H.264 TS files created using HD PVR to MKV.

[Red Hat]

Ok, that error I posted above goes away when I open up GraphEdit without the Capture Module but if I start up the capture module. Is that ok? Here's a ts file it produced, audio/video sync seems to be way better.
http://www.sendspace.com/file/56rovp

[mathieumg]

With the Haali installed, H264_cutter now works perfectly

I am using the SVN build of the 3rd of September for x64 systems. (For ffdshow). The h.264/AVC was already set to libavcodec.

Yes I figured the .acc part myself since it wasn't showing in the list of files to add. Yes, I am working with 1080i files and that would explain the problem since I put 29.97 for the framerate.

I will try with 59.94 and report back.

[Red Hat]

Alright, here's that TS file above encoded.
http://www.sendspace.com/file/twni26

1.) I demuxed the video using DGAVCIndex.
2.) I encoded the video with VirtualDub using this avs script with Fast recompress and XviD with 1350kbps bitrate.

LoadPlugin("C:\dgavcdec100a34\DGAVCDecode.dll")
AVCSource("GraphEdit TS.dga")
SelectEven().Decimate(5)
Crop(168, 8, -168, -0)
Lanczos4Resize(640,480)

3.) I used this avs script to encode the audio to ac3 in megui.

DirectShowSource("GraphEdit TS.ts",video=false)

4.) I muxed the 2 files together using avidemux but I could of done it using megui.

[mathieumg]

Splitter works perfect and output .ts file is all good.

No go with the demuxing/remuxing process though.

Also, when I playback my original .ts I noticed some 1 or 2 pixels purple dashed lines at the top/and or bottom of the screen. Also, the audio is delayed randomly from 0 ms to 100ms during the video (hard to say what/when the delay is, but it's noticeable, especially when you look at the lips of someone talking). For the delay, I will try to check with the folks at GB PVR what the issue could be, but if you have a solution to fix it in the encoding process, don't hesitate.

Here are some clues that something is not right with the number of vertical lines and the audio delay.





Thank you for all your help, and I am still looking for a way to encode my cut ts into a x264 mp4.

[Red Hat]

Splitter works perfect and output .ts file is all good.

No go with the demuxing/remuxing process though.

Also, when I playback my original .ts I noticed some 1 or 2 pixels purple dashed lines at the top/and or bottom of the screen. Also, the audio is delayed randomly from 0 ms to 100ms during the video (hard to say what/when the delay is, but it's noticeable, especially when you look at the lips of someone talking). For the delay, I will try to check with the folks at GB PVR what the issue could be, but if you have a solution to fix it in the encoding process, don't hesitate.

Here are some clues that something is not right with the number of vertical lines and the audio delay.





Thank you for all your help, and I am still looking for a way to encode my cut ts into a x264 mp4.

Have you tried megui?

[mathieumg]

Have you tried megui?

Just installed it. (and AviSynth)

So many options/buttons, I don't know where to start to get to my goal. (Synched and cropped x264 mp4 from my ts)

The only A/V programs I have experience with are Premiere and VirtualDub.

[poisondeathray]

Give xvid4psp (the name is misleading), or ripbot264 a try

They have fewer options, but are much easier to use than MeGUI

[Red Hat]

I use Adobe Premiere and VirtualDub as well for producing videos I film. I use VirtualDub, Avidemux, AVISynth, and MeGui for encoding videos. MeGUI does a great job encoding videos and getting them back to their original fps.

[mathieumg]

Give xvid4psp (the name is misleading), or ripbot264 a try

They have fewer options, but are much easier to use than MeGUI

Will they still allow me to crop and synch my video?

Even though MeGUI is more complex, I have no problems using it if I'm guided a bit in my scripts making at first. For example a script that crops, synchs (I understand "synch" is not a command, but I need help finding what is causing the strange delay and fixing it) and encodes to x264 mp4.

[poisondeathray]

I use MeGUI for everything, you can crop through .avs scripts. You can in both those as well directly, but the options are more limited (although you can use scripts for those as well). There are several guides on how to use MeGUI here and other websites if you get stuck.

