Transcoding H.264 to something else

[SickBoy]

Since this really isn't specifically hardware related or NPVR related - anyone know of a relatively simple way to transcode a H.264 ts file to something simpler that a PS3 is capable of playing back? MPEG2 or similar?

I've had hit and miss luck with playback of H.264 files on my PS3. DVD rips through Handbrake work OK if I have the PS3 connected with a hardline, but the ts files that my HD-PVR create (via NPVR) don't play at all (error message).

I have my PS3 set up in my basement and use it as a frontend to remotely play stuff off my HTPC via TVersity media server (and then just browsing to the directory structures). I'm a competitive cyclist, and in Minnesota that means I spend a lot of hours in the basement on my rollers/trainer, so only being able to view some of my recordings (and not all of them) is quite frustrating.

Some googling indicated TMPGenc might do the trick, but I was hoping maybe someone around here had some specific experience. Eventually, I'd like to move whatever solution I come to into the postprocessing.bat so that these programs are automatically available to me.

[mvallevand]

PS3 play BluRay so clearly H264 is not the problem. Maybe instead of transcoding try remuxing to m2ts. You might also consider trying AAC instead of AC3.

Martin

[HarryH3]

My son just got an HDPVR for recording video from his PS3 to post on YouTube. While reading the docs for the included ArcSoft capture software I noticed that it claims that the PS3 will playback M2TS files natively, but not TS files. I haven't researched it further, but hopefully this, along with Martin's observation above, will get you headed in the right direction.

[SickBoy]

What's the best way to remux to m2ts? is this capability built in to NPVR?

**Edit** Found TsRemux though am having a bugger of a time finding the command line options for it...

**Edit 2** Muxing the HD-PVR files to m2ts definitely fixes the issue. Still digging for command line options so that I can do this programmatically, rather than by hand with the GUI.

[SickBoy]

Here's what I ended up putting into my postprocessing.bat to remux the HDPVR files to m2ts:

Code:

echo Running TsRemux on %1 from channel %2 >>processing.log
Set newfile="%~dpn1.m2ts"
"C:\Program Files\TsRemux\TsRemux.exe" %1 %newfile%
move %1 "%~dpn1_old.ts"
move %newfile% %1

I'm using one of the suggested postprocessing.bat's from one of the NPVR support threads and it had a logic example to skip comskip for certain channels - and I modified that example to have it skip TsRemux for some channels (my HDHR channels) but still run comskip on all. Testing it out right now, should hopefully know the result in a few minutes.

[SickBoy]

Alright, my modifications to postprocessing seem to work. Here's the rub - comskip won't run on a ".m2ts" file, so I had to rename TsRemux's output file to a ".ts" extension after it was done (as I did in the code snippet above). Then comskip will run.

Problem now is that NPVR won't play it back. Ideally I want both NPVR and the PS3 to be able to play the same file.

sub - any help or suggestions? logs from playback attempt attached...

[mvallevand]

Keep two copies. If you had said you wanted the same file in the first place, I wouldn't have suggested m2ts. If you want HD, comskip and NPVR support plus PS3 support I think you are out of luck.

Martin

[SickBoy]

@martin - I assume that if I just keep a copy in the m2ts extension (but with the same filename as the .ts file) that NPVR will delete it along with the ts file and comskip files when it gets to its expiration?

So long as it does I guess I can learn to deal with the lost disk space...

[pBS]

if you don't mind some quality loss, just transcode to mpeg2...
both will be able to play them, and it can take hd quality..and comskip no problem..
of course it will take forever to transcode..
but it's only option, as h264 can only be in avi,ts or m2ts..

[SickBoy]

Nah, the remux to m2ts is actually pretty quick and effective. Having to keep both versions of a file so that I can play back on PS3 is really the only drawback. Not ideal, but having my HTPC's CPU slammed with transcoding at potentially inopportune times is more of a drawback. And given that I actually do about 80% of my recordings from ClearQAM channels on my HDHR (and thus the m2ts remux is unneccessary and will not be done on those channels), it's actually a pretty minimal impact. I might lose another couple hundred GB, but disk space is cheap.

Right now my GBPVR/NPVR installs have a dedicated 2 TB drive just for the current recordings - of which I am only using about 700 GB at the moment. I have a separate 2 TB drive for archived stuff which is far closer to being full.