STV Import: Auto Compress for version 6 Default STV (V1.4.5 1/October/2008)

[JREkiwi]

Certainly sounds like something is not quite right.

You can delete any property in Sage.properties that starts with "compression/"

Also make sure "sagemc/auto_compression=false"

On the next version of the import I'll put the Favorite ID on the Edit panel, so it's a bit easier to match with the Sage.properties entries.

John

[cathersal]

Just a short question on dual-pass. What are your recommendations for this? My goal is to have the smallest possible file size, but with decent quality. I currently record in "good DVD" MPEG2 and compress to "Good MPEG4" and end up with about 800 megs per hour. Could I use dual pass somehow to shrink the file more without losing quality? Or is the idea to run the original through the transcoder twice to end up with a higher quality compression?

Thanks!!

[AtomicPenguin]

Are there any plans to add a scheduling option to compressions that need to take place? For example, force compressions to start at 12 AM?

[cathersal]

Atomic,

I know a way to do this if you are using the comskip service. It lets you schedule exactly when you want to scan the files for commercials. If you combine this with the ability for autocompress to "wait for comskip", you should be able to do what you want.

[AtomicPenguin]

I don't currently run ComSkip. Maybe that's something I should look into.

[sfag]

I'm trying to get a tweaked one of these so I can play videos on my Archos.
Alas it wont play the audio. It seems that the audio is variable bit rate by default once transcoded. How do I alter it to make it constant.

My setting is:
transcoder/formats/MPEG4-SEAN\ Quality\ Deinterlaced\ AVI=f\=avi;MCompressionDetails\=-vtag xvid -deinterlace;[bf\=vid;f\=mpeg4;br\=1500000;w\=720;h\=576;fps\=25;][bf\=aud;f\=mp3;sr\=44100;ch\=2;br\=128000;]


I had a guess at the audio part. It will play on the PC but not my archos. Any advice appreciated.

thanks

[zzmystique]

Hi John

I'm having an issue with the auto compressed files losing the channel they were recording on information. I am using the default STV with the imdb and auto compress plugins. This only seems to happen when the mpgs are converted to SOURCE. (ie I don't delete the original mpg)

Have you seen this before? Any idea on how to fix?

thanks

Anne

[nyplayer]

ZZMystique,

That is the way it works to differentiate the original with the new in the DB... nothing you can do about it. It has nothing to do with John's autocompression it is built in the Sage core.

[JREkiwi]

Originally Posted by nyplayer

That is the way it works to differentiate the original with the new in the DB... nothing you can do about it.

Is that a recent change? I don't recall it working like that in the past.

I suppose you could always try adding a channel number via Edit Metadata in the RW Metadata import or via the webserver.

John

[zzmystique]

Originally Posted by nyplayer

ZZMystique,

That is the way it works to differentiate the original with the new in the DB... nothing you can do about it. It has nothing to do with John's autocompression it is built in the Sage core.

Thanks for the info, If that is the case, I will submitt a bug report to sage as I have all these recording not displaying which channel they were recorded from and its very confusing.

Edit: Bug Report Submitted..

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by JREkiwi

Is that a recent change? I don't recall it working like that in the past.

I suppose you could always try adding a channel number via Edit Metadata in the RW Metadata import or via the webserver.

John

John it has always been that way see this response by Andy,

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...9&postcount=81

[zzmystique]

Hi John

Is there a way I can configure the auto convert plugin to convert more than one recording at a time? The convertion process can't keep up with the volume of recordings.

Thanks

Anne

[JREkiwi]

Originally Posted by zzmystique

Is there a way I can configure the auto convert plugin to convert more than one recording at a time? The convertion process can't keep up with the volume of recordings.

Hi Anne,
I don't think the internal conversion process can run more than one job at a time.

I could make a change, so that the .autocompress files are created, but not use the internal conversion process. Then you could use something like Dirmon to kick off the conversions (would be able to do multiple files) and rely on the SageTV file recovery to match them to metadata when the conversion is complete.