If your input .ts is out of sync, your output file will be out of sync. If it's just a simple constant delay scenario, you can use the DelayAudio() command in avisynth. Your options are to fix the .ts first, or fix the output .mkv or .mp4. This is a separate topic, and there are many guides on how to do this.

If it's not the constant sync scenario, it's much more difficult to fix., essentially you have to either shrink/expand either the audio or video to match. Again, there are several guides on how to do this...

If you are still stuck despite looking at the guides, post specific questions and someone will help you out

Cheers

[mathieumg]

Thanks for the information, I will try my luck. Is there any program that will help me tell if the desynch is constant or not, it's hard to tell just by looking at the video. Sometimes it seems all is synched sometimes it seems like there is a 20ms delay but I question my judgement.

[Red Hat]

http://www.sendspace.com/file/bm83jb - Can some of you download that and tell me if the audio/video sync is good?

I encoded the video in virtualdub using this avs script with dual-pass xvid at 1200kbps bitrate and fast recompress.

LoadPlugin("C:\dgavcdec100a34\DGAVCDecode.dll")
AVCSource("output.dga")
SelectEven().Decimate(5)
Crop(168, 8, -168, -0)
Lanczos4Resize(640,480)

I encoded the audio in megui by directly opening up the ts file and encoding it to 128kbps bitrate with ac3. Then I muxed the 2 files together with megui. I don't mind if I have to edit out commecials after I encode with megui. I did NOT use DirectShowSource at all for this encode.

[mathieumg]

http://www.sendspace.com/file/bm83jb - Can some of you download that and tell me if the audio/video sync is good?

All good here!

Beach Boys 8)

[Red Hat]

Excellent, that's the first HD-PVR video more than 10 seconds I've been able to encode and keep the a/v sync good. I was able to ditch TotalMedia Extreme and DirectShowSource.

[mathieumg]

Trying to do something with this: http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/MeGUI/HDTV_Transcoding_Guide

ProjectX will let you take the ac3 audio out of your transport stream.

What happens when I have AAC?

Open up the TS with PTSCalc, press calc. This handy little program will work out the audio delay for you.

This is what I get when I press calc:



Once everything works fine, I will PayPal money to every program that will have helped me getting there

[Red Hat]

Great system mathieumg. I wish I had that system. Also, here's how I encode MKV files now.
1.) I demux the video with DGAVCIndex.
2.) I create my avs script and insert filters to crop and resize and then I open up megui and encode to x264 at 4000kbps bitrate.
3.) Next, I open up the ts file under audio with megui and encode to ac3 at 192kbps.
4.) I mux the files together with megui and choose English as the language.

Here's the avs script I use for my HDTV stuff.

LoadPlugin("C:\dgavcdec100a34\DGAVCDecode.dll")
AVCSource("GraphEdit TS.dga")
SelectEven().Decimate(5)
Crop(0, 8, -4, -0)
Lanczos4Resize(1280,720)

Here's the avs script I use for my PDTV stuff.

LoadPlugin("C:\dgavcdec100a34\DGAVCDecode.dll")
AVCSource("GraphEdit TS.dga")
SelectEven().Decimate(5)
Crop(168, 8, -168, -0)
Lanczos4Resize(640,480)

I don't use DirectShowSource, H.264 TS Cutter, or TotalMedia Extreme anymore because they cause audio/video issues and won't let me open the files in DGAVCIndex.

[mathieumg]

How do you cut out your commercials then?

[Red Hat]

I do it after it's encoded with megui with VirtualDub or Avidemux for AVI and Matroska Splitters for MKV. Also, do you have a Straight 5.9 in Vista mathieumg?

By the way, jagabo are you on Windows Vista 32-bit or 64-bit?

[mathieumg]

I will try it with your scripts and get back to you.

And yeah thanks, yep yep 5.9 I wanted to get a new system for two years now (my old one is now 4-5 years old) but kept pushing back. At the end of July I decided it was enough and went with the big thing Your system looks good too by the way I haven't had time to play with the OC yet, but so far I don't really need it

Just out of curiousity, do you know if many of the programs/encoders mentionned in this thread are multithreaded?

