Print

[BlueSlingShot]

Hello i just got done dl'ing all these preview movies finally for the emu's, now i need to convert them to xmv format. I got my converter from xbins under unleashx's tools.

Is there any way to convert a batch of movies rather than one at a time? I can't see this thing only doing 1 file at a time i'll be in front of my comp for days doing all these? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif)

The xmv converter i have does not have an msbatch command so i'm not ure if i have the one resx's tutorial talks about. Any thoughts?


Thanks (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Monkeys69]

I had this same problem! You'll find the batch file (run.bat) you are looking for in the 'videos/WMV' folder of ZsnexBox 3.5. I don't understand why it isn't just included with the xmvtool.exe   ??

Simply put the converter exe file (xmvtool.exe) and your wmv videos in that folder and double click the run.bat and it will convert for you.

Also, if space is an issue for you on your xbox, you can cut the size of the resulting .xmv files in half with very little loss in video quality by doing this:

1: Open the "run batch" as a text or notepad document.
It should look like this:

for /f "tokens=*" %%a IN ('dir /b ^"*.wmv^"') do xmvtool -i "%%a" -o "%%~na.xmv"

2: Add a "c" next to the: -i
Making it this:

for /f "tokens=*" %%a IN ('dir /b ^"*.wmv^"') do xmvtool -ic "%%a" -o "%%~na.xmv"

3: Save and close. Then use the batch as you would normally, putting the batch and converter in the folder of your .wmv files.

Hope that clears things up for you  

[ressurectionx]

I'm not sure where this converter ended up getting hosted at the usual spot, but to my knowledge it has nothing to do with unleashX and shouldn't be there if it is there.

The program, when you have the right one, will simply mass-convert any wmv files you have in the directory by double clicking on it.  

I thought the instructions were around for getting the right one somewhere around here.  I used to have a link posted in my thread to a megaupload upload of it, but I was told to take it down since it had some M$ code in it I guess.  

Sorry it's got to be a pain, but they're not my rules.  

[madmab]

Thank you monkeys69.  I was gonna post the batch file information since that is what he was most likely missing.  RessX is right.  Since the XmvTool is technically part of the Xbox Development kit it is considered an illegal download, but then so are the X-port emu's.

I know that when Zsnesxbox was released with video support the tools and batch file were included in the same location that it was sent to ( The Usual Places )..

But essentially it is the batch file that does "mass" converting..

[cbagy]

Be aware, if the original wmv encoding isnt all that good, adding the "ic" command will seriously reduce the quality to approx 60% (long time since i used it). It mat turn from blurry to blurry and blocky.

[FrankMorris]

QUOTE(cbagy @ Nov 11 2009, 06:17 PM)

Be aware, if the original wmv encoding isnt all that good, adding the "ic" command will seriously reduce the quality to approx 60% (long time since i used it). It mat turn from blurry to blurry and blocky.

You sure about that cba?
I always thought it only compress the audio to Xbox native ADPCM format.

[cbagy]

Depends on the quality of your encoding in the first place.

Never actually used the "ac" switch. The "ic" switch ive only ever used on "xmv" and it does reduce it badly regardless of what some text says somewhere. Try it and see.
As far as using the "ic" switch on "wmv", i dont know as ive never bothered after earlier experiences with "xmv" (quite a few yrs back). The "ic" switch may be ok with "wmv", try it.
I presume that "ac" is for audio compression.
I thought the "ic" switch was for general incoming/compression as used in the Official xbox tools. The old way was -ic file.avi/mpeg etc -o file.xmv (or there abouts).
As i say, i have never read any documentation on it anywhere (perhaps i should have), just stating from what i have experienced.
The thing to do then is for users to try it and see how it compares ! This way they can see for themselves !

PS. As stated in yout little black quote there, regardless of switches your video "will always be compressed". Now to compress it either pulls off a secret miracle or reduces bitrate. If it reduces bitrate it "must" reduce the quality. Now quality reduction depends how good are your eyes. Was the video good quality to start with ?

