Schedule Program, Wind Up With Two Copies - Each A Different Quality?

[PeteCress]

Will I be able to do this if I dig through the user manual long enough?

My notion is to schedule show "ABC" for sometime in the evening and, by the next day, have two versions of it on disc: one at high quality such as "MPEG-2 PS @5.9GB/hr" and the other at a low quality such as "VCD@0.6 GP/hr" or some flavor of MP4.

I would use the high quality version for viewing on large-screen TVs via HD200 boxes over Ethernet.

I would use the low-quality version for viewing via a small laptop over WiFi.

Conversion functionality is available manually via Home | Sage TV Recordings | All Sage TV Recordings | (click on a recording | Convert | (select a format and specify a target directory) | Convert Recording.

Is there any hope for automating said process?

I'm seeing a few techno-intensive methods involving .BAT files and calls to various conversion utilities and, if push comes to shove, maybe I could cobble something together that runs, say, on the hour via Windows Scheduler.

But this is sounding to me more and more like "Plug-In"..... although I haven't found anything yet.

[PeteCress]

Originally Posted by PeteCress

this is sounding to me more and more like "Plug-In".

Been through all 272 pages of the manual and that plus somebody else's saying how much they'd like tb able to schedule/automate conversions makes me think it's not going to happen within Sage.

I guess there are utilities somewhere, but does anybody know if there is a .Exe within the Sage install that can be called from, say, a .BAT file to do the conversion?

I'm pretty sure I could cobble something together that checks for an existing .MP4 version of something and then calls a conversion utility if it's not there.

Running something like that via Windows' scheduler would give me a more-or-less-up-to-date .MP4 mirror of whatever scheduled recordings Sage has made.

[matt91]

Have you tried simply placeshifting to the laptop with the original high-quality file? (Letting the server transcode the file on the fly).

[PeteCress]

Originally Posted by matt91

Have you tried simply placeshifting to the laptop with the original high-quality file? (Letting the server transcode the file on the fly).

I don't know enough to address the "transcode" part, but yes - I have tried PlaceShifting on the laptop.

Doesn't work. Brings the laptop to it's knees and the program is all herky-jerky.

OTOH, Client seems less resource-hungry and, at least, the menus come up and are navigable.
Playback is still ng. The laptop is on WiFi, but MP4 works fine over WiFi. But that's all moot for me bc I intend to keep the mp4 files in a separate location and view them via some other playback application.

BTW, I think I found Sage's transcoder and it seems to work from a command line.

Program Files/SageTV/SageTV/SageTvTranscoder.exe

I'm guessing that I will be able to dig the needed parm values out of whichever one of Sage's setup files deals with mp4 conversion.

[PeteCress]

I think I'm getting somewhere.

I can provoke a response - albiet negative - from SageTvTranscode.

To wit:

C:\Program Files\SageTV\SageTV>SageTvTranscoder.exe -i V:\SageTV\a.mpg -s 512x384 -vcodec msmpeg4v2 -b 600 -r 29.97 -ab 128 -acodec mp4 v:\Converted\a.mp4

Which throws:

FFmpeg version UNKNOWN, Copyright (c) 2000-2008 Fabrice Bellard, et al.
configuration: --extra-libs=-lwsock32 --enable-libfaad --enable-memalign-hack --enable-gpl --enable-libxvid --enable-libfaac --disable-debug --disable-demuxer=ea --enable-libx264
libavutil version: 49.6.0
libavcodec version: 51.50.1
libavformat version: 52.7.0
libavdevice version: 52.0.0
built on Jun 5 2008 13:59:07, gcc: 3.4.2 (mingw-special)
Input #0, mpeg, from 'V:\SageTV\a.mpg':
Duration: 00:00:07.7, start: 0.154711, bitrate: 2685 kb/s
Stream #0.0[0x81]: Audio: ac3, 48000 Hz, stereo, 192 kb/s
Stream #0.1[0x1e0]: Video: mpeg2video, yuv420p, 704x480, AR: 4:3, interlaced, 15000 kb/s, 29.97 fps(r)

WARNING: The bitrate parameter is set too low. It takes bits/s as argument, not kbits/s
WARNING: The bitrate parameter is set too low. It takes bits/s as argument, not kbits/s

Unknown encoder 'mp4'

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by PeteCress

I think I'm getting somewhere.

