DVB Recorded to DVD

[129ten]

Using PCI/DVB card to record movies. But format is not fully compatible with dvd. Movie is in mpeg but is 544x480. As a resoult in dvd lab which I'm using for authoring it has big green line on right side, that you can see in preview window and also when creating menu with titles with movie shoots/stills.Read somwhere that this can be corrected by using AviSynth and QuEnc. Any other way to stretch that horizontal resolution???.Can any of you guys shine some light on this subject. Also some dvd (stand alone)players when play back it displays that big ugly green line on right.
Regards, 129ten

[ajp]

How about just patching the headers with DVD Patcher, make the authoring program believe it's the correct dimensions?

http://www.wincesoft.de/index.html

@jp

[kassandro]

Do not reencode!
I personally use DVD-Patcher to patch the headers to 720x576, pull it into Tmpgenc DVD Author, patch it back to the old resolution and then let Tmpgenc DVD Author built the DVD files, which is then burnt to disc with Nero 6.6.0.x.
You can avoid header patching, if you use the much more sophisticated DVD-LAB-Pro.
I haven't yet seen a single DVD player, which has difficulties with these kind of non-standard DVDs.

[129ten]

Thx. guys for your help. I have used dvdPatcher and yes it will fool tempeg dvd author, but my consern is about that damm green belt/line on right side of the screen. In your opinion dvdlab pro would correct that?. Why that line is there?. Did you heard about case like this before. I'm working in NTSC (Canada)
Regards

[kassandro]

Originally posted by 129ten
Thx. guys for your help. I have used dvdPatcher and yes it will fool tempeg dvd author, but my consern is about that damm green belt/line on right side of the screen. In your opinion dvdlab pro would correct that?. Why that line is there?. Did you heard about case like this before. I'm working in NTSC (Canada)
Regards

No, the video is independent of the authoring program, if no reencoding is done. However, you may have forgotten to patch back! If you forget it , very strange things may happen (depending on the DVD player).
If you have not forgotten to patch back you may try a different video and a different DVD player.
I live in the PAL world and we have 544x576 over here. I have burnt many times such 544x576 clips on a DVD and everything was just fine on any DVD player I have tested. In particular, the video was scaled to a 4:3 aspect ratio such that the screen was entirely covered and there was never a green belt on the right side.

[Boulder]

My Pioneer DV-343 doesn't like any weird resolutions even if the headers are patched back and forth. It doesn't even like 480x576 on a DVD which is a big shame, it would have been perfect for TV series IMHO. It plays weird resolutions in SVCD format though.

[kassandro]

Boulder,
I thought that you are doing analog capturing. Have you switched to digital?
It is of course a shame that Pioneer makes such a very restrictive firmware, because, as you pointed out for SVCD, the hardware is obviously capable of playing such videos.
As far as DVD players aer concerned, I think it is better to buy these from small brands like Cyberhome, Xoro or Yamakawa. Unlike the big brands they try to squeeze out the most from the hardware and are very responsive to customer demands. While my Panasonic S75 had no problems with the above non-standard DVDs, it had various stupid firmware restrictions, like no mp3-DVDs etc, as well. I sold it for 105€ on Ebay and bought a Cyberhome CH 462, which has the currently best DivX chip, the Zoran Vaddis 7, built in. It almost matches the DVD video quality of the Panasonic (audio is clearly inferior, though), brillantly plays all kinds of DivX videos (except XviD with GMC) and did cost only 49.95€ at Amazon.

[Boulder]

Nope, still analogue, but 480/528/544x576 is a good alternative for TV captures since the detail loss from 720x576 is unnoticable. I've used those resolutions before I got a DVD burner in 2003.