All i can say is, if ive misinformed anyone its unintentional. But the results will speak for themselves.

This post has been edited by cbagy: Nov 11 2009, 06:24 PM

[cbagy]

@BlueSlingShot. You didnt mention which videos your trying to reduce. Are they the Xtras ones (320x224) or the ones i encoded (640x480) ? Initial quality is the starting point for what you can expect from the compression. If they are the official xtras ones then i cannot comment as i saw some of the quality (not user made) and abandoned any idea of using them. If you are refering to the 640x480 ones i make then i think you may get away with a few tricks. The audio was encoded as stereo with a 44100 sample rate and a bitrate of 64. The video was encoded using a two pass encoding with a maximum bitrate of 1700 and an average of 1200. The audio in the videos will "probably" compress to a lower quality with ease and "hopefully" with no audible quality loss if your not that picky. The video in wmv format can be compressed further if you either re-encode using ms encoding tools or alternatively rename the .wmv to .avi and put it back through the avi to wmv process at a lower bitrate or lower ratio size ie 320x240 or both. Any sampling you do do will obviously reduce quality in one form or another. If you reduce anything then they probably will become Intermediate Quality really at best.

An after thought really but, to reduce the to less than what they already are will save you what ? Maybe 1-2gb. Seems a lot to save at first but when you consider a relatively full install will be about 20gb or there abouts anyway.

Let us know how you get on and your findings.

[FrankMorris]

The documentation can be found in the app itself:

(IMG:http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/9289/30921096.png)

I ran some tests and here's my knowledge so far:

• That "ic" switch doesn't reduce video/audio bitrate any more than "i" does.
  Like stated in the doc it only compress the audio stream using the ADPCM.

Mega Man (?) or pCeSlAyEr can confirm that only thing which get reduced is filesize.
I think everyone should continue using that ic switch when converting WMV2XMV.

[cbagy]

So looking at the screenshot there the -ic switch does in fact "add and compress" all streams where as the -i switch only inputs the streams to the xmv. Yet in your earlier post you posted a snippet from somewhere that stated "These switches have no effect on the video stream which will be compressed anyway". Now both can't be right.
So if i read it right, using the -i switch will compress the video but not the audio and then using -ic will compress both audio and video. ??
Will have to test. Be back in half an hour or so.

[cbagy]

Right done some videos myself and can confirm that Frank and others are correct. The "wmv" video will be compressed regardless of the switch and its the audio that the user has to modify the switch to compress the audio to a native format. This does reduce filesize by around 20-30 % which over a lot of files can mount up. Didnt notice any real difference between the qualities although i thought the reduced one flickered or dropped frames slightly but i think that may have been mind games. So in conclusion putting "wmv" through the conversion process with the "-ic" switch is preferable for file size reduction.

I have in the past ( quite a few years ago now) tried xmv through this same process but some videos hit a wall as far as reducing file size is concerned. Any xmv of lower than retail quality will pixelate/blocky when going through this process. Stick to converting wmv.

Well done Frank and co. Now i have a shit load of wmv to compress again. B******  

[BlueSlingShot]

Hey guys thanks for so many replies. I found the right converter with the missing batch file, it was driving me crazy.  I'm not onna bother doing the trick to cut the size of the video....i have soooo much room on this 750 gb hd i shoved in my xbox last winter that even with the videos being bigger than the wmv's themselves it won't hardly even make a dent;)

Cbagy, i don't know which videos are yours...i just dl'ed everything on res x's page.  

[ressurectionx]

Hey BlueSlingShot,

Glad you're enjoying the Xtras.  
I had a few things I figured I'd let you know about...

First, you may want to reconsider adding the little "hack" they've figured out to reduce the size of the videos.  

More and more I'm hearing that this doesn't reduce quality at all and I neglected to do it from the start.  I probably have about 6,000 console videos total now and I'm sure a 20% reduction in size would leave a ton more room for a lot of XBox or Playstation games.  I guess I should go back and do this at some point.   At least things are organized well on my PC and it shouldn't take too long.  



