ATSC Recording file size increased

[wintermute]

Hello sub, stattik, et al,

I noticed that the ATSC recordings of 480i(or p) shows have jumped from 1.7GB to 6.4GB in size. I'm using the CyberLink 4.0.2221 mux file.
The only alteration made is the merit change of the CyberLink SP/Video Decoder to make it the preferred decoder over the InterVideo one.

Any ideas?

Greg

[sub]

When it comes to ATSC, the size of the resulting file is pretty much dictated by the broadcaster. Your selection of video decoder or mux will make pretty much no difference to the size.

[-stattik-]

Are you sure the resolution is 480i or 480p? The odds are it's a 480i/p show broadcasted in a 16:9 frame with black bars on the side. The black bars will eat up more bandwidth. The actual resolution is most likely much larger than 480i or 480p.


You can start a show up in Windows MediaPlayer and get properties to show the actual resolution.

[wintermute]

Argh! Ya got me stattik! I didn't pay close enough attention.
The large files were recorded from channels broadcasting at 1080i. This appears to be true whether the particular show was broadcast as HDTV or not.
Recording on channels broadcasting at 480i/p were much smaller.
IE. 30 minutes on a 1080i channel was ~ 3.2GB.
30 minutes on a 480i/p channel was ~635MB.
OK. That mystery solved.
Now, I am still struggling with using the batch file you created with mencoder and the HDTV files.
The comskip portion appears to work fine.
But, I get various messages about them being too big, too high a frame rate, etc.
I have been attempting to just do a copy from the mpg file created during the recording and use mencoder for the cutting and back to the mpg file again.
So, far I have not had any success on any HDTV or 1080i recordings.
Goals:
Cut the commercials and have a commercial-free file for burning onto a DVD or playing on another system.
Reduce the size/quality of a recording or NOT reduce the size/quality of the recording. Without stutter, jerk, etc.
I tried the following in the :mpeg and :hdtv profiles, but mencoder either wouldn't process it at all (MPEG1/2 frames too high I think) or it would detect different errors (skip a frame, too big a frame, etc.).
Umm..help?
start /low /wait %mencoder_path% "%~dpn1_original.mpg" -edl "%~dpn1.edl" -oac copy -ovc lavc -of mpeg -mpegopts format=dvd -vf pullup,softskip -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg2video:vrc_buf_size=1835:vrc_maxrate=9800:vbitrate=%mpegbitrate%:keyint=18 %test% -o "%~dpn1.mpg"

[-stattik-]

I tried the following in the :mpeg and :hdtv profiles, but mencoder either wouldn't process it at all (MPEG1/2 frames too high I think) or it would detect different errors (skip a frame, too big a frame, etc.).
Umm..help?

I'll have to test out the mpeg profile as I've never tried it with hi-def stuff. All my hi-def uses this profile and it's worked very reliably for me.

:hdtv
Rem #### This is for High Definition material ####
start /low /wait %mencoder_path% %name% -edl "%~dpn1.edl" -ovc xvid -xvidencopts bitrate=900:me_quality=6:chroma_me:noqpel:chroma_opt:vhq=4:bvhq=1:trellis:hq_ac:gmc:quant_type=mpeg:max_key_interval=240%turbo% -oac mp3lame -lameopts mode=2:cbr:br=128:vol=5 -vf pullup,softskip,scale=608:336 -ofps 24000/1001 %test% -o "%~dpn1.avi"
goto post:


If mencoder chokes on the above profile, I'd try a different mencoder build. The one I use is from 11/23/2005.

[wintermute]

Just a quick update.
I found out why my system was rebooting (I think) during HDTV recordings. My antivirus app. The part that has a Proxy service for Web filtering. How that has anything to do with the file recording...
Anyhoo, when I stop the services for that application and do my recording it appears to work fine.
The mencoder params appear tobe working better for me. Making the file a smaller mpg file.
What causes the green artifacting at the top border of the video after the mencoder processes the file?
How do I get prevent that from happening or get rid of it?

I noticed that whether I record in High, Medium or Low Quality, the file size is the same. Any input on that?

Thanks stattik!

Greg

[sub]

I noticed that whether I record in High, Medium or Low Quality, the file size is the same. Any input on that?

These settings only apply to analog capture devices.

With digital capture devices, the recording quality (and file size) is set be the broadcaster, and GB-PVR pretty much just writing the digital transmission to disk unaltered.

[wintermute]

Ah ha! Thanks for the clarification sub!

