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February 12, 2010 08:35 AM

Categories: Pogoplug Classic

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Harry Teasley

Member
Joined: 02/08/2010

So I have Active Copied my iTunes media folder onto my Pogoplug drive, so I can stream my music and movies at work. I have about 300 videos, so I expect the complete transcoding job to be done sometime, hmmm, this fall? But I have a few questions:

1. Which videos have been transcoded? It's a big list, and every day a video or two is completed. But in the movie browser, I haven't been able to tell which movies simply have previews, and which have been fully transcoded. Is there something I'm missing? Is there a way to view only those movies that have been transcoded for streaming? Seeing the list of untranscoded videos isn't all that helpful in trying to discover the 5% or so that have been transcoded.

2. Are these transcoded videos replacing the videos that have been copied, or are these second versions of the videos being stored elsewhere? Are the transcoded videos smaller, or lower quality? Will I be getting drive space back as my video collection is morphed into a lower-quality streamable collection, or will I be losing disk space as my video collection is duplicated into a transcoded set of files. Or is the transcode something that does not alter the video quality, but plays with the file format somehow to make it better for streaming? Does that process make it worse for other applications? How are DRMed iTunes videos handled? If I use the file manager to download a file directly, do I download my original source file, or a transcoded file?

3. I'm assuming the pogoplug is struggling to do this on its own, sweet little low-powered thing. Is there a way to have my faster computers do this work?

I've looked through the online manual, FAQ, and googled for info, but haven't really found answers to these questions.

Discussion:    Add a Comment | Comments 1-6 of 6 | Latest Comment

Jon.QA Avatar
Cloud Engines
Answers Post February 12, 2010 10:39 AM

1) Good point! There isn't any way to easily tell which videos have been transcoded as yet. It does take quite some time (between 6-10 frames per second is a general rule of thumb) for transcodes to happen, so if you are doing 300 videos your little plug will indeed be churning for some time. Greater user control over

2) Second versions of the videos are created and stored in the database directory on your hard drive (called cedb) - your original file shouldn't be altered. The file format created is an h.264 streaming video.

DRMed videos are ignored - we don't transcode them

When you download a file you download the original

3) There is a workaround, which might be useful given how many videos you have. Using a problem like Handbrake, you can create your own web friendly video in h.264 format (which is what our web video streamer reads) at relatively low bitrate on your cpu then in the media settings, set Allow Pogoplug to optimize videos for playback: Never, which would force the web app to play your original. Since your original video is already nicely transcoded and made web friendly, you'd have essentially what the device would have provided to you.

hope that helps!

J

Nathan Avatar
Member
February 12, 2010 10:51 AM updated: February 12, 2010 10:57 AM

Yeah that would be very usefull to know..

Brandon C Avatar
Lead Moderator
February 12, 2010 12:46 PM

Just for fun I did a little research on this.

I have one small HD that I formatted and put just one file on it.  Here is the info on it.

Name                    :1973 James Blunt.wmv
Format                           : Windows Media
File size                        : 12.7 MiB
Duration                         : 4mn 18s
Overall bit rate mode            : Variable
Overall bit rate                 : 413 Kbps
Maximum Overall bit rate         : 496 Kbps
Encoded date                     : UTC 2007-10-27 03:57:30.875
Application                      : Windows Movie Maker 2.1.4026.0

Video
ID                               : 2
Format                           : VC-1
Format profile                   : MP@ML
Codec ID                         : WMV3
Codec ID/Info                    : Windows Media Video 9
Codec ID/Hint                    : WMV3
Description of the codec         : Windows Media Video 9
Duration                         : 4mn 18s
Bit rate mode                    : Variable
Bit rate                         : 344 Kbps
Width                            : 640 pixels
Height                           : 480 pixels
Display aspect ratio             : 4:3
Frame rate                       : 30.000 fps
Resolution                       : 24 bits
Scan type                        : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)               : 0.037
Stream size                      : 10.6 MiB (83%)
Language                         : English (US)

Audio
ID                               : 1
Format                           : WMA
Format version                   : Version 2
Codec ID                         : 161
Codec ID/Info                    : Windows Media Audio
Description of the codec         : Windows Media Audio 9.2 - VBR Quality 75, 44 kHz, stereo 1-pass VBR
Duration                         : 4mn 18s
Bit rate mode                    : Variable
Bit rate                         : 60.4 Kbps
Channel(s)                       : 2 channels
Sampling rate                    : 44.1 KHz
Resolution                       : 16 bits
Stream size                      : 1.86 MiB (15%)
Language                         : English (US)

After turning on FULL transcode everything, thumbnails etc,  here is what I found on my HD.
You have to use something like WinSCP or PuTTY to see the files. You won't see these via the Pogoplug software.

