HOWTO conveniently convert videos using mencoder, x264

[fangorn]

New versions of blu2mkv, menc and riptoh264 are available that are now finally able to pass
language selections given on the command line to avi2mkv.

I should start testing promised functionality more thoroughly.

Have fun,

fangorn

[Korhul]

Code: Select all

 blu2mkv title01.mkv
Switch will be removed from the Perl core distribution in the next major release. Please install it from CPAN. It is being used at /usr/local/bin/toolbox_fangorn, line 43.
Source file is of Type Matroska
Width = 1920
Height = 1080
Aspect = 1.77777777777778
Aspect should be 1.77777777777778
Source Framerate: 23.976
Input Framerate used: 23.976
Output Framerate used: 23.976
No audio stream specified. Trying to use specified languages if available in source file.
If not, default stream will be used.
extracting audio stream  for later usage
MPlayer 32128-4.4.3 (C) 2000-2010 MPlayer Team

Playing title01.mkv.
Cache fill:  0.00% (0 bytes)   

libavformat file format detected.
[matroska,webm @ 0x1deade0] Unknown EBML doctype '(none)'
[matroska,webm @ 0x1deade0] Estimating duration from bitrate, this may be inaccurate
[lavf] stream 0: video (h264), -vid 0
[lavf] stream 1: audio (dca), -aid 0, -alang ger
VIDEO:  [H264]  1920x1080  0bpp  23.976 fps    0.0 kbps ( 0.0 kbyte/s)
Core dumped ;)

Exiting... (End of file)
Resolution = 1920:1080
Do not scale is yes
video is interlaced: no,
dynamic noise reduction is active: 
calling external program choose_video_parameters
unknown_path    -f 23.976 -o tmpdir_title01/title01_x264_encoding_parameters.txt -p nq  -w 1920  -h 1080 -W 1920 -H 1080  -B 6000
external call failed
unknown_path    -f 23.976 -o tmpdir_title01/title01_x264_encoding_parameters.txt -p nq  -w 1920  -h 1080 -W 1920 -H 1080  -B 6000
video filters used for first pass:  -vf hqdn3d=2:1:2
AUDIO channel used  -aid 0
MEncoder 32128-4.4.3 (C) 2000-2010 MPlayer Team
Option x264encopts: turbo option is deprecated; use slow_firstpass to disable turbo
success: format: 0  data: 0x0 - 0x2f370a0a
libavformat file format detected.
[matroska,webm @ 0x2860b30] Unknown EBML doctype '(none)'
[matroska,webm @ 0x2860b30] Estimating duration from bitrate, this may be inaccurate
[lavf] stream 0: video (h264), -vid 0
[lavf] stream 1: audio (dca), -aid 0, -alang ger
VIDEO:  [H264]  1920x1080  0bpp  23.976 fps    0.0 kbps ( 0.0 kbyte/s)
[V] filefmt:44  fourcc:0x34363248  size:1920x1080  fps:23.976  ftime:=0.0417
Input fps will be interpreted as 23.976 instead.
Opening video filter: [expand osd=1]
Expand: -1 x -1, -1 ; -1, osd: 1, aspect: 0.000000, round: 1
Opening video filter: [hqdn3d=2:1:2]
==========================================================================
Opening video decoder: [ffmpeg] FFmpeg's libavcodec codec family
Selected video codec: [ffh264] vfm: ffmpeg (FFmpeg H.264)
==========================================================================
audiocodec: framecopy (format=2001 chans=6 rate=48000 bits=0 B/s=0 sample-0)
Pos:   0.0s      1f ( 0%)  0.00fps Trem:   0min   0mb  A-V: -nan [0:0]

