FilmShrink

[opsis81]

What is FilmShrink?

FilmShrink is a DVD-Video backup software for Windows, which transcodes video titles into the RealMedia format (RealVideo / RealAudio 10) powered by the Helix DNA platform. It supports batch encoding, multichannel audio, subtitles, and it has a user-friendly GUI, so it's very easy to use for everyone.

Homepage
http://filmshrink.sourceforge.net/

[karl_lillevold]

This looks very nice!! Elegant UI and very simple to use, everything completely automatic, and well suited for beginners :) No choices for the expert though (filters, resize, de-interlace, inv-telecine), but I am sure this is a design decision, and the program is intended to figure these settings out automatically. I will try on some various content to see what it does.

When I first tried it, it told me most of my VOBs were invalid, after analyzing, even though the folder plays nicely in all s/w DVD players. What typically could be the problem in this case?

Then on another DVD 'folder', it analyzed the VOBs fine, and I was able to create and start encoding a job. Then, I noticed in the job file,
<rcBestPSNRMode type="bool">true</rcBestPSNRMode> is used.
I have mentioned a few times, this mode is purely experimental, and may hurt visual quality, and I would recommend to not use this.

[karl_lillevold]

I added FilmShrink to the Helix Producer Frontends sticky (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=82042).
What is needed to compile FilmShrink from source?

[Wilbert]

Apperently it contains AC3Source/DTSSource (and other) AviSynth plugins, but I can't get them to work manually (ie outside FilmShrink). Please notify me

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=89629

if you can get it to work.

[opsis81]

This GUI is amazing.I don't know much about RealVideo but I would call it the AutoGK for RealVideo with the beauty of DVDShrink.:D
I downloaded the source from http://filmshrink.sourceforge.net/dl.html
and in read me it says:

3. Compiling Instructions
____________________________________

FilmShrink must be compiled using Borland C++Builder 6. You have to install the latest version of the following components:

* Toolbar2000 -> http://www.jrsoftware.org/
* TBX -> http://g32.org/
* Windows XP Theme Manager -> http://www.lischke-online.de/

The path of the directories containing the include files of these libraries
must be added to the "Include Path" of the project (Project->Options->
Directories/Conditionals).

FilmShrink also requires m2tools, which can be downloaded from the project's
website. The contents of the "<m2tools>\include" directory must be copied
into "<FilmShrink>\src\m2tools".

Any patches karl_lillevold are very welcome:)

[tiki4]

I tested this shortly yesterday and I must say this is really impressive. This is already quite much feature complete when it comes to a beginners GUI. Also encoding straight from the DVD Image mounted by Daemon tools is very nice.
A little feature request from my side would be an option to change the priority producer is run at. At the moment it is set to normal priority which might get a little bit annoying if doing other things in the foreground. So either default to idle priority or let the user choose.

Cheers,

tiki4

[karl_lillevold]

Thanks for the compile info.

I tried a couple of more examples, but I always end up with invalid VOBs and so far have not been able to select the main movie, because it always has VOBs that fail analysis. I was able to encode a trailer though :)

[tiki4]

Did you try to encode from a mounted DVD image? This worked quite well for me.

tiki4

[karl_lillevold]

No, hard-drive folder with all DVD files (unencrypted).

[a_afra]

Hi,

My name is Attila Afra, and I'm the developer of FilmShrink. First of all I would like to thank everybody who tried out my tool. The "invalid VOBs" bug is quite weird, because I've tested FilmShrink with several DVDs (including "The Matrix", which is quite complex), and I've never seen this problem. :( If the "VTS_?? is invalid" message appeared AFTER analysing the respecting title set, then the bug is probably in the IFO parsing part. Karl, could you please send me those IFO files (or at least one of them), the directory listing and some details about the video stream (TV system, aspect ratio, framerate)? These could help me a lot in finding and fixing this serious problem.

As you can see, FilmShrink currently doesn't has advanced options for experts, but I'm working on a new version (I will release it in about 2-3 weeks) which will contain a lot of new features:

- manual crop
- custom encoding complexity
- de-interlace, inv-telecine, noise filter options
- advanced codec options
- 2 audio tracks
- external subtitles
- adjustable encoder priority

Also rcBestPSNRMode will be removed from the job template, as suggested by Karl, and I will try to fix as many bugs as possible. Of course, beginners won't have to deal with the new advanced options, because everything will remain automatic by default. I don't have too much time for testing, so if you find a bug, please let me know about it! If you have any suggestions/feature requests, post them right here!

