MPEG-2 TS (.ts) Lossless Conversion

[Beestin]

Hello everyone - I am trying to take Linux MPEG-2 TS (.ts) video files that I've used a program to pull from my Channel Master DVR+ and convert to some format without ANY loss in audio or video. Is this possible? Basically I have music shows recorded that I'd like to play on my WD TV, backup, and share.

The DVR+ uses a Linux operating system and I've used another program to pull them onto my PC. I'm able to play them on the PC but want these in a more "friendly" format considering they're virtually unplayable with all of the audio/video programs that I have. A lot of the shows I have saved are available online for download or purchase (illegally) but every one has a noticeable loss in video and especially audio when people try to smash them into 500meg files for sharing.

I do not care about file size at all. I'm only concerned with preserving 100% of the audio/video quality.

Any thoughts or help would be much appreciated.

Thanks!
Brett

[Selur]

Have you tried remuxing the files using mkvmerge (part of mkvtoolnix) ?

[KarMa]

What other programs do you have that can't play MPEG2?

[Beestin]

I'm a total noob.

It's giving an error when I click start muxing saying "--- Errors emitted by job 'merging to file "ACL - Ryan Adams - Jenny Lewis.mkv" in directory "C:\Users\Brett\Desktop"' started on 2016-11-19 16:56:43 ---No streams to output were found. Aborting."

[Beestin]

What other programs do you have that can't play MPEG2?

It's not playing since it's an MPEG2 TS I guess?

[netmask56]

When you load the file into MKV and before you attempt muxing, what tracks are displayed. Normally you should see video, audio (maybe a couple) and possibly subtitles tracks.
Better still post a MediaInfo file report on the file. Use View TEXT and copy and paste report into your post.

[KarMa]

I do not care about file size at all. I'm only concerned with preserving 100% of the audio/video quality.

Well to do a lossless encode would probably make a file ~10 times bigger. A file which would be even harder to play and not very friendly. Lossless H.264 would probably be playable on other devices if they could support the extreme bitrate.

Best option would be to just keep the MPEG2 and audio as is, and just swap containers. Like MKV which has already been suggested. Or take a potentially small loss and encode it with x264.

[TheRandomOne]

Download xMedia Recode

Profile Custom

Format MP4

File Extension MP4

Open Video

Select / Highlight Video

Open Video Tab & select copy

Open Audio Tab & select copy

On the bottom set your output folder

Add to queue & encode

[Beestin]

When you load the file into MKV and before you attempt muxing, what tracks are displayed. Normally you should see video, audio (maybe a couple) and possibly subtitles tracks.
Better still post a MediaInfo file report on the file. Use View TEXT and copy and paste report into your post.

There are literally no tracks displayed on the bottom. It shows my file name up top "source files" but the "Tracks, chapters..." has nothing.


Audio #1
ID : 52 (0x34)
Format : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Mode extension : CM (complete main)
Format settings, Endianness : Big
Duration : 1 h 1 min
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 448 kb/s
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel positions : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate : 31.250 FPS (1536 spf)
Bit depth : 16 bits
Compression mode : Lossy
Delay relative to video : -127 ms
Stream size : 198 MiB (3%)

Audio #2
ID : 53 (0x35)
Format : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Mode extension : D (dialogue)
Format settings, Endianness : Big
Duration : 1 h 1 min
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 128 kb/s
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate : 31.250 FPS (1536 spf)
Bit depth : 16 bits
Compression mode : Lossy
Delay relative to video : 33 ms
Stream size : 56.7 MiB (1%)

Text #1
ID : 49 (0x31)-CC1
Format : EIA-608
Muxing mode : A/53 / DTVCC Transport
Muxing mode, more info : Muxed in Video #1
Duration : 1 h 1 min
Bit rate mode : Constant
Stream size : 0.00 Byte (0%)

Text #2
ID : 49 (0x31)-1
Format : EIA-708
Muxing mode : A/53 / DTVCC Transport
Muxing mode, more info : Muxed in Video #1
Duration : 1 h 1 min
Bit rate mode : Constant
Stream size : 0.00 Byte (0%)

[Beestin]

I do not care about file size at all. I'm only concerned with preserving 100% of the audio/video quality.

Well to do a lossless encode would probably make a file ~10 times bigger. A file which would be even harder to play and not very friendly. Lossless H.264 would probably be playable on other devices if they could support the extreme bitrate.