1 duplicate frame(s)!
Writing header...
ODML: Aspect information not (yet?) available or unspecified, not writing vprp header.
Writing header...
ODML: Aspect information not (yet?) available or unspecified, not writing vprp header.
Pos:   0.0s      2f ( 0%)  0.00fps Trem:   0min   0mb  A-V: -nan [0:0]
Movie-Aspect is 1.78:1 - prescaling to correct movie aspect.
x264 [info]: using SAR=1/1
x264 [info]: using cpu capabilities: MMX2 SSE2Fast FastShuffle SSEMisalign LZCNT
x264 [info]: profile Main, level 4.0

1 duplicate frame(s)!
Writing header...
ODML: vprp aspect is 16:9.
Pos:   0.1s     16f ( 0%)  0.00fps Trem:   0min   0mb  A-V: -nan [0:0]
Writing header...
ODML: vprp aspect is 16:9.
Pos:  43.1s   1047f ( 1%) 22.33fps Trem:  77min 3320mb  A-V: -nan [6464:0]

Too many audio packets in the buffer: (4096 in 21222288 bytes).
Maybe you are playing a non-interleaved stream/file or the codec failed?
For AVI files, try to force non-interleaved mode with the -ni option.

Too many audio packets in buffer? What is the cause for this and how to get rid of it, please?

[ktsaou]

Hi,

I am trying to use these scripts, but I get this error:

Code: Select all

tux fangorn # ./avi2mkv
Can't locate feature.pm in @INC (@INC contains: /etc/perl /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.8/i686-linux /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.8 /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.8/i686-linux /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.8 /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.8/i686-linux /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.8 /usr/local/lib/site_perl .) at ./avi2mkv line 220.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at ./avi2mkv line 220.

The offending line is this:

Code: Select all

use feature 'switch';

I read this is a feature of perl 5.10 but I have perl 5.8.8 installed. Is this right? We should install an unstable version of perl for these to work?

Regards,

Costa
[/quote]

[ExElNeT]

I am trying to use your recent version of avi2mkv and get the following error:

Code: Select all

mencoder not available in path unknown_path. Please correct this.

whereis mencoder gives:

Code: Select all

mencoder: /usr/bin/mencoder /usr/local/bin/mencoder /usr/share/man/man1/mencoder.1.gz

greetings

[msalerno]

I'm also having issues with these scripts. I have a bunch of small clips with different bitrates, some SD and some HD. I was and still am hoping that menc is the best way for me to batch encode these, but I'm getting too many errors.

Code: Select all

menc ./foo.mp4 
Switch will be removed from the Perl core distribution in the next major release. Please install it from CPAN. It is being used at /usr/local/bin/toolbox_fangorn, line 43.
File Type: MP4/3GP/3G2 ISO Media
FPS: 59.750
width: 384
height: 288
aspect: 1.33333333333333
calling external program choose_video_parameters
-> Using "Normal Quality" preset
nice: unknown_path: No such file or directory
Switch will be removed from the Perl core distribution in the next major release. Please install it from CPAN. It is being used at /usr/local/bin/toolbox_fangorn, line 43.
movie title is foo
mplayer not available in path unknown_path. Please correct this.

Running the script with perl -d shows me that my first error is here:

Code: Select all

my $command = sprintf "%s  -identify -frames 0 -vc null -vo null -ao null %s 2>&1", $progs->{mplayer}, $opt->{file};
 print $command . "\n" if $opt->{debug};
 @mplayer_info = `$command`;
 chomp @mplayer_info;

The script does not locate my mplayer, although like 370 is "$progs->{mplayer} = "/usr/bin/mplayer";" which is the correct path.

Are these scripts still maintained?

[angry_vincent]

Hi!
How to work with scripts? , i have DVD copied to harddrive, for example, ~/video/eraserhead with audio_ts and video_ts subdirectories. I want to create a single eraserhead.mkv with highest quality possible. I can't find any documentation and examples for those scripts. Thx in advance

[devsk]

avi2mkv script doesn't seem to like whitespace in file name. There are some quoting issues.

[fangorn]

avi2mkv script doesn't seem to like whitespace in file name. There are some quoting issues.

