ReplayTV Video Podcasting for iTunes & PSP

[RFontenot]

The attached script automates the process of converting ReplayTV recordings into video podcasts viewable with Apple's iTunes or Sony's PSP.

As new video content is posted, the podcast playlist is automatically updated. You can configure iTunes to automatically download new content and upload to a Video iPod. Automatic uploads to the PSP are supported by the script.

You determine the amount of automation desired. You can automate the process to the point where putting new video content on an iPod or PSP is as simple as:

1. Select program to record on ReplayTV.
2. Select program to play on iPod or PSP.

Everything else in between is automatic.

Editing commercials and streaming video is also supported. See README.TXT for details.

This script is for Windows 2000/XP and requires the following additional software for automated video podcasting.

DVArchive
FFmpeg
Web Server (apache recommended)

See the README.TXT for links to additional software.

UPDATE 10/9/06: Released version 3.1. Fixed problem where parentheses in episode description would cause script to crash.


RF

[iommi]

Excellent can't wait to try it!

[dotheDVDeed]

Doesn't the new firmware update for the 5th gen iPod (video capable) include support for a higher video resolution? 640x480?

Does this converter support that higher res?

TIM

[Clay Schneider]

Nicely done RF! Thank you very much!

[RFontenot]

You're welcome Clay.

Apple's implementation of H.264 for 640x480 is non-standard, so for the moment, only software from Apple can encode 640x480 H.264 video for the new iPod.

It may be a different story for 640x480 MPEG-4 video, though, but I don't have one of the new iPods. Anyone with the new iPod can try it by doing the following:

set VCODEC=mpeg4
set QUALITY=vga
set ABITRATE=79

Post if you can upload an play 640x480 MPEG-4 video on the new iPod without reencoding.

RF

[richcchan]

Wow, that's awesome you did that. It's good to see that there's still development work on our venerable Replay units.

[RFontenot]

*bump*

:D

[rm -rf *.*]

schweet!
(and I don't even own an ipod or PSP - anything that once again proves how dammed good and well thought out the RTV was is a great asset in my book)

[RFontenot]

Updated script to version 3.1. Fixed problem where parentheses in episode description would cause script to crash.

RF

[macdiesel]

Great work man, I've been using this script for about 3 weeks now and it's been great. Every morning I grab what i missed off TV the night before, toss it on the Ipod and watch it on the bus! =)

I just setup the podcasting portion of it today. We'll see how it turns out.

Thanks a bunch!

Mac

[RFontenot]

The new v3.0 firmware for the PSP now allows you to automatically download podcasts via WiFi at a set time each day. So now a recording you scheduled on your ReplayTV before going to bed can be ready for viewing on your PSP by the time you wake up.

RF

[ksipp01]

ok I'm stuck...for some reason the only output file I can see is the *.thm file, no *.mp4
the log says "complete" ...echos 1st pass, and 2nd pass as well, but no .mp4 file to be found.

Any suggestions....Thank you!

[adam368]

I'm having some trouble getting my files from DVArchive to the video ipod. any ideas what I am doing wrong?

