• The forum software that supports hummy.tv has been upgraded to XenForo 2.3!

    Please bear with us as we continue to tweak things, and feel free to post any questions, issues or suggestions in the upgrade thread.

making dvds

T

trevor wright

Member
I have ordered a hdr fox t2 after years with a Topfield which is now sinking fast. I just want to know how to get sd recordings off the Humax, onto my imac, and then onto a DVD. I could do this with the Topfield quite easily. The more I look at Humax-related advice about this, the more alarmed I become. I'm not overly expert, technically speaking. Grateful for any help.
 
Obvious way is to use an external hard disk with USB connection.
Connect to Humax, copy recordings to external HDD, move connection to IMac, copy to DVD
This requires no special provision on the Humax - it is all there with standard (non-customised) software
HTH
 
It depends if you want to remain standard or go custom firmware. It is perfectly feasible to do this for StDef without custom firmware, the only problem being whether your iMac video editor can take the .TS files and create a DVD from them (the data has to be re-encoded). Simply copying the recording out to a USB drive (FAT32) to then transport to your iMac will overcome the encryption.

The version of Serif MoviePlus I use on PC doesn't like importing .TS, I use the custom firmware to convert to .MPG (only a wrapper change) before I download it. You might find it works for you just by renaming the file to .MPG. If there is a version of ffmpeg that runs on iMac, you can use that to do the conversion if necessary (ffmpeg is used in the custom firmware).

Don't try with HiDef. Even after you have decrypted it, it is a bad match for DVD.

For more information see Index (click): Miscellaneous.. Video File Support & Manipulation.. Editing & Burning
 
Black Hole said:
Don't try with HiDef. Even after you have decrypted it, it is a bad match for DVD.

For more information see Index (click): Miscellaneous.. Video File Support & Manipulation.. Editing & Burning
Click to expand...

Why ?. If the box can output very good 576i on the fly from it's scart socket on a HD channel it ought to be a very good DVD source. If you are using Serif Movie Plus to encode to mpeg2 DVD compliant footage not surprised you say it's a bad match, the mpeg2 encoder is poor.

Recorded a short clip of NHKWorldHD from satellite and converted it to mpeg2 with Movie Plus X5 (this opens .ts files OK) and also with Magix Movie Edit pro and have uploaded the two files to here for comparison purposes.

https://www.adrive.com/public/5Cxq6b/NHKtestMagix.MPG

https://www.adrive.com/public/2ThQ9V/NHKtestSerif.mpg

If the OP has a Blu-ray player (PS3 is OK) you can burn up to about an hour to a single layer DVD in 1080i without recoding using AVCHD format anyway
 
Fair enough, but the quality of StDef is more than sufficient for a conventional DVD.

Using HiDef as a source will entail dabbling with custom firmware, or at least Foxy. See Things Every... section 5.
 
Black Hole said:
Fair enough, but the quality of StDef is more than sufficient for a conventional DVD.
Click to expand...

Indeed but most would rather record the HD version, the bitrate used for SD is a lot lower than DVD can accommodate so by using the higher quality HD as a source you can use the higher bitrates to improve quality.

Look at the picture quality via RGB scart using say BBC1 and BBC1-HD on the same programme.
 
grahamlthompson said:
Indeed but most would rather record the HD version, the bitrate used for SD is a lot lower than DVD can accommodate so by using the higher quality HD as a source you can use the higher bitrates to improve quality.

Look at the picture quality via RGB scart using say BBC1 and BBC1-HD on the same programme.
Click to expand...
Define "most". I try not to use such terms, since we each only represent the opinion of one.
 
Black Hole said:
Define "most". I try not to use such terms, since we each only represent the opinion of one.
Click to expand...

Well anyone shelling out for a HD pvr is likely to use the HD channels, otherwise there are much cheaper options. My faithfull old Toppy is as good a pvr as the HDR FOX T2 if you ignore the HD channels.
 