Yes, this is the case for most of my scripts. Whitespace and other crude characters are not officially supported

Sorry for the long time out. I somehow lost track of this thread.

I will now start develop the scripts again after just using them for quarter of a year.

[fangorn]

I don't know if this is still relevant, but hey

Code: Select all

 blu2mkv title01.mkv
...

Playing title01.mkv.
Cache fill:  0.00% (0 bytes)   

libavformat file format detected.
[matroska,webm @ 0x1deade0] Unknown EBML doctype '(none)'
[matroska,webm @ 0x1deade0] Estimating duration from bitrate, this may be inaccurate
[lavf] stream 0: video (h264), -vid 0
[lavf] stream 1: audio (dca), -aid 0, -alang ger
VIDEO:  [H264]  1920x1080  0bpp  23.976 fps    0.0 kbps ( 0.0 kbyte/s)
Core dumped ;)

Exiting... (End of file)
...

Too many audio packets in the buffer: (4096 in 21222288 bytes).
Maybe you are playing a non-interleaved stream/file or the codec failed?
For AVI files, try to force non-interleaved mode with the -ni option.

Too many audio packets in buffer? What is the cause for this and how to get rid of it, please?

This is only a following error. Either your input file has some strange settings or your mplayer/ffmpeg does not recognize its special format.

[fangorn]

Hi,

I am trying to use these scripts, but I get this error:

Code: Select all

tux fangorn # ./avi2mkv
Can't locate feature.pm in @INC (@INC contains: /etc/perl /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.8/i686-linux /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.8 /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.8/i686-linux /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.8 /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.8/i686-linux /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.8 /usr/local/lib/site_perl .) at ./avi2mkv line 220.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at ./avi2mkv line 220.

The offending line is this:

Code: Select all

use feature 'switch';

I read this is a feature of perl 5.10 but I have perl 5.8.8 installed. Is this right? We should install an unstable version of perl for these to work?

Regards,

Costa

[/quote]

Sorry, but yes. I originally intended to make this compatible to perl 5.8, but in the end it did not work.

Perl 5.10 is marked unstable because perl is a major core package. Many many scripts depend on it. I decided to use 5.10, but you always can install a 5.10 version in /usr/local in parallel and use this if you don't want to make it system wide.

[fangorn]

I am trying to use your recent version of avi2mkv and get the following error:

Code: Select all

mencoder not available in path unknown_path. Please correct this.

whereis mencoder gives:

Code: Select all

mencoder: /usr/bin/mencoder /usr/local/bin/mencoder /usr/share/man/man1/mencoder.1.gz

greetings

Is any of the two executables /usr/bin/mencoder /usr/local/bin/mencoder referenced in your ~/.fangorn/config file? You have to give the full path in there, not just "mencoder".

Code: Select all

>grep mencoder ~/.fangorn/config
mencoder                = /usr/local/bin/mencoder

[fangorn]

I'm also having issues with these scripts. I have a bunch of small clips with different bitrates, some SD and some HD. I was and still am hoping that menc is the best way for me to batch encode these, but I'm getting too many errors.

Code: Select all

menc ./foo.mp4 
Switch will be removed from the Perl core distribution in the next major release. Please install it from CPAN. It is being used at /usr/local/bin/toolbox_fangorn, line 43.
File Type: MP4/3GP/3G2 ISO Media
FPS: 59.750
width: 384
height: 288
aspect: 1.33333333333333
calling external program choose_video_parameters
-> Using "Normal Quality" preset
nice: unknown_path: No such file or directory
Switch will be removed from the Perl core distribution in the next major release. Please install it from CPAN. It is being used at /usr/local/bin/toolbox_fangorn, line 43.
movie title is foo
mplayer not available in path unknown_path. Please correct this.

