Advice: commercial removal and transcoding of .TS files

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geekPete

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Topic # 64339 13-Jul-2010 16:22

Hi all,

I'm looking for some advice and pointers as to what software works well, specifically for us here in NZ with FreeView encoding.

I'm wanting to :

transcode my .TS files (NZ Freeview =mostly h.264+AAC audio) into xvid files (with mp4 or mkv wrappers) for playback on lower spec machines on my network.

resize transcode according to some rules, e.g. only resize videos that are larger than 720p, down to 720p, else do not resize. (At the very least, just set a maximum size.)

have this happen automatically, in the background, on low priority threads, so it doesn't interrupt other things happening on my mediaserver (not used as a workstation, only media/TV recording and viewing, transcoding, etc).

have it happen when either a recording has been watched; after a certain number of days; or when the source disk is x% full.

produce a commercial skip file - either before or after transcoding - so that when watching the file, the player will skip over areas that are deemed to be commercials.

after watching the transcode for the first time (preferably via MediaPortal) and being happy that the automatically-generated commercial skip file is correct, commit the file to a non-re-encoding cutting utility that cuts out the commercials for good from the file, and also removes the com skip file.

when removing commercials, be able to specify a different tuning config/ini file for each different channel (maybe looking at the file name for substrings that identify the channel?)

have the converted files be browsable in MediaPortal (maybe via the Videos page, in a folder called "Broadcast Archive"?)

How much of this is feasible, and recommended, I don't know. Just trying to set up my first HTPC at the mo.

I've done some browsing around, but alot of info is either out-of-date (perhaps?) or not NZ specific (seems like FreeView has some non-standard encoding perhaps?). I'm feeling like I could waste alot of time going around in circles, so I'd love to hear from anyone who has a similiar need, and who has got it all working - and preferably on WinXP.

So any advice is most welcome....?
Apparently:

MCE Buddy 1.x does not support decoding H.264.
MCE Buddy 2.x does not have a GUI.

There has been some trouble using Comskip with NZ Freeview encoding, mainly due to the AAC encoding:
http://www.kaashoek.com/comskip/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=903

I'm assuming by this post here http://www.kaashoek.com/comskip/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=764 ,that some channels either can't be decoded properly, or a separate comskip.ini file is need to be tuned individually for each channel. If that's the case, how best to do this?

I'd be happy to use GBPVR, if that was easier to get all this done in, but I have had a nightmare time trying to get a good decoder for it, so I gave up and managed to succeed with MediaPortal.

Thanks,
Pete.

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Reply # 350993 13-Jul-2010 18:20

I've never encountered any issues with GB-PVR, it's written by a NZer and works fine with a number of H.264 codecs. I used PowerDVD8 when I ran Vista and it works perfectly under Windows7 using the Microsoft DTV decoder.

As for commercial skipping it's something I gave up on due to the issues with audio and comskip. I don't see a need for transcoding however, with HDD's being so cheap I just add space to my WHS as needed. I have 2TB on my PVR for TV recordings and then move stuff across to WHS.

geekPete

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Reply # 351181 14-Jul-2010 00:00

I don't see a need for transcoding however, with HDD's being so cheap I just add space to my WHS as needed. I have 2TB on my PVR for TV recordings and then move stuff across to WHS.

It's not just an issue of space, but playback compatibility. Only a high-spec dual-CPU machine, or one with an HD vid card will play back h.264 HD, whereas an SD xvid/divx file can even be played back on a 700Mhz XBox 1! (See http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?p=360343 for encoding details). And it would be around 1/5th the filesize.

Not sure if comskip can or cannot read our HE-AAC encoded .TS files - I've read of problems, but then again it appears some people are using it here. I guess the GBPVR guys would know since the auto-comskip feature is built into the NZ-built GBPVR.

password1

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Reply # 351370 14-Jul-2010 13:22

I use OJOsoft total video converter to covert my ts files so I can share them with others. An 8Gb SBS broadcast of a tour de france stages gets squashed into a 2.4Gb MKV file, which then fits on my 8Gb memory stick. Takes freaking ages to convert though - about 3hrs - but then my laptop very underspec'd for the job. The software can covert into DivX and XVid and many other formats. I did a small amount of looking around for file conversion software but most wouldn't handle .ts files

1gkar

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Reply # 352118 15-Jul-2010 21:36

Because the H.264/He-AAC format is so new, comparatively speaking (Us & France, & maybe, one or two other countries use it), most of what you are attempting to find is just not available. The process to transcode from our Freeview formats is time-consuming & arduous, to say the least.

Apparently, VideoRedo (I haven't tried it) now is compatible with FreeviewHD recordings. The thread, relating to this version, is on this forum somewhere in Jan/Feb, 2010.