John

[zzmystique]

Hi John

That sounds like just what i need, any info on the configuration of dirmon on how to get it to convert as well would be appreciated.

Thanks

Anne

[troycheek]

Any plans/possibility of giving Auto Compress the ability to call evilpenguin's new MediaShrink instead of SageTV's built-in transcoder? Would love to be able to use Auto Compress to pick and choose which programs get sent to MediaShrink instead of using a huge collection of DirMon2 jobs.

[JREkiwi]

Originally Posted by troycheek

Any plans/possibility of giving Auto Compress the ability to call evilpenguin's new MediaShrink instead of SageTV's built-in transcoder? Would love to be able to use Auto Compress to pick and choose which programs get sent to MediaShrink instead of using a huge collection of DirMon2 jobs.

I'm just trying to figure out how best to do it. I'm currently favoring tying it in with zzmystique's requirements.

John

[wayner]

Originally Posted by troycheek

Any plans/possibility of giving Auto Compress the ability to call evilpenguin's new MediaShrink instead of SageTV's built-in transcoder? Would love to be able to use Auto Compress to pick and choose which programs get sent to MediaShrink instead of using a huge collection of DirMon2 jobs.

Auto Compress is a great tool but there are some other tools that would also work for this sort of a process. SJQ is one other alternative that can probably do what you want but it is a little bit more complex than AutoCompress.

[troycheek]

Originally Posted by wayner

Auto Compress is a great tool but there are some other tools that would also work for this sort of a process. SJQ is one other alternative that can probably do what you want but it is a little bit more complex than AutoCompress.

I'm sure there are other tools (especially Sage Job Queue) that can do what I'm looking for. I've already got DirMon2 doing mostly what I want. I just liked the way that Auto Compress could compress by channel. The HDHomerun and Comcast QAM make for exception quality, but it really eats up the drive space and I have to shut down all the other processes to get decent playback, so it was convenient to have Auto Compress convert anything recorded on those channels. And then there are a couple of fuzzy analog channels that always record with A/V synch issues or even errors that crash SageTV during playback unless I convert them first.

Originally Posted by JREkiwi

I could make a change, so that the .autocompress files are created, but not use the internal conversion process. Then you could use something like Dirmon to kick off the conversions (would be able to do multiple files) and rely on the SageTV file recovery to match them to metadata when the conversion is complete.

Don't know why I didn't read that before, but that would probably work nicely for me as well. Just thought it might be fairly simple to use the code from External Apps to have Auto Compress call a different encoder. (Simple == I'm not the one who has to figure out how to do it.)

I suddenly remembered that back when I first started using Auto Compress, it seemed like 90% of the jobs sent to the SageTV transcoder failed. In effect, creating the .autocompress files without actually compressing anything, just as you suggested above. Now I'm trying to remember what settings I changed to get the transcoder working so I can change them back.

[JREkiwi]

Originally Posted by troycheek

Just thought it might be fairly simple to use the code from External Apps to have Auto Compress call a different encoder. (Simple == I'm not the one who has to figure out how to do it.)

I've used that code in just about everything else, but was looking to put something in a bit more flexible so that you could easily specify different compression profiles. I know how I'm going to do it now, I just need to sit down and actually do it.

John

[troycheek]

Originally Posted by JREkiwi

Iwas looking to put something in a bit more flexible so that you could easily specify different compression profiles. I know how I'm going to do it now, I just need to sit down and actually do it.

In the mean time, I've created a bogus transcode format which immediately causes the SageTV transcoder to fail (not hard to do seeing as all my previous efforts had much the same effect). Auto Compress still creates the .autoCompress which DirMon2 can pick up on and run any program. I am using MediaShrink on some shows right now that were so triggered.

I suddenly have an urge to rub my hands together while cackling maniacally.