sTranscode - Transcoder and cutter for PC and PCH

[-stattik-]

sTranscode


What is it:
sTranscode, as the name implies, is a media transcoder.

It's goal is to create a high-quality media file using modern codecs and container that is compatibile with both PC's and hardware decoders. A modern CPU is suggested for transcoding.

All required software for transcoding is included.

Input
- TS file
- MPG file
- VIDEO_TS folders from DVD's
- Techincally anything that mencoder can decode should work but focus is on the above three formats
- NOTE: DVR-MS is NOT supported

Output
- MKV
Video - AVC(h.264)
Audio - MP3, AAC, VORBIS, or AC3(copied from source)

Features:
- Cut/trim using comskip files
- Autocrop (via comskip or mplayer)
- AutoIVTC
- Auto-Deinterlace
- Supports Video and Audio profiles
- Auto scanning and queueing of files to transcode
- DVD Subtitle support (hardcoded and muxed)
- Animorphic output supported
- PCH(Popcorn Hour)/DXVA compatibility
- Logfile creation
- GBPVR database update with new name if running GBPVR client (PC, MVP, PCH)
- MKV chapter creation using comskip files if cutting is not desired


Quickstart:

- Extract sTranscode archive to directory of choice
- Drop source file on _guided_transcode.bat
- Choose options and wait for transcode to finish

Playback from PC
- Install Haali Media Splitter (For MKV playback) - http://haali.cs.msu.ru/mkv/
- Install h.264 decoders of choice (ffdshow, CoreAVC, MPC HC, ATI, NVIDIA, etc)
- Install audio decoder of choice (ffdshow, etc)


Comskip.ini setup (required for cutting, chapter creation, and one form of crop detection)
- Add the following lines to the bottom of your comskip.ini file
verbose=10
output_edl=1
output_edlp=1

2-pass encoding
- sTranscode performs 2-pass encoding using two methods
- You can specify a custom size or choose option 0 in guided_transcode to pick from some popular sizes.
- If no size is specified, sTranscode will decide the best size using pre-determined sizes that will make archiving to DVD5 media simple.

transcode.ini
- Because of the extra time used to perform auto-IVTC and auto-crop, those values are saved in the show directory and are used in future transcodes. Custom settings may be added if desired.

Profile
- There are a number of video profiles to choose from. To make a custom profile, open of the current profiles, change the name(no spaces) and add/change the values to your desire.


sTranscode can be found here:

http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=4f0b4...faa4c6c51e

[pBS]

could we have an option of outputting .ts also?
[should be ok with those codecs inside]

just not sure how well mencoder does .ts output..[it's been a while]

oh and mpc-hc mkv splitter should do just as well...haven't found one it can't play..

[-stattik-]

Hi pBS,

Mencoder seems to be the only way to do it without a lot of audio lag but it only works with MP3 and AC3 audio. In my brief testing, AC3 audio seems to show a little audio lag. I haven't tested it with the PCH either yet. If you want to test it, I could throw something together.

[pBS]

yea, .ts out seems to be very tricky for some reason...glad to test tho..

have you tried latest vlc? i think it's the only one that can start transcoding before source is finished..[in progress]
been a while, but it used to do rather well transcoding...tho not as fast or solid..
it does do dvds too..

[-stattik-]

Here are the changed files to enable TS output.

Just SET container=ts in the settings.ini file.

The TS container will work with MP3 and AC3 audio.

In my brief tests, it worked on the PCH but not inside the GBPVR client (Avivo drivers). Probably an issue with the h.264 video.

[-stattik-]

In principle yes, but my wife sometimes wants different shows (in parallel) while I still record CSI. Problem, when recorded in HD CSI is 16:9, when analog it is 4:3 and needs some small border cropping, but both types are recorded into the same directory by gbpvr. This is probably not a common problem and the sTranscode.ini solution works in all other cases.

Ah, I see your dilemma. I had similar issues. (Search for "betty" in the original script and you'll see my workaround.) I've attached a new version of the script that incorporates some of what you did. First, the script will check to see if there's enough crop info from Mencoder's cropdetect to make a good decision and, if not, it will do a little more exhaustive search. If the cropping is still incorrect then your customcrop.txt idea can come into play. (set custom_crop=yes in _settings.ini) The format is slightly different but basically you populate it with custom crop values depending on resolution, letterbox, pillarbox, full, etc. Assuming comskip or autocrop gets the aspect right (and usually at least one does) sTranscode will search for a match and if it finds one, will apply it.

In your special case where you have a show with two different cropping strategies, you can add the following line to the sTranscode.ini to address it.

custom_crop_choice=704:368:0:52 720 480

I haven't locked down the final crop settings. I'm still testing different options and I'm trying to go for the best accuracy-to-speed ratio. Like you mentioned above, comskip seems to have a better grasp on determining letterboxing and pillarboxing while Mencoder's cropdetect is good at finding the subtle black bars around the picture.

The custom_crop.txt file goes in the PROFILES directory.

[vmq]

Ah, I see your dilemma. I had similar issues. (Search for "betty" in the original script and you'll see my workaround.) I've attached a new version of the script that incorporates some of what you did. First, the script will check to see if there's enough crop info from Mencoder's cropdetect to make a good decision and, if not, it will do a little more exhaustive search.

Well, I filed a mencoder bugreport bug 1627 to notify them about my problem with lower bars not being detected. cropdetect does not operate in a way that I was thinking it should, the way it's implemented makes it pretty useless. Too bad.

On the other hand I really like the way you implemented the custom cropping together with comskip - that's great and get's rid of keeping track of series names for letterbox, pillarbox, whatever.

... while Mencoder's cropdetect is good at finding the subtle black bars around the picture.

Unfortunately that is not the case when channel logos appear

Btw., I tried the latest mencoder version from here. It seems to work well and is not so old as the one you are bundling with your package

Volker

[-stattik-]

On the other hand I really like the way you implemented the custom cropping together with comskip - that's great and get's rid of keeping track of series names for letterbox, pillarbox, whatever.

Agreed. I tested a few different methods which is why it took so long to respond but I think it addresses a the vast majority of crop situations. I think cropping is easily the most complex of operations to perform on a file in an automated manner.

Unfortunately that is not the case when channel logos appear

Btw., I tried the latest mencoder version from here. It seems to work well and is not so old as the one you are bundling with your package

True. Logos cause all sort of issues. Thanks for the heads up on the new release of mencoder. I was aware of the December release but didn't see today's. I'll be testing it once the current version of sTranscode is stable.

[unseengundam]

I was wondering how to get the "MKV chapter creation using comskip files if cutting is not desired", is something to turn on the setting.ini? I tried auto batch encoding and it didn't seem to create chapters.

[-stattik-]

I was wondering how to get the "MKV chapter creation using comskip files if cutting is not desired", is something to turn on the setting.ini? I tried auto batch encoding and it didn't seem to create chapters.

Apparently it was broken. I attached the fixed version. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

Basically, cut_with_comskip=no should be set and the comskip EDL file needs to be available.