convert to MP4

[massmanjr]

Is anyone converting TV recordings to MP4? If so, how are you doing this? Via Sage plugin? If via plugin, which one? How long does it take to convert a 30 minute recording (1080i or 720p), while maintaining the highest possible quality?

[pjpjpjpj]

Originally Posted by massmanjr

Is anyone converting TV recordings to MP4? If so, how are you doing this? Via Sage plugin? If via plugin, which one? How long does it take to convert a 30 minute recording (1080i or 720p), while maintaining the highest possible quality?

I have used the native Sage converter (when you click on a recording, there is a button for "Convert"). I'm OTA so my original TV recordings are MPG. A 30-minute recording probably takes ~5 minutes, maybe? Less than 10 for sure. But Sage allows queueing, so you can set a bunch to convert and continue using Sage (in fact if you have an entire series, you can choose to batch convert them without having to do each individually).

Works great for me - in about 5 years of converting stuff fairly regularly, I've maybe had 3 conversions that had issues (audio failure that left the resulting file with no audio, or something like that).

[tvmaster2]

editing files with VideoReDo, and converting to .mp4 with Handbrake, which seems to have a faster rendering engine than VRD.

[BobbyDing]

Same as TVMASTER2, Only I also use "MPEG Video Wizard DVD" (Womble) for removing commercials from the MPEG2 and "Xmedia Recode" for converting to MP4/M4V. Don't let the DVD part in Wombles name put you off. The editor works fine on 1080 content. All four have their strengths and weaknesses.

Bobby

[troycheek]

I use HandBrake or FFmpeg. With a quad core 3.4 GHz AMD, conversions take about 50% of run time. However, I downconvert to 480p and use a couple of notches above default quality. Since h.264 is a lossy codec, there's really no such thing as highest possible quality, so it's up to you to decide what's good enough. Settings at the extreme range make for huge files with no appreciable increase in quality.

[wayner]

I use SJQ to kick off a Handbrake job to do this. How long depends on your CPU and whether you use QuickSync (on newer Intel CPUs). That depends on the type of source file as well - whether it is MPEG-2 (from OTA) or H.264 .ts from an HD-PVR.

[trallyus]

If you use placeshifter on another PC I would do a test run with converting one show or movie first as I converted a ton of my shows with SageTV itself and none of my shows that I converted will play with audio using placeshifter on another computer due to the way they all converted.

They all play fine though on my main pc but not streamed through placeshifter.

[BobbyDing]

While not for everybody, the thing I'm liking about wrapping the videos in MP4/M4V containers (H264/AAC) is, besides better stream-ability, that I can run them through a tag program and add tags like they are music files. This really helps when you need to quickly batch change the file/folder names for different media software. Like between SageTV, plex and my portable NAS drive in the car. Each works better with different file naming. Though movies at home primarily stay in MKV format to keep the audio quality.

[massmanjr]

Thanks for the info. I'll have to poke around the SAGE gui when I get back to the house. When using the 'native Sage converter' is there an option to convert to a new file, while maintaining the original file?

I've been using MCEBuddy for my file conversions and file-renaming, so the files are 'plex-compliant.' However the conversion process takes about 1.5X the original recording time. Some of that time is due to my older processor, but I was curious what other folks are doing for conversions.

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by massmanjr

Thanks for the info. I'll have to poke around the SAGE gui when I get back to the house. When using the 'native Sage converter' is there an option to convert to a new file, while maintaining the original file?

I've been using MCEBuddy for my file conversions and file-renaming, so the files are 'plex-compliant.' However the conversion process takes about 1.5X the original recording time. Some of that time is due to my older processor, but I was curious what other folks are doing for conversions.

this is my rename rule.

%ismovie%<%showname% (%airyear%) -%airingdbid%-0,%showname%.S%season%##E%episode%##.%episodename% -%airingdbid%-0>

Final name.
Rocky IV (1985) -20445348-0.mp4

I am using MCEBuddy on my I7 and it takes 10 minutes to encode a 1 hour show using quicksync to mp4. Below is a 2 hour movie.