Running the script with perl -d shows me that my first error is here:

Code: Select all

my $command = sprintf "%s  -identify -frames 0 -vc null -vo null -ao null %s 2>&1", $progs->{mplayer}, $opt->{file};
 print $command . "\n" if $opt->{debug};
 @mplayer_info = `$command`;
 chomp @mplayer_info;

The script does not locate my mplayer, although like 370 is "$progs->{mplayer} = "/usr/bin/mplayer";" which is the correct path.

Are these scripts still maintained?

I did not run into a problem like this ever. Something seems to be wrong with your environment. Please check your perl installation (perl 5.10 or higher) and the ~/.fangorn/config file. Maybe move ~/.fangorn/config somewhere else and let it generate a new one.

[fangorn]

Hi!
How to work with scripts? , i have DVD copied to harddrive, for example, ~/video/eraserhead with audio_ts and video_ts subdirectories. I want to create a single eraserhead.mkv with highest quality possible. I can't find any documentation and examples for those scripts. Thx in advance

See the project page for a brief introduction. Use

Code: Select all

riptoh264 <directoryname>

for standard encoding options for the main movie (way good enough for normal dvds if you ask me).

use -b <bitrate> to set a higher bitrate and -p uhq to change default x264 preset.

or use

Code: Select all

--override_video_encoder "-ovc copy"

to skip video transcoding completely and use the original dvd MPEG2 video stream. Audio is copied by default anyway.

[fangorn]

By the way:

I am looking for a more or less helpfull project to train my QT programming skills.

An idea was a GUI tool for batch encoding with all my encoding scripts.

This means in a first step: Select the application and pull the files/directories to encode
into the program window. Encoding happens with the default settings from ~/.fangorn/config.

In a second step there could be a possibility to configure command line options from the GUI.

As I prefer the command line, this project would be completely for you. So please, raise a hand
if you are interested in having such a tool.

[bobspencer123]

I would definitely be interested in this ... would love it to be GTK but beggars can't be choosers

[fangorn]

I just uploaded a new version of riptoh264.

As I just had to encode some DVDs recently I discovered there is a problem with audio sync
when copying audio streams while encoding video with recent mplayer/mencoder.

riptoh264 now uses a workaround of encoding a fake MP3 audio stream while encoding the video
portion and later throw the MP3 stream away and replace it with the original streams.

While at it, I also uploaded new versions of avi2mkv and toolbox_fangorn.

[HolgerB]

Hi there,

I have been trying to get the fangorn toolbox running on a Debian-based distrib. Linux Mint 10 x64 (which is based on Ubuntu 10.04 LTS more precisely).
I grabbed all the scripts from http://fangornsrealm.eu, made them executable and copied them to /usr/lib/

Just for experimenting I was trying to convert a 720p MP4 file (game test review) into an MKV container with MP3 audio. Unfortunately avi2mkv bombs out with this error messages:

Code: Select all

avi2mkv deusexhrtest-hd.mp4 -a3
Use of uninitialized value in scalar chomp at /usr/bin/avi2mkv line 526.
Movie deusexhrtest-hd.mp4 with title deusexhrtest-hd has a geometry of 1280 x 720 and a framerate of 30.000
Video stream is 0, audio stream(s) are 1 
muxing to Matroska container
file type is AVI
language not found. trying to match languages with list of known translations
file type is AVI
Use of uninitialized value in split at /usr/bin/avi2mkv line 1043.
Use of uninitialized value in substitution (s///) at /usr/bin/avi2mkv line 1045.
Use of uninitialized value in string eq at /usr/bin/avi2mkv line 1308.
Use of uninitialized value in string eq at /usr/bin/avi2mkv line 1315.
Use of uninitialized value in string eq at /usr/bin/avi2mkv line 1335.
Argument "-aid 1" isn't numeric in subtraction (-) at /usr/bin/avi2mkv line 1342.
MEncoder SVN-r1.0~rc3+svn20090426-4.4.3 (C) 2000-2009 MPlayer Team
-1 is not an MEncoder option

Exiting... (error parsing command line)
joining internal and external audio streams
Use of uninitialized value in sprintf at /usr/bin/avi2mkv line 1661.
Use of uninitialized value in sprintf at /usr/bin/avi2mkv line 1782.
sh: unknown_path: not found
cleaning up temporary files

The error in the mencoder commandline comes from a -1 as parameter.
I am really no perl expert but the error messages seem to be related to some audio related stuff,

Any ideas on this ?