Second, Cbagy's stuff isn't included in any of my downloads yet.  In fact, many of those downloads on my page are as many as 8 months out of date.

Currently I'm working on updating about 10 emulators worth of roms.  I'm trying to acquire the best boxart for them, collecting videos for all of them, adding Gilles' Generic Boxarts for all of the prototypes/hacks/homebrew/etc. so all games have boxart/cartart representation.  

There are many upgrades going into all of these sets as we speak.  I'm mostly done with the big 3 (or 4) but I'm leaving them open for a few months for people to add higher quality artwork/videos or to add new games before I release everything.




I hate to say that there will not be "upgrade" packs to what were up there.  There are simply too many changes to keep up with.  When I called them "Final" before, that ended up being BS.  

If you like what you see with your current downloads, you're going to LOVE the new releases.  

Expect a GIANT update sometime in February or March.

Later,
~Rx

[cbagy]

QUOTE(BlueSlingShot @ Nov 12 2009, 03:46 AM)

Hey guys thanks for so many replies. I found the right converter with the missing batch file, it was driving me crazy.  I'm not onna bother doing the trick to cut the size of the video....i have soooo much room on this 750 gb hd i shoved in my xbox last winter that even with the videos being bigger than the wmv's themselves it won't hardly even make a dent;)

Cbagy, i don't know which videos are yours...i just dl'ed everything on res x's page.  (IMG:style_emoticons/default/cool.gif)

There won't be much room once you get the bug.

The ones you downloaded are the correct ones for now, mine arent even available properly yet and may not even make the ResX packs. As Rx says, i also think you ought to edit the "run.bat" to include the "-ic" switch. Once its done just leave it. It doesnt constantly need editing. If using windows, right click, edit and a txt type file will open revealing

for /f "tokens=*" %%a IN ('dir /b ^"*.wmv^"') do xmvtool -i "%%a" -o "%%~na.xmv"

change the switch "-i" to "-ic" so it will read

for /f "tokens=*" %%a IN ('dir /b ^"*.wmv^"') do xmvtool -ic "%%a" -o "%%~na.xmv"

[Bomb Bloke]

QUOTE(cbagy @ Nov 12 2009, 01:15 AM)

PS. As stated in yout little black quote there, regardless of switches your video "will always be compressed". Now to compress it either pulls off a secret miracle or reduces bitrate. If it reduces bitrate it "must" reduce the quality. Now quality reduction depends how good are your eyes. Was the video good quality to start with ?

To clarify, compressing doesn't automatically mean a lower bitrate during playback. The main idea behind it is to increase the efficiency of information storage, not to strip bits out (though most codecs do end up doing both).

For example, if you create a ZIP file, when you extract the files from it later they'll be the same as the originals. Despite this, the compressed archive will usually be of a smaller file size. You're essentially trading processor time for hard drive space (it takes more effort to interpret an "efficiently encoded file" then it takes to grab a raw chunk of information off the disk).

In video/audio encoding though, data preservation is the exception, rather then the rule. Most codecs are lossy (including the ones discussed in this thread, such as ADPCM), and when converting from one to the other (even while maintaining the same bitrate/resolution/etc between them) you're quite right to expect less quality.

QUOTE(cbagy @ Nov 12 2009, 05:10 AM)

Didnt notice any real difference between the qualities although i thought the reduced one flickered or dropped frames slightly but i think that may have been mind games.

The more compression algorithms you wrap around a given chunk of media, the more processor power you need to play it back in real time. Hence why XBMC on the Xbox can handle HD video but only if it's not combined with heavy handed codecs. (eg Xvid/DivX can work, while h.264 and similar are right out). This sort of thing points more towards problems in the hardware rather then the media itself; altering an audio stream won't cause any "real" problems with the video stream other then the player's ability to handle the overall workload.

Though I'm just talking theory here; I haven't tried any of these ADPCM encoded streams myself.