Ezra Pound said:
For Standard Def. the answer is yes, copy files to a USB drive and then FTP directly from the USB drive (Drive1) over the LAN connection to a P.C.
Click to expand...

Or, for HD, use Foxy first and then copy to a USB drive and then FTP to a PC.

That's the easy bit! It's after that that I struggle.

Humax are about to replace my HDR-FOX-T2 after a lot of tuner problems (discussed in an earlier thread). Although we mainly use the T2 for time-shifting programmes and don't tend to keep anything long term, SWMBO has identified a few programmes which she would like to keep before it gets swapped out. These are a mixture of SD and HD. I have operated on the HD ones with Foxy, and copied them all to an external USB hard drive and then FTP'd them to my computer.

On the PC, the .TS files are all playable - complete with sound - using VLC Media Player. But I'd like to burn them to DVD for posterity. That's where the trouble starts!

I thought I'd try using Windows DVD Maker. That doesn't understand .TS files, so I used Format Factory to convert them to .AVI When I pointed Windows DVD Maker at the .AVI files, it promptly crashed. Then I read somewhere that .TS files are really MPEG, so I renamed the .TS files to .MPG and tried again with Windows DVD Maker. It crashed again!

I then looked for alternatives, and found DVDFlick which looked as if it ought to do what I wanted, and could accept .TS files as input. So I installed that. I apparently didn't read the instructions well enough because I didn't tick either "create ISO image" or "burn direct to DVD" and it has simply created a load of .BUP, .IFO and .VOB files on my hard drive but not written anything to DVD. I can't see any way of telling it to burn those files to DVD without starting again. Any ideas - especially if you are familiar with DVDFlick?

Actually I'm not sure that it will be any good even if I can burn them to DVD because it seems to have only created video files - the audio folder is empty! If I play one of the .VOB files in VLC Media Player, there's no sound. Furthermore, the video seems a bit jittery.

So, how the hell DO I produce DVDs - which can be played on a DVD player- from my HDR-FOX-T2 recordings?

TIA!

WT
 
You need more than a DVD maker. You need something which is able to input video in various formats and then author a DVD. I have been criticised for saying that HiDef is not a good starting point, but regardless it is not for the inexperienced.

As I have already mentioned, Serif Movie Plus will take a StDef .TS that has been converted to .MPG, and I prefer to output to ISO and then burn a DVD from that. I think you can download a free version. I think Windows Live Movie Maker (also a free download) will do the job straight from a decrypted StDef .TS.

However, if what you are trying to do is preserve some content while you swap your HDR-FOX, why not simply copy straight to a USB drive, and then use the new HDR-FOX to view them from the drive? Depending on the size of the files, an 8GB USB stick (I recently bought two for £5 in Staples) could be sufficient, and would do as the archive medium (playable from a HD/HDR-FOX or a PC using VLC etc etc).
 
Watt Tyler said:
it has simply created a load of .BUP, .IFO and .VOB files on my hard drive but not written anything to DVD. I can't see any way of telling it to burn those files to DVD without starting again. Any ideas
Click to expand...

A DVD authoring program produces the set of .BUP, .IFO and .VOB files that you have, so the authoring has already been done, all you need to do is burn the Video_TS folder to a DVD using a DVD burning program such as Nero, The Audio is contained in the .VOB files the Audio_TS does not need to contain any files
 
In that case I'm surprised Windows DVD Maker got that far. My memory is a little vague on this point, but I remember trying it and rejecting it.
 
Watt Tyler said:
Or, for HD, use Foxy first and then copy to a USB drive and then FTP to a PC.

That's the easy bit! It's after that that I struggle.

Humax are about to replace my HDR-FOX-T2 after a lot of tuner problems (discussed in an earlier thread). Although we mainly use the T2 for time-shifting programmes and don't tend to keep anything long term, SWMBO has identified a few programmes which she would like to keep before it gets swapped out. These are a mixture of SD and HD. I have operated on the HD ones with Foxy, and copied them all to an external USB hard drive and then FTP'd them to my computer.

