[Rich A]

Originally Posted by GGoodrum

Is there a program out there that will easily convert the .tp files to WMV format? What I would like to do is create wmv 9 files (1280x720, 5mb VBR...) that have smaller file sizes than the .tp files, and then download them into a laptop remotely.

Just changing a *.tp mpeg transport stream to a *.mpg mpeg program stream is a relatively quick process. The actual video format isn't changed. It's a "trans-coding" method rather than an encoding method. It should take minutes. The job is trans-coding an mpeg from one form to another that is still an mpeg.

IE. mpeg transport stream to mpeg program stream. You are always in an "mpeg" world = fast.

However if you change any parameter of the mpeg (ie video frame size,) OR you change the mpeg to something other than mpeg (ie from mpeg to divx, etc) then the whole mpeg has to be re-encoded from scratch. Depending on the power of your computer this could take hours.

So if you are dealing with a final rendition of WMV, that is going to require a complete re-encoding of the original ... from mpeg to *.wmv. It all depends very much on how powerful your computer is. For example, I have a dedicated media editing machine that will re-encode your typical one hour mpeg program stream down to a home theater quality Divx in about 15 minutes. Any time you can get your encoding down faster than 1x you are doing good.