New Hauppage Colossus HD-PVR Internal Card

[konfusion]

why does it need to render at all when you are recording hd and putting it to bluray? sounds like it is reconverting or your computer is to slow for this. is there any errors on the playback?

nevermind looked up the specs its not bad so i dunno why that takes so freaking long.

[kctexan]

Found out that the BR file type, that TAW4 (or similar program) renders to the file folder, is an M2TS type file. So, I stopped capturing shows in MPG4 format and started capturing in M2TS. M2TS is almost identical to the 3rd capture type, TS, except that (per a forum entry), "M2TS adds a four byte timestamp to each packet, which can help with timing during playback (192 byte packets vs 188 byte in .ts files)."
I let TAW4 author a 1:35 length movie, which started as a 5.8 Gb (for just the actual movie) M2TS file , but rendered to about 17Gb. It took only about 1:45 to do that, so that was encouraging.

[lordsmurf]

TAW4 only authors in MPEG-2, not H.264.
That's probably the problem -- it is reconverting the video to another format.

Very few GUI tools author H.264 Blu-ray.

[kctexan]

Trouble last night and day with TAW4 stopping in the middle of authoring M2TS files for BR-Ds. Always seems to hang up with the menus, not the actual movie images. I started wondering if I could just burn the raw MPG4 and M2TS files straight to a BR-D. Well, ImgBurn easily did that, and I can add movies WITHOUT the huge increase in size that authoring them creates. Of course, none of the extraneous stuff is edited, nor are there menus, but if the movie is ad-free, anyway, that's no big deal. So.... I burned 2 MPG4 and 1 M2TS movie onto 1 BD-R, and the MPG4 movies played perfectly in my Samsung BR player, as video data files. I can even fast forward them at 3 different speeds! The M2TS movie file was not recognized, or even acknowledged as being on the BD-R, by the BR player, so that leaves them out, unless I can convert them to MPG4. Also, in an unrelated idea, I burned several FLV files to a SD DVD-R, and 4 of the files played just fine in the Samsung. Four others wouldn't play, for lack of a codec. Maybe I can find and include the codecs on the DVD, or somehow upload them to the Samsung.

[kctexan]

I just lost a thorough explanation I wrote, so am going to try to write it again....
After much experimentation and contact with TAW4 team in Tokyo, I found that I need to capture HD video in M2TS or TS file type, then author (editing and menus) and render using TAW4's Smart Rendering function. This allows TAW4 to render files and menus without stalling at the menus and renders in about half the time (6-7 hours for a 25Gb disc) than rendering MP4s. TAW4 stalled at menus when rendering MP4 files, because it has to re-encode the file type. It did that OK for the actual videos, but not the menus. I'm going to make BR discs of my remaining 43 or so MP4 files without menus, so they will render OK (although in about twice the time), but that's OK, as my Sony BR player can find and play any chapter in any title, which is what I use menus for, anyway.
Also found that capturing HD at 8Mb/s, then rendering it at 10Mb/s, lets me have about 4+ hours of HD on a 25Gb disc, which is about 30 cents an hour.

[kctexan]

I found that my audio/video out of sync problems were caused by me capturing HD-DVD files in M2TS. Since I've switched to recording them in TS format, the resulting rendered files are perfectly in sync, from start to finish.

[lordsmurf]

You made 3 posts in a row, and nobody replied...

... but some of us are reading. Just an FYI. I'm paying attention. Thanks for sharing.

[kctexan]

Appreciate that! I'm finding that, in order to get the maximum benefit of a 25Gb BR disc, I need to balance the capture rate of the program (currently ArcSoft ShowBiz 3.5, at 12 Mb/s) and the rendering rate of TAW-4 (anywhere from about 13 - 25 Mb/s). If I have 2 programs to render to one disc, I may render one at 14 Mb/s and the other at 22 Mb/s, if I'm being more particular about the video quality on the second program. If I'm going flat out for perfection, I'll render one program at the maximum 25 Mb/s, if that will fit onto a 25 Gb disc; and it usually will, unless it's over 3 hours long. I did that for Koyaanisqatsi, which has those incredibly busy, sped up video montages (and, it looks perfect!) and for the Matrix movies I mentioned earlier. On the other hand, rendering a doc. like Prohibition, which mainly features static photographs, at a high rate is a waste of disc space. I burnt two two-hour episodes of that program onto one disc, and it looks perfect to me (viewing a 46" TV about 8 feet away, wearing glasses).

