Questions about HDPVR.

[freewheeling]

I'm using SageTV v7 and recording off of an HD STB using a Hauppauge HDPVR. It records content in an H.264 "ts" file, and I was wondering if it's possible to have it record content in H.264 "mp4" instead? As I recall the Arcsoft software that was bundled with the HDPVR had the capability to record in several formats.

[GollyJer]

Sage only records to .ts or .mpg containers. However, the video inside those and the .mp4 container is h.264. Search around and I'm sure you'll find a ton of info on transcoding a recording to .mp4.

[freewheeling]

Originally Posted by GollyJer

Sage only records to .ts or .mpg containers. However, the video inside those and the .mp4 container is h.264. Search around and I'm sure you'll find a ton of info on transcoding a recording to .mp4.

Yeah, a ton of info that never gets to the point. Sigh...

mp4 is one of the three containers that the HDPVR natively supports, but SageTV can't use it, while a junk program like Total Media Extreme can.

I guess back when I originally started using SageTV I asked essentially the exact same question, and never got an answer there either. The "TS" container taxes server so that I can't play back the videos, but the "MP4" container doesn't. The "workaround" was to buy an extender for another $150, but now I'm back to the same question with the same non-answers. No way to painlessly transcode these recordings into mp4.

[GollyJer]

Originally Posted by freewheeling

No way to painlessly transcode these recordings into mp4.

I hear ya.
What video card does your server have? Is it DXVA capable? Try the blog post in my signature to see if it helps. If the server is capable of .mp4 playback you're looking at a video decoder or splitter problem; not a container problem.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by freewheeling

The "TS" container taxes server so that I can't play back the videos, but the "MP4" container doesn't.

That's seems very, very odd, there's no functional difference between the two, both are H.264 video with AC3 or AAC audio, container shouldn't make more than the slightest difference in resource usage. It's the H.264 video that's the bear to handle.

[GollyJer]

Originally Posted by stanger89

That's seems very, very odd, there's no functional difference between the two, both are H.264 video with AC3 or AAC audio, container shouldn't make more than the slightest difference in resource usage. It's the H.264 video that's the bear to handle.

Agreed. freewheeling, what's your hardware?

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by freewheeling

No way to painlessly transcode these recordings into mp4.

IIRC if you choose one of the "Apple" formats in the transcoder it produces a .mp4 file.

As others have said, .mp4 is just a container, just like .ts is just a container. If your system chokes it may be because the splitter is not playing nice with your setup. The splitter essentially "splits" the audio and video into separate streams and then sends the streams to the proper decoder. This is a 50,000 foot description but I'd look into a different splitter to handle the .ts files.

[freewheeling]

Originally Posted by GollyJer

Agreed. freewheeling, what's your hardware?

I have an HTPC windows 7 64 bit machine running at 2.4Ghz with onboard video that came with the computer: NVIDIA GeForce 7100 or something like that. I've been thinking about adding a low profile video card, but the HTPC enclosure doesn't have much space and only a 250W power supply. I don't know of any low power video cards that would work with that setup.

[freewheeling]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

IIRC if you choose one of the "Apple" formats in the transcoder it produces a .mp4 file.

As others have said, .mp4 is just a container, just like .ts is just a container. If your system chokes it may be because the splitter is not playing nice with your setup. The splitter essentially "splits" the audio and video into separate streams and then sends the streams to the proper decoder. This is a 50,000 foot description but I'd look into a different splitter to handle the .ts files.

I installed a Haali media splitter, but I don't know how to set the SageTV client to use it. (I mean the SageTV program on the server computer.) The XBOX 360 requires the mp4 container. I gather that about the closest I can come to recording with the mp4 container is to use Mediashrink with the Sage Job Queue to transcode in the background.

What I'm trying to do is get something that will play my recorded files on the Roku device, which is limited to these formats. Failing that, to use something that transcodes on the server computer before streaming it to Roku, which I gather is more or less what these nielm web server and mobile web server do. It's also what the Playon server does, but that doesn't work very well with "My Media" setup.

If the recordings produced conform to what the Roku device natively expects then I wouldn't need any transcoding.

[GollyJer]

Originally Posted by freewheeling

I installed a Haali media splitter, but I don't know how to set the SageTV client to use it. (I mean the SageTV program on the server computer.) The XBOX 360 requires the mp4 container. I gather that about the closest I can come to recording with the mp4 container is to use Mediashrink with the Sage Job Queue to transcode in the background.

What I'm trying to do is get something that will play my recorded files on the Roku device, which is limited to these formats. Failing that, to use something that transcodes on the server computer before streaming it to Roku, which I gather is more or less what these nielm web server and mobile web server do. It's also what the Playon server does, but that doesn't work very well with "My Media" setup.

If the recordings produced conform to what the Roku device natively expects then I wouldn't need any transcoding.

Sounds like we've all been trying to help you with the part you care least about... Playback in Sage itself.
For what it's worth it looks like the 7100 is capable of hardware acceleration. But, it's one of the first chipsets from Nvidia to do so. It may not work well. The lowest level Nvidia card I've tested and currently use is an 8600. That being said, I put this Radeon card in my server to provide full HD video and audio capabilities. It works perfectly and comes with a low profile bracket not shown in the picture.

As far as automating the process of moving from .ts to .mp4 for playback on other devices I think you're on the right track.

It's so much more complicated than it should be though; isn't it? It's like your mom packed you a lunch and put it in a brown paper bag (.ts). You don't like that container. You want it in your cool superman lunch box (.mp4). So open the brown paper bag, take out the sandwich (video stream), drink (audio stream), and snack (subtitle stream), open the superman lunch box and put them inside. Then toss out the brown paper bag and close up the lunch box. Done! You're not trying to change any of the food before putting it in the new container. Simple right!

[freewheeling]

Originally Posted by GollyJer

You're not trying to change any of the food before putting it in the new container. Simple right!

You'd think. The Video Redo TV Suite has the capability to quickly change the container from TS to MP4, and it has only *just* acquired the capacity to deal with H.264 encoding. It can execute batch files, so that's another possibility if I can use the batch queue whatchamacallit in Sage.

Related to the transcoding "on the fly" thing, there are several Sage plugins that do that sort of thing for web browsers and mobile divices, so in theory it should be relatively uncomplicated to do for the Roku which has an open source SDK. (Not that I know what an SDK is, mind you.)

Update: By the way, this all might be a non-issue. The table of natively supported formats that I listed earlier are not the same as those listed in the compatibility table for the Chaneru plugin. I got the impression that these are Roku parameters, so the new firmware may support not only the ts container, but 1080p. I'm checking that out now. Still, I'll bet the ts files produced on the "great" setting have a bit rate way too high for Roku so I may have to step it down. But at least I can do that *within Sage*.

Still, it would be great to use the Sage GUI somehow.