Transcoding

Re: Transcoding video for the iPod

jelwood — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 01:05:15 GMT

shaft1543:
Thanks that the great explanation. Is it safe to assume that if i have a Quad core that i should set those values to 4? Also can i also multithread ffmpeg since this is called to remux into mp4. Thanks again

You can multi-thread ffmpeg, the line below controls it. However, it won't have a big affect on the performance. Your biggest difference will be on the encoding side. And, yes you can set it to 4 for a Quad core CPU.

lavdopts=threads=2

Re: Transcoding video for the iPod

shaft1543 — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 14:14:28 GMT

Thanks that the great explanation. Is it safe to assume that if i have a Quad core that i should set those values to 4? Also can i also multithread ffmpeg since this is called to remux into mp4. Thanks again

Re: Transcoding video for the iPod

jelwood — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 18:41:27 GMT

You would have to modify the MEncoder.conf file. If you installed Dtb in the default location this file will be located at: C:\Program Files\DVRMSToolbox\Applications\Mencoder\Mplayer

You can just open the file in notepad and look for the profile you are using. Below is one example:

[IPod]
profile-desc="H.264/AAC MP4"
lavdopts=threads=2
vf=pp=md,scale=320:-2,harddup
ovc=x264=yes
x264encopts=turbo=1:bitrate=512:vbv_maxrate=768:vbv_bufsize=244:nocabac:level_idc=13:threads=2
oac=faac=yes
faacopts=br=128:object=2:mpeg=4:raw=yes
of=lavf=yes
lavfopts=format=mp4
#DtbExtension=tmp
#dtbhres="-vf pp=md,scale={0}:-2,harddup"

Now, in this example the two options of "threads=2" tells Mencoder to use both processors. The option that would give you the best results in the "x264encopts" option. This thread value tells Mencoder the number of threads to use when encoding the x264 video.

Re: Transcoding video for the iPod

shaft1543 — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 15:46:43 GMT

This may be a silly question, but how do i get mencoder to utilize multiple cores when converting to mp4?

Jason

Re: Transcoding video for the iPod

Coyote — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 21:04:21 GMT

Wherever you want it to be. You can set it on the commandline, from the GUI, or in FileWatcher.

If you are using the batch files, you specify it as the second parameter

export_to_ipod_ffmpeg.cmd "x:\RecordedTVdir\Wildcard*" "x:\outputdir"

Re: Transcoding video for the iPod

MedRed — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 19:39:03 GMT

Where is the output directory for the mpeg?

Re: Transcoding video for the iPod

Coyote — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 18:20:27 GMT

The profiles should be on the first tab of the DVRMSToolboxSettings. If you are still not seeing them, check c:\program files\dvrmstoolbox\profiles for the export_to_ipod* files.If they aren't there, make sure you are extracting the .zip to c:\program files\dvrmstoolbox\

Re: Transcoding video for the iPod

MedRed — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 06:51:05 GMT

Ok... using 1.2.0.9 now on Vista... did a fresh install and retraced the steps... I still do not see profiles or anything else that says ipod... I also don't know what to open that looks like this.

Re: Transcoding video for the iPod

thegasguru — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 02:12:14 GMT

I've been using DVRMSToolbox to cut commercials from my MCE XP files, and then using iPodifier to convert and insert them into iTunes.

What's the advantage of using the Package Coyote has here? Will I get all of the latest versions at the top of the thread?

Also, if I've been following this thread correctly, can I just skip the AVIVO package (since it seems to be the least stable), or are *all* of the components necessary to doing a conversion from dvr-ms video --> iPod/iPhone commercial-free video?

Thanks!!

Re: Transcoding video for the iPod

MedRed — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 23:03:24 GMT

i guess that must be it... i'm using 1.2.0.8

Re: Transcoding video for the iPod

Coyote — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 22:43:26 GMT

Well, first you need to have DVRMSToolbox properly installed. If you're still not seeing any profiles, you might be using an outdated version. You need 1.1.0.6 for XP or 1.2.0.9 for Vista.

(If you don't have Early Access and are using 1.2.0.8, try these profiles)

Re: Transcoding video for the iPod

MedRed — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 20:36:58 GMT

Is there a dummies guide on how to export to ipod from scratch. I'm totally new to this program and not sure what i'm doing. I followed the download instructions and i don't have a profile that even has ipod in the name

Re: Transcoding video for the iPod

Coyote — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 22:45:29 GMT

Yep. I found the problem:

The x264 mencoder config i was using created a .tmp file for ffmpeg remuxing to .mp4
My copy must have gotten overwritten by 1.2.0.9, which includes a working x264ipod profile.

I've modified the profile to rename the temporary file. Extract the attached file and drop export_to_ipod_mencoder.dpc into .\profiles (or reinstall the package, it has been updated.)

Re: Transcoding video for the iPod

Hecks — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 19:36:48 GMT

I can't get either ffmpeg or mencoder profiles to work properly here with DBT widescreen broadcasts (that is, 16/9 anamorphic).

1. ffmpeg converts to 320x240, and the result is a vertically stretched image on the iPod, without black borders top and bottom; changing these settings to a widescreen aspect doesn't seem to work either.

2. mencoder gets the aspect ratio right (black borders show on iPod when unzoomed, disappear when zoomed), and is quicker, but fails at the import-to-iTunes stage: it seems that the remuxing action is over-writing the .mp4 with a file containing only 1 frame, 7kb. It works fine if I remux to a new filename manually - but I can't seem to find the right action to do this automagically; changing contexts doesn't work here for me.

Any help would be appreciated.

-Hecks

Re: Transcoding video for the iPod

Coyote — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 04:29:55 GMT

I don't think you need to restart the DVRMSFileWatcherService unless you need the FileWatcher to use the processing conditions. DVRMStoMPEG will always read them when it's run. You might not want to taskkill itunes in case it is updating the iPod.

DVRMStoMPEG.exe lets you specify a profile to use with the /act= switch, so using processing conditions from the batch file is kind of the long way around. If you have a lot of shows you want and also a lot you don't, this might be the best way to do it. If not, you can just run the batch file multiple times (using another batch file) with a different wildcard each time. The same export_to_ipod.log is used for all of them, so already processed files will be skipped.