QAM Stream/Channel Details?

[bigjess007]

My cable company sends the local channels via QAM in the clear. However, many of them are duplicated and sent in two different channels. I'm trying to figure out which one I should map to use. When I flip between the two of them I can see there is a difference in the size of the picture but I can't put my finger on it.

Is there a utility that would tell me the difference in any resolution or other details of the channels?

Thanks

[martint123]

I can't think of anything that would show the details of a live stream (gbpvr used to ISTR) but if you record a few seconds of a channel I find Mediainfo will give the details of a recorded show. https://mediaarea.net/en/MediaInfo

[Graham]

However, many of them are duplicated and sent in two different channels.

Is one version SD and the other version HD?

Opening the recording file in Windows Media Player ... Alt key then click File then click Properties should tell you the video size.

[mvallevand]

You might want to map both if you want one for quality (HD) and one for disk size (SD). If you install and us the ffdshow they have a control icon that disables the properties of the running video.

Martin

[ElihuRozen]

My cable company sends the local channels via QAM in the clear. However, many of them are duplicated and sent in two different channels. I'm trying to figure out which one I should map to use. When I flip between the two of them I can see there is a difference in the size of the picture but I can't put my finger on it.

Is there a utility that would tell me the difference in any resolution or other details of the channels?

Thanks

TS Reader Lite is freeware and will probably do what you want.

[sub]

Is there a utility that would tell me the difference in any resolution or other details of the channels?

If you press ctrl-I while watching a recording or live tv, it should tell you the resolution.

[bigjess007]

If you press ctrl-I while watching a recording or live tv, it should tell you the resolution.

I knew you had this feature coded in there somewhere. This is exactly what I needed, thank you for continuing to amaze me with this software.

[bigjess007]

Regarding everyone else's posts, yup, before sub posted, I did end up recording both of the channels and then showing the media info on the recordings to see. And as everyone thought, yup again, one channel is HD and one channel is SD. Great tips, great minds.

You might want to map both if you want one for quality (HD) and one for disk size (SD). If you install and us the ffdshow they have a control icon that disables the properties of the running video.

Martin

Yup, I did exactly this too. Another great tip.


I ended up recording from the HD channel today before I had this all figured out. Whee. Normal ~42 mins of SD is about 1.5 GB. ~42 mins of the HD stream came in at 6.6GB. :eek:

At some point I'll need to venture in to looking at automated post processing, but I'm not going down that road now. For now it's just back to recording on the SD channel until I get enough time and brave enough to change what's been working.

Thanks again!

[scJohn]

From a picture quality stand point you will want the HD stream. For HD, most stations will run around 6GB per hour depending upon how many sub channels the station is using. You can always transcode the .ts file from MPEG2 to MPEG4 in a post batch file. If you do decide to go the transcode route I would still recommend the HD stream because you will end up with a better transcode than the SD stream.