*nix/*bsd(and apple?) people...come on in...bout to make our life very very very easy

[morph166955]

So for the past month or so ive been experimenting and writing some software and scripts to make our life really easy. This all started when i began playing with x264 and realizing that there were very few linux cli's (or even gui's for that matter) to automate the ripping/encoding process like avisynth, virtualdub, megui, and stuff like those. So i figured I would write one (and maybe make it an open source project so you can tinker yourself) and make it publicly availible so everyone can enjoy it. Im on the final stages of building this script so i would like some input on what options you all want availible above and beyond what i have done thus far. Also note this script mainly uses mencoder but im considering making it also work with the x264 binary, this could be a version 2 thing though. Heres what it does:

-x264, xvid, lavc and "copy" video encoding (it also has the ability to use ANY availible codec that mencoder has at its disposal, copy does straight up copying using "-ovc copy")

-mp3lame, lavc, pcm and copy audio support

-built in x264 profiles that can do 1, 2 and 3 pass encoding for low quality all the way up to super-ultra-mega-high quality (ok maybe not that high but large enough). profiles support using qp, crf, bitrate, and final size. ill post the profiles up later on once there more locked in. if anyone has any specific options that are more, abnormal, post em up and if they are cool ill throw em in.

-HDTV re-encoding support including tested profiles for the common 720p (ABC and FOX) and 1080i (everyone else) channels. Streams can come from anywhere but mine is setup to run off of MPEG-TS streams. I personally have a Fusion5HDTV USB so thats what im testing off of. If anyone wants more support let me know. ive also tweaked it to handle de-interlacing as well as decimate and softskip for use with reducing framerate from 60fps to 30 or 24, user specified. this feature is auto when using the preset profiles.

-Custom, Home Made Commercial Removal Tool. This is one of my pride and joys in this tool. Its an automated commercial snipper for use with the HDTV and SDTV encodes. you can also manually input specific sections if you wanna slice it up differently. works by scanning each frame looking for blocks of solid black frames. adjustable threshold for detection.

-avi and mp4 output options. mp4 is availible using the x264 binary and/or an avi->mp4 converter. this is still a work in progress and may show up version 2 (or 1.1 or something)

-Options file support so you can make a script to handle your setup if you want.

-input setups for iso, dvd, avi, ts and "other". iso is able to extract data straight from an iso made from either this software (see below) or from something else. dvd can pull straight from a dvd drive attached to the system. avi is used for re-encoding or what ever you may want that has an avi input. ts is for use with HDTV and SDTV MPEG-TS streams.

-dvd iso maker. creates an un-encrypted iso file of the largest (or a manually specfified) title on the disc. if the disc contains several similar titles (like a disc for a tv show), you can specify that it create an iso for each one.

-auto croping/scaling options. basically, the system uses the "-vf cropdetect" option on several small sections of the video in different places to determine the proper crop settings. then, either by user input for a max height/width or using some cool algorithms/formulas that i did, it autoscales the image to a proper size. i dont like using the internal aspect setup since some players dont work properly thus the image is distorted. you can also manually specify crop and scale if you dont like what the software uses

-auto volume normalization profiles plus a manual setup option

-output to logfiles that fixes mplayer/mencoder outputs by stripping the nasty characters out of it (the carrage return and the ^[[J thingy). makes it REALLY easy to look at what each frame did if you wanna really disect it.

-psnr info and encoding timers to show you how well the encode is and how long it all took.

-"dry run" mode that calculates the image sizes and all the auto features (minus commercial detect since that has to run on a more final image due to some issues im working on right now). does everything but run the mencoder passes.


software that my software depends on:
-mplayer/mencoder w/x264 support compiled in. I recommend loading from cvs/svn rather then the tarball's. im going to include in the setup script an option to auto cvs/svn down the current mplayer, ffmpeg and x264 versions and install them. i also MAY include a statically linked version in the software should i decide this is acceptable.

-bash (i run bash 3.00.16 but it should work on most versions 2.0 and higher, im not sure if they changed the scripting language at all)

-x264 binary (if you wanna use this instead of mencoder)


if anyone wants any options added to this or something changed or any comments at all please post up. my goal is to release an alpha/beta version this weekend or early next week at the latest.

p.s. for you apple people, if your running the latest os and you can support the above software i dont see any reason that this wont work with you but i make no promises since i have no way of testing it.

