recording 1080i from dvb-t usb tuner - best practices

[codemaster]

I want to record a football game from 1080i HDTV and transcode the video to 720p so that it can play on an old computer that cannot handle 1080i realtime playback and decoding.

I'm using an USB DVB-T tuner from ASUS, but I don't use the software provided by ASUS, wich is ArcSoft TotalMedia. I use only the driver from ASUS. Instead of TotalMedia, I use DVBViewer + ffdshow. I will not make the recording on the older pc. I'm connecting the usb dvb-t tuner to a newer pc, but I will disable the video and sound while recording, so it won't take up almost all of the pc's resources while decoding, so that I can do other things on the pc.

The questions I have are:

1. Is DVBViewer a good program for recording streams from usb dvb-t tuners ?

2. Is DVB Dream better for recording, than DVBViewer ?

3. What software would you recommend for recording from usb dvb-t tuners ?

4. There are two output formats to select in DVBViewer and DVB Dream. One called "Video/Audio TS (*.ts)", and the other is "Video/Audio PS (*.mpg)". When should I use TS, and when should I choose PS instead of TS ? Is TS only for AVC streams, and PS only for MPEG2 streams ? Can TS be used for both AVC and MPEG2 streams ? Is it easier to work with TS than with PS ?

5. How can I prevent audio/video delay in the transcoded video, muxed with the original/untouched audio ? Should I do what it says in the sticky topic "Fix/repair DVB, DigitalTV sync problems" with every .TS file, before transcoding it ?

6. Other than audio/video delay, what other problems can a TS have ? Should I open every .TS file in ProjectX and fix not only sync problems, but also other problems that may possibly occur in the transcoding process ?

7. Is there something else that I should know before strarting to record and transcode, so that I'll avoid possible mistakes ?

[Baldrick]

1. Yes. It's one of the best. Go to http://www.dvbviewer.tv/forum/forum/1-general/ and read if you get problems.

4. For avc/h264 streams use ts.

Start test recording and see how it works!