Help out a N00B w/skip and transcode? (I've done the research)

[pointlisse]

Hi,

Just getting started with GB-PVR with an HVR-1600 (analog for now). I'm no stranger to DVRs, digital video, transcoding and such, but just wrapping my head around all of this together with GB-PVR.

In short, I want to do what everyone else wants to do:

- record a program
- rename to include episode name
- clean/cut commercials
- transcode to avi (divx/xvid)

There are many solutions on the boards, and wondering where the most success has been or if there is a recommended solution.

So far I have employed comskip, comclean, and addEpisode in my postprocessing.bat file, in conjunction with processing setting in the GB-DVR config to transcode to divx (w/custom setting in the config.xml for 320x240 for my Archos PMA400).

It's working, sort of, but I need help with the ordering of the events, I think, as I got 3 files:
- original show.mpg,
- show_cleaned.mpg and
- show.avi (not cleaned).

No files renamed, but that may be due to my test show was David Letterman (poor choice for a test, I suppose).

Insight into what a proper postprocessing.bat file should look like/ordering would be most appreciated, or if I'm barking up the wrong tree altogether. Should I be using zprocess? mencoder solution? other scripts? There's lots of choices and I simply want to benefit from the experience of others.

Thanks in advance for a helpful nudge!

Andrew
http://www.pointlisse.com/PMA430/

[pointlisse]

So I got the file named, and converted to .avi, but comskip/clean is no longer working. I've incuded my .bat contents below... what am I missing?

echo off
Rem PostProcessing.bat
Rem This script will be run automatically by GBPVR when found after a recording is finished
Rem To enable it put this file inside your GBPVR default program directory (C:\Program Files\devnz\gbpvr\)
Rem together with Comskip.exe, Comskip.ini and Comskip.dictionary
Rem The script is called with two parameters
Rem %1 is the fully qualified name of the recorded mpeg file.
Rem %2 is the channel number of the recording
echo Postprocessing.bat invoked on %1 recorded from channel %2 >>postprocessing.log

Rem rename file to include episode
addepisode %1 "{show}{[ - ]}{episode}">newfilename.txt
for /f "tokens=*" %%i in (newfilename.txt) do set new=%%i

Rem find commercials in new filename
comskip %new%

Rem new filename variable: %new%

Rem Once the commercials have been identified you can run comclean to delete the commercials from the recording.
call comclean %new%

[zehd]

Should I be using zprocess?

I'll be honest. My intent for ZProcess was mostly for on the fly transcoding for use with MediaMVP. At the time, for it to work, I had to rename ffmpeg (the included transcoder) and then I realized ZProcess had to mimic all of the transcoding features. I then added a sort of all- in- one post processing thing where it would do what you want... BUT

I personally have not been perfectly satisfied with comskip's commerical detection. Erik has been excellent with his support, but I haven't felt the need to troubleshoot the occasional missed commercial.

But because I'm not perfectly happy (I am really happy though) with all the cutpoints in comskip, I won't comclean my files. I'd rather watch, and if I think it missed something, I back up and watch what was missed.

For transcoding to AVI. I don't think that quality and file size achievable is even remotely comparable to the generally accepted file size of about 350 MB for a 1 hour show (45 minutes).. And it's only standard def. FFmpeg will create a 350 but looks like #%$%^&. Get good quality and filesize is up to a gig.

Online, you can get 350 Mb Wide screen, High def rips of most shows. ZProcess with ffmpeg, mencoder or VLC, just can't get it to look like that...

And so, while ZProcess works equally or better than a standard PostProcessing.bat, since I don't use it for those processing tasks (except to test and tshoot), one should know that troubleshooting and explanations may be hard to come by...

[zehd]

So I got the file named, and converted to .avi, but comskip/clean is no longer working. I've incuded my .bat contents below... what am I missing?

echo off
Rem PostProcessing.bat
Rem This script will be run automatically by GBPVR when found after a recording is finished
Rem To enable it put this file inside your GBPVR default program directory (C:\Program Files\devnz\gbpvr\)
Rem together with Comskip.exe, Comskip.ini and Comskip.dictionary
Rem The script is called with two parameters
Rem %1 is the fully qualified name of the recorded mpeg file.
Rem %2 is the channel number of the recording
echo Postprocessing.bat invoked on %1 recorded from channel %2 >>postprocessing.log

Rem rename file to include episode
addepisode %1 "{show}{[ - ]}{episode}">newfilename.txt
for /f "tokens=*" %%i in (newfilename.txt) do set new=%%i

Rem find commercials in new filename
comskip %new%

Rem new filename variable: %new%

Rem Once the commercials have been identified you can run comclean to delete the commercials from the recording.
call comclean %new%

You should rename as your last step. If you rename at the beginning, then comskip and comclean won't know what the file's name is anymore...

