ffmpegX/mpeg2 file

[NoCalME]

Rename the .m2a file with a .mp2 extension.

[marc1]

Rename the .m2a file with a .mp2 extension.

Ok, i did that. When I try to bring it into Sizzle, I get:

Could not Open Audio Source:
Some audio in "XXX.mp2" is not in AC3, MP2 or LCPM format.

[NoCalME]

I bet you're running Sizzle 0.5b2. Some have reported problems importing .mp2 audio with that version. I just now imported a sample .m2v and .mp2 into Sizzle 0.5b1 following the procedure I gave you earlier no problem.

Install 0.5b1 and you're there.

[marc1]

I was using 0.5b2. I gave 0.5b1 a try..i got the following message:

Potential audio problem

Audio in "xxx.mp2" is not 48 KHz. It is not a valid DVD stream. The stream will be added, but DVD players may be unable to play it. It may also cause audio sync problems.

[NoCalME]

Ignore the warning and create an image and see what happens. If your audio ends up out of sync, try extracting another program with Audio To: 48000 (DVD)

[marc1]

Hey again!

I tried processing video from TyStudio on my Mac, then importing it into Sizzle v0.50b1. I tried processing it as Elemental Stream, DVD and Generic. In all cases, Sizzle gives me the following error:

Video in "xxx" appears to be from an SVCD, PVR, or digital satellite TV. It is not a valid DVD stream. The stream will be added, but DVD players may be unable to play it.

I ignored this message and saved a Disc Image. When I launch my DVD Player on the mac and watch the disk image, the picture is distored - there are black squares on the screen. I can kind of see the image, but it is chopped up. Sounds seems to be fine. One time, playing the movie actually crashed my computer.

I also just tried using Sizzle 0.1, I did not get the error message, but I got the same distorted results.

[NoCalME]

Video in "xxx" appears to be from an SVCD, PVR, or digital satellite TV. It is not a valid DVD stream. The stream will be added, but DVD players may be unable to play it.

This is not an error message, but rather a warning stating your video is not DVD compliant and may not play in all DVD players.

Record something at the highest quality setting on your TiVo and extract that program with TyTool and see what happens.

[marc1]

This is not an error message, but rather a warning stating your video is not DVD compliant and may not play in all DVD players.

Record something at the highest quality setting on your TiVo and extract that program with TyTool and see what happens.

Any way to make it compliant? I recorded something a while ago that I would like to archive on a DVD. The show will not air again, so I won't have an opportunity to re-record it at best.

UPDATE: I just realized that this recording was recorded at BEST quality!

[NoCalME]

Do you have a DVD-RW that you can use to burn the image to a DVD and see how it plays on your set top DVD player? Or have you tried that already? If you don't have an RW DVD, do yourself a favor and pick one up. You only need one and they're great for testing out your extracted programs without wasting expensive DVD-Rs.

I've had programs that would not play properly through Apple's DVD Player but played perfectly on my set top DVD player once I burned it to a DVD.

Give that a run.

[NoCalME]

I was doing some reading on SA TiVo audio since I have little knowledge of its output as I have a DirecTiVo. The SA TiVo audio output is 33.2 KHz, which is not per the DVD spec. This explains the warning message Sizzle was giving you if you tried importing a program you extracted using TyStudio with Audio set to No Transcoding.

Also, if you don't have VLC, download it here: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-macosx.html