I was attempting to locate a thorough thread on how to transcode *.ts files & keep audio in sync -using DGAIndex, but couldn't find it. To be perfectly frank, the search function for this site is abysmal. Why do forums use Google for intra-site searches????????????? Afterdawn is another one.

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valtam

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Reply # 352850 18-Jul-2010 00:12

I use comskip http://www.kaashoek.com/comskip/ in MediaPortal for commercial removal and set it to process the .ts file at the end of the recording, if you need a reliable .ini file mine works well.
When you watch your recordings, it automatically jumps from the start of the ad break to the beginning of the next segment of the show your watching :) So, no ads, wunderbar! Mine play out of the TV Recordings folder in MediaPortal client.

I use VideoReDo TVSuite, it has a feature built in to it called Ad-Detective which automatically scans the video file, and places trim markers cut out those pesky ads ;) Then for encoding from .ts to other formats (mp4), I use ImTOO MPEG Encoder Ultimate.

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1gkar

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Reply # 353109 18-Jul-2010 21:30

valtam: I use comskip http://www.kaashoek.com/comskip/ in MediaPortal for commercial removal and set it to process the .ts file at the end of the recording, if you need a reliable .ini file mine works well.
When you watch your recordings, it automatically jumps from the start of the ad break to the beginning of the next segment of the show your watching :) So, no ads, wunderbar! Mine play out of the TV Recordings folder in MediaPortal client.

I use VideoReDo TVSuite, it has a feature built in to it called Ad-Detective which automatically scans the video file, and places trim markers cut out those pesky ads ;) Then for encoding from .ts to other formats (mp4), I use ImTOO MPEG Encoder Ultimate.

So you are saying that VideoRedo definitely works for FreeviewHD recordings?

sbiddle

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Reply # 353113 18-Jul-2010 21:41

valtam: I use comskip http://www.kaashoek.com/comskip/ in MediaPortal for commercial removal and set it to process the .ts file at the end of the recording, if you need a reliable .ini file mine works well.
When you watch your recordings, it automatically jumps from the start of the ad break to the beginning of the next segment of the show your watching :) So, no ads, wunderbar! Mine play out of the TV Recordings folder in MediaPortal client.

I use VideoReDo TVSuite, it has a feature built in to it called Ad-Detective which automatically scans the video file, and places trim markers cut out those pesky ads ;) Then for encoding from .ts to other formats (mp4), I use ImTOO MPEG Encoder Ultimate.

What is the speed like for Comskip now? I haven't used it for a long time, mainly because when the first H.264 support came out it was around 3x realtime (on a X2 5000 processor) which was a total waste of time.

valtam

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Reply # 353125 18-Jul-2010 22:27

1gkar: So you are saying that VideoRedo definitely works for FreeviewHD recordings?

Well I use DVB-S, so if you mean DVB-T for HD then I haven't tried it on that.

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valtam

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Reply # 353126 18-Jul-2010 22:30

sbiddle:

What is the speed like for Comskip now? I haven't used it for a long time, mainly because when the first H.264 support came out it was around 3x realtime (on a X2 5000 processor) which was a total waste of time.

Give it a whirl again, looks like the last release was on 30 January this year, I'm using http://www.kaashoek.com/files/comskip80_031.zip

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geekPete

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Reply # 353370 19-Jul-2010 13:27

1gkar:So you are saying that VideoRedo definitely works for FreeviewHD recordings?

Yes and no. v4 is supposed to, but it's still in Beta ATM, and available only via the videoRedo forums.
I've reported a relevant bug where it appears to be incorrectly writing out the meta-data for re-saved/edited HE-AAC streams, which makes the audio unreadable in VLC, MPC-HT, Handbrake, etc.

So I think it will be useful soon, because they appear to be pretty committed to working things out and communicating with users.

geekPete

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Reply # 353376 19-Jul-2010 13:31

valtam: I use comskip...

So how long does it take to process an hour long show on your i7 machine? And how many cores does it use?

valtam

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Reply # 353381 19-Jul-2010 13:33

geekPete:

So how long does it take to process an hour long show on your i7 machine? And how many cores does it use?

I couldn't tell you mate, I'm usually at work or away when I have a scheduled recording running.

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geekPete

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Reply # 353401 19-Jul-2010 14:01

valtam: So Comskip is OK analysing our NZ DVB-T (Freeview) h.264/HE-AAC .TS files?
(Though they often say that they support AAC, I've found that most programs choke at the "HE" part of HE-AAC audio coding.)

valtam

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Reply # 353405 19-Jul-2010 14:06

As previously stated, I use DVB-S.

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Camz

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Reply # 354283 21-Jul-2010 00:00

I used the VideoRedo trial to manually cut ads out and it worked fine but have not purchased it, then used HandBrake to convert it to mkv.

Another tool I used to use was TS Packet Editor http://www.videohelp.com/tools/TS_Packet_Editor then also used HandBrake to encode.

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