Converting .TS files

[Joram]

Update: Got a chance to install and try Kodi on the offline laptop. Very nice UI. And the generic Windows remote actually works better "out of the box" than the MCE remote.

[mvallevand]

If you like the UI you can use Kodi on your other PC's instead of NextPVR.exe

Note sure what a Windows generic remote is unless you mean a USB remote that mimics an MCE keyboard.

Martin

[Joram]

Thanks for the suggestion, Martin. Maybe I'll give it a try, keeping NPVR as the backend of course.

Here's an example of what I mean by a generic Windows remote. It's not the one I used for the laptop, but it gives the general idea of what I mean. You might have a more precise name for this kind of device.

[mvallevand]

Probably just a USB HID remote. I prefer the RF not IR variety myself so the don't have to be line of sight.

Martin

[FM5]

Sounds like you have it sorted but figured I'd mention KDE Connect free software along with being a good way to transfer files via wifi also has a function to turn an Android phone into a mouse-pointing remote control or a media player remote control to control a PC.

[Joram]

Probably just a USB HID remote.  I prefer the RF not IR variety myself so the don't have to be line of sight.

Martin

I just checked, and indeed the product info for that one says it's an IR receiver. BTW, eventually I found the exact model remote that I tested on the offline laptop: https://www.amazon.com/Wireless-Laptop-K...84-6919245. Product details are skimpy to nonexistent, but I'm guessing it's IR because it's line-of-sight.

Will look around for an RF receiver. Something like this?

[Joram]

Sounds like you have it sorted but figured I'd mention KDE Connect free software along with being a good way to transfer files via wifi also has a function to turn an Android phone into a mouse-pointing remote control or a media player remote control to control a PC.

That's interesting, thanks. Knowing my wife, it'd have to be an inexpensive phone for indoor use only: our regular phones would be unsuitable for use on the couch because they're laden with "outdoor cooties." 

But it sure sounds like an intriguing idea. I imagine that it wouldn't even have to be subscribed to any service, since I could sideload whatever software is needed to make it work as a remote.

[Joram]

Probably just a USB HID remote.  I prefer the RF not IR variety myself so the don't have to be line of sight.

Martin

I just checked, and indeed the product info for that one says it's an IR receiver. BTW, eventually I found the exact model remote that I tested on the offline laptop: https://www.amazon.com/Wireless-Laptop-K...84-6919245. Product details are skimpy to nonexistent, but I'm guessing it's IR because it's line-of-sight.

Will look around for an RF receiver. Something like this?

To update this thread, I ended up getting this product.

The gyro mouse takes some getting used to. Tried it from the treadmill (~6ft. distance) as well as from the couch in the family room (~15 feet). The mouse is easier to handle at the shorter distance; it's much too sensitive at the longer distance, as the mouse pointer flies off the edge of the screen with the slightest wrist movement (such as when you flex a finger to press any button), making it difficult to use from the couch. Plus, this remote doesn't seem to have a way to scroll a browser page up and down, rendering it unusable when you're on the Netflix page in Firefox and want to scroll around for the new releases.

The media buttons (FF/RW, etc.) do work well within Windows Media Center, at least at the shorter distance. Next test for this remote: NextPVR and Kodi.

[mvallevand]

I won't by MCE it will be USB HID which is just a keyboard and mouse so every application should work but there are often keys like the colours that may need to be defined.

Martin

[Joram]

The RF remote works well once you get the hang of it.

I tested it first in Kodi on the offline laptop, but while the remote is fine, Kodi hasn't worked out well for the .TS files created by/for NPVR. Audio isn't synced with the video (I hear the bat hitting the ball before the batter starts swinging), and the video is constantly stopping then jumping ahead by ~1 second. It's unwatchable.

To test whether it might be the fault of the low-specced hardware, I tried playing the same video file in Windows Media Player. It plays perfectly well there, video is sharp and smooth and is synced up with the audio. But there's no (self-evident) function to skip forward or back in WMP, so I have to FF through the commercials when instead skipping forward would be much quicker. Also, WMP has problems picking up where I left off the night before.

Therefore, I then tried it on VLC and the video played just fine there, too. So the choppiness is a problem with Kodi and not with my hardware. I fiddled with the Kodi settings but nothing helped. On the other hand, the issue with VLC is that I can't get the list of video files to display as icons while at the same time showing the complete filename: it only shows one line of the name. Because the names of all the MLB recordings start with "MLB_Baseball," the single line is filled up with this part of the name and you can't tell one game from another when browsing through the listings. I can switch to a text-based list which shows full name info, but that gets hard to read at a distance.

Question: is it possible to install yauiclient only, or NextPVR UI client only, to watch the recordings that we manually copy onto the laptop from a flash drive? Or is the full-blown NPVR system required in order to watch recordings made somewhere else?