Transcode to Shrink HVR-1600 HD Recordings?

[zehd]

I just found this thread:

http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php?t=29619

It seems to cover some of these issues. I'll have to look closer when I have more time.

Within that thread I developed support for dvr-ms to mpg (and adjusting dimensions and bitrate at the same time) so in essense, ZProcess will do what you want. (It uses an alternate version of ffmpeg)

But you might have some trouble, and I could help.. I know that I myself will be wanting to do what you want...

[zehd]

pBS, this is kind of an old thread but this is so far the fastest avi encoder I have seen. I just endcoded an HDTV episode in about 30 minutes from 4.5 G to 675MB. Perfect Quality. How can I get it to be around 350MB, just like the TV Episodes available on Torrent Sites ? Those files are awesome quality and so small.

They usuallly have multi pass transcoders, and they also have all the commericals cut out. THat's means, 350 M for a 44 minute show...

[fvfv]

They usuallly have multi pass transcoders, and they also have all the commericals cut out. THat's means, 350 M for a 44 minute show...

With mulit-pass transcoders it would probably take about 2 to 3 hours to do a 45 minute show.

I suppose with a powerful computer might do it in less. I was hoping to use avivoxcode to to the job.

[topperdude]

Within that thread I developed support for dvr-ms to mpg (and adjusting dimensions and bitrate at the same time) so in essense, ZProcess will do what you want. (It uses an alternate version of ffmpeg)

But you might have some trouble, and I could help.. I know that I myself will be wanting to do what you want...

They usuallly have multi pass transcoders, and they also have all the commericals cut out. THat's means, 350 M for a 44 minute show...

I am also working on a transcoding solution that would work for me. I have setup GBPVR (1.2.9) running with the config in my signature. I am using the TS_Mux to encode HD files captured by the QAM tuner. The audio in these shows is encoded in AC3 (2.0 or 5.1 channels) and works just fine when played back through my Xbox to my CRT TV without any transcoding. However, since the video is HD resolutions, I want to transcode the show to SD resolutions but would like to retain the AC3 sound.

However, when I tried to transcode some files using the GB-PVR built-in transcoder, it reboots my computer (Note to self - change the option in XP to bring up BSOD instead of reboot). After reboot, I don't see any errors in the Windows event log or GB-PVR logs (although the Windows event log does show some recurring GB-PVR errors - dont remember exactly what these are, but I can post details later).

Since I am only using GB-PVR machine as a server (and not playback) to feed recorded shows to the CRT TV and live TV (via Popcorn hour A110) to HDTV, I would like to avoid installing too many (redundant) codecs that can cause conflicts with each other or prevent the correct codec from working. I also have the ATIXcode files mentioned earlier in this thread but have not installed these either.

For transcoding, would I need to install AC3filter if I want to retain the AC3 audio from the original recording? Could this be the reason why the transcoding fails/reboots the system?

Would appreciate any input/suggestions to fix the transcoding.

Thanks,
-Topper

[Anthony]

I'm using an HVR-1600 to record over the air HD (DVR-MS) and Analog (MPG) programs. I think most of the HD programs must be 1080i, as the file sizes are huge (7GB per hour) and playback is a little jerky (but incredibly clear). The hard drive is filling up way too quick with files this large. I tried transcoding my DVR-MS programs to MPG, but that didn't change the size.
We seldom watch anything live (and usually not for several days), so it's not essential to convert them quickly. I just need them converted automatically, preferably within 24 hours. It would be really nice to be able to convert my existing DVR-MS files as well.

It may not be the recommendation you're looking for, but you might consider just getting a larger hard drive. I just bought a 640Gig drive from NewEgg for $80 (free shipping), smaller drives are even less. I've dedicated this drive to video only, no other programs or data on the drive.

I have two HVR-1600 tuner cards, and find a couple weeks worth of shows use about 70-100 gigs on average (combination of HD and SD material). I delete shows after I watch them, so the used space stays fairly constant.

