MCEBuddy

 MCEbuddy is a dream come true.  I was using DVRMS toolbox but it wasn't nearly as user friendly as this tool.  I'm using the buddy to get movies and TV ready for my Zune 80.  I'm currently using the PSP W profile which works great.  I do have one feature request.

 Many of the ATSC broadcast shows are recorded as 704x480, with black bars on the sides.  Probably about 90% of my recordings are like this with only a few movies or TV shows in true widescreen.  If there was a way to convert and chop off the sides, that would be amazing.  I know there is probably some full fledged video editor that can do this, but I don't know of one that's as easy as MCEbuddy.

Thanks!

 

bengance:

 MCEbuddy is a dream come true.  I was using DVRMS toolbox but it wasn't nearly as user friendly as this tool.  I'm using the buddy to get movies and TV ready for my Zune 80.  I'm currently using the 5th gen Ipod profile which seems to work fine.  I do have one feature request.

 Many of the ATSC broadcast shows are recorded as 704x480, with black bars on the sides.  Probably about 90% of my recordings are like this with only a few movies or TV shows in true widescreen.  If there was a way to convert and chop off the sides, that would be amazing.  I know there is probably some full fledged video editor that can do this, but I don't know of one that's as easy as MCEbuddy.

Thanks!

I'm looking into this for 1.1.   To get rid of this issue in all cases requires a fair amount of preprocssing detection, so its no small task.  In the meantime you may wish to try the following:

1. Make a back up copy of your mencoder.conf file under the MCEBuddy program directory

Then try

2. Replace all instaces of ":-2" with ":-10"

3. -or-  Replace all instaces of ":-2" with ":-3"

4. -or-  Replace all instaces of "720:" with "704:" and use either one of the default/recommended profiles or a DVD resolution profile

Cheers

Derek
 

 Tried these with no luck.  I used a few profiles with the four options but no luck thus far.  Thanks for the suggestions though.

I second this request.  Just to be clear, we're talking about 4:3 aspect ratio content (like The Simpsons) that is broadcast as 16:9 high definition content.  So the preprocessing would be heavy indeed to detect that, since commercials might even be broadcast at 16:9 for that same content.  Basically, you'd need to remove commercials first, then if 90% of the remaining content has black bars on the left and right then crop the entire video down to 4:3 aspect ratio.

Or maybe do a test with commercials still in, and if 50% or more of the content has black bars on the sides then crop the entire thing down to 4:3.

I would love this! 

pnear:

I second this request.  Just to be clear, we're talking about 4:3 aspect ratio content (like The Simpsons) that is broadcast as 16:9 high definition content.  So the preprocessing would be heavy indeed to detect that, since commercials might even be broadcast at 16:9 for that same content.  Basically, you'd need to remove commercials first, then if 90% of the remaining content has black bars on the left and right then crop the entire video down to 4:3 aspect ratio.

Or maybe do a test with commercials still in, and if 50% or more of the content has black bars on the sides then crop the entire thing down to 4:3.

I would love this! 

Looks like this will have to be a "wait until 1.1 thing then".  Auto cropping in 1.1 will work for this situation overall but probably not for the scenario above reliably as commercial removal is rarely 100% and even if it is it often leaves a sub-second 'snippet' which will still be16:9, which the auto cropping pick up and to the border to.  You might get lucky as I will only use the first 10 mins or so for crop and dimension detection in 1.1, but you might not as well.

Derek   

 So I stumbled upon a solution by accident.  When I was testing profiles for use on my zune 80 I was looking at the mencoder config file.  I wanted to keep my files a little bigger resolution so I changed the size up to 640.  The result cropped the sides but kept the file size at the specified 320x208.  So after experimenting with the settings, here's how to remove black bars:

1. Open folder: "C:\Program Files\Tyrell\MCEBuddy\mplayer
2. Copy and paste "mencoder.conf" file to make a backup
3. Open with notepad and replace these lines:
   

[PSP]
profile-desc="Playstation Portable"
vf=pullup,softskip,pp=fd,scale=320:-2,crop=320:240,hqdn3d,harddup

    with this 

[PSP]
profile-desc="PSP Cropped"
vf=pullup,softskip,pp=fd,scale=430:-2,crop=320:240,hqdn3d,harddup

    4. Close out and restart MCEBuddy and select your modified profile "PSP Cropped"

bengance:

 So I stumbled upon a solution by accident.  When I was testing profiles for use on my zune 80 I was looking at the mencoder config file.  I wanted to keep my files a little bigger resolution so I changed the size up to 640.  The result cropped the sides but kept the file size at the specified 320x208.  So after experimenting with the settings, here's how to remove black bars:

1. Open folder: "C:\Program Files\Tyrell\MCEBuddy\mplayer
2. Copy and paste "mencoder.conf" file to make a backup
3. Open with notepad and replace these lines:
   

[PSP]
profile-desc="Playstation Portable"
vf=pullup,softskip,pp=fd,scale=320:-2,crop=320:240,hqdn3d,harddup

    with this 

[PSP]
profile-desc="PSP Cropped"
vf=pullup,softskip,pp=fd,scale=430:-2,crop=320:240,hqdn3d,harddup

    4. Close out and restart MCEBuddy and select your modified profile "PSP Cropped"

The problem with this as a general model is that if you transcode anything that scales at 430 wide that has any content outside of 320 wide it will be lost.  But if you have none then this will work for you.
 

Yes, I should have qualified the solution that if you have mixed formats (letterboxed/widescreen) this solution will not automatically differentiate.  For the time being, I think this at least gives users an option to crop.  My suggestion for people with mixed formats is to do something like:

• Manually stratifiy your content (i.e., move widescreen content to another folder and routinely change input folder for MCEbuddy)
• Have the profile loaded and do a second conversion; delete the bogus files
• Rename your letterboxed stuff to start with a number, it will process first, then change the profile when it gets to widescreen

Sure, its not perfectly automated, but its an option until the next version comes.