HCbatchGUI - (batch processor for HCenc and Aften). Development Thread.

[ron spencer]

ok it works fine!!!!

Where is the ini file you use to remember the values? Or are you using the registry?


thanks!!!

[freebird73717]

I wont touch the registry. Waaaaayyyyyy to easy to screw things up.

I know that the registry is what you are now supposed to use for this kind of thing but I think ini files work just fine.

The ini file is "HCbatchGUI.ini" and is located in your "C:\Windows" directory.

[ron spencer]

do you mind at all putting it in the install directory? It is cleaner and lets users see all files installed....this is just my preference for seeing all files installed.

The .ini file is not deleted upon uninstall in any case.


happy new year!!!!

[freebird73717]

That's just the way my compiler does it. I didn't place it there by choice. Borland doesn't (as far as I know) give me a way to change where the ini is saved to. If I can find a way to change it I will though because I agree about having them all in the same directory.

[ron spencer]

oh if that is the case then don't worry about it...maybe mention it in the help tab............

[ron spencer]

is it possible to add msharpen? is there room in the gui?

sometimes I have some DV that needs sharpening.

you can get it at:

http://neuron2.net/msharpen/msharpen.html

It is a nice subtle sharpener. Nice default setting is:

MSharpen(threshold=15,strength=75)

Note that you can add a high quality variable...maybe a check box for high quality so you get:

MSharpen(threshold=15,strength=75,highq=true)

this would really finish your product up nicely!!!!

[ron spencer]

if you want to add this though, Msharpen MUST be the last part of the script....just like digital imaging, sharpening is last after all other effects, otherwise you sharpen noise.

[freebird73717]

I'll look into it. Wont promise anything right now though. Currently I'm working on making the app more stable for Linux (Ubuntu - which I'm really starting to enjoy. Right now I have the batch video working I'm just having difficulty getting the audio right).

If I can find the time to read up on Msharpen (so that I know what I'm doing... because I know nothing about that filter) I'll try to add it for you.

Hope you New Year went well ron!

[ron spencer]

Linux...HAHA...that is weird...I just put SUSE on a laptop to try...what a coincidence.

New Year was fun......our Malay neighbours had us (and 15 others) over for a ton of Malay and Chinese food.....still full!!!! All the kids came too.

I hope you had a good time as well.

The only reason I mentioned msharpen as I was thinking about what could be missing. Really all is here, denoising, audio transcode, encoding, etc. Really the only thing I could think of that was left out was sharpening (not that important, but it can make a nice difference). Really you could just add some presets with no high quality box.

for example, Default
Subtle
Subtle High Quality
Low Sharpening
Low Sharpening High Quality
Medium Sharpening
Medium Sharpening High Quality
High Sharpening
High Sharpening High Quality

or just use HQ for high quality.

Sharpening is the last step when you edit in photoshop or what have you and is often forgotten about with video. I will try to get up some preset settings, but I understand that you are busy.....but look on the bright side....I would not bother for enhancements anymore

Good luck with Linux port!!!!

[freebird73717]

but look on the bright side....I would not bother for enhancements anymore

You're no bother ron. I appreciate the good input. Talk to you later!

[freebird73717]

Released v14.1

Additions include an option to shutdown the pc when done using pstools psshutdown.exe

Added Msharpen avisynth filter and user configurable presets.



New is version v14.1 optimized for linux wine.
It has the same functionality as the windows version but has been optimized to work in linux through wine. It is now fairly stable and can do anything the windows version can including creating your avisynth scripts, video encoding, and audio encoding (2channel ac3, upmix, 5.1, and wav extract)

You can get both versions at https://sourceforge.net/projects/hcbatchgui/

[ron spencer]

Hey...a new version....thanks!!!!


Seems ok....I did notice one slight problem with the Msharpen dialog.

