.TS file format ?

[Hal2010]

Another question, not directly on topic, but about recordings in general: is it possible to schedule manual recording to other steps than 10 minutes? For instance, I would like to have test recording from 21:24 to 21:27. That is possible with GBPVR. Now... I cannot get it.[/QUOTE]

I am not sure if you realise that you can use "start time" and "finish time" adjusted by pre- and post- padding to achieve exact start and finish times.
Unfortunately though this method wont work with your example. It requires a "finish time" to be set which is prior to the "start time"; I think nPVR assumes that the "finish time" is tomorrow.

[zvm]

I know about pre- and post- padding. And I am using that frequently. But that is not what I am asking, as you concluded in your second sentence. Not that big deal though - just wondering because it was possible before.

And automatic transcoding? If I want my recordings in avi format, I need to take two actions: 1. ts to mpg; 2. mpg to avi. The emphasis is on "I, myself". With GBPVR it can be done without my presence.

[johnsonx42]

Why is option to automatically transcode to avi gone (or any other format)? I like it on GBPVR. With that option no other transcoding tool is required. And more importantly, none of my time.

This is one of those things that's been explained before. Maybe someone ought to write a FAQ for some of this stuff. Not me, but someone...

Anyhow, NPVR has been designed around the .ts file. Everything about the way it works and communicates with clients is built on recording and playback of .ts files. Therefore there are no built-in automatic transcoding options available, and as far as I can tell from sub's comments there never will be, nor will there be any Transcode buttons in the stock Recordings or Video plugins, though plugin devs would be free to do this in their own plugins.

That said, you can add transcoding commands to your PostProcessing.bat file. ffmpeg is included with NPVR, and you can look in the GB-PVR Config.xml file to see the ffmpeg command lines it used for the various transcoding options and build those into your script. If you transcode a recording and then delete the original file, NPVR will automatically detect the new file and play it when you ask it to. But this is left up to you to do, to make the point that transcoding may break other functionality.

[zvm]

Thanks for a quick reply.
I know about ffmpeg command lines in config.xml of GBPVR - I used to change those lines options to accommodate to my needs.
Script should check whether there is a new TS file on certain location (Recordings folder) and if so, do the transcoding. But I don't know how to pass source file location and name (automatically, dynamically) to post_processing.bat. :o

[johnsonx42]

I'm not sure I follow you there... why does anything need to monitor any location?

NPVR calls PostProcessing.bat when the recording is done. The full path and file name of the recording is passed as %1. %2 is the channel it was recorded from, useful in the case where you want different transcoding commands for different channels. %3 is the recording OID from the database, which you probably won't have any use for. If you need the full path and file name without the extension, that's %~dpn1.

so you could have a commands like:

Code:

ffmpeg -i %1 -f avi -vcodec mpeg4 -otheroption 1 -somethingelse 2 %~dpn1.avi
del %1

so you recode the original file to a new file with an .avi extension, then delete the original file. of course I'd want to check somehow that the transcode really worked before deleting the original file, I'm not sure how you do that.... faith maybe?

[zvm]

I'm not sure I follow you there... why does anything need to monitor any location?

NPVR calls PostProcessing.bat when the recording is done. The full path and file name of the recording is passed as %1. %2 is the channel it was recorded from, useful in the case where you want different transcoding commands for different channels. %3 is the recording OID from the database, which you probably won't have any use for. If you need the full path and file name without the extension, that's %~dpn1.

so you could have a commands like:

Code:

ffmpeg -i %1 -f avi -vcodec mpeg4 -otheroption 1 -somethingelse 2 %~dpn1.avi
del %1

so you recode the original file to a new file with an .avi extension, then delete the original file. of course I'd want to check somehow that the transcode really worked before deleting the original file, I'm not sure how you do that.... faith maybe?

first of all, thanks a lot for helping me!

I may have been missing something, but where is PostProcessing.bat? :confused: Before it was in GBPVR directory. But in 1.4.7 it does not exist (I would have copy it from there). Neither in NPVR. Or I just cannot find it.
Furthermore, even if I find or create PostProcessing.bat how do I tell NPVR to calls it?
Thanks again!

PS: I wouldn't delete original recording. I am not doing it now either. Just for the reason you mentioned. I delete it after I make sure transcoding went well. Basically, whole this story for me is relevant only for recordings I would like to keep. That's why I liked old GBPVR possibility to assign transcoding to particular recording - not like in last versions: all or nothing.

[Reddwarf]

The PostProcessing (and all other .bat files belonging to npvr) are in the "Scripts" folder in npvr's data directory. Npvr automatically calls PostProcessing after each recording.

[zvm]

Well, not in my case. There is just placeholder.txt whose content is:

Batch files can be created in this directory.

PostProcessing.bat
ParallelProcessing.bat
UpdateEPG.bat

But there are no any files. Maybe I can download them from somewhere and put them into that directory!? Or could someone post them?

[Reddwarf]

Maybe I can download them from somewhere and put them into that directory!? Or could someone post them?

The content of the batchfiles depends on what you want to do, where the programs you want to run is located etc. There is no standard PostProcessing.bat, you'r supposed to create one yourself and put the commands you want into it.

[johnsonx42]

You might try having a peak at the sticky linked oh-so-prominently in my signature.