GrafCorder

[Fonceur]

Originally Posted by jimz06

Beats me why I can get a nice clean capture and then on the same channel, with the same software and filters get a file which has transport stream issues.

Try increasing (adding) the delay between the channel tuning and the start of the recording... I'm guessing the problems is from the channel resolution not matching the previous one (480i/720p/1080i)...

[jimz06]

Originally Posted by Fonceur

Try increasing (adding) the delay between the channel tuning and the start of the recording... I'm guessing the problems is from the channel resolution not matching the previous one (480i/720p/1080i)...

I'll give it a try but the question is how? I notice that Grafcorder has a "predumptime" setting. Is that what I change? Or does the "Delay" setting in Externinator accomplish the same thing?

[Fonceur]

Originally Posted by jimz06

I'll give it a try but the question is how? I notice that Grafcorder has a "predumptime" setting. Is that what I change? Or does the "Delay" setting in Externinator accomplish the same thing?

It's the Externinator delay that you need to add/increase, since that's the one between channel tuning and recording. The GrafCorder is related to the lenght of time to pre-record in order to determine the resolution and such.

[spocko]

Thanks to Fonceur for creating GrafCorder.

For newbies like me, I suggest that some additional guidance be added to the first post. I managed to get GrafCorder working, but the following info, perhaps in a step-by-step guide, would have saved me a lot of time:

- Privide a link to download GraphEdit (without the rest of the SDK).

- The DVBPortal dump filter must be downloaded and installed BEFORE running GraphEdit.

- To build a suitable GRF file in GraphEdit:
> In the Graph menu, select Insert Filters. A dialog will be displayed.
> Select Video Capture Sources, you should see your input device listed underneath. If your source is firewire, it must be connected and active or it will not show up here.
> Select your input source so that it is highlighted and click Insert Filter
> Under DirectShow Filters, select the DVBPortal HDTV Reference Dump Filter, click Insert Filter.
> Enter the filename "Test.TP" when prompted (Note: I don't know what this name is used for)
> Close the Insert Filter dialog
> In the GraphEdit window, drag-and-drop the dump filter so it is side-by-side with the source as shown on the picture.
> Click and drag from the connect points on the boxes to create a link from the source to the dump. You should now have something that looks similar to the picture.
> From the File menu, save your graph to a .GRF file

- GrafCorder must be run from a command prompt, with the 3 arguments supplied as described. You can not run GrafCorder by double-clicking on it.

- If GrafCorder pops up a window with an error about something being "not registered" when you first run it, reboot your computer and try again.


Other notes/questions:

- Is there any problem with naming the output files as .MPG and playing them back directly via the likes of Elecard or VLC? This seems to work ok for me on recordings from some channels, but other channels have a lot of pixellation and/or breakup. The same channels look fine when viewed directly on my TV.

- The GRF filename and output filename don't have to be fully qualified if they are in the same directory as GrafCorder.

- The analyze option doesn't seem to do anything for me. I don't see the resolution info as shown in the screen shot.

- I don't see the box shown in the screenshot where there is a description of the material being recorded. If that is still a current feature, how is it used?

- It would be nice to have the option to run GrafCorder via a double click and enter the argument info into the GUI.

- It would be nice to have a "Stop" button on the GUI to cancel the current recording.

Thanks!

[Fonceur]

Originally Posted by spocko

For newbies like me, I suggest that some additional guidance be added to the first post.

Indeed, I should add more.

Privide a link to download GraphEdit (without the rest of the SDK).

I never found any reliable links before, but if you have one to suggest...

Enter the filename "Test.TP" when prompted (Note: I don't know what this name is used for)

The filter needs it, even though it gets overwritten. It is also used for the analyze part.

Is there any problem with naming the output files as .MPG and playing them back directly via the likes of Elecard or VLC?

Should work fine with .mpg/.tp/.ts.

This seems to work ok for me on recordings from some channels, but other channels have a lot of pixellation and/or breakup.

Might need to run the file through VideoReDo's quickstream fix and make sure your system is patched...

The GRF filename and output filename don't have to be fully qualified if they are in the same directory as GrafCorder.

Indeed.

- The analyze option doesn't seem to do anything for me. I don't see the resolution info as shown in the screen shot.

You might need to increase the collection time for it, sometimes the iniial packets don't have enough information to determine that.

I don't see the box shown in the screenshot where there is a description of the material being recorded. If that is still a current feature, how is it used?

That's when used with Beyond TV, it basically pulls the information from an xml file created at the same time.

