MPEG4 Video Recording

Extra Technology
1

Does anyone know of video recording software that can record MPEG4 channels properly?

Currently I use Arcsoft Total Media, recording to MPG format and clip them up in Movie Maker.

However with recordings of HD Channels that are MPEG4 (eg WIN HD, SC 9HD), when I place the record clip in Movie Maker the audio will not play.

So I then have to convert the clip to AVI format and the audio will work. If it is a long recorded clip I will first reduce it in VLC by “recording” just the bit I want into TS format - audio on this recording will also not work until converted to AVI.

The problem with converting to AVI and clipping up in VLC is that de-interlacing lines occur on anything in the clip that has rapid movement, for example this:

The original recorded clip from Total Media does not have these lines on it, but is unusable without the audio.

There is also an issue when fast forwarding through a recorded clip in Total Media. When pressing play after finding/pausing to a position will not go to that position, but another random position in the video clip.

I think all these issues are to do with MPEG4 channels, as channels not in this format work properly when dragged into Movie Maker with the audio working.

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2

For my more recent recordings from the MPEG4 HD channels, I’ve been leaning towards using SichboPVR instead of the ArcSoft TotalMedia which was provided with my tuner.

On the editing side of things, Avidemux works well for these recordings just as long as you set the Video Output to “Mpeg4 AVC (x264)” and the Output Format to “MP4 Muxer”.

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What file format does SichboPVR save recordings in?

4

SichboPVR saves recordings as .ts files, as opposed to ArcSoft TotalMedia which I believe saves recordings as .mpg files.

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5

AverMedia Centre will decode HDTV with H.264 format automatically and save as a HD mp4 file. But I think it may only work with certain tuners - to be able to decode and record on the fly may be a feature of the hardware as well.

6

Correct.

I just use Adobe Premiere Pro to edit the files, I have no problems with raw TS files there.

7

My Kogan TV with PVR and standalone PVR both allow me to record onto USB.
I found the raw TS files generated by these sometimes had issues with interlacing lines and audio being out of sync, so I now convert the raw TS file into MP4 using “Free TS converter” (the free version doesn’t allow you to use all options, but you can convert into 720p or 1080p which is good enough for me).
I then edit these files in Adobe Premiere, but the converted files are very stable unlike TS files so should work well in any editor.

You may find that the MPG files you’re recording to are in fact TS files - so you may be able to change the extension to .ts and then use to TS converter. I found this to be the case with an old recording I found from an old PC tuner.

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8

I use Hauppauge WinTV v8 and have had no troubles recording MPEG4 channels. You have the choice of recording MPEG or TS files, both import fine into Premiere Elements.

I’ve also got Handbrake to convert or re-encode if the files start misbehaving. MediaInfo is also a nice little application to help decipher codecs and bitrates.

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@Abesty Ah I wondered why the clips posted have those lines for fast motion vision.

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I have a “Strong HD STU” (model SRT 5430 New) which I used to record FTA, it records and MPEG4 AVC H.264/AAC mp4a or MPEG audio and at the resolution / bit rate and frame rate that the original TV channels is in with no encryption as it saves as .mp4

From there I take the HDD over to computer drop and drag to internal HDD, now this is where it gets tricky as I use old (as in really OLD) school “TMPEG Encoder” for editing, from there I can edit, change resolution, frame rate conversion, aspect ratio, bit-rate do real time 2-pass encoding (as my computer is fast enough to process that data info) if needed for sports using ^2-pass VBR-CQ, the only problem is using old software (which I add is still brilliant and easy to use) the output file saves as MPEG1 video but I change the audio to PCM (WAVE raw) to keep the integrity without compression (that comes later).

^For example:
Lets say I record a sport that is on 7two, club rugby, the original specs are 720x576i 25fps 16:9AR (64:45 DAR) with a variable bit rate that averages out to be around 3Mbits with MPEG 48kHz audio around 128kbits.

Using TMPEG I can frame by frame edit out what I don’t need (namely commercials and phase in/out loops) I can upscale the resolution to let says 1280x720 and force 16:9 aspect and change the frame rate to 50fps (to smooth it out) then change the scene detection to ultra which further smooths out PQ and change to progressive from interlace which again makes it even more smoother and much better again for the big screen.
using a variable bit rate with constant quality I set the max bit rate to 6Mbits & the minimum bit rate to 3Mbits with CQ range set to 85% and using padding option to ensure bit rate never drops below 3Mbits, using 2-pass method to ensure quality is maintained (since its MPEG1 which in the old money is VCD), as for audio it get edited but converted to PCM (WAVE) at same carrier 48kHz but bit rate way up to 1145kbps…

Yes file size is huge but again not an issue as you will find out.

Once I have done all that I then use MPEG4 HEVC H.265 / AAC mp4a at around 256kbits 48kHz encoding software namely Pazera to have the file saved as .mp4 … yes its an extra step but its needed as with HEVC encoding you can lower bit rate to around 1.5Mbits and still retain the awesome quality and file size gets drastically reduced.

In the analogue days it was no much simpler … analogue PC TV card , mine was a Dynalink PCTV which had Philips PAL B (VHF) /G (UHF) tuner with a Brooktree (which later was bought by Conextant which are the CX type decoders) BT878-A decoder and CHP-010 audio decoder for TV, FM and AM receiving, rabbit ears for the antenna or simply using Optus TV output for signal, using a program called Descaler and using the K-Lite codec pack which had all the VfW encoding dll’s, I would use “Adaptive half/scale re: interlace” 720x576 25fps and using DivX H.263 (later on would use XviD H.263) with audio using PCM 44.1kHz dual channel 1145kbits, worked great, then I would use TMPEG (like above to convert to my specific settings) to mpeg2 (DVD) and then burn onto a DVD … gees that was way back in the day doing thyat, thankfully we don’t have to sue that media storage any longer, it also took a lot longer to edit and convert as computers were no where near as fast as they are today.

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11

Don’t know if this is the right place to put this but I want to ask what’s the best and cheapest USB VHS capture card on the market? I was looking at getting one called “EZ Cap” but it seems quite expensive to ship a genuine one here from the US. I need some suggestions.