Foxsat: archiving recordings

Trevord

Thought I would start a thread on this.

The Foxsat comes with a 320 Gb HD but even that fills up after a while. So I deciding to archive some stuff. I figured using mpeg2 format would be good for compatibility with dvd players or pcs, while retaining a high quality level. (I'not sure that dvd players read .ts files)

Anyway, from what I understand so far each Foxsat recording creates three files of which only one (the .ts file) is required for archiving purposes. I think the other two files contain info that the foxsat uses for playback.

.ts is a close relative of Mpeg2 and there is a lot of software that will do that conversion for you. However, depending on the software you select, it seems that this conversion can be done very easily (in a short time with no quality loss) or in a more convoluted way (involving re-ecoding, more time and some quality loss.)

A freeware package called PVAstrumento is supposed to take you from .ts to .mpg via the easy route, but I have found that it does not seem to read the .ts files from the Foxsat ( I get a found no streams error)

Would be interested to hear if anyone has tried using PVAstrumento, or any other software they have found quick and easy to use for archiving Foxsat material.

cormacl

I've used a java-based tool called Project-X which can read mpeg2 .ts files. It supports a navigation method by means of large, medium and small jumps through the file and then allows you to add cut points so you can remove advert breaks etc.

You can output the results to a new .ts file or demux the results into its video m2v and audio mp2 or ac3 parts.

Project-X is opensource and free and will run on Windows and is free. You need to download a Sun Java JRE however to use it.

See: http://sourceforge.net/projects/project-x/

Then I use mplex (again another opensource Linux tool from the mjpegtools package) to multiplex these back together into a DVD-compatible mpeg2 file. Your favourite DVD authoring tool

http://sourceforge.net/projects/mjpeg
I also found a link to a windows version.. http://freenet-homepage.de/CharlesWeb/download.html

The syntax to mux a file is as follows..
mplex -f 8 -o file.mpg <video file> <audio file> <audio file>...

-f 8 defines DVD mpeg2 format. The -o option specifies the mpg file to create and then you just append the the audio .mp2 or .ac3 files.. if you get both from the given demux, you can mux the lot back if want to create a multi-channel file.

For HD .ts files, project-x won't work. I've used tsmuxer (available for Linux, Mac & Windows) to convert the files into Blu-Ray directory structures. You could then create an iso file from theses and archive that or actually burn to a Blu-Ray DVD.

http://www.smlabs.net/tsmuxer_en.html

For those like myself that don't have Blu-Ray burning capability, I've also used tsmuxer to take in a single large .ts file and create several smaller .ts files (with a max of 4.4Gb each) and then reprocessed each of these through the same tool into several Blu-Ray directory structures.

The end result was that I could burn several normal DVDs, each with the Blu-Ray directory structure of one of the smaller files. My Blu-Ray player and other family members players (incl one PS3) worked perfectly with these normal DVDs, recognising them as Blu-Ray disks. You get about 30 mins on a single DVD depending on the compression levels in the original TS data.

I usually use this tool for converting HD .mts files from my camcorder into .ts files for my dreambox and also the DVD trick as mentioned above. I would assume that may also work for importing HD content into the foxsat receiver.

The main fallback of tsmuxer is that is has no visualisation feature like project-x.. meaning that you can't do cutting etc. You can cut fixed time periods from either end, but its pure guessing as there is no visual preview.

Then there is HandBrake.. another free opensource tool for all kinds of video conversions.. but will take ages to process some files as it forces re-encoding. Also AFAIK, it only renders into mpeg4 variants.. so if you give it mpeg2 .ts content, its an mp4, mkv etc that will be produced.. possibly not what you wanted. It has some pre-defined profiles for various media formats from Apple, playstation to generics.

Hope this is useful for you.

Ozzie

........... I was just about to say that!:D

fat-tony

Trevord wrote: »

A freeware package called PVAstrumento is supposed to take you from .ts to .mpg via the easy route, but I have found that it does not seem to read the .ts files from the Foxsat ( I get a found no streams error)

Would be interested to hear if anyone has tried using PVAstrumento, or any other software they have found quick and easy to use for archiving Foxsat material.

Use PVAstumento 2.1.0.20 (not the newer 2.1.0.22 version - it doesn't seem to work with the Humax files - don't know why).

