# Hauppauge HD-PVR H.264 Component Interface/Concerter



## 1948GG (Aug 4, 2007)

Since this box was introduced at the 2008 CES, it has been the focus of LOTS of discussion around the internet. 

It is now shipping, and many of the early adopters/buyers have now received the units (I should have mine tomorrow, according to UPS), and I thought I'd establish a thread for folks to post their first (or second) impressions, both on the hardware and the bundled (from ArcSoft) software.

I've had to build a new Vista-PC to support this box (for the Arcsoft s/w, never had XP), so any thoughts one that would be appreciated as well.


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## morphy (Jun 5, 2007)

1948GG said:


> Since this box was introduced at the 2008 CES, it has been the focus of LOTS of discussion around the internet.
> 
> It is now shipping, and many of the early adopters/buyers have now received the units (I should have mine tomorrow, according to UPS), and I thought I'd establish a thread for folks to post their first (or second) impressions, both on the hardware and the bundled (from ArcSoft) software.
> 
> I've had to build a new Vista-PC to support this box (for the Arcsoft s/w, never had XP), so any thoughts one that would be appreciated as well.


I've been on the fence about going with this or with Vista Media Center. I was under the impression that Vista Media Center does not support H.264 yet? If so, lemme know and I'm going to order one today!


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## 1948GG (Aug 4, 2007)

morphy said:


> I've been on the fence about going with this or with Vista Media Center. I was under the impression that Vista Media Center does not support H.264 yet? If so, lemme know and I'm going to order one today!


There is no such thing as the 'Vista Media Center' anymore; hasn't been for a couple of months + now. The functionality has been 'merged' into the 'Home Premium' and the 'Ultimate' editions. See:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/editions/choose.mspx

Also, there is a good 'first impressions' blog entry on the HD-PVR at:

http://brentevans.blogspot.com/2008/05/answers-to-your-hauppauge-hd-pvr.html

I might add that all the comment so far are EXTREMELY early. The boxes first started shipping on the 29th of May, so folks have only had a day or so to 'take a look see'. A bummer that the Dolby Digital isn't working on the box for another month or so (s/w upgrade), but that should give folks some time to 'wring out' the other functions, particularly the video encoding, burning dvd's, and the like.


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## LarryFlowers (Sep 22, 2006)

1948GG said:


> There is no such thing as the 'Vista Media Center' anymore; hasn't been for a couple of months + now. The functionality has been 'merged' into the 'Home Premium' and the 'Ultimate' editions. See:
> 
> http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/editions/choose.mspx
> 
> ...


Some confusion here... there was never a separate Vista Media Center product as there was with XP. ALL versions of Vista include Media Center.

H264 support is in the coming upgrade to Media Center.. expected in November, before the holiday season starts.


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## generalpatton78 (Dec 17, 2003)

1948GG said:


> Since this box was introduced at the 2008 CES, it has been the focus of LOTS of discussion around the internet.
> 
> It is now shipping, and many of the early adopters/buyers have now received the units (I should have mine tomorrow, according to UPS), and I thought I'd establish a thread for folks to post their first (or second) impressions, both on the hardware and the bundled (from ArcSoft) software.
> 
> I've had to build a new Vista-PC to support this box (for the Arcsoft s/w, never had XP), so any thoughts one that would be appreciated as well.


Let us know how well it works with making DVDs that are read as a Blu Ray disc by PS3's. I may get this box very soon if I can get 60-90min on a DVD.


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## 1948GG (Aug 4, 2007)

LarryFlowers said:


> Some confusion here... there was never a separate Vista Media Center product as there was with XP. ALL versions of Vista include Media Center.


NO, that's incorrect. Neither Vista Home OR Vista Business has (or has ever had) the Media Center functionality. There are threads all over the place with people who mistakenly thought it was. Re-read the Microsoft documentation.


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## 1948GG (Aug 4, 2007)

generalpatton78 said:


> Let us know how well it works with making DVDs that are read as a Blu Ray disc by PS3's. I may get this box very soon if I can get 60-90min on a DVD.