2015-09-08T14:51:25 MCEBuddy.MetaData.VideoMetaData --> Video Tags extracted -> 
Title: Rocky IV
SubTitle: 
Description: After reclaiming the boxing championship title, Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) plans to retire and live with his wife, Adrian (Talia Shire). However, during an exhibition match, Rocky's friend Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) is mercilessly beaten to death by hulking Russian newcomer Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren). Rocky vows payback against Drago and flies to Russia to train for a Christmas Day fight. Despite their different training methods, Rocky and Drago both wage a long and intense match.
Network: KPXGDT
Parental Rating: PG
Media Credits: Sylvester Stallone;Talia Shire;Burt Young;Carl Weathers;Brigitte Nielsen;Tony Burton;Michael Pataki;Dolph Lundgren;Sylvester Stallone;Robert Chartoff;Irwin Winkler;Sylvester Stallone;James D. Brubaker;Arthur Chobanian
Genres: Movie
Season: 0
Episode: 0
Banner: 
Banner URL: 
IMDB Id: 
MovieDB Id: 
TVDB Id: 
Is Show Movie: True
Is Show Sports: False
OriginalBroadcastDateTime: 1985-05-05T00:00:00
RecordedDateTime: 2015-09-06T18:00:00
SeriesPremiereDate: 1899-12-31T16:00:00
CopyProtected: False
SageTV FileID: 20445348
SageTV MediaFileID: 20655071

--> Source video duration (hh:mm:ss) -> 01:59:58
--> Source video codec -> mpeg2video
--> Source video height -> 720
--> Source video width -> 1280
--> Pre-conversion video duration (hh:mm:ss) -> 01:59:58
--> 

--> <Start At Date/Time>	<Duration (hh:mm:ss)>		<Activity>
--> <09/08/2015 14:51:19>	<00:00:06>		<Running custom commands>
--> <09/08/2015 14:51:25>	<00:00:08>		<Getting show information and banner from Internet sources>
--> <09/08/2015 14:51:34>	<00:00:00>		<Running custom commands>
--> <09/08/2015 14:51:34>	<00:00:33>		<Checking for disk space>
--> <09/08/2015 14:52:07>	<00:00:39>		<Analyzing video information>
--> <09/08/2015 14:52:47>	<00:00:16>		<Trimming video recording>
--> <09/08/2015 14:53:04>	<00:00:00>		<Comskip advertisement scan>
--> <09/08/2015 14:53:04>	<00:00:00>		<Running custom commands>
--> <09/08/2015 14:53:04>	<00:00:41>		<Analyzing video information>
--> <09/08/2015 14:53:46>	<00:23:41>		<Converting>
--> <09/08/2015 15:17:27>	<00:00:44>		<Writing show information>
--> <09/08/2015 15:18:11>	<00:00:00>		<Renaming file using show information>
--> <09/08/2015 15:18:11>	<00:00:00>		<Running custom commands>
--> <09/08/2015 15:18:11>	<00:00:22>		<Moving converted file to destination>
--> <09/08/2015 15:18:34>	<00:00:04>		<Running custom commands>
--> <09/08/2015 15:18:39>	<00:00:00>		<Success - All done!>
--> 

INFORMATION> --> Total time taken by conversion (hh:mm:ss) -> 00:27:19

[pjpjpjpj]

Originally Posted by massmanjr

Thanks for the info. I'll have to poke around the SAGE gui when I get back to the house. When using the 'native Sage converter' is there an option to convert to a new file, while maintaining the original file?

Yes. It's a simple checkbox, "delete original after conversion" (or something like that).
You can also trim off from the front and back (you set the start time and the duration of the converted file, in seconds, so you have to do some math ) and you can specify a folder where it puts the converted file.

I have subfolders for all of my kids' shows on a completely separate drive from my "recordings" drive. I set the favorites to auto-convert to "good quality MKV" (my young kids don't care as much about PQ and it saves some space), delete the original, and throw the conversion into the subfolder for that show. That way I end up with all of their shows in dedicated folders as small MKVs, and none of their shows on my main recordings drive. Some of the shows (PBS cartoons, for instance) always start 8 seconds into the recording and end at like 22:10, so I pre-program that into the conversion and it trims them up neatly.

The converted shows still show up in the recordings list, but I manually use BMT (or is it Phoenix? CMT? Whatever provides this option....) to change them from "recording" to "imported video", where they then are accessible through a "kids" menu item I created.

[massmanjr]

Great, thanks pjpjpjpj