VideoHelp Forum
+ Reply to Thread
Results 1 to 21 of 21
Thread
  1. Member
    Join Date
    Mar 2014
    Location
    United States
    Search Comp PM
    I have to deliver these MPEG-2 specs before Monday, March 31st... (My no-budget feature got a pay-per-view cable deal.)
    I understand how to output all the specs but the last 3. (Stream Type, Stream ID, PID)

    QUESTION: What software can I use to specify the Stream Type, Stream ID, and PID ? I've been looking at telestream episode, which looks like it would work (but it's $1194.00)

    Anyone who can help will be a Superhero!

    fyi, I'm on Mac Book Pro, also running Windows 8.1 in a Parallels virtual PC, so I can run some PC software. I have Squeeze 9, Adobe Media Encoder, Compressor.

    SPECS:
    Standard Definition VOD Encoding Specification (VOD Ready):
    · MPEG-2, Main level, main profile
    · 4:3 (16x9 letterboxed to 4:3 may be used but not preferred)
    · 4:2:0 chroma subsampling
    · Frame rate of 29.97fps
    · Black Level at 0 IRE
    · 3 seconds of black at start of clip and 3 second of black at the end of clip
    · Video data rate of no greater than 3.18Mbps
    · Stream Type 0x02
    · Stream ID 0xe0
    · PID 0x1e1 (481)
    Quote Quote  
  2. Member
    Join Date
    Aug 2013
    Location
    Central Germany
    Search PM
    I believe that the stream ID and PID will be attributes of an MPEG-2 video stream only if it is multiplexed into a Transport Stream container (probably for broadcasting purposes). So you will have to check your TS muxing application how to specify them.
    Last edited by LigH.de; 28th Mar 2014 at 11:42.
    Quote Quote  
  3. Member
    Join Date
    Mar 2014
    Location
    United States
    Search Comp PM
    Thanks! Yes, it is for broadcast. Can you recommend a TS muxing application?
    Quote Quote  
  4. Banned
    Join Date
    Oct 2004
    Location
    Freedonia
    Search Comp PM
    TSmuxerGUI

    but damn - that video bit rate is REALLY low. Your movie is going to look like crap unless you have an absolutely pristine source and you used a really good encoder.
    Quote Quote  
  5. Stream Type 0x02 just means MPEG2 video .

    Stream ID 0xe0 is the ID number for the transport stream, in hexadecimal. The decimal translation would be "224"
    PID 0x1e1 (481) is the PID for the 1st video stream (same thing, 0x1e1 in hex is 481 in decimal)

    A free way to specify those is with ffmpeg. But usually there are more specs/requirements in the spec sheet. For example, sometimes they need CBR muxing, null packets. ffmpeg can sometimes produce transport streams that are non compliant. If you want it perfect you should really look at retail $ options

    I don't think tsmuxer allows you to specify stream IDs and PIDs, but there are some newer beta versions that might (I haven't really used the newer versions, it might be worth checking out)

    Code:
    ffmpeg -i input.mpg -c:v copy -c:a copy -mpegts_start_pid 481 -mpegts_transport_stream_id 0xe0 -f mpegts output.ts
    You can verify with various tools e.g mediainfo (view=>text) , or ts packet analyzers to determine that the stream id, and video PID are indeed correct

    eg
    It should something like this look like this
    General
    ID : 224 (0xE0)
    .
    .
    .
    Video
    ID : 481 (0x1E1)
    .
    .
    Last edited by poisondeathray; 28th Mar 2014 at 11:55.
    Quote Quote  
  6. Member
    Join Date
    Aug 2013
    Location
    Central Germany
    Search PM
    Due to the low bitrate limit, it may be for DVB-T, so you will possibly consider a reduced width (less than 720 pixels per line). I am not sure which resolutions are allowed for DVB in NTSC; I have seen PAL broadcasts in e.g. 544x576.
    Quote Quote  
  7. Member
    Join Date
    Mar 2014
    Location
    United States
    Search Comp PM
    Any suggestions for great encoding software?
    The bit rate seemed low to me too. But this company shows pay-per-view VOD on Cox and Charter, Verizon, etc...
    Quote Quote  
  8. Member
    Join Date
    Mar 2014
    Location
    United States
    Search Comp PM
    720x40 is the frame size they want. It's NTSC and SD, not HD (as you can tell by the specs)
    Quote Quote  
  9. Originally Posted by brightbluegorilla View Post
    Any suggestions for great encoding software?
    Unfortunately it's going to look like mush at that bitrate with ANY MPEG2 encoder. Unless there is very little motion/action in your feature (e.g. interview type "talking heads"), or it's a simple cartoon

    At those low bitrates, I prefer HCEnc. Adobe, Squeeze are based on Mainconcept's MPEG2 engine which doesn't perform well at low bitrates. I don't have much experience with compressor's MPEG2 encoding

    And consider other strategies to optimize before encoding such as mild temporal denoising, which will improve compression
    Quote Quote  
  10. Member
    Join Date
    Aug 2013
    Location
    Central Germany
    Search PM
    HCEnc is recommendable, best quality for free, but more or less requires YV12 video input via AviSynth.