In the .cedata folder there is:

hbxcodeffmpegvideo.tmp and hbxcodeffmpegvideo.tmp- are  identical files.

Here is what the are.

Name                    : hbxcodeffmpegvideo.tmp
Format                           : MPEG-4
Codec ID                         : M4V
File size                        : 7.48 MiB
Duration                         : 4mn 18s
Overall bit rate                 : 243 Kbps
Writing application              : Lavf52.31.0

Video
ID                               : 1
Format                           : AVC
Format/Info                      : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                   : Baseline@L3.0
Format settings, CABAC           : No
Format settings, ReFrames        : 1 frame
Codec ID                         : avc1
Codec ID/Info                    : Advanced Video Coding
Duration                         : 4mn 18s
Bit rate mode                    : Variable
Bit rate                         : 194 Kbps
Width                            : 480 pixels
Height                           : 360 pixels
Display aspect ratio             : 4:3
Frame rate mode                  : Constant
Frame rate                       : 30.000 fps
Resolution                       : 24 bits
Colorimetry                      : 4:2:0
Scan type                        : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)               : 0.037
Stream size                      : 5.96 MiB (80%)

Audio
ID                               : 2
Format                           : AAC
Format/Info                      : Advanced Audio Codec
Format version                   : Version 4
Format profile                   : LC
Format settings, SBR             : No
Codec ID                         : 40
Duration                         : 4mn 18s
Bit rate mode                    : Variable
Bit rate                         : 44.7 Kbps
Channel(s)                       : 2 channels
Channel positions                : L R
Sampling rate                    : 44.1 KHz
Resolution                       : 16 bits
Stream size                      : 1.37 MiB (18%)



The  hbxcodeffmpegimage.tmp file is a thumbnail JPG of the video.

The cedb is SQlite Database info on the file(s)

Going further.

In /tmp/.cemnt/mnt_sda1/.cedata/tn/kf/nl/gn there is:

 timUh5uLtfD0pf_rFPI9Q___PV is the same video file again.

 timUh5uLtfD0pf_rFPI9Q___TN-126 is a small 160x160px thumbnail for the video.

 timUh5uLtfD0pf_rFPI9Q___TN-640 is a 640x640px thumbnail for the video.

So in this test I get 3 copies of the original video and 3 thumbnails for it. I don't know if it transcoded the video 3 times or just made copies of the first trasncoded one.  

Also in the test the 3 transcoded files used up more room on my HD than the original video did.

But if you are looking at creating your own transcoded videos using Handbrake or something then probably using the MP4 video info above would work
Saving them to a  \transcoded folder and turning off transcoding on your Pogo could be faster and it would allow you to save disk space and have both the original file and the transcoded file available from your Pogo Plug software.

This is only one small test but hopefully it helps answer some questions.

Place Shifting Enthusiasts

Nathan Avatar
Member
February 12, 2010 1:39 PM

Nice job thank you !!

Generic Member Avatar
Member
March 12, 2010 8:55 PM

After a video is trancoded to the DB folder, can the original be removed to free space? And can the recoded file be renamed to the original video name?
I copied a few videos to the pp. They trancoded. I later removed the original, but the video still shows up as available and plays. So I assume after trancoding, the original video file is no longer used?
So then only the new recoded version is available? So if you remove the original, that does not remove the trancoded video also? Exactly how does the recode process work? Is the original video not needed after trancoding process? Do you have to remove the new trancoded video as well as the original in two steps to wipe out all traces? How does this process work?

trunolimit Avatar
Member
May 4, 2010 9:25 PM

The transcode feature is something that needs work. When i hit the search for files to fully transcode. I get a list of files that are available to transcode. this would be help full if only that list where in some kind of order that I could use. They aren't in alphabetical order, they don't tell you where each file is located on your harddrive they are just a list of file names in some random order. this wouldn't be a problem is I didn't have hundreds of videos that are available for transcode. I had to spend nearly 10 minutes digging through that list to find the video I wanted fully transcoded.

off topic rant.

One thing that gripes me about great software is their short sight. most UI's when pertaining to things like music and personal files are built as if the creator thought that you'd only have a handful of items. I really hate that folders and files are mixed in and I have to search through pages and pages to find what I am looking for.we need a better way to navigate because the current way only works if you don't have to many items in a given directory. I want a side bar with collapsible directories like in windows. I've got hundreds of folders and thousands of files in one of my directories and navigating it via pogoplug site is useless. iTunes has the same short sightedness. They should optimize it for large libraries. I love the software but I have 40,000+ tracks and it get's impossible to do anything when you have a library that big.

end rant

Discussion:    Add a Comment | Back to Top | Comments 1-6 of 6 | Latest Comment

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