File conversion queue how does it work

[luttrell1962]

I recorded a bunch of shows yesterday atsc/qam ts format and none of them where converted because of a Java error running projectx. But after I rebooted today it started converting the files. Does PVRX2 continually scan directories for ts files to see if they are converted and retries the conversion over and over until it succeeds. This seems to be the behavior I'm seeing. I looked in the database file but not sure what I'm looking at. I think the last field has something to do with conversion status, can't remember the name though.

It would be good to understand this in case I need to re-enable conversion for a file that has failed but will not retry.

[gEd]

When you configure gbpvr to convert recordings, it adds an record into the transcoding table in the gbpvr database and launches ffmpeg to convert the recording, using settings from config.xml. I asume that when the process completes without error, the file name is updated in the recordings table and the entry removed from the transscoding table. It doesn't scan folders.

Conversion appears to be broken to .ts files atm. Not sure if this is something that Sub is looking to fix in the next release. I think it needs an update to the latest ffmpeg but Sub needs to ensure that is doesn't create problems for other utilities that depend heavily on the older version.

I'm not sure how projectx fits into this mix unless you have created a customer encoding process that calls this program.

[luttrell1962]

Thats very interesting I'll look at the transcode table. I did right a custom entry that calls a bat file to do the projectx (txfixer,ac3 splitter) ffmpeg conversion to avi after projectx fixes the file. Does PVRX2 use the extension setting target= avi in the config.xml file to determine if the conversion is successful. I have a conversion bat file for analog, but PVRX2 passes %2 filename as a mpg extension, and I have target extension set to avi. So it may run over and over again. or it maybe erroring out on this since I have not seen a conversion done automatically yet. I have a fix for the analog batch file the writes the file with avi extension but have not implemented it yet.

I don't know why conversions started later they where not converted last night but when I looked this morning after rebooting several ts files where converted to avi to my surprise since java -jar projectx.jar was not working until I rebooted this morning. But it was running for several hours before I looked. Maybe it did it this morning and I was mistaken that it was not working.

Testing custom bat files is a pain. If you stop the recording early the conversion does not run. Is there a way to force the program to convert partial files after a aborted record? Otherwise you have to wait until the next half hourly interval to see if it worked or longer if conversions are queued. Of course you can manually test files from the cmd prompt but that is a also a pain as you have to micky mouse around with the batch file to work.

[sub]

Testing custom bat files is a pain. If you stop the recording early the conversion does not run. Is there a way to force the program to convert partial files after a aborted record? Otherwise you have to wait until the next half hourly interval to see if it worked or longer if conversions are queued. Of course you can manually test files from the cmd prompt but that is a also a pain as you have to micky mouse around with the batch file to work.

It doesnt run run the bat files on aborted recordings, but you can schedule manual recordings that are only a minute or so long.

[luttrell1962]

How do you select a time period. I've seen it on channels that don't have program listings available. But when I went to record there was no option for time period.

can I manually add tasks to the trancode_queue to convert failed conversions. I would think this would work as long as it is empty. But it might mess up the recording_schedule file extension. Is there a process/service that is running that processes this queue?

[sub]

How do you select a time period. I've seen it on channels that don't have program listings available. But when I went to record there was no option for time period.

You can use the 'Manual Rec' button in the Recordings screen, then type any four digit time. HH:MM

can I manually add tasks to the trancode_queue to convert failed conversions. I would think this would work as long as it is empty. But it might mess up the recording_schedule file extension. Is there a process/service that is running that processes this queue?

You can probably add them to that table and have them processed. I cant remember for sure. Its been years since I last tested the transcode stuff.

[luttrell1962]

It worked just entered the oid and 0 and 0 for the other fields