Transcode to MPG ?

[HtV]

Back to the drawing board for me! Btw has anyone used GUI4FFMPEG, it's a bit like zhed's creation, only more basic and you have to adjust AVISynth scripts if you want to use that.

k.

Yes, it works quite well. I do remember some issues with settings that were being set back to default for no obvious reason. So before you click ok to encode make sure the settings are exactly how you wanted them .

[zehd]

Hmm. Well it transcoded OK..but on the MVP it is streched wide, out of sync and occupies only the top 1/2 of the screen, with a lot black down below.

Now I see what you mean!

Back to the drawing board for me! Btw has anyone used GUI4FFMPEG, it's a bit like zhed's creation, only more basic and you have to adjust AVISynth scripts if you want to use that.

k.

Hey man, is ZProcess really that intimidating...? I was hoping you'd jump on and help me make it less intimidating...

To be clear, here are a couple of things that are happening... First, if you only use -f svcd then it's possible that the MVP won't sync properly. The defaults that Sub added don't always work... That's why you have to fudge the math sometimes, and then all of sudden you get what you want... That's why the aspect ratio 352x240 is not actualy perfect 4x3...

So if you have the image all squished and sitting in the top half of the screen, then the standard resolution that sub has for defaults aren't going to cut it.. And that's where ZProcess can help you find the right numbers. Yeah, you could edit the config.xml, then try, then edit, then try (That's what I actually did a long time ago...

Anyway, if you are worried about install and uninstall of ZProcess just remember: The real ffmpeg should be renamed fmpeg.exe, ZProcess is actually named ffmpeg.exe. If you ever want to go back, then just delete ffmpeg, and rename fmpeg to ffmpeg...

I would be very interested in your fresh install experience would be. Realistically, you should get a great image on your MVP without doing anything... But if it's still squished to the top try different aspect ratios untill it smartens up...

[jksmurf]

OK, I'm giving it a whirl right now. Let you know how I get on.... :-)
Ta!

k.

[jksmurf]

OK zehd, I plucked up the courage and tried it. It works, but the results of the setting for transcode 2MVP was not quite what I'd hoped. It was quick and the file was small at 472MB from a 349Xvid AVI.

It was however still centred about the top 1/2 (mostly) and was quite blocky, a little bit of sync. This can probably? be fixed using the 2mpg option, or with high quality checked, but I was quite pleased with the default settings in GUI4FFMPEG, which I saved as follows (You have to hit generate before encoding). It was about 1GB (which I was perfectly happy with!) played well, very very clear (better than my PVR-150 recordings!) no blockiness and no sync issues. It probably sounds a bit churlish writing this, but I don't mean any offense, and it was likely due my own lack of knowledge in any case.

"C:\Documents and Settings\Kristian\Desktop\gui4ffmpeg\ffmpeg.exe" -i "E:\GBPVRVids\ERSeason12E05.avi"
-target pal-dvd -b 6000 -aspect 4:3 -s 720x408 -padtop 84 -padbottom 84 -acodec mp2 -ab 224 -ac 2 -mbd 2
-qmin 2 -async 1 -y "E:\GBPVRVids\ERSeason12E05-1.mpg"

I am not sure if this helps you at all, and note I'm not complaining about your prog, it is was actually VERY easy to use, and I left everything stock, as I didn't have time to do lots of transcode trials.

Cheers,

k.

[zehd]

OK zehd, I plucked up the courage and tried it. It works, but the results of the setting for transcode 2MVP was not quite what I'd hoped. It was quick and the file was small at 472MB from a 349Xvid AVI.

That's right. By default, the Trans2MVP will create a lower quality MPG then the 2MPG. That's so your computer can keep up while viewing the file realTime (at the same time as transcoding...

If you are not wanting to Transcode WHILE you view it on the MVP, then use 2MPG

Also, one could use exactly the same paramaters for both trans2mvp and 2mpg, They're just separte so people can do different things...

It was however still centred about the top 1/2 (mostly)

The dafults aren't working for you. If you want to see a correct picture switch the output 720 x 576.. I have some but not many of the PAL aspect ratios entered in the Output Drop down... I'll be updating ZProcess to have the very important 720x576

But until I can change that, you can manually type in 576 in the Height box just to the left of the aspect ratio drop down box...

and was quite blocky,

Probably the lower resolution

a little bit of sync.

Presumably you mean out of sync. It would seem you will need to change some paramaters... Be sure to click the 'more' button and choose 25 frames for PAL

This can probably? be fixed using the 2mpg option, or with high quality checked,

Several of the features like High Quality and two pass, are hardly noticed when moving from avi to mpg. I would not bother with any settings other than your framerate 25 and output dimensions 720x(576?) You can also


GUI4FFMPEG is similar in that it takes some information, generates a commandline, and then shells out ffmpeg (with ZProcess it's called fmpeg.exe) to do the work...

I am not sure if this helps you at all, and note I'm not complaining about your prog, it is was actually VERY easy to use, and I left everything stock, as I didn't have time to do lots of transcode trials.

