Video Recording, Editing and Production

[muusicman]

Forgive me if I’ve posted this question in the wrong area of this site.

I have some questions… first, I hope there is someone or a lot of someone’s who know about Video Production on here.

I have a custom built desktop PC by Origin PC. I ordered it in 2014. When I record something on occasion the video freezes so I’ve begun to check out what might be the issue. Perhaps it’s the video card or just the over all age of the PC and all the parts in it. The only things I’ve upgraded on it are the Hard Drive and I maxed out the amount of RAM it can handle. I have pictures I scanned which give exact detail of what the PC has in it. I can post those pics in the reply if needed. I’m trying to decide if I could just put a newer and better Graphics Card in it or if more may be necessary. I don’t have a ton of money so buying a new PC is not the road I’d like to go down if it can be avoided. I use my PC a bit like a DVR. I have a capture device connected to my TV. when I record something on the DVR i then play it from the DVR and with help of the capture device I record the DVR recording into my PC. Then I use a video editing program to remove all the commercials. Finally I produce the video without the commercials and then I put that file on an external hard drive for safe keeping or if I want to plug the hard drive into the TV and watch the video.


Hopefully I’ve not confused you all or bored you.

Just looking for some advice 😀😀😀

[themaster1]

Record on a sata drive (other than the operating system) and you should be fine.
Try to optimize it for video (google cluster size (16 K is fine)

[Subtitles]

Forgive me if I’ve posted this question in the wrong area of this site.

I have some questions… first, I hope there is someone or a lot of someone’s who know about Video Production on here.

I have a custom built desktop PC by Origin PC. I ordered it in 2014. When I record something on occasion the video freezes so I’ve begun to check out what might be the issue. Perhaps it’s the video card or just the over all age of the PC and all the parts in it. The only things I’ve upgraded on it are the Hard Drive and I maxed out the amount of RAM it can handle. I have pictures I scanned which give exact detail of what the PC has in it. I can post those pics in the reply if needed. I’m trying to decide if I could just put a newer and better Graphics Card in it or if more may be necessary. I don’t have a ton of money so buying a new PC is not the road I’d like to go down if it can be avoided. I use my PC a bit like a DVR. I have a capture device connected to my TV. when I record something on the DVR i then play it from the DVR and with help of the capture device I record the DVR recording into my PC. Then I use a video editing program to remove all the commercials. Finally I produce the video without the commercials and then I put that file on an external hard drive for safe keeping or if I want to plug the hard drive into the TV and watch the video.


Hopefully I’ve not confused you all or bored you.

Just looking for some advice 😀😀😀

It would help if you can give us more details about your PC. What is the operation system, the hard drive disk details, the motherboard, memory, etc.
You can you use an excellent free software called BelArc Advisor. It will tell you everything about your computer hardware and software.
But as a first step since you don't want to pay a lot of money, I would strongly advise to replace the HDD with SSD it will make the computer run a lot better.
You can clone the HDD using free software called Macrium Reflect. Make sure you use clone option and not image option. This way you will not have to install anything just replace the HDD with the SSD.

[muusicman]

Thank you for the fantastic replies! I cannot seem to upload a photo here. I’m using a cell phone and that may be why versus a computer. I will just copy and paste everything from the data sheets that I have from my computer to here.


This is currently all of the stuff that my PC has in it at the moment.


Page 1

ORIGIN Custom Configuration
ORIGIN PC DESKTOP GENESIS X79
ORIGIN PO Case REd
ORIGIN PC Lower Unit Red
Varable Mounting
Remote controlled Multi-Colored LED
ORIGIN EXT
REME
GIGABYTE GA-X79-UP4
ORIGIN FROSTBYTE 360 Sealed Li
Intel Extreme Core 17 4960% He
CPU Overclock High--4 0GHz-4. 7GHz
Corsair RM1000 Bulk Packaging
Red Individually SleevedCables
2GB NVIDIA GTX 750Ti
GPU Overclock
4GB Origin PC Powered by Kingston 2133Mhz
Windows 7 Recovery Media
Windows 7 Home Premium COA
2TB WD Caviar Black SATA 6Gb/s
5 Bay Hot swap Cage
16% Blu-ray Burner
Cryogenic Cooling support
40-in-1 Media Card Reader
On Board Audio
Onboard Network Port
1 Year Part Rep and 45 Day Shipping and Lifet Sup
ORIGIN Recovery USB Drive 3.0
No part upgrade service
Chrome Browser
UPS Shipping and Handling-UPS Ground


