HDPVR Support on the Mac (HDPVRCapture) - Page 5

They're all container conversion, the video remains untouched.

- Steve

In the case of AC3 5.1 to AAC to channel, yes the audio was down mixed. I have some Quicktime integration work from Will than correctly creates .mov with H.264 and AC3 5.1 without transcoding anything, only container changes. I think once this is implemented even the audio will not need to be transcoded.

- Steve

I suggest you download the demo and try the tree different post processing profiles. They'll basically generate the set of sample streams that you've already seen. I plan to add a fourth profile this weekend, which takes native H.264 and ac3 5.1 directly into an .mov format that quicktime can understand.

If the demo is interesting enough to you, purchase a license and during the purchase you send me the serial number form your hdpvr. I generate a license key for that.

The key is currently generated manually so it can take me anything from 5 mins to a 8 hours (depending on whether I'm in bed) sto send you the license file.

Sorry for the quick reply, I'll be back later to answer some of your other points.

- Steve

Indeed.

I haven't done extensive testing the the h264+AC 5.1 aproach via Quicktime pro, but it does appear to work very reliably on test clips. Certainly good enough that it will become profile #4 sometime very shortly. One of the things I'm really interested to see is whether Pro is a real requirement, or whether pro just enables the quicktime UI features and the underlying API's will handle the re-container change regardless.

We'll see.



Yep.


That's what the encoder actually produces. It's not configurable (down to 30 for example). Pity, but only a minor annoyance for me.


VLC works really well for me on 720p, which is where the bulk of my testing takes place. As does Plex. Make sure our running at least version 0.9.5 of VLC.


Other members are also interested in that. I think if the bitrates are kept to a reasonable low level then it should be possible with one of the current profile options. I haven't specifically tried it but when I get a moment free I want to. I know for sure I can create a profile to transcode down to AppleTV format, but I want to avoid transcoding at all costs.


Just to clarify. Download the demo and run it, try a few things - like the profiles. See if it's right for you. If you want to proceed purchase a license. You'll be required to send me your HDPVR serial number during the order process. As soon as I receive this I'll generate a license file for you and sent it back via email. I wish the key generation was automatic, and someday it will be, this manual step is a result of trying to keep my initial development costs low - especially when I knew the initial number of sales were going to be very low.

I plan to keep improving the software and focus on some of the things that Elgato either can't or won't do. So if you need a feature or want me to try specific things then I'm all ears. If it's pretty straightforward to do then I'll add your feature to the app.

I'm here to improve TV on he Mac, I'm open to ideas and willing to listen.

- Steve

I'm having a hard time repro'ing this now. using Media Info I know for sure the .ts recording is AC3 5.1. I can extract the ac3 payload, Media Info also shows this as 5.1.

I walk through the procedure above and the result .mov turns into ...


*** MediaInfo Mac // Plain text file report
2008-11-14 23:23:59 -0500
Information for File: hdpvr.ts.mov

General / Container Stream # 1
Total Video Streams for this File -> 1
Total Audio Streams for this File -> 1
Video Codecs Used -> AVC
Audio Codecs Used -> ADPCM
File Format -> MPEG-4
Play Time -> 15s 298ms
Total File Size -> 5.12 MiB
Total Stream BitRate -> 2 807 Kbps
Video Stream # 1
Codec (Human Name) -> AVC
Codec (FourCC) -> avc1
Codec Profile -> Main@L4.0
Frame Width -> 1 280 pixels
Frame Height -> 720 pixels
Frame Rate -> 59.940 fps
Total Frames -> 917
Display Aspect Ratio -> 16/9
Scan Type -> Progressive
Colorimetry -> 4:2:0
Codec Description -> AVC
Codec Settings (Summary) -> CABAC / 4 Ref Frames
QF (like Gordian Knot) -> 0.044
Codec Settings (CABAC) -> Yes
Video Stream Length -> 15s 298ms
Video Stream BitRate -> 2 419 Kbps
Video Stream BitRate Mode -> VBR
Bit Depth -> 24 bits
Video Stream Size -> 4.41 MiB (86%)
Date of Original Encoding -> UTC 1970-01-01 00:00:00
Audio Stream # 1
Codec -> ADPCM
Codec (FourCC) -> 20
Audio Stream Length -> 15s 168ms
Audio Stream BitRate -> 384 Kbps
Audio Stream BitRate Mode -> CBR
Number of Audio Channels -> 3
Sampling Rate -> 1 Hz
Bit Depth -> 16 bits
Audio Stream Size -> 711 KiB (14%)
Date of Original Encoding -> UTC 2008-11-15 04:21:03

The original applescript code I wrote also reproduces the same thing, as does the new QTKit code I've added directly into HDPVRCapture. Three different approachs all result in the same audio being transcoded away from AC3 5.1. GRRR!

