Problems with MPEG's from VDV

[ml_nelson]

I've got a string of problems including partial transfers & Tivo lockups associated with taking DVD's & creating MPEG's on the computer, then transfering those (using Tivo Desktop) to the Tivo.

First; here is my method for creating an MPEG from a DVD.

I use DVD Shrink 3.2 to create one large VOB file

If DVD Shrink can't rip the files directly (about 50% of DVD's) I use DVD Fab HD Dycrypter first.

Next I change the VOB extension to MPG (& delete all the misc stuff). It's now ready to transfer to Tivo. So, I put it into the appropriate folder that Tivo Desktop uses for transer. (I've checked the file for functionality & the stadard MPEG player on the PC can play it properly.)

Now, from the Tivo, I start the transfer from PC. Here is were all the problems start.

Sometimes I get a partial transfer. Tivo will get say, 30 minutes of a 90 minute movie & then put up an error. For some files, it actually locks up the Tivo & requires a re-boot. The behavior is exactly repeatable for a given file. If I try again, it will stop or lockup to-the-minute in the same place each time. About 1/2 my MPEG's created this way cause problems. Others work great & I get a Tivo playable file that looks as good as the DVD it came from.

Thoughts?
Mike

[moyekj]

Try pyTivo (http://pytivo.armooo.net/). There have been many reports of failed Tivo Desktop transfers from PC->Tivo that turn out to work fine with pyTivo.

[TexasGrillChef]

I have converted over 500 DVD's in the last year. I have had ZERO problems with transfer of ANY of the DVD's converted to MPG and transfered to either my TiVo, or any other device. (Xbox 360, PS3, DLNA clients).

I use either DVD HD Decrypter, or Blaze DVD copy 4.0. (Both remove CeSS). I use either program to create a DVD folder of the movie on my Hard drive. Because I DO like the extras I copy the entire DVD. If I don't want the "Extras" or a particular disc doesn't have any extras anyway, I will let BlazeDVD copy 4.0 just copy AND transcode the main movie file to MPG2. The purchased version of DVD Decrypter will do this as well.

I then proceed to use one of the following programs to "Transcode" the movie into a MPG2 file.

Roxio Easy Media Creator 10. This allows me to CHOOSE the Audio track. It does a great job of transcodeing & also allows me to set the "Thumbnail" for the MPG2 file. It also allows me to set other "settings" as well. It will transcode a 2hr movie in about 15 min.

Ulead VideoStudio 11 plus or Ulead DVD Moviefactory 6 plus. Both with free HD add in pack. I use either of these programs when I need to maintain the closed captioning track & view it on my TiVo. These programs allow me to choose which CC track I want to view. They also allow me to choose the audio track, & even convert a stereo track into DD5.1 (Such as for older movies such as Casablanca). Does a GREAT job of that too. It also has other features as well.

Nero Ultra 8 does a good job as well. Although I can't stand the user interface. It allows you to chose the audio track, as well as the closed captioning track as well.

Yes, VOB files are in fact MPG2 files. Just like TiVo files are MPG2 files as well. However, there is "EXTRA" informaton in VOB files that SOMETIMES messes with the TiVo. This extra information, is the info that tells a DVD player WHAT the NEXT vob file to be played on the DVD player.

Like I said. this is my method. I have NEVER had a problem & I have easily converted over 500 DVD's to MPG2 in the last year or so. I have now started doing the Same with Blu-ray. Although possible. Not really worth the effort as you get BETTER quality playing the Blu-ray movie on your blu-ray player then you do through your TiVo.

TGC

I use both pyTiVo and TiVo Desktop + 2.6. Before that 2.5. I have both a TiVo S3 & HD units.

[kenrippy]

TGC,

i don't see an option in BlazeDVDCopy 4 to output in MPG2 format. am i missing something?

[TexasGrillChef]

TGC,

i don't see an option in BlazeDVDCopy 4 to output in MPG2 format. am i missing something?

