MPEG to AVI conversion

I don't know if this is the right group to post this, it's the only one I
could find in uk.* which looked at all relevant. If there's a better group,
please point me at it.

I'm looking for software to convert MPEG2 files, received from Freeview with a
Hauppage WinTV USB adaptor, to AVI format with reasonable compression and
quality. This can obviously be done, since there are thousands of TV
programmes out there with file sizes around 450MB per hour rather than the
2GB/hour of MPEG2, but the only software I've seen produces really bad quality
(great big blocks of pixels and/or slow frame rate).

What do other people use for this?

Another requirement -- I need this to be able to be run autmatically from a
script / batch file / command line. I have plenty of CPU power (Intel Core
Duo 3GHz, 2GB RAM) but even with that conversions seem to take several hours.

My reason is that I am away during the week, and want to record stuff, collect
it at weekends when I'm home and then take it to my lodgings and watch it
there. I'm using it for basic timeshifting, not for distribution or archive.
I need the files smaller so that I can fit them on a USB stick (and that has
problems with file sizes over 2GB, since it uses FAT).

(Don't even mention iPlayer. Not only is it BBC only, but it also needs lots
of bandwidth which I do not have when away.)

Note again: this is NOT for pirate distribution, it is for personal
timeshifting of Freeview programmes only.

Thanks for any pointers,

Chris C

Chris Croughton wrote:
I'm looking for software to convert MPEG2 files, received from
Freeview with a Hauppage WinTV USB adaptor, to AVI format with
reasonable compression and quality.

Another requirement -- I need this to be able to be run autmatically
from a script / batch file / command line.

I don't know about your batch requirement, but I've made occasional
use of Auto Gordian Knot (www.autogk.me.uk). It's done what I needed
it to, but I'm no expert in it.

André Coutanche

"Chris Croughton" a écrit dans le message de news:
...
I don't know if this is the right group to post this, it's the only one I
could find in uk.* which looked at all relevant. If there's a better
group,
please point me at it.

I'm looking for software to convert MPEG2 files, received from Freeview
with a
Hauppage WinTV USB adaptor, to AVI format with reasonable compression and
quality. This can obviously be done, since there are thousands of TV
programmes out there with file sizes around 450MB per hour rather than the
2GB/hour of MPEG2, but the only software I've seen produces really bad
quality
(great big blocks of pixels and/or slow frame rate).

What do other people use for this?

Another requirement -- I need this to be able to be run autmatically from
a
script / batch file / command line. I have plenty of CPU power (Intel
Core
Duo 3GHz, 2GB RAM) but even with that conversions seem to take several
hours.

My reason is that I am away during the week, and want to record stuff,
collect
it at weekends when I'm home and then take it to my lodgings and watch it
there. I'm using it for basic timeshifting, not for distribution or
archive.
I need the files smaller so that I can fit them on a USB stick (and that
has
problems with file sizes over 2GB, since it uses FAT).

(Don't even mention iPlayer. Not only is it BBC only, but it also needs
lots
of bandwidth which I do not have when away.)

Note again: this is NOT for pirate distribution, it is for personal
timeshifting of Freeview programmes only.

Thanks for any pointers,

Chris C

================================================== =
Try VirtualDubMod. It is old, but works OK for Mpeg files to Divx or Xvid.

Here :

http://sourceforge.net/project/showf...group_id=65889


Also dont't forget to install various Codecs. You can find them in packs.
There, Google will help you

Forget "script / batch file / command lines". Any how, video conversion
takes time. To convert 1 Gbyte to a 200 Koct file will take between 15 to 25
minutes depending on your computer.

--
Allen RENY
www.a-reny.com

snip

Note again: this is NOT for pirate distribution, it is for personal
timeshifting of Freeview programmes only.

Thanks for any pointers,

Chris C
Expect I've got the wrong end of the stick completely - but have just
bought a 320gb IOMEGA external hard drive.(£60) We copy everything
onto that from PC (AverTV) - 15mins say, and then we take it with us
watch everything on the Iomega on the remote TV played through the
laptop wherever we are. Also take the films off Humax PVR (.ts files)
to free up space on PVR and again watch them thro' laptop.No
conversions needed.

Don't expect this is an answer - but another option, perhaps?

Chris Croughton wrote:
I don't know if this is the right group to post this, it's the only one I
could find in uk.* which looked at all relevant. If there's a better group,
please point me at it.

I'm looking for software to convert MPEG2 files, received from Freeview with a
Hauppage WinTV USB adaptor, to AVI format with reasonable compression and
quality. This can obviously be done, since there are thousands of TV
programmes out there with file sizes around 450MB per hour rather than the
2GB/hour of MPEG2, but the only software I've seen produces really bad quality
(great big blocks of pixels and/or slow frame rate).