[starg4ze]

Thiz sounds great! I'm on(also) a macbook pro(2.0) and I sure would like to try your sw on that one. Are you compiling the binarys(like x264, avisynth...) yourself, or are you planning on using available builds?
I will try your scripts on my Mac and give you positive feedback or a stab in the back... ;)

[morph166955]

i have yet to decide how im going to handle the binarys. what i think im goign to do is write a bash script to create a temp directory, cvs/svn the needed stuff, compile it, and install it (and have a nice interface so you can decide where and all).

what OS does your macbook have?

[starg4ze]

It's I'm using the latest 10.4.6 along with the firmware supporting bootcamp(dualbooting XP). However, I've not tried installing XP yet.

[morph166955]

cool. whats your encoding source? what have you been using as your x264 encoding options? are you doing any HDTV stuff?

[starg4ze]

cool. whats your encoding source? what have you been using as your x264 encoding options? are you doing any HDTV stuff?

My source is mainly DVDs, and I'm using MeGUI with sharktooths profiles, mainly highprofile. I did some HDTV in the past, and doing it from time to time(don't we all love usenet...) but its not one of my prioritys. But this may very well change soon...here in Sweden, HDTV broadcasts starting now during spring, and I'm planning on seeing world cup in HD this summer :D

I have also just downloaded the new ffmpegx which now is universal, but I have not got around to test it yet. I have also tried Handbrake for Mac, but it sucks due to sound limitations...only stereo is supported in latest version. 5.1 AAC is what we want

[morph166955]

just so you dont all think i bailed, i should be releasing something in the next 48-72 hours. i had a small glitch on the commercial scanner that had to get worked out first which i think it now is. if the few tests that i have queued up tonight run perfectly all i have to do is tack on my already built x264 script to the end of the program, clean it all up a little, and it will be ready for an alpha release.

[MrWizard]

I'll try it out when you release. I'm potentially very interested in this :)

[morph166955]

If anyone is up for testing the first half of the software (the part that splits out the commercials and creates a file ready for x264 encoding of HD and SD TV)...let me know as that part is ready. Pending me finishing the last homework of my physics class (advanced particle and wave theory sucks!) tonight will determine when i finish this...worst case if this takes me all night is i finish it tomorrow/saturday and release by sunday...best case i spend 2 hours on it and can work on it tonight/friday and release on saturday.

[rura]

Well I registered as soon as I saw this thread (never wanted to post before), but now I can finally reply!

I encode a great deal of transport streams to 720p/1080p h.264 via my PCs, but I would love to have a way to do it on my dual G5 2.5. If your tool can do reliable IVTC in the vein of decomb then I will be in heaven.

Also, good luck on your physics stuff. I graduate in two weeks with my BS! :)

[morph166955]

rura - what program are you using to handle the ivtc stuff? my software can at a bare minimum do anything mencoder/mplayer/x264 can do plus more. if you can give me options that will do what you want for any of those i can incorperate them into the program either as a profile or a subroutine. otherwise if you can tell me how your doing it now with other software ill do some research and see if i can get a good working alg. to handle it. I dont see any reason that it cant do it, its just a matter of how thats all.

[nm]

MPlayer/Mencoder has multiple IVTC filters: detc, ivtc, pullup, filmdint (and divtc for certain types of broken telecine). I don't know how they match up with Decomb though. You'll probably need to test the filters yourself to decide which is best for your sources.

[rura]

I've never used any of mencoder's options so I'll have to take a look. With decomb I usually just do a fairly simplistic telecide with a decimate to drop the duplicate frames. For 59.94 sources I'll just drop every other frame first (selectodd or selecteven with decomb) and then a decimate again.

I would be surprised if mencoder didn't have fairly robust IVTC (the divtc option nm mentioned sounds interesting) so I'll experiment with that when you release your tool. :)

[morph166955]

sounds good. while running the latest test (which btw passed, meaning im going to do the x264 section either tonight or tomorrow), i was looking at the mplayer man and found the following options you may wanna look at while im still coding so that i can incorperate cli's for them:

under -vf:
decimate
pp (specifically lb and fd options)
softskip
dint
kerndeint
il
detc
ivtc
pullup
filmdint
softpulldown
divtc
phase

you can find it all here
http://www.mplayerhq.hu/DOCS/man/en/mplayer.1.html#VIDEO%20FILTERS

[morph166955]

ok for those watching this thread...HERES A STATUS UPDATE!!!

