Not recording when set to VCD quality.

[jal]

To save hard drive space, yesterday I

(1) set the default quality for all the tuners to SVCD
(2) set the quality for each Favorite to VCD.

Since this change, the first (Favorite) show recorded several hours ago. It was a 1-hour show and the recording only used up 315 MB of hard drive space.

However, when I try to play it back, all I get is a blank screen. Anyone know why? (I've been using SageTv 6.x successfully for about a year).

[jal]

I located the file on the hard drive. It plays fine in Windows Media Player.

Anyone know why it won't playback in SageTV ??

[jal]

This may be the same bug discovered five years ago on this thread.


http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...t=vcd+playback


Still unfixed?

[nyplayer]

I never had a problem recording to VCD quality... Why some one would want to do that I do not understand. You cannot record and play a VCD at the same time... you need to watch it once it is completed recording. Also make sure the mpeg decoder you are using can play mpeg1.

[jal]

Originally Posted by nyplayer

I never had a problem recording to VCD quality... Why some one would want to do that I do not understand. You cannot record and play a VCD at the same time...

I'm trying to save hard drive space. With my Favorites, I have no need to playback/record simultaneously. Hence I have good reason to conserve HDD space.

you need to watch it once it is completed recording. Also make sure the mpeg decoder you are using can play mpeg1.

I'm not very technical. Can you please be more specific on what settings I need to check?

[jal]

From what I've gathered on other threads, SageTV developers continue to ignore this problem. One person who was complaining about this issue said, "They seemed to be more concerned with adding nifty features than fixing the basic package."

I've had plenty of frustrations with this software. The fact that it won't play VCD/ Mpeg1 is potentially a show-stopper for me. Today I downloaded BeyondTV and will be considering making the switch.

[VCRUser]

I save space by converting after recording. I find that mp4 avi "good" format gives me a good balance of quality plus space-saving. My converted files run about 700-800mb per hour, as compared with original recordings using 1.5gb per hour on my analog cable tuner, 3+ gb/hour on Qam, and 6-7gb/hr on OTA HD. They all compress nicely to about the same size. This smaller size works far better on my PlaceShifter client (on my home gigabit network - I think the issue is not bandwidth but processor power on my client), as well as saving space.

[jal]

Originally Posted by VCRUser

I save space by converting after recording. I find that mp4 avi "good" format gives me a good balance of quality plus space-saving. My converted files run about 700-800mb per hour, as compared with original recordings using 1.5gb per hour on my analog cable tuner, 3+ gb/hour on Qam, and 6-7gb/hr on OTA HD. They all compress nicely to about the same size. This smaller size works far better on my PlaceShifter client (on my home gigabit network - I think the issue is not bandwidth but processor power on my client), as well as saving space.

Thanks. I just enabled AutoCompress on Favorites. On the first try, it converted a 385 MB VCD file to the same size in "Good Quality MPEG4". The new MPEG4 file is playable in Sage, unlike the VCD file.

Weird that your files are all compressing down to the same size. That didn't seem to be the case in my first go at AutoCompress (the OTA shows seemed several times larger, but maybe I'm missing something) - but at least the final result is playable.

[nyplayer]

Jal,

I just recorded a show in VCD format... using the default Sage and the Sage decoder and it plays fine. I used WMR, EVR, and overlay and it played perfectly. It would help if you update your signature with operating system video card etc....

[VCRUser]

I use "convert," not auto-compress - I'm not sure how to use that: is it a plugin or something with media center STV? I haven't tried that, since the screenshots I've seen of it are too busy for my tastes.

[jal]

Originally Posted by VCRUser

I use "convert," not auto-compress - I'm not sure how to use that: is it a plugin or something with media center STV? I haven't tried that, since the screenshots I've seen of it are too busy for my tastes.

