Topic: Video Atributes

Hi, thanks for such a great program.

I want to use siren to append video information to my collection of music videos.

I want to use the expresion (or something close to that):
%b (%VxX%Vy_%Vs_%VM_%Vf_%Vi).%e

Example:
AEROSMITH - Dream On (mvtor_x_clean_1973_mp2_ntsc_vob).mpeg
Becomes
AEROSMITH - Dream On (mvtor_x_clean_1973_mp2_ntsc_vob) (720X480_48000_stereo_29.970_Mpeg2).mpeg

This is what currently I have been able to accomplish in my most common files, ie, mpeg2 and mpeg1 standard files (vcd, svcd, dvd)

Thing is, choice of Video attributes are way too short and not always work, they dont seem to work with divx, xvid, h264, etc the program does not even detect the video size or anything else.

Do you have plans to expand the video attribute area to detect Codecs used for video/audio? Is it posible to use another program like "videoinspector" or ""avicodec" or "mediainfo" so yours do the renaming and those do the probbing?

For me, having the codec information is rather important to be able to rename a file something like this:

AEROSMITH - Dream On (mvtor_x_clean_1973)(29.970fps_720X480_mpeg2_dd2.1_dd5.1).mpeg
AEROSMITH - Dream On (mvtor_x_clean_1973)(23.976fps_1280x720_mpeg4_DivX5_dd2.1_dd5.1).mpeg etc.

If this software is not the right tool to acomplish what I want, please point me in the right direction.

Thank you very much.

Re: Video Atributes

Hi and welcome to the forum,

An important thing to know is how Siren extracts data from a file. Here are a some details:
- Its first and most important clue is the file extension. It only tries to go further if it handles it.
You'll know the supported list by looking at the help file.
- Based on this extension it opens the file and tries to analyze and extract the meta data.
If there is any issue like unhandled syntax, feature ... it stops.
One of the most common problem is a wrong file extension. For example, an "mpg" file which name ends with ".avi".
Try to rename these ones manually and check if the meta data "come out".
- Depending on the file type not all information are available, for example: fps for "wmv" files
- Some information may not correctly be interpreted, for example the codec fourcc. But the fourcc is present in the info column.

If you want to use outputs from other programs the best way to do it is to create a text file.
For each file put all information on the same line separated by a specific character and then use it as input to your renaming expression with the "%T" variable.

I am always interested in this kind of issue. The best way to figure them out is for me to have the data. I know files can be huge. That's why I've added to Siren an hidden feature that allows to extract files beginning or ending (this is generally the place where meta data are stored).
For this, highlight a file you're interested in and press: Ctrl+Alt+ a digit from the main part of the keyboard (not the numeric keypad):
Ctrl+Alt+1: to extract the first 100kb of the file
Ctrl+Alt+2: to extract the first 200kb of the file
...
Ctrl+Alt+9: to extract the first 900kb of the file

Replacing Alt with Shift will have the same action but for the last bytes of the file:
Ctrl+Shift+1: to extract the last 100kb of the file

Then send me the extracted data (for video files, only the beginning generally matters) and I'll have a look at them:
siren (at) scarabee-software (dot) net.

When you say that video attributes choice is way to short, what are the ones you're missing ?

I hope this will help.

Best regards,

Remi

Re: Video Atributes

Thanks for such fast response, atm, I am not at home so I don’t have access to my video files, so I will speak from the top of my head which is not a very reliable source of facts at times.

Disclaimer: although I have been collection music videos since VCD was a tech marvel, I am by no means an expert on the subject, so I might express something impossible to achieve or just plain stupid.

My first thought after reading your response is that probably the programs I am used to use to probe video files actually read the file and sort of render it internally or something like that, and not just read metadata or tags, therefore, they can give much more information or interpret it better.