If a user chooses "# Don't Load Plugin", then can still choose in the box below it MSharpen (and vice versa). In this case the script will be, for example:

LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files\HCbatchGUI\Convolution3DYV12.dll")
# Don't Load Plugin("C:\Program Files\HCbatchGUI\MSharpen.dll")
Avisource("C:\1..To Encode\TestDV.avi")
converttoyv12(interlaced=true)
SeparateFields()
odd=SelectOdd.Convolution3D (preset="NoisyDV")
evn=SelectEven.Convolution3D (preset="NoisyDV")
Interleave(evn,odd)
Weave()
Msharpen(threshold=10,strength=100,mask=false,high q=true)

This will cause problems and the plugin is not loaded and yet it is called later (the vice versa case will not be so bad as you will load the plugin but not use it).

So I suggest that if use chooses NOT to load Msharpen that the box below is set to "# Don't Sharpen" and then greyed out so user cannot change. Vice versa case too if you want to be clean.

thanks again....never tested the shut down...maybe later...congrats on linux too!!!

[ron spencer]

also....the end you must accept the licence for the machine shutdown ON THE FIRST USE...so it will not shutdown in this first instance...maybe this should be noted on the shutoff page so user can goto install dir and run it first...all other times you use it is ok

[ron spencer]

few more things....

1. does the shutdown command need admin access? If so, maybe it should be listed where that option can be ticked.

2. Can you add VBR Bias and Last Frame I-Frame to template settings? These are pretty important, esp. VBR Bias. The default is zero which can make large macro-blocking....most use 30

3. You can get frame accurate chapters in your authoring package if the start of a chapter is an I-Frame....HC can do this if you supply a chapter file with the frames of the chapters...it then encodes that frame as I-Frame, this is VERY useful. Can you make the setup tab called "Setup/Chapters" and in it have a tick box (you need it so program does not use a file when not need to) and then browse to the .txt file to send to HC that has chapters in it? Does HC have as part of CLI an option for this? If not then maybe a page to enter the chapters and then have gui modify the HC ini file?


thanks!!! Other than this I really think this is all complete!!!

awesome on yur part 4 sure!!!!

[ron spencer]

I dug something up from my old avisynth stuff, especially for those who use the mainconcept codec. Also can help those in NTSC land, maybe you can put this on first tab, it is useful and does help in some circumstances. From Doom9 way back (still relevant):

http://www.doom9.org/index.html?/dv/guide.html

As NTSC DV uses the 4:1:1 colorspace, there is an issue with the conversion to the 4:2:0 colorspace used in DVD MPEG-2. To address this issue use trbarry's filter ReInterpolate411().

To get improved color conversion, simply add a
ReInterpolate411()
command below the AviSource or DirectShowSource command, respectively.

Note that the placement is RIGHT AFTER AVI SOURCE (maybe you can add this....for NTSC mainly). Some people say to use it no matter what:

http://forum.doom9.org/archive/index.php/t-78116.html


can this be added as an option? just a simple command in all cases:

ReInterpolate411() is all you need.


see it at:

http://www6.impacthosting.com/trbarry/downloads.htm

enjoy!!!! Whew

[freebird73717]

Hey ron how's it going?

You've come up with some interesting suggestions.

.I did notice one slight problem with the Msharpen dialog.

If a user chooses "# Don't Load Plugin", then can still choose in the box below it MSharpen (and vice versa).

The reason I didn't do like you suggested was because the user had to purposefully go to the sharpen tab to use the plugin. Both lines are defaulted at "#Don't load plugin" and "#Don't Sharpen" repsectively. I just assumed (possibly wrongly) that the user would know if they wanted to use the filter they would need to enable both of those to "Loadplugin" and "Msharpen" respectivly. Perhaps I'll place a mouseover popup hint advising the user that both either needs to be on or off.

you must accept the licence for the machine shutdown ON THE FIRST USE

I'll probably add another popup hint telling the user of that. And to my knowledge you don't need to be logged in as admin to use it.

Can you add VBR Bias and Last Frame I-Frame to template settings? These are pretty important, esp. VBR Bias.

That shouldn't be a problem. I'll try to add that to the next release.

