Compressing HDTV .TP files

[EShy]

How can I compress .TP files without loosing resolution?
I want to encode to AVC/MPEG4, but couldn't find any software to do it.
I do have Premiere Pro/Encore CS3, which does encode to AVC for blu ray, but it won't recognize .TP files. when I tried to use HDTV2MPEG, I get a file with black video and no audio.

any tips?

thanks,
EShy

[rzuffi]

How are you recording the .TP file? Firewire? HD-HR?

I currently record over firewire.

If you are using BTV-Exterminator...simply switch the recording format to MPEG2.

Then you can use AutoXvid to crunch it down to AVI format.

Hope this helps.

[EShy]

Just a simple HD tuner, no firewire/hd-hr.
There's no other format option in the recording settings (with SD I could record directly to other formats), the compression done by beyond tv loses the resolution.
I want to save some space and keep a good picture quality, but other programs are not recognizing the TP files at all

[vidiot1985]

Originally Posted by EShy

Just a simple HD tuner, no firewire/hd-hr.
There's no other format option in the recording settings (with SD I could record directly to other formats), the compression done by beyond tv loses the resolution.
I want to save some space and keep a good picture quality, but other programs are not recognizing the TP files at all

The free VLC software recognizes TP files and can transcode to other formats, or reduce the bitrate on mpeg2 (which I believe is what is actually in the TP files?). But I don't recall whether it specifically lets you preserve the resolution (vs using one of the DVD or SVCD compatible resolutions). I think VLC lets you select the stream so if you're not already stream snipping to save space on your OTA digital recordings, VLC may let you lower the bitrate and save only the interesting stream at the same time???

As an alternative, I've used the Windows DVD Maker that comes with Vista to fit a 13+GB HD show (e.g. Pearl Harbor recently recorded off ABC HD in 720p I think via HD-HR) onto a single-layer DVD-R (~4.5GB?) while still looking *very* good. I haven't investigated whether the resulting MPEG-2 data can be saved separately rather than being written to DVD.

[EShy]

Thanks, I'll try it

[EShy]

ok, I'm new to HD and I didn't realize the .tp file contains multiple feeds. that's nice (although a little waste of space, I can see why it's easier on the CPU not to decode and save only the selected feed)

so I used HDTV2MPEG2 to get a .ts file with only the channel I want and now my encoders are fine with it

thanks for the help

[EShy]

I found this nice guide on avsforum on burning HD-DVDs (on to S-DVD or DVD-DL).
The sources they use are .tp or .ts files and they burn mpeg2 hd content (so no compression)
I'm going to try and do the same but compress to AVC or VC1