What I want to do is to produce the following (or very similar) output to rename my files:

ARTIST - Song Name (ripper_watermarked?_year of release)(fps_hvxvv_videocodec_comon vid ref vob/svcd/vcd_pal/ntsc standard?_audio stream 1 codec/standard_audio stream 2 codec/standard).fileextension

Examples:
AEROSMITH - Dream On (x_clean_1973)(23.976fps_1280x720_mpeg4_DivX5__dd2.1_dd5.1).avi
AEROSMITH - Dream On (algan_mtv_1973)(29.970fps_720*480_mpeg2_vob_ntsc__lpcm_DTS).mpeg
AEROSMITH - Dream On (crazyripper_vh1c_1973)(29.970fps_480x480_mpeg2_svcd_ntsc__mp2).mpeg

Do you think your program can help me to fill automatically the last section of the rename, ie "(29.970fps_720*480_mpeg2_vob_ntsc__dd2.1_dd5.1)"

I think that in order to do so, the program need to just identify the video codec (mpg1, mpeg2, mpeg4) the associated name to it (vcd, svcd, vob, divx, xvid), if it complies to pal/ntsc standard, detect if more than one audio stream is present and if so, identify each as (mp2, lpcm, dd2.0, dd2.1… , DTS, etc) and at this point, I am not sure this is how Siren works.

BTW, I want to do this as it simplifies a lot the upkeep of a very large music video collection, which constantly evolves to the better, ie, always looking to replace old VCDS with better SVCDS or even better VOBS or nowdays, with the best HD video possible. This name tags allows me to compare them by name and choose accordingly the *best* version to keep or if is worth for me to get a new file I already have if it would be an improvement.

At this very moment, I may have 5 or more files of the same music video, and I need to choose which one to keep, and quickly knowing the details of the file helps me making the right choice… long are gone the days where everyone had only VCDs and the safest choice was to keep the “biggest file” as it would mean it had the least compression and therefore the best quality.

I hope I made sense smile

Re: Video Atributes

Hi,

ARTIST - Song Name (ripper_watermarked?_year of release)(fps_hvxvv_videocodec_comon vid ref vob/svcd/vcd_pal/ntsc standard?_audio stream 1 codec/standard_audio stream 2 codec/standard).fileextension

This "name format" seems to mix different kind of information:
- Pure ones. Extractible from the file content: fps, video sizes, video codec, audio codecs ... These ones should be usable through Siren's variables
- Computable ones. Svcd, ntsc looks for me as a "standard" based on codecs, video sizes, fps ... so they seem redundant with the "pure" ones (I may be wrong on this point).
- Potential ones like the "year of release" or "ripper" may have been included in the meta data or be already present in the current name. They may be usable with Siren
- Unusable ones. Siren can't extract watermarked information

I am not sure that Siren is the right tool to use.
Maybe a video dedicated software would be much more adapted to your needs.

Regards,

Remi

Re: Video Atributes

quote "Do you think your program can help me to fill automatically the last section of the rename, ie "(29.970fps_720*480_mpeg2_vob_ntsc__dd2.1_dd5.1)" "end of quote

Sorry for the wall of text that probably distracted you from that part.

From your reply:

This "name format" seems to mix different kind of information:
- Pure ones. Extractible from the file content: fps, video sizes, video codec, audio codecs ... These ones should be usable through Siren's variables

These are the most important for me. I would settle and be happy if SIREN could actually produce output like this at the end of the current file name:
(29.970fps_720*480_mpeg2_vob_ntsc__dd2.1_dd5.1)

I undestand that vob/svcd/etc and ntsc/pal might be not doable. I can live with that.


- Computable ones. Svcd, ntsc looks for me as a "standard" based on codecs, video sizes, fps ... so they seem redundant with the "pure" ones (I may be wrong on this point).

You are correct, they are redundant, the reason to put them is to be able to "filter" and search for the term.. ie "pink floyd learning to fly vob", if it comes empty, then I fill confortable downloading that video with out fearing I already have a vob-quality on my collection.


- Potential ones like the "year of release" or "ripper" may have been included in the meta data or be already present in the current name. They may be usable with Siren

I dont expect SIREN to use them or get them. These usually are given by the ripper in the name of the file, if the year is not present, I manually add it, since I love to make filters and listen only to music from certain years.


- Unusable ones. Siren can't extract watermarked information
I dont expect SIREN to use them or get them. I watch every video and properly tag it, manually, as it is for me better to have a "clean" version (no logos) than to have a VH1 logo on the screen.


So, do you think I can use SIREN to produce and append this to the video files I have?

Thanks again for your time and effort.

Re: Video Atributes

You ask:

So, do you think I can use SIREN to produce and append this to the video files I have?

I don't really know what to add to my previous posts.
Now you know what Siren can and can't do. Make tests and then decide if this piece of software is the right choice.

If you've got more questions I'll do my best to answer them.

Best regards,

Remi

PS: This topic seems to be more related to the "How to ..." entry. I've moved it there.