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Automated Avid, ProRes & LW format conversions - auto file renaming tools
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  • notrons, nope did not find cure, i can't even export to a separate USB hard drive. It keeps going to the originals directory so still no conversion takes place.

    I downloaded your new 32bit version, same thing.

    If the window would open full screen we could see what the command line says but as is it's partially hidden. See pics

    DSLRPOST.JPG
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  • @Rambo - ffmbc cannot handle spaces in directory or file names. Change your original .mts directory name from "C:\Users\ian\Desktop\Watch folder for DSLR" to "C:\Users\ian\Desktop\Watch_folder_for_DSLR" and try again...

    I am dragging all who follow into the world of the command-line. Unfortunately, the Windows command line is grammatically challenged ; ) You have to follow the eight-dot-three rules of the old days - and never use spaces ; )

  • Windows command line is grammatically challenged ; ) You have to follow the eight-dot-three rules of the old days

    This is incorrect.
    Spend some time becoming familiar with command line and how to use long names with it.

  • Ok changing the original directory to no spaces did the trick and both proxies and converted files went to their respective folders. What is confusing is the converted window (log) shows the originating directory not where the "conversions" actually go. See pic attached

    dslrpost2.JPG
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  • @Vitaliy_Kiselev - for a freeware application I just didn't have the time to build in the translations - although I am quite familiar with how. Myself living mostly in the Linux world professionally, I personally never include spaces - and never tested as such. I just took it for granted that nobody else does either, obviously an oversight; ) I simply pass the directory info to the command line as it is given. I was more concerned in providing an app that was reliable and fairly easy to use. I am certainly happy to share the source code if you would like to contribute to development - it would be great if several problems could be addressed. Unfortunately I do not have the time to dedicate much more time than I already have. Since file conversions seem to be of interest to many people (including those trying Lightworks) I thought I would share my work in hopes that others would get some use out of it too.

    Please let me know if you are interested in helping the development effort!

    Извините пожалуйста!

  • @Vitaliy_Kiselev - after a quick refresh I see it may not be much trouble at all to add the ability to parse the spaces. I'll do some tests and compile new versions if successful. Spacebo bolshoi...

  • nortrons, not sure what format the MPEG-2 4:2:2 I-Frame HQ is but nothing will play it, vlc, media-player classic, windows media player, Sony Vegas, quicktime, nothing only audio plays. Media info reports the codec as M701 and the DSLR post prep utility command line displays m701 as well.??? The first 4 HQ formats work fine.

  • @Rambo - the MPEG I-Frame format I originally had geared toward Lightworks and it does work there now - (couldn't get it to work in anything at all without using the command line I finally ended up with - especially LW!). The M701 tag is essential for import into Lightworks - and the footage works fine in Premiere Pro too (which other variations did not). For now I will keep it as it is for the LW users but I am looking into other Intra formats to possibly add later. I am still learning the nuances of ffmbc and ffmpeg...

    Right now I am testing the ability of PPU to handle spaces in the directory names...; )

  • I thought that was what the re-wrap to mp4 container was for?

  • @Rambo - both are for LW... Still working on others...

  • @All - I have uploaded new versions of DSLR PPU that can now handle spaces in directory names and also provides 2 flavors of MPEG2 4:2:2 I-Frame conversions - one for Lightworks and one without the M701 tag. The non-tagged version plays just fine in VLC player and imports into CS5 without a hitch.

    Please download the new version and let me know how it goes! Just use the original links that you received in email...

    I gotta get some sleep...; )

  • Thanks @notrons I tried with no spaces & worked great... I'll try also the new version/

  • @YOSS - thanks for the update - and for your help in testing! I'm glad it is working for you now!

    @Rambo - I realize the log window display is a bit confusing but I set it up that way for basically two reasons. The first was for troubleshooting. Without being excessively obvious about it I wanted to provide myself with all the info I needed to diagnose a problem from a screen grab - (which so far has worked out pretty well ; ) At the same time I wanted to provide a log to help keep up with the piles of conversions I end up with at times - and since I already know what the converted file names will be all I really need to track is what files have been converted...

    Hope that makes sense ; ) Thanks to all for their feedback and help!

  • @videohq I contacted Lightworks and they say that the official release will be before the NAB, for the middle of April. Then it would support natively AVCHD files (for 25€), hope they will also fix many bugs and use restrictions that the program have now (importing 60p footage in to 25p project and reinterpret the frame rate, importing image sequence bigger than 1920x1080 and have the possibility of zooming around...) Without that it´s only a very complicated program to use).

  • @rambo I have also a laptop with windows 7 64bit will download and install the latest ffmpeg, how does will I make that? Can´t find in google instruction, and how to select the right file?

  • @videohq what did you use to re-wrap? Maybe if the footage is easier to edit a will start to do it too..

  • @Kihlian - my DSLR Post Prep Utility will re-wrap your .mts into .mp4 containers automatically - and it uses the ffmpeg / ffmbc engine to do the work. If you are interested in the command-line, the program shows the commands used at the bottom - you can use the same command structure yourself with ffmbc. But as @videohq was saying, re-wrapping doesn't change the original footage into an intermediate format - it just puts it into a container that Lightworks can recognize. I don't think it will make it any easier to edit with - I would certainly like to hear if it does!