You are a bit mistaken, as the format is not 'Blu-Ray', per se, but is AVCHD, a specific format, that can be read by any AVCHD compatible disc players, as well as the PS3's and 'normal' BR players. Of course, anyone with standard DVD computer players (with appropriate s/w and HD video outputs and decoder cards) can play the discs back as well, which is what I will be doing until the latest (reasonable cost, stable operating system) SONY BR players become available, hopefully by the end of this summer.

The 'specs' by Hauppauge say 2 hours on a standard DVD5 at 5Mb/s. How 'good' that actually looks, in comparison to the source, and to higher rates, is the question of the day. Unfortunately, that will probably never be fully resolved, just like the quality differences between other HD sources never will be, particularly on public forums/blogs. Every user will have to determine what they see for themselves.


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## generalpatton78 (Dec 17, 2003)

1948GG said:


> You are a bit mistaken, as the format is not 'Blu-Ray', per se, but is AVCHD, a specific format, that can be read by any AVCHD compatible disc players, as well as the PS3's and 'normal' BR players. Of course, anyone with standard DVD computer players (with appropriate s/w and HD video outputs and decoder cards) can play the discs back as well, which is what I will be doing until the latest (reasonable cost, stable operating system) SONY BR players become available, hopefully by the end of this summer.


 I'd suggest jumping on the PS3 deal that walmart has right now($100 gift card). I also understand some the finer details of the AVC disks (I use one from AVS to calibrate my TV settings). Just the same it's mostly Blu ray players people will be using that format for and it's alot easier to say a disc read as a "Blu Ray disk" for people who may not understand or know anything about the AVC disks. 


1948GG said:


> The 'specs' by Hauppauge say 2 hours on a standard DVD5 at 5Mb/s. How 'good' that actually looks, in comparison to the source, and to higher rates, is the question of the day. Unfortunately, that will probably never be fully resolved, just like the quality differences between other HD sources never will be, particularly on public forums/blogs. Every user will have to determine what they see for themselves.


Ya that's what the specs say but it's like you said how good is the PQ at that rate? I don't need Blu Ray PQ but I'd prefer better PQ then most of D* Mpeg2 HD channels. I may wait for the DD5.1 drivers.


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## kokishin (Sep 30, 2006)

Microsoft web site says WMC is supported in Vista Home Premium and Ultimate (Business and Basic do not support WMC):

_But with Windows Vista, Windows Media Center is no longer a separate edition but simply integrated within the Windows Vista Home Premium and Windows Vista Ultimate editions._

Click on this link for more details:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/features/details/mediacenter.mspx



1948GG said:


> NO, that's incorrect. Neither Vista Home OR Vista Business has (or has ever had) the Media Center functionality. There are threads all over the place with people who mistakenly thought it was. Re-read the Microsoft documentation.


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## David MacLeod (Jan 29, 2008)

1948GG said:


> NO, that's incorrect. Neither Vista Home OR Vista Business has (or has ever had) the Media Center functionality. There are threads all over the place with people who mistakenly thought it was. Re-read the Microsoft documentation.


vista enterprise is same way as vista business.


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## 1948GG (Aug 4, 2007)

Most of the early adopters, in reviewing most of the blogs and forums, trying to get the thing to be too much of a 'swiss army knife', i.e., working/interoperability with SageTV and other such 'roll your own' dvr setups. 

Lots of failures. Those who are trying to use it in a 'simple' setup (an encoder for satellite or cable feeds) seem to be having much better luck. Some folks have already gotten RMA's to replace their units. Mine, I have no PC (vista) to hook it up yet, a new machine should be ready for pickup early next week. Lots of work to do redoing a lot of the 'plumbing' (wiring) of the systems (video and LAN) before and after, though. 

Me, I hope to be able to get it to do coding of material that is saved in my main DVR (2TB). Will probably take a good week after I get the Vista/PC to really get a good idea on how it works.


