LlamaEnc2 on Mac

[absolutedestiny]

Could be this:

mysterious download link

but I'd need someone with a mac to confirm. Anyone out there wanting to give it a try?

In the zip there should be an app that will... just.. run. Maybe. Version of OSX depending. Probably needs an Intel CPU. Might need Snow Leopard. I dont know.

Comments

[laurashapiro]

Seems to be working! The interface is pretty slow in terms of response time, and the file browser doesn't recognize .movs as video files (you have to select "All Files" and not just leave the default "Video Files"). But it is in fact doing its thing! File conversion took about 5 minutes, and the resulting file looked good on my Mac. I'm not able to confirm that it's right because both iDVD and DVD Studio Pro change the files, so they look great on the DVDs I burn but are not, in fact, right for VVC. I learned that the hard way last year. I can try Llamamatic on my virtual machine later today.

What I tested:

~ selecting a file via the file browser
~ changing settings for interlacing/aspect ratio
~ help links to open the tech manual in a browser
~ conversion

What I'm running:

Mac Pro
2x2.26 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
8 GB 1066 MHz DDR3 memory
Mac OS X 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard)

Let me know if you have questions or want me to try other things!

ETA: I installed MediaInfo and can confirm:

m2v
5269 Kbps
720x480 (4:3)
29.970 fps
MPEG Video (NTSC)(Version 2)
(Main@Main)
(CustomMatrix / BVOP) (whatever that means)

wav
16-bit
stereo
48.0 KHz
PCM

So it looks like my m2v's bitrate is a little low, but everything else came out right.

[absolutedestiny]

Excellent, thank you

Looks like it's pretty much how I expected, which is cool. The .mov thing was my error (forgot to add it to the filter). The bitrate looks fine for an average bitrate, tbh.

I can package up llamamatic the same way, now that I know that this method works. It's a fairly simple process actually and I wrote down the basic steps I used to make the app here:

http://www.vidtech.info/ViddingSetups/LlamaEnc2_Mac_Winebottler

But if people are ok with downloading a 100mb file instead of 18, I can just package it up myself with all the dependancies.

[laurashapiro]

I'd be fine with that. I'd rather download a 100MB file than reboot in Windows and dink around trying to find a thing on my Mac desktop. (:

YOU ARE SO AWESOME. YOU ARE THE BEST IAN EVER. YOU HAVE SAVED ME FROM FRUSTRATION AND WOE. I LOVE YOU BIGTIME.

[kass]

Chiming in belatedly to say that I would happily download a 100mb file if it came with everything it required. And you are fantastic for working on this; thank you!!

[laurashapiro]

Update: I just used LlamaEnc 0.96 to encode my Premiere vid and got tons of artifacts in the file. Log says:
*** WARNING, 143 frames found with small mismatch errors
*** ERROR, 8 frames found with large mismatch errors

I checked the LlamaEnc page and noted there have been some new releases, so I downloaded and installed the latest. But it can't see Wine installed on my machine. Do I need to do the Winebottler routine you linked above, or is there a llamamatic release that will handle all this for me?

[absolutedestiny]

If it doesn't "just work" then it means I packaged it wrong. I don't know if the new version will help this problem, though it could for all I know. I will do a re-package in any case and let you know when the new version is up.

However, I can explain this error. The encoder is a 2-pass process and, for some reason, when it did the 2nd pass the footage was different. The difference was only subtle in 143 frames but it was severe in 8, causing this error.

I'm not really sure what's causing it but I suggest trying it again as it could be something memory-based or something else and it might just work second time around.

[laurashapiro]

Thanks for your quick reply! I'm installing Winebottler right now via your instructions, but I will also try to re-encode with LlamaEnc v.096 and see if it just works this time.

I'm a little worried the glitches are in my source -- I used a new method for source acquisition this time and it's producing weird color-shifts when I play back in Quicktime. But the files are so shiny otherwise.

Also: the log reports the resulting file is 740x480, but a screenshot measures 640x480. Cause for alarm?

Another update

[laurashapiro]

Just re-exported my vid with LlamaEnc 0.96 -- still showing artifacts. I even noticed them when viewing the preview during the encode. ):

Installation of Winebottler crashed, so I'm not able to install the latest release of LlamaEnc.

I'm going to try going through Compressor and see if I get better results. If not, I will do my encode through the Barkley method, and if THAT doesn't work...can I send you guys a .mov or .avi?

Re: Another update

[absolutedestiny]

Can you tell me what codec you are feeding into it? The problem, as far as I can tell is the reading of that particular codec.

I'm uploading a new copy of 1.0.2 which should work, btw, so you won't need winebottler.

Re: Another update

[laurashapiro]

It's Apple ProRes 422 (HQ).

Thank you!

Re: Another update

[absolutedestiny]

I'm surprised it got as far as it did.

ProRes 422 support in ffmpeg (which is the fallback decoder) is still really shaky. It's particularly complicated because in addition to the decoding it then needs to be converted from a 10bit planar format to an 8bit one (causing banding problems and other such horrors).

Unless version 1.0.2 helps (it might, I did update ffmpeg at one point), I don't think that codec will work yet so you'd need to either re-export in a different format or use a different compression tool.

Re: Another update

[laurashapiro]

Thanks for the info. I'd no idea ProRes was so problematic. It makes the prettiest files I'd ever seen, so naturally...

Let me know when the new version of 1.0.2 is up and I'll give it a go.

Re: Another update

[absolutedestiny]

I doubt it will fix your problem, but I'd appreciate feedback on whether you can get it to run at all :D

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/2682750/LlamaEnc2%20v1.0.2repack.zip

Llamaenc knows nothing of quicktime so it entirely uses open source decoders for any qt stuff... and the open source community just haven't gotten round to writing a good decoder for ProRes.

Re: Another update

[laurashapiro]

Nope, it didn't run. "Errors occurred".

Re: Another update

[absolutedestiny]

This is bad. It means that despite following the same process I cannot make a mac package.

Macs are dumb. I give up.

Re: Another update

[laurashapiro]

):

Hey, your original version still works! I can also try the second release if that will help.

Re: Another update

[absolutedestiny]

It will only help to a degree. If I can't establish a build process then I will not be able to update llamaenc for the mac.

Re: Another update

[laurashapiro]

Yeah. I don't know why it's not working this time. I haven't upgraded anything.

For my own vid, I am exporting a version from FCP using the PNG codec. Hopefully LlamaEnc will be okay with that. If there are other codecs you feel confident about, let me know?

Re: Another update

[laurashapiro]

Also it made an error log, which might help you, but I can't find it because it's evidently on my C drive -- I'm guessing I'll have to run Windows to locate it?

LlamaEnc export successful!

[laurashapiro]

I got it working by exporting a fresh .mov using H.264 for the codec. File looks great, aspect ratio appears correct. Quicktime insists it's 640x480, as before -- not sure whether that's gonna be a problem, but I'll make a note when I upload.

Re: Another update

[laurashapiro]

Also, happy to send you my LlamaEnc logs if it would help.