Vbox Cat's Eye 150 DVR-MS

[tcb121]

I recently got an ATSC HDTV Card, ( VBOX Cat's Eye 150 ), and it is working Great with the new GB-PVR 99.12. I have two problems:

1).. BDA Mux Checker comes back with nothing, and it keeps recording in DVR-MS format. I can't play the DVR-MS files back in anything other then GB-PVR for some reason. Windows Media Player 11 Crashes when I try to open any *.dvr-ms files recorded by GB-PVR. I would like to record to regular old *.MPG if at all possible.

2).. I have large grey boarders on the left and right of the screen. I have tried 16:9 and 4:3, but even the recordings playback that way.

I'm lost and need help. How do I get full screen to look normal, and how do I record to *.mpg


Any help will be GREAT!

[sub]

1).. BDA Mux Checker comes back with nothing, and it keeps recording in DVR-MS format. I can't play the DVR-MS files back in anything other then GB-PVR for some reason. Windows Media Player 11 Crashes when I try to open any *.dvr-ms files recorded by GB-PVR. I would like to record to regular old *.MPG if at all possible.

Mux Checker reports no muxes because you dont have any installed, so it has to falls back to using the Microsoft DVR-MS mux. To recording to .mpg, you'd need to install and use the ATI or Cyberlink mux. That said, most ATSC users find these muxes dont end up doing a great job with ATSC, so they stick with DVR-MS mux, or the TS Mux.

2).. I have large grey boarders on the left and right of the screen. I have tried 16:9 and 4:3, but even the recordings playback that way.

Does pressing F7 fix it?

[tcb121]

Pressing F7 does not resolve the issue, and I still have the grey boarders. Here is a screenshot.


Ok, if I'm stuck with DVR-MS, how do I get it to play in Windows Media Player, or how do I convert it to MPEG so that I can compress it to Xvid or Divx?

[sub]

Does pressing F7 change the aspect ratio? Each time you press it, it'll give a different aspect ratio.

To me, that picture looks like a the station is transmitting a 4:3 video pillar boxed inside a 16:9 picture, with grey bars (probably intended to be black) as part of the picture. GB-PVR is then adding the black bars to the top and bottom to letter box the widescreen video for display on your setup which is configured for 4:3.

if I'm stuck with DVR-MS, how do I get it to play in Windows Media Player

They usually do. Maybe something to do with the default decoders for MPEG playback on your machine.

or how do I convert it to MPEG so that I can compress it to Xvid or Divx?

If you have the cyberlink mux on your machine, then you can configure GB-PVR to do the conversion for you, but then you may still suffer from the ATSC muxing problems I mentioned earlier.

Alternatively you could try the TS Mux option, and install HDTV Pump http://dvbportal.dyn1.de/download.php?fi...-1.0.7.zip so you can play them. GB-PVR can be configured to automatically convert the .TS file to a .MPEG.

[tcb121]

Ok,

I figured out that the channel was broadcasting in that resoulution. Later on, a HD program came on, and it was a perfect 16:9 screen. Howerver, my next problem is this.

When I choose 16:9 in GB-PVR only half a screen shows. The bottom of the screen has all kinds of aritfacts and grey bars, and is all messed up. I'm not so concerned, because the recording come out fine, and I don't intend to use this as a TV-out solution, but just wanted to bring it to your attention. For normal viewing of files, I'm just using Watchhdtv.

I figured out several solutions to the dvr-ms issue.

1). VideoRedo will convert the dvr-ms to MPEG. You can even edit out all of the commercials before you convert.

2). Nero Vision Express 4.0 that came with Nero Version 7 will also "Export" the dvr-ms file to regular MPEG.

I have played around with both, and really like them a lot. I then take the MPEG file, and convert to xvid using Auto Gordian Knot. The quality is AMAZING. HD is awesome to record in. Takes a mother of a hard drive, but the quality can't be beat. It's roughly 100MB / Minuet.


Yes, F7 does cycle through the resolutions, but the only one that seems to work is "Auto". Letterbox gives me that crazy junk at the bottom I was mentioning earlier. Any suggestions would be GREAT.

Thanks.

[sub]

I figured out that the channel was broadcasting in that resoulution. Later on, a HD program came on, and it was a perfect 16:9 screen. Howerver, my next problem is this.

Yeah, thought that would be the case.

When I choose 16:9 in GB-PVR only half a screen shows. The bottom of the screen has all kinds of aritfacts and grey bars, and is all messed up.

You've got a nvidia video card right? This is most likely the nvidia aspect ratio bug (see http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=15184&st=0).

To work around it, try using VMR9 Custom instead of VMR9, or disable hardware accelleration in your video decoder

I figured out several solutions to the dvr-ms issue.

1). VideoRedo will convert the dvr-ms to MPEG. You can even edit out all of the commercials before you convert.

2). Nero Vision Express 4.0 that came with Nero Version 7 will also "Export" the dvr-ms file to regular MPEG.

I have played around with both, and really like them a lot. I then take the MPEG file, and convert to xvid using Auto Gordian Knot. The quality is AMAZING. HD is awesome to record in. Takes a mother of a hard drive, but the quality can't be beat. It's roughly 100MB / Minuet.

[/quote]Yes, F7 does cycle through the resolutions, but the only one that seems to work is "Auto". Letterbox gives me that crazy junk at the bottom I was mentioning earlier. Any suggestions would be GREAT.[/quote]nvidia aspect ratio bug.