Badly captured files

[Sicter]

I've got a badly captured TVrip in mpeg format that I would like to convert to anything else. Now I'll tell you why:

1. The files are are too big: 4 files, 3x600 MB + 1x170 MB for one hour show

2. Unable to seek or jump: the total time (in all players i've tested) is allways 00:00:00 but I can play them without any problems as long as I dont't jump forw/back in which case it goes back to the beginning of the file.

I'm unable to open the files in VirtualDub ( I believe it has something to do with the timeline issue )

Can somebody help me with this? I can't afford the space these files are taking, and I want to be able to seek/jump.

Any help is appreciated.

[Ejoc]

If you captured it as mpeg, and its bad... you're kinda outta luck. Capture it again but dont capture as an mpeg, capture as an avi, then you can edit/filter it and encode it as mpeg.

[Sicter]

Thanx for the reply,
unfotunately it wasn't my capturing, otherwise I woudn't settle with this. I downloaded the files so I'm stuck with what I've got

[Solarjetman]

Well, even if you could open the file, anything you did to lower the filesize most likely would dimish the quality even futhur.

BTW, you have broken forum rules with your posting. Distributing TV captures is illegal and considered warez. Even if distributed for free, it is still agianst the law.

[Sicter]

First of all I don't mind if I lose a little bit on quality, that is not a problem.
Secondly, I didn't distribute anything, I downloaded these files which is not illegal, at least not where I live.
Thirdly, the copyright issue is not a bit relevant in this case becouse it's a home made video and the content is harmless. The owner of the material deliberately put this on the web for anybody to watch.
Thank you for your input but please make sure you know the facts before making accusations.

[Solarjetman]

Well, if its a home video and the author is distributing it thats perfectly fine. But you said it was a TV rip. That implies a TV show. There is no need to get snippy.

What you should try and do is load it into TMPGEnc and see if that will work. Then, although its not very good to do, re-encode it at a lower resolution or bitrate. That is pretty much the only way I can think of to lower the size. However, as I said before, this will lower the quality.

[Sicter]

I agree, maybe 'TVrip' was a bad choice of words, even though technicaly speaking I don't think that implies anything illegal, it's the content that is crusial.
Anyway, thank you for the tip on tmpgenc but unfortunately it didn't work, it just crashed everytime I tried to load the files. Hmm, I'm getting desperate on this one. Any other tool out there that might work? The output format isn't really important to me, and if quality has to suffer then so be it.

[Solarjetman]

Well, I don't have any solid ideas right now as all the repair guides need either Virtual Dub or TMPGEnc. Have you tried repairing the original mpegs with a program like MPEG Corrector? Then maybe TMPGEnc would take the repaired version. But that would only work if the video is mpeg1, not mpeg2.

Another idea I have is not a very prefered method. I assume that Windows Media Player can display the videos. If so, maybe Windows Movie Maker can input them. You could then output the movie as an avi file, and then reencode it with TMPGEnc. That would take a big quality hit though.

[flaninacupboard]

you say you can't open in Vdub, have you tried Vdub mod?
If the downloaded files were .mpgs, load them into the demultiplexer in TMPGenc and try and demus to just the video file, and try and open it on it's own.

[Sicter]

Thanx guys, I'll have a look at these methods a bit later and keep you posted...have to get some sleep now, it's almost 5 am here

[Sicter]

Hi, I'm back and very happy that VirtualDobMod managed to handle these files. flaninacupboard thanx for the tip . It turns out that the files are in mpeg-2 format.
This is what 'File information dialog' says for one of those 600MB files mentioned before:



Now, what do you guys think would be the best solution to downsize these files? I'm aware of that certain Mpeg-4 formats aren't supposed to be discussed here but if you think that is the way to go I guess you can p-mess me.
I appreciate your help so far and would be very grateful for any futher suggestions.

[Sicter]

Hmm.. No one??
Please ppl I really need to downsize these files.

[FOO]

Looks like you have SVCDs

. The files are are too big: 4 files, 3x600 MB + 1x170 MB for one hour show

Too big for what ? The Vdub display says 32 minutes
that's probably one 600 mb file. Reasonable.

That means all of them add up to nearly 2 hours

Trust me. Give up