Can't play ATSC HD recordings in Media Player

[chris1379]

I bought the HVR-1600 to replace a PVR-150 because there are quite a few HD broadcasts in my area. I Can record and playback ATSC just fine with WinTV and WinTV2000 but I would like to get this PC and my laptop to play the recordings. So far all I get is a black screen w/audio on both. The laptop, of course, has no WinTV app. It would also be nice to resize the files to a smaller resolution but I can't find an app that will see the video. What am I missing?

Chris

[zaphod7501]

A good playback test/application is Media Player Classic, or it's HC edition since it includes all of it's own internal filters. You can try it without messing up any other players on the PC. It even has Quicktime and RealPlayer plugins so you don't have to install either to play their content. A standard DVD player software might not be able to do HD.

The Hauppauge software decoder (hcwSMD07) can be used by Window's Media Player for ATSC but might require adjusting filter merits, always a touchy proposition. I only have Media Player up to v9 because GB-PVR (third party software for the Hauppauge cards) won't install without it. (and Windows2000 can't go to v10)

You would not just be  doing a simple resizing, but a serious transcoding to convert HD to SD (or avi, etc). I use gui4ffmpeg myself to convert to standard DVD 720x480. There are others.

[chris1379]

Thanks. I have Media Player Classic but apparently not the right codec. I use it for DivX and some others. Should I try the Hauppauge codec?

Chris

[zaphod7501]

There are a lot of options and check boxes. To use internal filters, you would select "Mpeg PS/TS/PVA" in source filters and "Mpeg-2 Video" in transform filters.

To use the Hauppauge filter, you would add it as an external filter. I think it's called "hcw Mpeg ..." or "Hauppauge Mpeg-2 decoder" or something like that. (I don't have that PC up right now - storms and late night) and you have to uncheck one or both of the above internal filters. If you open a video with that filter in use it will be the MainConcept/Elecard filter and you'll be able to see some advanced properties.

[chris1379]

Thanks again for your help. My Media Player Classic is part of the K-Lite Codec Pack and it has the internal filter options. I enabled the ones you mentioned and it works. I also found that VideoRedo can open the files and saves them in a way that WMP9 and VirtualDub MPeg2 can read them now but the DivX codec still chokes in AutoGK or VirtualDub Mpeg2. I'd love to be able to resize and compress them to DivX but at least I can watch them on other computers now. Guess I'll have to try gui4ffmpeg and learn something new.

Chris

[zaphod7501]

One thing to watch in gui4ffmpeg is a small bug. In the box for bitrate you might need to add a "k" after the number. Instead of 6000 you need to make it 6000k. (or whatever bitrate you choose) Otherwise you end up with a very small file that looks terrible. I don't know if newer downloads have fixed this or not. I think it was actually a change in ffmpeg but the GUI wasn't updated to handle the change.

It will open .ts and .tp files as well as a lot of other types but you might have to select "all files" in the search box.

Personally, I've found that 3000k is about the lowest you can go without adding artifacts. (at least with the videos that I have converted) 6000k is the default. If you turn off "presetting" you can change almost everything. There are some rules but it is pretty flexible.

If you end up with files that are slightly too big to author to a DVD, then rather than using gui4ffmpeg to find just the right bitrate to reduce the size, try DVD Shrink after authoring on the iso or folders created by your authoring program. VideoReDo's TVSuite does do simple authoring to DVDs.

You might find some help here. http://arrozcru.no-ip.org/ffmpeg_forum/index.php?sid=f0592f8a0e5008e176f9d94b6a925193
Maybe.