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Converting PVR recording to AVI

[Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 4,131
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in Freeview+ Recorders #1
This might not be the best place to ask this (could you inform me of the appropriate forum site?) but...

I have a PVR and can upload the records off it to the PC. These files are of course in mpeg-2 format. The question is what is the best software for converting these to AVI files?

I know about codecs, etc, but the problem is that I would like to achieve the compression and quality of those movies found via Bittorrent downloads (e.g. US TV series). I have had a few goes at converting DVDs to AVI (xvid, divx, etc)but found that my conversions aren't good enough (even for personal use).

How do I go about achieving this? Is it more than software; do I need a super fast PC and spend 2 days worth of CPU time to get a decent compression/quality conversion?

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    [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 5,528
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    #2
    AVI isn't a format it's a container. You can actually get about 50 different forms of encoded video inside an Audio Video Interleave file - things such as MPEG2 Transport Stream, MPEG2 elementary stream, MPEG2 Program stream, Divx 3, Divx4, Divx5, Divx 6, Xvid, H.264, etc. etc

    Which video format do you want to convert to? As you want to maintain quality/pixel size but reduce file size to the smallest for internet transmission I'd recommend H.264 which is also known as Mpeg4 part 10 which is also known as AVC

    I'd probably start with VirtualDubMod as it'll take MPEG2 transport stream as input and use whichever codec (Divx, Xvid, H.264) you happen to choose/have available and encode the output into a .AVI

    A visit to www.videohelp.com is also highly recommended !

    It'll depend on the codec but even the processor intensive one like H.264 (aka MPEG4 part 10) can actually operate faster than realtime on a 2-3GHz PC. (though it depends on frame rate and pixel resolution too of course!)

    By the way, which PVR - Topfield or Humax or did you remove the HDD from a 4TV box? (each of those machines have dedicated fora above by the way)

    Cliff
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    JBlinkJBlink Posts: 2,932
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    #3
    CJL wrote:
    (each of those machines have dedicated fora above by the way)

    Cliff

    Cliff, apologies for being off topic but I couldn't help notice...a latin scholar by chance?
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    [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 5,528
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    #4
    Nope one of my regrets in life is that I didn't do Latin at school. I did go to a grammar school and it was offered but I chose Spanish instead believing it to be "an easier option". If I'd done Latin I'd have had the basis of most European languages anyway.

    At least, having worked on translation of software I now have a pretty strong grounding in a lot of European languages and both Spanish and Italian are mainly Latin based anyway. I particularly like Italian because it's core langugae rules are so simple and heterogenous - which is more than can be said of the hodge-podge we call English Grammar.

    But at least being a grammar school we were actually taught proper English grammar so I know what a possesive pronoun or an intransitive verb are - I'm not sure that's true of the kids of today (or hopefully I'm wrong about that!)

    Cliff
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    [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 4,131
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    #5
    Hello,

    I thought I might update you of my attempt to convert a PVR recording to AVI...

    Thanks to CJL for pointing to www.videohelp.com.

    I tried the following programs with little success before finding a guide from www.videohelp.com which did work:
    VirtualDubMod (and other bits and pieces) using this guide: http://www.bobsomers.com/articles/dvdmoviefiles.php and mpeg2avi using this guide: http://nickyguides.digital-digest.com/mpeg2avi.htm. I thought I mention them here in case you want to try them out.

    What is working for me are these tools:
    1. HDTV2mpeg2 (free)
    Convert the transport stream which comes off your PVR to pure mpeg-2 file.
    http://www.videohelp.com/tools?tool=HDTVtoMPEG2
    2. TMPGEnc DVD Author (cost)
    Create a VOB file from the mpeg2 file.
    http://www.videohelp.com/tools?tool=TMPGEnc_DVD_Author
    3. SimpleDivX (free)
    http://www.videohelp.com/tools?tool=SimpleDivX
    Convert VOB file to AVI (DivX or xvid).
    4. VirtualDubMod (free)
    http://www.videohelp.com/tools?tool=VirtualdubMOD
    Used to remove adverts.

    SimpleDivX is as it says simple. I just gave it the file size I wish to convert the recording to; 700mb for a film and 350 for a TV show and away it goes.

    I had sound and synchronising issues at first but I think I have solved them now. It is best to convert the whole recording first before removing adverts since removing them first caused the sound synchronising problem...

    The guide is here: http://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=259841

    Regards
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