Questions on Hauppauge HD PVR recordings to DVD/Blu-Ray

[Quaker2001]

Bought myself an HD PVR last week so that I can finally start recording in HD. Love it so far.. have had almost no problems capturing, but now am having some troubles getting my recordings to DVD. Any help or advice here would be greatly appreciated...

Most of the recording I do is sports events. Is there a preference towards using constant or variable bit rate to make the best recordings? Or between 720p and 1080i? In short, is there a way to calculate how much disk space a file will take up based on length, format, and encoded bit rate? My recordings have been very inconsistent with regard to file size thus making it tough to back them up to DVD if I can't predict the length on the first shot.

I've burned a couple of DVDs using the TME software that comes with the unit, but so far I've yet to get any DVDs to work in another Blu-Ray player, including the 1 included on my computer. The discs play fine in TME playback, but not so much anywhere else. Does it make a difference using DVD-R or DVD+R when burning AVCHD discs or is there something else I may not be doing right?

And also.. my computer's Blu-Ray drive is BD-RE so I've thought about doing some recordings to Blu-Ray. If I have, say, an 18 GB file, can I burn that straight to Blu-Ray (as opposed to multiple DVDs), and do I need another software program to do that?

Thanks!

David

[SHS]

Yes you need another software program to do that with Bluray Disc or an option see link
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=17575781#post17575781

[fritzi93]

You'll get varying opinions on capture settings, no doubt.

I capture at 720p, CBR. IMO, the source quality (HD cable) doesn't justify 1080i, from what I see, and of course a lot of content is 720p anyway, so that's how I've set the cablebox output. If you look closely, from time to time you'll see unmistakable signs of bitrate starvation. I have ComCast, but I'm sure they're not the only guilty party. As to CBR vs. VBR, with CBR it is easy to predict file size, all you need is runtime and a bitrate calculater. Even taking adverts into account, assuming you plan on editing them out with something like tsSniper, you can subtract their approximate runtime as well when figuring bitrate. With CBR at 720p, you can get, oh, at least 3 hrs content on a BD5 at "acceptable" quality.

Not all Blu-Ray players will play AVCHD or BD5/9. Post the model of your player and someone here will probably be able to tell you what it will play. As to DVD+/-R, supposedly a few players (Samsung mostly) are finicky about +R, so you might as well use -R. I can tell you that AVCHDs I've made with TME *DO* work on my players, so TME is probably blameless for your problems. Word to the wise: burn with ImgBurn only.

You can mux to Blu-Ray or AVCHD with multiAVCHD or tsMuxer. Again, burn with ImgBurn only. If you burn to BD25, your chances are much better that it will play on essentially any player out there, as opposed to burning to DVD, generally known as BD5/9 or AVCHD. Good luck.