[ExtractStream] Re: Status of Windows tools ==> Linux Solutions

[Dale Reed]

willieb9000@y... wrote:

> >
> > I can pull 950K/sec with netcat. None of the other ones even come clost
> > to its performance. Thats why most solutions like tympeg and netmplex
> > use it as their transport.
> 
> Dale, can you point me to a windows 98 app that will report Kbps to
> me when i use Netcat? All I can find report your Internet connection


dir and a stopwatch? :) When I get some time, I'll update tympeg to
report not only the processed bytes, but its performance as well. I've
been wanting to do that to netcat.

> speed, not your internal network transfer speeds. I know Win2k will
> do it, but I can't figure out how to do it in win98. I suspect I am
> gettin gpretty fast transfers, I am just not sure how fast.


Tridge has a utility that will report raw network IO. You can
get it from:

http://tivo.samba.org/download/tridge

However, its not going to tell you what you can get transferring
files. Its good to see if your network is working to its potential.

> Oh, and am I wrong that tympeg can still only do basic and best
> qualities becasue it uses netmplex?


I believe so. I record everything at Medium quality. Using -B, the
size comes out the same as when I don't use it. I don't really know
what the point of the flag is. In code, it sets the mpeg video rate.
The mpeg streams in the tystreams are at some pre-determined rate/quality.
mplex and tympeg do NOT convert formats or anything like they. They
simply make an MPG file out of the tystream contents (which are two
mpeg streams, themselves).

Looking at the code, it looks like it writes the video_rate (mux_rate)
to the header of some packets. It might just be a "hint" to the player
as to what the rate is going to be. It could also be used for the VBR
streams that Tivo 2.0.1 doesn't do right now (supposedly 2.5 will?).

Its possible that this value being wrong could cause players to
play the mpeg files incorrectly, crash (like WMP) and have other
side affects. Unfortunately, I don't know what the equivalent rates
for the different tivo levels are.

Dale