windows 7 WTV vs TS r MKV

[adom]

I 've finally installed plug in for WMC (windows media center) that lets me record TV using HD PVR (haupauge).
But it saves as WTV. I checked on the net and found on wiki some informations about it (but that was a liitle bit complicated to me).

So my question:
is it more or less the same as TS, or MKV?
are there any disadvantages in usung this container? (I have videoRedo so I can edit it)

One more question:
how to set bitrate in WMC (like in arcSoft when recording with hd pvr)

Thanks

[usually_quiet]

The wtv container can store metadata pertaining to the recording (cast, synopsis, original air date, etc.) , which comes from MS's program guide data. Having the metadata available in addition to video, audio, and subtitles/closed captions might count as an advantage for some users.

.wtv files are not playable by third party software, and can't easily be edited with freeware, so many people convert them to a more standard container if they need to do those things. Since I sometimes save recordings to DVD so I can watch them later with friends or family, I do convert and edit at times.

I find MC-TV Converter works well for converting recordings made by my TV tuner card using an ATSC source. I think it will work with h.264 in a .wtv container as well. If not, it may be possible to use GraphStudio to convert. There can be DRM for protected content which would prevent conversion, but that should not be present in recordings made using an HD-PVR.

[Chris K]

I find MC-TV Converter works well for converting recordings made by my TV tuner card using an ATSC source. I think it will work with h.264 in a .wtv container as well. If not, it may be possible to use GraphStudio to convert. There can be DRM for protected content which would prevent conversion, but that should not be present in recordings made using an HD-PVR.

Recent FFmpeg builds have a wtv demuxer. I tried it with some example clips I have.

Input #0, wtv, from 'F:/BBC News.wtv':
  Duration: 00:00:07.68, start: 18.087612, bitrate: 6819 kb/s
    Stream #0.0[0x26](eng): Subtitle: dvbsub
    Stream #0.1[0x27](eng): Audio: mp2, 48000 Hz, 2 channels, s16, 256 kb/s
    Stream #0.2[0x28]: Video: mpeg2video, yuv420p, 720x576 [PAR 64:45 DAR 16:9],
      15000 kb/s, 25 fps, 25 tbr, 10000k tbn, 50 tbc

I used this with success to remux to mpg container...

ffmpeg.exe -i "F:/BBC News.wtv" -vcodec copy -f vob -acodec copy -y "output.mpg"

I used the SVN-r26400 autobuild. In current FFmpeg builds the demuxer seems to be broken.
I don't know if it supports other codecs than mpeg2 and mp2 audio.

[adom]

Thx for the info - now at least I know what I've been dealing with.

But anyway I think I'll come back to arcSoft since there is no way to switch off program buffering in WMC (i tried to zero all registry entries responssible for it but it doesn't work) - pvr is recording all the time and that slows down everything.