I've noticed that a few people are interested in the new AviSynth plugins used by FilmShrink. These plugins are part of m2tools, which can be downloaded (full source code) from FilmShrink's homepage. m2input is a slightly modified version of DGDecode, and ac3input/dtsinput/lpcminput/mpainput were written by me using different decoder libraries (liba52, libdts/libdca, MAD). The cause of your problems is that the video/audio plugins can only accept files generated by m2index, the main indexer library, which is based on DGIndex. m2index first creates a "full" video/audio/subpic index, from which you can later rebuild (using the m2rebuild function) the index of a single PGC/angle, usable by the plugins. I will soon write a detailed description on how to use this package, and I will release a sample command-line tool (with source) which uses m2index.
I'm awaiting all your questions and suggestions...

Attila

[tiki4]

Hello Attila,

welcome on doom9.

tiki4

Edit: typo

[karl_lillevold]

Attila: Yes, welcome! And with quite an impressive GUI to bring along.. I sent the information you requested via e-mail. Hope it is useful.

[a_afra]

Thanks, Karl! I've managed to fix the bug! The IFO parsing code was OK, the problem was with the NTSC detection. I will release the fixed version this weekend.

[opsis81]

Welcome Attila :)
Please give me the option to encode HE-AAC at 64 Kbit or 96 Kbit.:)
Even if I select "downmix channels to stereo" the program goes for surround mode at 96 and 64 Kbit,so it encodes with cook and not racp.
I haven't been able to use racp below 128 kbit until now.
Could an option to choose between multichannel,surround or stereo could do what I want?
Also the volume of my encodes seems to be low :( .Is there any option that could boost volume and I'm missing it?If there isn't any could you add it?

[a_afra]

There is currently no option for boosting the volume, but I will implement it in the next version. Are you sure that the volumes in the volume control/player are all turned up? The volume of my encodes are all normal.

I will also add the option to encode HE-AAC at 64/96 Kbps in downmixing mode too.

[opsis81]

Everything is set to default values in my volume control/player.But it is true that I want audio a little louder than the usual.:)
Another future request:the program doesn't seem to remember my settings.It would be cool if they could be stored in registry or to an ini file.This isn't a top priority request.There are other things you should change or add first.;)

[damrod]

we can select only dvd folder as source?
bad luck i use mpeg2 file for my video capture

[a_afra]

Yes, you can transcode only DVDs.

[Ishan]

Too bad :(
I also do some cap using my dvb-c card wich output MPEG2/MP2 audio.
Any way to add .mpg input with frame accurate cuting? (to cut commercial and others...)
I'm manualy doing it using avisynth/vdubmod, encoding to xvid/mp2 but rmvb would be a nice option :)

[karl_lillevold]

any news on the update to fix the NTSC problem?

[a_afra]

The new version is almost done! I have very little spare time and there are still a few things to do (some new features :)). I will try to release it in a couple of days.

[karl_lillevold]

That's great. By the way, I tried to compile the project from source, but I got stuck since I was unable to compile TBX. Even though I followed the TBX installation instructions, patched Toolbar 2000 accordingly, compiled and installed Toolbar200, TBX just refused to compile and install. I had linker errors, include errors, and even Borland Builder crashes :( Oh well, I think I will just wait for your new version.

[karl_lillevold]

after a few re-compiles without changing anything, suddenly TBX decided it was time to install itself.

So then off to build FilmShrink. However, I get these error messages:

[C++ Error] uxtheme.h(176): E2146 Need an identifier to declare
[C++ Error] uxtheme.h(546): E2146 Need an identifier to declare
[C++ Error] FSKMenu.h(43): E2209 Unable to open include file 'TBXProgressBar.hpp'
[C++ Error] FSKMenu.cpp(1525): E2093 'operator!' not implemented in type 'AnsiString' for arguments of the same type


TBXProgressbar.hpp is not included in TBX-2.1Beta. Is an older or newer version required?

I resolved the uxtheme.h compiler error with the help of google and trolltech, and editing uxtheme.h according to:
http://www.trolltech.com/developer/compilers/bcpp.html

I apologize if experienced Borland users know some of these issues by heart. I have not used any of their compilers before...

[karl_lillevold]

getting closer...

I can remove the include of TBXProgressbar.hpp without compiler errors. Then I had to copy a bunch of files from m2tools/include to m2tools, as the readme.txt describes. Finally, source files compile.. Now I get
[Linker Fatal Error] Unable to open DCLUSR.LIB

It turns out there is a project called dclusr.bpk in
C:\Program Files\Borland\CBuilder6\Lib
However, when I build this, all I get is dclusr.obj. I resolved this by renaming dclusr.obj to dclusr.lib. Now, finally, I get back to the progressbar problem, with TBXPROGRESSBAR.OBJ not found by the linker.

