MTS files and Recode / Compression and Sage

[mike1961]

Hello - I have not posted in a while - Sage has just been working too well lately. I've really had very few problems and Sage has just been great. The only thing I miss in version 7 is in the prior version Nielm had something i used that displayed the hours free on the main menu (or gigs free). I kind of miss that in V7. Anyways, I have a Sage server running version 7 with extenders v2 and v3.

First question - I have not tested yet but is Sage 7 compatible with MTS files? I have a new Canon HFM 301 camcorder (Costco).

Second question - I use Nero Recode to compress my dvds and StaxRip to compress mpeg2 files into mp4 files and the quality has been really good ranging from 4 to 6 megs/minute. My question is what is the best tool to compress those MTS files that the camcorder makes? I'm not sure if the new VideoRedo H264 version 4 will recode to a smaller file with about the same quality because in the standard mode it's still like 3 gigs an hour and I'd like to compress that if possible. Has anyone been using any good solutions?

Last question - what is the difference between TS and MP4 files?

Thanks for your time and patience on these questions.

Mike

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by mike1961

Hello - I have not posted in a while - Sage has just been working too well lately. I've really had very few problems and Sage has just been great. The only thing I miss in version 7 is in the prior version Nielm had something i used that displayed the hours free on the main menu (or gigs free). I kind of miss that in V7.

Enable the hidden features in Sage 7. (Just like you did in Sage 6. Type 5-3-0-9 while on the System Information page.) You will have your free space gauge at the Main Menu screen.

Gerry

[bits]

.ts is a container and not a video format, which means that it can contain VC-1, H264, MP4, mpeg ect

.mp4 is a video format

FWIW IMHO nothing beats the original quality and since HDDs are cheap I choose not to recode.

[mike1961]

Gplasky - THANK YOU - I missed my hours free bar and have it back again. Interesting - only 850 hours free - not quite like the Tivo or PVR days is it? And, if my HD ever crashes it's no big deal to recover the shows from backup.

Bits- you are correct that nothing beats original quality but it's easy enough for me to archive them and recode them and they look pretty much the same with Nero Recode or StaxRip. I have DVDs recoded to about 1/10 their original size and that's a lot when you are archiving tons of DVDs. It's the difference between having a one TB drive reserved for archives or having 10 1 TB drives - big difference. However, I'm not sure what format to use for TS files recorded with my new Camcorder so I'm still researching that.

Currently in my setup I have a 1 TB drive reserved for all archives and another 5 TB reserved for temporary recordings and another TB on the main server's OS drive. This keeps everything separate and defragged. Eventually I do plan to add space but it's not needed at this time.

Thanks again,
Mike