From what I know Pioneer is nowadays much less restrictive, I guess we can thank the fierce competition for that. My player's about 4 years old so it's really old-tech The player doesn't even support VBR MPEG-1 unless it's muxed and authored as SVCD

[kassandro]

This thread has nothing to do with Avisynth anymore.
I think DVD patcher can be pushed somewhat further by patching also audio headers. mp2 and mp3 frames share the same headers. Only one bit has to be toggled to deceive the authoring program that an mp3 audio track is an mp2 audio track. In that way, one should be able to master DVDs with mp3 sound instead of mp2 and most players should swallow it. Of course, mp3 audio must be CBR otherwise authoring program's muxer will produce rubbish.

[129ten]

Kassandro
Will try to find way out of this somehow, can you axplain what you mean by patching back??. If you please - steps you take to do that?.
Found that in dvd lab green line was no longer there, but audio was out of synch.To add one more piece of information... I can also record these movies in PVA format, would that help???.(My Theatre) Should I use other programs/ software to get processing done to be ready for dvd burning?.
Regards

[kassandro]

129ten,
You should avoid recording directly to mpeg2, because then the DVB program has to mux the video and the audio stream, which is especially difficult if there are frame losses. In fact, recording to mpeg2 directly may lead to additional frame losses. Thus recording to mpeg2 to yields the worst quality. DVD players may have problems to play them, if there are frame losses. There are two excellent Demuxers, which cope very well with frame losses. ProjectX ist the best, but has a nasty user interface and is written in Java. While Java is lot slower than C++, it has the advantage that it runs also on Linux. Secondly there is PVAStrumento. It is almost as good as ProjectX and has a decent user interface. DGindex is becoming more and more a third viable alternative. I personally use PVAstrumento most of the time and ProjectX only in very difficult cases. There is a third advantage of these demuxers: they report all frame losses and other problems. Unfortunately DGindex does do such reporting yet.
Even if you recorded to mpeg2, it is a good idea to demux this mpeg2 file. In this way, frame loss errors will be corrected and you will see how good your recordings are. Also authoring programs like Tmpgenc DVD Author prefer videos in demuxed form. If you pull the video elementary stream into TDA, TDA will automaticly pull in the audio stream as well.
How should you record? If you have a Technotrend card (Hauppauge is the most popular reseller) record to PVA. If you have a Skystar 2 card from Technisat, get ALT-DVB and record transport streams. With this remarkable program you can even record several channels simultaneously without frame losses, if these channels are on same transponder. Doom9 recommends DVBportal. It also records transport streams very well, but it is less mature than ALT-DVB and has no support for pay tv piracy, which, however, seems to be primarily a european sport. The Technotrend card is sometimes called also Skystar 1, though it is manufactured by Technisat, the maker of the cheap Skystar 2. I know both cards quite well. Until recently, I had a Technotrend for almost 6 six, but then I upgraded to Celeron 330D with a ASROCK P4V88 main board, but the VIA chip set of this board hates the Technotrend card and so I had to buy a Skystar 2 for 32€ on Ebay (My old Technotrend card, which is still sold today, did cost almost 300€ back then.). The two german firms Technotrend and Technisat have a combined market share of about 80%. So you probably have a card from them. There are some asian cards, about which I know nothing, but in general you should not record to mpeg2 and even if you have to, you should demux with one of the above programs.
Thus the first step is to demux the output of the DVB program. Then I pull the video stream into Mpeg2schnitt (the audio stream is pulled in automaticly) and cut the video (I usually start recording 1 or 2 minutes before the film starts and stop it at least 10 seconds after the film ended, also commercials can be removed this way). You can also cut within TDA, but Mpeg2schnitt is definitely better. Then I pull the output (from Mpeg2schnitt) video stream into DVDpatcher and set the resolution to 720x576 (you probably have to set it to 720x480). Then I pull the patched video stream into TDA (the audio stream is pulled in automaticly). After the video stream has been accepted by TDA (there may be warning about too long GOPs, which should be ignored), then I patch back the video stream to the original resolution (the video stream is still loaded into DVD patcher!) and continue with the authoring process as usual (menus etc). Some experts recommend to wait and to patch back the final VOB files (= output of TDA), but this not a good idea, because it is easily forgotten and also the video is not displayed correctly within TDA (for creating chapters etc.), if is not patched back.
One last hint: to maximise speed and extend the life of your hard discs. The input files and the output files should be on different hard discs. That applies to the demuxer as well as TDA. For TDA I use even a third hard drive for temporary files. I you work a single hard disc, DVB2DVD is a severe torture for this poor hard disc.

