Anyone editing Hauppauge HD PVR recordings?

[phnxcoyote]

I've had the Hauppauge HD PVR for almost 3 weeks now. Overall I'm very happy with it, especially now that I've switched from Vista Media Center to SageTV which supports the HD PVR as of the latest beta. I finally now have a PC-based PVR which can record all the HD channels I receive from my cable provider without needing a CableCard setup. The quality of the HD PVR recordings I find to be excellent, hard to distinguish from the original source.
Now the one issue I have with the HD PVR is that I'm finding it quite difficult to edit commercials from the recordings for archiving to AVCHD or Blu-Ray disc playable on my PS3. From reading the HD PVR thread on AVSForum.com, I'm not the only one running into problems editing commercials from HD PVR recordings.
The HD PVR records to a TS transport stream container with H.264 video and AAC 2-channel 48kHz audio. Within the next couple months there should be a new firmware upgrade that will allow the HD PVR to capture Dolby Digital 2.0/5.1. I've tried a number of applications to edit out commercials and other unwanted material. The first one I tried was Sony Vegas Pro 8.0a. I use Vegas all the time to edit my Canon HG10 AVCHD recordings. It has no trouble reading the M2TS files created by the HG10, but for whatever reason it refuses to accept the HD PVR TS files. I've also tried Elecard Xmuxer Pro and TS Packet Editor, both of which allow you to edit out material from H.264 without re-encoding. Both TS Packet Editor and Xmuxer Pro do an ok job. They're not frame-accurate, but within a couple seconds of the edit points. I can play back the output TS files created by both apps just fine on my PC using PowerDVD 7. The video and audio stay in sync playing back on my PC. But if I create an AVCHD or Blu-Ray disc from the edited TS files and play them back on my PS3, the video playback stutters badly once an edit point is reached. I'm using the full version of Arcsoft Total Media Extreme to burn the AVCHD and Blu-Ray discs. Total Media Extreme will accept the TS files created by the HD PVR and burn to AVCHD/Blu-Ray without re-encoding. If I burn a raw unedited TS recording to AVCHD or Blu-Ray, it plays back on my PS3 just fine. It's only when I edit the recordings that I start running into issues with playback on the PS3. I'm still a n00b when it comes to H.264, but from what I've read the problem I'm running into with PS3 playback is likely due to the timecodes getting messed up at the edit points. Is there a way I can fix the timecodes? I've tried re-muxing the edited TS with TSMuxer, but it seems to make the problem worse as I get badly stuttering video playing back on the PC.
Has anyone else with an HD PVR had success with what I'm attempting to do? I realize the software is still quite behind the hardware when it comes to H.264. I don't see very many commercial apps out there that will allow you to edit H.264. I'm hoping a future version of VideoRedo will allow me to edit commercials from my HD PVR recordings with as much ease as it does editing MPEG2. At this point ease of use is not high on my list. I just want something that works, commercial or freeware/shareware. If someone has a solution, please let me know. I'd be happy to upload a sample TS file from the HD PVR if someone wants to take a crack at editing it. Would I get in trouble with the mods if I posted the link to a 45-second TS clip recorded from ESPN-HD?

[rebkell]

I wonder if eac3to would work, extract the raw h264 video and audio from the edited ts streams and then mux it back with tsmuxer possibly.

[phnxcoyote]

Originally Posted by rebkell

I wonder if eac3to would work, extract the raw h264 video and audio from the edited ts streams and then mux it back with tsmuxer possibly.

I did try extracting the raw h.264 video and audio using tsmuxer and re-muxing to a new TS. Still had problems with playback on the PS3.

I've uploaded a sample 99MB (~1 minute) raw TS clip recorded from espn-hd. If anyone would like to experiment editing using the clip, PM me and I'll send you the link.

[rebkell]

I don't have a PS3, but I'm very interested in how the editing comes along, I do plan on getting on of these in the future. The reason I recommended eac3to is because it handles the audio/video sync very well, but if it's playing on the PC without issues, then I don't guess you have sync issues anyway.

[laserfan]

There's an app called h264cutter but apparently you have to cut on keyframes. Another thing to try is DGAVCDec to make a .dga and cut with VirtualDub.

[phnxcoyote]

Originally Posted by laserfan

There's an app called h264cutter but apparently you have to cut on keyframes. Another thing to try is DGAVCDec to make a .dga and cut with VirtualDub.

H264TS_Cutter works like a charm. I've already used it to edit commericals from a couple HD PVR recordings with excellent results that play back perfectly with my PS3 after burning to AVCHD or Blu-Ray. You just have to make sure to set the CutIn frametype to I-frame and CutOut frametype to B-frame or All-frame in the Advanced Settings.

H264_Cutter can be found at http://www.videohelp.com/tools/H264TS_Cutter

[rebkell]

Originally Posted by phnxcoyote

H264TS_Cutter works like a charm. I've already used it to edit commericals from a couple HD PVR recordings with excellent results that play back perfectly with my PS3 after burning to AVCHD or Blu-Ray. You just have to make sure to set the CutIn frametype to I-frame and CutOut frametype to B-frame or All-frame in the Advanced Settings.

H264_Cutter can be found at http://www.videohelp.com/tools/H264TS_Cutter

Got my HD-PVR Friday, I love this thing and h264ts_cutter works very well. I sometimes have a couple of stuttering frames on a commercial cut, but I can live with it, I've transcoded a couple of movies using DGAVCDec and x264, and it worked great.

I'm wondering how to extract 23.976 out of the 1080i stuff though. The 29.97 stuff looks good though and is smooth, so it's not a big deal.

Have you read arogan's blog, it's got some good stuff about using graphedit to capture, preview and change some settings in the encoder that aren't accessible in the software that comes with the HD-PVR

[rebkell]

Little off topic, but if you're an owner of the HD-PVR, they have released the AC3 Drivers, it appears to be working for some and not at all for others. Working fine for me.

http://www.shspvr.com/smf/index.php?topic=11718.0

[navijac]

@phnxcoyote
you have PM!