Recording from external source in real time

[ubu]

I'm trying to record shows previously recorded on my Tivo (or from VCR tapes - same issue). I can see the Tivo as an external source channel just fine and I can record by pressing record in live TV. I'm left with two issues:

1) I'd like to use the manual record feature so I can control the length of the recording but, since I can't tell exactly when gbpvr will a) pick up my request to schedule the recording or b) when recording has actually started, I can't tell when to hit "play" on the Tivo (or VCR) to start playback.

2) I can use the record button on live TV and this lets me coordinate when to hit "play" since I can see the output on the cached output. However, a) I can't control the length of the recording - have to watch the output and hit the gbpvr record button again when I want to stop and b) the recording does not show up in the gbpvr on-screen recordings list (maybe because the external source channel does not have a show name?). Instead, the recording shows up in my gbpvr cache directory with a "generated" name so I have to rename and copy the file into the recordings directory.

Am I missing something here? Any ideas? I see a number of threads tangential to my problem but none specifically discussing this particular issue.

[gEd]

Do you have the tivo plugged into the s-video input?

If do, you just need to set up another capture device (called say TIVO), specify the 150 and select composite/s-video external input.

u can then go into manual recordings, select the TIVO channel, recording quality and start / end times.

[sub]

GB-PVR isnt well suited for this task. For dubbing tapes, or tivo recordings in this case, you're better off using something like the Hauppauge WinTV software.

[ubu]

gEd - Yes I'm plugged into the S-video input and I am set up as you describe. Works fine. My problem, as you read in my post, is that using manual recordings does not work well since it is impossible to synchronize the start of the recording with pressing "play" on the Tivo or VCR.

sub - I can do it with WinTV2k but the quality is awful (presumably because of the InterVideo decoder - I'm using the nVidia decoder for gbpvr and it produces a clear image with good colors, etc.). I can use VLC (it has start/stop time parms but no duration parm) but it's a bit fiddly. It would be nice to have all my media activities happen via a single visual interface.

Gbpvr has spoiled me - I expect to be able to press a button on the remote and have instant gratification Maybe an "And then a miracle occurs" button on the main menu as a future enhancement?

[ubu]

I found a thread on the SHSPVR site that mentioned a great piece of software called GBRecord (written by someone called sub ) which would support recording for a specific duration. Could I run something like:

gbrecord.exe -minutes:60 -svideo1 -startr:"c:\my videos\test.mpg"

from the command line and then hit "play" on my Tivo or VCR? That would totally solve my problem if GBRecord would fire up and start recording immediately.

I know that GBRecord functionality is now embedded in gbpvr, but this is a very handy feature that gbpvr is perhaps too sophisticated to handle.

[gEd]

gEd - Yes I'm plugged into the S-video input and I am set up as you describe. Works fine. My problem, as you read in my post, is that using manual recordings does not work well since it is impossible to synchronize the start of the recording with pressing "play" on the Tivo or VCR.

Sorry I guess I have failed to appreciate what it is that you are trying to achieve here.

When I record my old vhs tapes, I just set it to start 5mins ago (so it starts immediately)set the end time to be current time + duration of recording + 5mins for good luck. hit go. count to 10 and press play.

I then trim the start and end of the mpeg, before writing to dvd.

I guess you are looking for something a little more precise!

[ubu]

I guess you are looking for something a little more precise!

Not really. I just want to grab shows from the wife's Tivo so I can watch them on gbpvr or dump them to DVD +RW so she can watch them in bed or wherever (she's not keen on me pulling ethernet wires through the whole house or I'd use MVPs instead - wireless ain't a solution either since she talks on a 2.8ghz phone while watching TV - the extra remote would be the last straw in any case).

No, your solution is good. Nobody told me the "start 5 mins ago" trick. I'd read all these posts about the scheduler only checking for new requests every 10 minutes so I thought I'd tend to miss the beginning of the show.

Dumb question, but what do you use to "trim" the mpg file. I think that Nero or Ulead would do it but that seems like overkill. Is there something simpler?

GBRecord still looks interesting since you can run it from the command line so potentially one batch file could record the mpeg, demux it, convert it to an iso and burn it to DVD. One stop shopping.

Thanks for your help, squire.

[gEd]

No, your solution is good. Nobody told me the "start 5 mins ago" trick. I'd read all these posts about the scheduler only checking for new requests every 10 minutes so I thought I'd tend to miss the beginning of the show.

every 10 mins - humm, i don't think so. To check ,you can just bring up the gbpvr tray tool to see if it has started recording.

Dumb question, but what do you use to "trim" the mpg file. I think that Nero or Ulead would do it but that seems like overkill. Is there something simpler?

no, it's a good question.

Simpler or better? :-)

I looked at the video stuff included with nero7 and it looks pretty poor to me.

I use a commercial software product called Womble mpeg video (http://www.womble.com/) which allows you to easily cut/paste/trim video files and then export the final version without having to recode the video, which makes it very fast.

I have seen Mpg2Cut2 mentioned here recently which may fit the bill.
http://www.videohelp.com/tools?tool=Mpg2Cut2

GBRecord still looks interesting since you can run it from the command line so potentially one batch file could record the mpeg, demux it, convert it to an iso and burn it to DVD. One stop shopping.

Thanks for your help, squire.

Yep, that could work well (except for the trimming, which can be time consuming if you have a lot to do) although i have never used gbrecord. I may have to investigate.

your most welcome; hth

[roy]

Dumb question, but what do you use to "trim" the mpg file. I think that Nero or Ulead would do it but that seems like overkill. Is there something simpler?

What about using comskip and comclean? Create a comskip .txt file to mark the parts to remove then remove with comclean. I haven't actually tried this, but it should work, right?

[Pioneer4x4]

...sub - I can do it with WinTV2k but the quality is awful (presumably because of the InterVideo decoder...

The decoder should not have anything to do with the quality of the recording, only how it looks when playing back. The card itself controls the image quality, so it should not matter what app initiates the recording. Make sure that in WinTV2000 you have your bitrates set, and resolution set correctly. Have you tried playing back the WinTV2000 videos via GBPvr? That should show you comparable results. You can then user the handy mpegimport utility to create the xml file for GBPVR to import. I used to us a dummy capture source, and fakexmltv to capture from Comcast's On Demand, and finally gave up, and use WinTV2000 instead.