Windows Entertainment and Connected Home

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Automatic video conversion DVR-MS to Xvid/WMV/H.264

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    I am having troubles with Xvid files.  I know I have the codec installed as I have been using AutoGK to backup DVDs to AVI for a long time.  But when I try to play back files that MCEBuddy has converted to AVI I get audio but only a black screen for video.  Any suggestions on how to fix?

    One other question - is there a log file where MCEBuddy keeps track of what was converted and how long it took?

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    " I used your utility, was pretty good except I told it to stop the service and it kept re-running after I rebooted. "


    Thanks, glad its been good.

    Just set the MCEBuddy service to manual Start instead of automatic and it will only start when you want it to.

    Control Panel-Admin Tools-Services-MCE Buddy-Properties-Startup Type  => Manual

    Cheers

    Derek
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    "I am having troubles with Xvid files.  I know I have the codec installed as I have been using AutoGK to backup DVDs to AVI for a long time.  But when I try to play back files that MCEBuddy has converted to AVI I get audio but only a black screen for video.  Any suggestions on how to fix?

    One other question - is there a log file where MCEBuddy keeps track of what was converted and how long it took?"

    MCEBuddy conversions are targeted at the codecs provided by FFDShow codec set.  Have you tried using those codecs as not all codecs are equal, it depends upon which codecs within the AVI you have installed. 

    All conversion activity is written to the windows event log, so how long the conversion took should be in there.

    Cheers

    Derek
  •  
    Beta 2 of MCEBuddy 1.0.6 provides iPod conversions.  I don't have one of these lovely devices.  Can someone willing to do some beta testing who has one send me an eMail and I'll send them a beta link?  mcebuddy@tyrell.com.au

  •  
    Beta testers, MCEBuddy 1.0.6 BETA 2 is available





    if you are not a beta tester and wish to participate, please send me an email mcebuddy@tyrell.com.au
    __________________
    MCEBuddy - http://www.mcebuddy.com
  •  
    just wondering but does with work with hd sourced shows?  and can keep the 5.1 audio?

    i have a bunch of movies recorded i want to convert to wmvhd with the 5.1 sound option but have never been able to find a good way to do it.  (i want to downrez them some to 720p with the 5.1 track to save space)
  •  
    Beta testers, MCEBuddy 1.0.6 BETA 3 is available

    New items in Beta 1.0.6 BETA 3:
    - The all-improved singing and dancing encode release (they should all work nicely with H.264 and Xvid generating small files)
    - Improved Xvid encoding - now also DIVX5 for enhanced compatibility
    - iPod encoding should now work
    - UI bugs fixed
    - Improved Comskip defaults
    - Faster 2 pass encoding
  •  

    When encoding to WMV does it use multiple cores for anyone -  my cpu usage will not go over 27%

  •  

    jagowar:
    just wondering but does with work with hd sourced shows?  and can keep the 5.1 audio?

    i have a bunch of movies recorded i want to convert to wmvhd with the 5.1 sound option but have never been able to find a good way to do it.  (i want to downrez them some to 720p with the 5.1 track to save space)

     

    Me too...how does it handle the audio?

  •  
    I have a problem with MCEBuddy 1.0.5 but I'm not quite sure how I can help you figure out why it is doing it.

    I am running Windows MCE 2005 with latest updates. I use MCEBuddy to automaticly convert my already cut recordings to H.264 ( because i do not trust com-skip ) and it worked great the first time I converted things.

    Now what it does it stays 'stopped' i click start and it says 'converting (file name)' but then a few seconds later it goes back to stopped. Why could this be happening? I got rid of the times thinking it might have been in a weird time, and I also told it not to delete the recordings anymore. Both folders (records and where to save) are still there and everything seems like it should work.

    The only thing I can think, and will test tommorrow is that sleeping messed it up somehow. I usually leave my computer on and let it sleep so it can wake up to record shows and go back to sleep. Its currently busy now so I'll try a restart and see if that fixes it.
  •  

    Please let me know how it goes.  Critical information for me is if the service is STOPPED or IDLE.  If it is stopped then there is probably an issue with suspend mode.  MCEBuddy does not like being suspended in the middle of a conversion, however suspending may also stop the service as well.  If so I'll add that to the BETA 3 testing.

    Cheers

    Derek

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    Trey,

    MCEBuddy uses the mencoder libraries to convert files.  At this stage there is very little flexibility going directly from DVR-MS to WMV.  A possibility is to convert to an intermediate format though this introduces a larger conversion time, more disk space required for the conversion and possible loss of quality.  At this stage I'm working with jelwood to see if we can get a more efficient better WMV conversion going.

    Cheers

    Derek

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    I restarted the computer and still it starts for a little and then says "stopped"

    I don't think it ever hibernated while it was supposed to be converting though, because I set it to sleep when idle I assume that since there is converting in the background it will not sleep.

    My next step will uninstall, reinstall to see what happens.
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    I reinstalled it, it remembered all the settings ( i dodn't touch anything ) and now it works. I'll let it finish what its doing, go to standby again, and see if it works then. I'm guessing that when it goes to standby it does something to the process that is used when converting video so it cannot be accessed again.

    I'll keep you informed.
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    "I reinstalled it, it remembered all the settings ( i dodn't touch anything ) and now it works. I'll let it finish what its doing, go to standby again, and see if it works then. I'm guessing that when it goes to standby it does something to the process that is used when converting video so it cannot be accessed again.

    I'll keep you informed."

    czanchez,

    I've added some support for suspend mode in 1.0.6 BETA4.  It will *not* pause an encode in the middle of processing as an encode is performed by multiple threads simultaneously and they are interdependent and time critical.  Pausing the encode stops threads one at a time and stuffs the encode.  So it will treat a power management suspend as a stop service event and should stop the conversion.

    Cheers

    Derek
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