I can provoke a response - albiet negative - from SageTvTranscode.

To wit:
Which throws:

All you need to do is google for ffmpeg. That's basically what Sage transcoder is and most, if not all the command lines for ffmpeg should work.

Gerry

[GKusnick]

Have you tried the Auto Compress plugin? Seems simpler than rolling your own transcoder launcher.

Or as someone else suggested, adjust the settings on your Placeshifter client to force on-the-fly transcoding.

[PeteCress]

Originally Posted by GKusnick

Have you tried the Auto Compress plugin? Seems simpler than rolling your own transcoder launcher.

At the risk of turning into a tarbaby on you...

Do you know if the SageTV app knows about the compressed versions after AutoCompress has done it's thing. PLEASE IGNORE THE PREVIOUS SENTENCE.

Can't find "StrikeTrough" in the formatting....

I think I'm committed to at least trying to write a .BAT file once I sort out the transcoder command line. Besides not trashing up the Sage UI with all the copies, this would have the additional (if very small..) advantage of being able to run on some other PC besides the Sage server.

My preference is that the application does not know anything about the compressed versions - so I don't wind up with duplicate entries in the UI, and since I'm not going at the compressed versions through Sage.


Tangentially does anybody know of any more pre-built formats besides [QUOTE]? I'd be hoping for something in the vien of [CODESAMPLE] that forces font to Courier New and loses the "Quote:" above the enclosing rectangle.

[Slugger]

My SJQ plugin can also be used to auto schedule transcoding jobs internally within SageTV. Currently, it doesn't support specifying the destination file of the transcode, but someone opened a ticket for that earlier today and I plan on tackling it soon. Once you can specify the target for the transcode then I think SJQ will pretty much do it all for you (with the added bonus of selectively deciding what gets transcoded and when, etc.).

[Slugger]

[QUOTE=PeteCress;334884]
Tangentially does anybody know of any more pre-built formats besides

? I'd be hoping for something in the vien of [CODESAMPLE] that forces font to Courier New and loses the "Quote:" above the enclosing rectangle.

Try [code]

[PeteCress]

Originally Posted by gplasky

All you need to do is google for ffmpeg.

Thanks. I think I've moved forward a couple of squares. Sounds like I need to know what the encoder name is in the SageTV environment. IIRC there are a number of them available in the UI.

So far I've tried -vCodec=XVID and DIVX just as guesses; and "COPY" bc I saw it in Sage's .INI file.

Seems tb an issue with audio coming before video in the source file. Something about a need to invoke "Inverted Mapping"....

To wit:

C:\Program Files\SageTV\SageTV>SageTvTranscoder -map 0:0 -map 0:1 -i 
S:\Imported\a.mpg -threads 2 -b 604k -vcodec copy -ab 384k -coder 1 -flags +loop 
 -cmp +chroma -partitions +parti4x4+partp8x8+partb8x8 -me hex -subq 5 
 -me_range 16 -g 250 -keyint_min 25 -sc_threshold 40 -i_qfactor 0.71 
 -vol 500 S:\Transcoded\A.mp4

