[f1000]

Here are some short high-definition sample clips that you can play in VLC:

http://www.dododge.net/roku/hd-test-streams/football.ts
http://www.dododge.net/roku/hd-test-...ssical-clip.ts
http://www.dododge.net/roku/hd-test-...161700-clip.ts
http://www.dododge.net/roku/hd-test-...111230-clip.ts


There are also links to longer clips in the following thread,

http://forums.macnn.com/showthread.p...hreadid=213266

[MaxPower2k3]

thanks for the clips. I prefer the longer ones in the other thread, since they give you time to mess around with settings and actually see (and admire) how it looks. Recording and playing back HD is certainly easier in OSX, but i think i'll be doing it mostly on the PC since i'll be building an HTPC soon. I want to see if VLC can handle streaming an HD source to my powerbook over the wireless network. I have a feeling HD will be pushing it (unless i compress it more) but SD recorded the same way may be a possibility.


edit: my 12" 867MHz PB seems to be showing its age; it has a hard time playing back the longer clip from the other thread at a smooth rate. My 1.3Ghz PC can play it back smoothly, although turning on de-interlacing (almost a necessity when watching on a monitor, since the motion artifacts are quite bad) makes it choke.

[f1000]

I want to see if VLC can handle streaming an HD source to my powerbook over the wireless network. I have a feeling HD will be pushing it (unless i compress it more) but SD recorded the same way may be a possibility.

802.11g should be able to handle 20 Mbps. If not, consider wiring your house with Ethernet.

edit: my 12" 867MHz PB seems to be showing its age; it has a hard time playing back the longer clip from the other thread at a smooth rate. My 1.3Ghz PC can play it back smoothly, although turning on de-interlacing (almost a necessity when watching on a monitor, since the motion artifacts are quite bad) makes it choke.

My 1 GHz 12” PB G4 also has trouble keeping up with high motion scenes. Still, I find that the HD clips are more than watchable on my computer.

The Fusion (Korean) clips require de-interlacing, which really kills the fps. The Naval Research Lab’s 720p clips, which don’t require de-interlacing, play back much more smoothly.

[MaxPower2k3]

Originally posted by f1000:
802.11g should be able to handle 20 Mbps. If not, consider wiring your house with Ethernet.



My 1 GHz 12” PB G4 also has trouble keeping up with high motion scenes. Still, I find that the HD clips are more than watchable on my computer.

The Fusion (Korean) clips require de-interlacing, which really kills the fps. The Naval Research Lab’s 720p clips, which don’t require de-interlacing, play back much more smoothly.

unfortunately, due to my mom's iBook, the wireless network is running at 802.11b speeds, which limits me to about 2mbps at most. Even over the wired network, I have trouble getting it to stream via VLC, although i'm not sure if that's the fault of the network or either computer. streaming HD is a novelty, but streaming regular SD content over the wireless network could be really cool, since i'd be able to take my powerbook anywhere in the house and have access to my recorded shows.

f1000, do you have a Moto DCT6200 box? If so, when you record SD shows, do they record in 16x9 format and at HD bitrates, like in the Fusion SD sample clip, or do they record in regular 4:3 mode with a much smaller bitrate? If they're like the Fusion clip, that's annoying since it's using HD bitrates for SD video, but I'll use DiVX or something similar to compress them down.

[f1000]

Originally posted by MaxPower2k3:
unfortunately, due to my mom's iBook, the wireless network is running at 802.11b speeds, which limits me to about 2mbps at most. Even over the wired network, I have trouble getting it to stream via VLC, although i'm not sure if that's the fault of the network or either computer. streaming HD is a novelty, but streaming regular SD content over the wireless network could be really cool, since i'd be able to take my powerbook anywhere in the house and have access to my recorded shows.

I can't help you on the DCT6200, but here's something you might want to try: rip a DVD onto a HD, and then access the file from another computer using DVD Player (there's no need to stream it). The DVD data stream is about 6 Mbps, and should play back smoothly over 10/100.

[Uncle Skeleton]

Originally posted by MaxPower2k3:

f1000, do you have a Moto DCT6200 box? If so, when you record SD shows, do they record in 16x9 format and at HD bitrates, like in the Fusion SD sample clip, or do they record in regular 4:3 mode with a much smaller bitrate? If they're like the Fusion clip, that's annoying since it's using HD bitrates for SD video, but I'll use DiVX or something similar to compress them down.

I had the 6200 (and hopefully will again after I move, again) and SD channels come in SD res, about 2 GB per half hour. Very nice.

[MaxPower2k3]

thanks for the information! So it looks like the SD channels are about 9mbps, but they should compress well (hopefully).

[bmedina]

So how are you guys editing/compressing these files? Or are you?

