[addon] Beyond TV Alternate Compressor

[Ctwombat]

worked great thanks for the find joe

[jsereda]

Yeah thanks Joe.
I know you posted a sample script that you use, and it works great. I changed the four cc variable to divx and the files worked on my archos.
I'm use to getting a much greater compression ratio by using 2 pass encoding, and I tried with ffmpeg, but couldnt get it to work. Any idea's on where to get a sample for that?

[DaWanderer]

I just wanted to let everyone know that I haven't abandoned the project. If anyone has the results of some tests they've done with the media property bug. Since it seems to work the first time and not the rest, it could either be a problem with the Beyond TV or with running it as a schedule task (maybe accessing the Beyond TV server from a scheduled task causes the error?).

I'll keep chipping away at it, but I would appreciate any feedback you guys could offer! Thanks for your help!

[jsereda]

I figured out why the encode programs I tried failed when doing a second pass. For some reason the AVI files were being marked as read only. That was fixed easily by adding an attrib command to the script. I did have the issue of Beyond TV Show data only trasfering on the first file being encoded. I get the feeling you are trying to get the data from the BTV Server. I'm am pretty sure you can get this info from the file's meta data. The GUIFFMPEG program posted has a command to transfer metadata. I couldn't get it to run properly, but I'll try a little more later. There are a few programs, "VideoRedo" "IGCUTTER" "BTV SHOW HANDLER" that seem to move meta data between the files them selves without hitting the BTV Server, at least I think.

[DaWanderer]

I know that some of the file's meta data is stored in separate NTFS streams within the file; I'm just not sure how I could copy it over without having to rely on ffmpeg.

I think part of the problem might be in my scheduling. If you use the built-in scheduling, the task uses the SYSTEM account, which may have trouble accessing the BTV server. Try manually scheduling CompressorAgent.exe to run with the Scheduled Tasks Control Panel item (your account MUST have a password to be able to do this).

I plan to have my next version just run in the system tray so I don't have to deal with this problem. The meta-data issue is going to still be there, so if anyone has experience with getting data from NTFS streams in .NET, let me know.

[jsereda]

I had 2 mpeg files in a directory I was testing and I manually pressed "run now", I only got show data in the first mpeg that got encoded. I havent tried scheduling a task. Hope this helps.

[Ctwombat]

can you post your fix for read only files

[jsereda]

After the command for the first pass and before the second pass just add another line with

attrib $OUTFILE -r

This removes read only flag on the output avi file that was created by the first pass. I dunno why my system started marking everything read only.

Im going to play with some more ffmpeg options tonight.

[Ctwombat]

right now im using the script joe provided, yet im not getting the quality recordings i would like. Im avging about 800 mb per hour, when i would like to get around 600, and on playback the pixels are really visible along with squares in the picture, anyone have a fix or can recommend a better script, maybe 2 pass?

[JoeMay]

Originally Posted by Ctwombat

right now im using the script joe provided, yet im not getting the quality recordings i would like. Im avging about 800 mb per hour, when i would like to get around 600, and on playback the pixels are really visible along with squares in the picture, anyone have a fix or can recommend a better script, maybe 2 pass?

I'd be interested as well. To be honest, that script was just a simplified example.. a baseline to mess with for using ffmpeg (which I personally find a bit easier to use than the original program). There is quite a bit of documentation and options, most of which seem to be dependant on xvid or divx variables (and I'm hardly an expert when it comes to compression). If anyone else has taken the time to do some playing with it, I'd certainly love to see what scripts you come up with too :-)

Joe

[jsereda]

The one I use isn't intended for a high quality as much as it is a small resolution to be watched on my handheld device. But you can make some changes to the -s (size) and -b (bitrate), when I want to encode at "640x480" I change the bitrate to 1000. I get pretty small file sizes compared to what BTV puts out and the quality is not bad. One thing I can not figure out with ffmpeggui is how to encode the audio at a CBR. The audio lags on my handheld device and if I open the encoded file with Virtual Dub it tells me "Improper VBR audio encoding in source AVI file blah blah blah....." I've also messed around with the AV sync switch and it didnt do anything noticable.
There aren't many audio options for this ffmpeg program. I was going to try and find a script to make virtual dub handle the audio and encode the avi in ffmpeg with no audio, and combine the two scripts into a BTV Alternate compressor job.


echo encoding $INFILE pass 1
"C:\gui4ffmpeg\ffmpeg.exe" -i $INFILE -hq -vcodec mpeg4 -g 300 -b 500 -aspect 4:3 -s 320x240 -acodec mp3 -ab 128 -ac 2 -mbd 2 -vtag divx -qmin 2 -pass 1 -passlogfile logfile -deinterlace -async 1 -y $OUTFILE
echo encoding $INFILE pass 2
attrib $OUTFILE -r
"C:\gui4ffmpeg\ffmpeg.exe" -i $INFILE -hq -vcodec mpeg4 -g 300 -b 500 -aspect 4:3 -s 320x240 -acodec mp3 -ab 128 -ac 2 -mbd 2 -vtag divx -qmin 2 -pass 2 -passlogfile logfile -deinterlace -async 1 -y $OUTFILE
echo Deleting log file
del "f:\tv\work\logfile-0.log"

[Ctwombat]

using jsereda's code for now, changed bitrate to 1500 and res to 512x384 but still not getting the quality recordings im shooting for. now averaging around 750mb per recording.

im not sure if you guys have ever downloaded shows from the internet, but ive noticed most range from 300-500 mb per hour and the quality is perfect, i know they highest end tuner cards etc. i just want to get close to glimmer of that.

EDIT:

Also ive been hearing alot of AVC, has anyone experimented with AVC and ffmpeg?

EDIT #2:

I just came across this thread http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=89979 and if you follow it down it leads you to a link for Mencoder with just x264. I was playing around with the program and it seems it allows you see the command line, but I cant seem to be able to import a video, anyone have success with it, that could help me out?

[moonlonely]

Anyone have any luck getting the program to copy media properties yet? I was thinking about switching to leecole's autoxvid program but 1. it still seems to be a work in progress and 2. the alternate compressor does absolutely everything I want it to do perfectly, except copy media properties.

[DaWanderer]

It appears that the media properties are stored in the headers of the video files. I've searched a lot through google looking for a library or even a simple tutorial on how to read / write the headers for MPEG2 and AVI files with no luck. If someone is willing to provide some information, I'll add the ability to the Alt Compressor.

[moonlonely]

Thanks for the update. I'd offer to help, but most of this stuff is way beyond me. In the meantime, this is still the best program I've found for automatically making pocketpc versions of every show I record. It'd just be easier to delete programs once I've viewed them if I could go into beyondtv and delete both the original program and the pocketpc copy by reading the program descriptions.