Repairing the timeline of an MPEG

[UncleJohnsBand]

So...which is better.....retime or mencoder?

[wtg]

Both have their problems. I've occasionally had the mux/demuxers used in retime.bat abort on certain files with messed up timelines, and I've occasionally had mencoder produce a file with a 0:00 duration timeline, so neither are perfect.

However, mencoder is much, much faster and starts writing the output file immediately, so you can actually start viewing it in gbpvr while it converts. retime doesn't start outputting the new file until after it's demux the original, so there's no instant gratification.

I suggest keeping both in your arsenal. Try mencoder first, and if that doesn't work, try retime.bat.

P.S. In the cases where mencoder has produced a 0:00 timeline video, for some reason Nero's Showtime shows the duration correctly, while WMP, RealPlayer and ZoomPlayer show it as 0:00. It doesn't happen too often for me, but when it does I end up watching it in Nero's player.

[UncleJohnsBand]

Both have their problems. I've occasionally had the mux/demuxers used in retime.bat abort on certain files with messed up timelines, and I've occasionally had mencoder produce a file with a 0:00 duration timeline, so neither are perfect.

However, mencoder is much, much faster and starts writing the output file immediately, so you can actually start viewing it in gbpvr while it converts. retime doesn't start outputting the new file until after it's demux the original, so there's no instant gratification.

I suggest keeping both in your arsenal. Try mencoder first, and if that doesn't work, try retime.bat.

P.S. In the cases where mencoder has produced a 0:00 timeline video, for some reason Nero's Showtime shows the duration correctly, while WMP, RealPlayer and ZoomPlayer show it as 0:00. It doesn't happen too often for me, but when it does I end up watching it in Nero's player.

Is it more efficient to put this in the postprocessing.bat file when it only occurs periodically vs. just using the tool when you hit a recording with a bad timeline?

I am trying to decide if I want to run all my videos through this if only 10% are impacted by the problem.

How long does it take to redo a 1 hour show encoded in high level?

[wtg]

I never bothered with postprocessing because it was only happening about 25% of the time, and then switching to the 23035 drivers, the problem went away entirely.

When it was happening to me, I put the mencoder command in a batch file, would drag and drop the file onto it, and then start watching the output while it processed. On a 1.1 GHz celeron it seems like a 1 hr show took less than 10 minutes to finish. Retime takes significantly longer because it works differently.

[UncleJohnsBand]

I never bothered with postprocessing because it was only happening about 25% of the time, and then switching to the 23035 drivers, the problem went away entirely.

When it was happening to me, I put the mencoder command in a batch file, would drag and drop the file onto it, and then start watching the output while it processed. On a 1.1 GHz celeron it seems like a 1 hr show took less than 10 minutes to finish. Retime takes significantly longer because it works differently.

Thanks.....where can I find mencoder? Update I found the file: ftp://ftp5.mplayerhq.hu/mplayer/releases/win32/

Can you post your batch file?

[groover km]

I would be interested in seeing an example batch file too - if anyone can help me with the issue I outlined above (postprocessing.bat produced files are not showing up in recordings) I'd be really grateful - seems like I fix one thing and break another...

[wtg]

This is the one I use:

Code:

:: retime_mencoder.bat
move %1 "%~dpn1_original.mpg"
start /low /wait c:\vid\mplayer\mencoder.exe -of mpeg -oac copy -ovc copy "%~dpn1_original.mpg" -o "%~dnp1.mpg"

Some might like it to delete the original at the end, but I personally have always preferred to do so after I confirmed all went well.

[UncleJohnsBand]

This is the one I use:

Code:

:: retime_mencoder.bat
move %1 "%~dpn1_original.mpg"
start /low /wait c:\vid\mplayer\mencoder.exe -of mpeg -oac copy -ovc copy "%~dpn1_original.mpg" -o "%~dnp1.mpg"

Some might like it to delete the original at the end, but I personally have always preferred to do so after I confirmed all went well.

Thanks....I have one that was out of sync so I am checking it out.

You say you went back to drivers: 23035 and now you don't get the problem? When where they released?

[UncleJohnsBand]

Thanks....I have one that was out of sync so I am checking it out.

You say you went back to drivers: 23035 and now you don't get the problem? When where they released?

Sweet....if fixed it no problem....and on my 3.2GHz it only took about 4 minutes to fix and run comskip on the fixed file.

[wtg]

Glad it worked for you. mencoder is a real gem.

The 23035 drivers can be found over at shspvr.com. ftp://ftp.shspvr.com/download/wintv-pvr_150-500/inf/

I don't know when they were released but the time and date there shows Feb 8 2005. I've only had one problem with them. Just one channel has strange audio - voices sound kind of robotic. It's rare that I record from it though, and given I've never had a single timeline issue since I switched to these, the benefit far outweighs the annoyance.

Others have said that the 23025 drivers also work well, but I haven't tried them.