File Conversions Failing

[dadams]

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

I've found that running this command...

SageTVTranscoder.exe -i "input.mpg" -acodec copy -vcodec copy -f mpegts "output.mpg"

prior to conversion dramatically increases the chances that the conversion will succeed.

FYI...I tried the above and the file created was very pixilated and froze occasionally. Man, what a bummer.

[sandor]

i have had problems with transcoding/converting video files for quite a while. I only record OTA HD with a pair of A180's. The 720p stereo audio shows encode fine, but the 720p 5.1 audio always fails and the 1080i video, whether stereo or 5.1 ALWAYS fail.

It's a little saddening, but more than anything i would love to see a way to better control the encoding settings, because i think it would make things easier. When i can get my 720p stereo recordings encoded, it is awesome - as my desire is simply to reduce file size by at least 1/2 in order to have more room on my 1.5 TB for recordings.....

[dealsdyker]

Add me to the list. Transcoding 24 HD (about 6.5G) to a DVD quality file... Monday's 24 episode gets to 100% and I look in the output directory and see a 2G .tmp file... it stays at 100% for what seems like an hour... I left... came back and it says "Failed". Tried again... same thing... got to 100% for about an hour... I complained to the wife how much I hate software that gets to 100% and then spins for more time than it took to get to 100%. Went to bed, got up this morning to "Failed". No more information than that. Can't it give more information?

[blade]

I had several HD shows fail to convert with the default profiles. I created a custom profile that is exactly like the default except that it also transcodes the audio to MP3. I've transcoded over a dozen HD shows in the last week including the ones that previously failed and none have failed using the custom profile. So if you don't need AC3 audio you might look into transcoding the audio until a real fix is available.

[lovingHDTV]

Originally Posted by blade

I had several HD shows fail to convert with the default profiles. I created a custom profile that is exactly like the default except that it also transcodes the audio to MP3. I've transcoded over a dozen HD shows in the last week including the ones that previously failed and none have failed using the custom profile. So if you don't need AC3 audio you might look into transcoding the audio until a real fix is available.

Would you post your custom settings?

thanks,

[dealsdyker]

I set media_server/transcode_debug=true and kicked it off. I'll check the anticipated error log when I get home. I didn't see that setting in my sage properties file so I added it.

[blade]

Originally Posted by lovingHDTV

Would you post your custom settings?

thanks,

transcoder/formats/MPEG4\ HDTV\ Deinterlaced\ MP3\ Audio=f\=avi;MCompressionDetails\=-vtag xvid -deinterlace;[bf\=vid;f\=mpeg4;br\=8000000;][bf\=aud;f\=mp3;sr\=48000;ch\=2;br\=96000;]

The bitrate is low because I use the TV's built in speakers so sound quality isn't much of a concern to me.

There may be a better way around the problem. I setup the profile to reduce the file size a little and just happened to notice I no longer experienced any failed conversions.

[sandor]

Originally Posted by blade

transcoder/formats/MPEG4\ HDTV\ Deinterlaced\ MP3\ Audio=f\=avi;MCompressionDetails\=-vtag xvid -deinterlace;[bf\=vid;f\=mpeg4;br\=8000000;][bf\=aud;f\=mp3;sr\=48000;ch\=2;br\=96000;]

The bitrate is low because I use the TV's built in speakers so sound quality isn't much of a concern to me.

There may be a better way around the problem. I setup the profile to reduce the file size a little and just happened to notice I no longer experienced any failed conversions.

sounds good for settings, but i really want to keep the 5.1 sound, as it just makes sense in my setup (5.1 setup, used all the time) so i just want AC3 passthrough to work correctly. the one thing i need to do is purchase videoredo and have it set to fix timecode errors and see if it helps, but i think it wont.

my goal is to 1/2 video file size and keep 5.1 all in an avi wrapper.

[Sparhawk6]

I am having this same problem. My convert on large HD files always fails. Was there any fix for this?

[Sparhawk6]

So basically, because no one responded, there is no fix or solution to this?

If using MP3 encoding is a solution, how do I create a custom conversion profile? The lack of documentation for Sage is very disappointing.

[flashbacck]

I would submit a support request. Sage is usually pretty good about troubleshooting.

[dadams]

Originally Posted by Sparhawk6

So basically, because no one responded, there is no fix or solution to this?

When I originally had this problem, the next version fixed it. Having said that I have not converted one in a while. I will try one tonight to see if I have any problems.

[jjstok]

Sparhawk, did you ever find a resolution converting HD files?

[Sparhawk6]

No, I did not. As a reminder, they only fail when converting really big HD files, like sports games that are over 20 GB to begin with. Sage still fails to convert them every time.

[jjstok]

That's a drag. All of mine fail. Even if I try converting 30 seconds of them.

[tmiranda]

Mine fail most times as well. I have not been able to isolate the problem.

[hemicuda]

just to chime in (probably not much help though)...

I had to leave the side of my case open. Apparently even w/ a zalman cooling the CPU the other 3 fans weren't moving the heat out of the box. Finally figured out that the system was locking up and rebooting about 1/3 of the way thru the conversion. took me leaving the client minimized to the tray to catch it in the act.

[Sparhawk6]

I am having no overheating problems.