Nope I was.... been a while since I used it and forgot that I still run movie through another program after all. :(

Sorry

TGC

[kenrippy]

Ulead VideoStudio 11 plus or Ulead DVD Moviefactory 6 plus. Both with free HD add in pack. I use either of these programs when I need to maintain the closed captioning track & view it on my TiVo. These programs allow me to choose which CC track I want to view. They also allow me to choose the audio track, & even convert a stereo track into DD5.1 (Such as for older movies such as Casablanca). Does a GREAT job of that too. It also has other features as well.



not to hi-jack this thread, but for the life of me, i can't find the options in ulead video studio 11.5 plus (w/ HD add-on pack) that allow choosing audio tracks/deleting audio tracks etc. i sure wish there was a tutorial somewhere....

[ml_nelson]

TGC,

Your thoughts make sense. I found that if I go back to the original 4 VOB's that came off the DVD, rename them to MPG, they appear healthy (they transfer & seem to play).

So, I suspect Shrink is the culprit in making a merged file with something disagreable to Tivo. I've got Nero Ultra 7. so I'll try that for making a merge.

Thanks,
Mike

[TexasGrillChef]

not to hi-jack this thread, but for the life of me, i can't find the options in ulead video studio 11.5 plus (w/ HD add-on pack) that allow choosing audio tracks/deleting audio tracks etc. i sure wish there was a tutorial somewhere....

There are two places to do it. I can't remember where the second place is. But when you "CAPTURE" & "IMPORT" your dvd (From a DVD folder, that contains the complete "Video_TS" folder as it appeared on the DVD). It will pull up a screen that will give you the option of which "Tracks" and "Chapters" to import. There is also a Tab in that screen that will allow you to chose which audio tracks, as well as "Angles" and Closed captioning tracks.

TGC

[kenrippy]

thanks TGC,

now if i could only figure out how to pick audio tracks on a Blu-ray .m2ts file :confused:

[ml_nelson]

I have converted over 500 DVD's in the last year. I have had ZERO problems with transfer of ANY of the DVD's converted to MPG and transfered to either my TiVo, or any other device. (Xbox 360, PS3, DLNA clients).

I use either DVD HD Decrypter, or Blaze DVD copy 4.0. (Both remove CeSS). I use either program to create a DVD folder of the movie on my Hard drive. ...

Nero Ultra 8 does a good job as well. Although I can't stand the user interface. It allows you to chose the audio track, as well as the closed captioning track as well.

.

TGC,

I gave Nero 7 Ultra a try & using the default settings I get a transferable & playable MPG-2, but it's quite compressed, about 1/3 original size.

I re-ran the exercise & set video quality to the highest setting for Nero in transcoding to MPEG-2. I now get a file pretty much the size of the total VOB's. Quality is now just like the DVD but.... it only transfers about 3 minutes & then TIVO aborts the transfer.

Confused,
Mike

[jmemmott]

TGC,

I gave Nero 7 Ultra a try & using the default settings I get a transferable & playable MPG-2, but it's quite compressed, about 1/3 original size.

I re-ran the exercise & set video quality to the highest setting for Nero in transcoding to MPEG-2. I now get a file pretty much the size of the total VOB's. Quality is now just like the DVD but.... it only transfers about 3 minutes & then TIVO aborts the transfer.

Confused,
Mike

I am curious about whether the Tivo you are using is a Series 2 or a Series 3. The background to my question is that I have both and I also develop and maintain T2Sami, a program that deals with Tivo captioning in various ways. One of its capabilities is to take the contents of an unencrypted VIDEO_TS directory and reformat the programming with the closed captioning to send to a Tivo. I have found that for the Series 3 Tivo the encoding and multiplexing requirements are pretty tolerant. I has been reasonably hard for me to make a mix that fails for it.

The Series 2 is another story entirely. Files that work beautifully with my Series 3 fail by the same mechanisms discussed in this thread on a frequent basis. I have been playing with the encoding and multiplexing parameters to try to find a mix that will work reliably with the Series 2. I am finding that it generally requires lower bitrates in the video and more padding in the multiplexing. Thus your experience with a lower resolution copy working and the higher resolution version failing does not surprise me if you are using a Series 2.