Done and Tested 100% successful:
-Auto-Crop/Auto-Scale routines
-Commercial Processor
-HD/SD TV Profile Scanner & HDTV/SDTV Profiles (1080i, 720p, 480iFS, 480iWS, 480pFS, 480pWS)
-MPEG-TS File Repair Tool (.tp files, normally from HDTV/SDTV)
-CLI Processor
-Dependency Checker (looks for mencoder/mplayer, x264, djepg, tr, libx264.so and if they have the proper options availible. if you want all the options they need now, ask me. otherwise im going to have it all in the documentation once the software is out and in alpha/beta/gold)
-File Cleanup Tool
-Low Space Mode (useful if you have very low free space avail, slows down the encode a slight bit. deletes temp files immeadiately instead of waiting for its appropriate cleanup time in the program)

Done and Awaiting Testing:
-x264 Profiles (Thus far i have 5, EHQ, VHQ, HQ, STD, LOW. I have tested them using straight mencoder but i haven't yet tested them in my software because the x264 mencoder section isnt done. They should run flawlessly.)

Done and Awaiting Integration:
-x264 encoder using mencoder (tonight, testing tomorrow)

TO-DO:
-x264 encoder using x264 cli (after program is in alpha testing, figure 1-3 weeks maybe depending on my schedule and other work i have to do...this is next on the list.)
-Complete Documentation (thus far only a --help option exists on the cli to output all availible cli options)



For the HD Profiles, the ones that are known to be interlaced (all 1080i and 480i), a simple deinterlace filter is used (pp=fd). Im going to make it possible to use different deinterlacers hopefully by the first alpha release, if not, then it will be in the second alpha release or the first beta depending if i do a second alpha release. For the x264 profiles

[morph166955]

Ok its update time again.

I hit a really annoying snag last night on the commercial scanner that ended up taking a good 6 hours to fix and its still not 100% done (i have the methodology for the fix i just havent coded it yet...figure another hour or so to do that). It seems like its now working properly. The reasoning behind this was i found an issue when a block of black frames in the middle of a scene happened which caused my software to think that it was the end of the scene and cut the last bit of it off (for those who are wondering, see the house episode from tuesday, part 1, where house turns the MRI on), and occasionally a block of commercials wasnt being picked up as commercials because the tv station wasnt putting real black frames between the commercials (or anything that a computer would even consider as being a black frame!), they were just slapping them together with out any buffer at all.

Thankfully now that i have fixed that to my satisfaction (for now, its really messy and has to get cleaned up), im going to complete the required parts of the fix (just adding some options for the user so that they can manually tell the encoder what to do if it doesnt work properly). Once thats done (assuming i spent less then an hour on it today), im going to integrate the x264 encoder and begin tests on that. My appologies to those who wanted to mess with the software today or tomorrow but i refuse to release something that i dont think works atleast 98% of the time (for an alpha atleast thats good). Saddly tomorrow is going to be a lost day for work on this as i have a bundle of work due tuesday for one of my classes that has to get finished up. At the end of this week i have 3 finals on thurs/fri which are also going to take up my nights on wed and thurs. Im "hoping" to get the x264 stuff in today and have it doing a batch of tests over the next few days. If all looks well on tuesday night ill release an alpha...if not, then its going to be friday night/saturday morning.

If anyone has any specific options included for use on HDTV or x264 please tell me NOW while im still doing the real bulk of the work so that i dont have to do more work later on. Im hoping to have some sort of documentation done for the alpha more then just the --help cli...if nothing else ill include some example lines in the post when i upload it and try to explain em. Also, for those who are going to go into the script to try to decipher it, i dont wanna hear jack about the code being a complete mess and uncommented, i know what state its in and im going to clean it up and comment it at the latest by the first beta release.

Thanks to everyone whos watching this and pre-thanks to anyone whos going to do some good testing and give me some nice feedback once its out.

