*.mpg or *.pva ?

[BxWrapper]

I just installed my DVB card TwinHan variant with CI and played with it. So, I am kind of newbie for this.

Can somebody advise me what the difference and what format to capture best between .mpg or .pva ? These two formats supported by the lovely free ProgDVB. I love this proggy. Much better and faster than WinDVB.

My aim is basically to re-encode the MPEG2 to DivX.

TIA

[symonjfox]

For your purpose, it's better to keep it in PVA (so your computer won't do more calculations to convert it to MPEG 2 PS while recording).

MPG or PVA, ALWAYS use PVAStrumento to demux Audio and Video (and off course cut errors and resynch everything).

Then use Avisyhnt to create a script and convert it to DivX Xvid or whatever you want.

[EDIT] ProgDVB with my VP 1030 can NOT record in PVA, just in MPG. Just WinDVB can record trasport stream into a *.M2S file that must be converted using their own program (convert.exe)
---
off topic: which card have you got? VP 1030? Could you tell me what program you use (WinDVB, WinDTV and version)? Do you have low signal from LNB (about 30% for each channel)? I tell you this because old version on VP 1030 have this problem, maybe in your has been fixed.

Thanks

[BxWrapper]

Originally posted by symonjfox
......
[EDIT] ProgDVB with my VP 1030 can NOT record in PVA, just in MPG. Just WinDVB can record trasport stream into a *.M2S file that must be converted using their own program (convert.exe)
---
off topic: which card have you got? VP 1030? Could you tell me what program you use (WinDVB, WinDTV and version)? Do you have low signal from LNB (about 30% for each channel)? I tell you this because old version on VP 1030 have this problem, maybe in your has been fixed.

Thanks

Well, I am using ProgDVB 4.15 test version and there are 3 format option for recording i.e. *.pva, *.mpg and *.mpa (audio only). Did you say you don't have option for *.pva ? what version you use ?

My DVB card is the cheapo type, it is a VP-1030 variant, I believe, called TV@Sat-CI. I live in outer coverage of Hotbird. Lyingsat showed a 42dbW signal strength at my place. however, I got signal strength somewhere 60-75%, depend on the channel. BUT the qualiy signal is marginal I think. The best quality I got is 34% and the weakest is somewhere 28% for watch-able. Less than then the picture will be frozen or jerky.

My card comes with WinDVB ver. 1.7. But switching channel is extreemly slooow !. I guess the card's driver is buggy. If I understand correctly, ProgDVB uses its own API to acces the card and speed is fantastic compared to WinDVB. Iwas thinking also buying PCTV SAT card from Pinnacle, but I bought those Twinhan varian instead after knowing a lot of free DVB software support the card.

Are you using WinDVB also ? Do you have the same problem when swicthing channel ?


Bxwrapper

[Leolo]

Hi BxWrapper,

Does your card include an MPEG-2 decoder chip?

The PVA file format was designed for the TMS320AV7110 chip. If your card doesn't have this chip, then DON'T USE PVA!!

Cheers.

[BxWrapper]

Originally posted by Leolo
Hi BxWrapper,

Does your card include an MPEG-2 decoder chip?.....


Well, I am sure the card does not have any MPEG decoder chips onboard. Decoding is done on the CPU level. It takes about 65% CPU time (Athlon 1600 XP) especially if the signal quality is low. I still can live with this.

So, now I am not sure why ProgDVB offers *.pva format for capture if you can save it in *.mpg

Ussually, I capture in *.mpg format and re-mux with PVAStrumento (PS option) to correct and sync all the video & audio streams. Then I use DVD2AVI to make *.d2v and demux audio to *.mpa. Then I proceed with GKnot as usual.

I have tried directly process the original captured *.mpg as above step but got Avisynth errors and VDub crashes. It looks they are not error resilience.

Bxwrapper

[symonjfox]

Originally posted by BxWrapper
Well, I am using ProgDVB 4.15 test version and there are 3 format option for recording i.e. *.pva, *.mpg and *.mpa (audio only). Did you say you don't have option for *.pva ? what version you use ?I use it too, PVA is not supported on my VP 1030.My DVB card is the cheapo type, it is a VP-1030 variant, I believe, called TV@Sat-CI. I live in outer coverage of Hotbird. Lyingsat showed a 42dbW signal strength at my place. however, I got signal strength somewhere 60-75%, depend on the channel. BUT the qualiy signal is marginal I think. The best quality I got is 34% and the weakest is somewhere 28% for watch-able. Less than then the picture will be frozen or jerky.Yes, I would mean quality (not power ... sorry). Yes, many many users have this problem. You pratically can't record anything because it's full of errors and so using PVAstrumento, it will cut lot of gops. :(
My card comes with WinDVB ver. 1.7. But switching channel is extreemly slooow !. I guess the card's driver is buggy. If I understand correctly, ProgDVB uses its own API to acces the card and speed is fantastic compared to WinDVB. Iwas thinking also buying PCTV SAT card from Pinnacle, but I bought those Twinhan varian instead after knowing a lot of free DVB software support the card.It's a joke but I did the same choice :) I had to chose between VP 1030 and Pinnacle and (unfortunately) I chose ... bad.
I use WinDVB 1.5 or WinDTV 2.2beta but both have some problems when recording.
They work very fine while watching channels, but if you try to record something ... about 3 or 4 times errors compared to ProgDVB.
ProgDVB is fantastic, but Common Interface doesn't support VP 1030 :( so I can't use it with Pay TV.
I have tried directly process the original captured *.mpg as above step but got Avisynth errors and VDub crashes. It looks they are not error resilience.Don't do it. Else if all works fine, you will get synch errors and other problems. Then MPEG2DEC3 1.04 works bad with stream errors and could append that crashes everything.

