Planet Replay

[waharris007]

I've looked through tons of info, but my efforts to convert various PC video files to RTV files and play them on my RTV through DVA are sketchy. Some work, some won't. The instructions I'm using (linked below) are a couple of years old, but I can't find newer ones. Sorry if this has been hammered to death; I just can't find it!

Specifically, I want to be able to convert mpeg4, torrent avi, etc into files that I can watch on my Replay. Example: I love the twice a week tech download show at www.dl.tv. They offer serveral download formats, but I can't get any of them to work. Any thoughts?

Here's what I'm using: http://www.g4tv.com/screensavers/features/426/Play_Your_PCs_Video_Files_on_ReplayTV.html

Thanks!

[na9d]

You will need to use a program to convert from MP4 to MPEG-2. There are various ones out there. On the Mac side for example, MPEG Streamclip is one that does it. On the PC Side there are similar ones.

Then, you need to run the converted MPEG-2 file through a program called RTVConvert which is part of the RTVToolkit. RTVConvert will format the file properly for the Replay and it will also create additional .ndx and .evt files that are needed by the unit. Then you import the converted file into DVArchive and away you go.
_________________
See my Poop! (5XXX)
See my IVS activity LIVE
Do you Vudu? I do!

[Rao74311]

There are many tools out there that you can use, it's a matter of personal preference. But it's hit or miss when converting, especially when working with any mpeg4 format and rtvconvert will pitch a fit if things aren't just right. I've spent hours working on files, demuxing and converting/re-encoding, re-timing to fix sync problems and sometimes it just doesn't work.
_________________
My goods (5xxx) now uploading at 1Mbps.

[adone36]

It is not "hit or miss". I have transferred hundreds of mpg, avi, wmv, svcd, etc to Replay with never a problem or sync issue. The only people who I've seen have problems are those who try to use several different "free" or shareware products to achieve the result.
_________________
Tony
6 5250
3 3120

[Rao74311]

[douglips]

[adone36]

Canopus Procoder is excellent, but very expensive. You can produce extremely high quality work with it.

Much cheaper and fine for the vast majority is TMPGEnc Express. In hundreds of transcodes, I have yet to have a problem.
_________________
Tony
6 5250
3 3120

[TheDreamer]

Anybody have any luck getting this to work using MVW?

The Dreamer.
_________________
You may be a dreamer, but I'm The Dreamer, the definite article you might say!

[Rao74311]

[Bob2559]

I've had good success using Main Concept's encoder.

[TheDreamer]

Well, I got something that worked....and boy what a convoluted process it was to find it...and do it.

I guess I won't be doing it that way ever....(until I can afford to run out and buy more software )

FWIW, it was:

- Turn PAL AVI to MPEG2 using MVW.
- Reprocess MPEG2 with Studio 8 (since Studio 8 won't process PAL).
- Then reprocess the resulting output from Studio 8 with MVW

I got Studio 8 when Pinnacle bought the company that makes my video capture unit, though the original software used to do PAL....it was how I was turning AVI files into DVDs before I got MVW. But the old software no longer works on any of my computers....probably some Microsoft patch broken it....

Then I can run rtvedit twice and rtvconvert....

rtvedit would run on the file from the first step, but rtvconvert would fail with "video overrun, unknown or bad audio mux".

But, using the result from the second step....rtvconert would fail because it didn't see the audio as correct. So the second pass with MVW....stream copying the video and only reprocessing the audio...get's it working.

Though the result is pretty poor....probably all the recompression steps...

Also for some reason....a 500MB AVI file turns into a 1.8GB MPEG2 file from MVW....and then Studio 8 turns it into a 2.7GB file....so it probably won't be something I'll be sharing with anybody.

Which was kind of the whole point of the exercise....

Considering when I watch it, I just stream the AVI file to my network DVD player directly....and later burn a DVD for my personal collection.

The Dreamer.
_________________
You may be a dreamer, but I'm The Dreamer, the definite article you might say!

[adone36]

I haven't done a PAL in a while, but it was no problem

1) select source avi in Tmpgenc.
2) Select output: NTSC, DVD
3) Hit ok, Select MPEG file output
4) Hit encode.

60-90min

Run rtvconvert, 90 sec.

Import into DVA, watch on Replay, 60 sec.
_________________
Tony
6 5250
3 3120

[TheDreamer]

Yeah, but I'm not in the position to be buying any more software right now.

The Dreamer.
_________________
You may be a dreamer, but I'm The Dreamer, the definite article you might say!

[Rao74311]

[TheDreamer]

Yeah, my Studio 8 came after Pinnacle acquired Dazzle. The MovieStudio software that originally came with my Dazzle would convert PAL.

In fact it was my process for making DVDs....I'd use MovieStudio to conver the PAL AVI files to MPG2 and then use MPEG-VCR to turn them back into 16x9 and Nero to burn the DVDs.

When MovieStudio stopped working, I upgraded to MVW with the intent to continue the work...though I haven't actually tried it for this yet.

Meanwhile, I found a different process to run the PAL AVIs into ReplayTV files....I used the Videora XBOX360 converter to process the AVIs to MPEG2, then MVW to reencode the audio, and then rtvedit/rtvconvert to get them into DVArchive....where them stream nicely to my ReplayTV.

The result is much better than before....perhaps because the Videora is doing VBR, while the previous method was doing CBR.....to keep things under 2GB, I was using 4500kbps for the CBR method...while with VBR I use the 7Mbps similar to what medium is on the ReplayTV.

I tried matching standard, but scene transitions were pretty bad....didn't try anything else for settings....

The Dreamer.
_________________
You may be a dreamer, but I'm The Dreamer, the definite article you might say!