Recording TV to PC?

Forums › Home Theatre (incl HTPC) › Recording TV to PC?

NickRennie

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Topic # 126901 23-Jul-2013 14:41

Hi,

I've got an HDHomerun set up - works great. What I want to do is record and save the files at a smaller file size than Windows Media Centre, for example, does. I'd like to to be able to save a 45min show as a 350MB file. How would I do this? Any software recommendations?

Thanks

Nick

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Reply # 864307 23-Jul-2013 14:48

Windows Media Center will always record in WTV format. You will need a third party software to convert to other formats.

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sidefx

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Reply # 864318 23-Jul-2013 14:59

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MCE Buddy

Deev8

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Reply # 864533 23-Jul-2013 18:28

NickRennie: What I want to do is record and save the files at a smaller file size than Windows Media Centre, for example, does. I'd like to to be able to save a 45min show as a 350MB file. How would I do this?

As others have suggested, it will be at least a two step process. Recording a digital TV broadcast takes the broadcast data stream and writes it to disk with minimal processing. As a second step you can take that file and compress it / reduce it's resolution or quality to get a smaller size file - I think that Handbrake is a decent application to use for that second step, but I'm sure other people have different favourites.

You should be aware that processing the recording to get a smaller file size takes quite a lot of processing power, and depending on the PC that you use, it may take longer than it would to watch the recording.

You may also consider if you want an intermediate process as well - editing commercials out of your recording.

1gkar

722 posts

Ultimate Geek

Reply # 866865 26-Jul-2013 22:12

1: edit adverts from H.264 FreeviewHD recording: I use VideoReDo -costs dosh

2: simplest transcoding solution is Handbrake -it is free

caveat:

If you are wanting to transcode any FreeviewHD recording with AC3,
that is all you need. If you are wanting to transcode from Prime, or the
plus 1 stations, that utilise AAC-HE audio, you need further steps.

Below is an excerpt of a post from Kimwjunglist which showed the easiest
method, to transcode this filetype, involving Winamp. This was over a year or
more back, so there may be more modern methods of which I am unaware.

"SinceTVNZ insist on still using AAC-HE LATM audio (thank you TV3 for
providing a AC3 alternative audio track) and Syabas not making any
commitments when they will release a firmware fix to play those files I
set to finding a way (not in real time to be sure) of playing those
files on the PCH.Note this is still in experimentation stage (and though
he is unlikely to read this, many thanks to Donald Graft, author of
dgindex and now dgavcindex for taking some sample captures I uploaded,
and changing his program to read this audio file format). Those who are
game to try I would welcome feedback on their experiences.Note also this
is not a complete guide - much is left to the reader to work out!

1. Get dgavcindex from dgavcindex You will need the Alpha 30 release that supports LATM audio
2. Open the ts file captured from your DVB-T card. Go to Audio, select theAAC-HC LATM/LOAS stream
3. Save the project and demux video. You should
get 3 files xxx.dga xxx.avc (the video) and xxx.aac (the audio demuxed)
4. Fire up Winamp and open this aac file. You should get audio. I am using Winamp v5.54
5. Get hold of the Winamp File Output plugin (go to the winamp site and look for plugins)
6. In Winamp Options/Preferences/Output choose the File Output plugin
7. Play the file again. It will output the file as a wav file
8. Use besweet or the gui belight to convert this wav file to ac3 (make sure you
retain the sampling rate of 48Khz)
9. Get hold of tsmuxer Get the gui if you can
10.Open the avc and ac3 files you have now. This part I am not sure you have to do and I doing further experimentation on it. In the audio delay area insert a delay of 1000ms (it seems to be constant)
11.Mux the files back as a ts file"

Here are the settings I use for transcoding a TV1-3 programme with Handbrake:

ref=4:bframes=4:b-adapt=2:direct=auto:me=umh:subq=9:rc-lookahead=60:analyse=all:psy-rd=1.0,0:deblock=-2,-2:vbv-bufsize=31250:vbv-maxrate=25000
<set average bitrate to 800> (in the video tab). This will give a final filesize of around 320-345mb, depending on programme length. This is with variable framerate, 2-pass encoding & AC3 passthrough.