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## 1948GG (Aug 4, 2007)

A bit of an interim report on the HD-PVR unit:

Capturing video and analog audio (Hauppauge says the optical audio bitstream will be in an upgrade soon), works just fine. I had a bit of problems at the beginning, but tweaked the Vista PC USB and shortened the cable to a minimum, and got it to 'capture' both live HD material and playbacks from my DVR (DirecTV HR20-700) without any problems.

However, as a couple other earth adopters remarked on different blogs, there's where the good news kinda ends. Editing s/w of the AVCHD stream is so new to most s/w makers (despite being on every HD camcorder out there for well over 2 years now), the 'bundled' application (Arcsoft Total Media Extreme) seems to kinda work, but trying to edit the original .ts stream (or the AVCHD file made by the Hauppauge 'MP4 Creator 1.1), results in a file about twice the original size of the 'capture' file. It seemed eerily familiar to the MPeg2 editors some 7 years ago!

I went back to look at other possible editing programs, and the first I chose to look at (free trial) was Cyberlink's Power Director 7. It was chosen because it was one of the few that said it could BOTH import and output AVCHD.

I kinda works. Imports just fine. The output, however, decides to 'letterbox' the original 16:9 HD in a 4:3 frame. I haven't been able to figure out why yet. That, and the fact the program, even with a top of the line PC (very fast multi-CPU and tons or ram) is VERY slow).

So, with the output not up to snuff, I'm moving on to the next possibility, ULead 'Video Studio 11.5 Plus, which had gotten a couple of good 'reviews' from users. One has to look at the 'fine print' on the specs though, as it said it will import AVCHD ONLY from 'camcorder or DVD disc only', so I'll see. I can easily output the non-edited material from the Arcsoft s/w to RW disc, so again, I'll see. A couple more takes of beating on this and we'll see.

A couple good sites found:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AVCHD

http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9746777-1.html?r=1214021645312

http://brentevans.blogspot.com/

One has to keep in mind that the editing program must both import AND export the AVCHD of course. Many DO NOT, and fairly explicitly say so in their 'specs'. Why programmers would import some file type they can't export is beyond me. But I stopped trying to figure out the 'mindset' of programmer types a LONG time ago.

So, work goes on to find a good editor. Actually, as the HD-PVR is a 'middle-man' of sorts, one can do VERY simple editing on the 'analog' side, by pausing and starting the source DVR. But that's pretty lame.

Keep your eye on the brentevan blog, as his promises a review at some point; he'll probably hit the same things I am, but perhaps have better solutions (one can hope).


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## 1948GG (Aug 4, 2007)

After beating on Cyberlink for the better part of two days (taking over 3 hours to try and edit a 10 minute clip), on to Ulead Video Studio 11.5 Plus.

Totally different. Actually VERY usable. And it follows 'Windows' design (!) parameters! Without reading a bit of the documentation (or even the 'help' files, just like 'normal' users would!), I easily imported the .ts (M2TS) file originally generated by the HD-PVR and the Arcsoft TME (total media extreme) program like a champ. 

It wouldn't, however, load the MP4 file generated by the Hauppauge MP4_Creator (vr 1.1) program. Bleech, it said. "format file mismatch".

But, it wouldn't 'see' the audio within the .ts file, either. In scrutinizing the programs specs, it clearly says it wants Dolby and a host of others, and it is totally unknown as to how Hauppauge encoded the 'non-bitstream' audio into the .ts file structure (non-standard, perhaps?).

IN fact, Ulead in reporting the Properties of the ingested clip, says 'no audio'. But the simple editing I did was fast and smooth, all making sense from the standpoint of any other editing s/w out there. Except for the Audio, a slam dunk.

Now, I haven't been able to get the HD-PVR to accept digital audio whatsoever yet, even simple PCM, as stated in the Hauppauge documents. So, maybe until they get the s/w upgrade out, that simply won't work.. 

But, it does output 16:9 AVCHD files (and import .ts works just fine), both the Arcsoft and Cyberlink play the results no problems. So if Hauppauge just gets their act together on the audio, and perhaps fixes whatever is wrong with their MP4 Creator program so it is 'standard' (works with ULead), then everything would be good to go.