FFmpeg version UNKNOWN, Copyright (c) 2000-2008 Fabrice Bellard, et al.
  configuration: --extra-libs=-lwsock32 --enable-libfaad --enable-memalign-hack --enable-gpl --enable-libxvid --enable-libfaac --disable-debug --disable-demuxer=ea --enable-libx264
  libavutil version: 49.6.0
  libavcodec version: 51.50.1
  libavformat version: 52.7.0
  libavdevice version: 52.0.0
  built on Jun  5 2008 13:59:07, gcc: 3.4.2 (mingw-special)
Input #0, mpeg, from 'S:\Imported\a.mpg':
  Duration: 00:00:07.7, start: 0.154711, bitrate: 2685 kb/s
    Stream #0.0[0x81]: Audio: ac3, 48000 Hz, stereo, 192 kb/s
    Stream #0.1[0x1e0]: Video: mpeg2video, yuv420p, 704x480, AR: 4:3, interlaced, 15000 kb/s, 29.97 fps(r)
Warning: not compiled with thread support, using thread emulation
Codec type mismatch for mapping #0.0 -> #0.0

[PeteCress]

OTOH, maybe I'm going into needless detail on the command.

Seems like there is a "Target" parm that can be pointed at some sort of file that spells out all the parms for a given conversion.
e.g.

SageTvTranscoder -i S:\Recorded\a.mpg -target ntsc-svcd s:\transcoded\a.mp4


C:\Program Files\SageTV\SageTV>SageTvTranscoder -i S:\Recorded\a.mpg -target ntsc-svcd s:\transcoded\a.mp4
FFmpeg version UNKNOWN, Copyright (c) 2000-2008 Fabrice Bellard, et al.
  configuration: --extra-libs=-lwsock32 --enable-libfaad --enable-memalign-hack --enable-gpl --enable-libxvid --enable-libfaac --disable-debug --disable-demuxer=ea --enable-libx264
  libavutil version: 49.6.0
  libavcodec version: 51.50.1
  libavformat version: 52.7.0
  libavdevice version: 52.0.0
  built on Jun  5 2008 13:59:07, gcc: 3.4.2 (mingw-special)
Input #0, mpeg, from 'S:\Recorded\a.mpg':
  Duration: 00:00:07.7, start: 0.154711, bitrate: 2685 kb/s
    Stream #0.0[0x81]: Audio: ac3, 48000 Hz, stereo, 192 kb/s
    Stream #0.1[0x1e0]: Video: mpeg2video, yuv420p, 704x480, AR: 4:3, interlaced, 15000 kb/s, 29.97 fps(r)
Output #0, svcd, to 's:\transcoded\a.mp4':
    Stream #0.0: Video: mpeg2video, yuv420p, 480x480, AR: 4:3, progressive, q=2-31, 2040 kb/s, 29.97 fps(c)
    Stream #0.1: Audio: mp2, 44100 Hz, stereo, 224 kb/s
Stream mapping:
  Stream #0.1 -> #0.0
  Stream #0.0 -> #0.1
s->filter_channels 2
Compiler did not align stack variables. Libavcodec has been miscompiled
and may be very slow or crash. This is not a bug in libavcodec,
but in the compiler. You may try recompiling using gcc >= 4.2.
Do not report crashes to FFmpeg developers.
frame=  232 fps= 41 q=4.5 Lsize=    2340kB time=7.3 bitrate=2639.5kbits/s
video:2031kB audio:199kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead 4.968245%

SageTvTranscoder.exe's "Syntax" list - the stuff that comes out when you just type "SageTvTranscoder" on the command line and hit Enter - has a tantalizing bit:

-target type specify target file type ("vcd", "svcd", "dvd", "dv", "dv50", "pal-vcd", "ntsc-svcd", ...)

Bottom line: Are "Targets" strictly built into ffmpeg? Or can there there be external "target" files.

If #1, I wonder what the others are. If #2, I wonder if SageTV defines any. And in both cases if any are iPod-specific.

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by PeteCress

Tangentially does anybody know of any more pre-built formats besides [QUOTE]? I'd be hoping for something in the vien of [CODESAMPLE] that forces font to Courier New and loses the "Quote:" above the enclosing rectangle.

BTW: the FAQs drop-down menu in the header on every forum page has an item for "Forum usage FAQ", which will eventually lead to the full list of BB code tags that can be used in posts.

