pyTivo Discussion Forum Forum Index pyTivo Discussion Forum
Answers and the development of pyTivo a TiVo transcoding server
 
 FAQFAQ   SearchSearch   MemberlistMemberlist   UsergroupsUsergroups   RegisterRegister 
 ProfileProfile   Log in to check your private messagesLog in to check your private messages   Log inLog in 

TiVo file editing method

 
Post new topic   Reply to topic    pyTivo Discussion Forum Forum Index -> Other Apps
 View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
johnnyjet



Joined: 01 Jul 2008
Posts: 4
PostPosted: Tue Jul 01, 2008 2:28 pm    Post subject: TiVo file editing method Reply with quote
I'm trying to find a good method for transferring TiVo files to my PC (Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron), decode, cut commercials, and transcode to xVid while deinterlacing, dropping to a usable bitrate, cropping and resizing.

The method thus far is to use any of the wonderful utilities to get the .TiVo file, run tivodecode to get an mpg file, transcode from a TiVo mpg to DVD mpeg using ffmpeg (ffmpeg -i TiVo.mpg -target ntsc-dvd -s 352x480 working.mpg), then take that working file and cut the commercials out via avidemux2, save the resulting mpg (cuts.mpg), then encode into xVid. Somewhere, however, in that last step, pixelation and (apparently) skipped frams occur. I'm doing a 2-pass encode with 1100Kbps bitrate, and the videos look fine on the PC.
I am also able to take xVid avi files that other folks have made, and they play beautifully through either one of my TiVoes (both series 2) from either pyTivo server. Yes, the configs on the pyTivo servers are the same, with the exception of the magic random number and the actual share names. It doesn't matter which server serves up the file to either TiVo, it still looks funky, and I was wondering if anybody else has had any success with this, or any other, process.
I'm trying kmttg, but I just can't seem to find the code for comskip, and, honestly, I don't think it does a great job of doing the xVid encode.
Does anybody else have a good/easy/reliable method for cutting commercials out and then trascoding on linux?

tia,
ja
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Simage



Joined: 17 Oct 2008
Posts: 2
PostPosted: Fri Oct 17, 2008 10:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
I'm Curious how are you cutting comercails with avidemux. Never played with it before and don;t see an immediatly obvious way.

Bjorn
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
rdian06



Joined: 12 Apr 2008
Posts: 362
PostPosted: Sat Oct 18, 2008 3:41 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Not sure about the rest of your questions, but the source for comskip is in their SVN repository:

svn://svn.kaashoek.com

When cutting MPEG2 files, you have to be careful to cut on GOP boundaries. A GOP contains a fully encoded frame and then a bunch of delta frames. If you cut in the middle of a GOP, bad things ensue and the timeline can be thrown off.

Have you tried taking a known good mpg file either from the Tivo or somewhere else and encoding it without cutting? This should help you figure out whether it's the cutting causing the funkiness or just something in the encode that isn't working right.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
johnnyjet



Joined: 01 Jul 2008
Posts: 4
PostPosted: Thu Oct 23, 2008 8:11 am    Post subject: Avidemux editing Reply with quote
Simage wrote:
I'm Curious how are you cutting comercails with avidemux. Never played with it before and don;t see an immediatly obvious way.

Bjorn


I use Avidemux with the Gtk front-end. Just drop the video into it, use "[" and "]" to mark the begin/end points of the cut, and hit "Delete". Once all that's done, I set Avidemux to encode using Mpeg4 or h264, set the audio encoding, and save.

So, my current process is:
1) Suck .TiVo file over
2) tivodecode
(These 2 are handled nicely by kmttg, in an automated kinda way)
3) Convert resulting .mpg file into a dvd-format .mpg file (which makes the whole thing 29.97 fps, and inserts skipped frames)
4) Edit dvd-format .mpg and transcode to something much smaller with avidemux

FYI: seems that the aforementioned chunkiness went away when I upgraded ffmpeg and/or changed some config setting, but I've slept since then, so I don't really remember which it was, but I know I've done both.

ja
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Simage



Joined: 17 Oct 2008
Posts: 2
PostPosted: Sat Oct 25, 2008 12:22 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
sorry, Fr some reason I got the impression that you were doing all this in an automated fashion. I didn't see an immediately evident way of doing this, and haven't yet found a solution.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Display posts from previous:   
Post new topic   Reply to topic    pyTivo Discussion Forum Forum Index -> Other Apps All times are GMT - 8 Hours
Page 1 of 1

 
Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
You cannot attach files in this forum
You can download files in this forum
Site is in NO WAY affiliated with TiVo Inc

Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group
phpBB SEO

[ Time: 0.1971s ][ Queries: 13 (0.0733s) ][ Debug on ]