What do other people use for this?

Another requirement -- I need this to be able to be run autmatically from a
script / batch file / command line. I have plenty of CPU power (Intel Core
Duo 3GHz, 2GB RAM) but even with that conversions seem to take several hours.

My reason is that I am away during the week, and want to record stuff, collect
it at weekends when I'm home and then take it to my lodgings and watch it
there. I'm using it for basic timeshifting, not for distribution or archive.
I need the files smaller so that I can fit them on a USB stick (and that has
problems with file sizes over 2GB, since it uses FAT).

(Don't even mention iPlayer. Not only is it BBC only, but it also needs lots
of bandwidth which I do not have when away.)

Note again: this is NOT for pirate distribution, it is for personal
timeshifting of Freeview programmes only.

Thanks for any pointers,

Chris C
This may help, free too
http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html

"Dhropta Guli" a écrit dans le message de
news: ...

This may help, free too
http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html

============================================
Yes I have been trying this one out.
It seems to be fine.
Only one thing : It might be rather difficult for beginners

--
Allen RENY
www.a-reny.com

"Chris Croughton" wrote in message
...
I don't know if this is the right group to post this, it's the only one I
could find in uk.* which looked at all relevant. If there's a better
group,
please point me at it.

I'm looking for software to convert MPEG2 files, received from Freeview
with a
Hauppage WinTV USB adaptor, to AVI format with reasonable compression and
quality. This can obviously be done, since there are thousands of TV
programmes out there with file sizes around 450MB per hour rather than the
2GB/hour of MPEG2, but the only software I've seen produces really bad
quality
(great big blocks of pixels and/or slow frame rate).

Right, since the new Hauppauge WinTV drivers record in Raw mode which is
unusable you will need the following.

GB-PVR to record the material.

DVRMSToolbox to covert .dvr-ms files to .mpg format or you could use GB-PVR
to do it.

GB-PVR will also do batch conversions from .dvr-ms or MPEG-2 to Xvid or DivX
etc. using the Transcode option in Video Library. It can also be set up to
do batch conversions of everything recorded automatically at any time you
like. Beware, since if it crashes or is stopped mid-task by a system failure
you will loose both the original recording and the conversion.

If you want to edit the files yourself use VirtualDub MPEG-2 or install the
MPEG-2 plug-in for VirtualDub 1.8.2 or above.

You also need DivX and Xvid codec's installed and set to the right bit
rates.


What do other people use for this?

Another requirement -- I need this to be able to be run autmatically from
a
script / batch file / command line. I have plenty of CPU power (Intel
Core
Duo 3GHz, 2GB RAM) but even with that conversions seem to take several
hours.

With my 3.2GHz P4 one hour of MPEG-2 will take about 1.5 hours to record in
Xvid at decent quality. The Xvid codec is not capable for using multicore
processors and I don't thing it's 64bit either. Divx can use multithreading
but needs to be set to do that since it's not the default option. Ffdshow is
much faster even with H.264 encoding in VirtualDub. Avidemux 2.4 is the
fastest encoder of all and can be set to use multiple core processors. Make
sure you set the correct audio offset otherwise the audio will not be in
sync since Avidemux ignores the MPEG-2 audio offset embedded in the stream.
Both VirtualDub and Avidemux can be set to do batch processing but you have
to load the files in manually into the joblist.


My reason is that I am away during the week, and want to record stuff,
collect
it at weekends when I'm home and then take it to my lodgings and watch it
there. I'm using it for basic timeshifting, not for distribution or
archive.
I need the files smaller so that I can fit them on a USB stick (and that
has
problems with file sizes over 2GB, since it uses FAT).

Then reformat it in NTFS.


(Don't even mention iPlayer. Not only is it BBC only, but it also needs
lots
of bandwidth which I do not have when away.)

Note again: this is NOT for pirate distribution, it is for personal
timeshifting of Freeview programmes only.

Thanks for any pointers,

Chris C

On 17 Jan 2009 14:37:24 GMT, Chris Croughton
wrote:

I don't know if this is the right group to post this, it's the only one I
could find in uk.* which looked at all relevant. If there's a better group,
please point me at it.

alt.video.dvd.software

I'm looking for software to convert MPEG2 files, received from Freeview with a
Hauppage WinTV USB adaptor, to AVI format with reasonable compression and
quality.

Don't! Leave them in MPEG2, recompressing them if necessary, but only
if absolutely necessary.