TIA,
Holger

[fangorn]

@HolgerB
Welcome to the forum.

I am sorry, but MP4 is not well tested as input for avi2mkv. Especially when not all optional parameters
are set (language codes for audio, video parameters, ...) or some non standard conformant formats
are used.

The script is mainly designed as a helper script for the encoding scripts to convert the mencoder output -
which is best done as AVI - to other containers. It also works well with AVI containers from other sources,
containing MPEG4 video and of some kind.

It should work without problems when you repackage the video with menc first.

If you don't want to degrade the video quality or invest the trancoding time, you can disable the
reencoding process with the menc option

Code: Select all

--override_video_encoder "-ovc copy"

.

I hope you get a better user experience that way.

Have fun,
fangorn

Edit: I just recognize:

According to the help function options (-a3 for example) have to be placed between the program name and
the input filename. I don't have an idea what happens if the option is put after the filename. I have some
options that expect and use parameters that come after the inputfile. This is not good style, I know that,
but it was not doable in another way when the scripts were still shell scripts.

Best guess is, the behaviour of the script is undefined. Please, try the same command line with the -a3 before
the filename.

[fangorn]

For the other users a quick information.

I am in the process of testing all scripts under Windows and have removed some errors that also
affect Linux systems. I will release the best tested versions of all times (TM) soon.

Stay tuned.

fangorn

[HolgerB]

Hello fangorn,

thanks for your quick replies both to my e-mail and here in the forum.

I am sorry, but MP4 is not well tested as input for avi2mkv. Especially when not all optional parameters
are set (language codes for audio, video parameters, ...) or some non standard conformant formats
are used.

No big issue here. I could hack together a quick script for mencoder / ffmpeg myself for converting mp4 source to mkv.
It was just a quick experiment and I had the MP4 laying around in my download folder but no AVI available.

The script is mainly designed as a helper script for the encoding scripts to convert the mencoder output -
which is best done as AVI - to other containers. It also works well with AVI containers from other sources,
containing MPEG4 video and of some kind.

As the name avi2mkv implies avi should give the best user experience *ggg*

I hope you get a better user experience that way.

If your toolset helps me to shrink the roughly 30 DVDs which sit on my external HDD to MKV files with h264 / AC3 in then, I am more than happy

Have fun,
fangorn

I already have. Thanks for your toolkit !

Best regards,
Holger

[HolgerB]

Just some short note about using ripttoh264:

As it seems ripttoh264 uses the turbo option for the first pass of mencoder.

My mencoder version complains about this:

Code: Select all

MEncoder 1.0rc4-4.4.5 (C) 2000-2010 MPlayer Team
Option x264encopts: turbo option is deprecated; use slow_firstpass to disable turbo

I have no clue if my Mencoder version (1.0rc4) is the most recent one. I am running my encoding job on an x64 Ubuntu 10.04-based mint system.

[HolgerB]

Just another question / bug report:

After successfull encoding of a DVD riptoh264 died with the following message:

Can't use an undefined value as an ARRAY reference at /usr/local/bin/riptoh264 line 1283.