[kctexan]

Apparently, I have at least 2 threads going about the same subject (Blu-Ray disc creation), so I guess I'll post to this one today. I thought that my TAW-4 rendered files were out of audio and video sync because I was capturing in M2TS mode, instead of TS mode, but now I don't think that's necessarily true, because some of the rendered TS files are out of sync (only toward the end of the program), too. I wondered if capturing those files, in the first place, should not be done while I was rendering other files with TAW-4, so I tried capturing files with nothing else running (of any sizeable CPU use) on my PC, and so far, the rendered files, of those captured TS files (I'm staying with TS), are in sync from start to finish. So, maybe that was the culprit. Like I've said, I'm basically having to find all this out on my own, but I'm more than happy to share with others who might be trying to create BDs, or at least are mulling over the possibility. I wrote a favorable review of the Hauppauge Colossus video capture card on Amazon, and a couple of people have thanked me for my thoughts. Anyway, hope we all have a great 2012!!!!!!!!!!

[lordsmurf]

I think my first guide-making project will go through Adobe Encore CS4, since I own it.
Need to eliminate software problems first, verify the computer and workflows are working as desired.

I'll look at slumming it with novice methods next.

[kctexan]

Cool! We'll be interested in how it goes for you.

[kctexan]

Well, there's no shadow of a doubt, now. I made a new capture of the movie that was in sync in the original capture, and out of sync after rendering with TAW-4, this time withOUT TAW-4 rendering another program, and it rendered perfectly in sync. So, I will NOT capture one file and render another simultaneously. Too bad. It was a great time saver. The name of the movie: Shadow of a Doubt.

[kctexan]

I connected the composite V/L audio/R audio cables, from my switcher (to which my VHS/DVD and audio receiver are connected, plus another port for camcorder recordings, etc.) to my Colossus card, using the blue portion of the component input for the composite video (per the Colossus owner's manual) and it worked!! Now, I can record HD stuff via HDMI and old VHS or Beta tapes, cassettes, records, etc. via the composite input. I'm doing this to gradually but surely move all the recording stuff from my dying HP Windows XP PC to my HP Windows 7 PC.

[lordsmurf]

Originally Posted by kctexan

Now, I can record HD stuff via HDMI and old VHS or Beta tapes, cassettes, records, etc. via the composite input. I'm doing this to gradually but surely

Tip: Record the old stuff as 15Mb/s MPEG-2 720x480, and burn to Blu-ray. It'll look better than a DVD, and still have more fit on a single disc. Just use good media, and keep secondary backups of the source files either to DVD-R/DVD+R or hard drives.

my dying HP Windows XP PC

What's wrong with it, exactly? It's only a few years old now, right? Circa late 2009? At worst, the hard drive may be giving out, but I can't imagine anything else being wrong. What are the symptoms? Maybe this is just a false alarm. Whatever you do, don't trash that ATI card. Or even the motherboard, CPU and RAM, for that matter. We can always find those parts a second home.

[kctexan]

It will reboot for no discernible reason. Sometimes I find out it's done this when I use the KVM switcher to go back to it, and see that it's rebooted, but I have, on occasion, actually seen it happening. There's a brief "blue screen of death" (with white characters), then it reboots, just like when I first turn on the PC. Sometimes, when it reboots, I'm in the middle of recording some video on MM8.7, but sometimes it happens when I'm recording some music from a website onto SF9.

[lordsmurf]

That's typically an overheating issue. Be sure the CPU fan is working, be sure the power supply (PSU) fan is working.

If the CPU fan is working, consider removing the motherboard, pulling off the CPU fan/heatsink, wiping it clean with alcohol on a non-linty napkin, and reapplying a glaze (not glob, but glaze!) of heat paste. You can get a little tube of the stuff at Microcenter or Fry's for about $2.

"Non-linty" isn't a special term. Cheap napkins have lint come off. Don't use napkins from Taco Bell, etc, either. Use a napkin off a nice paper towel roll. Even the cheap stuff from Kroger works fine.

Put Saran Wrap (or generic plastic wrap) around your finger, and then put a little drop of the goo on it. Start from the center of the CPU, and smear it outwards. Then even it up into a glaze. It should still be partially see-through, as it's a glaze. You're not icing a cupcake. If there's too much, change the plastic wrap on your finger, and wipe some off as needed.

Then put it all back together again.

If that's not it, it's bad RAM. That's about a $25 fix from eBay, since it's old-style RAM. But bad RAM is far less likely than the overheating CPU.

So $2 and a few hours of time to fix this one.

[kctexan]

I will try that when I can get a good block of time free. Might be this weekend.

Obviously, I'll check the 2 fans first.