I guess I need an older version of TBX after all...

[TSO COBOL]

very good job :cool:

[a_afra]

Version 0.2.8 is available for download! :D Sorry for the delay, but my spare time is quite limited. It contains lots of new features and bugfixes:

- NTSC related bugs fixed
- GUI improvements
- manual crop filter
- deinterlace and inverse telecine filters
- audio gain filter
- advanced video/audio codec options (for experts)
- encoder priority adjustment
- loss protection
- custom encoding complexity
- optimized preview
- minor bugfixes

I've noticed that there are a few problems with the recompilation of the tool, so I've included a more detailed description in the Readme file of the source code package. I hope it will be useful... I also removed the reference to TBXProgressBar and dclusr so you won't have to deal with these. If you still have problems, feel free to post your questions and I will try to help.

All NTSC DVDs should now work without any problems. I live in a PAL region, so it's quite hard to find such disks. Sorry for this huge bug.

Karl: Could you please test this new version with the problematic DVDs? Thanks.

I'm awaiting all your suggestions, opinions, feature requests and bug reports...

[Sirber]

- loss protection

Is that a RMVB option? If yes, it's totally useless for archive, add more haeders. It was for streaming.

[karl_lillevold]

a_afra: NTSC works great now. One encode completed. Very nice!

And I was finally able to compile FilmShrink, thanks to your detailed updates. A couple of additional pieces of information:

1) The diffs included in TBX-2.0 are for Toolbar2000 2.1.2 (not 2.1.4 as your readme suggests), so I used 2.1.2 instead. Seems to work.

2) I struggled a long time to compile TBX, due to linker errors (unresolved externals in bcbsmp.lib), until I discovered the solution via google: I had to add as a requirement bcbsmp.bpi. Voila, linker errors gone, and package finally installed.
http://www.elists.org/pipermail/twsocket/2002-November/017865.html

[karl_lillevold]

Originally posted by Sirber
- loss protection

Is that a RMVB option? If yes, it's totally useless for archive, add more haeders. It was for streaming.
That's right, but what if someone wants to create an RM file suitable for streaming ;)

[a_afra]

You can also use Toolbar2000 2.1.4 if you download the following diff package: http://www.rmklever.com/zipfiles/TBX214Patch.zip

[DarkNite]

First of all: Great work!

Secondly: "Remembering" prior analysis would be a great time saver for some people with slightly underpowered systems (or feature packed DVD's), and remove the minor annoyance of waiting another 15 minutes while the DVD folder you just set up a previous job from is going through analysis all over again just so you can back up that funky 3 minute video at the end of the DVD titles menu.

[snowcrash]

Thank you very much for this excellent encoding app. I've encoded a couple movies and it works great. Just one question though. Is there any way to change the settings for a job after it's already in the queue? I couldn't find a way to do that.

[a_afra]

There is no way to change the settings for a job after it's already in the queue. Sorry...

[snowcrash]

Well, I've been using it a bit more and it is a great program when it works, but there does seem to be some bugs. For the second time last night it froze up in the middle of an encode. When I got up in the morning it was stuck at 26% with CPU usage at 100% all that time. This is the 2nd time this has happened to me, didn't say anything about the first one cause I thought it was a fluke. I did not see anything in the Producer log that would be useful either. Any way we can troubleshoot this?

[a_afra]

I haven't seen this bug before. It is possible that the Producer causes this problem. This is very strange because the 100% CPU usage means that the Producer was working in the background. Did you check this in the task manager? Did it froze up with the same DVD (and at the same %)? What complexity did you choose? How high was the priority of the encoder?
Could you please send me the producer log? Also you should try to encode the same DVD with the same settings but in one pass mode! It seems that the app blocks right after the first pass, and it is possible that the Producer keeps encoding the content in the background without any problems, but the GUI (in a special case like this) simply cannot parse the encoding progress. If I am right, the progress indicator should remain at 0%.

[hodney]

Hi

Just tried the program and it works great. The results even at a low bitrate were very impressive!

Forgive my ignorance, but will this only work with Realplayer? Is there anyway of encoding to mpeg or wmv? If not, does anyone know of some software that will.

Cheers

[karl_lillevold]

RealVideo Playback options:
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=81980

[snowcrash]

@karl

I'm starting to question myself now. I'm wondering if maybe the encoding was still going and I just didn't wait long enough to see the progress bar move. I could have sworn they were stalled but now I have some doubts so let me see if I can confirm that there's really a problem before we go into troubleshooting it. THanks.