[-stattik-]

What causes the green artifacting at the top border of the video after the mencoder processes the file?
How do I get prevent that from happening or get rid of it?

It has to with the video filters that mencoder is using with the mpeg file. You need to use the video filters in the hdtv file to get rid of the green artifacting.

Basically replace:

-vf filmdint,softskip,harddup

with:

-vf pullup,softskip

or

-vf pullup,softskip,harddup


I haven't tested this but it should work.

[wintermute]

Thanks stattik, I will give that a try on the smaller digital recordings.

On and HDTV recording (recorded straight to an mpg file) that was 6.4GB for a one hour show I attempted to run mencoder. It kept flashing through it, exiting and creating a 0KB mpg file.
I ran the option manually (see below) and it was erroring out (see at the bottom of the results). What is causing that and can I correct it for the HDTV recordings that create a larger file? It appears that the mpeg2video cannot handle the higher fps. Can this be adjusted/fixed?
Thanks

G:\Support\UPDATES\HDTV EPG\mplayer>G:\Support\UPDATES\HDTVEP~1\mplayer\mencoder
.exe "G:\My Videos\Star Trek\Star Trek- Enterprise.mpg" -edl "G:\My Videos\Star
Trek\Star Trek- Enterprise.edl" -oac copy -ovc lavc -of mpeg -mpegopts format=dv
d -vf filmdint,softskip,harddup -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg2video:vrc_buf_size=1835:vr
c_maxrate=9800:vbitrate=4000:keyint=18 -o "G:\My Videos\Star Trek\Star Trek-Ente
rprise new.mpg"
MEncoder dev-CVS-060323-00:54-4.0.2 © 2000-2006 MPlayer Team
CPU: Advanced Micro Devices Sempron/Athlon MP/XP Thoroughbred; Duron Applebred (
Family: 6, Stepping: 1)
CPUflags: Type: 6 MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 1 3DNow2: 1 SSE: 0 SSE2: 0
Compiled for x86 CPU with extensions: MMX MMX2 3DNow 3DNowEx SSE

91 audio & 206 video codecs
success: format: 0 data: 0x0 - 0x8b4f5f33
MPEG-PS file format detected.
VIDEO: MPEG2 1280x720 (aspect 3) 59.940 fps 15000.0 kbps (1875.0 kbyte/s)
[V] filefmt:2 fourcc:0x10000002 size:1280x720 fps:59.94 ftime:=0.0167
==========================================================================
Opening audio decoder: [liba52] AC3 decoding with liba52
Using 3DNowEx optimized IMDCT transform
AC3: 2.0 (stereo) 48000 Hz 192.0 kbit/s
Using MMX optimized resampler
AUDIO: 48000 Hz, 2 ch, s16le, 192.0 kbit/12.50% (ratio: 24000->192000)
Selected audio codec: [a52] afm: liba52 (AC3-liba52)
==========================================================================
PACKET SIZE: 2048 bytes
Opening video filter: [expand osd=1]
Expand: -1 x -1, -1 ; -1, osd: 1, aspect: 0.000000, round: 1
Opening video filter: [harddup]
Opening video filter: [softskip]
Opening video filter: [filmdint]
==========================================================================
Opening video decoder: [mpegpes] MPEG 1/2 Video passthrough
VDec: vo config request - 1280 x 720 (preferred colorspace: Mpeg PES)
Could not find matching colorspace - retrying with -vf scale...
Opening video filter: [scale]
The selected video_out device is incompatible with this codec.
Try adding the scale filter, e.g. -vf spp,scale instead of -vf spp.
VDecoder init failed
Opening video decoder: [libmpeg2] MPEG 1/2 Video decoder libmpeg2-v0.4.0b
Selected video codec: [mpeg12] vfm: libmpeg2 (MPEG-1 or 2 (libmpeg2))
==========================================================================
audiocodec: framecopy (format=2000 chans=2 rate=48000 bits=16 B/s=24000 sample-1
)
Limiting audio preload to 0.4s
Increasing audio density to 4
Read 7 EDL actions.
VDec: vo config request - 1280 x 720 (preferred colorspace: Planar YV12)
VDec: using Planar YV12 as output csp (no 0)
Movie-Aspect is 1.78:1 - prescaling to correct movie aspect.
videocodec: libavcodec (1280x720 fourcc=3267706d [mpg2])
[mpeg2video @ 00A72E48]MPEG1/2 does not support 19001/317 fps
Could not open codec.
FATAL: Cannot initialize video driver.

Exiting...