I recommend you cut a section of the recorded HD file to check the final result,prior to full transcode. Use TSMuxerGUI for this.

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AppleJackXD

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Reply # 866932 27-Jul-2013 00:32

Use any video converter ,i convert my 1 to 2 gb video files down to 300 MB using this.

I have a tutorial on YouTube i made here is the link : ) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLKVFzQIjhE

The video is called bandicam video files but this works for any videos regardless of what video recording software you use. Use my method and it will work. Enjoy my tutorial : )

Btw i have an i7 3770k CPU this video conversion make take longer if you have an i5 CPU or an amd bulldozer cpu LOL

Here is the link to Any Video Converter convert your large files to High Quality AVI format and they will go from 1 or 2 or 3 gb down to 300 mb

http://www.any-video-converter.com/products/for_video_free/

AppleJackXD

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Reply # 866936 27-Jul-2013 00:37

Deev8:
NickRennie: What I want to do is record and save the files at a smaller file size than Windows Media Centre, for example, does. I'd like to to be able to save a 45min show as a 350MB file. How would I do this?

As others have suggested, it will be at least a two step process. Recording a digital TV broadcast takes the broadcast data stream and writes it to disk with minimal processing. As a second step you can take that file and compress it / reduce it's resolution or quality to get a smaller size file - I think that Handbrake is a decent application to use for that second step, but I'm sure other people have different favourites.

You should be aware that processing the recording to get a smaller file size takes quite a lot of processing power, and depending on the PC that you use, it may take longer than it would to watch the recording.

You may also consider if you want an intermediate process as well - editing commercials out of your recording.

The way i do it you lose no quality i convert my 1 to 2gb video files to high quality AVI and my videos go from 1 to 2 GB down to 300 MB i have a tutorial on my youtube channel showing ppl how to do what this guy is asking. As for the guy with the huge comment below he is making a simple 2 minute task extremely hard lmao.

Im pretty knowledgeable when it comes to videos as i been making youtube videos and burning movies since 2008. I upload HD gaming videos on youtube everyday and have found out the perfect easy 1 step process to make my videos small file size yet losing no quality at all.

kiwijunglist

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Reply # 866954 27-Jul-2013 03:26

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disagree with avi suggestion. better with h264 ... better quality per mb. +1 for handbrake. there is a reason why most torrent rippers use h264.

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cgreenwood

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Reply # 866960 27-Jul-2013 07:24

As sidefx mentioned in the first reply MCE Buddy is the tool for the job here, it will monitor the recorded TV folder and automatically convert anything recorded by media center into the format and size of your choosing. It handles that pesky HE-AAC format fine and will convert it to other formats such as AC3 which are easily playable on other devices such as smart TV's and PS3. You really dont need to bother with all those complicated manual conversions if you dont want to.

dwl

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Reply # 866980 27-Jul-2013 09:16

kiwijunglist: disagree with avi suggestion. better with h264 ... better quality per mb. +1 for handbrake. there is a reason why most torrent rippers use h264.

There may be some confusion about the container versus the codec used. From Wikipedia: "An AVI file may carry audio/visual data inside the chunks in virtually any compression scheme, including Full Frame (Uncompressed), Intel Real Time (Indeo), Cinepak, Motion JPEG, Editable MPEG, VDOWave, ClearVideo / RealVideo, QPEG, and MPEG-4 Video." I thought it is very possible to have H.264 inside a AVI container but it does get confusing with the merits of different containers and support for playing the combinations.

kiwijunglist

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Reply # 867132 27-Jul-2013 17:34

ahhh yes DWL you are right my mistake. I made the assumption that the avi container would not be h264, generally avi container is not used frequently for h264 (more often it is mpeg2/avi/divx). People tend to save h264 as a .mp4 or .mkv file.

All of the above options are probably ok
1. any video converter
2. handbrake
3. mce buddy

I don't know if the additional steps in 1gkar post are necessary (probably not). MCE Buddy is the only automated one, unless you create an additional script that runs the other programs. I would say handbrake would provide the best quality + compression, but is probably not worth the additional hassle over mcebuddy.