Recent Posts

2626

General Software Discussion / Re: what can replace mp3info / mp3ext?

« Last post by 4wd on December 20, 2013, 07:08 PM »

MediaInfo Lite



As a bonus it'll do all media files  

If I'm going to do anything more than look at MP3 information, I'll use MP3Tag.

AudioShell ?



Since the source for MP3Ext is available, one of the members here might recompile for x64 for you, (assuming it doesn't necessitate a major rewrite due to age).

2627

General Software Discussion / Re: a program similar to DropFolder

« Last post by 4wd on December 18, 2013, 06:11 PM »

That's probably as fast as you can get without resorting to really fine tuning of the x264 encoder and I doubt whether you'd gain more than a few frames/second in speed.

Using the Constant Quality setting should almost halve it to around 25 minutes.

2628

Living Room / Re: Interesting "stuff"

« Last post by 4wd on December 18, 2013, 05:58 AM »

Porsche Proves MPAA Wrong, Wants You to Download a Car

The Motion Picture Association’s “Piracy it’s a crime” video is without doubt the most iconic anti-piracy PSA ever made. The video includes the classic line “you wouldn’t download a car,” but within a decade Porsche is proving the movie industry wrong. The exclusive car manufacturer is offering freely downloadable blueprints of its Cayman S model, and evidence of the first printed cars is now surfacing left and right.

2629

General Software Discussion / Re: a program similar to DropFolder

« Last post by 4wd on December 17, 2013, 09:09 PM »

actually the setting i used was the second one you suggested.

-techidave (December 17, 2013, 12:29 PM)

The Turbo switch was just to get an immediate improvement given your current settings.

The log shows that the input audio for that camcorder is:

aac, 48000 Hz, stereo, fltp, 127 kb/s

The audio is already at the bitrate you want, in the codec you want - so there's no need to encode it again.

You could replace -B 128 with -E copy:aac - that'll tell HandBrake to just copy any AAC audio to the output instead of encoding, it might shave a little more off the time.
(NOTE: Anything that isn't AAC will still be encoded with the default settings which are AAC 160kb/s - so it will still work if you use input from another camcorder.)

The video format is:

h264 (Constrained Baseline), yuvj420p, 1280x720 [PAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 8412 kb/s, 29.97 fps, 29.97 tbr, 30k tbn, 59.94 tbc

This is the lowest profile^w you can have with MPEG4-AVC, given that you're resizing from HD down to VGA resolution I would think a profile of Baseline, Extended, or Main is a better choice than the default, (High).  Since the final product is for web streaming, you could add --x264-profile baseline or --x264-profile main to your settings, (HandBrake doesn't do Extended).

I've modified the table above using the above parameters, times plummeted a bit

Give the two settings I highlighted a try and see what you get.

2630

General Software Discussion / Re: a program similar to DropFolder

« Last post by 4wd on December 17, 2013, 12:05 PM »

It's converting at close to real time rate, (~34fps for each pass), so each video is going to take just over twice its duration to convert using two pass encoding.

Be interesting to see what the settings I suggested would get it down to, and the comparison in output quality.

2631

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows explorer for windows 7-64

« Last post by 4wd on December 17, 2013, 11:43 AM »

The simplest answer?

Install ImportExportTools add-on.

Select messages->right-click->Save selected messages->EML format.

2632

Living Room / Re: PB&J with Potato Chips... One of Nature's Most Perfect Foods[

« Last post by 4wd on December 17, 2013, 10:46 AM »

A block of high cocoa percentage dark chocolate



plus a glass of Glayva



Take a square of chocolate and a sip of Glayva and let the flavours combine as the chocolate melts in your mouth.

2633

General Software Discussion / Re: a program similar to DropFolder

« Last post by 4wd on December 17, 2013, 06:14 AM »

WOW!  thanks a lot 4wd for doing this!  It is really appreciated!  

-techidave (December 17, 2013, 05:33 AM)

No problem  

Someone else told me that a "modern CPU" would make a bigger difference than more RAM will.

One of the Core CPUs with Quick Sync^w plus a HandBrake version with Quick Sync capability would tear through the encodes, (or if they finish the OpenCL versions of HandBrake then you can use a cheap AMD GPU).

the part that I don't understand is how did you know what the different parameters will do??

Magic, my son, magic  

Or if you don't believe that, how about: I use VidCoder a lot, which is a more user friendly version of HandBrake - all the GUI interface options have a CLI equivalent.  Plus the default encoding options for HandBrake/VidCoder are pretty good for 95% of the usage cases.