Line 1283 seems to process the subtitle streams:

Code: Select all

	[b]for (my $iter = 0; $iter < @{$opt->{SUB_LANGUAGE}}; $iter++) { [/b]
	    foreach my $twodigit (keys %usedlangs) {

		print STDERR "2-digit code is $twodigit\n" if $opt->{debug};
		print STDERR "stream language is " . @{$opt->{SUB_LANGUAGE}}[$iter] . "\n" if $opt->{debug};

		if (@{$opt->{SUB_LANGUAGE}}[$iter] eq $twodigit) {
		    print STDERR "found matching sub stream for language $twodigit with sub stream id " . @{$opt->{SUB_SID}}[$iter] . "\n" if $opt->{debug};
		    push @subids, $iter;
		    $substreams++;
		}
	    }

From the processing log I would say that riptoh264 died during ripping the subtitles:

Code: Select all

/usr/bin/mplayer  -dvd-device ZOMBIES_ANONYMOUS dvd://1 -aid 128 -dumpaudio -dumpfile tmpdir_ZOMBIES_ANONYMOUS/ZOMBIES_ANONYMOUS_128.ac3
/usr/bin/mplayer  -dvd-device ZOMBIES_ANONYMOUS dvd://1 -aid 130 -dumpaudio -dumpfile tmpdir_ZOMBIES_ANONYMOUS/ZOMBIES_ANONYMOUS_130.ac3
skip telecining detection, using preset Method: 25p telecined to 25i
Detecting crop window: 
704:576:10:0
/usr/local/bin/choose_video_parameters  -f 25.000 -p nq  -w 720  -h 576 -W 720 -H 576 -c 704:576:10:0 -B 1200 "tmpdir_ZOMBIES_ANONYMOUS/ZOMBIES_ANONYMOUS_x264_encoding_parameters.txt" 
using seleted preset nq
geometryfilteroptions 
Using filterset: 
common filters: crop=704:576:10:0
first pass:  -vf crop=704:576:10:0
second pass:  -vf crop=704:576:10:0
nice -n 10 /usr/bin/mencoder  -dvd-device ZOMBIES_ANONYMOUS dvd://1   -vf crop=704:576:10:0  -nosub  -ovc x264 -x264encopts mixed_refs:nombtree:partitions=p8x8,b8x8,i4x4:deblock:no8x8dct:bframes=10:weightp=1:me=hex:aq_mode=2:weight_b:cabac:keyint=250:chroma_me:b_pyramid=normal:bitrate=1200:direct_pred=spatial:subq=5:nodct_decimate:frameref=3:nofast_pskip:trellis=1:level_idc=41:b_adapt=1:threads=auto:ssim:psnr:pass=1:turbo=2 -passlogfile tmpdir_ZOMBIES_ANONYMOUS/ZOMBIES_ANONYMOUS_2pass.log  -oac mp3lame -lameopts vbr=0:br=128:mode=0  -o "tmpdir_ZOMBIES_ANONYMOUS/ZOMBIES_ANONYMOUS_tmp.avi"
First encoding pass done
nice -n 10 /usr/bin/mencoder  -dvd-device ZOMBIES_ANONYMOUS dvd://1   -vf crop=704:576:10:0  -nosub  -ovc x264 -x264encopts mixed_refs:nombtree:partitions=p8x8,b8x8,i4x4:deblock:no8x8dct:bframes=10:weightp=1:me=hex:aq_mode=2:weight_b:cabac:keyint=250:chroma_me:b_pyramid=normal:bitrate=1200:direct_pred=spatial:subq=5:nodct_decimate:frameref=3:nofast_pskip:trellis=1:level_idc=41:b_adapt=1:threads=auto:ssim:psnr:pass=2 -passlogfile tmpdir_ZOMBIES_ANONYMOUS/ZOMBIES_ANONYMOUS_2pass.log  -oac mp3lame -lameopts vbr=0:br=128:mode=0  -o "tmpdir_ZOMBIES_ANONYMOUS/ZOMBIES_ANONYMOUS_tmp.avi"
Second encoding pass done
Now muxing Output file
Ripping subtitles

I manually muxed the AC3 track plus the video track with fake MP3 via Matroska Mux Gui and the resulting file played back nicely.

