Is it possible to auto convert DVB-T recording to MPEG ?

[JonathanAnon]

I have only recently changed from analog to digital, as the national broadcaster has just started broadcasting in digital.. Everything works fine, except I can no longer auto convert to MPEG.. All of my recordings are huge .ts (Transport Stream) files..

I used to be able to use the "Auto Convert MPEG2 Recordings to .MPG" when I recorded in analog. Is there any way of getting Win TV to autoconvert .ts files to MPG.

[TheNewGuy]

It depends what broadcast standards your broadcaster is using. MPEG2 can be stored in a .mpg file. A lot of countries are starting to use the newer H.264 instead (aka MPEG4), which cant be stored in a .mpg file.

[JonathanAnon]

The channels are broadcast in MPEG4, I use the DivX H264 decoder.. So I just have to work with the .ts files then, or use a separate program for converting .ts to another format?

[TheNewGuy]

Yep.

[toresak]

I am very interested in your answers to this case. I have WinTv-HVR-930C in use in Norway DVB-T and cannot convert to mpeg. Why does not WinTV v 7.029304 do the job or do you have a free converting program to do this?

[Robo_Raver]

I am very interested in your answers to this case. I have WinTv-HVR-930C in use in Norway DVB-T and cannot convert to mpeg. Why does not WinTV v 7.029304 do the job or do you have a free converting program to do this?

A lot of countries are starting to use the newer H.264 instead (aka MPEG4), which cant be stored in a .mpg file

[toresak]

Can anybody give me a name of converting program that can convert Hauppauge MPEG-2 TS ( Norway H.264 video and A3+ audio) to MPEG4 file.

[Mr X]

ffmpeg should do it. The program needs to be in C:\program files\wintv\wintv7

Edit Settings.xml file

change

to

<!--<AutoConvertExe>ffmpeg.exe</AutoConvertExe> -->
<!--<AutoConvertExeAudioOnly>ffmpeg.exe</AutoConvertExeAudioOnly> -->
<!--<AutoConvertArgsWithVideo>-i [SOURCE_FILE] -f dvd -acodec copy -vcodec copy [DEST_FILE]</AutoConvertArgsWithVideo> -->
<!--<AutoConvertArgsAudioOnly>-ab 128k -i [SOURCE_FILE] [DEST_FILE]</AutoConvertArgsAudioOnly> -->


<AutoConvertExe>ffmpeg.exe</AutoConvertExe>
<AutoConvertExeAudioOnly>ffmpeg.exe</AutoConvertExeAudioOnly>
<AutoConvertArgsWithVideo>-i [SOURCE_FILE] -f dvd -acodec copy -vcodec copy [DEST_FILE]</AutoConvertArgsWithVideo>
<AutoConvertArgsAudioOnly>-ab 128k -i [SOURCE_FILE] [DEST_FILE]</AutoConvertArgsAudioOnly>

This example would convert MPEG-2 TS -> MPEG-2 PS (.MPG) and MPEG-2 Audio TS -> MP3

but you can then put your own command line in to convert to whatever format you like

I will put a full in depth post up in the how to, but I've been busy on other projects.

[MW1927]

Hi,

I’ve made the edits suggested, and the TS file is indeed converted to an MP3.

However, I’m experiencing a drop-off in quality following the conversion. I’ve used MediaInfo to look at the two files and it reports the following:

The original TS file (1 audio stream, MPEG audio, English)
160 Kbps
48.0 KHz
2 channels
MPEG Audio (Version 1) (Layer 2) (Joint stereo)

The MP3 file created by the conversion
64.0 Kbps
48.0 KHz
2 channels
MPEG Audio (Version 1) (Layer 3) (Joint stereo / MS stereo)

I’d like the MP3 file to be 160 Kbps. I’ve tried changing the “-ab” value to 160k, but that had no effect, and I’ve also tried completely removing that argument (“-ab 128k”) completely, but again, that had no effect – the resulting MP3 was still 64 Kbps.

Can anybody make any suggestions?

Regards,

Mark

[Mr X]

it may be down to the build of ffmpeg you have. let me dig out the one I tried and attach it.

[Mr X]

give this version at a try.

Try also running the conversion manually on the command line and you can see the parameters

[MW1927]

Thanks - for reference, I've got version N-31653-gfaa3881, built on July 28 2011.

Regards,

Mark

[MW1927]

Hi,

I’ve managed to get it working - although I think it was a problem with Settings.xml that was causing the low bitrate in the converted file.

I ended up using my original version of ffmpeg to do the conversion (that version of ffmpeg was installed when I installed Radio Downloader, so I just copied it to the WinTV7 folder). I tried the one that was posted yesterday, and whilst it worked from the command line, the automatic conversion failed. The WinTVRec log file said “Unexpected error running post reccording job: System.ComponentModel.Win32Exception: The operation was canceled by the user”.

I found that I could get the conversion to work properly (i.e. to give me the bitrate I wanted) by changing the order of the arguments in Settings.xml. The line in question was originally:

<AutoConvertArgsAudioOnly>-ab 128k -i [SOURCE_FILE] [DEST_FILE]</AutoConvertArgsAudioOnly>

I switched the order of the first two arguments, so it read:

<AutoConvertArgsAudioOnly>-i [SOURCE_FILE] -ab 128000 [DEST_FILE]</AutoConvertArgsAudioOnly>

And the conversion then created an MP3 at 128 kbps. So it may be worth modifying that section of Settings.xml for future releases.

I’ve actually set the “ar” value to 192000 as that is the highest bitrate of the broadcasts I record (BBC R4). This means that I get larger-than-needed files of programmes recorded from 5 Live (96 kbps) and R4 Extra (160 kbps). Does anybody know if there’s a way of getting ffmpeg to apply the bitrate of the audio in the original file to the converted audio? I haven’t found anything yet (and it’s not a big deal).

So, many thanks to all foryour help and advice – much appreciated.

Regards,

Mark

[toresak]

Hi,
I am not an expert on this. I have downloaded ffmpeg-0.10.tar.bz2 and I do not find any Settings.xml file. And I have had a look in ffmpeg documentation and that is too complicated for me. Are there any place I can download a complete program setup that I can copy to C:\program files\wintv\wintv7 and do the job converting Hauppauge MPEG-2 TS ( Norway H.264 video and AC3 audio) to MPEG4 file.

[Mr X]

When I get some spare time, I'll try and post a full guide for you.