Converting WTV files

Forums › Home Theatre (including HTPC and EPG Collector) › Converting WTV files

smac

333 posts

Ultimate Geek

#64130 8-Jul-2010 15:01

Time for a refresher on this topic - there's a few older threads but I don't believe any contained anything resembling a resolution.

My own personal need is simply to convert .WTV to something playable on my 2nd PC which is Linux (Mint).

However I am aware others have other needs, such as compressing to save space, or editing (ie removing ads).

So what's out there now? Anyone come across anything new?

At the moment I am having to convert to WMV using Movie maker, then convert again using Handbrake. Takes a crazy amount of time. The original WMV file is playable in Linux, however if I pause or fast forward the audio sync turns to custard. SO I remaster in Handbrake but this is sloooooow (on my Atom PC!).

Anyone got anything a little more elegant?

1 | 2

362 posts

Ultimate Geek

#349107 8-Jul-2010 15:06

MCE Buddy 2.0 converts wtv to whatever you like - avi, divx, h.264, mp4.
I find that it occasionally has sync issues tho.

Lounge:
WIN7 HOME x64 HTPC - E6420 2.13Ghz - 4Gb 800MHZ PATRIOT RAM - ASUS HD5670 1GB
ASUS P5B-VM MOBO - LG BLU-RAY DRIVE - BG3595 TUNER - 1.5TB STORAGE
PANASONIC 42" FULL HD PLASMA - PIONEER VSX1019AHK RECEIVER - WHARFDALE DIAMOND 10 SPEAKERS

Man Cave:
XBOX 360 MODERN WARFARE 2 EDITION - PANASONIC 37" PLASMA - SONY MONSTA 5.1 SURROUND SYSTEM

Regs

4066 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Snowflake

#349111 8-Jul-2010 15:10

mce buddy works great for my MPEG2 based wtv files - converting to MKV H.264. never had a sync problem. Havent tried with with freeview HD wtv's though.

Sales Engineer
Snowflake
www.snowflake.com

about.me/nzregs
Twitter: @nzregs

smac

333 posts

Ultimate Geek

#349349 9-Jul-2010 08:32

Whoops....didn't see the note about version 2.0 and grabbed 1.1 by mistake. This definitely errors on H.264

I'll have a go at getting 2.0 - when was the last time their website was working? Has been down since you posted....

Rollux

362 posts

Ultimate Geek

#349381 9-Jul-2010 10:06

Flick me a pm and I'll email you the installer tonight if you like (i'm sure i've still got it buried somewhere)
is about 6mb from memory

otherwise try from the green button or xpmediacentre.com.au

smac

333 posts

Ultimate Geek

#349389 9-Jul-2010 10:28

Ya found version 2. Just need wifie away from the TV long enough to give it a go

smac

333 posts

Ultimate Geek

#349634 9-Jul-2010 19:04

Ugh...not having much luck here.

Installed MCEBuddy 2 (with admin rights), running both the 'test' app and the service, it finds files, extracts, then goes back to idle. No output produced.

Config file:

[Service]
Logging=True

[SearchPath-0]
path= C:\Users\Public\Recorded TV

[Task-0]
profile=H264MP4
destinationpath= C:\Users\Public\Videos
RetainAC3=True

Main log:

Idle
: 0%
HD Demo: Fetching program information
Idle

Sample of file log:

Started: 2010-07-09T15:20:27:84
ACTION: Checking the requested job
ACTION: Extracting meta tags
ACTION: Fetching program information
Title: HD Demo
Genres:
Comments: Experience the stunning picture and sound quality of HDTV. The Freeview|HD channel, available for a .. (Imported via Big Screen EPG)
ACTION: Extracting MPEG (if necessary)
ACTION: Getting video specs
Video: Codec= Bitrate=0 Dimensions=0x0kbps FPS=0
Audio: Codec= Bitrate=0 Channels=0 Hz=0
Crop:
ACTION: Finding commercials / fixing DVR-MS starts
ACTION: Transcoding profile=H264MP4 passes=1 maxdims=720x576 qualmultiplier=1
ACTION: Remuxing (if necessary)
ACTION: Writing meta tags
ACTION: Cleaning up
Completed: 2010-07-09T15:20:34:60

At a guess I'd say it's related to all those 0's in the video/audio sections of the log. Not reading something correctly.

