Transport stream skipping

[boosted]

Hello all,
I have some .ts captures of tv episodes that were divided up into chunks of 144MB that makes up a total of 4.3GB. If I play the files individually in VLC media player, they are perfectly fine. But if I join them together into 1 single file using HDTVtoMPEG2_1.10.6, the playback gets skippy. My machine is a P4 2.4 with ATI 9600pro, cpu utilization during playback doesn't go beyond 40%. I tried joining the file to 1GB and 2GB segments, it does not make any difference. I tried scanning for null packets, there were none, and the file does not appear to be damaged. The weird thing is, some .ts capture do not skip even when they're one big 4.3GB file, but some will. And those that do skip, plays perfectly file if I chop it into small segments. (100MB) Any one have any idea? Is there something I'm doing wrong?
Also, so far VLC media player is the only program I know that will playback transport stream file. Is there another player that can?

-boosted

[Soopafresh]

I get the same thing. My machine is similar in speed to yours. It is less processor intensive playing smaller transport stream files, hence the skipping when you play a single "combined" large file. I'll bet if you try the file on a faster proc >3Ghz your playback would be fine.

[bugster]

Just a guess, but it could also be a problem with Hard drive read speed. Reading one large file requires a higher sustained data transfer rate than multiple small files. Try defragmenting your HD to see if this helps. Or if possible put the mpeg file on one HD with the media player and the OS on a different physical HD.

[boosted]

Thanks for the reply. I had suspected it might be a HD problem, so I tried it on several different HDs. Besides, the ones that doesn't skip is on the same drive. (Seagate 300GB 8MB cache, it should be plenty fast) At this point, I don't have the option to upgrade the system, so a 3ghz+ system would be out of the question. If I need a systemt that fast, how can some files play back just fine? any other suggesions?

[Soopafresh]

You can try a commercial Mpeg2 playback codec, such as Moonlight Elecard or Nvdia's Mpeg2 codec. Both have 30 day evals.

[DeadLamb]

Also, so far VLC media player is the only program I know that will playback transport stream file. Is there another player that can?

newest version of Power DVD, as in power DVD 6 can play TS files also.. I had it for a while but I tend to watch HD files after I have ran them past hdtv2mpg2 and they are no long TS files anyways and Power DVD 5 will let me play them at x2 speed.. Where as power DVD 6 would not, at least not as clean.. Not an issues unless you too wanted to watch some show at x2 speed just to speed up the slow parts.

As for the skipping on play back I'm sure it's just some sort of HD issue.. I have a 160 gig dive I use for nothing else but HDtv recording.. Most of the time I have zero skipping but as the drive gets some files it can start to just a little bit.. This is with a 3.2 so it's not the cpu speed as much as it is the HD..

I think a person just needs to defrag a HD recording drive way more then normal drives.. With all the writing of just HUGE files that HD .ts files make up I've seen my drive go from 2% fragment to 24% in one night..

yeah just looked right now.. yep, 24.138% fragmented with 77+ gigs free.. recording about 8 gigs an hour just beats the drives up I guess. I just try to run a good defrag program on the drive all the time. If you get one like say O&O Defrag V6 it's pretty quick or any other defrag program that lets one pick different or low impact defrag methods.. Low impact being the key being some defrag programs are just sooooo slow I can't stand running them even when I know I should.

[boosted]

I tried the free mpeg2 codec http://www.free-codecs.com/download/Stinky_MPEG_2_Codec.htm it plays ts files converted to mpeg using HDTVtoMPEG2 in BSPLAYER. But I couldn't skip around. As for PowerDVD, I only have version 5, and it wouldn't play the converted mpeg2 files, even after I installed the codec. I guess it uses its own. I'll try getting the HD defragmented, but I really hate doing that. Not because it takes time, but it has always made my system less stable afterwards. I feel as if there were errors while moving the files around.

Any other free mpeg2 codecs around?

[Soopafresh]

http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/deinterlace/DScaler5006.exe?download

[boosted]

Thanks for the link Soopafresh. It sort of worked. I had the moonlinght decoder installed when I installed the Dscaler codec. It was using Dscaler's MPEG2 decoder but using moonlght's demultiplexer. After uninstalling moonlight, all I got was a black screen. Help?

[Soopafresh]

The only way I could get a semi smooth playback of HD MPEG files was with the Moonlight product. An important part is to ensure the kind of de-interlacing you're doing is compatible with the Mpeg file specs. Right click on the screen as you're playing the file and you'll be able to tweak the Moonlight decoder deinterlace settings.

I empathize with your situation. I finally plunked down the $20 for the Moonlight decoder because it worked and I was sick and tired of trying to make the free products function on my limited hardware.

The other option is the Nvidia Mpeg Decoder, which costs the same, and might work even better if you have a 6000 series or higher video card.

Ultimately, the best fix for the both of us would be to upgrade our hardware to P4 3.2 or Athlon 64 3200. Problem solved.

[boosted]

soopafresh, I appreciate your continued assistance. I might plunk down for the decoder too. I just can't find a good free mpeg2 decoder. It's weird how VLC will play the raw TS file (where every other player fails) but not the mpeg2. thanks.