You can get frame accurate chapters in your authoring package if the start of a chapter is an I-Frame....HC can do this if you supply a chapter file with the frames of the chapters...it then encodes that frame as I-Frame, this is VERY useful. Can you make the setup tab called "Setup/Chapters" and in it have a tick box (you need it so program does not use a file when not need to) and then browse to the .txt file to send to HC that has chapters in it? Does HC have as part of CLI an option for this? If not then maybe a page to enter the chapters and then have gui modify the HC ini file?

I'll have to look into that some more. I have never used the chapters feature.

As for the Reinterpolate411 filter it looks good but I do see one possible issue.

It doesn't matter whether the clip is interlaced though it must be in YUY2 format for Avsynth 2.5

This would require a colorspace change as I am trying to keep things yv12. Would you gain anything changing the chroma from using reinterpolate since you also will have to change the colorspace to use it?

Off topic how are you liking Linux? I'm loving ubuntu. I'm booted into it right now and happily encoding away!

[ron spencer]

I am OK...thanks!!! Linux seems cool...not too much time on it I must say though. In terms of chapter import, I will check into it as well, but it is USEFUL....

Now as far a reinterpolate411 is concered, there is no colorspace conversion issues as long as it comes right after avisource....all DV decoders output YUY2 anyway, so there is no color conversion if you use it right after avisource, and if you use the mainconcept DV decoder like I do then you get nicer output. So you do not need to convert anyway, unless you have an FFDSHOW YV12 going on, but 99.9% of people do not. So the example would be:


LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files\HCbatchGUI\Convolution3DYV12.dll")
LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files\HCbatchGUI\MSharpen.dll")
LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files\HCbatchGUI\ReInterpolate411.dll")
Avisource("C:\1..To Encode\TestDV.avi")
reinterpolate411()
converttoyv12(interlaced=true)
SeparateFields()
odd=SelectOdd.Convolution3D (preset="GoodDV")
evn=SelectEven.Convolution3D (preset="GoodDV")
Interleave(evn,odd)
Weave()
Msharpen(threshold=10,strength=80,mask=false,highq =true)

This works perfectly and no colorspace issues.


Whadda think?


I hope you have been well......


On the chapter note....maybe a screen to have user enter chapters if there is no chapter CLI. User would need to enter number of chapters and frames of them, thenyour program would need to modify the HC ini...for example you would add this to hc.ini if you had 9 chapters with frame numbers as follows:

*CHAPTER 9
203
1056
1897
2409
2607
3371
4432
5430
6536


Will check later....kids are bellowing LOL!!!!

[freebird73717]

.all DV decoders output YUY2 anyway, so there is no color conversion if you use it right after avisource,

Ahh. That makes sense then. Thanks for that. I'm relying on you for the DV info as I don't have a DV cam.

[ron spencer]

it is not the camera, but the DV decoder a person has on their system.

For example, I have some DV from my camcorder....I have mainconcept DV Decoder....it outputs yuy2 so on my machine reinterpolate will be good (necessary actually with this codec due to chroma error). But some decoders, such as Cedocida, let you choose whatever, even YV12. Others such as Panasonic are RGB only, so there is color space conversion needed. So if you know what you are doing, then reinterpolate() will be very advantageous (for NTSC only). So this is an advanced option, but it does have very nice upsides. Most decoders are yuy2, but there are some older ones that are not.

In general the 4 decoded color spaces are:

RGB24
RGB32
YUY2
YV12


with YUY2 being most used....

YUCK!!!!

[ron spencer]

well....I cannot find a way to pass a chapter file...Not sure you can add a window so user can enter farme of chaper like I mentioned up top. This then is copied to ini file for HC....

linux is not soooo bad BTW

[freebird73717]

Well according to the hc pdf there is a way to impliment chapters from the commandline.

command parameter info
-chapter chapter file full path

However there is no good example as to how to use it.

The same thing can be accomplished by adding the chapters to HCbatchGUI template/hcini but that wont work very well because you not only have to set the number of chapters but also the chapter frames.

*CHAPTER
parameter nr. of chapters type integer
Status not required
Default -
Example *CHAPTER 5
101
1253
2763
5471
8354
This command sets chapter points at the frames given, this means an I-frame is inserted and the
GOP is closed.
There's no limit on the number of chapters, you can even set a chapter on every frame.

