[ExtractStream] Extracting to a non-SVCD format
Edmond E. Shwayri
eshwayri at n...
Mon, 18 Feb 2002 20:32:25 -0500
I am doing that right now. This is what I did.
[1] Get the .ty stream from the Tivo. You obviously succeeded with
that. Because I have a Sony Tivo I use StreamServer. Only one that I can
get to work.
[2] Used splitstream to split into .m2a and .m2v. Save the offset values
it spits out.
[3] Use WinAmp to convert the .m2a to a WAV file. Do NOT re-sample to
44.1. Keep it at 32 or you will get audio distortion. Besides why
up-sample its not like you can regain the lost quality.
[4] Play the WAV file. Does it sound right? It should if the stream was good.
[5] Use DVD2AVI to create the d2v file For DVD2AVI to work have the following :
TMPGEnc-2.02.31.119.zip
TMPGEnc-2.01.30.116-vfp.zip
DVD2AVI_176.zip
VFAPIConv-1.04-EN.zip
Be sure to install according to the instructions in each package.
My guess is that only the last 2 are absolutely necessary to create the
AVI, but why not go ahead and install all. You may want to create an MPEG
at a later date.
[6] Use VFAPIConv to create the "fake" AVI from the .d2v. It will create a
small-ish AVI file that uses VFAPI as the codec. VFAPI has its index in
the AVI file while the actual video is loaded from the .m2v file so be sure
you don't delete it.
[7] I run VirtualDub, but NanDub should work. A matter of taste I
think. Tell VirtualDub to open the .AVI file. Hits CTRL+Left Arrow and
you should be able to see the first frame of the video.
[8] In VirtualDub click on the Audio option and chose .WAV. Show it to the
.WAV file that you created above.
[9] Now the tricky part, you need to correct the audio skew so it matches
the video. Chose the "Interleaving" option in the Audio menu and you will
see the "skew" option which defaults to 0. Now in theory you should put
one of the numbers that splitstream spat out when it divided the file. The
2 numbers splitstream gave me were -56 and -123. Neither worked for
me. After much trial and error I found -512 worked for me, but this may be
different for each video and each TiVo, so you will need to experiment. As
to how you do that, I basically forwarded to a section of the video where
there was dialogue and close-ups of the face. I then marked the start of
my selection with the Home key. Forwarded 20 seconds or so and then hit
the End key to end my selection. I then set my Video->Compression and
Audio->Compression correctly and en-coded (saved as AVI) those 20
seconds. Any codec that you KNOW will do. I used DivX3 and MP3. Played
it back in media-player and then re-adjusted the skew till it sounded good.
[10] Ok, once you figure out the skew its time to setup the filters to
alter the video. You need to do several things :
A: You will need to use the Fill filter to block out the green bar at the
left hand side.
B: Use a fill filter to get rid of the white stuff at the top of the picture.
C: On mine I found the right hand side was unstable for a few columns
(color wouldn't match the rest of the picture), so I used a fill on that too.
D: De-Interlace the video.
E: With TiVo streams you will have to re-size or you will get a very
squished image. My recording was at high quality (480x480) and I re-sized
to (704x480). At this point I invite comment as to what size I should have
used to maintain the 4:3 aspect. I just went with looks and I liked the 704.
At this point I opted to save off an intermediate file which was a real AVI
since I didn't feel comfortable (and it was horribly slow) splicing the
fake AVI. To do this I used the HuffYuv lossless codec and kept the audio
un-compressed. I ended up with a 37 Gig file, but it was a real AVI and I
had no loss of quality. With this new file I cropped out 16 columns that
were black and then shifted the picture around to make it look centered. I
then told VirtualDub to encode it to DivX4.12. I could have probably done
it in one step, but I just didn't.
If you want my processing settings file for VirtualDub which will include
the filters correctly set I will be happy to EMail them to you (they are
small files).
Comments PLEASE... This is the first one I have done and will be happy to
improve my procedure.
Oh and yes you do want a fast computer. Dual is nice, but a lot of this is
serial in nature (the filters) and will benefit from a faster single processor.
At 05:17 PM 2/18/02, you wrote:
>Has anyone had any success in extracting to anything other than SVCD?
>I'm trying without success to get to a DIVX .avi file.
>
>I've been trying with TivoApp 2.0. Extracting as a single mpeg2 file
>gives me a file that I'm told has the audio out of sync. I haven't
>been able to verify that myself, because I can't seem to find a codec
>for the video. I've taken this file through DVD2AVI, then through
>GordianKnot and Nandub for the video. I can't seem to have much luck
>with audio. I'm trying to convert it to MP3, but WinAmp seems to
>start the conversion all over again once it completes it, and FreeAmp
>did OK, but there seem to be nasty spikes in the finished sound.
>
>Extracting as a separate video and audio stream gave me a video
>stream, but a 0 byte audio stream.
>
>Extracting a tyStream, and using TyConvert pretty much lead me to a
>similar situation as with extracting to a single mpeg2 file.
>
>Has anyone gotten an .avi file and how?
>
>(and yes, I know, I'm in the minority trying to get a DIVX
>file...it's actually more convenient for me... )
>
>
>
>
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