On the PC, the .TS files are all playable - complete with sound - using VLC Media Player. But I'd like to burn them to DVD for posterity. That's where the trouble starts!

I thought I'd try using Windows DVD Maker. That doesn't understand .TS files, so I used Format Factory to convert them to .AVI When I pointed Windows DVD Maker at the .AVI files, it promptly crashed. Then I read somewhere that .TS files are really MPEG, so I renamed the .TS files to .MPG and tried again with Windows DVD Maker. It crashed again!

I then looked for alternatives, and found DVDFlick which looked as if it ought to do what I wanted, and could accept .TS files as input. So I installed that. I apparently didn't read the instructions well enough because I didn't tick either "create ISO image" or "burn direct to DVD" and it has simply created a load of .BUP, .IFO and .VOB files on my hard drive but not written anything to DVD. I can't see any way of telling it to burn those files to DVD without starting again. Any ideas - especially if you are familiar with DVDFlick?

Actually I'm not sure that it will be any good even if I can burn them to DVD because it seems to have only created video files - the audio folder is empty! If I play one of the .VOB files in VLC Media Player, there's no sound. Furthermore, the video seems a bit jittery.

So, how the hell DO I produce DVDs - which can be played on a DVD player- from my HDR-FOX-T2 recordings?

TIA!

WT
Click to expand...

Burning the folder is easy

http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/archive/burn_dvd_folder_imgburn.cfm

Need to find out why you have no audio, download Mediainfo

http://mediainfo.sourceforge.net/en

Open the source transport stream that gave you no Audio, select tree view and export the detailed info to a textfile. Open this with Notepad, select all and copy the text to the clipboard. Paste this info into a reply.

Bit of information. SD transport stream files are mpeg2 in a container designed for broadcasting, DVD uses a programme stream container .mpg. Conversion is lossless and very quick. As you have found out often just changing the file extension will allow the mpeg2 video data to be extracted. VOB's are a container for .mpg data together with data required for DVD-Video. The VOB contains the audio multiplexed with the video and can include several audio streams, these don't include the audio format used by Freeview-HD (aac). AUDIO_TS is required on the DVD but is invariably empty, it's part of the Folder and File structure required for DVD-video. Basically a DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) has to be authored using the required DVD-Video file and folder structure before a DVD player can play it back.

More info

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD-Video
 
Black Hole said:
However, if what you are trying to do is preserve some content while you swap your HDR-FOX, why not simply copy straight to a USB drive, and then use the new HDR-FOX to view them from the drive? Depending on the size of the files, an 8GB USB stick (I recently bought two for £5 in Staples) could be sufficient, and would do as the archive medium (playable from a HD/HDR-FOX or a PC using VLC etc etc).
Click to expand...

You're absolutely right of course, but it seems to me that using a DVD-R would give it a bit more "permanence" because USB sticks tend to get over-written - sometimes by accident!

I've actually got the files on a 120GB hard drive - rescued from from old PC and mounted in a USB enclosure. This has a lot more capacity than a thumb drive, and I hoped it would be faster, but that is moot. I should certainly be able to connect that to the replacement HDR and play the video on the TV. The drive is no longer recognised by my PC - I had to format it on the HDR before it would write to it, so it's probably using a UNIX-based file structure. I do have copies of the .TS files on my PC, but I don't want to keep them there permanently because they take up a lot of space. I suppose I could burn them to DVD as data files - which should then play on a PC, but not on a DVD player.

WT
 
There is a Windows utility that will make the drive readable on PC (see Things Every... section 12), and you can write-protect the files.

I have old USB sticks with write-protect switches on them. Actually, for longevity, I bet on a hard drive or flash stick over a DVD-R (although I spotted some archive DVD-Rs in Maplin claiming a 100 year life - really?).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top