[f1000]

MacOSXHints explains how U.S. cable subscribers can now watch, record, and playback HDTV broadcasts using Panther for as little as $5 more per month.

http://www.macosxhints.com/article.p...40426151111599



I also recommend the following QuickTime codecs:

http://www.divx.com/divx/mac/
http://www.3ivx.com/download/macos.html
http://www.insaneness.com/ac3.html

Once you have installed VLC, take a look at some of these sample HD clips:

ftp://ftp.cmf.nrl.navy.mil/pub/iHDTV/
http://www.dvico.com/hdtv/download.asp

PS: I hope I'm not pointing out something that's already been covered in a previous thread.

[Uncle Skeleton]

yeah! I did this just a few days ago and it's all it was cracked up to be. The only problem is there's nothing on these days.

And I don't think it's been mentioned here yet

[SSharon]

great tip. I wonder what I can do with my direct tv tivo box . . .

[rezzi]

I mentioned Apples' Virtual DVHS software several months ago, and got no response whatsoever. Anyways, some in different cities have reported that their local cable co.s turned on that 5C copy protection thingie, effectively stopping digital recordings. But you can still record from a firewire equipped set-top OTA (over-the-air) hd box.

[f1000]

Originally posted by rezzi:
Anyways, some in different cities have reported that their local cable co.s turned on that 5C copy protection thingie, effectively stopping digital recordings. But you can still record from a firewire equipped set-top OTA (over-the-air) hd box.

Luckily for me, it's illegal for cable companies to encrypt broadcast stations, and all I care about is PBS anyway.

CORRECTION: It's apparently NOT illegal for cable companies to encrypt digital HD broadcast stations, but it soon may be.

[gkrykewy]

That article describes recording/playback. Is there any way to simply WATCH the HDTV programming live on the Mac?

[Uncle Skeleton]

almost; you can play the stream with VLC as you download it. Of course there's a lag when you change channels (the amount of time between when you start recording in VDVHS and when you start playing in VLC). And it still eats hard drive space

[f1000]

Does anyone know how to display the frame rate (frames per second) and resolution of a clip in VLC? I'm trying to determine which de-interlacing algorithms work best for 1080i.

[Uncle Skeleton]

The only way I've found to show that info for these files is DiVA. of course, after I found that I stopped looking, so there might be other ways.

[f1000]

Thanks, I'll look into it.

[MaxPower2k3]

Beware: comcast reps are idiots. I called the comcast office to get digital cable installed for my new Zenith HDTV. We already have digital cable in another room so it was relatively easy. I talked to one person who had no idea what firewire was. got forwarded to another person who also didn't know what it was. Finally, two people later, i talked to someone who said "oh, sure, we can do that."

So, the installer came (5 minutes after the 2-hour window ended) and brought, of course, a regular, non-firewire equipped box. I told him that i was supposed to get a cable box with firewire. he also had no idea what firewire is. he called his supervisor, who was again uninformed about it. So i just told him to install the box he had with him and i'd call later to get it replaced. So, i called them and they're sending out another person next saturday to replace the box with the model with firewire (the DCT6200, as opposed to the DCT5100 that they give out normally)

So, in short, expect a bit of a hassle to get it, but remember that (for once) the FCC is on your side, so if comcast says they won't do it, threaten to report them to the FCC and maybe they'll listen.

[Uncle Skeleton]

oh yeah, I just remembered that to open the m2t files in DiVA, you have to first transmux to mpeg with ffmpeg (and I think it was the nightly build because 0.4.8 didn't work). So go install a recent version of ffmpeg and do this:
ffmpeg -i infile.m2t -vcodec copy -an -format mpeg1video outfile.mpg
then DiVA can open it.