Here is the log

ffmpeg version 0.4.9-pre1, build 4743, Copyright (c) 2000-2004 Fabrice Bellard
configuration: --enable-mp3lame --enable-vorbis --enable-faad --enable-faac -
-enable-xvid --enable-mingw32 --enable-a52 --enable-dts --enable-pp --enable-gpl
--enable-memalign-hack
built on Feb 22 2005 04:58:29, gcc: 3.4.2 (mingw-special)
Input #0, mpeg, from 'F:\hold\A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving_edited_cvt.mpg':
Duration: 00:21:24.8, start: 0.800000, bitrate: 1898 kb/s
Stream #0.0: Audio: mp2, 48000 Hz, stereo, 192 kb/s
Stream #0.1: Video: mpeg2video, 352x480, 29.97 fps
F:\RTV_convert\ffmpeg\ffmpeg.exe: unrecognized option '-vol'
ffmpeg version 0.4.9-pre1, build 4743, Copyright (c) 2000-2004 Fabrice Bellard
configuration: --enable-mp3lame --enable-vorbis --enable-faad --enable-faac -
-enable-xvid --enable-mingw32 --enable-a52 --enable-dts --enable-pp --enable-gpl
--enable-memalign-hack
built on Feb 22 2005 04:58:29, gcc: 3.4.2 (mingw-special)
Input #0, mpeg, from 'F:\hold\A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving_edited_cvt.mpg':
Duration: 00:21:24.8, start: 0.800000, bitrate: 1898 kb/s
Stream #0.0: Audio: mp2, 48000 Hz, stereo, 192 kb/s
Stream #0.1: Video: mpeg2video, 352x480, 29.97 fps
Output #0, mjpeg, to 'F:\RTV_convert\ipod_upload\ACharlieBrownThanksgiving_edite
d_cvt.thm':
Stream #0.0: Video: mjpeg, 160x120, 29.97 fps, q=2-31, 200 kb/s
Stream mapping:
Stream #0.1 -> #0.0
[mjpeg @ 0076A4A8]colorspace not supported in jpeg
Error while opening codec for output stream #0.0 - maybe incorrect parameters su
ch as bit_rate, rate, width or height
Could Not Find F:\RTV_convert\ipod_upload\2pass17949*.log
Could Not Find C:\Program Files\Common Files\System\MAPI\1033\nt\xvidff.*

[RFontenot]

Your version of ffmpeg doesn't appear to support the -vol parameter and possibly other parameters. The version of ffmpeg I used to develop the script is below:

ffmpeg version CVS, build 4759, Copyright (c) 2000-2004 Fabrice Bellard configuration: --enable-mp3lame --enable-faac --enable-faad --enable-amr_nb --enable-amr_wb --disable-ffplay --enable-small --enable-memalign-hack --enable-gpl --enable-xvid --enable-dts --enable-a52 --disable-vhook --enable-pthread --enable-x264
built on Oct 30 2005 01:30:25, gcc: 3.4.4 (cygming special) (gdc 0.12, using dmd 0.125)

[adam368]

I'm looking all around for this version. Do you know where I can get a copy of that build?

[RFontenot]

I used the version of FFMPEG that came with PSP Video 9. Try downloading and installing their latest release. It probably won't be the exact same version, but it should be newer than what you are using now.

[adam368]

Thanks I will try that.

[mastiff34]