I am almost to the conclusion that the lower processing power of the Series 2 and a poor rate control mechanism in the PC to Tivo transfer allows the Series 2 to become overwhelmed during the demux process if the usable video bit rate is too high. Just as the Tivo has to multiplex the outgoing stream to an mpeg from the native format for TivoToGo, it has to demultiplex it into the native format to come back. My Series 2 doesn't always appear to be able to keep up with the incoming data stream and everything else going on when the bit rate is too high...

[TexasGrillChef]

TGC,

I gave Nero 7 Ultra a try & using the default settings I get a transferable & playable MPG-2, but it's quite compressed, about 1/3 original size.

I re-ran the exercise & set video quality to the highest setting for Nero in transcoding to MPEG-2. I now get a file pretty much the size of the total VOB's. Quality is now just like the DVD but.... it only transfers about 3 minutes & then TIVO aborts the transfer.

Confused,
Mike

Yes, thats a good way to check if you transcoded the VOB to MPG2 and maintained DVD quality is that the MPG2 files should be within about 5% of the combined VOB files.

I have no idea though why your TIVO is aborting the transfer. Usual things to check is network congestion etc... Just something to check.

sorry I wasn't much help

TGC

[TexasGrillChef]

I am curious about whether the Tivo you are using is a Series 2 or a Series 3. The background to my question is that I have both and I also develop and maintain T2Sami, a program that deals with Tivo captioning in various ways. One of its capabilities is to take the contents of an unencrypted VIDEO_TS directory and reformat the programming with the closed captioning to send to a Tivo. I have found that for the Series 3 Tivo the encoding and multiplexing requirements are pretty tolerant. I has been reasonably hard for me to make a mix that fails for it.

Thats a good point. I DON'T use or have a S2 in my household. I have one S3 and one HD unit.

TGC

[ml_nelson]

Yes, thats a good way to check if you transcoded the VOB to MPG2 and maintained DVD quality is that the MPG2 files should be within about 5% of the combined VOB files.

I have no idea though why your TIVO is aborting the transfer. Usual things to check is network congestion etc... Just something to check.

sorry I wasn't much help

TGC

It's not the network. This failure is systematic. It will fail in exactly the same spot in the file every time.

[ml_nelson]

Try pyTivo (http://pytivo.armooo.net/). There have been many reports of failed Tivo Desktop transfers from PC->Tivo that turn out to work fine with pyTivo.

OK. I'd like to give pyTivo a try. So this requires 2 pieces of supporting S/W:

Python- I found & downloaded it. No problem

FFmeg- following the links on how to down load this is gibberish. It's completely incomprehensible!

I'm stumped,
Mike

[moyekj]

OK. I'd like to give pyTivo a try. So this requires 2 pieces of supporting S/W:

Python- I found & downloaded it. No problem

FFmeg- following the links on how to down load this is gibberish. It's completely incomprehensible!

I'm stumped,
Mike You can download compiled windows ffmpeg binaries from here:
http://ffdshow.faireal.net/mirror/ffmpeg/

[TexasGrillChef]

OK. I'd like to give pyTivo a try. So this requires 2 pieces of supporting S/W:

Python- I found & downloaded it. No problem

FFmeg- following the links on how to down load this is gibberish. It's completely incomprehensible!

I'm stumped,
Mike

ffmeg is included in this download of pyTiVo

http://pytivo.krkeegan.com/download/

Hope that helps... this is also the latest version of pyTiVo

TGC

[ml_nelson]

ffmeg is included in this download of pyTiVo

http://pytivo.krkeegan.com/download/

Hope that helps... this is also the latest version of pyTiVo

TGC

That helped a lot. I got it up & running. AND I'm pleasantly surprised to find it does transfer 2 MPEG's that refused to transfer via TivoDesktop.

Mike

FYI... for those that asked, I am running a Series 3.... this is a Series 3 forum, isn't it ;-)

[moyekj]

That helped a lot. I got it up & running. AND I'm pleasantly surprised to find it does transfer 2 MPEG's that refused to transfer via TivoDesktop. Yet another confirmation of this. It's pretty ironic that 3rd party Tivo software works much better than what Tivo can deliver... I have Tivo Desktop completely removed from my system.