Also, I don't want to negate MaxPower's account, but my experience was the exact opposite. The woman on the phone was very helpful to put the firewire request on my order, and the guy who came to hook it up called the night before and asked if he could call me at work when he was ready, which he did at the beginning of the window, he arrived within 20 minutes of the call, and was very competent and helpful, and hooked up all the internet and HDTV stuff in about half an hour.

[JB72]

Originally posted by Uncle Skeleton:
yeah! I did this just a few days ago and it's all it was cracked up to be. The only problem is there's nothing on these days.

And I don't think it's been mentioned here yet

What about capture some of the HD "Movies of the Week" stuff put out there? Edit out the commercials. Oh yeh. Or replay classic sports games in HD. Delicious.

[bmedina]

So what kind of cable service do you need in order to request one of these boxes? Standard cable? Digital cable? Do you already have to have an HDTV cable box?

This is with comcast BTW. I have standard cable and would just like to have this box to get some HDTV content from the stadard broadcast channels (ABC, NBC, PBS, etc.).

[f1000]

Originally posted by bmedina:
So what kind of cable service do you need in order to request one of these boxes? Standard cable? Digital cable?

http://www.comcast.com/buyflow/default.ashx

[bmedina]

Originally posted by f1000:
http://www.comcast.com/buyflow/default.ashx

Thanks for the link! It looks like standard (analog) cable subscribers can get the box for an extra $7 a month; no need for any kind of digital cable. Looks like I'll be giving Comcast a call soon!

[f1000]

As MaxPower2k3 said, make sure that the cable service person brings you a Firewire-enabled HDTV tuner (usually the Motorola DCT6200).

[MaxPower2k3]

Comcast is a nightmare to deal with.

The first saturday, they brought a DCT5100 (non-firewire) box. Scheduled an appointment to replace it the next saturday. They didn't come. Emailed them that sunday, they said "sorry, i made an appointment for this tuesday." called immediately and had it changed to the next saturday (yesterday, 6/12), since nobody is here during the week to do it. seemed to work fine. They still came on tuesday just as i was leaving, i told them "you're supposed to come on saturday," and they said "fine." Yesterday came and went with no sign of comcast. called them again, they said "ok, we'll come next saturday." So, next saturday will be the fourth weekend in a row that i've had to spend waiting for comcast to come, and the past two times they haven't even shown up. All the compensation they've offered is $20 off of the next bill, but frankly that hardly seems like enough.

Also, there seem to be three responses when asking about the firewire cable box (DCT6200): either "i have no idea what that is" or "sure, we can do that" or "we don't offer that and anyone who told you we do was lying." The third seems to happen more on saturdays when they just keep the low-level CSRs staffed, which is unfortunately the day when i've had to call the most. I'm hoping next saturday will be more fruitful, but frankly i've lost all faith in comcast getting anything right.

[bmedina]

Well, I just called them, and the guy I talked to seemed pretty knowledgeable. At the end of the conversation, I told him to make sure I got one of the new boxes. He said, "Yeah, the 6200. I already specified that for you."

They are supposed to come by on Saturday, so we'll see how things go.

[MaxPower2k3]

Well they must train their Seattle reps pretty well, then, cause that's definitely not the experience i had

[bmedina]

Ok, they came by today. I'm at work, but my fiancee is at home. They balked at the fact that I don't have an HDTV set for them to connect, but I convinced the installation guy over the phone to leave the box. I'll report back tonight when I have a chance to set things up.

$15 installation fee to drop by and leave a box for me to install.

[MaxPower2k3]

at least you haven't had to spend the last four saturdays waiting for them to not even show up

They screwed up again today, so next saturday will be week #5.

[bmedina]

Hmm, so he really did just leave the box. He didn't plug it in at all. So I hooked up the power and plugged in the cable from the wall, but the front display shows a spinning circle next to "d1." And the coax output to the TV doesn't work, either. Anyone have any ideas?

Time to call Comcast.

Edit: Now it's working. I guess it just needed to be plugged in for a while. And BTW, the channel guide is much better than it is with Comcast's digital cable.