HandBrakeCLI Guide

Just as a note, the only time I use two pass encoding is when I want to hit a specific filesize, eg. 350MB, normally the default CQ setting, (20), is more than adequate for this type of stuff.

My test source video is sufficiently close enough to what I get from my PAL MiniDV camcorder, (which sadly lies unloved under a bed), so you should see a similar speed increase there, (hardware notwithstanding).

I noticed with the SuperFast sample I put up, (I chose that section because of the fast action brush strokes and contrast between black/white plus a few colour daubs), that it is slightly brighter which causes a very slight loss of detail, (due to wash out effect), that you can see in some of the fine brush strokes he does.

Depending on your needs this may be acceptable, if not can you post a short section of some of your source video, (a reasonably complex section - fast movement, contrast, etc), somewhere, PM me a link, and I'll have a play with the settings.

EDIT: Just noticed I must have been dyslexic when I was copying and pasting from the command files I used - fixed parameters above.

2634

General Software Discussion / Re: a program similar to DropFolder

« Last post by 4wd on December 16, 2013, 05:30 PM »

OK, the resolution change and two pass encoding are what will slow it down a lot, give me a few hours I'll run some alternate configs and post some results, I'll use the following for the tests:

Source: 1.29GB MPG2 Transport Stream, 15000kbps MPG2 + 200kpbs 48kHz MPG1, 720 x 576  (straight DVB-T capture) 26 minutes 40 seconds

But if you want an immediate speed increase, add the -T option.

-T, --turbo             When using 2-pass use the turbo options
                            on the first pass to improve speed
                            (only works with x264, affects PSNR by about 0.05dB,
                            and increases first pass speed two to four times)

This will enable a faster first pass analysis, as an example of what it can do:

Without it: 700.12 seconds to encode above file using your settings
With it:     495.49 seconds

Addendum:
I've used the abbreviated parameters and thrown in a couple of times for the other machines I've got.

NOTE: Apart from the first two configs below, I haven't included any parameters that are default, (eg. -e x264, -q 20).

Config	Command parameters	Output filesize (MB)	Phenom II X6 1100T (3.3GHz 2010) Time (s)	Athlon II X2 235e (2.7GHz 2009) Time (s)	AMD Turion II Neo N40L (1.5GHz 2011) Time (s)	Core 2 Quad 9450 (2.66GHz 2008) Time (s)
techidave	-e x264 -b 1800 -B 128 -X 640 -2 -O	368	700	4320	4871	1251
techidave+Turbo	-e x264 -b 1800 -B 128 -X 640 -2 -T -O	368	495			866
techidave+Turbo+Baseline+Audio copy	-e x264 --x264-profile baseline -b 1800 -E copy:aac -X 640 -2 -T -O	368	333
techidave+Turbo+Superfast+Baseline+Audio copy	-e x264 --x264-preset superfast --x264-profile baseline -b 1800 -E copy:aac -X 640 -2 -T -O	368	152
Constant Quality 20 (default bitrate 1000, default ffmpeg4 encoder)	-B 128 -X 640 -O	203	296
CQ+bitrate 1800	-b 1800 -B 128 -X 640 -O	203	290
CQ+Main profile (default is High)	-e x264 --x264-profile main -B 128 -X 640 -O	190	278
CQ+FastDecode	-e x264 --x264-tune fastdecode -B 128 -X 640 -O	229	279
CQ+Main+FastDecode	-e x264 --x264-profile main --x264-tune fastdecode -B 128 -X 640 -O	219	262
CQ+SuperFast preset	-e x264 --x264-preset superfast -B 128 -X 640 -O	307	140	360	632
CQ+Main+SuperFast	-e x264 --x264-preset superfast --x264-profile main -B 128 -X 640 -O	306	139
CQ+SuperFast+bitrate 1800	-e x264 --x264-preset superfast -b 1800 -B 128 -X 640 -O	368	135.50			175
CQ+SuperFast+bitrate 1800+Baseline+audio copy	-e x264 --x264-tune film --x264-preset superfast --x264-profile baseline -b 1800 -E copy:aac -X 640 -O	367	75

Add -I for compatibility with 5.5G iPods.