So your settings in TyStudio should be--Video to: Elemental Stream, and Audio to: 48000 (DVD). Try extracting another program in BEST quality with the aforementioned settings. Next, follow these instructions EXACTLY as shown:
1. Launch Sizzle and cllick "Video".
2. Click "Add Title", then select your .m2v file and click Open. You may or may not get a warning saying there is a potential video problem. Ignore the warning and hit Ok.
3. Click "Audio", then click down below on the video file you just imported. It should begin "Title 1 . . . ".
4. Click the little + button in between Title and Track.
5. Select your .mp2 file and hit Open. You should not see any warning from Sizzle.
6. Click "Save Disk Image", give your image file a name, and click Save.
7. After your disk image is saved, double-click on your image file to mount the image, and launch VLC.
8. In VLC, click "File" then "Open Disc..."
9. A dialog box will pop up and you should select "VIDEO_TS folder" and de-select "use DVD menus".
10. Click "Browse..." to open open your .dmg file you created earlier. Click on your image and AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS folders will appear.
11. Select the VIDEO_TS folder, then click Open.
12. Now click "OK" and your program should begin playing automatically in VLC.

There should not be any audio sync issues as you have not made any cuts to the original.

[marc1]

First let me just reiterate, NoCalME, thanks for all your help with this.

Ok, second, I took your earlier suggestion and went out and bought some DVD-RWs. I ignored those warnings and burned the DVDs. I found that the video and audio were always in sync. That was not a problem. I even did some basic editting using TyStudio on my Mac to take out the commercials and still the audio and video were in sync.

The problem I found is that about 20 minutes into watching the DVD, the audio goes silent.

Just to review, this is the process I have been using:

1. Use TyTool (Alpha#9 rel 14) on a PC to copy the file from my Tivo

2. Copy the TY file from my PC to my Mac

3. Use TyStudio to edit out commericals and process the .ty file into elementral Stream (Video) and 48000 - DVD (Audio).

4. I place the .m2v and .m2a files into Sizzle (I have been using version 0.1) to create a .dmg file

5. I then use Apple's Disk Utility to burn the .dmg file onto the DVD

I went back and look at the files I put into Sizzle. I realized that the audio (.m2a) file is actually not the entire show - when I play the file in iTunes, I can hear that it ends early.

I can't figure out why this it. It is fine on the tivo. This has happened on a number of different recordings, so it is not just one show.

Why would the .m2a file get cut short?

[NoCalME]

I even did some basic editting using TyStudio on my Mac to take out the commercials and still the audio and video were in sync.

Depending on the number of cuts made, it's possible the audio sync was okay, but in practice, TyStudio should not be used to edit out commercials.

1. Use TyTool (Alpha#9 rel 14) on a PC to copy the file from my Tivo

Use TyStudio to extract the program. Do not use TyTool. This will be an all-Mac exercise until we can get an extracted show that behaves properly.

3. Use TyStudio to edit out commericals and process the .ty file into elementral Stream (Video) and 48000 - DVD (Audio).

Do not edit the show you extract. This will only muddy up the water while trying to troubleshoot the problem(s). I can't stress this enough. This is the root cause of all our problems.

I went back and look at the files I put into Sizzle. I realized that the audio (.m2a) file is actually not the entire show - when I play the file in iTunes, I can hear that it ends early.

I can't figure out why this it. It is fine on the tivo. This has happened on a number of different recordings, so it is not just one show.

Why would the .m2a file get cut short?

The audio is not full-length due to the edits you made to the file. This is typical behavior of files edited using TyStudio. Extract another program following the directions below EXACTLY. Make sure you download VLC--it's free and works perfectly for testing out images.

EXTRACTION INSTRUCTIONS
Set your settings in TyStudio to Video to: Elemental Stream, and Audio to: 48000 (DVD). Once you've extracted your show using TyStudio. . .
1. Launch Sizzle and cllick "Video".
2. Click "Add Title", then select your .m2v file and click Open. You may or may not get a warning saying there is a potential video problem. Ignore the warning and hit Ok.
3. Click "Audio", then click down below on the video file you just imported. It should begin "Title 1 . . . ".
4. Click the little + button in between Title and Track.
5. Select your .mp2 file and hit Open. You should not see any warning from Sizzle.
6. Click "Save Disk Image", give your image file a name, and click Save.
7. After your disk image is saved, double-click on your image file to mount the image, and launch VLC.
8. In VLC, click "File" then "Open Disc..."
9. A dialog box will pop up and you should select "VIDEO_TS folder" and de-select "use DVD menus".
10. Click "Browse..." to open open your .dmg file you created earlier. Click on your image and AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS folders will appear.
11. Select the VIDEO_TS folder, then click Open.
12. Now click "OK" and your program should begin playing automatically in VLC.