Page 2

Chasis - Genesis
Lights - Multi LED
Paint - Red
Power Supply - Corsair RM1000
CPU Cooling - Frostbyte 360
Motherboard - GA-X79-UP4
Processor - Intel i7 4960X
Overclock
Memory Speed - 16 G @ 2133 MHz (I think that’s what it says, it’s hand written and the hand writing is a bit illegible)
Memory Size - 4X4 Gb Origin PC (again, either VS or KS)
GFX Cooling
GFX1 - GTX 750 Ti
GFX2 -
GFX3 -
GFX4 -
Audio
NIC
Wireless*
TV Tuner*
Media Reader* 40 - in 1
Fan Controller
HDD 2 TB Caviar Black
HDD2
HDD3
HDD4
HDD5
HDD6
ODD1 16X Blu ray Burner
ODD2
OS Win 7 Home (I have Windows 10 Now)
Warranty 1 yr Part + 45 Day Ship


The rest just says tests I guess that they performed on it before they sent it to me. I sure hope I’ve provided adequate details. If you need any more information, please reply to this.

[Subtitles]

Thanks for giving the details about your computer. It is actually an impressive build considering the year it was purchased.
So the PC was built in 2014 and you didn't have any freezing issues all those years until recently?

1 - I noticed that the memory is 4GB (4GB Origin PC Powered by Kingston 2133Mhz). Is this still the case or you have put in more RAM?
If it is still 4GB then please consider upgrading to at least 16GB.

2 - The GPU has only 2GB I think it might be worth upgrading it to 8GB.

3 - As I mentioned before, changing the HDD to SSD would improve the overall performance of the PC. You have 2TB HDD and a WD SSD 2TB from Amazon costs $110
Edit: Also your HDD has been working for 9 years unless you changed it in the meantime, and you would start recording to SSD which is much better.
If the internal HDD is what is causing the freezing, can you record to the external hard disk that you mentined and see if the freezing stops?

4 - The spec mentions a tuner card. Can you please give more details about it?

5 - Also you mentioned a capture card connected to the TV. Can you please give more details about it?

Of course my recommendations might not solve the issue that you have with the freezing as it could be a simple thing like changing the HDMI cable for example or a problem with the monitor and I don't want to feel bad about you spending money if this doesn't help in the end.

[Subtitles]

One more question if I may:
The capture device connected to your TV presumably has a hard disk inside. Wouldn't be a lot simpler to copy the recorded files on it into the PC instead of recording again?
Also if it has a network connector like RJ45, then you can connect your PC to this device via the homenetwork without disconnecting it from the TV, using FTP software such as FileZilla for example.
This is what I do with my satellite system. Record programms using my sateelite receiver PVR and connect to it to my PC using FileZilla, then download the files to my PC.
Perhaps buying a PVR box with network capability would be the cheapest and best solution instead of upgrading the PC.
Please let me know more about this device that is connected to your TV.

[muusicman]

One more question if I may:
The capture device connected to your TV presumably has a hard disk inside. Wouldn't be a lot simpler to copy the recorded files on it into the PC instead of recording again?
Also if it has a network connector like RJ45, then you can connect your PC to this device via the homenetwork without disconnecting it from the TV, using FTP software such as FileZilla for example.
This is what I do with my satellite system. Record programms using my sateelite receiver PVR and connect to it to my PC using FileZilla, then download the files to my PC.
Perhaps buying a PVR box with network capability would be the cheapest and best solution instead of upgrading the PC.
Please let me know more about this device that is connected to your TV.

Ok wait. That’s a lot. First question for you. You said why not just just move the files from the source to the computer? I can do that?? I don’t have to record them from the DVR into the PC first?? That May change EVERYTHING!!!!

[Subtitles]

It all depends on the device that is connected to your PC. This is why I asked for more information about it.
And if it the same since 2014, then perhaps buying a new one with more features would be the cheapest and better solution without wasting time recording again.

[muusicman]

It all depends on the device that is connected to your PC. This is why I asked for more information about it.
And if it the same since 2014, then perhaps buying a new one with more features would be the cheapest and better solution without wasting time recording again.

