Help w/MPEG Recording - Show fast forwards auto. at end

[tara_clinton]

I apologize in advance since this post is quite long. Here's the problem(s):

1) My brother wanted my to record a college football game. I did a manual recording w/GB-PVR since using the program guide only showed the game would last for 3 hours and I figured they usually lasted longer. Anyway, I set the recording to last for 4 hours to be on the safe side.

2) After the recording finished, I browsed through it to see if it looked alright, and I noticed that in the last 2 minutes or so of the game, the recording would fast forward automatically (there may be other parts in that did this too, but given that I watched the game on TV, I didn't want to rewatch the whole thing again).

3) The game lasted about 3.5 hours. The previous game ran a few minutes longer than expected and my game ended before the 4 hours were up. So, I am going to use TSUNAMI-MPEG DVD EasyPack to cut out the end of the previous game and chop off the beginning of the next game.

4) The whole mpeg file is 9.73 GB and TMPGEnc (Tsunami) says it will be approx. 8.51 GB when it's done cutting it. I plan on burning this to 2 4.7 DVD-R discs.

5) My card is a Hauppage WinTV-PVR 350 and while the show was recording, I browsed a few web sites and read some email during the commercials on TV.

Questions:
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7) Did using my web browser and email client cause this problem or was it due to the length of the recording?

8) The new Tsunami program I have says it does something called "frame-level editing" or something like that, and I have all the default settings set. But, I wondering if this frame-level editing will fix the bad parts towards the end of the recording. If not, does anyone know of a program that will do this?

9) I have a friend who said something about using VirtualDub or VirtualDubMod to correct the problem (she knows a little more than I do, but is also an amateur). She also suggested using the ULead DVD Movie Factory that came with the card to fix it if the fore mentioned programs don't work. I've heard Movie Factory isn't as good as VirtualDub and other video-editing apps. Can you give me your opinion on this?

10) Won't I also have to redo the audio part of the mpeg separately since it automatically fast forwards too? If so, can you give me suggestions on a good program? Maybe VirtualDub or ffmpeg for this?

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Thanks for taking the time to read this!

Tara C.

[sub]

I read this, but dont really have any answers for you. I know very little about these third party applications you're using.

I havnt seen any other reports of the this automatic fast forwarding problem you mention, but given all the MPEG2 timestamps are generated by your capture device (and its drivers), it might be worth trying a different version of the drivers if you find you're getting this regularly.

[Pioneer4x4]

7) Did using my web browser and email client cause this problem or was it due to the length of the recording?

I doubt it. There are times where I will be burning DVDs, authoring others, and moving files around all while recording, and I rarely have screwed up mpegs.

What players have you tried the file in? What do you mean by fast forwards?

Does it skip part and jump ahead?
Does it show everything, but at a faster frame rate?

I would try playing the file in a DVD player (PowerDVD...) If it is still screwed up, you will probably have a lot of editing ahead of you, if it isn't totally corrupt.

[tara_clinton]

Pioneer4x4:

In response to your questions:

You asked:
Does it skip part and jump ahead?
Not sure what exactly you mean, but I'll try to explain it better. What it does is--it'll be playing fine and all the sudden the speed of playback will increase like I pushed the fast forward button in my player, which I didn't of course. After a few seconds, it'll go back to 'regular speed' and then a few seconds later, the playback speed will increase again.

You asked:
Does it show everything, but at a faster frame rate?
Not exactly sure what you mean by this either, but I'll give it a shot. I just watched the end of the show again, along with some other parts, and I noticed that throughout the show, the frame rate changes. I'm in the USA and using NTSC, so I'm assuming the frame rate should be a steady 29.97, but when I view it in both GB-PVR and Media Player Classic, it changes all the time. It changes from 29.97 to 29.xx (usually just a little-like 29.62, 29.71, 29.84, etc.). So, it shows everything, but again, the video and audio both speed up like I pushed the fast forward button.

Hope that answers your questions,

Tara C.

[Pioneer4x4]

That sounds like a screwed up video file with no hope of straightening it out. What are the specs of your recording computer?

[tara_clinton]

Pioneer4x4: Actually I just checked some other video (mpeg) files on my machine, and as far as the frame rate goes, it is normal for it to change from 29.97 to 29.xx, at least on my files anyway, and none of these ones had any problems.

My machine:
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CPU: P4 @ 2.8GHz
RAM: 1GHz RDR Rambus
3 HDDs: 2-Western Digital 120GB Caviar SE and 1-external LaCie 250GB d2Extreme
Video Card: nVidia GeForce4 Ti4200 w/4x AGP
TV Tuner Card: Hauppage WinTV-PVR 350 w/all the latest updates for software and drivers
OS: Windows XP Pro SP2 w/all the latest updates/patches
Other: All the latest updates/patches for all my other software

So, as you can see, I don't think it's the computer. I think this is an issue w/either GB-PVR (no disrespect intended) or Hauppage. After visiting Hauppage's web site several times and searching Google, it seems both their software and some of their hardware has issues. I bought the card 'cause my friend told me it's the best for converting VHS tapes to DVDs given its hardware based encoder. However, the first one (VHS tape) of them I did, I had some problems with that video too, but it was fixable or at least of acceptable quality.

As far as GB-PVR, I recorded a few other shows and even a previous 3 hr. and 45 min. football game and never had any trouble.

Kinda wish now I never bought this damn card. Technology was supposed to make our lives easier, not complicate them.

[groover km]

This may/ may not help, but whenever I have had problems with MPEG2 files it has typically been a corrupt timestamp header in the file.

9 times out of 10, this is fixable with PVAstrumento (I'm pretty sure it's available from the Hauppauge support section). Open the file - make sure that you DEselect 'split on audio changes' and then click 'Make PS' (program stream); it typically takes about 5 mins per hour of video.

I can't say I have experienced the problem that you describe (speeding up), but it might be worth a try...

Good luck!

[tara_clinton]

groover km:

I'll give it a try.

Thanx