YES! Got the toslink input on the HD-PVR to work, by resetting virtually everything in the path and making sure Dolby was turned off. HOWEVER, the resulting .ts file was STILL seen by ULead as having no audio. Rats.. The ball is still in Hauppauges corner...


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## 1948GG (Aug 4, 2007)

It has been a VERY (right at a year...) LONG time since there have really been any updates in anything going on with the Hauppauge HD-PVR, except...

1. The original units tended to overheat (the encoder chip I believe), leading to some to 'mod' the box with fans and such. Hauppauge did a couple of h/w manufacturing mods to both put a heatsink as well as added airflow that seems to have 'cured' the problem. The newest rev. E1's (or even E2's) seem to work ok, but some are still doing the mod 'tricks' as they put the device into 24/7 operation with HD-PVR s/w.

2. Hauppauge finally released the Dolby Digital 5.1 update to the Arcsoft TME (Total Media Extreme) software package, about 2-3 months ago. The TME will 'auto upgrade' through the internet. There are sill a couple of s/w issues being hammered out on the Arcsoft side, regarding AVCHD (h/x264) generation, but...

3. Things on the H/x.264 side haven't been standing still. There are quite a number of devices that will 'play' the generated output (m2ts) files, including at least two stand-alone (non-computer s/w) players, a new LG as well as a JVC unit. In fact, both are 'internet capable' and do all sorts of different file types up to and including mkv, youtube, etc. 

4. A number of 'network media tanks' or NMT's have now reached the market, the most 'famous' or at least widely used, is the 'Popcorn Hour' Linux box. It plays just about every type of video (and audio) file type one throws at it, up to and including networked DVD computer drives in addition to 'standard' Hard Drive's, and networked storage.

The 'big question' at this time last year was, how is the quality? I basically put the unit 'on the shelf' due to the lack of Dolby Digital (the original unit.software used AAC audio, I later found out, which the editing s/w didn't 'understand'). But now that the unit does DD5.1, I've gone into a systematic testing mode on the unit.

The upshot is, the 'minimum' settings of 5mb/s average encoding (with 13.5mb/s peak) results in fairly poor results. Probably tood enough for network comedy shows and the like. But the real controlling factor is, what quality settings result in either a DVD5 (4.37GB) or DVD9 (7.95GB) media. There is a chart, with a 'sliding factor', and my testing has yielded, allowing one to figure the maximum (average) settings to yield the 'just fit' sizes on either physical media.

Even with the continued (almost monthly) fall of drive prices, it still doesn't come close to the pricing of removable discs. Several manufacturers have nice networked boxes out now, including most notably LaCie and Netgear; with RAID 5, 6, and beyond, both units are very nice, but cost analysis shows that a 'typical' DVD9-sized movie costs around $2-3 in storage costs (depending on the size and RAID of the array), while physical recordable disc prices (even DVD9's) are now well below $1.50 even for premium types such a Verbatim +DL's (which over the past few years, I've found to totally outperform any of the other types). 

So, unless your want the 'convenience' of having the huge networked disc array (with 2TB discs from Western Digital), sizes of 'small' RAID boxes are exceeding 10TB. Of course, one could 'make the leap' to industrial types, but costs rapidly escalate from the $2K level for th 'home/small business' use types, the largest of which could hold approx. 1000 equvilent DVD9's. Standard 'removable' media is, of course, virtually unlimited in size.

Back to the 'quality' issue. I've found that although the 'range' of the settings in the Arcsoft s/w controlling the box are 0-13.5 Average and 0-20 Peak, that no matter where the maximum settings are, they tend to 'top out' (not get any better somewhere around 11+ Average and 13.5 peak. There are settings that allow 'variable average' and 'variable peak', but they are only useful at the 'low end' of the encoding spectrum.

