Reduced resolution and sync problems

[Dave Widgery]

Hi

For a long time now over various versions of get_iplayer I have been
using the following command.

get_iplayer --get %%A --tvmode=vgood --nopurge
--output=c:\iplayer\tv\ --file-prefix="<name>-<episode>"

(The "%%A" is the program name that I want to record, I read it from a
text file in a batch file loop)

This has given me very acceptable recording quality and file size of
about 10Mb/minute. (a 30 minute program was about 300Mb -330Mb)

When I jumped a few versions I started to get sync problems between
sound and vision so I added the --no-hq-audio to my command so that
it recorded sound and vision as one this solved the sync problems.

get_iplayer --get %%A --tvmode=vgood --no-hq-audio --nopurge
--output=c:\iplayer\tv\ --file-prefix="<name>-<episode>"


I then a while after ( a couple of months ago) I started getting
problems with reduced quality and file size reducing by a third (a 30
minute program is now just under 200Mb) I also started seeing sync
problems again.


More recently I upgraded to 3.09 and from what I read the
--no-hq-audio was no longer needed, so I removed it. so I am back to.

get_iplayer --get %%A --tvmode=vgood --nopurge
--output=c:\iplayer\tv\ --file-prefix="<name>-<episode>"


I am still getting poor quality and reduced file size, I see that it
is recording the sound and vision separately again and I am still
suffering with sound/vision sync problems.


My internet connection is very poor at the moment and I am guessing
that if either the sound and vision files get an error they do not
match up correctly when the final file is created. but I still don't
understand why the quality and file size has dropped when I am still
using the same --tvmode=vgood

Any suggestion welcome.

Regards
Dave

[Alan Milewczyk]

Hi Dave

Post by Dave Widgery
My internet connection is very poor at the moment and I am guessing
that if either the sound and vision files get an error they do not
match up correctly when the final file is created. but I still don't
understand why the quality and file size has dropped when I am still
using the same --tvmode=vgood

Without looking at the release notes, my guess would be that the
definition of what --tvmode=vgood actually means has varied
periodically. Dinky has a habit of tinkering around with things, as we
saw recently with the merging of higher quality audio into the video
files, then going back on that once it became evident that there were
sync problems.


Alan



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[RS]

From: Alan Milewczyk
Sent: Tuesday, January 9, 2018 3:52 AM

Post by Alan Milewczyk
Hi Dave

Post by Dave Widgery
My internet connection is very poor at the moment and I am guessing
that if either the sound and vision files get an error they do not
match up correctly when the final file is created. but I still don't
understand why the quality and file size has dropped when I am still
using the same --tvmode=vgood

Without looking at the release notes, my guess would be that the definition
of what --tvmode=vgood actually means has varied periodically. Dinky has a
habit of tinkering around with things, as we saw recently with the merging
of higher quality audio into the video files, then going back on that once
it became evident that there were sync problems.

Alan is right that the --tvmode aliases change their meaning from time to
time. For that reason I prefer to select the mode I want from
https://github.com/get-iplayer/get_iplayer/wiki/modesref#recording-mode-details
despite what it says after STOP.

I don't think your problem is being caused by such a change. That page only
shows the current aliases and it is not easy to retrieve the historical
information. Even so
--tvmode=vgood
translates to
--tvmode=hlsvhigh,hvfxhigh,dvfxhigh,hlsstd,hlsxstd,hvflow,hvflow

600 Mbyte/h is about right for HLSvhigh. I suspect what is happening is
that your poor connection is causing errors and/or timeouts. If there is an
error which can't be recovered from get_iplayer will step through all the
HLSvhigh modes and then on to the HVFxhigh modes and then on through the
list. If you are seeing separate video and audio downloads it may have got
to DVFxhigh.

That is only speculation. To find out what is happening you will have to
look at the get_iplayer stdout output.

Best wishes
Richard

[RS]

Post by RS
Alan is right that the --tvmode aliases change their meaning from time to
time. For that reason I prefer to select the mode I want from
https://github.com/get-iplayer/get_iplayer/wiki/modesref#recording-mode-details
despite what it says after STOP.
I don't think your problem is being caused by such a change. That page only
shows the current aliases and it is not easy to retrieve the historical
information. Even so
--tvmode=vgood
translates to
--tvmode=hlsvhigh,hvfxhigh,dvfxhigh,hlsstd,hlsxstd,hvflow,hvflow
600 Mbyte/h is about right for HLSvhigh. I suspect what is happening is
that your poor connection is causing errors and/or timeouts. If there is an
error which can't be recovered from get_iplayer will step through all the
HLSvhigh modes and then on to the HVFxhigh modes and then on through the
list. If you are seeing separate video and audio downloads it may have got
to DVFxhigh.
That is only speculation. To find out what is happening you will have to
look at the get_iplayer stdout output.

I don't know whether Dave Widgery is bothering to read any of these replies.
There is a forum post on a similar subject at
https://forums.squarepenguin.co.uk/showthread.php?tid=1618
This is an extract from the response from dinky.
"If you don't want get_iplayer to fall back to lower-quality streams, then
configure it to only attempt the mode(s) of interest, either permanently in
preferences or for a single download via command line. If your connection
drops you'll then be left with a partial download of the desired quality.
Downloads are resumable, so once the connection is restored, just re-run the
same get_iplayer command to complete the download. You have the means to
run get_iplayer automatically with the PVR function. Downloads that fail
during one run should be picked up in the next. "

It seems to me that is good advice.

