How to transcode digital *.ts to "Medium Quality" *.mpg?

[mrbigsteel]

I upgraded from analog to digital cable and also from the Hauppauge PVR-350 to HVR-1600 tuner card. The new card works great, but the new *.ts files are too large to download compared to the old *.mpg files that were recorded at "Medium Quality".

What command I can use with "ffmpeg" or "ffmpeg_MPGMUX" to transcode the new *.ts files to the same (or similar) quality and filesize as what I used to get with analog TV recorded at the default "Medium Quality"?

(For reference, the default medium quality settings from GBPVR are: NTSC 720x480, Variable bit rate, Bit rate: 3500 kbps, Bit rate PEAK: 7200 kbps, Audio bit rate: 224, Audio sample rate: 48 KHz.)

I have been trying for weeks, but can't seem to figure it out.

Ryan

P.S. Thanks sub, for GBPVR. A great project.

[luttrell1962]

If your recording off of antenna I recommend you run a timeline fixer before converting the files. I found projectx works good for this. Half the time if I don't run projectx on the file the audio gets off.

See this thread for a conversion batch file and it tells how to install projectx, ffmpeg examples. You might just want one pass for ffmpeg to save time.

http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php?t=45702

Since this example I have upped the bitrate 4000k in ffmpeg. I have this saving as avi but you could use mpg also. I downloaded a new copy of ffmpeg that has the lame mp3 encoder in it. That's also in the above link.

If need more help just ask