Trouble encoding specific rate WMV for a personal media play

[fatgit]

I just got a Mustek PVR-H140 media player. This plays asf video, but only a certain type.

It has conversion software supplied, buy my god it's slow - 18 hours for a 70minute conversion from mpeg2.

I can get Windows Media Encoder to encode the same file in 45minutes, and the video is fine, but there's no sound.

Checking the info on a file converted using the supplied software, it reports :

Video Codec: Windows Media Video
Framerate: 30.30 frame/s
Bitrate: 759615 bps
Width x Height: 320x240

Audio Codec: Windows Media Audio
Bitrate: 96656 bps
Frequency: 24000 Hz
Channels: mono

Now, WME doesn't have that bitrate at that frequency, and neither do any of the tools I've tried.

Can anyone recommend a method of doing this - I dont mind demultiplex & multiplexing in a new stream if thats possible, but I haven't found a way to get the correct WMA format, or multiplexing wmv for that matter

Any help is greatly appreciated

I can record directly onto the device via video in, but it's not the most convenient way :/

[Jefft]

I have a Mustek PVR H140 and I have not been able to encode any files other than a couple of small video clips. The software just stops responding after a couple of minutes. I am sure I have seen somewhere on the internet a fix to enable it to work under XP SP2 but have been unable to find it again.

At the moment I would be happy to be able to encode compatible files at all even taking 18 hours.

I have done a fairly exhaustive search for an alternative encoder but have not been able to find one that produces the required type of ASF file (mpeg4 V1 video codec and ADPCM audio codec).

So far hours of hassle and no help todate from Mustek technical support.

Fatgit what operating system and version of Windows Media encoder are you using?

Jeff

[fatgit]

I'm using XP SP2, and I have WME 7.1 and 9 installed.

I originally had the problem where it failed to encode, so I uninstalled a codec pack I had inatalled, and then reinstalled WME 7.1 and 9 and it worked.

WME will do the videono problem, but not the audio - but I haven't given up yet.

[fatgit]

Take a look in the temp dir that the converter uses when converting. The converter will demux the audio streams, then hang on converting the video stream

If you copy these audio streams to another folder, then encode the video in WME 9, you get an audio track and a video track that are compatible.

The problem now is how to remux them without any further conversion.

[fatgit]

I found that if I convert to mpeg1 (VCD format), the converter will work not much slower than realtime.

I encoded a 90min movie in 2 hours lastnight, although I used 640*480 and the PVR playback is jerky, so Im going to play about a bit more.

I can convert into VCD pretty quickly using NeoDVD, so maybe all is not lost.

[Jefft]

I followed a similar route to you. Originally WM encoder 7.1 would not install so I uninstalled WME9 then redownloaded WME7.1 which then installed?? Finally reinstalled WME9. It now encodes.

I am currently encoding a 2 hour Divx file which appears to be taking around 14 hours.

Will continue to investigate. Please feed back any other info you discover.

Jeff

[Jefft]

Finally given up on this very flawed product and asked Microdirect for an RMA number.

Connection problem solved by updating the USB drivers in Windows XP (as suggested by Mustek tech support) strangely the PC that would connect and the one that wouldn’t were both using the same previous version of the driver??

Never did get the supplied file conversion software working correctly. I thought I had sorted the problem by uninstalling Windows Media Encoder 9.0 installing WME 7.1 and then reinstalling WME 9.0. This appeared to work but after encoding for around 10 hours for a 2 hour film just reverted to the start screen without any message ‘error’ or otherwise and no ASF file to be found.

The final straw was the discovery that after playing video for around 5 minutes the sound goes out of sync with the picture. This can be reset for another 5 minutes by hitting pause then play. Very convenient, only 18 times per film.

The Video in/out socket is faulty (intermittent connection).

Wasted hours on this when all I really wanted was to take it out of the box and use it. Not an unreasonable expectation.

Jeff

[fatgit]

Well, I got the conversiopn time down to just over realtime.

Source converted to mpeg1 via TMPGenc, then convert that using the supplied software.

It's not perfect, but at least I can batch convert to mpeg1

That said, the final results are often unwatchable, with freezing picture, and out of sync sound.

I also have a couple more issues, which may result in me returning it - it's suddenly started turning itself on at random - it turned itself on 5 times from about 4am lastnight, and even though I have startup sound turned off, it still played it :/

The other problem is that if I rename a file using hte PVR, it totally locks up :/

Whilst in theory this is a nice piece of kit, the software both bundles, and on the PVR, leaves a lot to be desired.

One thing I'm going to do before I email them for a return, is to get a friend of mine to take a look to see if there's a possibility of getting linux running on it - now that would rock

[Jefft]

fatgit

Don't torment yourself.
Send it back it's crap.

Jeff