You can get PVA to strip the transport stream (ts) data and convert the files very quickly to a program stream (ps) file with an mpg file suffix. The reason this is quick is that the data is already in MPEG-2 format, but has additional data to cope with the unreliability of the satellite transmission mechanism, which is not needed for a more reliable medium like DVD. Most recent DVD players will play these mpg files directly from a CD or DVD. If you want to burn a fully compliant DVD which will play on any older DVD player, then you have to go through another couple of steps.

Trevord

Tried several older versions of PVAstrumento but could not get any of them to handle the .ts files. Frustrating !

But for anyone that is interested I have found another solution, so read on.......

After a lot of searching and testing over the last few evenings I have found the following freeware programmes which definately work for me on SD Foxsat content.

MediaCoder to covert .ts to .mpeg (very quick takes only a couple of minutes for 1 hour of content as there is no re-encoding involved). It has a setting wizard which should be avoided. Apply the settings below manually instead

Settings for Mediacoder to create .mpg from .ts:

use default settings plus the following modifications

* Generic tab: check "resize" (leave the option as original)

* Video tab: choose 'raw video' as the video format and check "Enable video"

* Container tab: select 'mpeg2'

* Audio tab: check "enable audio" & check 'copy audio"

* Picture' tab: choose 16:9 ratio.

Click start


Then you can further edit the .mpg file using
Mpg2Cut2 to trim the start and finish and remove any ads.

fat-tony

Trevord wrote: »

Tried several older versions of PVAstrumento but could not get any of them to handle the .ts files. Frustrating !

Version .20 of PVAStrumento definitely works with Humax Foxsat files. You need to tick the box "TS is a TS-192 stream" on the Expert tab.

I use PVA because it's so quick to produce ps files as mpegs. You can also use it to demux the ts stream into separate video and audio files for precise frame level editing. I use mpeg2schnitt for editing out ads or whatever. It can also put in chapter marks if you want to produce a dvd where you can skip to specific scenes etc.

Trevord

Fat-tony

Thanks for that. Did as you instructed and version .20 now works. Very fast as well and seems to cope with some .ts files that was creating difficulties in other programmes.

dnme

Trevord

Using MediaEncoder, it just keeps bombing out with the Visual Studio JIT debugger as soon as I try to start transcoding. (Tried yours and various settings)

Also I notice PVAstrumentohandles some of my pvr files but only some. It cannot detect any video if stuff I have recorded from HD channels. (Tried recommended version and other versions including latest)

Using Argus Mini IP box btw

Trevord

dnme wrote: »

Trevord

Using MediaEncoder, it just keeps bombing out with the Visual Studio JIT debugger as soon as I try to start transcoding. (Tried yours and various settings)

Also I notice PVAstrumentohandles some of my pvr files but only some. It cannot detect any video if stuff I have recorded from HD channels. (Tried recommended version and other versions including latest)

Using Argus Mini IP box btw

I'm afraid Argus Miini IP box is not something I know anything about.

My experience is with SD content only as I find HD files too big to mess around with. So I can't comment on problems with HD. I would not be surprised if PVAstrumento is unable to deal with HD. Have you had success with SD stuff from the pvr ?

dnme

Trevord wrote: »

I'm afraid Argus Miini IP box is not something I know anything about.

My experience is with SD content only as I find HD files too big to mess around with. So I can't comment on problems with HD. I would not be surprised if PVAstrumento is unable to deal with HD. Have you had success with SD stuff from the pvr ?

Yea, PVAstrumento seems to handel SD .dvr files in the latest version (2.1.0.22b available in their forum). I'm impressed with that but still it cant handle HD.

The box gives me the option to record in ts or ps althought I think I loose one of these options in HD.

fat-tony

I've found that HD files are pretty much a no-go area for freeware editors. The sheer amount of data and MPEG4 compression make the job difficult. Transcoding video into other formats can take considerable time unless you have specialised hardware. I found this link which might help you if you just want to do some basic trimming of TS files which are in HD.

http://club.myce.com/f66/editing-hd-ts-files-converting-ts-xvid-mkv-720p-etc-262336/

I've no experience in using this software though, so I can't say if it works or not!