Using PostProcessing.bat to create a queue?

[OTAjunkie]

I've finally got Mencoder working to transcode TS to AVI and clean commercials.
I use these files on my phone, they're only about 325mb(1hr show),480x320 and +10db on the audio.
But if I get 2 or more instances of Mencoder running with other stuff happening, well the results are not nice.
So I'd like to create a queue file of all recordings(24hrs) and then get Mencoder to knock'em off ONE AT A TIME.
Any ideas on how to to this?

Thanks

[Graham]

I would try the simplest thing that I can think of ...

postprocessing.bat starts a command file called, say, dotranscode.bat ...

IF EXIST TranStop.txt in some folder then TIMEOUT for, say, 15 minutes.
COPY TranStop.txt from someplace to a folder.
Do mencoder
Delete TranStop.txt

Good Luck

[ElihuRozen]

I'm at work & don't have the code in front of me, but when I wanted to do something similar, I had postprocessing.bat add the filename to the end of a text file. Then, in PostUpdateEPG.bat, I go through & process that list of files.

Mine is a little more complicated because I wanted to defrag, but only if the file still exists after a couple days.

[ElihuRozen]

Near the top of my PostProcessing.bat

Code:

cd /d "C:\Users\Public\NPVR\Scripts"
set QUEUEFILE=PostProcessingQueue.txt

Near the end of my PostProcessing.bat

Code:

rem write filename to queue for later processing
echo %1 >> %QUEUEFILE%

I was going to put my code from PostUpdateEPG.bat here, but I realize that it just called a program written in AutoIt3. That program is pretty complicated because it would check how old each file was and then only process the ones older than two days. In your case you could do something like this (bearing in mind I am writing this without knowing mencoder or fully testing it):

Code:

@echo off
cd /d "C:\Users\Public\NPVR\Scripts"
set QUEUEFILE=PostProcessingQueue.txt
set LOGFILE="..\logs\ProcessQueue.log"

for /f "delims=," %%i in (%QUEUEFILE%) do mencoder -option1 -option2 -inputFile %%i >>%LOGFILE%

The filename will be passed to mencoder in quotes. This assumes you do not have any commas in your file names. It defaulted to using a space as a delimiter, but my file names have spaces.

[OTAjunkie]

Yesss! this looks very nice.
I'll have to wait until tomorrow to try it but I like what I see.

Thanks very much!

[OTAjunkie]

I managed to get the lines into PostProcessing before comskip finished on this evenings first recording.
The QUEUEFILE is populating!
I'm unsure how to complete the Mencoder lines for the PostUpdateEPG.
Here's the two Mencoder comannds:

mencoder "%~dpn1.ts" -af volume=+10db -vf-add scale=480:320 -ofps 29 -oac faac -faacopts br=192:mpeg=4:object=2 -ovc xvid -xvidencopts
bitrate=1500:aspect=16/9:threads=2 -o "%~dpn1.avi"


mencoder "%~dpn1.avi" -edl "%~dpn1.edl" -oac copy -ovc copy -of avi -o "%~dpn1_.avi"

OR the combined command:

mencoder "%~dpn1.ts" -edl "%~dpn1.edl" -af volume=+10db -vf-add scale=480:320 -ofps 29 -oac faac -faacopts br=192:mpeg=4:object=2 -ovc xvid -xvidencopts bitrate=1500:aspect=16/9:threads=2 -o "%~dpn1.avi"



Could you save me some time and provide the correct syntax?

BTW: These commands ONLY seem to work with a copy of Mencoder that is 12,574KB, if anyone wants to use it.

[Nistrod]

Without being a wet blanket, I can see all sorts of race conditions in the above code. The for loop probably pre-reads the queue file, so any entries added while processing is happening are ignored.
The queue file gets deleted when complete, throwing away the new entries.

You could get around this by creating trigger files for each recording that are removed when complete.
New trigger files will be processed next time around.

I was exploring mcebuddy, which seemed to integrate quite well with NPVR. Use the one at http://sourceforge.net/projects/mcebuddy2x/ not the one Google finds first (thats old).
This watches a folder for new TS files, and then converts them to mkv/mp4 or whatever, using ffmpeg or mencoder.
This queues things up, and you can specify the number of simultaneous conversions.
It all works pretty (actually very) well, but...

the conversion was, how should I put this, less than satisfactory. Poor resolution, and quite jerky.
You can tune the mencoder parameters, but I haven't got around to this yet. I dont know mencoder.

OTAjunkie has better understanding of mencoder than me, so this bit may be a breeze.
Just a suggestion.

[OTAjunkie]

Without being a wet blanket, I can see all sorts of race conditions in the above code. The for loop probably pre-reads the queue file, so any entries added while processing is happening are ignored.
The queue file gets deleted when complete, throwing away the new entries.

This is not an issue for me because processing won't start until after the last entry is added.

But I still can't get the right syntax for the processing bat!

[ElihuRozen]

This is an example of a PostUpdateEPG.bat that should work for you, but you should double-check the syntax of the mencoder options since I did a copy & paste from your post and one of the characters displayed as an emoticon. You could just copy & paste your original line(s) in the doMenucoder section.

Code:

@echo off
cd /d "C:\Users\Public\NPVR\Scripts"
set QUEUEFILE=PostProcessingQueue.txt
set LOGFILE="..\logs\ProcessQueue.log"

rem ...................................................
rem Do other postUpdateEPG processing here if necessary
rem ...................................................


for /f "delims=," %%i in (%QUEUEFILE%) do call:doMencoder %%i

rem Move the QueueFile so we can start with a new one for anything we record today
move /Y %QUEUEFILE% %QUEUEFILE%.save

rem ...................................................
rem Do other postUpdateEPG processing here if necessary
rem ...................................................


goto AfterMencoder
:doMencoder
mencoder "%~dpn1.ts" -af volume=+10db -vf-add scale=480:320 -ofps 29 -oac faac -faacopts br=192:mpeg=4bject=2 -ovc xvid -xvidencopts bitrate=1500:aspect=16/9:threads=2 -o "%~dpn1.avi" >>%LOGFILE%

mencoder "%~dpn1.avi" -edl "%~dpn1.edl" -oac copy -ovc copy -of avi -o "%~dpn1_.avi" >>%LOGFILE%

goto :eof

:AfterMencoder


rem ...................................................
rem Do other postUpdateEPG processing here if necessary
rem ...................................................


echo done

[OTAjunkie]

Ok, The process has started.
I'm gonna let it run for the full queue (8 programs/7.5 hours of shows) should take about 8.5 hours real time if all goes well.

Will update on completion or other result.

Thanks so much for your help on this guys!