What you have to understand is that before broadcasting it the
broadcaster has already over-compressed the programme down to 1 to 3%
of the original content, so any conversion or recompression on top of
that is extremely likely to result in something unwatchable or barely
so. Smaller file sizes that you have seen may have resulted from
lower resolutions rather than from further compression - eg: in the
UK digital SD is broadcast at 720x576, but 352x288 is also legitimate
as source material for authoring onto DVD.

I get *.ts MPEG2 files off the my Dreambox at a little less than
2GB/Hr, and these already show compression artifacts in certain types
of scene. The last thing I would want to do is compress them any more
than the broadcaster has already over-compressed them.

(I wrote this next bit before reading all of your post, so you may
consider this overkill for things that you don't want to keep, but
I'll leave it in for those programmes that you might want to keep, and
for the benefit of others.)

I would advise using an authoring program to write your files direct
to DVD without processing the content (that is, the video content is
repackaged unchanged into the correct packaging for DVD). That's what
I do. There are various such programs, TMPG DVD Author 1.6 is well
thought of, but costs a bit, others may be able to suggest free or
shareware alternatives.

However, be aware that some UK FTA channels broadcast in strange
resolutions that cannot be directly authored to DVD - IIRC Film 4
and More 4 are examples. With these, you have to just keep the files
as they are, or reprocess them using a program like TMPG (note,
different program from TDA, but from same firm) beforehand to get them
into the right format for authoring, and that *will* take a long time,
and the quality will not usually be as good as, say, that from simply
directly authoring a BBC programme, broadcast already in the correct
format.

Another requirement -- I need this to be able to be run autmatically from a
script / batch file / command line. I have plenty of CPU power (Intel Core
Duo 3GHz, 2GB RAM) but even with that conversions seem to take several hours.

The reason for the excessive time is the recompression/conversion.
Files that are already in the correct resolution only need
repackaging, and that takes perhaps 15-30 mins on my PC.

My reason is that I am away during the week, and want to record stuff, collect
it at weekends when I'm home and then take it to my lodgings and watch it
there. I'm using it for basic timeshifting, not for distribution or archive.

....

I need the files smaller so that I can fit them on a USB stick (and that has
problems with file sizes over 2GB, since it uses FAT).

You could chop the files up into smaller parts, say at advert breaks,
using something like Project X, then you'd get both the quality and
smaller files?

Alternatively, get an external HD in a carry case and use NTFS?

And I was going to mention it, but perhaps I shan't bother ...

(Don't even mention iPlayer. Not only is it BBC only, but it also needs lots
of bandwidth which I do not have when away.)

I'm looking for software to convert MPEG2 files, received from
Freeview with a Hauppage WinTV USB adaptor, to AVI format with

Think you might have a transport stream there, I just mencoder with a TS
and it works fine - video stream at 600 and the audio at 601 (decimal).

http://www.mplayerhq.hu - download a compiled version from somewhere like
http://oss.netfarm.it/mplayer-win32.php

As an example for 2 pass video at 800kbps, audio 128kbps

mencoder infile -ovc xvid -xvidencopts pass=1 -oac mp3lame -lameopts
abr:br=128 -o outfile.avi
mencoder infile -ovc xvid -xvidencopts pass=2:bitrate=800 -oac mp3lame
-lameopts abr:br=128 -o outfile.avi

This plays back great on my LG standalone DVD recorder. I also use it to
recode for a Creative Zen - crop to 4:3 and re-size to 320x240 (-vf crop
and scale commands).

SMPlayer http://smplayer.sourceforge.net is a neat front-end to mplayer
for playing back the AVIs on a PC. It has a few things over VLC, one of
which being able to speed up the playback but keeping the audio at the
same pitch, so you can watch stuff quicker than realtime

Great bit of software, used by SUPER amongst others. Thing is, once
you've settled on your output spec, it's only the input that changes, so
a command line or batch file coder works great.

Cheers,
Dave

Chris Croughton wrote:
I don't know if this is the right group to post this, it's the only one I
could find in uk.* which looked at all relevant. If there's a better group,
please point me at it.

I'm looking for software to convert MPEG2 files, received from Freeview with a
Hauppage WinTV USB adaptor, to AVI format with reasonable compression and
quality. This can obviously be done, since there are thousands of TV
programmes out there with file sizes around 450MB per hour rather than the
2GB/hour of MPEG2, but the only software I've seen produces really bad quality
(great big blocks of pixels and/or slow frame rate).

What do other people use for this?

http://www.any-video-converter.com/

Yeah, I know it looks like spamware but it works...

--
Adrian C