Testing if Media will Transcode on Import - Flatten.exe

Description: 
 

Flatten is a windows utilily Catapult uses to test if a media file will be forced to transcode.  The steps below demonstrate how to run Flatten within the command prompt.

Update 8/14/26

Osprey Media from the Osprey SVE single channel encoder should have the Media Profile of 100

Osprey Media with the correct profile (H.264: High) set should return this:

Profile=100, Level=42, IOrder=0

Osprey Media with the incorrect profile (H.264: Main) set should return this:

Profile=77, Level=42, IOrder=0

Steps:

1. Open a command prompt and change directory to the Thunder transcode folder
   1. run>cmd
   2. cd "C:\Program Files (x86)\XOS Technologies\Transcode_Services"
      
2. Open Explorer to the file you want to examine
3. hold shift and right-click the file, then select "Copy as Path"
   
4. type "Flatten -x" and then paste the file path
   
5. Press enter to get the results
6. there will be a statistics section that addresses most of the things we are interested in
   
    
7. The first section is the highlights, covering the most basic stats
   
   GOP (Group Of Picture) information - we look for 15, 28, or 30 typically
   Frame Info - Tends to vary dependent on creation process
   Timing - Ties into framerate. 1001/60000 is 59.94 fps, 1001/30000 is 29.97 fps
   Frames - Number of individual video frames
   Bit-Rate - Data Rate of the video. for 720p, should be a max of 6 or 8 Mb/s, 1080i should be max of 5-6 MB/s.  1080p should be a max of 10 MB/s.
   Frame-Rate - should be 29.97, 30.00, 59.94, or 60.00 (If using the NTSC standard)
8. The next section gives a timing breakdown
   
   These are used to calculate video length, and would be a reflection of framerate. In our example, our total number of frames are 72915 frames, doing a modulo calculation of 60 (since our video is "60" fps) gives us a total runtime of 1216 seconds, or 20 minutes and 16 seconds
   
9. The next section gives a little more detail on the video profile:
   
   Given the width and height of this video (1280x720) we can determine this is is 720 footage, encoded in the h264 video codec (this is most common)
   This file has no audio track, 

10. The next section gives us information on the device/process that encoded the video
    
    Compare this info on files from different cameras of the same make and model to confirm they are producing the same video profile.
     

    Osprey SVE Media

    
    Osprey Media with the correct profile (H.264: High) set should return this:

    Profile=100, Level=42, IOrder=0

    Osprey Media with the incorrect profile (H.264: Main) set should return this:

    Profile=77, Level=42, IOrder=0

11. The last line indicates if the file should work in Thunder without transcoding on import, and gives a final summary of the file
    
    First giving the video container (MP4), width and size (1280x720), framerate (59.94), and bitrate (5.00 Mb/s)
    Media that fails to verify will need to be transcoded on import, or use the Transcode Folders to process prior to import.