If one is concentrated on producing as little quality differences between the original (in my case the output of the HR20 series DVR, with Mpeg4 encoded transmissions), then the 'constant' bit rate setting is required, with average bit rates exceeding 9. 

Again, I've found through extensive testing, that ~112 min can be encoded at that rate (to fill a DVD9 disc), and a sliding scale from there down to ~140min at a setting of 7, to ~194min at 5. 

Even at the 'best' setting, there is a bit of quality loss; if you use one of the 'newer' types of displays (LCD or Plasma), you may be stretched to see much of a difference, but I utilize only commericial-grade HD CRT sets in my 'home theater' (yes, I lust after some of the huge flat screens), but only the VERY top of the line plasmas (Pioneer, but they are dropping them, or Panasonic) come close to the reproduction quality of CRT's. 

In short, one can tell which source one is looking at, either the HR20 recorded output (which is indistinguishable from the original 99% of the time) and the output of the recorded HD-PVR (played back through either a high-end 'multimedia PC' with player software (like Cyberlink) and a top-line video card (ATI or Nvidia), or one of the NMT devices (like Popcorn Hour).

Just how much lower? It is VERY close. I've used, mainly, two 'clips' to run my 'quality' tests, one from the movie 'Preditor' (very nice jungle scenes with tons of foliage off in the distance to gauge sharpness and clarity, source DirecTV Mpeg4/Cinemax ), and the a 'Planet Earth; Pole to Pole', again virtually every scene. It's hard to quantify it down to an actual figure, but I would say that, since I have the 'original' BluRay Planet Earth Disc (single layer BD) as a 'reference', plus a recoded x264 version, I'd say if the x264 (51min episode recoded down to a DVD5 size image), is 98 out of 100 'Q' wise, I'd put the HD-PVR output at around 95 out of 100 for the same episode recorded off DiscoveryHD.

It's all pretty subjective. Again, I'm sure those with different displays or processing chains would get something a bit different, but I'd say that's about right. With the HD-PVR, it would usually take me about 10-15 seconds to reach a conclusion as to which source I was looking at, whereas with the x264 recode from disc, about double that (mainly waiting for a scene with critical resolution taxing components). Folks with better eyesight may be faster, but then again, I've been looking at digital video artifacts for well over 20 years now, and my brain probably makes up for a lot of what my eyes (even with spending $1-2K a year on ophthalmologists) can discern. 

Bottom line: 'Good Enough', especially for material that is not available on BR at the present time (which is a LOT). I continually make comparisons to SD DVD's, and the mistakes and dead ends (both marketing and technical) they went through in the 'early days'; basically, most everything produced before around 2003-4 was pretty much 'junk'. From all the bad reviews I read in a month on BD (and having to wade through all the 'glowing' reviews of things others say are junk), the current state of BD is around, maybe 2001 DVD wise. 

WAY too many discs are still 25GB/single layer, with compression levels 'cranked up'. WAY too many discs are using poor source materials that haven't been 'cleaned up', even to SD DVD levels. And, of course, pricing is still 2-3 times or more that SD DVD's, and the studios are still whining about production costs. If they were focused on real industrial engineering of their production plants instead of what their bonus pay structure (for the current quarter) was, they'd make progress. But that simply isn't 'the American Way'.

So, it's a good 'stopgap' measure. From right now, I'd say a good 10 years or so worth of being useful, although 'special events' (concerts, etc.) and such will probably extend it's usefulness. But it will probably take that long before the studios will have finally released a major percentage (and not screw them up) of films on BR. Until then.. A highly useful device.

(And oh, I'm still testing editing programs)


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## 1948GG (Aug 4, 2007)

I've spent the last week going through all the different 'editing' programs that, at least according to 'some', work on the .ts or .m2ts files that are generated by the HD-PVR.

The end result is.... NONE of them work at all. Apparently, the few folks that have gotten one or another of them to 'work', went through an incredible amount of hoop jumping, recoding the files (a definite no-no in my opinion, as the quality of the capture has already taken a bit of a hit from the original DVR capture, which is excellent), sometimes several times. 

