Experiences with DVD hard disk recorders?

heinz-oz · Post by **heinz-oz** » Tue Oct 30, 2007 8:03 am

I guess because my file plays, albeit with no sound, G-Spot did not find a problem with my file

Post by **lancecarr** » Tue Oct 30, 2007 8:11 am

Hi Heinz,
Can you re-post that screen shot only this time just after Gspot has analysed the file. Don't try to play it.

heinz-oz · Post by **heinz-oz** » Tue Oct 30, 2007 9:01 am

Here it is Lance

No idea what to do next. I'm tempted to just capture the programs I want on DVD via pass through in DV-AVI. It's a lot of mucking about but, thus far, I got nothing to show for two nights work either

Post by **lancecarr** » Tue Oct 30, 2007 9:28 am

Ok, that's just revealling nothing isn't it? All it seems to be doing is reading the header and saying "This is an MPEG." Just nothing else showing up.
I wish I could help you on this one but I have no idea and no eperience with this sort of action. Hopefully some of the other more knowledgeable guys will come on as the day/night wears on.

I just noticed on the download site for thsoe codecs there are two versions, I am assuming you didn't use the Beta and used the stable one.

heinz-oz · Post by **heinz-oz** » Tue Oct 30, 2007 9:42 am

Here is another one. Rather than taking the converted mpeg file (converted by means of the provided USB browser) I loaded the originally downloaded file. G-Spot has this to say

What do you make of that?

Post by **lancecarr** » Tue Oct 30, 2007 10:00 am

The only thing I can make of it is that it appears to be an elementary stream MPEG2. All my mPEGs are Program Streams.

....I'm lost!

heinz-oz · Post by **heinz-oz** » Tue Oct 30, 2007 10:09 am

This file, when downloaded from the PVR, does not have a file extension. I just gave it a .mpg one and MediaPlayer will play it, jerky like the converted one and with no audio.

I'll run it through VideoReDo and see what happens.

heinz-oz · Post by **heinz-oz** » Tue Oct 30, 2007 10:19 am

Error: Video program stream not found.

Obviously not easily fooled by the mpeg extension like media player

skier-hughes · Post by **skier-hughes** » Tue Oct 30, 2007 11:07 am

Would you like to upload a small section of original video and I'll download it and have a peak at it. Otherwise email me a piece, I'll pm email address if you need it.

phd · Post by **phd** » Tue Oct 30, 2007 5:19 pm

It may be using funny PIDs or contain the necessary information later in the file.

VRD has some additional specialty settings that may be able to resolve it for you.

If you need additional assistance, send an email to support@videoredo.com and mention you're heinz-oz from the ulead forum

heinz-oz · Post by **heinz-oz** » Wed Oct 31, 2007 6:15 am

Thanks guys. Had a busy day today and no chance to do anything with it. Maybe later tonight.

I will also delete a file from the PVR and then upload the downloaded copy of it. Let's see if that file still has the sound after that

As expected, support from the maker of this device has not yet responded to my questions either

Lance, how big can the snippet be if I mail it to you? Please pm the address.

@phd
After I had another play with this, I might get onto the VRD forum also. Since the problem is not with VRD, I don't want to bother them as yet.

heinz-oz · Post by **heinz-oz** » Wed Oct 31, 2007 10:48 am

On a hunch, I set my PVR from Dolby Digital sound to mpeg1 layer 2 and did another test recording. The exported file now does have sound.

Unfortunately, my laptop, which I have used to transfer files to, is running low on battery power and I don't have the charger here at home. That means that I can't try another file today. I shall do that tomorrow and report back here.

skier-hughes · Post by **skier-hughes** » Wed Oct 31, 2007 3:39 pm

Although my name isn't Lance, I did ask for the file

....It can be any length, but it doesn't need to be large to work on, a snippet of say 15 seconds would be fine, but smaller/larger if you like.

Graham
pm sent

heinz-oz · Post by **heinz-oz** » Thu Nov 01, 2007 12:36 am

Sorry Graham, wasn't my best day I guess

I had a few pm comments going to and fro with Lance at the same time

Not that I had a chance to investigate further (see my post above) but it seems that now I am able to get the files from my PVR into the PC with sound. The "secret" was that the sound output from the PVR should not be DolbyDigital. Once I changed the settings on my PVR, the recorded file now does have sound and plays well in VideoReDo also.

The only reservation I still have is the fact that I haven't been able to verify this with another recording. My laptop was running low on battery power and I don't, as yet, have the necessary cables to connect the PVR to one of my PC's.

The troublesome files were scheduled recordings. The minimum length is 6 minutes for that. Such a file comes in around 380 MB, a bit too big to mail. I realized though that I can set the unit to keep the recorded file if I do time shifting. I did that (after I had changed the sound to mpeg instead of DolbyDigital) and got a short file that way. It's still about 13MB but the file does have sound now. Tonight I will check if a scheduled recording behaves in the same way.

Do you still want me to mail you this short file?

heinz-oz · Post by **heinz-oz** » Thu Nov 01, 2007 8:41 am

Well guys, that 13 MB file still sits in my outbox. It won't go

It's just too big I guess.