It would be nice to have the option to run GrafCorder via a double click and enter the argument info into the GUI.

Yes, that is planned at some point...

It would be nice to have a "Stop" button on the GUI to cancel the current recording.

You can from the menu, can also add extra time there...

[spocko]

Thanks Fonceur. I tried VideoReDo's quickstream fix, but it didn't seem to do anything with the files that I had recorded. It finished immediately and only produced a tiny 1kb output file. I thought maybe it was erroring out.

When you say to make sure my system is patched, what does that mean?

[Fonceur]

Originally Posted by spocko

I tried VideoReDo's quickstream fix, but it didn't seem to do anything with the files that I had recorded. It finished immediately and only produced a tiny 1kb output file. I thought maybe it was erroring out.

So it really doesn't like the errors in that file... You could try other alternatives like mpeg2repair and/or hdtv2mpeg or such, but that might not help either.

When you say to make sure my system is patched, what does that mean?

As long as you keep up to date with MS' updates, the Firewire thread on AVS forum mentions a patch which fixed some issues with high throughput Firewire transfers.

[spocko]

Originally Posted by Fonceur

You could try other alternatives like mpeg2repair and/or hdtv2mpeg or such, but that might not help either.

Thanks. I tried both of those, and they seem to process my recordings just fine. Not sure why VideoReDo couldn't. Unfortunately though, I think my recordings are beyond repair. I was recording from the firewire output of my TV. There seems to be a lot of missing data on some channels. Surprisingly, the only channels that look good are a few HD channels. All the SD channels I tried look bad. I may just have to give up on my idea of a firewire-based DVR. Too bad, it's so close to working. Thanks again for your help.

[jrandeck]

I've been using GrafCorder for a while now, and things were working great, but now they've just stopped working :-(

Since about Thursday, whenever Grafcorder starts up, it immediately crashes and I get the "Please Tell Microsoft about this problem" dialog. I'm not getting any error messages in the Grafcorder or Externinator log files, Grafcorder just seems to crash on start-up. Rebooting didn't help.

Any idea what I can do to try to troubleshoot this?

The only major change I've made recently is that I swapped two older hard drives for 1TB WD Greenpower drives. I had to adjust my configs since the drive letter I wanted to record to had changed, but I was mostly able to record from firewire after that (I still got the occasional glitch).

One other issue with Grafcorder (assuming I can find a solution for the first one): I find that it cuts records several seconds short when recording back to back shows. The extra time gets recorded by the regular tuner that I have Externinator watching in BTV, but the external recording gets truncated. Is there a setting to adjust that?

[Fonceur]

Originally Posted by jrandeck

I had to adjust my configs since the drive letter I wanted to record to had changed, but I was mostly able to record from firewire after that (I still got the occasional glitch).

Try re-editing the graph and make sure the dump filter is not still pointing to an invalid folder... If you have "Analyze" switched on, that would definitely create a problem, but even if you don't that might still be the issue.

I find that it cuts records several seconds short when recording back to back shows. The extra time gets recorded by the regular tuner that I have Externinator watching in BTV, but the external recording gets truncated. Is there a setting to adjust that?

That is on purpose, to prevent lock files, give applications time to close and all... I am pretty sure that it can be adjusted in BTV-Externinator, but I think it's through some hidden values not displayed in the UI... I will need to dig through the thread to find those back.

[jrandeck]

Originally Posted by Fonceur

Try re-editing the graph and make sure the dump filter is not still pointing to an invalid folder... If you have "Analyze" switched on, that would definitely create a problem, but even if you don't that might still be the issue.

I edited the graph, the file it's pointing to is in the same directory as Grafcorder itself. I can run the graph from within Graphedit and it dumps video to that file, though I got a scrambled mess the first time but it worked the second (VLC does that do me as well which is why I stopped using it, Grafcorder seems to be more forgiving at least until now.)

I also downloaded the latest version of grafcorder and copied over everything except the config file just in case something was corrupted, but that didn't help.