The three major programs:

h264ts_cutter v.111: result, ZIP. Refuses to load any file generated by the HD-PVR/TME (Total Media Extreme) 

Elecard AVC HD Editor Beta: Will load the files, but requires recoding as the output is not AVCHD/x.264. Again, major quality loss, even though the documentation clearly states 'no recoding'. Right.

TSPE - Transport Stream Packet Editor v.755: Another complete failure, won't load files. 

In tracking down user comments on these programs, one gets a 'hint' now and again of some success, but the people making such claims never get very specific about how they achieved 'success'. Others have, according to their comments, had to (again) jump through several hoops to get some kind of minimal success. 

A fourth program is supposedly under development to do AVCHD files, VideoReDo. Unknown as to when (or if) they will actually release something, as in going back over their blog, the development has been going on for well over a year.

To put another monkey wrench in the process, Arcsoft (and Hauppague) released a s/w update to the TME program last week. Luckily, I had several older captures saved off to disc, and was able to attempt to editi them as well. Result: Zero. So, really don't know if any changes they may have done is causing yet more problems, or if the folks who reported any level of editing success were using older versions of the TME s/w, as Arcsoft, in it's corporate minds, refuses to label their s/w with any version numbers. Neat, uh? (in fact, they don't even update their copyright notice!)

There are at least 2-3 commercial programs out their that say they will edit AVCHD files; however, my attempts to get any of them (either as 'try it out' or even straight buying the things) has proven to be zero. NONE of them, downloaded directly from the 'manufacturers' sites, has installed and run AT ALL on my plain vanilla Vista32 machine (with top X2 processors, 4GB ram, and terrabytes of drive space, and now Service Pack 2). 

In short, the HD-PVR runs real nice, the s/w seems to be fairly stable (although on some blogs, the folks want it to run for weeks without failure, which is a pretty high level of stability), and playing the files is straightforward, including burning them off to DVD with imgburn (a 'trick' I tripped over, again, in one of the blogs), but editing?

No way, no how. And without that, it pretty much limits the usability of the box.


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## CoriBright (May 30, 2002)

From GeekTonic.com:
http://www.geektonic.com/2009/06/dvblink-10-for-hauppauge-hd-pvr.html

For those folks using Windows Media Center software, it looks like the sun might yet shine on your efforts.


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## 1948GG (Aug 4, 2007)

CoriBright said:


> For those folks using Windows Media Center software, it looks like the sun might yet shine on your efforts.


Simply yet another 'DVR-Like' implementation. There are several others (SAGE-TV comes immediately to mind), much more advanced, that apparently work pretty good in that realm. None of them are anywhere close to the usability (and cost) of basic stand-alone DVR's such as the DirecTV HR series, although there are a few areas where the combo may be better, particularly in storage of the video (the HR series is limited to 2TB, due to the Linux kernal they built the s/w on).

I've continued to try looking for a decent (working) editing program.


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## 1948GG (Aug 4, 2007)

I'm trying to get yet another program working, TSSniper. 

IN going through all these, certain things keep coming up; first, literally NO installation info with any of them. So I don't know if the operation (or lack thereof) of any of them is due to anything wrong in that area. The second is, do these people (programmers) actually USE their own creations? The preponderance of dark lettering on a dark background is like all of them were done by 'goth' programmers (and no, it's not my system settings, which are on original).

Lastly but certainly not the least, is the lack of any user forums by most of these programs. Now I know, a lot of them are being done by folks simply for the challenge, but I would think they'd want some actual feedback. But seeing as they don't first take 5 minutes to write a simple installation guide, include all the ancillary programs it takes to run their creation, shows me that they either don't care, or have disorganized minds (not a good thing for programmers).

The recent TSSniper is a good example. Again, 'goth' coloring. Second, it utilizes external programs for some (all?) of it's functionality. You think that there would be a list of such externals? Not a chance. Author website? Broken link. Certainly cost is not an issue, as most (if not all) ISPs offier several (small but usable, and free) web sites with their offerings. 