I also keep all of our home movies on the video drive, about 36 Gigs worth, mostly SD material.

I use another 35 gigs or so for some of our favorite DVD's I've ripped to my hard drive for more convenient viewing.

And, I've got maybe 2 gigs of music videos and whatnot I've downloaded from the internet.

Even with my old 250 gig drive, I had enough capacity to hold extra shows in case we were gone for a week on vacation or something.

I don't transcode, but I do use Comskip and VideoRedo to remove the commercials from my shows each night. I do this more for the convenience of not watching commercials, than the space savings. But it does reduce the file sizes a bit, while retaining the full quality.

Just something to think about...

Anthony

[zehd]

I am also working on a transcoding solution that would work for me. I have setup GBPVR (1.2.9) running with the config in my signature. I am using the TS_Mux to encode HD files captured by the QAM tuner. The audio in these shows is encoded in AC3 (2.0 or 5.1 channels) and works just fine when played back through my Xbox to my CRT TV without any transcoding. However, since the video is HD resolutions, I want to transcode the show to SD resolutions but would like to retain the AC3 sound.

However, when I tried to transcode some files using the GB-PVR built-in transcoder, it reboots my computer (Note to self - change the option in XP to bring up BSOD instead of reboot). After reboot, I don't see any errors in the Windows event log or GB-PVR logs (although the Windows event log does show some recurring GB-PVR errors - dont remember exactly what these are, but I can post details later).

Since I am only using GB-PVR machine as a server (and not playback) to feed recorded shows to the CRT TV and live TV (via Popcorn hour A110) to HDTV, I would like to avoid installing too many (redundant) codecs that can cause conflicts with each other or prevent the correct codec from working. I also have the ATIXcode files mentioned earlier in this thread but have not installed these either.

For transcoding, would I need to install AC3filter if I want to retain the AC3 audio from the original recording? Could this be the reason why the transcoding fails/reboots the system?

Would appreciate any input/suggestions to fix the transcoding.

Thanks,
-Topper

Here are a couple of comments. If you have Blue Screen of Death, then that's hardware. (or hardware drivers) Probably RAM, but most likely some other driver...

If you are using your computer mainly as a server, then codecs are not an issue. You need none to record analog or digital (though analog recording is most likely using a builtin MPG encoder)

To play back via any client, it's the clients job to display using it's own codecs.

An MediaMVP for example can't play any thing else but MPG *... therefore you need to have on-the-fly transcoding to view other things that you may have on your server.

The builtin ffmpeg and ffmpeg command line from GB-PVR won't be able to on-the-fly transcode a DVR-MS file because the ffmpeg version that ships with GB-PVR can't do it. And the command line is wrong if you want to use an alternate version.

Because you will be on-the fly transcoding your HD file one way or another, it would be easy to downsample the ac3 to 2 ch as one of your output options.

And finally, as I understand it, GB-PVR does have support for on-the-fly transcode for TS files. I can't remember if it is using ffmpeg or another transcoder. I'm also not sure if it has an option to downsample the ac3 to 2 ch

[topperdude]

Here are a couple of comments. If you have Blue Screen of Death, then that's hardware. (or hardware drivers) Probably RAM, but most likely some other driver...

zehd - Thanks for your suggestion. Once I set the option to get BSOD and not reboot, the error messages did point to driver or memory issues. I then installed all of the most recent drivers as well as windows updates and haven't seen BSOD since this past weekend (keeping fingers crossed), although, occasionally I do get the "PVRX2.exe has crashed" message and the Windows Event log shows some error related to .Net 2.0. Not sure why this is as I already have the most recent version of .Net (3.0, I believe) with all the updates.

If you are using your computer mainly as a server, then codecs are not an issue. You need none to record analog or digital (though analog recording is most likely using a builtin MPG encoder)

To play back via any client, it's the clients job to display using it's own codecs.

An MediaMVP for example can't play any thing else but MPG *... therefore you need to have on-the-fly transcoding to view other things that you may have on your server.