I'm of the opinion this intermittently works, because I'm 99% certain I had this working the other evening. Can anyone else confirm they've seen it work atleast once?

- Steve

Update: After saving, restart quicktime and re-opening the apparently dubiously converted .mov file, then looking at the Audio properties (show properties via menu), quicktime thinks it's in AC3 5.1 mode, but Media Info thinks differently (as above).

Extracting the audio payload from the .MOV using ffmpeg results in correct ac3 5.1 audio. *** BYTE FOR BYTE IT'S IDENTICAL TO THE ORIGINAL AC3 5.1 FROM THE TS FILE ***.

OK. So maybe Media Info is broken when it parses .mov files. This is actually great news.

(quickly checking the website). It looks nice. I also happen to have a schedules direct account.

A couple of questions:

1. Is their any notion of an internal scheduler?
2. Can I use the scripts to launch an external app and pass all of the arguments from the guide? (channel#, show name, description etc?)

How does the remote scheduling for EyeTV work?

- Steve

This will take a 30 second recording from your component and optical SPDIF inputs.

./HDPVRCapture -t 00:00:30 -A SPDIF -V COMPONENT -o Letterman.ts

This will take a 30 second recording from your component and optical SPDIF inputs, then downmix AC3 5.1 (assuming that's what's on your SPDIF) into 2 channel AAC.

./HDPVRCapture -t 00:00:30 -A SPDIF -V COMPONENT -o Letterman.ts -P3

Same as above, except the blaster will try to change to channel 707 for you. I may have your blaster settings wrong, so they may need tweaking. This is split across two lines but cut'n'paste into your terminal window should be fine.

./HDPVRCapture -t 00:00:30 -A SPDIF -V COMPONENT -o Letterman.ts -P3 \\
"North America,Satellite,DirectTV,125,707,4,0,400"

Point taken.... I need some online command examples on the blog.

- Steve

Good to know. I'll add this to the FAQ.

Thanks.

- Steve

Yeah, it's not ideal quite yet. All I can say is that the GUI is coming along nicely and this will add scheduling capabilities.

Let me know how the IR stuff goes.

An update regarding HDPVRCapture.

I've added post processing option #4 tonight which extracts the clean h.264/AC3-5.1 from the recording then produces a quicktime/frontrow playable .mov file (finally adding it to itunes).

The very good news is that neither the audio or video had to be transcoded, it's a bit for bit payload copy and it's very quick.

Evidence to date indicates that this WILL NOT require Quicktime Pro.

Expect a v1.1.0 build this weekend.

- Steve

Sorry, typo, I managed to drop the -Z:

Should be this:

./HDPVRCapture -t 00:00:30 -A SPDIF -V COMPONENT -o Letterman.ts -P3 \\
-Z "North America,Satellite,DirectTV,125,707,4,0,400"

The IR blaster light is flashing wildly now.

- Steve

Cool.

I've looked into the scripting and iCal support and it's pretty straight forward. I could add scheduled recordings using a combination of this and iCal in a very short time.

If I could suggest a couple of features for your next release it would be....

1. Have MPG integrate completely with iCal, in the sense that MPG can look into your iCal and read back your currently scheduled recordings and add those details to it's own display (a blue dot, a different color for a cell or some other visual indicator that I've already planned to record that show). The added benefit here is that it would allow MPG to avoid submitting duplicate events to iCal for the same show - which it currently does.

2. The ability for MPG to cancel (remove) entries from iCal.

I've looked into iCals ability to launch applescripts and I think I can have it launch the capture app fairly easily, but the MPG iCal integrate doesn't include removing iCal events. I don't know if this is a trivial task or not, but with a much tighter integration between iCal and MPG it would take MPG's usability with other apps _WAY_ up into the next level.

3. It would be nice if the preferences Panel could allow customers to configure the iCal support a little more. Perhaps have a 'default script to run' preference.

All of the changes above would save me a tremendous amount of time basically adding a dedicated scheduler to the HDPVRCapture GUI (v2.x).

I've been looking into adding TitanTV support, and I will properly add that as an option, but TitanTV doesn't allow the kind of integration between itself and a schedule that I'd like.

Titan adds the ability for me to issue remote web based scheduling commands, at the expense of having ZERO integration with the HDPVRCapture scheduler.... I think MPG could be a tremendous benefit here - with a few changes.

... but if your kinda busy then I'll have to find a different solution in the next couple of weeks before the HDPVRCapture GUI can be released.

I'd love to bundle MPG with HDPVRCapture and figure out something commercially - if you're willing to tighten the integration more. Feel free to PM me and maybe we can work something out.

- Steve