    There are also the MPEG I-Frame formats - depending on your editor and computer system one of them may work well. I would also recommend trying the ProRes or Avid DNxHD Proxy formats - they maintain high quality and are usually easier for your editor to deal with. I am working on some more economical codecs for the future...

  • @Kihlian

    "I contacted Lightworks and they say that the official release will be before the NAB, for the middle of April."

    Were they referring to releasing their source to developers, or just a full release of Lightworks, post-beta? This could be significant to others who are not watching this DSLR Post Prep thread.

    I think @Vitaliy Lightworks deserves its own official thread as there might be some feature watching and busy testing about to happen.

    In the meantime, the future of GUI importing AVCHD into LW is looking brighter.

  • hi all first of all, thanks for your tool, @notrons i was researching several months to proper edit mts on lightworks and premiere cs4 finally i feel confortable with a ffmpeg command line... recently i upgrade my gh2 to 1.1 panasonic firmware + vitaly hack, so now i 'm shootiing at hbr-25p after severals trials i realize that, in spite of medianfo says that the mts converted files (to prores) are 25p, when i import to premiere i have 50i... :-( -lightworks says the same- i would like to know if you have some experiences trasncoding 25p files using your tool, and the importing on premiere regards and thanks again

  • Any possibility of anamorphic export to blu-ray? 1920× 1080 becomes 1920x817

  • @cesardeuve - Unfortunately I have not had occasion to work with 25p files so can't offer much perspective there. Have you tried MPEG I-Frames or mpg wrapping? It seems odd that ProRes would make interlaced files from progressive! Can you give an example of the command-line you have been using?

    @Roberto - I have to give your question some thought. I assume you are shooting 1920x810 MJPEG with an anamorphic lens or adapter and that you have set that frame size from within PTool. If this is true I don't think that forcing to 1920x1080 is the solution - I would think doing that would scale the image vertically to fill in the missing frame area - not a desirable thing! I think you need an original 1920x1080 frame with cropping to host your anamorphic frames and carry them to a 1080P output format (ie in your NLE). I think the only other thing to do would be scale up the entire frame to fill in the missing space - and lose a lot of the horizontal frame - probably not the best approach either. If you can give me some more details about your workflow I could do some testing...

  • @notrons I assume you are shooting 1920x810

    I shoot 1080P with an LA7200 adapter which squeezes 2.35:1 into a 16:9 box so the resulting footage is squashed. If I can batch unsqueeze 1920 x 817 I can view and edit later to a letterboxed 16:9 for Blu-Ray. One of the many NLE tutorials on the process is at http://devowe.com/blog/tag/premiere-cs3

  • @Roberto - Ahh, got it! - now I understand what you are starting with I and see what you are up against. I looked at the tutorial you referred to and if I'm not mistaken, they were only doing a crop and a scale - and their original footage was already at the correct aspect ratio of 16:9 - (not anamorphically "squeezed"). Regardless, you need to get your footage unsqueezed first. Here's where I am a bit confused.

    If you start with 1920 x 1080 and are squeezing the horizontal at 2.35:1, wouldn't that mean that its 'native' size would really be 2538x1080? I just did a quick test of forcing a conversion of a 1080P file to 2538x1080 with interesting results. Both MediaTab and Premiere CS5 report the file as 2538x1080. Under 'Modify', 'Interpret Footage' in CS5 shows the aspect ratio as .756 - when I interpret the footage as square pixels it expands the horizontal as expected. A quick scale down to 76% brings it down to the correct size for the frame and black bars appear at top and bottom (also as expected).

    I guess I am saying that it might be easiest to convert and force to 2538x1080, import, interpret as square pixels and then scale down to fit the 1080P frame in Premiere. Does this sound like it would work for you? I think this would be the best possible handling to get the max resolution from your original footage (if it works!). What codec(s)? - they would have to be tailored and tested...

    Please let me know if I'm missing something. It's got me pretty curious now - I'll have to try it for myself ; )

    [edit] Just did another quick test. Shot 1080P 24FPS with anamorphic adapter (not quite the same ratio as yours but close). Converted to ProRes 2538x1080, dropped into Premiere, interpreted as square pixels and dropped onto timeline. CS5 took care of the scaling automatically and voila! real anamorphic footage - just like it should be! I'll test some other codecs over the next few days - Avid may be troublesome. Viewing in QuickTime is possible but the footage is still "squeezed" until 'interpreted' by something like Premiere.

  • @notrons

    If you start with 1920 x 1080 and are squeezing the horizontal at 2.35:1, wouldn't that mean that its 'native' size would really be 2538x1080?

    Yes, and that's what you get if you project the video onto a screen, using a similar anamorphic adaptor in front of the lens. Also, if Blu-ray ever did anything with its anamorphic capabilities in the specification, we could see videos unsqueezed onto the wider screens a few people have bought.

    Until then, it's Blu-Ray, letterboxed. I'm used to unsqueezing on a timeline, but I'd like to batch-process lots of clips first. Preferred Codecs would be Cineform for some NLEs and the usual whatever works in Lightworks.

    The way I'd see it, there'd be, in your GUI, a checkbox, "Letterboxed 2.35:1 anamorphic" Then another radio button for the codec.

    Thanks for all your work.

  • @notrons for offline i'm using:

    -vcodec prores -profile 0 -acodec pcm_s16le

    .mts files are 25fps, .mov files shows 50fps

    i will try to test avid path... and your tool ;-)