A more modern CPU, (eg. Core or later), would make a bigger difference but you work with what you have  

A couple of 2 minute samples for comparison:
techidave.mp4 (27MB) (-e x264 -b 1800 -B 128 -X 640 -Y 480 -2 -O) (ie. your current parameters)
superfast.mp4 (22MB) (-e x264 --x264-preset superfast -B 128 -X 640 -Y 480 -O)

Also, next time you do an encode on it check Task Manager to see if it's using all CPUs - it should be running all of them flat out unless you've told it otherwise.

2635

General Software Discussion / Re: a program similar to DropFolder

« Last post by 4wd on December 16, 2013, 05:32 AM »

One of the problems that I have is taking a video file over 1 gb and converting it to .mp4 takes a very long time as in hours and then there is a chance that the program will lock up on me and not finish.

-techidave (December 14, 2013, 03:32 PM)

It sounds like you don't have the optimum configuration for HandBrake that you need, since HandBrake is one of the fastest free h.264 encoders available.

At a guess, I'd say you're doing two-pass encoding with a view to maximum quality or a specific target file size.

Any chance you can tell us what settings you're currently using for HandBrake?

BTW, are you using the current version of HandBrake?

Also, regarding the output:
Same resolution as input required?
Same number of audio channels required, (ie. is stereo enough considering content)?
Is a specific target size required?
Is this meant purely for internal LAN streaming or is it going to be accessed via the internet also?

To give an example of time taken for a typical encoding operation for me, a 90 minute DVD  will encode to a ~1GB MP4 in approx. 10 minutes, (AMD Phenom X6).

That's at a Constant Quality (CQ) of 20 and 5.1 channel discrete mixdown, (or AC3 passthrough) - which is more than enough for that type of content.

I would like one that will let me "optimize for the web" and then it plays well on any device.

There's really no such thing as "optimize for the web" when it comes to video as everyone's web experience is different - it's why YouTube, TV stations, etc offer different resolutions, bitrates, etc.

The best you can hope for is it will play on the majority of devices, (it's why I use a 5.1 channel discrete mixdown, my WDTV Live won't handle DTS).

2636

General Software Discussion / Re: Tips for Windows 8 (got any?)

« Last post by 4wd on December 14, 2013, 07:25 PM »

RecImgManager looks interesting.  btw are you using it or doing it the old fashioned way?

-MilesAhead (December 14, 2013, 08:10 AM)

If you mean by the old fashoined way, the CLI - then both.  RecImgManager just stops at 27% with 'Backup Failed', the CLI while also stopping at 27% at least gives me the error code.

http://www.eightforu...-recovery-image.html

Same method as the link Curt gave.

I just did a backup with RecImgManager.  Seems cool.

-MilesAhead (December 14, 2013, 10:33 AM)

AFAICT, it's just a GUI under which it does the call to recimg.exe and then just redisplays the reports, (except for error codes), that recimg gives.

Since it works for you, you might as well check out SlimImage - scheduled, incremental backup.

Guess I'll have to stick to Paragon for whole partition images.

2637

General Software Discussion / Re: Tips for Windows 8 (got any?)

« Last post by 4wd on December 13, 2013, 10:44 PM »

http://www.techsuppo...-refresh-feature.htm

Make Your Windows 8/8.1 Computer Act Like New with the Refresh Feature.

Accessing the Refresh feature was described in a previous article, but here I will give some details of how to create a custom Refresh.

-gizmo's freeware

-Curt (November 22, 2013, 04:14 PM)

As a matter of interest, has anyone got this to work?

If I try it, it always bombs out at 27% with:

The recovery image cannot be written.
Error Code - 0x80070001

Which in the context of creating a recovery image seems to be something to do with symbolic links, of which Win 8.1 has more than a few.

BTW, RecImgManager for those that don't like the CLI.

2638

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: IsoBuster Pro - Mini-Review

« Last post by 4wd on December 12, 2013, 11:02 AM »

You need to change the App URL. 

2639

Non-Windows Software / Re: *NIX: ownCloud v6.0.0 released - now has realtime document collaboration

« Last post by 4wd on December 12, 2013, 05:06 AM »

^My thoughts exactly...

-40hz (December 11, 2013, 08:58 PM)

Don't go thinking you're off the hook ... remember this?

 

2640

Non-Windows Software / Re: *NIX: ownCloud v6.0.0 released - now has realtime document collaboration

« Last post by 4wd on December 11, 2013, 08:54 PM »

Just in time for K's second book

2641

General Software Discussion / Re: Command Line special needs for Batch file - Replace/rename/remove in filenames

« Last post by 4wd on December 11, 2013, 12:56 AM »

Points 1 and 2:

To replace \ with / and c:/1st level/2nd level with http://www you can use string substitution, eg.