Best option would be to just keep the MPEG2 and audio as is, and just swap containers. Like MKV which has already been suggested. Or take a potentially small loss and encode it with x264.

Sorry I'm lacking on the terminology but what you said sounds like what I'm thinking in my head. Not wanting to "convert" to anything specific. Basically if i could just change the extension to something more usable (.mkv, .mp4, etc) without "converting" it that'd be ideal.

[usually_quiet]

@Beestin Did you already try the Linux version of VLC for playing these MPEG-2 TS files?

[Beestin]

@Beestin Did you already try the Linux version of VLC for playing these MPEG-2 TS files?

Not yet. I can get them to play myself since I have them on my DVR but I'm hoping to change these to a non-Linux version just to make it easier for the future when watching, sharing, backing up on computer vs DVR, etc.

I'm basically capturing these from a large antenna on the roof to a Channel Master DVR+ but as people with Directv/Cable know it's very hard to "back up" your DVR so that's basically what I'm trying to do... but not in some Linux format. If I could get them into a more friendly container I'd be able to share with others so they'd also have full quality music programs vs. the compressed stuff you find online. Everyone that shares music videos/concerts online does what they do to movies and compresses the hell out of them (very well i might add) but there is a noticeable drop in audio quality when listening on a large speaker setup vs watching/listening at the original/full quality so trying to preserve that for myself any other audiophiles out there. While I'm at it I'd like to just keep the video quality as well.

An hour long music program may by like 5-10gig but I could care less about that with the size that HD's are these days.

[hech54]

Have ANY of these files(?) played ANYWHERE outside of the Channel Master?

[netmask56]

Could you load the file into MKVmergeGui and make a screen capture of what is there so we can actually see what you are seeing? There is a free tool called snipping tool to do this or simply the Print Screen button on the keyboard and then paste as new image into Paint Shop Pro or Photoshop etc. Save as jpg and post.

[usually_quiet]

@Beestin Did you already try the Linux version of VLC for playing these MPEG-2 TS files?

Not yet. I can get them to play myself since I have them on my DVR but I'm hoping to change these to a non-Linux version just to make it easier for the future when watching, sharing, backing up on computer vs DVR, etc.

I'm basically capturing these from a large antenna on the roof to a Channel Master DVR+ but as people with Directv/Cable know it's very hard to "back up" your DVR so that's basically what I'm trying to do... but not in some Linux format. If I could get them into a more friendly container I'd be able to share with others so they'd also have full quality music programs vs. the compressed stuff you find online. Everyone that shares music videos/concerts online does what they do to movies and compresses the hell out of them (very well i might add) but there is a noticeable drop in audio quality when listening on a large speaker setup vs watching/listening at the original/full quality so trying to preserve that for myself any other audiophiles out there. While I'm at it I'd like to just keep the video quality as well.

An hour long music program may by like 5-10gig but I could care less about that with the size that HD's are these days.

I thought you might be running Linux on your PC, but your computer profile says windows 10. If you have mounted the Linux drive using Ex2Fsd and have copied the files to a Windows PC, try the Windows version of VLC to play them. Windows 10 doesn't come with an MPEG-2 decoder installed, but VLC has the necessary audio and video codecs built in, and has a good chance of working for playing TS files on a Windows 10 PC.

Linux uses an Ext* file system, but TS is a standard container file format. If the files from your DVR+ don't strictly conform to the MPEG-2 TS standard, that has nothing to do with Linux. The fault lies with Channel Master.

For what it's worth, I use Windows DVR software and TV tuner cards to record TV shows in TS format. I have a ton of recordings in TS format. Beyond playing these files with various software media players running on a Windows 7 PC, the built-in media players in both my TVs play them. So does the built-in media player in a relative's LG Blu-ray player.

[netmask56]

Yes all my PVR's are all Linux based and record stock standard TS format either mpeg2 or mpeg4 for HD transmissions. No encryption in Australian TV transmissions so no problem transferring to PC or MAC using either the local brand Beyonwiz or Topfield or most Enigma 2 based units. The "name" brands of PVR's or DVR's like LG, Samsung etc all apply encryption
For MPEG2 TS files ProjectX is good for cleaning up errors or TSDoctor for either MPEG2 and mpeg4.