[morph166955]

progress report:

I had the system running tests on 8 different recordings i have made over the past few weeks of some 480i, some 720p and some 1080i sources. Most of them passed, a few failed but i expected that. Realistically its impossible to make a piece of software that works automatically 100% of the time with out years of testing due to the nature of the difference in sources. Heres my results:

24 from 5-1 - Something didnt work when it ran the pass to fix the TS. Im re-running it now. For some reason the audio got broken and it caused the avi to be bad.

CSI from 5-4 - Mostly worked, I have to add an option to disable one of the things that checks that i put in recently to handle another issue. In short, i have a check in there that looks for what i have deamed "Large Delta" frames, you will see alot about LD frames in my software. Large Delta means that its looking for a drastic change in the frame from its previous I frame. This is used primarily when there are a lack of black frames between the commercials and the entire block gets picked up as a 150+ second scene instead of 30 second blocks. The LD detector sees the large shift between the commercials and compensates for that. It adds all the LD's that it finds up and if that number is greater then a specific threshold it assumes the block is a string of commercials. Unfortunately in CSI there are some major jumps in the action that cause this to go haywire. Im simply going to put a cli in to disable this check. This is the only one that i found with this problem so im confident that it will only show up in maybe 5% of cases. I have another idea that im going to impliement that may fix this that adjusts the threshold based on the durration of the clip. Right now its just a static threshold.

Family Guy from 4-30 - No problems, worked flawlessly

Greys from 5-7 - No problems

House from 4-26 - For some reason it didnt detect the black frames between the first short scene and the opening, cause unknown, im going to look at the verbose log later on today to find my reason.

House from 5-2 - The first scene was very short so it got clipped thinking it was a commercial thus also removing the opening credits. Im adding a cli to drop down the threshold for the max commercial length (right now its really high so i really want to bring this down for other reasons also) that should fix this.

Lost from 5-3 - No issues unless you consider the "last time on lost" in the begining being cut as a problem. I blame this on the fact that the recording started almost at the exact second that this started and that it was short and seemed like a commercial. If you extend the recording like i normally do to 5mins before and after the show to ensure you got everything in the stream then this should be fixed.

Stargate SG1 from 4-25 - The opening didnt clip out like House 4-26. It also snipped the end off of a scene but i know why that happened also and its an easy fix (for some reason one of the checks i have in the system isnt checking properly, its susposed to only use a black frame area if it finds more then 2 I frames that are black, this only made one but it was detected as ok).

Numbers from 5-5 - No problems at all.

The x264 encodings all worked properly for a one pass recording using crf=22. I havent tested them yet for 2pass mode. More to come once i get the 2 pass info working. No blantant issues that i have found thus far but i havent watched any of them straight through.

Just to give you some file sizes so you can see what this software does, heres an ls -ls of the files before, durring, and after the passes:

Before:
3824416 -rwxrw-r-- 1 laser wheel 3914257196 May 1 22:00 24-5.1.2006.tp*
5945648 -rwxrw-r-- 1 laser wheel 6085337972 May 4 22:00 CSI-5.4.2006.tp*
2710944 -rwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 2774628832 Apr 30 23:37 FamilyGuy-4.30.2006.tp*
8081120 -rwxrw-r-- 1 laser wheel 8270989124 May 7 23:05 Greys-5.7.2006.tp*
5031008 -rwxrwxr-x 1 laser wheel 5149203816 Apr 26 00:37 House-4.26.2006.tp*
4841376 -rwxrw-r-- 1 laser wheel 4955118820 May 2 22:02 House-5.2.2006.tp*
6926528 -rwxrw-r-- 1 laser wheel 7089260792 May 3 22:00 Lost-5.3.2006.tp*
5997296 -rwxrwxrwx 1 laser wheel 6138209024 May 5 23:00 Numb3rs-5.5.2006.tp*
1170176 -rwxrwxrwx 1 laser wheel 1197651932 Apr 25 18:57 SG1-4.25.2006.tp*


Durring and After (*FIXEDTS* means that its simply a fixed version of the .tp file with the cropping and scaling done to it, *NOCOMM* means that its after the commercials are stripped):

