[ExtractStream] Editing MPEG2 streams

[Rick Weldon]

> Hey everyone,
>
> I am working on a program like DVD2SVCD that will do the whole process
> for us to either DVD or SVCD. Can people with working processes post or
> email me so I can get the info togther and get the finished project
> together.

Over the last couple of days I've gone deep into getting a Sade concert
offa my TiVo and getting it into at least system MPEG 2 format that I'd
like to burn to SVCD. I tried really hard to follow Merch's web page, but
well, it just twernt workin' (Sorry Merch. I'm not knocking ya buddy. If
anything I owe you much thanks for your information. Its taught me loads :)

Through my expirementation I did learn some things that may cut some of
the converting of formats that needs to go on. Then again, I'm a real
newbie when it comes to this stuff so maybe I'm missing something. If so
let me know. I'll give you what I have so far....

Preliminaries:
I have a stand-alone Sony TiVo running version 2.5.1.blah.blah.10 with a
TiVoNet board installed and I'm doing wireless up to my living room :) to
get ethernet connectivity. (not directly to the TiVo mind you -- I wish)

All the tools are running on WinXP Pro, Athalon XP 1600-Raid blah blah

1. I ripped the show which is 2 hours long off of the TiVo using TiVoApp
and saved the data into one big tystream file.

Notes on this step for those of you using the Sony using this version of
TiVo OS and TiVoApp....

Whenever I try to do a system MPEG into one filewith TiVoApp I get the
whole show down but the audio stops about 2 seconds into the resultant
MPEG file with no way I've found to get it back. On the rare occasion that
I do manage to get something downloaded that the audio doesn't die on its
hoplessly out of sync with the video. I have a friend with a Phillips who
reports no such problem. So this may only be with the Sony.

Whenever I try to get down the split streams into m2a and m2v files I
sometimes get loads of errors. Especially on shows longer than an hour.
They seem to freak about half way through or ExtractStream gives up the
ghost trying to deal with all of the errors.

If I then mplex these streams with TMPGenc I have a mess with audio sync
again.

Thennnnnnnn I came across TyConvert Wheeeeee!!! Yippeeeee. Whata guy!
Charlie Payne as he removed lots of "Payne" from my life :)

2. I use TyConvert to make a resultant MPEG 2 file from the downloaded
tystream in step one when I just want to keep the MPEG2 as it is. Green
stripe and all :)

3. Now, here's where things change from Merch's procedure. I'm guessing
that the need for converting to AVI and Wave is to get TMPGenc to load the
resultant m2a and m2v files that come out of that. I'm not sure why as
Merch doesn't say. During my trials and tribulations over the last couple
of days, I came across the m2v_vfp-0.46 plugin for TMPGenc. Simply unzip
and drop the m2v.vfp and m2vconf files into the same dir as TMPGenc and
voila. The m2a and m2v streams load right into TMPGenc without the need
for converting them as they come out of TyConvert.

4. Then I setup TMPGenc for SVCD pretty much as Merch's instructions show
to get rid of the green stripe and encode for SVCD then set it on its way
and go to bed for the night :). 2 hours of concert takes about 6 hours on
my machine :)

This effectively cuts out the need for WinAmp and DVD2AVI. I go from
TiVo->TyStream->TyConvert->TMPGenc->SVCD Format.

Yet left to test.... Using Merch's method for knocking out commercials.
And using Nero to write the resultant chunks to the CD-R and see that it
actually plays.

General Notes:
Splitstream gave me hell. Having to iterate over the Sade concert into 5
different files. TyConvert does it on the first pass. It is really shweet.
There are some other tools that Charlie has lying around I want to play
with as well. He seems to really understand the TyStreams and has that
knowlege in his tool.

With TyConvert, I get no audio sync problems. Whether I keep the streams
together into a system MPEG or I split them into m2a and m2v. Although I
haven't tried splitting out the commercials after the TyConvert. Earlier
attempts with the splitstream output yielded an okay first part, but each
subsequent part was out of sync. Once split you lose the timings and have
to trial and error the parts to get everything in sync. I found that
splitstream's reported timings just didn't work. I'm hoping that I don't
have this problem with the TyConvert streams. I'm thinkin that because
things are solidly timed to begin with that once I start splitting the
streams up everything'll be alright. Could be dreamin too. :)

If folks are interested in a more detailed listing of how I'm doing this
or have questions let me know.

It'd be great if someone else could try some of this and let me know what
you learn.

Here are the resource listings:

Charlie Paynes home page with information on the DisplayStream Tool which
I haven't played with yet.
http://www.armory.com/~charlie/

The TyConvert Tool Which he doesn't link to from his home page oddly
enough.
http://www.armory.com/~charlie/TyConvert/TyConvert.html

The m2v_vfp plugin for TMPGenc: I believe there are new versions of this,
but this is the one I used.
http://www.dvd-digest.net/downloads/files/encode/m2v_vfp-0.4.6.zip

Good luck rippin' ya TiVo!
Rick
-------------------------------------------------
It's hard to see a black cat in a dark room
especially when it's not there
--chinese proverb
or it's Schroedingers cat!

You need to get a life if you laughed at my .sig.
Goodness knows I need one :)
-------------------------------------------------
>
>
>
>
>
> Here is my current process (times for a 30 minute show):
>
> ~Extract the raw stream with Gary's Tivo App (Best Quality). (30
> minutes) ~Convert to MPEG using TyStream. (10 minutes)
> ~Run through DVD2AVI to get the d2v project file and audio file (with
> delay). (3 minutes)
> ~Convert the .mpa to wav using winamp. (5 minutes)
> ~Process wav in DVD2AVI to remove delay. (4 minutes)
> ~I then load the .d2v project file in TMPEGenc and load the DVD
> template with video only. Next, I save the project as a .tpr project
> file. (2 minutes)
> ~Convert the .tpr file to an .AVI file with VFAPI (2 minutes)
> ~Load the AVI into CCE SP 2.50 and encode to DVD standards (need the
> .tpr file to resize to 720x480. (5 hours)
> ~Multiplex the audio and video files together and you have a DVD
> compliant MPG (15 minutes)
>
> Total time: 6 hours and 15 minutes.
>
> Let me know if there are any ideas to make this process easier or
> shorter.
>
> Thanks
>
> Mike
>
> mpauley73@h...
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Michael Patterson [mailto:mpatterson@a...]
> Sent: Tuesday, January 22, 2002 5:35 PM
> To: ExtractStream@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [ExtractStream] Editing MPEG2 streams
>
>
>
> I finally got a good, solid MPEG2 copy of the program I wanted, using
> "tivoapp" to dump to a tystream, and then
> "tyconvert" to convert the resulting stream (and hacking off
> the first three chunks, for anyone who is trying this).
>
> So now I went to edit it, and --suprise-- no good way to edit it. I've
> seen many posts on how to convert to AVI, edit, then make an MPEG1
> stream for VCD, but I want to keep the final copy as MPEG2 (for DVD
> writing).
>
> Anyone have any ideas? I've tried DVD2AVI, and I end up with a strange
> interlacing problem. And even if I did convert to AVI, I have no clue
> how I'd go back to MPEG2.
>
> --Mike
>
>
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