[PatchWorKs]

What about Theora ?
Or SNOW ?

[Sirber]

Originally posted by snowcrash
@karl

I'm starting to question myself now. I'm wondering if maybe the encoding was still going and I just didn't wait long enough to see the progress bar move. I could have sworn they were stalled but now I have some doubts so let me see if I can confirm that there's really a problem before we go into troubleshooting it. THanks. Look in the task manager if producer.exe is using some CPU :)
Originally posted by PatchWorKs
What about Theora ?
Or SNOW ? This is a Helix Producer-based GUI. Theora is there very alpha and no snow.

[valnar]

Nice looking program.

From a Realvideo illiterate, are there any benefits to using the Real compression vs XVID or DivX? Just curious.

Robert

[karl_lillevold]

Originally posted by snowcrash
I'm starting to question myself now. I'm wondering if maybe the encoding was still going and I just didn't wait long enough to see the progress bar move. I could have sworn they were stalled but now I have some doubts so let me see if I can confirm that there's really a problem before we go into troubleshooting it. THanks.
There are some ways you can troubleshoot this:
0) Before encoding, enable PSNR log (reg key (http://www.lillevold.com/files/calcPSNR.reg))
1) in Task Manager, make sure it is producer.exe that is using 100% CPU. If not, the problem is elsewhere.
2) if producer.exe is using 100%, find rv9log.txt. Should be in producer's 'current' directory, usually either the same folder as producer.exe, or the working folder (where the source files are). a_afra should be able to let us know where, or I may try myself later today. Check if this file (rv9log.txt) is still updating. Cygwin 'tail -f' or just open in editor and check if frames are appended to the end of this file. If rv9log.txt is constantly updating, encoding is not frozen. Be patient...

Hope this helps.

[Sirber]

Originally posted by valnar
From a Realvideo illiterate, are there any benefits to using the Real compression vs XVID or DivX? Just curious.Yes. IMO, better quality for low and medium bitrate. Just try and judge for yourself :)

[a_afra]

rv9log.txt is located in the "<job>\.fskj" hidden directory (<job> is the output path of the job).

[jfcarbel]

a_afra, In future versions is there any plans that the user may have the ability to preview the audio streams and the ability to play the video with audio like the current DVDShrink GUI does?

Also any chance for cutting. I would love the ability to make some small clips of my favorite scenes.

Thanks for such a great app!

[a_afra]

You can preview the video with audio in the final step of creating a new job ("Configuration") by clicking on the Preview button in the bottem left corner of the window.

I don't think that I will have time to implement editing, but a simple trimming function (cut from the beginning and the end of the title) will come soon!

[snowcrash]

Today I reencoded one of the movies that I thought failed before and now I realize why I was confused. The Filmshrink progress meter doesn't seem to work. I watched the job for the last 3 hours and the progress meter showed 26% the whole time. Eventually it did finish though and I got my encoded movie. I don't really care that the progress meter doesn't work, as long as it gets the job done.

[WorBry]

Snowcrash. I've observed the same, although in my experience the progress meter doesnt move at all. For some time I kept aborting the job after 15 minutes or so, thinking that nothing was encoding, particularly when I could see no files in the created output folder. Personally, I think it would be helpful if this bug could be fixed.

[a_afra]

In what cases did the progress meter freeze (for every job or for only a few of them)? What encoding complexity did you choose? I'm trying to fix this bug, but I need your help, so please answer these questions if possible!


Also please download the following archive file which contains a debug version of "FilmShrink.exe":
http://filmshrink.sourceforge.net/FilmShrink_029_pre_debug_exe.rar

This a newer version, so it is possible that the bug won't show up, but I think it will. Extract it to your FilmShrink folder, run it, and start encoding a job with which you had freezing problems. Wait till it reaches the freezing point (+ 15 minutes) then stop it and close the app. Copy the newly created "filmshrink_enc.log" file located in "C:\" to a different directory (to make a backup) and post it as an attachment or send me via e-mail (even if the bug doesn't show up). If you manage to do this, I'm sure I will be able to fix the bug. Thanks!

[the-warriners]

The first disk i tried it on worked fine but ever since then i have had problems.
It keeps stopping at 26%, same as someone else reported. I was using standard settings apart form manual resize to 360x240 for pocket pc and it was running on idle priority.

It took about 1 hour to get to 26% and then remained on 26% for 30 minutes until i killed it. Producer process was jumping around cpu usage in task manager between 40 and 95% so it was still running - just that the progress bar wasnt moving.

Anything else i can do to help?