1449328 -rw-r--r-- 1 laser wheel 1483355542 May 8 19:29 24-5.1.2006.FIXEDTS.avi
625056 -rw-r--r-- 1 laser wheel 639710864 May 9 00:22 24-5.1.2006.NOCOMM.avi
1964864 -rw-r--r-- 1 laser wheel 2011008410 May 8 22:17 FamilyGuy-4.30.2006.FIXEDTS.avi
1079856 -rw-r--r-- 1 laser wheel 1105203904 May 8 22:35 FamilyGuy-4.30.2006.NOCOMM.avi
2297312 -rw-r--r-- 1 laser wheel 2351257418 May 8 23:37 Greys-5.7.2006.FIXEDTS.avi
1111376 -rw-r--r-- 1 laser wheel 1137460990 May 9 00:07 Greys-5.7.2006.NOCOMM.avi
2680864 -rw-r--r-- 1 laser wheel 2743842282 May 9 01:04 House-4.26.2006.FIXEDTS.avi
1538624 -rw-r--r-- 1 laser wheel 1574751250 May 9 01:35 House-4.26.2006.NOCOMM.avi
2619040 -rw-r--r-- 1 laser wheel 2680565664 May 9 02:29 House-5.2.2006.FIXEDTS.avi
1324032 -rw-r--r-- 1 laser wheel 1355105846 May 9 02:58 House-5.2.2006.NOCOMM.avi
2206864 -rw-r--r-- 1 laser wheel 2258693760 May 9 03:59 Lost-5.3.2006.FIXEDTS.avi
1079296 -rw-r--r-- 1 laser wheel 1104627924 May 9 04:27 Lost-5.3.2006.NOCOMM.avi
1967280 -rw-r--r-- 1 laser wheel 2013475176 May 9 05:47 Numb3rs-5.5.2006.FIXEDTS.avi
1287216 -rw-r--r-- 1 laser wheel 1317425496 May 9 06:15 Numb3rs-5.5.2006.NOCOMM.avi
2367632 -rw-r--r-- 1 laser wheel 2423242216 May 9 07:04 SG1-4.25.2006.FIXEDTS.avi
973216 -rw-r--r-- 1 laser wheel 996052692 May 9 07:33 SG1-4.25.2006.NOCOMM.avi

Im a big fan of the fact that after doing the commercial splits that most of the final no-commercial files are around a quater of the original size and the original is less then halff the original and they both still look amazing...they also make it a whole lot easier to manipulate.

[morph166955]

My server just started running some full tests start to finish on about 20 different files to make sure all is well...this is obv going to take a while. Ill let ya all know the results once its all done.

[morph166955]

Just so no one thinks i bailed on this, i am still here. I just spent the past few days taking some nasty finals and moving home but now that im officially home and done im devoting all my time towards releasing this.

The tests i ran earlier showed some errors that require fixing before i put it to alpha. nothing major, just some things that were still acting funny. I have to add a few options so that the user can more easily manipulate whats happening. I also added a --devel option that for now im going to say is "experemental". basically this causes the program to do a few things. First off it causes the output to be ALOT more verbose, in most cases alot more info then anyone needs to know minus myself for developing. It also enables some specific features that developers may want to use like the ability to skip some specific steps if there un-necessary for that round of tests. Most of them are useless to the end user but i know some people enjoy seeing more info so im going to leave it in there.

Im praying that i can get the x264 stuff finished today and testing...if it passes tonights tests we shall see about releasing it in the next 48 hours.

I just want to remind everyone that this is an ALPHA at this point once its released. There are bound to be SEVERAL bugs and annomolies which are going to require tweaking. I have put a few options in to allow the user to manipulate the threshold settings for alot of the auto-detection stuff (auto-crop/scale, commercials, that stuff). I have tested and found what i think are some good base numbers to use for these thresholds but im sure people are going to tweak them and get this down to more of a fine tuned number.

Im also going to setup a website to handle bug reports as well as including an option (which i hope you all use while its in alpha) that will create a very verbose log file for me to disect in the event that you do find a bug. Im in the process of getting a sourceforge site setup for this also since i figure they have the web and cvs stuff people are going to want.

Im moving down to DC for the summer in two weeks (workin for cisco...hells yea) so the first week or so im down there will basically be dead for this project as im sure im not going to get a bloddy thing done on it. My goal is to have this into a good beta by July 1, have an RC by Aug 1 and a gold by Sept 1...or earlier.