[Red Hat]

Your system without overclocking kicks the crap out of mine with overclocking. Also, I recommend not to re-encode the audio, just use my scripts to encode video and take out .Decimate(5) if it's not a film source. I mux the audio file made with dgavcindex with the video encoded with megui. I also don't do MKV on PDTV. Just use VirtualDub and do dual-pass encoding with xvid for for avi video and mux with megui.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/zdakz3 - HDTV samples.

[mathieumg]

Nice @ your MKV sample, I want mine to look as good What did you use to record the original .ts for that sample by the way?

Here is my script:

LoadPlugin("C:\Files\Programs\GB PVR\dgavcdec100a35\DGAVCDecode.dll")
AVCSource("Sports 30_20080907_02000230_cut_demuxed.dga")
Crop(0, 2, 0, -2)
Lanczos4Resize(1920,1080)

I get the following error from MeGUI (which is in fact an AviSynth error):

[Red Hat]

Did you install CCCP? Your script looks fine. I record with GraphEdit using the instructions jagabo posted above. I tried GB-PVR and BeyondTv and found them too slow. The Best PVR software out there is MythTv but I won't use it until I can afford to a build a system like yours and then I'll use this system for a MythTv PVR.

[jagabo]

By the way, jagabo are you on Windows Vista 32-bit or 64-bit?

Neither, XP Pro SP3 32 bit.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/bm83jb - Can some of you download that and tell me if the audio/video sync is good?

A/V sync good here.

Just out of curiousity, do you know if many of the programs/encoders mentionned in this thread are multithreaded?

CoreAVC Pro is multithreaded. ffdshow is a mix (depending on decoder) -- I think the h.264 decoder is single threaded. The muxing tools like tsMuxer and YAMB don't really matter, they're disk I/O limited. h264ts_cutter is probably single threaded (the UI) but since it uses a installed DirectShow h.264 decoder the decoding may be multithreaded depending on which decoder you're using.

By the way, anyone still having problems with GraphEdit should try GraphStudio or GraphEdit Plus. Actually, even if you're not having problems you should try them out. GraphStudio is especially useful because it can tell you a lot more information about each filter.

[Red Hat]

I'm not having issues with GraphEdit anymore and I love the fact that it doesn't take up much cpu usage because I don't have the preview window open. Also, is it worth using Optical Audio at the moment or does Hauppauge need to release drivers for full effect?

[mathieumg]

No luck even after installing CCCP

I first tried SageTV but didn't like it much and its expensive, then I heard about BeyondTV but it said on their product page that Vista x64 wasn't supported. Then I found out about GB-PVR and everything works fine and its well built, has nice support, etc. What do you mean when you say its slow? And I didn't know about MythTV until now.

[poisondeathray]

@mathieumg - I suspect you are not using "treat I as IDR" when using DGAVCdec. This was mentioned a few pages ago and in the DGAVCdec manual

[jagabo]

is it worth using Optical Audio at the moment or does Hauppauge need to release drivers for full effect?

The optical audio input only works with 2 channel PCM audio now. If you want to use it you have to force your cable box to output that format. Since the HD PVR was first released, a few months ago, Hauppauge has been saying 5.1 drivers will be out "in a few weeks".

[mathieumg]

Thanks poisondeathray, that fixed it. Its now warning me that my script is not mod16, I assume this is a pixel ratio or something but I'm not sure what I have to change, here it is:

LoadPlugin("C:\Files\Programs\GB PVR\dgavcdec100a35\DGAVCDecode.dll")
AVCSource("Sports 30_20080907_02000230_cut.dga")
Crop(0, 2, 0, -2)
Lanczos4Resize(1920,1080)

[poisondeathray]

1920,1088 - evenly divisible by 16

mod16 is usually better for compatibility and compressibility reasons. (e.g. some DXVA acceleration requires mod16 or sometimes standalone units that play h264 have difficulty with non-mod16 resolutions)

However, x264 will encode and play fine on the PC with non-mod16 resolutions using the majority of software media players, the choice is up to you

[mathieumg]

As long as I get rid of the little 2px purple dashed line at the top/bottom, I don't mind.