Code: Text [Select]

1. @echo off
2. set URL=C:\test1\test2\test.txt
3. set URL=%URL:\=/%
4. set URL=%URL:C:/test1/test2=http://www%
5. echo.%URL%

And the output:

Code: Text [Select]

1. K:\>test2.cmd
2. http://www/test.txt

Point 3 you could do the same (replace the string you don't want with an empty string, ie. set URL=%URL:/webroot=%).

And I think the bit below takes care of point 4:

Code: Text [Select]

1. @echo off
2. rem URL with less than 5 forward slashes
3. set URL=http://not/longenuff/test.txt
4. call :TestLen %URL%
5.  
6. rem URL with more than 5 forward slashes
7. set URL=http://www/need/to/make/it/longer/test.txt
8. call :TestLen %URL%
9. goto :End
10.  
11. :TestLen
12. for /f "usebackq delims=/ tokens=5" %%a in (`echo.%1`) do (call :LongEnuff %%a %1)
13. goto :EOF
14.  
15. :LongEnuff
16. if /i not %1 == "" echo.%2
17. goto :EOF
18.  
19. :End
20. pause

ie. Use / as a delimiter and test to see whether the fifth argument is empty or not.  Seems to work.


You may have to tweak it a bit for your setup but here goes:

Code: Text [Select]

1. @echo off
2.  
3. for /f "delims=" %%a in ('wmic OS Get localdatetime  ^| find "."') do set dt=%%a
4. set dt=%dt:~0,4%-%dt:~4,2%-%dt:~6,2%_%
5. setlocal
6. set currentLevel=0
7. set maxLevel=%2
8. if not defined maxLevel set maxLevel=2
9.  
10. :procFolder
11. pushd %1 2>nul || exit /b
12. if %currentLevel% lss %maxLevel% (
13.   for /d %%F in (*) do (
14.     call :ProcessFol "%%~fF"
15.     set /a currentLevel+=1
16.     call :procFolder "%%~F"
17.     set /a currentLevel-=1
18.   )
19. )
20. popd
21. goto :End
22.  
23. :processFol
24. set URL=%~1
25. set URL=%URL:\=/%
26. set URL=%URL:/webroot=%
27. set URL=%URL:c:/1st level/2nd level=http://www%
28. call :TestLen %URL%
29. goto :EOF
30.  
31. :TestLen
32. for /f "usebackq delims=/ tokens=5" %%a in (`echo.%1`) do (call :LongEnuff %%a %1)
33. goto :EOF
34.  
35. :LongEnuff
36. if /i not %1 == "" echo.%2 >>c:\Hyperlinks\Working-%dt%.txt
37. goto :EOF
38.  
39. :End

I am going to try to paste in the code below as it currently exists.  The last time I tried this it would not insert due to a need for indenting?  I think?

-questorfla (December 10, 2013, 10:53 PM)

When you insert your code into a post, use the drop down list in the editor, then paste your code between the tags.

2642

Living Room / Re: SoftMaker charity 2013: FreeOffice

« Last post by 4wd on December 10, 2013, 06:28 PM »

FreeOffice 2013 may open/write more [improved filters but still won't write ...X formats - see below] formats but I can't find a comparison for it.

From the FAQ:

No, this year we make an updated version available that offers additional features and improved import/export filters. So, even if you are already a FreeOffice user, it is worthwhile to download FreeOffice again.

Features page is here: FreeOffice 2013

And from the forum:

It has many of the improvements of 2012, and some features are reduced over 2010. For example, it can read DOCX, XLSX, and PPTX files, and uses the most modern filters we have for that.

2643

General Software Discussion / Re: What's your preferred File Manager

« Last post by 4wd on December 10, 2013, 05:51 PM »

I fail to see how the Alt+DC thing is too much of a problem as it is user-created. It's not like it is a stock configuration item out of the box.

-Innuendo (December 10, 2013, 10:28 AM)

But Control+DC is default for Properties out of the box and it exhibits the same bug.

Regardless, the author is very receptive towards bug reports. Has anyone reported this bug to Jonathan? If so, what was his response?

I posted on the DOpus Resource forum in Help & Support, which is their referred method.  Leo has confirmed the problem, so they're looking into it.