The builtin ffmpeg and ffmpeg command line from GB-PVR won't be able to on-the-fly transcode a DVR-MS file because the ffmpeg version that ships with GB-PVR can't do it. And the command line is wrong if you want to use an alternate version.

Because you will be on-the fly transcoding your HD file one way or another, it would be easy to downsample the ac3 to 2 ch as one of your output options.

And finally, as I understand it, GB-PVR does have support for on-the-fly transcode for TS files. I can't remember if it is using ffmpeg or another transcoder. I'm also not sure if it has an option to downsample the ac3 to 2 ch

So - as I mentioned in my last post, my current plan is to transcode the HD show by downscaling the video so that I can be played back through XBMC on CRT TV while retaining the audio to ac3.

After playing around with various software, it appears that SUPER has been able to convert the files using the settings in the image attached.



Since SUPER also uses a version of ffmpeg for the conversion, I wonder adding the following under <CustomFFmpegConversions> would do the same thing:

Code:

<Conversion name="Xbox" cmd="-y -i {SOURCE_FILE} -b 2496k -aspect 1.7777 -r 29.97 -s 720x480 -vcodec copy -acodec copy  {DEST_FILE}" targetExtension=".mpg" />

I am hoping this would allow me to select 'Xbox' for <AutoConvertTSToFormat> option dropdown in the config tool and get an mpg file I can playback through xbox.

The other thing I am not sure of is whether the version of ffmpeg supplied with GBPVR would work with the above command? If not, would I simply replace the default version of ffmpeg in the GBPVR directory with the version in the SUPER directory?

Finally, if I select the option in the config menu to automatically run comskip on the recorded show, would GBPVR also run comskip on the mpg output/transcoded file or would it only run it on the TS file?

Thanks for any input,
-Topper

[dennit]

After playing around with various software, it appears that SUPER has been able to convert the files using the settings in the image attached.

I think you've realized that SUPER is just a GUI frontend for doing conversions with ffmpeg (or mencoder). Anything SUPER can do with ffmpeg, you can do by command line.

Since SUPER also uses a version of ffmpeg for the conversion, I wonder adding the following under <CustomFFmpegConversions> would do the same thing:

There's no reason why this shouldn't work. I'm not sure the options are right, but just try them out using ffmpeg and the command line.

Finally, if I select the option in the config menu to automatically run comskip on the recorded show, would GBPVR also run comskip on the mpg output/transcoded file or would it only run it on the TS file?

This part is why I responded. I don't do any conversions, but I run comskip via the parallelprocessing.bat file. When run this way, you set config to not run comskip. You put the comskip commands in parallelprocessing.bat. The start of a recording causes the parallelprocessing.bat file to start running comskip. When comskip detects that recording has ceased, it allows the rest of the parallelprocessing.bat file to run. Alternatively, if you don't watch while it's recording, and you don't need immediate commercial skipping during the recording process, you can put comskip into postprocessing.bat

Comskip produces a text file that identifies the location of commercials. That file can be used during playback to skip files or by a commercial cutter (comclean, etc.) to actually remove them.

I haven't actually looked closely at what you want to do, but I'd probably use postprocessing.bat. Set it to do the transcode with ffmpeg. It will run after the recording is complete. Follow your ffmpeg commands with comskip commands to analyze the transcoded file. (I understand you are going from .ts to .mpg format). This would give you the file needed to skip commercials when your transcoded file is played (with a player that understands comskip). If you want the commercials actually removed, then you'd just finish up parallelprocessing.bat with your comclean commands.

Alternatively, you could run comskip first, then your commercial cutter and do the ffmpeg transcoding last.

I hope this helps.

[HtV]

FFMpeg has the habit of changing the "language" (the commandline parameters) now and then. So if it doesn't work it might be because GBPVR uses version x and Super uses version y.

Hans

[zehd]

And the actually version that ships with GB-PVR won't work very well for you. It would be interesting to see what version ships with SUPER...