Magnavox 537, 535, 533, 515, 513, 2160A, 2160, 2080 & Philips 3576, 3575 - Page 744

Anyone have a comparable recommendation for Linux users?

While you are pondering the whole magnavox disk swap thing, ponder this:
Think of all the time it is going to take you to "play" those DVD-R into the magnavox. Then when you are done, what have you got -- a bunch of HDD with content that can only be played by plugging into the magnavox -- the very definition of locked-down. No portability; no hope of ever getting them off those HDD into a universal format that can be played by new equipment; no longevity. When the magnavox goes, unless you can get another model that is compatible with those HDD there goes your collection also.

If you are now willing to compromise all the way back down to "playing" the disks into the magnavox, then why not go back to where this discussion started and just use ImgBurn to fast-rip the .iso images to portable HDD's you can plug in and play anywhere.

Run it under wine.

+1

If one doesn't mind playing the Mag recorded DVD as is (primitive menu and all that), then just use ImgBurn to make the ISO file and done.

Some of us go an extra step to rip it to MKV or convert it to MP4 so that it can be played with more devices.

Running Wine presents the same usability problems as using Windows applications while running Windows, IOW, not a helpful response. I doubt many Linux users exist that don't know of the existence of Wine.

Give the gentleman a ceegar ...

Did an MKV edit on Free VideoDub. Hard part was finding v2.03 ... no longer available in the old versions section of VD's site. Cnet has a link to it, but that download comes up as v2.15 when you try to install it ... I did find 2.03 here if anyone's interested.

Free VideoDub v2.03

Did a couple movies and video playback is excellent - no discernable degradation in quality - and the front and end trims were easy. I also just finished dicing up a basketball game to remove commercial cuts and that was interesting. The "find next scene" feature wasn't much help with the constant camera jumps, but I found that dragging the scroll bar around and then backing up one scene at the commercial break marked the start of the commercial break pretty close. ESPN's original editing wasn't all that great to begin with, so no complaints there. Set the end of the commercial break, hit the "X" for delete and go to the next one.

Once all the commercials were flagged, I was able to make the final cuts in one pass. Worked pretty slick and saved half an hour of disk space. Not sure why you mentioned having to do one commercial at a time. More accurate cuts? Haven't played back the edited file yet real time, so I'll give that a go. I should also do a "real" movie and see if there's any jumps doing it in one pass. And ... what I've done so far is from disks finalized off the old Pannie. Haven't even tried burning one from the Maggie yet - probably a good idea just to make sure the DVD writer works, huh?

Now I'm leaning back towards ... er ... I forget. Somebody get me some dramamine!

Anyway. This process would leave me ripping with MakeMKV, editing with Free VideoDub, and transferring the edited movie files to a WD Live, then streaming that direct to the TV via a hard wired LAN connection. I'd be doing this only with the DVDs I've already burned with the Pannie (1600 titles) and doing the external hard drive dock and paper catalog on the Maggie for "new" additions to the library. Seems like that would work pretty slick.

And just to make sure I'm perfectly clear on this ... there's no way to transfer titles back and forth to the Maggie other than the DVD drive ... Be nice to just be able to drop them to a thumb drive or virtual dvd for editing and conversion without burning and tossing a disk.

PS ... this is turning into a fun "oh crap winter's here and I'm stuck inside" kinda project.
Edited by NOSTRADIMWIT - 11/30/12 at 4:58pm

You can copy the programs on the DVD drive using Sony DVD+RW discs and rewrite the disc for years.

dOH!

I'd forgotten all about RW disks ... tried a couple years ago and for whatever reason didn't have any luck with em. Those were Panasonic - Have to pick up on a Sony or two and give em a shot.

Now THAT would get me leaning back towards just the WD Live setup.

I'm getting dizzy ...

Ah. Double dOH!

Dug up one of the old "trouble" disks - which is DVD-RAM - and the Maggie wouldn't recognize it.
Apparently there's a difference between DVD+RW and DVD-RAM. Did not know that.