[marc1]

Use TyStudio to extract the program. Do not use TyTool. This will be an all-Mac exercise until we can get an extracted show that behaves properly.

When I use TyStudio on mac to view my "now showing", it does not show a recent list of "now showing" items. It says the most recent recording I have is from June, which is not the case.

[NoCalME]

Try rebooting the TiVo and see if the programs are populated correctly after it boots up.

You have a TurboNET card installed in your TiVo to extract programs, right? Who did you buy it from?

[marc1]

Try rebooting the TiVo and see if the programs are populated correctly after it boots up.

You have a TurboNET card installed in your TiVo to extract programs, right? Who did you buy it from?

I tried rebotting tivo. TyStudio Editor still shows an old list of "now playing."

I go the card from ptvupgrade.com. But I know it works because I can get a current list of now showing from my Windows machine using TyTools.

Any idea why my now showing on TyStudio would not be current?

[SERBIAN]

Deleted...My mistake..Sorry..

[NoCalME]

You can try re-installing TyStudio as that sort of behavior is out of the ordinary. I've never run into that problem before. If you still have problems, use TyTool to extract your program.

[marc1]

ok, here is the update.

through a lot of trial and error, i have determined that the audio
problem i was having is related to the editing I did with TyStudio.

I found that if I did one cut start/stop edit, it was fine - the audio
was not cut short. If I did about 6 edits, then the audio was cut short.
I have not tried going through cut by cut to determine at what point the
audio gets cut short. Somewhere between 1 and 6

Luckily the audio problem has nothing to do with how I extracted the ty
file -- I tried using TyStudio on my Mac and TyTools on my PC and they
both worked fine if I did not make any edits on TyStudio.

So my remaining issues:

1.

a. Why does editing in TyStudio cut the audio short and how can I fix
it?

or

b. Is there an alternative way to edit out the commercials?


2. I can't figure out why TyStudio is loading an old now playing. I will
try throwing it out, but since it is just an Unix executable file, i am
not sure throwing it out will do anything. As I recall there is not
really an installation process, I just copy the file into my
Applications folder. Is there something else I can try throwing out? Are
there preferences saved somewhere?

[NoCalME]

through a lot of trial and error, i have determined that the audio
problem i was having is related to the editing I did with TyStudio.

Apparently you didn't read my earlier posts on this subject. I explained that the root cause of your audio sync issues was due to the editing you were doing.

There is no fix for the audio sync problem when editing in TyStudio. Development on TyStudio has stopped completely, and even hackers who have access to the source code have yet to figure out a way to fix the audio sync bug. That's why most people have migrated over to TyTool, as the author of that program is constantly working on ways to improve the code.

Is there an alternative way to edit out the commercials?

1. Use TyTool to edit out commercials
2. MPEG-VCR

I use MPEG-VCR for all of my editing. I've edited close to 150 programs without experiencing audio sync once. You can purchase MPEG-VCR at www.womble.com.

I can't figure out why TyStudio is loading an old now playing. I will
try throwing it out, but since it is just an Unix executable file, i am
not sure throwing it out will do anything. As I recall there is not
really an installation process, I just copy the file into my
Applications folder. Is there something else I can try throwing out? Are
there preferences saved somewhere?

If you're going to be editing out commercials, getting your TyStudio "Now Showing" correctly populated is a moot point. You have to use TyTool if you want an MPEG file that can be edited without audio sync. I only had you load up TyStudio to make sure we could get a clean MPEG extracted. TyStudio is of no use to anyone wishing to edit out commercials and such. It's served its purpose by showing that you can extract a file without audio sync issues if you do not edit the program.