@Leolo: VP 1020 and 1030 use Elecard codec (software) they are cheap because of this.

[BxWrapper]

Originally posted by symonjfox
....ProgDVB is fantastic, but Common Interface doesn't support VP 1030 :( so I can't use it with Pay TV....[/B]

There is a CI plug-in module (Module-CI.dll ?, can not check, I am at work now) for ProgDVB.

Your VP-1030 has CAM slot in it, doesn't it ? Are you saying the plug-in module does not work ?

Bxwrapper

[Leolo]

Hi BxWrapper,

Ussually, I capture in *.mpg format and re-mux with PVAStrumento (PS option) to correct and sync all the video & audio streams. Then I use DVD2AVI to make *.d2v and demux audio to *.mpa. Then I proceed with GKnot as usual.

But, may I ask you why do you re-mux with PVAStrumento? Isn't it better to just use the DEMUX option?

Hi symonjfox,

Thanks, I didn't know about those "el-cheapo" TwinHan cards. I'm glad that I bought a Hauppauge WinTV-Nexus (with onboard decoder chip), because recording in PVA format is extremely stable with this card :)

Cheers.

[symonjfox]

@ BxWrapper

Yes, it's exactly what I wanted to say: ProgDVB CI module supports Skystar boards, not TwinHan. Maybe one day ... well I don't know anything in programming, else I've already done it :rolleyes:

@ Leolo

To tell the truth, me to I didn't know anything about Sat boards, the I saw the Pinnacle (quite expensive) and TwinHan (cheap) and I chose TH.

Maybe one day, I'll change it ... soon :)

@ All

BACK TO TOPIC, what are the adavantages capturing in PVA? I don't understand. If I capture in PVA, then I demux it and I've MPEG 2 ES, so it's the same of capturing directly to MPG.

[DAvenger]

I usually record to PVA (SkyStar2 and DVBViewer (http://www.dvbviewer.com) )

Somehow, it keeps the audio in sync while MPEG-2 does not. Of course, for re-encoding it into DivX/XviD I have to convert it to MPEG :rolleyes:

[BxWrapper]

@symonjfox

Originally posted by symonjfox
....Yes, it's exactly what I wanted to say: ProgDVB CI module supports Skystar boards, not TwinHan......[/B]

I guess I missed that :)


@ Leolo

Originally posted by Leolo

...But, may I ask you why do you re-mux with PVAStrumento? Isn't it better to just use the DEMUX option? ......[/B]

The reason is that I like to automate the process. PVAStrumento is only to re-fine the frame order and audio sync in the mpeg stream. I can open the the corrected *.mpg in DVD2AVI and cut the desired range and demux the audio. When you open it in GKnot, video & audio can be transcoded normally.

If you maintain a separate file for *.mpa and *.mpv, the only problem is cutting the range. You have to treat those 2 stream individually. Just more effort. Or do I miss something good ?

Bxwrapper

[symonjfox]

yes, you missed :)

MPASOURCE plugin for Avisynth. (I don't remember the site, search on the forum)

It's easy, it can take as imput any MP1 MP2 MP3 MPA file you want, so, once demuxed the audio, just create something like this

Loadplugin("C:\Programmi\AviSynth 2.5\plugins\MPEG2Dec3.dll")
Loadplugin("C:\Programmi\AviSynth 2.5\plugins\MPasource.dll")
V=mpeg2source("d:\temp\video.d2v",ipp=true,CPU=4)
V=Bilinearresize(V,352,576)
A=mpasource("d:\temp\canale5.mp2", normalize=true)
Audiodub(V,A)
Trim(130,11009) ++ Trim(12500,159874)
and so on.

If you know avisynth language, after 2 rips you'll be a master.

Or let GKnot create the AVS and manually add the MPASOURCE part.

[BxWrapper]

Originally posted by symonjfox
yes, you missed :)

MPASOURCE plugin for Avisynth. (I don't remember the site, search on the forum).....

I had not been updated with Avisynth progress for quite some time. Last time I knew, Audiodub only support *.wav audio. Thanks for the info.

Your Avisynth script is good and the trim part can be easily done in VDubMod as well. Good stuff.

Bxwrapper

[symonjfox]

Thanks! That's my base. Then I copy/paste it everytime I need and modify everything I need :) easy

[cweb]

I don't know if it's a progdvb 4 problem, but when I use it to record to pva format on some stations I get corrupted files which cannot be converted.

When I record in mpeg2 I have no problems.
Odd but it might be a bug (I'm running the latest test version of progdvb).

[Malcolm]

PVA or MPG?
This question has been answered in this Thread (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=75607)

Btw. I really recommend using ProjectX instead of PVAInstrumento for Demuxing!

Greetings,
Malcolm

[stax76]

Somehow, it keeps the audio in sync while MPEG-2 does not.


it depends on the recorder as well on the demuxer. I think dvbcore as recorder and PVAStrumento or ProjectX as demuxer work fine. My problem with pva is it's not supported by dvbcore which my app is based on and there ain't a pva splitter which is as snappy as elecard/sonic combination. I need a very snappy seeking solution because often I use Zoom Player's Skip/Jump/Seek (three different jump distances) keys and nav bar like mad, most other filters freeze sooner or later