MCEBuddy

I had some issues with deinterlacing (with PAL 720x576 recordings) and I wanted to have my recordings cropped when being converted to Xvid (cropped looks better on my iubi PMP).  To do so I have created the following profile:

 [DivX-Crop]
profile-desc="DivX Cropping (No Resize)"
vf=softskip,crop=696:428:18:72,scale=-1,pp=lb,hqdn3d=2:1:2,harddup
#pp=lb=linear blend deinterlacer
lavdopts=threads=2
ovc=xvid=yes
xvidencopts=bitrate=1400:threads=4:chroma_opt=yes:trellis=yes:max_bframes=0:vhq=4:noqpel=yes:nogmc=yes:autoaspect=yes
ffourcc=DX50
oac=mp3lame=yes
lameopts=cbr=yes:br=192
af=volnorm=2
#FileExtension=avi
#Seperator=yes

Running it from the commandline works great for me (bit slow, but it is cropped and deinterlacing issues are gone). I use this line:

mencoder.exe "d:\Recorded TV\RTL Weer_RTL 4_13_12_2007_19_51_03.dvr-ms" -profile DivX-Crop -o "d:\Recorded TV\RTL.avi"

However I cannot use the options I love most from MCEbuddy; comskip and batchconversion.  When I add above profile to the mencoder.conf file, it does not show up in the MCEBuddy configuration.  What am I overlooking here or doing wrong?

I am using Vista Premium UK, 32-bit and MCEBuddy 1.06.  If any other information is required, please let me know.

Willem:

I had some issues with deinterlacing (with PAL 720x576 recordings) and I wanted to have my recordings cropped when being converted to Xvid (cropped looks better on my iubi PMP).  To do so I have created the following profile:

 [DivX-Crop]
profile-desc="DivX Cropping (No Resize)"
vf=softskip,crop=696:428:18:72,scale=-1,pp=lb,hqdn3d=2:1:2,harddup
#pp=lb=linear blend deinterlacer
lavdopts=threads=2
ovc=xvid=yes
xvidencopts=bitrate=1400:threads=4:chroma_opt=yes:trellis=yes:max_bframes=0:vhq=4:noqpel=yes:nogmc=yes:autoaspect=yes
ffourcc=DX50
oac=mp3lame=yes
lameopts=cbr=yes:br=192
af=volnorm=2
#FileExtension=avi
#Seperator=yes

Running it from the commandline works great for me (bit slow, but it is cropped and deinterlacing issues are gone). I use this line:

mencoder.exe "d:\Recorded TV\RTL Weer_RTL 4_13_12_2007_19_51_03.dvr-ms" -profile DivX-Crop -o "d:\Recorded TV\RTL.avi"

However I cannot use the options I love most from MCEbuddy; comskip and batchconversion.  When I add above profile to the mencoder.conf file, it does not show up in the MCEBuddy configuration.  What am I overlooking here or doing wrong?

I am using Vista Premium UK, 32-bit and MCEBuddy 1.06.  If any other information is required, please let me know.

I'd stop the service and then close the configuration tool.  Then Start the config tool (it should now show up), select it and then start the service.  

Also, you might want to try pp=fd 

This deinterlacer is the one I'll be moving to in the next encode update.  Or you could try the two and tell me how you go.

Also, if you have a comskip.ini that works well in the UK, could you email it to me or post it as there's been a lot of demand for one.  I'll put it in the download sections. 

Cheers 

Derek 

Thanks for the fast reply! I have stopped the service, quit the configuration tool, updated the mencoder.conf file (located in C:\Program Files\Tyrell\MCEBuddy\mplayer\, inserted the new profile at the bottom of the file) restarted the configuration tool, but to no avail... nothing shows up.  I have tried under both limited and administrative accounts in Vista.  Even a reboot does not do the trick.  Sure hope you have some more ideas... :)

Regarding comskip; I live in the Netherlands.  The file that ships with 1.06 works fine for the Dutch channels (both commercial and goverment ones) but indeed not for the BBC1&2 channels that I record from.  The crop settings in my first post work fine however for both the Dutch & BBC channels.  I guess these settings will work for any media center that records (analogue) 16:9 shows.  Maybe something you could to take into consideration for future releases?

 [<b>edited by:</b> Willem at 5:19 (GMT 10) on 15 Dec 2007]
Regarding the deinterlacing; I opted for linear blend because this has always given me good results with Virtualdub in the past.  What is the benefit of FD in your opinion?

