[Extractstream [MM]] simplest path to VCD

[Brett Kuehner]

The simplest way that I've found to get from the Tivo to a VCD with proper 
audio sync (although not necessarily the best quality possible) is the 
following:

1) Extract files from Tivo using jdiner's TyTool (a really excellent app, 
by the way). Do this in split mode, so you end up with .m2v and .m2a files

2) Mux them into a single .mpg file with TmpgEnc (File/MPEG Tools/Simple 
Mux). This is pretty quick (a few minutes on my PC, for a half-hour show), 
and results in an MPG file that can be played fine on the PC, with no sync 
problems on any shows that I've tried.

3) Process this file with FlasKMPEG, using the "bbMPEG Encoder" as the 
Output format (Options/Select Output Format), and the "NTSC VCD" profile 
(Profiles/NTSC VCD), and leaving all other settings as default. This 
produces a VCD-compliant MPEG file (called, by default, "C:\flaskout"). 
This takes a bit longer, but is still maybe only 15 minutes for a half-hour 
show on my Athlon 1800.

4) Rename that file to something.MPG, and then burn to VCD with Nero (or 
your favorite VCD-burning tool).


This seems to work reliably, and to not have any sync problems at all. I 
tried using just TmpgEnc to do all the work, but it doesn't like to process 
the muxed files (crashes). I imagine there is a bad MPEG record in them 
somewhere that messes it up. And if you skip the muxing step, the file 
TmpgEnc produces has sync problems.

The quality of the result could be better, and there are probably options 
that could be tweaked to improve it, but for now this is good enough for 
me. I can turn a show on the Tivo into a VCD in around an hour from start 
to finish, with not too much work on my part, and using only free tools 
(except for the CD-burning app).

TmpgEnc: http://www.tmpgenc.net
FlaskMPEG: http://www.flaskmpeg.net/


         Brett

--
Brett Kuehner
bvk@pobox.com