Video file formats SageTV can use to play video

[DMBinbc]

I havent been able to find a clear answer to this question so I am presnting it to you. I have many movies that I want to put on a hard drive in the sage tv library. What is the file format sage tv uses and what file formats can sage tv use to play video. For instance, I have avis, mpgs, and vobs which I may or may not change to xvid or dvix. Can I place all these in the library and play them as is?

[GKusnick]

Look at the seeker/video_library_import_filename_extensions property in your Sage.properties file. That lists the file types that SageTV will import. You can add new file types to that list, so long as you have a decoder capable of playing them. (But be sure to shut down Sage completely before editing the .properties file.)

[dvd_maniac]

I have mpeg-1, mpeg-2, mpeg-4 (asp & avc(H.264)), xvid, divx, wmv, avi(mpeg-4 and native), mkv etc.... and they all play perfectly in Sage

I use the latest version and not found a video file it won't play. The client PCs I have play them fine as well as long as I have the codecs installed.

The media Extender (MVP) has a couple dozen files I have that won't play (Out of the 5000+ videos I have) but should be fixed on the next release.

[lobosrul]

Originally Posted by DMBinbc

I havent been able to find a clear answer to this question so I am presnting it to you. I have many movies that I want to put on a hard drive in the sage tv library. What is the file format sage tv uses and what file formats can sage tv use to play video. For instance, I have avis, mpgs, and vobs which I may or may not change to xvid or dvix. Can I place all these in the library and play them as is?

I think your confusing container formats (avi, mp4, mpg for instance) with various video codecs (xvid, divx, h.264/AVC for example). Example: you can mux h.264 streams into avi, mp4, mov, and mkv containers. And I'm sure there are others.

Since sage now uses a built in mplayer build for playback you should have no problem playing anything but the most exotic or proprietery video files, or those with DRM. And if you do, then you can setup sage to use external dshow filters.

[DMBinbc]

Thanks for the answers. That was what I needed.

With the pricce of Hard Drives dropping fast, I am considering leaving the movies in VOB for mat. I do have a lot of avi s and mpg s also and will leave them be. I tried to change on of the vobs to an avi with AutoGK but it was taking quite a while so gave up.

What would be the realistic amount of time to convert a vob to an xvid if it starts out at 4.5 GB. And what hardware is going to speed up my computer.

[dvd_maniac]

What would be the realistic amount of time to convert a vob to an xvid if it starts out at 4.5 GB.

Vob to AVI could take 20 minutes or could take days.
AVI is a container of video and audio files. Converting your VOB files into Xvid or Divx avi files takes me about 50 minutes for a 90 minute movie using 2-pass at 1GB, Using H.264 it is almost realtime: 100minutes to do a 90 minute movie using CQ 1-pass, but the file size is only about 550MB.
This is with an AMD 4600+ X2 and 2x1GB DDR400.
The higher the resolution, the more reference and B-frames, whether using 1 or 2-pass, the type of content you are converting, all these and much more play an important role in encoding speed.

And what hardware is going to speed up my computer.

CPU is the biggest hog when encoding video...

Staxrip is a great tool for a newbie to use to encode. Let me know if you need any help with it..