Willem:

Thanks for the fast reply! I have stopped the service, quit the configuration tool, updated the mencoder.conf file (located in C:\Program Files\Tyrell\MCEBuddy\mplayer\, inserted the new profile at the bottom of the file) restarted the configuration tool, but to no avail... nothing shows up.  I have tried under both limited and administrative accounts in Vista.  Even a reboot does not do the trick.  Sure hope you have some more ideas... :)

Regarding comskip; I live in the Netherlands.  The file that ships with 1.06 works fine for the Dutch channels (both commercial and goverment ones) but indeed not for the BBC1&2 channels that I record from.  The crop settings in my first post work fine however for both the Dutch & BBC channels.  I guess these settings will work for any media center that records (analogue) 16:9 shows.  Maybe something you could to take into consideration for future releases?

 [<b>edited by:</b> Willem at 5:19 (GMT 10) on 15 Dec 2007]
Regarding the deinterlacing; I opted for linear blend because this has always given me good results with Virtualdub in the past.  What is the benefit of FD in your opinion?

This is a fun one.  I've just added your profile to the end of my existing profile list and it appears just fine.

I just tried it at the beginning of the file as well and it works fine there too.  Can you eMail me the conf file itself so I can have a look?

As for lb, it's fine but I've found fd works better with scenes containing a lot of rapid motion.  I originally used md for this reason as well, but md seemed to wobble straight lines and the like.  fd coped with both high motion and straight lines during deinterlacing, so it's what I've now included as the new encodes under 1.0.7.  If you get better results with lb let me know and I'll investigate further during the 1.1 beta.

UK comskip is hard as I need someone to post a good DVR-MS example on rapidshare so I can see what works.  I've been asking around for people to post their working country-specific comskips as I'd like to post list of a country optimised examples but no-one seems to be obliging.  So I guess I'll have to do that myself as well.  Can't do it without some example recordings though.

Cheers

Derek 

Well, it is starting to look like it is not a MCEBuddy issue, but more of a Vista quirk that is causing me headaches.  I copied the conf file (containing the new profile) to my desktop, deinstalled MCEbuddy, checked that all files and directories were gone (which they were).  Reinstalled 1.06 and checked the new conf file; lo and behold: my new profile was in the newly installed conf file!?  Deinstalled again, reinstalled version 1.07, checked the installed conf file, which was indeed new.  Checked the old conf backup file on my desktop, and the content has changed to the default content!!!

Just when I thought I was coming to terms with Vista, something like this shows up.  Some weird kind of caching going on which I will have to sort out first before I can expect to have any success updating conf files.  Strange thing though is that when using the command line mencoder it does see the new entry in the conf file, just MCEBuddy seems to ignore it...  So I can still mail you the file, but I do not think it will do much good. If you think otherwise, let me know!

I'll give the FB deinterlacer a go; may take some time before I can feedback on it because I will first have to watch a couple of shows to be able to judge this.

Regarding the comskip; if you let me know what you consider a good dvr-ms example I can get you a BBC1 or 2 recording. These are not the commercial BBC channels (BBC3&4?) to my knowledge, but they do contain some crap in between shows that would be nice to cut out :).

I've come across the editing .conf before. What I think is happening is that directories under Program Files are specially treated by Vista. You appear to be able to edit and save changes you make to files, but I think Vista shadow copies the changes someplace else, and so if you go back to the original file the change appears to have gone.

I think it is something to do with UAC. To get around this I had to modify the read/write permissions on the .conf file. To do this right click on the .conf file in Explorer and select Properties. This go to the Security tab, then click Edit, then select the User and modify the permissions at the bottom and then OK all the way out.

Grant

The easiest way I found to edit the .conf file is to run the editor as administrator.

eg when I start notepad by right click notepad select > run as administrator   I then can edit and save the file.  I also stop MCEbuddy service and close the monitor application.  I am using vista Prem version.

Works everytime without problems.

CAG:

The easiest way I found to edit the .conf file is to run the editor as administrator.

eg when I start notepad by right click notepad select > run as administrator   I then can edit and save the file.  I also stop MCEbuddy service and close the monitor application.  I am using vista Prem version.

Works everytime without problems.

Excellent suggestion! That did the trick!  Strange thing though is that when running as administrator it still did not work.  I had to explicitely start my editor as administrator, no matter the Vista user account I was using.

 Thanks again!

gandrew and CAG are right.   Here's what I've found...

If you run your text editor as admin, then vista will allow you to save your changes to the file under c:\program files\Tyrell\MCEBuddy\mplayer.  And MCEBuddy will see the changes.

If you do NOT run the text editor as admin, then vista uses a shadow copy of the file at: c:\users\...\appdata\local\virtualstore\program files\tyrell\MCEBuddy\mplayer.  (I'm typing this from memory so may not be the exact path)

Since MCEBuddy runs as admin, it always reads the normal file rather than the shadow copy.

And to confuse us more, as you've also noticed, if you uninstall MCEBuddy and then reinstall it, this virtualstore directory is not deleted or overwritten.