Also not sure about some of those actions - eg commercial skip is mentioned, but this shouldn't be enabled according to the config file.

It's almost like the config is not being read?

smac

333 posts

Ultimate Geek

#349637 9-Jul-2010 19:09

The whole reason I'm actually doing this is cause of the weird output I'm getting converting some .wtv files to .wmv using Windows Movie Maker.

I thought it had simply killed the audio sync. However after a bit of faffing about with a couple of full length files I believe what it has done is produced a .wmv with the wrong frame rate. So at the beginning the audio is in sync, but before long it's out. After an hour or so it's something like 70 seconds out! Weird considering the source is 7MC, it's converted on Win 7 using a MS product, and there are no frame rate choices in the software.

If anyone knows how to re-jig frame rate in a .wmv I'm all ears. Research continues.....

AliExpress

Shop now on AliExpress (affiliate link).

Asmodeus

1015 posts

Uber Geek

#349663 9-Jul-2010 21:12

Mce buddy is great for mpeg-2 wtv conversion but I believe it uses the inbuilt wtv converter in Windows 7.

Therefore if you try to do a show off tv3 say, it falls over. Then again I only have v1.1

Can anyone confirm 100% that v2.0 will successfully convert the freeview HD wtv files to x.264?

1gkar

722 posts

Ultimate Geek

#349709 10-Jul-2010 08:51

You could try Super.

According to a thread in GreenButton, it will transcode WTV files.

Silverstone LC14 HTPC Case/Intel E4600 CPU/GA-EP35-DS3 MOBO/Asus EN9500GT graphics/2GB RAM/total 2TB HDD space/HVR-2200 & 2X 150MCE tuner cards/LG GGC-H20L BD Drive/MCE2005/Mediaportal/TVServer 1.1.0Final/LG 55"3D LED-TV/Denon AVR-1803 receiver/X1 projector

smac

333 posts

Ultimate Geek

#349716 10-Jul-2010 10:06

Looks promising, thanks. The problem I've been having is that Movie Maker is shagging the fps......and for some reason I haven't been able to fix this via VLC.

SO, will try Super. I haven't been able to find any info on what fps a C4TV DVB-T transmission should in, so will assume it's PAL/25fps? Anyone know any different? The Super analysis is not giving me the info from the .wtv file.

1gkar

722 posts

Ultimate Geek

#349810 10-Jul-2010 18:09

Download Mediainfo, that will give full DVB-T file details. A TV2 DVB-THD broadcast is 50fps. Don't know about C4: don't watch it very often.

smac

333 posts

Ultimate Geek

#349847 10-Jul-2010 22:18

Thanks, will do. I got 'Super' to correctly analyse a TV2 broadcast, but am getting nothing but errors trying to encode any .wtv....doesn't matter what station.

I find it odd that only two apps would be claiming to re-encode .wtv.....I'm beginning to think they are.....incorrect. Perhaps a 64bit issue, dunno.

The upshot is, I have yet to find a reliable way of re-encoding New Zealand DVB-T broadcasts recorded as .wtv on a 64bit Win7 system, Very keen to hear from anyone who has. Blows me away that either I'm the only person to have tried (doubt it), or the only one to have problems.

smac

333 posts

Ultimate Geek

#349876 11-Jul-2010 09:24

1gkar: Download Mediainfo, that will give full DVB-T file details. A TV2 DVB-THD broadcast is 50fps. Don't know about C4: don't watch it very often.

1gkar, you've used Mediainfo on .wtv files? Not on the supported list.....

1gkar

722 posts

Ultimate Geek

#349971 11-Jul-2010 17:50

smac:
1gkar: Download Mediainfo, that will give full DVB-T file details. A TV2 DVB-THD broadcast is 50fps. Don't know about C4: don't watch it very often.

1gkar, you've used Mediainfo on .wtv files? Not on the supported list.....

Sorry. I use XPMCE & wasn't aware of that restriction.

1gkar

722 posts

Ultimate Geek

#349974 11-Jul-2010 17:56

Have just done a quick record of C4 -Select music programme- & the mediainfo details are:

FPS=25
height=720
Width=576
Standard=PAL
Scan Type=interlaced
Scan Order=Top Field First

1 | 2