There is nothing better than Directory Opus.

-dcwul62 (December 10, 2013, 07:16 AM)

While I tend to agree, it's a matter of opinion/circumstance - if I have to install a filemanager on a relatives machine that doesn't entail spending money, then FreeCommander XE or A43 is the best  

2644

General Software Discussion / Re: What's your preferred File Manager

« Last post by 4wd on December 09, 2013, 08:24 PM »

Just tried this on my Directory Opus x64 configuration and when I alt+DC on any file it just opens. No properties dialog at all. Checking the pull-down menu and I see Properties does not have any shortcut (keyboard or mouse) assigned to it.

-Innuendo (December 09, 2013, 11:08 AM)

You set it under Settings->Filetypes->All files and folders (Directory Opus File Types)

Events-> Left double-click + Alt: properties nofromfocus

My first question is are you two using a DOpus configuration that you imported from a previous version or did you start fresh with a new configuration when you upgraded to v10?

Yes, but I didn't have Alt+DC set to anything, (I never used it for anything) - I had to set it myself and clear it from All folders (under Directory Opus File Types) and Archives (under File Type Groups).

If you don't clear it, then default is to Open the item.

Also, a bit more info with what I'm finding - the Properties dialog close and then Alt+DC action on the next file has to occur within 10 seconds.

ie.
Alt+DC on file, close Properties, Alt+DC on another file <- all within 10 seconds

If you wait 10 seconds between Alt+DC on items then the delay didn't occur.  It also happens if I use Control+DC instead but then you get items being left selected.

I'll clear out my DOpus install and see if I can narrow it down a bit more.

EDIT: OK, RevoUninstaller'd DOpus to clear it out, restart, and then installed DOpus 10.5.4.0 x64 with everything default (Ugh!).  Changed the Filetypes to match above and ... it still does it, (on a near new installation of Win8.1 Pro x64).

2645

Living Room / Re: I have been pwned

« Last post by 4wd on December 09, 2013, 06:20 PM »

Bah!  I don't trust that site, of the 14 gmail accounts I use not one appeared on there ... I'm going to have to try harder 

2646

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Tresorit - Secure, end-to-end encrypted Cloud storage service (FREE)

« Last post by 4wd on December 09, 2013, 05:16 AM »

I've also used it since the initial Lifehacker 50GB giveaway, a couple of things to make note of:

• Remember your password - if you forget it then you cannot recover anything in the cloud.
  You can only register for a new account using your original email address and a new password, you will then be prompted to delete your old account.  See here.
• One really annoying drawback of the program, (for me anyway), is it locks files while it's syncing rather than use the Volume Shadow Service or something similar.
  An example: If I compile an AutoIt script, and then try to compile it again because I did a minor edit - that compile will fail because the previously compiled executable is locked while it's being synced.  Probably not a problem for those with multi-Mb broadband but for those of us in the real world, it really is annoying.

2647

General Software Discussion / Re: Waterfox has now been accepted as a Mozilla project

« Last post by 4wd on December 08, 2013, 05:00 PM »

CPU is E1-1200.

-MilesAhead (December 08, 2013, 04:35 PM)

AMD don't do Hyper-Threading - they're real cores and their internal GPUs will generally beat the hell out of Intel's comparative product.

I was looking at get a small APU powered notebook, (11-13" ish), for a while ... unfortunately spouse-inflicted constraints came into effect  

EDIT: Just installed Form History Control to see how it goes.

2648

Living Room / Re: SoftMaker charity 2013: FreeOffice

« Last post by 4wd on December 08, 2013, 04:58 PM »

The comparison between FreeOffice and the paid for versions for 2012 is still available here: PDF (127kB)

2649

General Software Discussion / Re: Laptop Lock only on Lid Close

« Last post by 4wd on December 08, 2013, 04:40 PM »

There's two more options for locking on lid close over here: SumTips

2650

General Software Discussion / Re: Waterfox has now been accepted as a Mozilla project

« Last post by 4wd on December 08, 2013, 04:30 PM »

btw does anyone have a Pale Moon favorite reply saver thingy?  You are typing a reply to a post and the connection goes down along with all the text typed.

-MilesAhead (December 08, 2013, 04:15 PM)

You lose all the text when you hit Post/Preview if the connection is down?

I've just used the back button - just tried it now with the NIC disabled and all this text was still here.

Sometimes the text is lost but generally it survives.

BTW, what CPU is it ?