Edit: OK, I cross-checked the source files. The DVD has subtitles:

Code: Select all

eems stream 0 codec frame rate differs from container frame rate: 50.00 (50/1) -> 25.00 (50/2)
Input #0, mpeg, from 'VTS_01_0.VOB':
Duration: 00:00:29.96, start: 0.280000, bitrate: 10914 kb/s
Stream #0.0[0x1e0]: Video: mpeg2video, yuv420p, 720x576 [PAR 64:45 DAR 16:9], 9000 kb/s, 25 tbr, 90k tbn, 50 tbc
Stream #0.1[0x80]: Audio: ac3, 48000 Hz, stereo, s16, 192 kb/s
Stream #0.2[0x20]: Subtitle: dvdsub
Stream #0.3[0x21]: Subtitle: dvdsub
Stream #0.4[0x22]: Subtitle: dvdsub

[fangorn]

There are some news:

• blu2mkv gets it’s last service release. It is disontinued. menc can do all it does and more.
• There is a new download page at http://blog.fangornsrealm.eu/downloads that
  is a central point to get the programs.
• All other programs are now installable a lot more comfortable.
  • For Gentoo users ebuilds are available at
    http://progs.fangornsrealm.eu/ebuilds.tar.bz2
    that install all the denpendencies automatically.
  • For users of other Linux distributions there is a script that installs the programs available at
    http://progs.fangornsrealm.eu/install_linux.sh for the current user. It also checks for
    the availability of external dependencies and tells the user if a program is missing.
• Biggest change: The programs are now also working under Windows! Windows users find a
  compressed archive at http://progs.fangornsrealm.eu/fangorn.zip containing the
  scripts and installation instructions.
• In the process of testing the scripts on Windows a number of bugs was corrected that also
  affect the linux usage.

I hope the new installation helpers make it more easy for normal users to take advantage of
these scripts.

Also welcome to the completely new users group working on Windows. The installtion process
is a little complicated due to the missing central package manager and the sub-optimal support
for command lines. You have to do many things by hand on Windows. I hope the installation
instructions are clear enough. If you have comments to the documentation or any bug reports,
et me know on progs@fangornsrealm.eu.

Have fun,

fangorn

[HolgerB]

Great to hear ! I just grabbed your package and will do a few test encodes on my machine from TV recordings.

[Akovia]

Hi,
First off, I just found your scripts yesterday and I think they are brilliant! Thanks for all the hard work.

If there is one thing I think your avi2mkv script could use, it would be a way to regex parse the filename to extract metadata. I realize that you can set the "title" via command line option, but if you could use a regex instead, it could batch apply titles with the correct episode number etc..

I have a large collection of files that formats the filenames with a lot of [Bracketed] information that is great to keep in the filename, but is distracting and not needed in the title displayed from a player. I realize that there are a good many considerations to implement this, but it really would be a very useful and outstanding feature.

As far as usage, I can foresee a few things.

1. a seperate command like..
--title_regex|-tr <perl-regex>
a perl compatible regular expression that will parse the filename for a match and set the title from match
user will be prompted with results before processing files or use the "--title_regex_fail|-trf" switch to fallback to filename as title if no match
(Command fails if no match, prompting user to correct the regex:
Possibly return a prompt with the matches it finds for the user to accept before processing?)
ie..

Code: Select all

Title Matches....
DVD Episode - 01 [Xvid-AC3][11ADD24D].avi   Title =>   DVD Episode - 01
DVD Episode - 02 [Xvid-AC3][F56EE4DD].avi   Title =>   DVD Episode - 02
DVD Episode - 03 [Xvid-AC3][7C19F70C].avi   Title =>   DVD Episode - 03
Process files with these matches? (y/n/q) y

Preferably bringing up just the faulty regex for editing if user presses n


2. maybe a separate command or a way to format the above command to accept a file or setting from the .fanghorn.config for regex presets.
You could even include a couple useful regex that would remove any brackets and their contents, underscores to spaces, etc...

Anyway, I already have a Bash script that does this for me using mkvpropedit, so it's no big deal to call it after I run your script. I just think it would be a nice addition to your very thorough script.

Cheers