    TMPGEnc MPEG Encoder, CinemaCraft Encoder and Canopus ProCoder belong to the commercial encoders with long tradition and good renown.
    Quote Quote  
  11. I 've used TMPGEnc, CCE and Procoder as well - they don't perform well at those bitrates either (really no MPEG2 encoder does for 720x480). I would still give the slight edge to HCEnc at that low bitrate range. CCE is fantastic for progressive encodes, great for retaining detail & grain at moderate to high bitrates but it's going to perform terribly here without severe lowpassing
    Quote Quote  
  12. Member
    Join Date
    Mar 2014
    Location
    United States
    Search Comp PM
    All your help has been fantastic. Thanks so much!
    Quote Quote  
  13. Member Cornucopia's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2001
    Location
    Deep in the Heart of Texas
    Search PM
    Compressor is much worse than Mainconcept. Yeah, I'd use HCEnc as well. And I'd do some preprocessing, such as dropping the color bitdepth a bit (slight posterizing), selective blurring/median.
    Depending upon what your material is like, you could do other (more radical) things, too. Like dropping the # of frames while keeping the framerate the same (IOW, dropping alternate frames, then duplicating remaining frames), which would make things more "stuttering", but uses much more B & P frame efficiency (because of the duplication), so compresses much better. Or doing a similar thing spatially.

    Basically, anywhere that you can squeeze out more similarity in your souce frames, whether spatial or temporal, will improve the bitrate allocation (and hence the quality) of the remaining signal. But it is MUCH better if you do the deciding and processing than to just let the encoding app give its best guess at the original.

    Similar things can and SHOULD be done with the audio. What is the BR requirement for the Audio stream? Or is that for the combined streams?

    Scott
    Quote Quote  
  14. Member
    Join Date
    Aug 2013
    Location
    Central Germany
    Search PM
    In case of despair, even alternate DCT matrices... And check if 8 or 9 bit DC precision looks better (8 bit may already have severe banding).
    Quote Quote  
  15. Manzanita is quite OK in terms of muxing quality, you can try Opencaster, go also for OBE VODand ask Kieran about MPEG-2 encode - perhaps He can prepare special build for you or at least help with creating TS stream

    btw

    Sometimes better than HCEnc (for some special cases) is QuEnc (read comment on Videohelp about ver 0.75 - part of AVStoDVD pack).
    Last edited by pandy; 28th Mar 2014 at 14:23.
    Quote Quote  
  16. Member Cornucopia's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2001
    Location
    Deep in the Heart of Texas
    Search PM
    After encoding, I think you should just try out TSMuxer generically (without trying to specify the PID, etc) and see what it gets you. You never know, it might just give you the PID you are looking for by default.

    Scott
    Quote Quote  
  17. Member
    Join Date
    Mar 2014
    Location
    United States
    Search Comp PM
    Can you walk me through the encoding process?
    Source file: ProRes (HQ) 1920x1080 23.98fps
    What would you suggest I encode with before trying out TSMuxer ?
    Quote Quote  
  18. I played with tsmuxer , it gives the wrong PID's , stream ID's and I see no way of altering them

    Hold up...you have other decisions to make before you actually encode...



    And I feel for you... On one hand it's great that you get a VOD deal, more exposure as a content producer. But on the other hand they handcuff you to these crappy SD specs. I doubt this is the way you as a filmmaker envisioned it to be viewed by the audience.

    · 4:3 (16x9 letterboxed to 4:3 may be used but not preferred)
    Did you frame this feature with a 4:3 crop in mind? (ie. can you crop 1920x1080 to 1440x1080 without losing vital information) ?

    Otherwise you have to do the "not preferred" 16x9 letterboxed , encoded 4:3
    Quote Quote  
  19. Member
    Join Date
    Mar 2014
    Location
    United States
    Search Comp PM
    Hallelujah! I spoke with the broadcast reps. They said, just get as good image as you can somewhere close to the specs. We'll deal with PID etc on our end. BUT I want to sincerely thank all of you great experts here on the forum! I know where I'm going for answers from now on!
    Quote Quote  
  20. Member Cornucopia's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2001
    Location
    Deep in the Heart of Texas
    Search PM
    IIWY, I'd submit a real good, (somewhat) higher bitrate copy of your program, and then request that you get to see (and sign off on) their transcoded copy. That way, you can decide if you can live with the choices they will be making for you. I would think, as content creator, that would still be within your rights (and it would be less of a chance of them pulling a fast one on you).

    Scott
    Quote Quote  
  21. Member
    Join Date
    Mar 2014
    Location
    United States
    Search Comp PM
    Good idea!
    Quote Quote  



Similar Threads

Visit our sponsor! Try DVDFab and backup Blu-rays!