hey great program! Just found this today to try to get movies to my wife's new ipod. I am finding the following issue, any ideas as to what is causing this? It never creates the mp4 file. Here is the console output...
----
C:\Documents and Settings\matt\Desktop\IPOD_REPLAY_SETUP_BINARIES\rtv2pod31>rtv2
pod.bat "C:\dvarchive_downloads\Local_Guide\The Girls Next Door - Half-Baked Ala
ska.mpg"
FFmpeg version SVN-r9133, Copyright (c) 2000-2007 Fabrice Bellard, et al.
configuration: --enable-gpl --enable-pp --enable-swscaler --enable-pthreads --
enable-liba52 --enable-avisynth --enable-libamr-nb --enable-libamr-wb --enable-l
ibfaac --enable-libfaad --enable-libgsm --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libnut --en
able-libogg --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis --enable-x264 --enable-xvid --
cpu=i686 --enable-memalign-hack --extra-ldflags=-static --enable-dirac
libavutil version: 49.4.0
libavcodec version: 51.40.4
libavformat version: 51.12.1
built on May 27 2007 19:45:44, gcc: 4.2.0
Input #0, mpeg, from 'C:\dvarchive_downloads\Local_Guide\The Girls Next Door - H
alf-Baked Alaska.mpg':
Duration: 00:30:01.7, start: 0.555444, bitrate: 5747 kb/s
Stream #0.0[0x1e0]: Video: mpeg2video, yuv420p, 720x480, 9800 kb/s, 29.97 fps(
r)
Stream #0.1[0x1c0]: Audio: mp2, 48000 Hz, stereo, 192 kb/s
Unable for find a suitable output format for 'mpeg4'
FFmpeg version SVN-r9133, Copyright (c) 2000-2007 Fabrice Bellard, et al.
configuration: --enable-gpl --enable-pp --enable-swscaler --enable-pthreads --
enable-liba52 --enable-avisynth --enable-libamr-nb --enable-libamr-wb --enable-l
ibfaac --enable-libfaad --enable-libgsm --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libnut --en
able-libogg --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis --enable-x264 --enable-xvid --
cpu=i686 --enable-memalign-hack --extra-ldflags=-static --enable-dirac
libavutil version: 49.4.0
libavcodec version: 51.40.4
libavformat version: 51.12.1
built on May 27 2007 19:45:44, gcc: 4.2.0
Input #0, mpeg, from 'C:\dvarchive_downloads\Local_Guide\The Girls Next Door - H
alf-Baked Alaska.mpg':
Duration: 00:30:01.7, start: 0.555444, bitrate: 5747 kb/s
Stream #0.0[0x1e0]: Video: mpeg2video, yuv420p, 720x480, 9800 kb/s, 29.97 fps(
r)
Stream #0.1[0x1c0]: Audio: mp2, 48000 Hz, stereo, 192 kb/s
Output #0, mjpeg, to 'C:\MP4_Videos\TheGirlsNextDoor-Half-BakedAlaska.thm':
Stream #0.0: Video: mjpeg, yuvj420p, 160x120, q=2-31, 200 kb/s, 29.97 fps(c)
Stream mapping:
Stream #0.0 -> #0.0
Press [q] to stop encoding
frame= 0 fps= 0 q=0.0 size= 0kB time=10000000000.0 bitrate= 0.0kbits
frame= 0 fps= 0 q=0.0 size= 0kB time=10000000000.0 bitrate= 0.0kbits
frame= 0 fps= 0 q=0.0 size= 0kB time=10000000000.0 bitrate= 0.0kbits
frame= 1 fps= 1 q=3.1 Lsize= 6kB time=0.0 bitrate=1559.9kbits/s
video:6kB audio:0kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead 0.000000%
Could Not Find C:\MP4_Videos\2pass5639*.log
Could Not Find C:\Documents and Settings\matt\Desktop\IPOD_REPLAY_SETUP_BINARIES
\rtv2pod31\xvidff.*

C:\Documents and Settings\matt\Desktop\IPOD_REPLAY_SETUP_BINARIES\rtv2pod31>
----

Any help would be great!

[adam368]

I think it could be the ffmpeg.exe version you are using. PSP Video 9 as noted above has the proper version of ffmpeg that works with this script.

[mastiff34]

I am using the latest psp video 9 downloaded it on friday. What version is your ffdshow?

[mastiff34]

Got it working! Great script btw...

The trick I used was apparently PSP Video 9 comes with 2 ffmpeg.exe files, one in a ffmeg folder and one in the ffmepg_mh folder, if you use the mh version it works.

The ffmeg folders exe is 8.2gb Built in May 2007
The ffmeg in the mh folder is 3.2mb and build in May 2004 ???

Oh well, but it works! Thanks again for the awesome script.

[mastiff34]

I am not sure if this is still being supported, but I am having one last issue, I am trying to use the rtvedit option with the script and it works great if I only download 1 show at a time, and let it process fully.

But, when I download multiple shows any more then 1, the 1 first one works fine, but the second one downloads and then bombs saying unable to find local replay xml file ( something like that, sorry at work, so I dont have the exact message). This only happens if I enable the edit option, if I leave it at no I can download and convert as many shows as I like.

Anyone got any ideas? I would really like to have the commercials edited out on more then 1 show in a night. I typically do 3 - 5 shows a night.

[adam368]

Instead of pulling 3 files to the script at once, try pulling one file to the script and let it start. Then pull over the second file to the script and you should have two running at the same time. I think that is what I did to get more than one going at the same time.

[mastiff34]

hmms, I might be saying this wrong, but the way I have it setup is for dvarchive to kick it off after download. (aka Downloads tab, Post Processing Download Command which I have pointed to the script ).

So I think it is getting kicked off one at a time as the files downloads successfully.

Or does dvarchive wait for all files to finish downloading before kicking off the script.

Ie, you select 5 shows to download it waits until all 5 have finished downloading and then kicks it off.

The wordage makes it seem like it gets kicked off after each successful download.

[R8ders2K]

Any possibility that this script could take advantage of the Turbo.264?