It's just simple laziness.


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## 1948GG (Aug 4, 2007)

Somewhat luckily, got TSSniper working, as it seems to like Haali Media Splitter and the Arcsoft Video Decoder (which of course one should already have from the Arcsoft install).

Only done a couple of tests, but for once, the program actually follows 'standard' editing conventions (mark in/mark out). Most of the programs I've tried out have 're-invented' that particular wheel (for whatever reason). Of course, the one major downside with the program is the 'goth' style coloring. Tons of very dark lettering on a very dark background. The editing 'bar' however, is very sharp and colorful. 

The ability to get down very close to frame edits is there, and in my limited tests so far seem to actually to just fine. The ability to change some/all of the preferences is also pretty good. In short, it works, seems to have a good path already set in the program for future improvement. Really needs either some ability to do 'skins' or at least a way to change the coloring! I have to crank my monitor up to 100% brightness to make out the lettering...


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## Nukster (Jul 12, 2009)

1948GG said:


> Somewhat luckily, got TSSniper working, as it seems to like Haali Media Splitter and the Arcsoft Video Decoder (which of course one should already have from the Arcsoft install).
> 
> Only done a couple of tests, but for once, the program actually follows 'standard' editing conventions (mark in/mark out). Most of the programs I've tried out have 're-invented' that particular wheel (for whatever reason). Of course, the one major downside with the program is the 'goth' style coloring. Tons of very dark lettering on a very dark background. The editing 'bar' however, is very sharp and colorful.
> 
> The ability to get down very close to frame edits is there, and in my limited tests so far seem to actually to just fine. The ability to change some/all of the preferences is also pretty good. In short, it works, seems to have a good path already set in the program for future improvement. Really needs either some ability to do 'skins' or at least a way to change the coloring! I have to crank my monitor up to 100% brightness to make out the lettering...


Hello,

I'm sorry for your experience with TSSNiper, but some of your findings need a correction:

1. You are right. Some kind of guide should be made available...

2. You can change the overall appearance of the program coloring in version 0.8.0.600 by selecting a different "skin" in the program options. Some other skins with a better contrast are available. Just check them out.

3. Haali Splitter is a basic requirement because this is the only splitter that handles audio/program selection properly.

4. You can use almost any decoder you want. I have had good experience with CoreAVC for H.264 and MainConcept Codecs for MPEG2.

The program is not further developed at the moment because there's no time left on my side.

If you have further questions just ask but please don't request enhancements.

Regards


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## 1948GG (Aug 4, 2007)

Hey! I'm still rather bowled over it WORKS, though, after my various failures. I'll dig deeper and try to get the coloring fixed up a bit; I don't have a LCD display I can leave the brightness/contrast constantly cranked up on...(the $300 that would cost has gone into more terabytes!)

I'm not looking at cutting out commercials and such, just 'trimming' the front/back end of movies and such, but I did a couple small tests of cutting a grab to shreds, and it seemed to work just great.

There was a report in another thread that the 'VEGAS' program by Sony seemed to work, although I did originally have a report a year or so ago that it was also a failure so didn't give it a try then. They perhaps have 'tweaked' the program and now it works.


But I'm going through all my recordings (I have 2/2TB arrays off my HR20-700 filled past 80%), and I'm also looking at a NAS of some type to hold all this 'stuff'. Like I've continually commented to folks on, we're still around 2002 or thereabouts in relation to HD content (movies, concerts) being really available, just like standard def/DVD's were. I'm about to take the x.264 plunge as well, but this capture/encode project (at least until 4TB of space get filled up on my network), has priority.


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## Cobalt123 (Jul 27, 2009)

Sony Vegas Movie Studio 9.0b does not work with any Hauppauge HD PVR capture file formats. All versions of the capture file crash when editing. Don't waste your time trying Vegas.

Nero 9 does work and seems to handle the PVR MP4 and .TS files. Running Nero 9 under Vista 64x.


