OK, I will start by saying I am very much a computer person, but I am not an expert on digital video. I know a good amount about codecs, formats, etc, but there is still plenty I don't know. Sorry if this post is long winded, but I would rather give too much info versus too little. I know web forums provide much better solutions when the person asking the question is verbose. So I have spent the past few days ironing out all the details in trying to record the raw feeds from my cablebox to my PC via firewire. I figured that out, and it works pretty much fine for the most part. My setup is Windows Vista Ultimate SP1, and SA8300HD cablebox (cablevision is the cable provider), and I connect via a standard firewire cable. I use VLC player to record the raw feed, as this is the ONLY piece of software I have found to capture from my cablebox via firewire (including some brand name apps like adobe premiere CS3, Windows Movie Maker), not that I expected much from Movie maker, but whatever I tried it anyway. I am open to suggestions on any other capture software that may work via firewire to my cablebox. VLC Player does a decent job (I get some fragmented frames), and I record the feed by simply selecting to "dump raw input" which is the same as me recording it as an MPEG2-TS file, which is what cablevision sends across the wire. I hope that is enough background on my setup. So to get to my question: Obviously now I want to transcode these files to other formats. Most likely there are 2 formats I want to use 1) Divx/Xvid (for files I keep on my PC) 2) MPEG2 (for files I want to burn to DVD) Of course I want to do this in as lossless a manner as possible, so if possible, single transcoding of the file is ideal. I don't want to transcode through 3-4 different formats because I am sure quality will suffer. I downloaded MainConcept Reference 1.1.1 30 day trial because it looked to be very easy to use and robust. However I can not get it to transcode the ripped mpg file without crashing. I tracked that issue down to the audio. If I transcode just the video, it doesn't crash, but transcoding just the audio, or both, and the app crashes within a minute or so of transcoding. I tried ALL audio formats for the output, but it always crashes. (for the record the same crash occurs on XP Pro, so its not Vista related) Since I likely won't purchase that app anyway, it is probably more of a dead end. I just wanted to see what it could do. So I need to know, what application can I use to convert from MPEG TS to Divx, and also to an MPEG format compatible with standard DVD? As I mentioned I would like to take these raw files and some of them will go to DVD, and some will go to a hard drive in Divx/xvid format. I am willing to purchase something if the price is reasonable (50 or less is pretty much my cutoff) although it would have to be something that offers a trial so I could ensure it will work with the raw files I have. Also, if someone knows of another process, or something I have missed, then please fill me in on that too.
I don't know of a lossless DivX codec, but I have used this method: Open the MPEG-TS in 'DGIndex', select the required audio and video sub channels from the raw stream, then demux to .m2v and .wav. Load the streams into 'VirtualDub', edit as required, choose an appropriate audio format and for the video - DivX compression, configuring the codec to suit - save as AVI. Both DGIndex and VirtualDub run from their own folder - no installation. The DivX6 'Pro' codec can be trialed and Lame MP3 for audio is free. I think that 'MPEG Streamclip' can quickly convert the TS to MPEG without loss.
Thanks for your suggestions, I will certainly give them a go and post back with my results. With regards to my use of "lossless" I totally understand that quality will be lost when encoding to Divx/xvid or even just when re-encoding to standard MPEG2 format for DVD. The rips I have are generally 1080i or 720p, so I know I need to tone them down to get them in the formats I want. I just meant, I didn't want to get a response from someone that is like: run your file throught this program and convert to format A, then run this other program and convert to format B, then take format B, and split that file into 2, then run through this other program and convert to format C. Then convert format C to divx. Basically I am looking for a 1 (or 2) step approach so I retain as much original quality as possible. So your suggestion has a few steps, but I will try it out. In the end, as long as I find something that looks good, I will be happy. I just dont want to start ripping a bunch of stuff, only to find out I was not doing it the best way, and need to do it all over again. Some rips I have are pretty big (like the superbowl, I am a Giants fan)
FWIW, I find that these these MPEG-TS vary as to suitability for conversion. Some show no problems, others are plagued with sync errors that no amount of processing will fix. It's almost as if the local broadcaster has good or bad days and although the stream playback is perfectly acceptable on the PC - once converted it all ends in tears. Good luck.
I agree with you on that. Perhaps it is because the actual data in the stream can vary. The biggest problems I have noticed so far is with 1080i signals, while 720p or standard 480 seems to behave better when I rip it.