[pointlisse]

Thanks, zehd, great information -- the kind I was hoping folks would share. I did figure out the naming at the end as well. This is my current PP.bat:

@echo off
echo Postprocessing.bat invoked on %1 recorded from channel %2 >>postprocessing.log
comskip %1
call comclean %1
addepisode %1 "{show}{[ - ]}{episode}">newfilename.txt
for /f "tokens=*" %%i in (newfilename.txt) do set new=%%i
"C:\Program Files\devnz\gbpvr\Third Party\FFmpeg\ffmpeg.exe" -y -i "%new%" -f avi -ab 128 -ac 2 -acodec mp3 -vcodec mpeg4 -b 710k -s 320x240 -vtag DIVX "%new%".avi

The only trouble (not huge) issue I'm having now is naming the output file. As I have it now, it names it 'show.mpg.avi'. Any suggesting for properly naming it?

Andrew

[-Oz-]

Yea, if anyone can figure out how they do high-def streams at 350mb/hr i'd be super grateful. Using mencoder v 0.2 and some batch processing scripts i wrote (for nightly processing) i have all my shows at about 350mb and they don't look too awful (standard cable quality isn't that great).

Regarding the file naming issue. I'm not sure what it is but there are all sort of %xxx where xxx limit what you get (directory, filename w/o extension, etc).

When I get back to my HTPC i can probably tell you which one you need.

[pointlisse]

Oz, I'd be grateful if you could. Thanks! Other than that, I think I'm set.

Now how to set up the dang Hauppauge remote control...

[zehd]

When you use

Code:

%~dpn1

You are effectively isolating the path and filename, without the ext...

so

Code:

blah blah command "%~dpn1.mpg" "%~dpn1.avi"

would use the 'blah blah command' process utility and transform the first paramater which you knew to be an mpg, and into an avi...

now, as far as addepisode: I have no idea how it works. I have no idea why it wants you to output the data from addepisode to a text file and then process each entry in the text file. But maybe that's for the addepisode support forum...

[pointlisse]

maybe that's for the addepisode support forum

I suppose so. Since I'm using addepisode, I'm not sure I can use '%~dpn1', as '%new%' is my working reference to the filepath and name. Perhaps I'll use some windows REN commands in the pp.bat to manually change the name.

Good suggestion, though. I play with it a bit more. Thanks!

Andrew
http://www.pointlisse.com/PMA430/

[pointlisse]

I came up with a solution, maybe not so elegant, but it fixes the naming issue well-enough

My previous ffmpeg command, based on the addEpisode renamed file was:

Code:

"C:\Program Files\devnz\gbpvr\Third Party\FFmpeg\ffmpeg.exe" -y -i "%new%" -f avi -ab 128 -ac 2 -acodec mp3 -vcodec mpeg4 -b 710k -s 320x240 -vtag DIVX "%new%".avi

produces: "show - episode.mpg.avi"

The double extension created a problem for renaming, so I changed it to this:

Code:

"C:\Program Files\devnz\gbpvr\Third Party\FFmpeg\ffmpeg.exe" -y -i "%new%" -f avi -ab 128 -ac 2 -acodec mp3 -vcodec mpeg4 -b 710k -s 320x240 -vtag DIVX "%new%"_

produces: "show - episode.mpg_"

I added a rename command in the pp.bat as follows:

Code:

ren "%new%"_ *.avi

produces: "show - episode.avi"

Done!

Final postprocessing.bat file contents is a follows for reference:

Code:

@echo off
echo Postprocessing.bat invoked on %1 recorded from channel %2 >>postprocessing.log

comskip %1
call comclean %1

addepisode %1 "{show}{[ - ]}{episode}">newfilename.txt
for /f "tokens=*" %%i in (newfilename.txt) do set new=%%i

"C:\Program Files\devnz\gbpvr\Third Party\FFmpeg\ffmpeg.exe" -y -i "%new%" -f avi -ab 128 -ac 2 -acodec mp3 -vcodec mpeg4 -b 710k -s 320x240 -vtag DIVX "%new%"_

ren "%new%"_ *.avi

Andrew
http://www.pointlisse.com/PMA430/