[129ten]

Kassandro
Thx. for four info. it will come handy. Tried some differente options with mixed resoults. Heard that before that recording directly in mpeg2 in not the best quality,as you say as well. So , Recorded in PVA format, then opened ProjectX and load that pva file in, selected demux from pull down menu and press GO!. No problem demuxing started but throuhgout the whole process the main window was scrolling on fast speed saying deleting usless frames. Final product of that demuxing pocess Video and audio file I did load to dvdlab and compiled. When finished played back VTS file to see how it looks and plays. Ohh brother what a mess!!, Picture was jerky and audio 2 min late just uppon startup and was getting worse. Now - could you give me proper settings for ProjectX to get this demux done properly or any other advise in terms of how to get pva file prperly processed in any other way. Noticed, that besides all that mess with video/audio the picture quality itself was very good. So I'm getting close...? lol.
However - found the way to get it done by pure luck! Now, tell me if this is good way, or I'm loosing quality doing it this way.
Record in PVA --> Patch to mpeg in ProjectX --> Demux in Muxer to m2v and mpa --> IfoEdit under dvd author will do final steps. Now is Ready to be burn in Nero. Lot's of steps to take, that's way I need your opinion on that. It works, but is it any good??? to maintain quality.

Regards

[129ten]

DVB movies TO DVD's
Spend lots of hrs. on searching for answers to my question. Didn't found one yet, but through the try & error method with many, many diferrent software found something that will help me dealing with dvd authoring of DVB recorded movies,and by posting it here my also help others. It's been said by others and also based on my own experience that when using PCI/DVB MODULE (Nexus-S in my case)which is giving you 2 options (ways)to record, It is mpeg or pva. Direct Mpeg recording which is easier method to process to get all ready for dvd burn but you have to accept to live with lower quality dvds(not low, but lower) or PVA on the other hand the better method but BIT! problematic in terms of processing and getting dvd complied elements ready for authoring and burning. Found some ways auroud it like I mentioned in my post above but, one would ran in to a problems sooner or later. Well, If you like to record in PVA as I'm, this MAY help you. Record in PVA --> use PVAStrumento,BUT under DEMUX uncheck!!! box that says Synchronized Complete Streams that will prevent audio sync problems and "jetter" (jerking)effect and wont shrink your movie in half. I'm sure that if you tried pvaStrumento you know that famous message that keeps on runnig in middle window during demuxing saying ... \Video frames missing, cutting audio.../. That's it, by unchecking that little box you will get mpv and mpa files ready to import to dvd lab for compilation without patching anything. Actualy,if you patch any files with dvdPatcher (did tried that too)and then import to dvdlab you will see that big green line on right side.That was the whole problem that I had to deal with. In case of TDA, patching is necessary for that program to accept any files other then 720x480, otherways it will reject them saying that your file or files are illigal and can't be Ignored. For me patching from 544x480 to 720x480 gives a big green line on right side of my screen, and it plays like that in some standalone dvd players. That's way I needed to find a way to go through the process and get dvd complied elementary files without patching. Heard, that I can patch files with dvdPatcher to fool TDA to make it accept files and than patch back to orginal. BUT, I could not get any straight answer how to do it properly. I still would like to know how to do that, and if you guys out there could write steps on how to do it and what to "unpatch", I'm sure more people then me would appriciate that info. Hope I didn't confused to many of you guys, if I did I'm sorry, just tried to help.
Regards, 129ten