What was it again you wanted to know about it? I’ll do my best to find the answers for you.

[Subtitles]

Any details about it, the maker, model, how is it connected to the TV to record and what kind of hard disk it has for recording.
Also what kind of TV do you have? Is it cable, satellite or what?
Perhaps few photos will help. Thank you.

[muusicman]

Any details about it, the maker, model, how is it connected to the TV to record and what kind of hard disk it has for recording.
Also what kind of TV do you have? Is it cable, satellite or what?
Perhaps few photos will help. Thank you.

Hmm ok well… it’s a DirecTV Satellite Receiver.

I believe this is what the back looks like.
https://forums.directv.com/conversations/directv-equipment/hr54500-without-esata-drive...08a4122a4749bb

[Subtitles]

Great. So you have the DirectTV satellite Genie receiver.
I am not familiar with American satellite systems but I went today into the DirectTV website and noticed that they have a new receiver called Gemini which is good for satellite and also for streaming.
So first of all, would it make sense to ask DirectTv to send you the new receiver (presumably or hopefully at no cost) instead of the one that you have now?
Since your current receiver has an Ethernet RJ45 connector at the back, have you connected it to a LAN cable that connects to the router?
This way you would be able to connect your PC to the satellite receiver and hopefully have access to the hard disk and the recordings on it.
You will need to write down the receiver IP in order to connect FileZilla FTP client to your receiver.
BTW does DirectTV encrypt the recordings so that it can only play using the receiver?
If they do then this method will not work unfortunately.

Edit: I checked this point and of course DirectTV has proprietry encryption on the recordings.
I suppose you just need to continue doing it the way you do all the time.
But if this whole thing that you do is to delete commercials, perhaps you can use the 30SKIP option so that you can fast forward the recordings by 30 seconds every time you press a button on the remote.

Anyway you still have the main problem of freezing to sort out.
At what stage do you have this issue and does it happen on your monitor or TV?
Does it happen after recording to the PC or after editting and deleting the commercials?

[muusicman]

First off… let me just say I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to reply. The capture device seems to have stopped doing the skipping thug it was doing so that’s a plus. Let me ask you this. Is it possible to record streaming content from a Roku or Apple TV? If so, how would I go about that? I am thinking of dropping my satellite provider and going with some form of live streaming TV service.

Great. So you have the DirectTV satellite Genie receiver.
I am not familiar with American satellite systems but I went today into the DirectTV website and noticed that they have a new receiver called Gemini which is good for satellite and also for streaming.
So first of all, would it make sense to ask DirectTv to send you the new receiver (presumably or hopefully at no cost) instead of the one that you have now?
Since your current receiver has an Ethernet RJ45 connector at the back, have you connected it to a LAN cable that connects to the router?
This way you would be able to connect your PC to the satellite receiver and hopefully have access to the hard disk and the recordings on it.
You will need to write down the receiver IP in order to connect FileZilla FTP client to your receiver.
BTW does DirectTV encrypt the recordings so that it can only play using the receiver?
If they do then this method will not work unfortunately.

Edit: I checked this point and of course DirectTV has proprietry encryption on the recordings.
I suppose you just need to continue doing it the way you do all the time.
But if this whole thing that you do is to delete commercials, perhaps you can use the 30SKIP option so that you can fast forward the recordings by 30 seconds every time you press a button on the remote.

Anyway you still have the main problem of freezing to sort out.
At what stage do you have this issue and does it happen on your monitor or TV?
Does it happen after recording to the PC or after editting and deleting the commercials?

[TubeBar]

DirectTV recordings are encrypted to hell, you even need to doa force TOC mount (ISObuster will do it) to view the files and copy them to a HDD but obviously they are useless garbage. I used to have the old DirectTV box (can't recall the model) but you could connect an eSata external HDD and increase the space. 4k Boxes killed that option. Anyway there is no way to copy those except by what you are doing. It's a bit of a pain to do.

As PCs age, things change w/ updates, space and unfortunately speed and RAM isn't what it used to be. 4GB of RAM is extremely low, yeah I would go w/ 16GB RAM update. You can try scanning your PC for hardware upgrades over at Crucial.com to see what's available. Also the SSD drive, you could use an USB 2.0 external though I would just clone the HDD and use an internal esp. for windows partition. That's probably all you need.