I get the crash running my test batch file, which just has this line:

grafcorder firewiredump.grf 5 c:\junk.tp

Here's the last few days in grafcorder.log:

9/13/2008 12:01:05 AM Starting GrafCorder c:\grafcorder\firewiredump.GRF 12:59:55 AM F:\Beyond TV Recordings\mpeg\Psych-(Gus Walks Into a Bank)-2008-09-13-1.tp
Defining the file...
Defining the window's title...
Defining the output file...
Analyzing...
Analyzing the filters...
Dump filter...
The output file is: F:\Beyond TV Recordings\mpeg\Psych-(Gus Walks Into a Bank)-2008-09-13-1.tp
Tuner filter...
Done analyzing the filters...
Creating the inprogress file...
9/13/2008 12:59:56 AM reached normal stopping time
Form closing, wrote 5956
9/14/2008 9:28:05 PM Starting GrafCorder c:\grafcorder\firewiredump.GRF 10:31:55 PM F:\Beyond TV Recordings\mpeg\True Blood-(The First Taste)-2008-09-14-1.tp
9/15/2008 7:00:06 PM Starting GrafCorder c:\grafcorder\firewiredump.GRF 7:59:55 PM F:\Beyond TV Recordings\mpeg\Terminator_ The Sarah Connor Chronicles-(Automatic for the People)-2008-09-15-1.tp
9/16/2008 12:58:06 AM Starting GrafCorder c:\grafcorder\firewiredump.GRF 2:01:55 AM F:\Beyond TV Recordings\mpeg\The X-Files (1_3)-(Anasazi)-2008-09-16-1.tp
9/16/2008 6:58:05 PM Starting GrafCorder c:\grafcorder\firewiredump.GRF 7:59:55 PM F:\Beyond TV Recordings\mpeg\House-(Dying Changes Everything)-2008-09-16-1.tp
9/16/2008 8:00:05 PM Starting GrafCorder c:\grafcorder\firewiredump.GRF 9:00:55 PM F:\Beyond TV Recordings\mpeg\Fringe-(The Same Old Story)-2008-09-16-1.tp
9/16/2008 10:58:06 PM Starting GrafCorder c:\grafcorder\firewiredump.GRF 12:01:55 AM F:\Beyond TV Recordings\mpeg\Eureka-(Here Come the Suns)-2008-09-16-1.tp
9/17/2008 1:00:05 AM Starting GrafCorder c:\grafcorder\firewiredump.GRF 1:59:55 AM F:\Beyond TV Recordings\mpeg\The X-Files (2_3)-(The Blessing Way)-2008-09-17-1.tp
9/17/2008 2:58:05 PM Starting GrafCorder c:\grafcorder\firewiredump.GRF 4:01:55 PM F:\Beyond TV Recordings\mpeg\The X-Files-(Squeeze)-2008-09-17-1.tp
9/17/2008 7:00:05 PM Starting GrafCorder c:\grafcorder\firewiredump.GRF 7:59:55 PM F:\Beyond TV Recordings\mpeg\Bones-(The Finger in the Nest)-2008-09-17-1.tp
9/17/2008 8:00:05 PM Starting GrafCorder c:\grafcorder\firewiredump.GRF 9:01:55 PM F:\Beyond TV Recordings\mpeg\Ghost Hunters-(The Boy in the Brothel)-2008-09-17-1.tp
9/17/2008 9:33:10 PM Starting GrafCorder
9/17/2008 9:33:43 PM Starting GrafCorder firewiredump.grf 5 f:\junk.tp
9/17/2008 9:36:31 PM Starting GrafCorder firewiredump.grf 5 f:\junk.tp
9/17/2008 9:38:52 PM Starting GrafCorder firewiredump.grf 5 f:\junk.tp
9/17/2008 9:42:02 PM Starting GrafCorder firewiredump.grf 5 c:\junk.tp

[jrandeck]

Privide a link to download GraphEdit (without the rest of the SDK).

Originally Posted by Fonceur

I never found any reliable links before, but if you have one to suggest...

I just downloaded it from here:
http://www.digital-digest.com/softwa...2&ssid=0&did=1

[Fonceur]

Originally Posted by jrandeck

I just downloaded it from here:
http://www.digital-digest.com/softwa...2&ssid=0&did=1

OK, thanks, I added that link.

So did you change that drive between the 13 and the 14?

If you didn't change the debug mode, since it's crashing before "Defining the file...", it means that it didn't even start recording yet... Did you install the BTV beta in between too (though that wouldn't affect your C:\Junk.tp test...)?

[jrandeck]

No, there were no changes to the system between those dates that I'm aware of. The only think that might have happened is an anti-virus update, but nothing major.

I don't have the BTV beta installed.

I'm stumped. I guess on the bright side, the newest VLC doesn't appear to be having problems with the firewire stream, I just need to figure out the command line parameters since it doesn't seem to like the ones I had...

[jrandeck]

OK, I spoke too soon, VLC was having trouble playing the firewire stream this morning also.

It's just frustrating because HD recordings were running reliably (though not quite 100%) for several months with grafcorder and now I can't figure out what the problem is.