- Andy

[heffe2001]

You could always use the command-line conversion program of choice, and something like Dirmon2 to automate it (I would assume that ffdshow would probably work out of the box with it, and dirmon can be configured to not process anything is the file is still being written to, or even the drive). It can be run as a service, so it'd be completely automated.

[CollinR]

Originally Posted by Slugger

My SJQ plugin can also be used to auto schedule transcoding jobs internally within SageTV. Currently, it doesn't support specifying the destination file of the transcode, but someone opened a ticket for that earlier today and I plan on tackling it soon. Once you can specify the target for the transcode then I think SJQ will pretty much do it all for you (with the added bonus of selectively deciding what gets transcoded and when, etc.).

Ditto this is the Benz of backend SageTV automation, you can do so much ore with SJQ then you can using batch files alone it's not funny. As a bonus you can still use your batch files if you like having SJQ pass along variables from the SageTV database.

For instance manybe you only want first runs converted to mp4 and leave reruns alone. SJQ can handle that and pass the filenames and paths to your script.

[PeteCress]

Originally Posted by Slugger

My SJQ plugin can also be used to auto schedule transcoding jobs internally within SageTV. Currently, it doesn't support specifying the destination file of the transcode, but someone opened a ticket for that earlier today and I plan on tackling it soon. Once you can specify the target for the transcode then I think SJQ will pretty much do it all for you (with the added bonus of selectively deciding what gets transcoded and when, etc.).

For my use, one additional bit of functionality would be useful: the ability to tell it not to add the transcoded program to the existing list of programs.

Reason: Otherwise, I would wind up with many duplicate programs on the recordings list - yet, in my situation, not really care to reference the converted versions within SageTV. Instead, I would use the converted programs for viewing over WiFI on a minimalist laptop - doubleclicking on the file from Explorer and viewing via a third-party viewing application.

[Slugger]

Originally Posted by PeteCress

For my use, one additional bit of functionality would be useful: the ability to tell it not to add the transcoded program to the existing list of programs.

Reason: Otherwise, I would wind up with many duplicate programs on the recordings list - yet, in my situation, not really care to reference the converted versions within SageTV. Instead, I would use the converted programs for viewing over WiFI on a minimalist laptop - doubleclicking on the file from Explorer and viewing via a third-party viewing application.

I'm not sure on this, maybe Opus4 could confirm or deny, but as long as you used a destination path that was not a registered recording or import dir in sagetv then the transcoded file shouldn't be registered within SageTV.

[PeteCress]

Originally Posted by Slugger

I'm not sure on this, maybe Opus4 could confirm or deny, but as long as you used a destination path that was not a registered recording or import dir in sagetv then the transcoded file shouldn't be registered within SageTV.

That would be golden for me.

At the risk of turning into a tarbaby once again....

Lacking the plug-in, am I going to have to get down-and-dirty with the ffmpeg parms?

Or is there some "Target" that will spit out iPod highest-quality mp4 files?

Looking at Sage's ini file, it seems like they parm in a bunch of individual characteristics for each conversion type - which would suggest to me that they construct each conversion type's parm list on-the-fly.

Truth or fiction?

[appelm]

Just a thought... I use iPodifier to transcode recordings for my iPod.. It monitors directories and uses ffmpeg to transcode.. Might work for you.. usually it adds the recordings to iTunes but you can tell it not to.. www.ipodifier.com

[PeteCress]

Originally Posted by appelm

Just a thought... I use iPodifier to transcode recordings for my iPod.. It monitors directories and uses ffmpeg to transcode.. Might work for you.. usually it adds the recordings to iTunes but you can tell it not to.. www.ipodifier.com

Reading the Wiki, it seems that it's iPod-dependent. i.e. one has to flag the recordings for conversion/download within the iPod.

Other than that it sounds really good.

But my need is to run without iTunes or iPod in the picture.

I think I'm back to either waiting for the plug-in mod or getting down-and-dirty with ffmpeg's parm list.

Somewhere *somebody* has to have nailed this.