Don't worry, It's not comlaining. (It's actually what I wanted, for you to try and find out what's wrong)

I think the problem is definetely because I wrote ZProcess with a set of defaults toward NTSC

I think once you change the framerate and output dimensions, you should have better luck with the deafults. We can tweak from there.

Just remember that any commandline that GUI4FFMPEG can generate, we can do with ZProcess... (well almost any...)

[jksmurf]

By default, the Trans2MVP will create a lower quality MPG then the 2MPG. That's so your computer can keep up while viewing the file realTime (at the same time as transcoding...If you are not wanting to Transcode WHILE you view it on the MVP, then use 2MPG

OK. I am not sure how this would work in real life; if e.g. I wanted to watch a Xvid on the TV via the MVP, does it automatically intercept the calls from the MVP to GBPVR's in-built transcode and perform this transcode in "real-time"?

The defaults aren't working for you. If you want to see a correct picture switch the output 720 x 576.. I have some but not many of the PAL aspect ratios entered in the Output Drop down... I'll be updating ZProcess to have the very important 720x576.

OK, Cheers. btw in practice GUI4FFMPEG made a 720x408 final size.

Presumably you mean out of sync. It would seem you will need to change some paramaters... Be sure to click the 'more' button and choose 25 frames for PAL.

Ah. I guess that'll pass the same params as GUI4FFMPEG.

Several of the features like High Quality and two pass, are hardly noticed when moving from avi to mpg. I would not bother with any settings other than your framerate 25 and output dimensions 720x(576?)

OK

I think the problem is definetely because I wrote ZProcess with a set of defaults toward NTSC

Ah. Don't forget the PAL users :-)

I think once you change the framerate and output dimensions, you should have better luck with the defaults. We can tweak from there.

OK, next time I make an XVID!

Cheers Zehd, you've been very helpfulm always.

k.

[zehd]

It's possible that we still have some crossed wires...

OK. I am not sure how this would work in real life; if e.g. I wanted to watch a Xvid on the TV via the MVP, does it automatically intercept the calls from the MVP to GBPVR's in-built transcode and perform this transcode in "real-time"?

In real life, you are on your couch. You turn on your MVP. You select the newly downloaded xvid... You wait a few seconds. The Mvp displays a letterbox of your xvid within your 4x3 televison screen...

(This assumes that you downloaded a wide screen HD rip, and your are using a 4x3 televison)

What really happens when you do the above is: GB_PVR knows it can't play AVIs without help from something that will transcode. It calls out to ffmpeg. ZProcess, pretending to be ffmpeg intercepts the call. The passed command line is something like:

ffmpeg.exe "YourXVIDmovie.avi" -b -l -a -h "MVP9987453.mpg"

the blah refers to all the other stuff and switches that ZProcess ignores... ZProcess knows from this commandline that it's a MVP On the fiy transcode, and so it auto swicthes to Trans2MVP mode... (You don't see this)

It calls the real FFMPEG which is renamed as fmpeg.exe and passes the correct commandline, so that a MPG is generated in exaclty the same place GB-PVR is waiting for it, and when it appears, GB-PVR starts serving it to the MVP

OK, Cheers. btw in practice GUI4FFMPEG made a 720x408 final size.

I would bet not... The command line that you showed me in the last post generates a 720x408 image with two black bars, each 84 thick. Therfore, FFMPEG is really generating a file which is the PAL standard of 720x (408+84+84 =576)

[jksmurf]

It's possible that we still have some crossed wires...In real life, you are on your couch.

... and that's where it seems I should stay, having guessed wildly beyond my feeble imagination :-) . I was trying to say something like that, and I think I get it, I just didn't say it as well as you did.

I would bet not... The command line that you showed me in the last post generates a 720x408 image with two black bars, each 84 thick. Therfore, FFMPEG is really generating a file which is the PAL standard of 720x (408+84+84 =576)

Ahhh ... gotcha! :o

cheers.

k.

[jksmurf]

Hi Zehd,

Same issue for me again, trying to convert an H264 (MP4) to MPEG2 with MP2 for MVP Playback.

Tried your zprocess but it does not seem to want either:

(i) Add my H264/MP4 to the queue ??
(ii) Want to kick off the transcode?? 1 sec then stops

See log below?

So I then tried GUI4FFMPEG which reports this error:

Unsupported codec (id=86018) for input stream

========================= IF IT HELPS ====================
Source Proprties (Reported by GUI4FFMPEG)
Duration: 02:12:48.8, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 1580 kb/s
Stream #0.0(und): Video: h264, yuv420p, 720x400, 25.00 fps®
Stream #0.1(eng): Audio: mp4a / 0x6134706D, 24000 Hz, stereo
"C:\Documents and Settings\Kristian\Desktop\gui4ffmpeg\ffmpeg.exe" -i "E:\GBPVRVids\RugbyUnionNZvsEng061106\RugbyUnionNZvsEng061106.mp4" -target pal-dvd -b 6000 -aspect 4:3 -s 720x400 -padtop 88 -padbottom 88 -acodec mp2 -ab 224 -ac 2 -mbd 2 -qmin 2 -async 1 -y "E:\GBPVRVids\RugbyUnionNZvsEng061106\RugbyUnionNZvsEng061106.mpg"

--enable-memalign-hack --enable-mingw32 --enable-gpl --enable-a52 --enable-mp3lame --enable-cflags=-I/local/include --extra-ldflags=-L/local/lib

- FFMPEG version is reported (came with GUI4FFMPEG) as SVN-r6252
- libavutil version 49.0.0
- libavcodec version 51.14.0
- libavformat version 50.5.0
built on September 18 2006, gcc: 3.4.4 (mingw special).