[MaxPower2k3]

...aren't you using Comcast's digital cable still?


and, yeah, when you first plug it in it has to download the program guide and everything, which can take anywhere from a couple of minutes up to half an hour.

[bmedina]

Originally posted by MaxPower2k3:
...aren't you using Comcast's digital cable still?

No, I'm just using basic, analog cable. The 6200 has a coax output to the TV, so the on screen display shows up. It ends up being very similar to digital cable but with fewer channels.

Recording works well using AVC Browser, but I haven't yet found an HD stream.

[bmedina]

And it would appear that I don't get HD at all. What type of cable service do others have? Has anyone tried it with analog cable?

[Uncle Skeleton]

when I had it (last month), the SD channels came in at SD and the HD channels came in at HD. They were 184 through 192 or so. Look at your channel guide. Do none of them say they're HD channels?

[MaxPower2k3]

does comcast know that you're trying to get the HD channels? they may have to activate those channels for you from the office. The installer might've done that when he was there if he installed it, but since he just left the box the channels never got activated. The HD channels for me are 173-190. ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, and PBSD are 180, 181, 182, 183, and 190.

[bmedina]

Ok, I found the HD channels. Thanks for the help, guys.

Oh, and my computer (DP867) can't keep up with 1080i. 720p is no problem, though. But I'll end up scaling down and converting everything to MPEG4 in the end, anyway.

[rezzi]

http://www.elgato.com/index.php?file=products_eyetv500

Yeah, baby! OK, so it's not cable, but still cool.

[f1000]

Originally posted by rezzi:
Yeah, baby! OK, so it's not cable, but still cool.

And it's aluminum!

[MaxPower2k3]

considering almost every HD cable channel except the broadcast ones are 5C copy protected, having a broadcast tuner isn't that big of a deal (except that you need an antenna)

I think the price point is great for an external device that can timeshift HD (something that isn't even possible on the PC side quite yet)

[SuperHard]

I'm way interested in this but I'm realizing I don't understand the basics well at all...

From MacOSXhints:
"DTV basically comes in two resolutions: 1920x1080 and 1280x720. PBS, and most sporting events show at in 1280x720 (known as 720p). HBO, Shotime and broadcast stations like NBC and ABC use 1920x1080 (1080i)."

My question is, how do I watch the program at these resolutions? Since my 15"Al PB standard resolution is 1280X854, I imagine it will display 1280x720 with black sides. But what happens with video that is 1920x1080?

And to really display my incomplete understanding, how does this compare to footage captured on a dv camera - which is described as "lines" ... something like 640 lines by 500 lines?

Thanks!

[bmedina]

The computer will scale down the video to fit the screen's resolution. It takes a big monitor, like a 23" HD display, to view 1920x1080 content at full resolution.

DV footage is 640x480 interlaced (usually), a.k.a. standard definition. When people abbreviate the terms, they use just the vertical resolution. So you have 1080i vs. 720p vs. 480i. Needless to say, either of the higher resolution formats looks much better than standard definition.

[MikeD]

Okay, I have a DCT-5100. On the back, it has a cutout for firewire but I'm guessing there's no firewire inside.. right? Only the DCT-6200 has firewire?

I really want to get this working... What about ethernet? Will that transfer video?

Mike

[bmedina]

Firewire is the only way.

[MikeD]

Okay, phoned in a request today for the 6200. When you get the .ts file, can you convert that anyway into an mp4 movie file that can be playable in quicktime?

Mike

[Uncle Skeleton]

You can use MPEG StreamClip to transmux to mpeg, then rip it like a DVD:
http://home.comcast.net/~appleguru/dvdrip.html
or
http://tutorial.applesolutions.com

P.S. mov files are better than mp4, since I know you'll ask, but you can always transmux to mp4 later if you really want to.

