H264 to MPEG2, best way ?

[boulder]

I often record programs from Arte HD.
Once in a while I want to archive one of the TV shows and put it on a regular DVD so that someone from my family or friends can see it too.
They only have a simple DVD player so H264 files cannot be played on them.
However, then I am faced with the question : how do I transcode this 1280x720 HD movie to MPEG2, and make sure it still fits on a DVD ?
Also, I always have some padding at the beginning and end of the program.

So my reasoning was :

As I have frame-accurate and lossless cutting tools for MPEG2 (Videoredo TV Suite), but not for H264 (do they exist ???), it would be best to do the cutting once the file has already been converted to MPEG2.

So I would need to perform 3 steps :

1) Somehow convert whole movie from H264 to MPEG2
2) Cut out padding at beginning and end (Here Videoredo TV Suite would be ideal for me)
3) Burn to DVD (again I could use VRD TVS for this)

I tried several programs to perform step 1, but most of them seemed to produce even bigger files than the ones I started from, obviously as H264 is a better compression algorithm than MPEG2, even though the end result is only 720x576 instead of 1280x720.

Finally I found one that seems to do the job, and it is ConvertXtoDVD.
However, instead of producing a straight MPEG2 file, it creates the whole DVD structure.
But I still need to cut out the commercials at this point in time.
So I then used VOB2MPEG to convert the VOB files again to an MPEG2 file, and then I finally could use step 2) and 3) to perform the rest of the steps.

So all in all, I now have 4 steps :

1) use ConvertXtoDVD to convert the H264 movie to a PAL DVD
2) Use VOB2MPEG to convert the DVD back to an MPEG2 file
3) Cut out commercials or padding with VRD TVS
4) Burn a DVD (with ConvertXtoDVD or VRD TVS)

Does anyone have an easier, better or faster way of performing these steps ?
BTW : my video card (Geforce GT7950) does not allow for GPU assisted video conversion.

[Baldrick]

1. What programs did you try? If you specify the bitrate you can get whatever file size you like. I would probably use hcenc or avs2dvd(a gui for hcenc and can convert to just mpg files) and use 2-pass encoding if you want a specific size.

[boulder]

I don't remember all of them, but "Super" was one of the ones I tried.
I noticed that files were getting larger after converting them, even though I chose a very low bitrate.

For using AVS2DVD, you then need to use Avisynth as well or can you directly convert H264 to MPEG2 that way ?

[PuzZLeR]

Well, since H.264 is a real pain to edit, you are pretty much on par with, both, your 3-step and 4-step, work-flows. Since you're going to MPEG-2 anyway, you are better off cutting it at that point since tools for it are better, more reliable and available.

The only flaw I see in doing this is that if you want to archive the source (your H.264 stream) then you'd have to cut it over and over again afterwards if you need to re-encode it again. (I prefer to archive source that's fully edited).

Anyhow, if ConvertXtoDvD is working for you, and you like the results, then stick with it as you won't find many more options, at this point, to make your workflow more efficient.

If you want better results, then use a good encoder like Baldrick mentioned (H Enc) and you would need 2 passes to get a particular file size. And you will need some simple AviSynth scripts, particularly for a good resizer going from 1280x720 to 720x576, such as Lanczos or Spline. If you need help with that let us know. It's not that hard.

[boulder]

I 'm afraid I will need help with creating such a script.
I saw that you have to create an AVS file which creates the script, which is then sent to HCENC.
Now, if you use the AVISOURCE command, does it really need to be an AVI you start with ?
As you know, HD recordings are in H264 TS format.

Second, do you have to do the resizing within the script or will HCENC take care of that ?
Thirdly, is the result going to be only the video part of the MPEG2 result, or does it contain the audio as well ?

[jagabo]

I tried several programs to perform step 1, but most of them seemed to produce even bigger files than the ones I started from, obviously as H264 is a better compression algorithm than MPEG2, even though the end result is only 720x576 instead of 1280x720.

No matter what codec you are using:

File size = bitrate * running time.

You need to pick a bitrate that allows the resulting video to fit on a DVD. This is complicated by the fact that you will be cutting out ads later. I would shoot for about 5 GB. That should leave enough headroom.

[boulder]

I think I got it now.
First I installed FFDShow, then HCENC and Avisynth.
And finally created a tiny script, which I loaded into the GUI of HCENC :

TEST.AVS :

DirectShowSource("c:\downloads\arte.hd.ts")
BilinearResize(720,576)



Now, when I load an Arte HD file I found on the net, wich was around 20 million bytes, after converting it is around 7 million bytes (but this is only the video part !).
So I suppose I then have to mux it with the audio (recode that as well if necessary) and then convert it to a DVD.

[_MrC_]

Since you have installed all the required software, I strongly suggest you to use AVStoDVD. It will generate DVD compliant AVS script for you. That will be useful both for fast DVD creation and AVS script learning.



Bye

[netmask56]

I use TMPGenc 4 with ffdshow installed on my computer to do exactly the same. TMP to convert to MPEG2 then either Womble of VideRedo to do the edits (both do stream copies as long as you only trim or extract commercials if any).

My PVR has an analog input for capturing or time shifting video from VHS or cable TV etc and uses the same standard (but for PAL TV).

However local (Australian) free to air digital TV uses MPEG2 with either AC3 or MPEG audio, sometimes both. The Beyonwiz PVR P2 can handle both. No macrovision down here either

[jamespoo]

easy download sage tv in app choose folder were video is and click it and click convert easy