Best wishes
Richard

[RS]

From: Dave Widgery
Sent: Saturday, January 13, 2018 12:24 AM

I have been doing some checking to try and find out what has been
happening.
If I use the latest Death in Paradise as an example, below is a cut
down output from.
get_iplayer --pid=b09m6cg2 --info
1873: Death in Paradise: Series 7 - Episode 2, BBC One, b09m6cg2
dvfhd1,dvfhd2,dvfsd1,dvfsd2,dvfhigh1,dvfhigh2,dvfxhigh1,dvfxhigh2,subtitles1
dvfhd1=2195MB,dvfhd2=2195MB,dvfsd1=1218MB,dvfsd2=1218MB,dvfhigh1=680MB,dvfhigh2=680MB,dvfxhigh1=358MB,dvfxhigh2=358MB,subtitles1=126kB
[estimated sizes only]
I am using
--tvmode=vgood
according to the documentation.
--tvmode=vgood =
hvfxsd,dvfxsd,hlsvhigh,hvfxhigh,dvfxhigh,hlsstd,hlsxstd,hvflow,dvflow
I have examined an old episode of "Death in Paradise" that was
recorded last year and it has the following characteristics
File Size=623Mb
Frame Width=832
Frame Height=468
So looking at the tables in the documentation it must have been
recorded using hlsvhigh
If I run the command
C:\Users\User>get_iplayer --pid=b09m6cg2 --tvmode=vgood
I get the following output
get_iplayer 3.09.0, Copyright (C) 2008-2010 Phil Lewis
This program comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details
use --warranty.
This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it under
certain
conditions; use --conditions for details.
1873: Death in Paradise: Series 7 - Episode 2, BBC One, b09m6cg2
INFO: 1 matching programmes
WARNING: A UK TV licence is required to access BBC iPlayer TV content
legally
Then about a 20 second wait before is starts
downloading in dvfxhigh
INFO: Downloading tv: 'Death in Paradise: Series 7 - 2. Episode 2
(b09m6cg2) [editorial]'
Obviously it is dropping back to dvfxhigh but I cannot see what is
happening, I am sorry I am sure that this has been posted before but
what is the best option to add to give a more verbose output to give
me an idea what is happening.

If you compare the translation of --tvmode=vgood
--tvmode=hvfxsd,dvfxsd,hlsvhigh,hvfxhigh,dvfxhigh,hlsstd,hlsxstd,hvflow,dvflow
with the list of modes --info says is available to you, dvfxhigh is the only
mode common to both lists. That is the reason get_iplayer is downloading in
DVFxhigh. I have never used DVF, but my understanding is that it always
downloads audio and video separately, and they are then stitched together by
ffmpeg.

DVFxsd, 960x540 at 25fps, may be closer to what you want. You can set
--tvmode=dvfxsd

If I use --info I get

modes: audiodescribed:
dvfxsd1,dvfxsd2,dvflow1,dvflow2,hvfxsd1,hvfxsd2,hvfxsd3,hvfhigh1,hvfhigh2,hvfhigh3,hvfxhigh1,hvfxhigh2,hvfxhigh3,hvfstd1,hvfstd2,hvfstd3,hvflow1,hvflow2,hvflow3
modes: editorial:
dvfhd1,dvfhd2,dvfsd1,dvfsd2,dvfxsd1,dvfxsd2,dvfhigh1,dvfhigh2,dvfxhigh1,dvfxhigh2,dvflow1,dvflow2,hlshd1,hlsvhigh1,hvfhd1,hvfhd2,hvfhd3,hvfsd1,hvfsd2,hvfsd3,hvfxsd1,hvfxsd2,hvfxsd3,hvfhigh1,hvfhigh2,hvfhigh3,hvfxhigh1,hvfxhigh2,hvfxhigh3,hvfstd1,hvfstd2,hvfstd3,hvflow1,hvflow2,hvflow3,subtitles1,subtitles2,subtitles3

I don't know why you are not getting the full list of modes. One
possibility is that one or more CDNs thinks your ISP is outside the UK.

Best wishes
Richard

[RS]

Post by RS
DVFxsd, 960x540 at 25fps, may be closer to what you want. You can set
--tvmode=dvfxsd

Sorry, I didn’t read the list carefully enough. dvfxsd is not on the list
of modes –info returned to you. It looks as though dvfxhigh is the best
25fps mode you can get.

Best wishes
Richard

[Dave Widgery]

Hi

I didn't read it well enough either, I was confusing dvfhigh with dvfxhigh,

But your last comment about the full list of modes was interesting, I
have been running smart dns proxy on my PC (smartdnsproxy.com)
without this I get the full list of modes, I can see thet the bbc
might allow or stop access depending on whether they think that you
are in the UK or not, but I am puzzled why the modes list would be
restricted, but I guess the system at the bbc is more complicated than
I would have imagined.

Hopefully this will solve my problem,

Thanks for the help.

Dave

Post by RS

Post by RS
DVFxsd, 960x540 at 25fps, may be closer to what you want. You can set
--tvmode=dvfxsd

Sorry, I didn’t read the list carefully enough. dvfxsd is not on the list
of modes –info returned to you. It looks as though dvfxhigh is the best
25fps mode you can get.
Best wishes
Richard
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