Some guy at Videohelp.com said "Looks like it was compiled without faad enabled. Along with the above version info, it should list the configure params used. --enable-memalign-hack, etc. If you don't see --enable-faad, then it isn't enabled, so no aac decoding since libavcodec doesn't have an aac decoder of its own. Possible they wanted to keep it LGPL. Enabling faad would mean --enable-gpl. "

======================================================

Does your version have faad ?

k.

[EDIT]I downloaded an updated celtic_druid ffmpeg build from http://ffdshow.faireal.net/mirror/ffmpeg/ (MUST use Firefox, IE7 is banned) and simply popped that into the GUI4FFMPEG dir and ran it with the same settings as I had before and to my surprise it ran (still running as we speak). I noticed that it had (amongst other things) x264 and faad. I had a little look at some of the output file and it looks OK. Maybe this could be slotted stright into Zprocess too, and support x264?

--enable-mp3lame --enable-libogg --enable-vorbis --enable-faad --enable-faac --enable-xvid --enable-x264 --enable-mingw32 --enable-a52 --enable-dts --enable-pp --enable-gpl --enable-memalign-hack --enable-amr_nb --enable-amr_wb --enable-swscaler --enable-avisynth.

[zehd]

Hi Zehd,

Same issue for me again, trying to convert an H264 (MP4) to MPEG2 with MP2 for MVP Playback.

Tried your zprocess but it does not seem to want either:

(i) Add my H264/MP4 to the queue ??
(ii) Want to kick off the transcode?? 1 sec then stops

See log below?

So I then tried GUI4FFMPEG which reports this error:

Unsupported codec (id=86018) for input stream

========================= IF IT HELPS ====================
Source Proprties (Reported by GUI4FFMPEG)
Duration: 02:12:48.8, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 1580 kb/s
Stream #0.0(und): Video: h264, yuv420p, 720x400, 25.00 fps®
Stream #0.1(eng): Audio: mp4a / 0x6134706D, 24000 Hz, stereo
"C:\Documents and Settings\Kristian\Desktop\gui4ffmpeg\ffmpeg.exe" -i "E:\GBPVRVids\RugbyUnionNZvsEng061106\RugbyUnionNZvsEng061106.mp4" -target pal-dvd -b 6000 -aspect 4:3 -s 720x400 -padtop 88 -padbottom 88 -acodec mp2 -ab 224 -ac 2 -mbd 2 -qmin 2 -async 1 -y "E:\GBPVRVids\RugbyUnionNZvsEng061106\RugbyUnionNZvsEng061106.mpg"

--enable-memalign-hack --enable-mingw32 --enable-gpl --enable-a52 --enable-mp3lame --enable-cflags=-I/local/include --extra-ldflags=-L/local/lib

- FFMPEG version is reported (came with GUI4FFMPEG) as SVN-r6252
- libavutil version 49.0.0
- libavcodec version 51.14.0
- libavformat version 50.5.0
built on September 18 2006, gcc: 3.4.4 (mingw special).

Some guy at Videohelp.com said "Looks like it was compiled without faad enabled. Along with the above version info, it should list the configure params used. --enable-memalign-hack, etc. If you don't see --enable-faad, then it isn't enabled, so no aac decoding since libavcodec doesn't have an aac decoder of its own. Possible they wanted to keep it LGPL. Enabling faad would mean --enable-gpl. "

======================================================

Does your version have faad ?

k.

[EDIT]I downloaded an updated celtic_druid ffmpeg build from http://ffdshow.faireal.net/mirror/ffmpeg/ (MUST use Firefox, IE7 is banned) and simply popped that into the GUI4FFMPEG dir and ran it with the same settings as I had before and to my surprise it ran (still running as we speak). I noticed that it had (amongst other things) x264 and faad. I had a little look at some of the output file and it looks OK. Maybe this could be slotted stright into Zprocess too, and support x264?

--enable-mp3lame --enable-libogg --enable-vorbis --enable-faad --enable-faac --enable-xvid --enable-x264 --enable-mingw32 --enable-a52 --enable-dts --enable-pp --enable-gpl --enable-memalign-hack --enable-amr_nb --enable-amr_wb --enable-swscaler --enable-avisynth.

Well, if you want to try for me, just backup the fmpeg.exe (original ffmpeg renamed during install of ZProcess) and then copy the newer version of ffmpeg into the gbpvr/3rd party/ffmpeg folder... (remember to rename it fmpeg.exe)

Let me know how it goes. If the version you have is backward compaitible, there should be no tribble at all...

BTW, we could move ZProcess questions over over to the sub forum anytime...!