Automated Cutting and Transcoding Guide Using Mencoder

[linfor]

It looks like the ":: Parse ID_ Variables" part of the script fails to set the %ID_VIDEO_WIDTH% variable. Can you check that your mplayer_path is correct? Just start a cmd.exe and run:

F:\Progra~1\mplayer\MPlayer-mingw32-1.0pre8\mplayer.exe

You are right. It could not find it. I changed it to F:\Programs\mplayer\MPlayer-mingw32-1.0pre8\mplayer.exe and that did not work either so I renamed the directories and changed it to F:\Programs\mplayer\mingw3210pre8\mplayer.exe and that worked. Thanks

[vmq]

Thank you, works great!

But I already have a request for enhancement . My analog recordings show a thin black border, see here for an example, and I use the following patch to get rid of them:
(snip old patch)

The following attached patch fixes some problems I found with the current 0.5.5 version of the script and also enhances the cropping abilities a little. The patch supersedes my previous patches. In detail:

* initialize the debug variable to be empty. This might be needed if the script is run with debugmode=yes and the script is stopped with CTRL-c. After this debugmode=no would not reset debug.

* Make the twopass_30_min_size be evaluated with 3min accuracy.

* Fix some debug statements.

* Fix transferring of metadata to destination file.

* Add settings to custom crop left, top, right and bottom for regular (non-letterbox) recordings as well as provide custom crop settings for black bars of letterboxed transmission. (For those who want to override the automatic settings.)

Regards,

Volker

[linfor]

I ran into a problem and I cannot figure out what is causing it. After I do the transcode to avi I pass the file through VirtualDubMod to add subtitles and such.
After using the batch file all the avis when sent to virtualdub return an audio error.

[-stattik-]

I ran into a problem and I cannot figure out what is causing it. After I do the transcode to avi I pass the file through VirtualDubMod to add subtitles and such.
After using the batch file all the avis when sent to virtualdub return an audio error.

Does the file sound/look ok before you run it though virtualdub? What's the error message?

Out of curiosity, what kind of files are the subtitles in?

[-stattik-]

The following attached patch fixes some problems I found with the current 0.5.5 version of the script and also enhances the cropping abilities a little. The patch supersedes my previous patches. In detail:

* initialize the debug variable to be empty. This might be needed if the script is run with debugmode=yes and the script is stopped with CTRL-c. After this debugmode=no would not reset debug.

* Make the twopass_30_min_size be evaluated with 3min accuracy.

* Fix some debug statements.

* Fix transferring of metadata to destination file.

* Add settings to custom crop left, top, right and bottom for regular (non-letterbox) recordings as well as provide custom crop settings for black bars of letterboxed transmission. (For those who want to override the automatic settings.)

Regards,

Volker

Thanks Volker,

I have a PVR150 and have the same black bars around all my recordings. Since I stil have a SDTV, I don't see the black bars but I plan on going the HDTV route in a few months so a cropping option would be needed. I'll review the rest of the diff file as well. Thanks again for the input.

[-stattik-]

Comskip detects 1:6300, so no autocrop occurs..... should be letterboxed.
I also have the black 'mini' bars left/right.

Do all of your clips that need letterboxing come up with 1:6300?

vmq's suggestion of a custom crop (for the mini black bars) should address your second concern. It will be implemented in a future build of the script.

Multi-CPU mencoder/mplayer:

If you're using x264, any build (with x264) should do.

If you're using xvid, the only builds I can verify are here:

http://tirnanog.fate.jp/mirror/mplayer/

[-stattik-]

can this transcode dvr-ms files?
I'm having trouble configuring the script to do this, any tips?

Are your dvr-ms files SD or HD? The script shouldn't need any additional configuration for dvr-ms. SD files should work once you have the mencoder/mplayer paths configured. HD dvr-ms files typically contains AC3 audio which mencoder incorrectly thinks is PCM, which causes problems.

[DrDDT]

Do all of your clips that need letterboxing come up with 1:6300?

vmq's suggestion of a custom crop (for the mini black bars) should address your second concern. It will be implemented in a future build of the script.

Multi-CPU mencoder/mplayer:

If you're using x264, any build (with x264) should do.

If you're using xvid, the only builds I can verify are here:

http://tirnanog.fate.jp/mirror/mplayer/

Yes, all my tv recordings do come up with 1:6300. (The Netherlands, PAL)

I used a cpu specific build from http://ffdshow.faireal.net/mirror/mplayer/ for xvid, for almost double fps.

[-stattik-]

Yes, all my tv recordings do come up with 1:6300. (The Netherlands, PAL)
.

Ok, try this:

Find "7000" (there should be two.)
Replace both with "6100"

Test it out and see if letterboxing gets flagged.

All my tv recordings that are letterboxed come up with 1:9100 (US, NTSC).

If it works, I'll update the script.

I used a cpu specific build from http://ffdshow.faireal.net/mirror/mplayer/ for xvid, for almost double fps.

Sounds great!

[vmq]

Thanks Volker,

I have a PVR150 and have the same black bars around all my recordings. Since I stil have a SDTV, I don't see the black bars but I plan on going the HDTV route in a few months so a cropping option would be needed. I'll review the rest of the diff file as well. Thanks again for the input.

Sorry, I had a little more time and worked on some refinements of the crop part.

I found that when cropping a 720x480 recording to letterbox 704x368 this is very near to the configured standard HDvideo size of 656x336, so that scaling it down can only be lossy. The patch makes sure that custom cropping works well with the Full Res mode and that the cropped area is correctly enlarged to multiples of 16 in each dimension and the crop offsets are scaled accordingly. It also corrects the aspect ratio.

My recordings with xvid/mpeg2 -Two Pass, No IVTC and Full Res + Letterbox seem to look a little better than with scaling involved. (I use a 300MB per 30min setting.)

Volker