Freeview Satellite recordings to DVD (& masthead amp equivalent for sat?)

Forums › Freeview (DVB-T/DVB-S) › Freeview Satellite recordings to DVD (& masthead amp equivalent for sat?)

Jaxson

8041 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#63257 23-Jun-2010 15:11

Hi all,

Bit of a sneaky two question ask here, but...

How are people playing freeview sat .ts files on computer?

I believe it's standard mpeg2/DVD stuff and I'd like to play it in standard Windows Media player.
I have a set top box that records to external fat32 hard drive and I'd like to know if I can just unplug the drive and copy the file off onto a laptop to view there. Is it as easy as this?

If it's Mpeg2, can this be authored to DVD easily or does it need some form of prior conversion being in .ts format, or is it as simple as a extension name change to .mpg or something.

And finally, is there such a thing as a masthead amp type alternative for sat signals? I know there are those cheap inline amps but can you get something more substantial for boosting a weaker sat signal or is what you get off the dish what you get. Thinking to boost up weaker SBS signals or similar for instance.
(I guess this may be self explanatory, ie no, given you use power on that same line already to power the lnb etc, where as terrestrial normally doesn't power the antenna line.)

Cheers all.

Regs

4066 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Snowflake

#344583 23-Jun-2010 16:00

if you want to boost the sat signal - install a bigger dish :D

As for the .ts files, teh .ts is a transport stream MPEG. DVDs typically read program stream. You will need a tool to demux the TS into audio and video, and then remux it into a dvd compatible file.

A great site for finding tools to do just about any coversion is www.videohelp.com. There arent many tools that exist that do not have a "how to" guide on that website.

You'll probably find that many media players can just play the .ts files anyway. Its been a while - i cant remember if windows media player will do it out-of-the-box in vista and windows 7, i think it can. There was no mpeg2 codec in windows xp so it wont work out-of-th-box there. Alternatively you can grab MPC (media player classic), mplayer or videolan and one of those should do the trick.

Sales Engineer
Snowflake
www.snowflake.com

about.me/nzregs
Twitter: @nzregs

richms

28168 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#344615 23-Jun-2010 17:26

Demux and remux of the freeview stuff was hit and miss for me when I last tried it. often got weird artifacts on a proper dvd player, yet it would play fine on a PC. Obviously a total reencode did the trick but I was never able to get a reencode from interlaced to interlaced without a deinterlace step in the middle so it looked really bad.

Gave up on the sat service when I had to give the PCI card back, I got a tuner off deal extreme but I have to get around to getting a multiswitch or an amp and also some cable to get signal to where the PC is to try it out again.

Richard rich.ms

Mac2008

121 posts

Master Geek

#346790 30-Jun-2010 21:44

Hi Jaxson

Because the signal is digital, it doesn't respond the same as analogue TV signal. Amplifiers for satellite are for the most part, useful for increasing the signal so you can send it down a longer cable where you will get loses. Hence those small in-line amps are the most common.

If you are lacking in signal at the dish, an amplifier usually will not help you as the signal is already below threshhold (or close on it). Unless your incoming signal is high enough in the first place, you have nothing to amplify and your carrier to noise ratio will end up too high.

If the signal at the dish is marginal, even one of those small amps can sometimes help if placed close to the dish. But the reality is that with digital you need reasonable signal levels first in order to use an amplifier.

On the other hand if the signal is quite good at the dish, one of those in-line amps will usually allow you to run it 20m or more in good quality RG6 cable.

So the solution (as mentioned above) really is to either fine tune your current system to increase the signal, or increase the size of your dish.

Hope this helps.

kiwisat

147 posts

Master Geek

#346812 30-Jun-2010 22:40

The free GOM Player will play .ts files

Jaxson

8041 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#346898 1-Jul-2010 10:10

Thanks all, comments much appreciated.