[nm]

Sounds promising. Automatic commercial cutting is certainly a feature I would like to have some day to edit my DVB recordings. Currently I'm using Noad (http://www.freepgs.com/noad/index.html) with manual cut point refinement and my own scripts. I also have a recording queue system based on vdrrip queuehandler (http://www.a-land.de/).

Noad recognizes commercial breaks mainly by station logos which are not shown during the commercials, but there are many other checks too. It usually works quite well for most channels, but I wouldn't trust it without checking the cut points myself. Maybe a bit more AI would do the trick, but since Noad is only useful for VDR recordings, I don't think it's the best tool to develop further. Perhaps you could get some ideas from it, if you're interested. The README file is available in English (http://www.freepgs.com/noad/README.en.html).

Good luck with your program!

[morph166955]

not to toot my own horn as they say on this, but i have written some very complex algorythms that handle the detection with 95-100% accuracy. I have created a program thats include in this bundle called "differ." simply put, differ takes a raw image inputed via stdin (using djepg as the jpeg->raw converter externally with a pipe...eg "djpeg myimage.jpg | differ") and creates a numerical representation of the frames data based on the input. then, using some math it is able to pickup a solid black frame. once it knows the black frames it then uses what i call a delta and a large delta as i mentioned above (im a physics person, delta in my book means difference for those who dont know why i used it). It detects a large difference between a series of frames. normally, this only occurs at the drastic break between commercials and occasionally beteween scenes in the show but thats rare. Then using some other calculations it figures some other things out and thus far i have only had one show that causes issues with this...CSI. mainly because they use camera flashes at night frequenly which generate the bright blinks and causes issues...thus i have the --no-ld option that seems to fix this.

im including some options that will let you manually specify the commercial break points rather then let the autodetect handle it but i think thats going to be in Alpha2 since i wanna get Alpha1 out asap for more mass testing then i can do now. I really hope that it all works out on more shows then i have tested since thats the real test. I also hope that the non-tv stuff (dvd's and personal vids and stuff) also works wonders with the auto x264/xvid encoder things that i have in there also. My ultimate goal is simple and two fold, im lazy and if i can have a piece of software do the steps i would normally do manually with a high degree of accuracy then why the hell not. The other is because i think there is a significant lack of *nix stuff for video processing which is disheartining knowing that linux generally runs faster and is easier to build stuff for then windows and the only reason so much windows stuff is out is because of the gigantic base of people who have only windows computers.

Im runnin out now for mothers day but ill post up tonight once i get a good chunk of code done.

EDIT: nm, just reread your post...ill definitely look into that readme to get more ideas since im sure i can improve on my stuff. just so everyone knows this...im VERY open to suggestions and help with all of this. While i would like to say that i am very proficient in coding and techniques since i have a degree in comp sci Ill be the first to admit that i dont know even 5% of whats out there in the cs world so if you have a suggestion, even if it sounds stupid, post, pm, email me, what ever ill either take it into consideration or ill spend the time to explain why its not feesable/possible if i think thats the case...nothing will get idlely dismissed though.

[morph166955]

Once sourceforge approves this project (just submitted a request for it @ Noon 5/18 EST) ill be uploading the alpha, locking this thread, and creating a new one to announce the release. All were waiting on here is sourceforge (and then what ever time it takes me to upload it to them and all that).

Thus far, the software has performed adequately enough in my book to make an alpha release. Im going to write up some initial documentation today and prepare the tarbal's for upload.

Just to note...this is very much still in ALPHA. That means theres bound to be bugs in it, missing features, and things that have to get tweaked. As much testing as i can do on my two servers, my sources are limited to what i have to test with. Im going to be counting on the community as a group to submit detailed bugreports, feature requests, and any insightful comments that you may have (such as possible better options for defaults, etc). Ill be creating a website on the sf.net domain that will help me get these comments from you should you all (even if you post it up in here, i would like for you to make a bug report for it so that i have it in the system). There will be a forced cli for now which creates a very verbose log file for me to sift through when trying to figure out what is and is not working. I would very much appreciate if people could upload those files to me (ill make a spot on the site for tihs also) for evaluation purposes and to help me test things out.

Thanks again everyone.