[MaxPower2k3]

well i don't have the box yet (ing Comcast) but, using the clips from the Fusion website i can get the 69mb sample down to about 25mb, 36% of the original size. This is using Dr. DiVX with the HDTV setting, which will resize to 1280x720 and compress down to a 7mbps stream. I believe it keeps the 5.1 channel audio, but now that i think about it, I don't remember if i checked. I'll have to experiment more once i get the box. As for SD, i haven't tried with that yet, but I assume DiVX would also do a good job with that. WMV-HD is probably more efficient than DiVX, since it's designed for HD, but it is far more CPU-intensive for both encoding and decoding, and it requires many more steps to prepare the recorded footage for compressing (Dr. DiVX can open .ts files directly)


This is all on a PC, though, since that's what i'll be using for all of this. On OS X, you could probably also find some DiVX or Xvid encoder, or just wait for H.264 to be finalized and use that (assuming your computer can handle it)


Also on Windows is a program called HDTVtoMPEG2 that will take a recorded .ts file and allow you to set start and stop points (such as around commercials) and then convert it to a standard mpeg file. from there, you can compress it with a variety of programs.

[Uncle Skeleton]

the only (released) software that I've found to touch the m2t files on a mac is ffmpeg, and for that you need the nightly build, not 0.4.8. If you don't like ffmpeg for encoding, you can use it to remux the files to mpeg with -an -vcodec copy -f mpeg1video out.mpg. Then you can encode with DiVA (or I assume OpenShiiva which I have not tried). ffmpeg can also extract the ac3 audio. I haven't found a way to retain 5.1 audio, but as I don't have any way to play it back I don't really care at this point.

Afterwards edit out the commercials from the mov or avi file with QTPro. I've had better luck with VLC and the likes reading the edited mov if you start with the last chunk and keep adding pieces to the beginning.

[bmedina]

Originally posted by Uncle Skeleton:
the only (released) software that I've found to touch the m2t files on a mac is ffmpeg, and for that you need the nightly build, not 0.4.8. If you don't like ffmpeg for encoding, you can use it to remux the files to mpeg with -an -vcodec copy -f mpeg1video out.mpg.

I'd really like to encode with Diva. Do you know how to get ffmpeg to output demuxed M2V and AC3 files? And where do I get the nightly builds of ffmpeg?

[Uncle Skeleton]

ffmpeg cvs snapshot: http://ffmpeg.sourceforge.net/cvs/

ac3 output: ffmpeg -i input.m2t -vn -acodec copy output.ac3
mpg output (just fine for DiVA 1.0): ffmpeg -i input.m2t -an -vcodec copy -f mpeg1video output.mpg

in my experience it wouldn't agree to output an mpv or m2v file. Also, I spoke with the author of DiVA about it (he's an ffmpeg buff too, which is no coincidence since DiVA uses ffmpeg for demuxing) and he said you have to use that format=mpeg1video for some reason.

[bmedina]

Originally posted by Uncle Skeleton:
ffmpeg cvs snapshot: http://ffmpeg.sourceforge.net/cvs/

ac3 output: ffmpeg -i input.m2t -vn -acodec copy output.ac3
mpg output (just fine for DiVA 1.0): ffmpeg -i input.m2t -an -vcodec copy -f mpeg1video output.mpg

in my experience it wouldn't agree to output an mpv or m2v file. Also, I spoke with the author of DiVA about it (he's an ffmpeg buff too, which is no coincidence since DiVA uses ffmpeg for demuxing) and he said you have to use that format=mpeg1video for some reason.

Awesome, thanks for the help! I'm going to try encoding some of the longer clips tonight. Then I can try capturing some stuff when comcast sets me up with an HDTV box.

[htvancity]

Hi, why do i have no luck installing/building ffmpeg on my machine, i'm just going thru the steps on the install readme and no luck.

Is m2t files the same as .ts files??

[Uncle Skeleton]

Originally posted by htvancity:
Hi, why do i have no luck installing/building ffmpeg on my machine, i'm just going thru the steps on the install readme and no luck.

why don't you say what problem you're running into instead of just saying it doesn't work?

Is m2t files the same as .ts files??

I believe it is, but I'm not 100% sure

[htvancity]

woops, here's my problem with ffmpeg

i downloaded the lastest nightly build.

extract the files.
open up terminal and type in '.configure', that parts goes ok
but i get no '.make' command file to finish off the rest of the install.

[bmedina]

Originally posted by htvancity:
woops, here's my problem with ffmpeg

i downloaded the lastest nightly build.

extract the files.
open up terminal and type in '.configure', that parts goes ok
but i get no '.make' command file to finish off the rest of the install.

You need to have the developer tools installed. The utility "make" is part of the compiler that is installed with the developer tools. The "configure" script is a shell script that can run without the dev tools installed.

[htvancity]

Ahhh, i thought so. Where does one get the dev tools?

http://ffmpeg.sourceforge.net/ ?

[austeros]

Originally posted by htvancity:
Ahhh, i thought so. Where does one get the dev tools?

http://ffmpeg.sourceforge.net/ ?

they came with the OS, check your cds. usually a grey disc

[htvancity]

Ok, got xcode installed.

I tried to install ffmpeg again.

The configure cmd seemed to work better this time.

But still can't get "make intall" command to work.

Anyone got some more tips on compiling ffmpeg? I would to post some HD show clips.

Thanks!

[Uncle Skeleton]

Originally posted by htvancity:
Ok, got xcode installed.

I tried to install ffmpeg again.

The configure cmd seemed to work better this time.

But still can't get "make intall" command to work.

Anyone got some more tips on compiling ffmpeg? I would to post some HD show clips.

Thanks!

why don't you say what problem you're running into instead of just saying it doesn't work?