Showsqeeze speed/formats

[ethanreedy]

I bought the Hauppage 1600/BTV bundle solely to be able to record OTA HDTV (too cheap to spring for cable!). I was disappointed to learn of the problems using Showsqueeze with the .tp HD files. I've read here about the XML edit to get around the auto Showsqueeze settings, but I'm still concerned with making sure I don't over-tax my system with too many shows to encode overnight. I'm also not happy at the prospect of running my brand-new computer at top speed for longer than necessary.

So my question is, does the video format used make a significant difference in the processing power require to re-encode? I'm curious both about the difference between DivX & WMV and the difference between encoding to full-size HD files or encoding to smaller resolution files. I'm viewing most of this stuff on standard resolution TV, so quality isn't a huge issue. Also, I'm going to try out a MediaMVP, so any experience related to that would be helpful.

[tscales]

Well, until you through in the MediaMVP (which personally I'm not thrilled with), I would have asked "Why showsqueeze"? BTV plays the TP (TS is MCE) file just fine, so just leave it alone.

As for showsqueeze timing, I use Divx and find it much faster. I use DIVX HD High and get about 1:1 -- an hour in an hour, but I have a pretty powerful machine.

My servers (yes, I have more than one) are going 24/7 and run fine. I wouldn't worry about it.

[ethanreedy]

I would assume that your lack of concern about the tp files also has something to do with: Media Server - Dell Dimension 8400, 3Tb Raid 5

[tscales]

Actually, I do showsqueeze most things, as my kids love movies and I record a LOT of them. But i have the horsepower to do it.

The Raid is full, so I also have three internal 750GB drives. Might be time for a second raid box

[GeorgeH]

ethanreedy ---

Lots of bad things can happen during Showsqueeze.

You can easily lose parts of recordings. Usually at the end.

You can spend a lot of CPU time and produce no results. Showsqueeze often hangs.

---

The output resolution appears to be very important. 480, 720, and 1080 inputs do best with different output resolutions. The difference between the best resolution for a job and almost the best is sometimes the difference in getting the task done in a reasonable amount of time and having it never finish.

[tscales]

I never have those problems. As for speed, there was a little bug in 4.6.1 that has Divx doing Standard conversions instead of Faster conversions. Makes a huge difference.

I showsqueezed at least 15-20 things a day and very, very rarely does one fail -- perhaps once every month or two.

[Empyrean5]

Since my MediaMVP doesn't really play anything non-MPEG too well, I limit my ShowSqueeze to shows that my wife and I won't get to watch for quite a while. (We've only seen 2 eps of Bros & Sisters, 6 eps of Studio 60 and we just watched the "Christmas" ep of ER last night! We have all the shows recorded though - thx to DiVX & 4TB of drive space. Yes, we're very far behind!)

I've learned through personal experience that DiVX seems to do a better job than WMV, and other than the first minute having poor video quality, the rest is fine (as long as the ATSC signal didn't drop out.)

I don't recall having any particular problems with ShowSqueeze, but there are certain shows that I often have trouble with SmartChapters .. Brothers and Sisters, and Desparate Housewives are two shows that will frequently hang-up the SmartChapter generator until I restart it. I record both of them from ATSC.

Regarding your question of which format is faster compressor, my gut feeling is that DiVX is faster, and, I came across this short commentary:
http://www.engadgethd.com/2006/07/07/wmv-hd-vs-divx-hd/

[ethanreedy]

Empyrean5: Thanks for the info and the link. I haven't gotten my MediaMVP yet (should be arriving on Monday), but I was under the impression that it couldn't play the TP files from ATSC. Am I wrong or are you talking about using it to watch MPEG recorded from an SD source? Is there some sort of plug-in that will allow you to "Showsqueeze" to SD MPEG?

[Empyrean5]

Originally Posted by ethanreedy

Empyrean5: Thanks for the info and the link. I haven't gotten my MediaMVP yet (should be arriving on Monday), but I was under the impression that it couldn't play the TP files from ATSC. Am I wrong or are you talking about using it to watch MPEG recorded from an SD source? Is there some sort of plug-in that will allow you to "Showsqueeze" to SD MPEG?

No, although RomanoJ(?) and others have tried hard to make a workable solution to stream HD originated content to the MVP, I don't think they made too much success.

My MediaMVP does a piss-poor job at playing WMV files. Biggest issue is audio is out-of-sync with video. DiVX is a little better. But in both cases, you can practically forget about FF/Rev because if it doesn't crash the MVP, it will take forever.

I've often thought about, but never got around to ShowSqueezing HD to MPEG for MVP playback .. probably the best way for you to try.

What I do is record many shows in both HD and MPEG (analog). That way I have my choice of where to watch.

[ethanreedy]

Is there a way to ShowSqueeze HD TP files to Standard Def MPEG? I haven't found one. It would certainly be great if there were.

[myktek]

ShowSqueeze only goes from mpg to divx/wmv

Is there any particular reason why you would convert it to mpeg? a TP file is just a mpeg4 file in a container already.

[queonda]

Originally Posted by myktek

ShowSqueeze only goes from mpg to divx/wmv

Is there any particular reason why you would convert it to mpeg? a TP file is just a mpeg4 file in a container already.

Do You mean mpeg2?

[myktek]

Originally Posted by queonda

Do You mean mpeg2?

ya was thinking about mp4 before i wrote the reply...

[ethanreedy]

Originally Posted by myktek

Is there any particular reason why you would convert it to mpeg? a TP file is just a mpeg4 file in a container already.

One of my primary reasons for buying BeyondTV was to have files that would be transportable and playable on other hardware, at this point MediaMVP and my DLink DSM-320RD. The TP files aren't playable via hardware on the MediaMVP or DLink. DivX has to be transcoded and therefore doesn't play as smoothly. Standard Def MPEG2 files would be easier to store and would be playable on media extenders over the network. HD is not so important because my only HD capable monitor is on my computer sitting in my lonely windowless office!

[B Fox]

You might want to read through this article. It is long but worth it if you are having problems with showsqueeze errors or converting to MPEG2. The product is VideoRedo and can be setup to be an automatic process in BTV. Not an endall solution but worth looking into.

Step by Step: Video fixing, Commercial Detection, and Removal.