Yeah, I think the 2160A that I have doesn't set the widescreen flag, which is annoying. OK as long as you play back on the 2160A, of course. I'm planning on updating the FW -- any chance this will be fixed?

Anyway, if I record from the cable box, yeah, I get the letterboxing and everyone is squished "fat". So, if I record to DVD and play on a normal DVD player, everything will probably be fine!

I tried playing with the settings on my cable box (not the same model mentioned above) and haven't managed to do it. But given my statement just above, maybe I should leave well enough alone!

AFAIK none of these units set a widescreen flag. It's an unfortunate thing and one of the reasons why anything I'm keeping I burn to a -RW, rip to my PC and reauthor.

I have the same experience with the "next scene". Sometimes it gets it, mostly though not. Get close and then backing up seems best to me as well. As far as saving, I have experienced on occasion that if I make all the cuts first, and then save at the end that I get a "0" byte file. I save after just the first cut (seems to take a while) and once I do that, I can do as many additional cuts as needed and just save a second time when I am done. This has never failed for me (knock on wood). I notice the second save is much faster. I assume there is some sort of time computing going on (maybe to sync video and audio, I have never understood how that works?).

There are many other programs that can edit, the reason I use the video dub is that it does not re-encode the source video/audio streams. I save any encoding (for example to AVC with filters applied) until the last step. I do find that x.264 encoder (found in many programs) can do a good job at compressing without loss of quality (AFAICT).

scott s.
.

I just buy the cheapest DVD+RW's I can find - last batch was $0.30 each including jewel case. Some don't last; others do. But let's face it - NOBODY handles and treats disks carefully enough to get that theoretical 1000 writes.

Among other things, Black Friday netted me a 2TB USB 3 drive for $65. Compare that to equivalent space on reliable DVD's (plus jewel case), and consider the hassles of getting series on to DVD in proper order, minimizing wasted space, and managing a collection of 100's (or 1000's) of disks so you can find one inside of a week.

I throw recordings on a network hard drive in a "to-watch" folder, then archive to series.season folders.

Another Black Friday deal was a $88 Netgear WNDR3800 WIFI router that supports "cloud" access, so my son in Denver can access my network to download recordings he wants. I used to make DVD copies and mail them to him.

Yet another plus - series that sound like they have potential but I may or may not ever watch - instead of editing and storing on DVD, I can store the unedited episodes and recapture the space if it turns out to be a bust. If not, I can watch with the minimal hassle of fast-forwarding through commercials on the WDTV. If HD prices keep dropping it's hardly worth the effort to edit out commercials even if the content is worth archiving.

Then there's tablets - I don't have one yet but looking forward to streaming shows to a Nexus10 or the larger Kindle Fire - both have better that 1920x1080 res...

CC

What format do you use to store recordings for playback? What do you use for playback?

OK then ... went with the KISS plan ... in two parts ... second part first.

OLD MOVIES RECORDED TO DVD ON THE OLD PANNIES
Real happy with the results I'm getting using MakeMKV and Free VideoDub to rip and edit. A bit tricky getting exact frame cuts before and after movies, and I may pass on cutting sporting events, because that's WORK with all the camera jumps. Video quality is excellent. I've got jRiver Media Center loaded on the same computer (the primary, which I'm working on right now) and it plays the MKV format native and is a really fine video server. It looks up all the movie info based on the file name and catalogs it - title, actors, genre, year, does searches and all that good stuff. It also automatically adds movies and updates the catalog as I park them in one of the designated "watch" folders. jRiver also allows me to fit the movie to the screen. AND, it's an interface I'm used to, as that's what's on my audio server in the stereo system. Excellent! Now all I gotta do is get that to the TV.

Went digging in the junk bins and came up with:
- A 25 foot DVI extension cable
- a 25 foot RCA to MiniJack cable
- a video switch.

