Error Correction for .TP files

[rothe]

It would be nice if some future version of BTV included built-in error correction for .TP files. As more and more users take advantage of over-the-air HDTV reception, more and more of those users will find that their recordings play back in BTV with skips and stutters, especially if they're in a weak signal area. Many users on this forum have had good luck with Video Redo and MPEG2Repair to fix these files and eliminate the skips and stutters, but it sure would be nice if their was a "streamclean" function that could be enabled in the post-processing functions.

How 'bout it, Snapstream? Is such a function being considered?

[GeorgeH]

There is no need to clean up the files. The recorded programs should play identical to what a tv displayed live.

[rothe]

Originally Posted by GeorgeH

There is no need to clean up the files. The recorded programs should play identical to what a tv displayed live.

Hmmm... Who should I believe -- you, or my own eyes?

George, I suspect that you have never seen the skipping or stuttering that I referred to. But I hope you'll consider that other people have experienced this. If you doubt it, you could search the archives for the word "stutter." I'm sure you'll find several threads dealing with the matter.

But in the meantime, thanks for sharing your experience.

[SnakeDoctor]

Originally Posted by GeorgeH

There is no need to clean up the files. The recorded programs should play identical to what a tv displayed live.

The key word here is "should". But in reality, many of us experience frequent stutter when viewing via BTV but never see stutter when watching live TV.

[KeeterJ]

I often have glitches in recorded programs that I did not notice during live viewing. During casual playback, as long as the stream keeps moving along I'm not too concerned about it.

The aggravation is if I want to convert a .TP to MPEG and burn it to a DVD, and the DVD authoring software chokes on the bad spots or gets the audio out of sync with the video. I don't have those sync problems during live view -- only during downstream .TP processing. I'm not blaming BTV, but it's a fact that stream files often contain anomalies. I too would welcome a "scrubber" program that tweaks them back into shape.

The other complaint I have is that those same files with glitches sometimes fail to StreamSnip properly. If BTV detects the final time duration is not what is expected it won't convert them. I guess that's due to bad or missing chunks of data that confuse it. My PBS recordings contain 4 or 5 subchannels and not being able to stream snip causes me to eat up a lot of extra disk space. Again, I wonder if there are scrubber programs that would correct this.

[NickHark]

"Again, I wonder if there are scrubber programs that would correct this."


VideoRedo.

There are scripts in this forum so you can run it automatically post processing.

[rothe]

MPEG2Repair is freeware, but can't be automated like VideoRedo. Still, this might suffice until Snapstream gets around to fixing this transport stream capture issue.

[Nick Burns]

Originally Posted by rothe

MPEG2Repair is freeware, but can't be automated like VideoRedo. Still, this might suffice until Snapstream gets around to fixing this transport stream capture issue.

Mpeg2repair Command Line Add-on

Direct link:
http://www.shuberg.org/utils/mpeg2repairCLI.zip

[Lorea]

Originally Posted by rothe

George, I suspect that you have never seen the skipping or stuttering that I referred to. But I hope you'll consider that other people have experienced this. If you doubt it, you could search the archives for the word "stutter." I'm sure you'll find several threads dealing with the matter.

Yes, I agree - there really IS a huge need for this! I think this is a large enough need for an integrated and easy to use post-processing to make these OTA recordings actually viewable - I know I would pay for this if Snapstream is looking for donations to get this made!

[rothe]

I don't recall reading it in the release notes, but it would seem that this "feature" (bug fix?) has been addressed in version 4.9.

I've made about a dozen recordings since upgrading to 4.9, and every one has been flawless. Of course, there has been ongoing work done at the multi-station transmitting antennas in my reception area (NY City, with antennas at the Empire State Building), so I can't be sure that the improvement is with BTV or with my reception.

Has anyone else noticed a drastic improvement in OTA transport stream error rates?

[samundsen]

Originally Posted by rothe

I don't recall reading it in the release notes, but it would seem that this "feature" (bug fix?) has been addressed in version 4.9.

I've made about a dozen recordings since upgrading to 4.9, and every one has been flawless. Of course, there has been ongoing work done at the multi-station transmitting antennas in my reception area (NY City, with antennas at the Empire State Building), so I can't be sure that the improvement is with BTV or with my reception.

Has anyone else noticed a drastic improvement in OTA transport stream error rates?

No. The signal from our local ABC station is terrible. I get lots of stutter playing it back in BTV, also on new recordings made with 4.9. I see no difference between 4.8.2 and 4.9 in this area. These recordings play back smooth in Zoom Player using DScaler as the codec, where I get just some minor localized pixelation in the spots where BTV will hang and stutter.

BTV will play back recordings from all the other local stations just fine.

[Lorea]

Unfortunately, I think it may only be because of your station improvements - it's still stuttering here! I too, would love to see this integrated into BTV - the stutter makes a large percentage of shows completely unwatchable. =( I would pay for this too!

[enigma9o7]

Videoredo quickstream fix does this (as mentioned) but it's more $, if something similar was built into btv that'd be nice.

[lsilvest]

I found an odd solution to stuttering on OTA. I was getting stutter on the 2 720p stations (ABC and Fox) and found by switching from overlay to 3D acceleration with hardware de-interlacing, playback on these 2 is perfect. I know according to BTV recommendations it doesn't make sense, but it works. The other channels (all 1080) are fine using either mode.

Also, if anyone's interested in fixing errors, I just upgraded to Nero 9 and the new Nero Vision can edit and convert to HD (up to 1080i w/out the Blu-Ray plugin). I had a file last week that BTV recorded, but showed an interruption that there was no signal for 30 seconds and had to reset the tuner. BTV did record the whole show, but wouldn't play it back. It would run in Media Player or Showtime without a problem. I put it in Nero Vision and just exported to Mpeg-2 (at 720p since it was Fox) and now BTV plays it with no problem and the quality is excellent (and the file size was cut in 1/2 without even editing the commercials).

[GeorgeH]

"The key word here is "should". But in reality, many of us experience frequent stutter when viewing via BTV but never see stutter when watching live TV."

That is a software error not a data error.

I also suffer the software errors. One of my HD channels displays perfectly on a TV and live on BeyondTV. Showsqueeze operates properly. Even the AVI file after showsqueeze plays perfectly.

Yet, not a single .TS file from that channel will play properly in BeyondTV. If the BeyondTV player plays the end of the last of a series of commercials, the player skips to the end of the file.

Just a software error. One that Snapstream choses not to fix.