[Subtitles]

First off… let me just say I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to reply. The capture device seems to have stopped doing the skipping thug it was doing so that’s a plus. Let me ask you this. Is it possible to record streaming content from a Roku or Apple TV? If so, how would I go about that? I am thinking of dropping my satellite provider and going with some form of live streaming TV service.

Dropping the satellite provider would be a sensible thing to do. I understand that DirectTV has a 24 month contract, but you probably have been a customer for more than that. You would probably save a lot on the monthly subscription.

If you decide to go the streaming TV route, there are so many options worth checking. Roku Ultra or Ruku Ultra LT are good devices because they have Ethernet RJ45 connector so you would have a better stable streaming than relying on the WIFI connection. Ruku Ultra LT gave me 3 months free Apple TV in 4K resolution so it is worth it. Hope they still do.
Most of the streaming websites have a Windows application so you can watch directly on your monitor but Apple TV application doesn't stream in 4K resolution.
As to recording, Roku devices don't have PVR feature like your satellite receiver, so bear this in mind before buying. Perhaps there are other streaming TV boxes that have PVR feature.

[muusicman]

Ok question. Say I get a fire stick. How would I be able to get recordings I DVR from say YouTube TV to my PC so I could store the recordings on an external hard drive? Is this even possible? Everything I DVR I like to back up and store on an external hard drive. That way I can later just plug the hard drive into my TV and watch the shows whenever I want without having to worry about them getting deleted.

[Subtitles]

Ok question. Say I get a fire stick. How would I be able to get recordings I DVR from say YouTube TV to my PC so I could store the recordings on an external hard drive? Is this even possible? Everything I DVR I like to back up and store on an external hard drive. That way I can later just plug the hard drive into my TV and watch the shows whenever I want without having to worry about them getting deleted.

I wouldn't buy a simple device like Fire Stick. Look for devices with Ethernet connector like the Roku Ultra LT for example. You will get better picture and very stable.
If you intend to record anything on your PC, I highly recommend to look again at the list of suggestions in post #5 above, especially replacing the HDD with a cloned 2TB SSD and upgrade the memory to 16GB. After the upgrade you might find that all the issues that you have now with the freezing might go away and stay with DirectTV.
YouTube TV monthly subscription is painfully high. Surely you can find a better deal?

[muusicman]

Some time back I upgraded my HDD from the one that was in it.

This is what I put in it.

Crucial MX500 2TB 3D NAND SATA 2.5 Inch Internal SSD, up to 560MB/s - CT2000MX500SSD1 https://a.co/d/7tRHIeU

I replaced the RAM and maxed my PC out with this.

Mushkin 16GB(2X8GB) Redline DDR3 PC3-17000 2133MHz 10-12-12-28 Desktop Memory Model MRC3U213ACCW8GX2 https://a.co/d/3VkFbuN

Ok question. Say I get a fire stick. How would I be able to get recordings I DVR from say YouTube TV to my PC so I could store the recordings on an external hard drive? Is this even possible? Everything I DVR I like to back up and store on an external hard drive. That way I can later just plug the hard drive into my TV and watch the shows whenever I want without having to worry about them getting deleted.

I wouldn't buy a simple device like Fire Stick. Look for devices with Ethernet connector like the Roku Ultra LT for example. You will get better picture and very stable.
If you intend to record anything on your PC, I highly recommend to look again at the list of suggestions in post #5 above, especially replacing the HDD with a cloned 2TB SSD and upgrade the memory to 16GB. After the upgrade you might find that all the issues that you have now with the freezing might go away and stay with DirectTV.
YouTube TV monthly subscription is painfully high. Surely you can find a better deal?

[muusicman]

Subtitles… I’m sorry for being so ignorant. I just sent you a PM. I saw also you sent me one. Not sure the date as I didn’t take note of it. Upon reflection.. I wish I would have. Anyway, you can check your inbox if you would as there will me a message from me sent just now. I need to be able to speak with you easier. This is kinda difficult for me. I get lost/confused real easy.

[TubeBar]

I still use DirectTV and like them, it's easier than always having to use my internet for TV. Your main concern is DVR, there's no shortage of capturing tools for that but you may run into the same recording problems you are having now.

I know StreamFab can capture Live Streams as there is an option (I never used it) but not sure if that includes all TV Streams? Probably better off recording via screen capture if you go that route.

Roku seems to be the favorite choice for cutting the cord.