[MikeD]

Thanks for the links.. I can't wait to give it a shot and see what happens.. I'll probably record with my powerbook since it's portable to the living room, and do all the conversions on my dp g4... (Think... gotta upgrade... sigh)

have you used the mgep streamclip program yet? How has it worked for you? I either plan to rip content to either DVD or .mov files for playback through a projector...

Mike

[Uncle Skeleton]

I've used MPEG StreamClip and it works fine. The largest test was I downloaded Kill Bill 1 in 720p (don't know where it came from exactly), combined the 3 pieces it came in, converted to MPEG from m2t with MPEG SC, then compressed to 3ivx with DiVA. What I usually do for my captures is convert direct from m2t to 3ivx to save time, but to do that I use an unreleased version of DiVA and a plugin for it I wrote myself to skip commercials (and afterward I have to resync the sound on each act separately, which is not as tedious as it sounds). Obviously if you don't already have these things you won't be able to get them, at least for a while until they're released, but using MPEG SC just takes a little longer. Also the audio sync is kept much better by MPEG SC -> MPEG than from m2t -> DiVA. It doesn't affect me since the drift doesn't add up to much over one commercial break, but it would make any future auto-commercial-skipping very unlikely... you know if my DiVA filter were improved to cut the audio as well.

DVD is just the same resolution as normal TV. If you're going to be using DVD (or your projector is less than 1024x768), you're wasting your time by bothering with HDTV streams at this point. Although the moto box does also rip SD channels just as easy as HD ones, and it is provided for peanuts by your cable company...

[bmedina]

You'll also get a much cleaner picture from the digital source rather than analog cable. That helps a lot for compressing and maintaining image quality.

[hockeyiz]

I figured it was better to add to an existing topic. I already have this post on a new post but I need ppl to answer:
For those of you who don't know what family guy is, its an animated show that was cancelled from Fox a while ago for unknown reasons and then sold over a million copies of the seasons on DVD. Family Guy basically popularized the show on DVD thing. Anyway, I have the two boxed sets. So anyway when the series is ressurected sometime next year I will A) be rejoicing and B) wanting it on DVD. Until it is released on DVD there will be months of mourning. I wanted to know if there was a way to channel the show into my computer and then put them all on DVD. I'm experenced in iMovie and iDVD. I've heard of something about some program that channels HDTV signals into ur computer but I don't have HDTV and I heard only a few channels can be recorded in this way and Fox isn't one of them. I was thinking of getting a firewire cable box but I don't know how everything would work. Should I just get a low-quality episode off the internet or is there a better way?

[Uncle Skeleton]

the the cable box will digitize any channels that aren't HD and what's more those channels will already be in DVD compatible formats (compression formats, not file formats; they will have to be remuxed and of course the DVD will have to be authored). The box comes for free with the service. The service (HDTV service) is like $5 more per month over your existing cable service, whatever plan you have (basic, digital, whatever). just make sure you ask for one with FireWire on it

[MikeD]

Okay just tried it... for some reason, the audio is horrible. Video came out great.. but audio garbled etc.

Mike

Originally posted by Uncle Skeleton:
I've used MPEG StreamClip and it works fine. The largest test was I downloaded Kill Bill 1 in 720p (don't know where it came from exactly), combined the 3 pieces it came in, converted to MPEG from m2t with MPEG SC, then compressed to 3ivx with DiVA. What I usually do for my captures is convert direct from m2t to 3ivx to save time, but to do that I use an unreleased version of DiVA and a plugin for it I wrote myself to skip commercials (and afterward I have to resync the sound on each act separately, which is not as tedious as it sounds). Obviously if you don't already have these things you won't be able to get them, at least for a while until they're released, but using MPEG SC just takes a little longer. Also the audio sync is kept much better by MPEG SC -> MPEG than from m2t -> DiVA. It doesn't affect me since the drift doesn't add up to much over one commercial break, but it would make any future auto-commercial-skipping very unlikely... you know if my DiVA filter were improved to cut the audio as well.