(Ya. I got a lotta junk)

Did a quickie hookup to the TV computer video in, and my Onkyo AV receiver's CD input. Flip the video switch to change from the computer monitor to the TV and plug the mini jack on the audio cable to the headphone output on my Creative speaker control box. TaDa ... I got big screen movies w/surround sound! My setup would be a problem with high resolution, but I don't play that anyway. SD is fine for me - especially with movies. More of a theater effect, and I don't have to be able to count an actor's pimples anyway.

So ... now I got a way to play process and play back all the old DVDs from the Pannie at one location with minimal futzing about. Put a DVD in this computer, do the hack 'n slash thing w/conversion, and just store it here. Fire up jRiver, find the movie, switch the audio and video to the big screen tv, hit the go button, and wander one room over. All hardwired, so no handshaking or protocol busting involved. Kewl. Only other change I need to make on this machine is to add external storage just for the MKV rips. The StarTech external duplicator/dock looks like it'd be perfect for that. I also figure to add an A/B switch to the audio out as pulling and plugging the mini-plug from the SB control might be a wear issue down the road. I also put the last Pannie back in the AV center as come to find out, I wasn't all that religious about finalizing, and the Maggie won't recognize the format.

NOTE > > jRiver also allows you to use any Android device as a full feature wireless remote, which will be handy to control the system next room over. I don't got none of those, so the money I'm saving on not getting a WD Live will still get spent if I go that route. Should just about break even there.

NEW MOVIES RECORDED ON THE MAGGIE
Any new movies will be recorded to the Maggie ... and left there. Now that I got a fast navigation feature via the DISPLAY button and don't have to wait for the full index to load, I'm good there. Maybe 300 movies down the way, I'll have to get into the external SATA drive dock thing I mentioned earlier, but for now I'm out of the HDD-DVD ripping game for new movies. That's way too painful for my liking. With my paper EXCEL catalog, it'll be easy enough to find a movie.I may also go with something like MovieNizer just for that. No rush there.

PS ... I DID play with high speed dubbing a bit. Big surprise was I could only high speed dub one title at a time? I record at LP, which I guess is the problem, but I'm not about to degrade the video by switching to SLP recording. Strange thing was, there's plenty of room on a DVD-r for both titles, so it's some firmware oopsie screwing that up. I could do two titles that were recorded in SLP mode. That's not bad, but LP is much better, and that's what I'm planning on sticking with. That's over 600 hours of video on a 1tb drive.

Thanx for all the help here. It's been fun, but I think I got a plan. At least till Tuesday. :-}
Edited by NOSTRADIMWIT - 12/1/12 at 4:15pm

As discussed here in the last day or two, I rip the +RW's with MakeMKV per Scott967's recommendation, store on a network drive and stream to the WD TV Live. If you want to play on other devices, e.g. Roku, you can convert to MP4. The WDTV also works with flash or USB hard drives - I would use dockable portables to save wear and tear on connectors...

CC

Not sure about where to post this but you guys here are the most knowledgeable people I know.

Here is the question, I am thinking about staying overseas for a few months and I would like to know if it is possible to be able to view my TV programs here in the U.S. through the internet overseas. The perfect way would be for me to download the TV programs onto my computer's hard disc so I can watch it at my own pace.

I have looked into Slingbox but not sure if it can do that. Would anything allow me to access my DVR here in the states and download the saved program in my DVR onto my computer via the internet? Thanks for any help.

how does make mkv rack up against handbrake?

I don't know - I'm not the expert on any of this, I just follow the advice I get here and provide feedback on my own setup...

CC

Usually if you only want to convert the DVD to MKV without reencoding then MakeMkv or mkvtoolnix is the tool to use (blazingly fast). Handbrake is really good, but will encode the video so it will take longer. Handbrake can also convert DVD video to format like MP4 which is suitable for Apple devices. The bottom line is they serve different purposes.

Slingbox advertises that they work with TIVO, and I think there's been some positive discussion here on using it with Mag DVR's. A search of the thread should get you some useful info...

