[ExtractStream] Editing MPEG2 streams

[Rick Weldon]

Sorry it took me a bit to get to a follow-up on this but I've been
expirementing.

I've snipped some stuff for brevity.

Merch wrote:

>
> Sony just does *love* to do things their own way, tho... don't
> they???
[snip]
> 2 things: 1) Maybe Sony did something slightly different to their
> stream encoding to make it "more efficient?" -- and 2) Was
> the stream you snagged an NBC stream? NBC owns a goodly chunk of Tivo,
> and those persnickety little "thumbs up to record this show"
> icons during the NBC commercials can cause Extractstream some serious
> heartburn...
>

It seems that Sony did do something a bit different. When I spoke with my
friend out in Seattle he reports that TiVoApp works for him no matter what
mode he uses on his Phillips. We're both running 2.5 and in comparing
notes he could get successful downloads whereas I couldn't unless I just
went after the tystreams with TiVoApp. The rest of the time it was a hit
and miss proposition for me at best.

> but dang is Jill Hennessy cute... ;-) ]]

Here here! I've adored her since the Law and Order days :)

> Yes... but there's more...
>
> AFAIK, Nandub only knows AVI, so those folks that are encoding to
> DivX with Nandub need to do the DVD2AVI thing... and yes, the default
> behavior with TMPGenc is you need WAV files for audio, but it's also
> for those who have DVD/SVCD players that cannot handle 32KHz audio need
> to convert to WAV to then "upconvert" to 44.1KHz before
> re-encoding to MPEG[2].
>

Yes, thanks! So I'm learning there is much more to this than simply
getting to SVCD format and the major contortions it can take to get there.

> Hrmmm... always looking for shortcuts, I snagged m2v_vfp for myself,
> and slid it into the freshly released TMPGenc 2.50 -- and methinks that
> this plugin will only handle *video* - Running Win2K, I could get
> TMPGenc to load the video fine, but the .m2a wouldn't load for me.
> Depending on your OS or other software you've tried/installed, you
> might have an Audio codec that I don't have on my box.
>

I don't but it would be nice to know... Here's what tmpgenc shows
installed as far as vfapi...

AVI2(OpenDML)Reader
BMP/PPM/TGA/JPG File Reader
Wave File Reader
MPEG-2 VIDEO Plugin
DirectShow Multimedia File Reader
AVI VFW Compatability Reader

Do you show these? If we can narrow it down we might be able to match up
the m2v_plugin and help those folks going SVCD to get there quicker. I've
installed so much sh*t I don't know what it what at this point.

> You might wanna try the DVD2AVI on the same show (if you still have the
> tystream...) I just did a "test clip" of 17830 frames of
> "High" quality Tivo recordings encoded to 1750kbit/sec - one
> with the .d2v file from DVD2AVI, and one straight from the .m2v - and I
> found a
> serious speed difference on my computer.

I haven't had a chance to try this as I been too busy trying to get rid of
commercials and not lose audio sync. This has been a major undertaking.
All of the tools out there stink. TMPGenc was losing audio sync even with
your method of clipping out the commercials. I thought this had the best
chance of working but it didn't. It looks as if I have found a solution
though. Unfortunately it adds steps. Warren Toomey put me on it with the
GOP editor capability he was working into playitsam.

It looks as if the GOPChop tool for Linux does the trick. I haven't
finished testing but so far the audio looks like its right where it should
be all they way into part 4 of 9 parts of the Sade concert and the other
stuff I tested. In TMPGenc I lost audio sync at the 2nd part onward.

GOPChop is also really quick because you don't have to re-encode if you
are staying at MPEG2 native off of the TiVo.

Code at freshmeat:
http://freshmeat.net/branches/19452/

The bad part is that I have to pass through my FreeBSD box on my way to
the PC for the final burn etc... This slows things down quite a bit as
well. Unfortunately its the only thing I've found that keeps the audio in
sync.

> I hope this helps with some of your tinkering!

Definately thanks! I've made the most headway in this adventure because I
found your page and got on the right track. Prior to that I was largely
groping around in the dark. :)

>
> Gotsta roll... Laterz!
> Roger "Merch" Merchberger

Later,
Rick