I noticed your posts on doom9 reguarding this so if you get any replies let me know. So far to me there dosen't seem to be a very good way to go about the chapters.

I will add vbr bias, last Iframe, and lumgain to the template for the next release for sure.

[ron spencer]

lumigain has some issues with buffer overflows right now....I think hank is fixing it...


Bah....I forgot to read manual...duh!!!

I think it is easy then....the user needs to make the chapter file FIRST, typically as an export from their video editor.

In it are the frame numbers:

123
1441
12445


etc....there is no need for *chapters 3 in this case.

So user would need to specify location and file name....could you browse to it via a dialog like in the setup tab? so if that was c:\Video\Encodes\chapters.txt, then your command would just be:

-chapter c:\Video\Encodes\chapters.txt


Is it that easy? Remember, it is up to the USER to provide the proper chapter file in .txt format, not HCbatchGUI

I guess I better read HC docs more LOL!!!!

[freebird73717]

The problem would be in the batch scripting. That chapter list would be used for every file. If you want the chapters in the exact same place for each file then it won't be a problem. However I think most people are going to want chapters in different places for different files. Adding chapters using any batch method is....problematic. The batch method I use has only one command line (and so each file would use that one chapter list). To make multiple chapter list for each file feasible for batch you would have to have a command line for each file and create a batch to run all of those commandlines.

[ron spencer]

I totally forgot the batch thing...hmmmm (I guess I am selfish a bit and forgot the use). That is too bad. Unless you say it is for a single encode only i.e., a special feature and leave it up to the user and/or warn them that it will apply I-frames at those specific frames to all avis in the encode queue....it will not hurt encode really, it just makes frame accurate chapters possible for those specific chapters and not all uses will be batch maybe? It will not hurt placement of others at all.

I hope you consider it anyway....booyah!!!!

[ron spencer]

is it possible to give use option in installer to create short cuts only for installing user and not for everyone?


Hope all is well!!!!

[freebird73717]

My current setup compiler (Inno setup) does not (AFAIK) allow this. However there is an updated version of inno that seems better and has more options than my current one has so I'm going to play with it and see...

If I can do it I will (as long as Inno supports it)!

[ron spencer]

ok...this is not a comment from me. But frmo the wives of two other people who I have shown your proggy to. They complain of the icons on their desktop when their husbands install it...yah yah picky....but I figured if it was easy why not....

see ya

[freebird73717]

That sounds alot like my wife. I haven't had a chance to test the new inno setup yet to see if I can do it. Been doing some of my long overdue encodes. I'm almost through with the updates though. I've added vbrbias, lastIframe, and lumgain. Just have to code the reinterpolate and should be finished. Mabey in a week or so. I wont release until I have finished updating both windows and linux versions.

[ernstblaauw]

I just used your program. It looks great! There are some minor details you could improve:
- Is it possible to add some manual lines to the automatically generated AVS script? I would like to add "AudioResample(48000)" and "ConvertFPS(25)
- At this moment, your program does not look deeper into the directory tree. As my movies are ordered in directory per subject, I would like HCbatchGUI to look into all the subdirectories of the source directory.

It would be great if you could implement those features!

Ernst

[freebird73717]

I just used your program. It looks great!

Thanks I'm glad you like it!

There are some minor details you could improve:
- Is it possible to add some manual lines to the automatically generated AVS script? I would like to add "AudioResample(48000)" and "ConvertFPS(25)

I've considered this before. Yes it can be done. I just haven't added it because you can already edit the individual avs files from the "Review Template/avs" page. I'm basically finished with my current windows update and am now working on my linux update however I may add this feature in a future release. And BTW I've already included SSRC to resample your audio to 48k. All audio will be resampled to 48k.

- At this moment, your program does not look deeper into the directory tree. As my movies are ordered in directory per subject, I would like HCbatchGUI to look into all the subdirectories of the source directory.

No easy way to accomplish this...sorry. All the videos you want to encode need to be in the same directory. Just the nature of the beast. Most batch encoders I know of behave this way.

Keep watching this thread for future release updates! I will upload the newest windows release soon!


Happy encoding.