Split captures with ProgDVB

[kikounet]

I would like to go ProgDVB -> ProjectX -> MPEGSchnitt -> IfoEdit

Since I do not always capture on NTFS partitions, I set ProgDVB to split the captures files at 1GB boundaries.

Does ProjectX or PVAStrumento can demux them in that case?

Doom9's guide doesn't suggest what to do...

P.S. Should I rather capture *.PVA or *.MPG ?

[bb]

You should capture PVA. In ProjectX, you may add multiple files to a collection, which are treated as one big file, so splitting is not a problem (my DVB capture program splits, too). When you demux, you get the elementary streams in single pieces, not split, so that you can directly continue with Mpeg2Schnitt.

bb

[Malcolm]

whether you should capture in PVA or MPG depends on your DVB-card and drivers. there is no general recommendation for this. that's what dvb.matt the author of ProjectX says about this question. See official ProjectX Forum (german) (http://forum.lucike.info/)
.

Greetings,
Malcolm

[kikounet]

Thank you bb, I'll do that.

Do I have to throw away my old captures in (ProgDVB) MPEG format ?

Could you please explain why PVA is better than MPEG ?

I had read the help file by Offeryn that comes with PVAStrumento but more explanation would be welcome.

Thank you also Malcolm for your advices, but I won't read german forums! ;)

[Doom9]

PVA keeps more timing information, making it easier for the demuxing program to keep audio and video in synch even in the presence of transmission errors. If you want to know more technical details, then I'm afraid you'll have to go look for the specs of the PVA format.

Your splitted mpg captures are not worthless.. you can still process them as described in the guide (and as a sidenote, the guide mentions that you should add all your files before doing any processing ;)) But in the future you might want to capture in PVA format.

[Herske]

It is better to capture in .pva if and only if your card is skystar 1 compatible (that is, it has the TMX320AV7111(0) chip; pva is its native format).

If you don't have such a card, it is a waste of time to use .pva instead of .mpg.

[Malcolm]

What Herske says is true. PVA is the native (and prorietary) format of the technotrend DVB cards.
For every other DVB cards the PVA format has to be created 'artificially'.

doom9 writes
PVA keeps more timing information, making it easier for the demuxing program to keep audio and video in synch even in the presence of transmission errors.
sorry, but this is not true. if you're interested, there is another very lenghty and technical explanation (in german) from dvd.matt the author of ProjectX about the internals of PVA+MPG and why PVA is NOT better suited to prevent timing errors + sync problems. Here's the link differences PVA + MPG (http://www.dvbviewer.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=2492&hl=dvbmagic)

Some excerpts from his explanation:
- the so called 'error-indicator' alone delivers the information in a secure way if a data error can be expected during decoding. But this information is neither stored in PVA, nor in MPG.
- By saving PVA there has to be made more manipulations on the videostram, which can lead to more errors. along with that the DTS is discarded.
- for MPG/VDR there has to be made the least adjustments on the original PES.
- the only advantage of PVA is that there can be stored multiple streams (MPA, AC3, PCM, subpics, etc.) securely divided from eachother.

i would say, use the format you like most. there are no big advantages in one or the other!

bye,
Malcolm

[Doom9]

fortunately I'm a clueless n00b so my errors are excusable ;)

I acually never found a comprehensive comparison of the differences between the formats, and the initial comments in my post made me wonder, though not enough to drop everything I was doing and do some additional research. Thanks for those links.. I'll make sure to read it and incorporate that info into FAQs and guides.

BTW, you wouldn't happen to have come across a similar comparison for TS and the other formats..

[Malcolm]

Originally posted by Doom9
fortunately I'm a clueless n00b so my errors are excusable ;)
BTW, you wouldn't happen to have come across a similar comparison for TS and the other formats..

based on the 4729 posts i wouldn't have never thought that you're clueless n00b! :)

About TS: All i can say is that TS is the raw Transportstream that's sent over the Transponder. AFAIK it includes some error correction/detection data (CRC), EPG information, encryption data, etc. pp. along with the video-, audio- and teletext streams itself.

I did a search on forum.luckike.de (off. ProjectX + MPEG2Schnitt forum) but i couldn't find something enlighting about TS and REC.

I recommend you to just ask dvb.matt (ProjectX author) oder Martin (MPEG2Schnitt author). You can safely use english on the forum. From time to time, there are some english posts from non-german speaking visitors. There's no one complaining about english posts.
I guess they both have a deep knowledge (no wonder) about these things!

Greetings,
Malcolm

[kikounet]

Pwuuuh! Thank you all!

So I'll switch to PVA since my Hauppauge Nexus-S is a TechnoTrend clone (I guess).

Sometimes, I do my captures on one computer (Slow Celeron with DVB Card) on a FireWire external hard drive, and do my conversions on another faster computer (Athlon 2100+ or P4c 2.8GHz).

In order do keep A/V in synch, do I have to install TechnoTrend drivers 2.16a on the machines without any DVB card?

I suspect CyberLink or InterVideo DirectX drivers not to treat Transport Streams accurately...

[Herske]

Well, if the software you use allows you to get the full transport stream, then this is a very good option:

- you can record a full transponder, that is ALL the channels from one transponder. (be it radio, tv, whatever)

- you can get all subs, all audio pids (and for hardcore users: ECM pids for later use :D)

- you also get PAT, so timing info is there.

Skyview and AltDVB are the programs I recommend for such use; with AltDVB I can record four channels at once, and you can easily select the pids you want (audio, video, text, subs).

/herske