[morph166955]

appologies appologies appologies for not releasing this yet. i know people are anxious to try it out. i went in a few days ago to get some work done on my arm which has left me "hunting and pecking" to go online so i havent been able to get the sf.net stuff all up and going completely. For anyone watching the project name is "bencoder" on sf.net (my name is ben...i thought it was appropriate seeing as it works on mencoder mainly). Im hoping to finish things up in the next few days before i move down to DC sunday so you can all test it. I also have never been admin or anything on a sf.net project so im still getting used to their admin stuff and all that which has a small curve on it.

On a positive note i have had the system running round the clock tests on it with very positive results so im confident you will all very much enjoy this when its out.

Deadlines suck, but im tryin to get it up before i leave. my arms at like 75-80% of normal so im runnin a little slow but its going. More to come soon...promise. DONT THINK THIS IS A NEVER TO BE RELEASED PROGRAM!!! it is like 95% ready to go i just have to get the 5% done before i put my name on it and let all you have a go at it...i refuse to release something thats not done.

[xyloy]

More to come soon...promise.
I'm looking at it. ^^

'cause I will certainly switch to linux instead of being forced to use Windows Virus Intruders Spywares Trojans & Adwares if some new hardware is unsupported by WinXP...
And there is not so much apps equivalent to VirtualDubMod or MeGUI on linux.

[krmathis]

Any news about this applications?
The project page are up and running, but no code available yet...

https://sourceforge.net/projects/bencoder

[morph166955]

yea sorry bout that. been crazy busy with work and i havent had a second to breathe on this thing. I'm going to be away for work all of next week so im hoping that ill be able to mess with it at that point. Sorry for the delay and 0 news, it honestly has completely slipped my mind in the past 10 days.

[krmathis]

No need to be sorry!
I just wondered, since nothing had happend here or in the project page the last two weeks or so.

I will be back in a couple of weeks....


Edit: An additional 3 weeks have passed, and no activity here or in the project page.
Seems like the project is abandoned, even before releasing a single line of code! :(

[bjpirt]

Any more news on this - it would be a shame to see this die before there's even a release.

Don't give up.

:script:

:)

[morph166955]

Yea, I'm very well aware that this project is behind schedule and for that I truely am sorry to everyone waiting on it. I've been working round the clock this summer (im an enginnering intern for Cisco...so you can imagine what thats like...its awesome) and I have had very little free time to my self that I could work on this. Hopefully the work load will die down after this week ends and if im lucky I may be able to get some work done on this over the weekend and next week at night after I study for my CCNA which I take in 2-3 weeks. As of now, I have some of my more enjoyed TV shows starting in two weeks and I would like to be able to use my software to encode them for myself after recording them. I'm not giving up, and this surely isnt dead, its just a little delayed thats all. If I can, I'll finish putting in some of the cli's to let you guys tweak around with the numbers and release something to you guys before that two week deadline is up. Ill post up here once its done (probably lock this thread, create a new one, and put a pointer to it in this one for those watching it).

Again...SORRY...just think of what your patience will get you in the end!

[krmathis]

Another two months have passed without any code release!

Vaporware (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaporware)

[xyloy]

posting "vaporware" won't help. <_<

[krmathis]

I sure know it won't help.
Posted "Vaporware", because this seems like a perfect example of one.

Announced four (4) months ago, and the author have promised us a version for a long time. But no actual code have been released yet!
As a example, the developer posted this May 4th. (3 1/2 months ago):just so you dont all think i bailed, i should be releasing something in the next 48-72 hours.

If this is not Vaporware, then what is?

[Kaur]

So it's another month and a half, but I'm interested in this. Is this going to be released or not?

[morph166955]

yea...kinda completely forgot about this since i started work (doin 60+ hours a week...not much time to think about anything).

I havent really been doing alot of HDTV-> AVI conversions or much of anything else lately in terms of that but should i get time i may finish this. I was also considering of converting this to c/c++ because the bash script that i was using was taking WAY to long to do the scan of the commercials when the algorithm should be easy to port over. If nothing else i may just built the commercial scanner and leave it at that assuming i find the time to do that...basically dont hold your breath cause i barely have time to eat and sleep every day let alone work on software to do this...

sorry all...if anyone wants i can break down my methodology of how i got it working (mostly, needs tweaking of some of the #'s) so that someone else who has more time can code this up...