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## 1948GG (Aug 4, 2007)

Cobalt123 said:


> Sony Vegas Movie Studio 9.0b does not work with any Hauppauge HD PVR capture file formats. All versions of the capture file crash when editing. Don't waste your time trying Vegas.
> 
> Nero 9 does work and seems to handle the PVR MP4 and .TS files. Running Nero 9 under Vista 64x.


I rather suspected as much... I have looked a bit at Nero (I have it), but I don't think it does 'non-recode' for ts or mt2 streams.

I've now been using TSSniper for a couple of weeks now, just about gotten 2TB of stuff off my HR20-700's external HD's. So much so I've started getting low on space, and had to order up another couple 1.5TB drives to hold it all!

I've got a project to hold everything, the 'unRAID' box. Huge, expandable, upwards of 20TB+ (some 16+ drives). Add as you go. Linux OS on usb flash drive, h/w built around Supermicro mb and Adaptec PCIexpress RAID cards.

The entry price is a bit steep (around $2k to start with 3 drives), but after that the only cost is more bulk drives.


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## rajeshh (Sep 11, 2007)

1948GG said:


> h264ts_cutter v.111: result, ZIP. Refuses to load any file generated by the HD-PVR/TME (Total Media Extreme)


I have succesfully used the ts_cutter to load files recorded by the HD-PVR, and cut stuff etc. You have to rename the files to mpg and then load it. Have you done that and tried?


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## Magicspell (Aug 10, 2009)

Nukster said:


> Hello,
> 
> I'm sorry for your experience with TSSNiper, but some of your findings need a correction:
> 
> ...


Nukster,

I could use some help with TSSniper. I've tried it on some of my HD-PVR recordings but have an odd result. I loaded a sample show to try to "cut" commercials out of. After the message "initializing video preview" I get a pop-up that says, "The currently used splitter/demuxer, Nero Splitter, does not provide the capabilities required to select audio streams. You will not be able change the active audio stream! Try selecting a different splitter/demuxer filter in the program settings."

After selecting "OK" I'm presented with the video and I can proceed to cut sections out. When I'm done I export the .TS file. I've then tried to play back this resulting file with my WD media player (which I also use to play the unedited HD-PVR capture) and I get video but NO audio (the original capture had AC3 audio).

I've gone into the TSSniper settings and tried to select Haali Media Splitter as the splitter/demuxer but I then get an error message, "DirectShow problem - Failure while trying to get input pin of preferred splitter/demuxer filter." This, though I know Haali is installed on my system (but I don't know how to verify its usage).

Any suggestions?


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## 1948GG (Aug 4, 2007)

What works for me is putting the Arcsoft Video Decoder for the 'Preferred H.264 video Decoder' setting, along with the Haali as the splitter/demuxer. Works like a champ. 

The whole setup isn't exactly 'frame accurate' editing, but after a bit, you get pretty darn good at 'guessing' exactly where the cut is made, and where it actually gets 'put'.


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## 1948GG (Aug 4, 2007)

rajeshh said:


> I have succesfully used the ts_cutter to load files recorded by the HD-PVR, and cut stuff etc. You have to rename the files to mpg and then load it. Have you done that and tried?


I'll have to give that a try on my next run at editing captures, probably next week (hey, ran out of HD space, still mulling over what way to go on a large RAID systems).


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## hoovey1969 (Dec 1, 2009)

Nukster, I could also use some help with tssniper. I successfully loaded it and figured out how to extract a video. Rather than cutting out commercials I am looking to extract pieces of the video and create chunks to review later. What I'm doing is grabbing segments of a hockey game to create a highlight film for the kids.

I just upgraded from using a DV video cameria and uploading in AVI files to now having video camera that supports the AVCHD (which I assume is another name for .m2ts files). I am using Adobe Premier Elements 8.0 which now supports the HD formats, as well. It is too slow and the picture quality of the preview isn't good enough for me to do a bunch of these cuts.

I received the same audio issue as the previous poster but I do not have this other program installed. Is there any document already started even in draft form that explains how to do some of this stuff for a newbie like myself?


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