DVD is just the same resolution as normal TV. If you're going to be using DVD (or your projector is less than 1024x768), you're wasting your time by bothering with HDTV streams at this point. Although the moto box does also rip SD channels just as easy as HD ones, and it is provided for peanuts by your cable company...

[Uncle Skeleton]

Originally posted by MikeD:
Okay just tried it... for some reason, the audio is horrible. Video came out great.. but audio garbled etc.

Mike

Does VLC play the m2t with good sound? Does MPEG StreamClip? What format did you export to, and what does it sound like if you choose ts, mpeg (with ac3 or mp2), ac3, or aiff (any of those work)? if none of those work, try using a recent ffmpeg compile (like the one found in ffmpegX's resources folder) and do
ffmpeg -i input.m2t -acodec copy output.ac3
if that doesn't work I'm 99% confident your source is bad. I've had problems with audio distortion from the cable box before, and I have a weak theory that plugging speakers into the box (as well as the firewire) makes it stop. But since good captures are more important to me than testing the theory, I don't have much evidence one way or the other. I do have a strong theory that it goes the other way for video - having the S-Video plug active while downloading with firewire makes for frequent dropouts in the video for both.

[veryniceguy2002]

Originally posted by rezzi:
http://www.elgato.com/index.php?file=products_eyetv500

Yeah, baby! OK, so it's not cable, but still cool.

No, I would suggest the following for cheaper prices (assume you have a spare PCI slot):

Get Dvico FusionHDTV for ATSC, and then download this digital TV tuner driver for Mac.

[MikeD]

Originally posted by Uncle Skeleton:
Does VLC play the m2t with good sound? Does MPEG StreamClip? What format did you export to, and what does it sound like if you choose ts, mpeg (with ac3 or mp2), ac3, or aiff (any of those work)? if none of those work, try using a recent ffmpeg compile (like the one found in ffmpegX's resources folder) and do
ffmpeg -i input.m2t -acodec copy output.ac3
if that doesn't work I'm 99% confident your source is bad. I've had problems with audio distortion from the cable box before, and I have a weak theory that plugging speakers into the box (as well as the firewire) makes it stop. But since good captures are more important to me than testing the theory, I don't have much evidence one way or the other. I do have a strong theory that it goes the other way for video - having the S-Video plug active while downloading with firewire makes for frequent dropouts in the video for both.

I'll try again today. I had trouble installing the 4 or 5 different things for ffmpeg (I'm new to all of this unix stuff still)... Hopefully, it'll just be a easy thing..

For ffmpeg, I couldn't find the real-libs file.

Mike

[MikeD]

Okay, I tried all the export options in mpeg streamclip. It appears that it's taking my one minute clip and making it (Video and Audio 30 seconds). Making it run in double time which is explaining the weird audio. The original file (m2t from the HDTV) plays fine in VLC. I just want to make it a bit smaller and into a .mov file for backup.

Why is mpeg streamclip makingmy recording speed up 2x?

Sigh...

[bmedina]

Back when I was trying this, I just used the command line version of ffmpeg to convert the m2t to a mpg (just changing the container, not re-encoding the video). If you're interested, I'll post details of this step. Then, Diva could handle the video (using 3ivx), and Quicktime Pro could do the audio. Then one more time through Quicktime Pro to combine the files.

Supposedly, the next version of Diva will be able to read from m2t files and encode audio. So it will be a one-program solution of pretty high quality for re-encoding HD content.

[MikeD]

That would be great if you had steps for ffmpeg... I couldn't find all the components it needs. One of the links doesn't work anymore (real-lib). I hope Diva works out! I bought 3ivx and think it's great! Any ideas on why it's (mpeg streamclip) making my files run at 2x / cutting the time in half (By this I mean a one minute clip real time will fully play in 30 seconds as though it were being fastforwarded).

Mike