I wonder what kind of upload rate would be needed for acceptable performance? DSL can be painfully slow. Or can Slingbox buffer the DVR's playback for less-than-realtime uploading? Can the remote client save the upload for later viewing? Would Slingbox support remote editing to reduce the size of the upload?

CC

[Edit] Also, how does PQ compare to viewing directly from the DVR?

http://www.avsforum.com/t/1442750/question-about-viewing-tv-programs-from-overseas

Duplicate question.

You can high speed dub up to 18 titles at a time if you use the dubbing menu.

MakeMKV can rip from commercial DVD-video and BD, for Handbrake AFAIK you have to first rip using something else. MakeMKV will not encode the video/audio/subtitles. It takes whatever is on the source. Handbrake only encodes AVC using X264 encoder, though it has a couple different audio encoders. My thought was to do most edits etc on the mpeg-2 and ac3 streams, without having multiple encodings done. Just encode at the end to save space or apply filters.

On Maggie-dubbed DVDs, it seems like Handbrake will always find twice the actual number of titles on the DVD, though I think that they are actually 2 copies of each title. something in the way the Maggie builds the VIDEO_TS folder and TOC.

scott s.
.

Why is there ANY x264 encoding talk on this thread? Go to PM, check out VideoHelp.com or Doom9. It is definitely off topic.

1) You can't have it both ways: if AVS is gonna support wajo in his insistence that ALL Magnavox-related questions be corralled into this ludicrous, unwieldy 744+ page sticky thread then a person wondering how they might rip and repurpose DVD files created on a Magnavox, or whether a Magnavox would suit their primary needs, must be allowed to post those questions here.

2) Are you that bothered by a day or two digression into such a topic? What else does this sticky ever discuss, except ways to reset the recorder after your cable company flakes or your power goes out? At this point, rushing headlong into 1000 pages, any hope of tidiness or focus is long gone. This enormous sticky gets messy sometimes.

While I don't think the thread is ludicrous or unwieldy, I do learn stuff by the occasional drifting. Now if 234 or wajo would start some rumor that we could speculate & debate, that would fill the time. There are still two wish lists we could bring up and debate.

As long as people stay nice and not bash each other, it's no big thing. But that's just my opinion - I could be wrong.

Should I get the 500GB or the 1TB version?

Are the ATSC tuners on these top notch? I live in the boonies.

Do these have dual tuners? So I can watch one program while recording another?

Do these record HD broadcasts in orginal aspect ratio, just downscaled to SD?

Should I get the 3 year extended warranty?

Thanks! Im so excited that I checked back in and these are now available at Walmart again!

So exactly where else should ALL those Mag-related issues be discussed? We were criticized for discussing the suitability of the Philips universal remote as a replacement when the Mag remote wears out. Now if we want an alternative to thousands of DVD's for our recordings we're criticized for recommending tools to deal with that. I ignore many of the topics of discussion because they don't relate to the way I use my 3 Mags, but why on earth would I want to discourage that discussion? The time may come when I find myself searching for exactly that info.

For a time I thought a WIKI would be better suited to compile the reams of info enshrined here - we could just read and interact with sections of interest to us. Problem is, the info is extremely time-sensitive and environment-sensitive. What works on TWC may not work on Comcast, or maybe worked on Comcast last year but not this year, or maybe on the 515 but not the 3576. It would be impossible to try to maintain all the permutations.

Without this thread's wide-ranging support for all users from novice/casual to expert/intense I seriously doubt the Funai product line would have survived this long, much less evolved in usability and maintained affordable pricing. A few arguably off-topic and easily-ignorable posts seem like a small price to pay...

CC

+1

I'm just saying that support and discussion of this hardware is one thing, but there is certainly no shortage of x264 encoding guides on the net.

It has nothing to do with function of these units. It is general video conversion. How about some Xvid conversion discussion? H.265? Blu-ray upscaling? 3D post conversion? What if I want to make a flip book of stills?

This is in no way Magnavox related. Post some links and drop the subject.

Still, Wajo's thread, Wajo's rules. If he's fine with everything video related being fair game, so be it.