd.dvd text file that might be an issue?!?

------------ Mencoder Version ----------------

MEncoder 1.0rc1-3.4.2 (C) 2000-2006 MPlayer Team
CPU: Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU 3.06GHz (Family: 15, Model: 4, Stepping: 1)
CPUflags: Type: 15 MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 0 3DNow2: 0 SSE: 0 SSE2: 0
Compiled with runtime CPU detection.

Exiting... (error parsing command line)

------------ FFmpeg Version ----------------
FFmpeg version CVS, Copyright (c) 2000-2004 Fabrice Bellard
configuration: --enable-memalign-hack --enable-a52 --enable-gpl --enable-xvid --enable-faac --enable-mp3lame --disable-debug
libavcodec version: 51.9.0
libavformat version: 50.4.0
built on May 12 2006 11:07:09, gcc: 3.2.3 (mingw special 20030504-1)
in.mpg: I/O error occured
Usually that means that input file is truncated and/or corrupted.
------------ SageTVTranscoder Version ----------------

FFmpeg version SVN-rUNKNOWN, Copyright (c) 2000-2006 Fabrice Bellard, et al.

configuration: --extra-libs=-lwsock32 --enable-faad --enable-x264 --enable-memalign-hack --enable-a52 --enable-gpl --enable-xvid --enable-faac --enable-mp3lame --disable-debug --enable-amr_wb --enable-amr_nb

libavutil version: 49.0.1
libavcodec version: 51.19.0
libavformat version: 50.6.0
built on Oct 31 2006 16:52:20, gcc: 3.2.3 (mingw special 20030504-1)
in.mpg: I/O error occured
Usually that means that input file is truncated and/or corrupted.
SageTV drive letter = C:



Hope any of this helps. I'm defiantly looking for the absolute most simple way to burn a dvd.


Happy Holiday!

[dflachbart]

Originally Posted by FidgetyRat

Exiting... (error parsing command line)

in.mpg: I/O error occured

in.mpg: I/O error occured

I dont think these are actually errors, it's just to print out the version info (EP correct me if I'm wrong)

Dirk

[FidgetyRat]

Probably right. So much going on hard to keep track.


I'm actually uninstalling it all now. Frustrating

[evilpenguin]

Originally Posted by flachbar

I dont think these are actually errors, it's just to print out the version info (EP correct me if I'm wrong)

Dirk

That's correct, those aren't errors. I should make that clearer in the log file.

Putting the work folders in the TV folders was done on purpose in order to remove the need for people to make a separate work folder. It addressed many specific complaints people had with the original version. I personally like it better this way because it spreads out the load among multiple drives and reduces the chance that you're going to run out of space in the middle of an encode. In addition, it's one less preference item to set and I thought that was a good thing.

However, I recognized that some people might want to use a centralized work folder so in v2.0b I included an option in the advanced.pref file and setup program that allows you to specify a central folder for all work. As pointed out by somebody, the work folder in perl2dvd.pref is pretty much unused and will be taken out in the next version.

That being said, I feel this version is MUCH easier to setup than before. Hell, if your Sage directory is in the standard location and you run perl2dvdsetup with all default values, it pretty much works right out of the box. Can't get any easier than that

[FidgetyRat]

Cool, ill try out the next version soon. I don't get alot of time to tinker with my computers unfortunately.


Also, any suggestions on how to make the process as simple as possible. I would like to avoid any transcoding and get the dvd on disk as fast as possible. I will need this thing to pass the fiancé test which is not easy.

"I told it to burn but its not even lighting up! I'll mash some keys until it does!!!!"

[evilpenguin]

Originally Posted by FidgetyRat

Cool, ill try out the next version soon. I don't get alot of time to tinker with my computers unfortunately.


Also, any suggestions on how to make the process as simple as possible. I would like to avoid any transcoding and get the dvd on disk as fast as possible. I will need this thing to pass the fiancé test which is not easy.

"I told it to burn but its not even lighting up! I'll mash some keys until it does!!!!"

The commercial cutting doesn't eat up any extra time because I do it at the same time I give the video it's second cleaning. I've found that if I give the videos two cleanings, one with ffmpeg and one with mencoder then it takes care of a pretty common error people receive where their videos would fail during the DVD creation process for mysterious reasons. Don't worry though, the cleanings are just straight stream copies and they go just about as fast as a straight file copy, which is much better than my previous solution where I re-encoded the entire video.

The only real way to speed up the process would be to lower the number of screen shots from 4 down to 1. This won't give you the fancy slide show effect but it should shave off a good ten minutes from the process.

[FidgetyRat]

Eh ill just explain to her the creation process in better detail. Thanks for all the hard work. I just got lost in all the different things going on (vs. the old version).

Thanks

[evilpenguin]

Originally Posted by FidgetyRat

Eh ill just explain to her the creation process in better detail. Thanks for all the hard work. I just got lost in all the different things going on (vs. the old version).

Thanks

Yeah, this version is so different from the old one its hard to even compare the two. I think my code went from 1000 lines to 3000 lines and I'm fairly sure I didn't leave many of the original 1000 untouched either

[Enormous]

Originally Posted by Hyperbaric

Dirmon2 wouldn't start the perl2dvd job with my Showanalyzer job settings (SA was 1st on the list, and had some drive / file conditions applied). I've removed the SA job for now (and reduced the polling setting to 10secs), and it launches the perl2dvd job fine.

Is there a fix for this? I'm also running into it.