I don't know much about it. For example I don't know why, sometimes, I have recorded shows on file and yet the compression isn't running. Tonight i looked at the log (Media Center > View Conversions) and it was running again. Anyway, here's some notes that I put in my notebook about a year ago:

The STVI file for auto-compressing favorites is described here:
http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...+HD+recordings

and downloadable here:
http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/down...hp?do=file&id=
the actual link being this one:
http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/down...d=159&act=down

IT COMPRESSES FAVORITES. In other words, it doesn't detect HD. It only compresses those serial shows that you have scheduled to regularly record (called Favorites).

- Installation: MAKE SURE TO INSTALL THE THREE FILES ON THE SERVER COMPUTER. They are
(1) Auto_Compress.stvi - You can put this in the SageTV STV directory (but it's not really crucial where you put it since you will have to browse to this file at Detailed Setup > Advanced > Import STVI file.
(2) df_sageutils.jar - MUST BE PLACED IN THE SAGETV JARS FOLDER (ON THE SERVER COMPUTER).
(3) nielm_sageutls.jar - probably optional - but I put in the JARS folder.
(4) ON THE SERVER COMPUTER set the compression, for each Favorite, to "MPEG4 Good Quality AVI" (I haven't researched this but it seems decent).
(5) For any manual recording, you'll have to manually compress the file (on the options menu) after recording is complete.

[jal]

Originally Posted by nyplayer

Jal,

I just recorded a show in VCD format... using the default Sage and the Sage decoder and it plays fine. I used WMR, EVR, and overlay and it played perfectly. It would help if you update your signature with operating system video card etc....

I don't know what WMR and EVR are. I'll have to look into that. Anyway for the moment I'm okay with SVCD. Earlier I was disappointed due to some huge file sizes. Turns out the problem is that one of my two Hauppauge tuners isn't doing much compression. (Earlier I thought OTA shows were the problem). The filesizes are three times those of the other tuner. I can't remember the model number info but they show up in SageTV like this:

Win TV 418 Video Capture Tuner (creates large files)
Win TV PVR PCI II Capture TV Tuner (creates small files)

The Win TV 418 is a dual tuner, as I recall, receptive to both OTA signals and cable TV.

[jal]

Originally Posted by nyplayer

Jal,

I just recorded a show in VCD format... using the default Sage and the Sage decoder and it plays fine. I used WMR, EVR, and overlay and it played perfectly. It would help if you update your signature with operating system video card etc....

Ok, this too seems to be a tuner-related issue (see my comments above). One of my tuners is creating large files. The detail "says" these are VCD files but the huge filesize seems to belie it - and these files playback just fine. The other tuner is apparently creating true VCD files (a very small filesize) and these won't playback in SageTV (but playback fine in Windows MP).

[VCRUser]

Thanks for the reference to AutoCompress. It looks like it might be useful. In looking through the info, it doesn't seem that there is any way to limit the compression activity to a particular time. Does it compress pretty much right after the recording completes? My computer's fan comes on and gets somewhat noisy whenever compression is happening, and since the server is in the bedroom, I would prefer compression to happen at times when it won't bother anyone, and ideally, when the server isn't busy recording (although so far having recording and compressing going on at the same time hasn't caused any problems).

As for file sizes on initial recording, digital recordings save at whatever framerate, etc. the program streams some in at, regardless of Sage settings; only the analog recordings' sizes are affected by quality settings. That partially explains why a digital tuner records bigger files than an analog tuner, but it's not the tuner's doing. A digital tuner recording QAM typically records smaller files than the same channel recorded OTA, since the cable company compresses the QAM signal.

[jal]

Sorry, I'm too uninformed about AutoCompress to be of any use.

Regarding the large files, I found a thread where this same issue came up:

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...&highlight=vcd

The thread suggested that

(1) The tuner driver is failing to permit all the possible recording qualities (VCD, SVCD, DVD, etc).
(2) Downloading the latest drivers for the tuner should solve the problem.

So I downloaded the latest driver for the WinTV 1600. This was no picnic, as it conflicted with the driver for the PVR 150 tuner (I got the blue screen of death). I had to go into safe mode to disable the PVR 150, then I had to download the latest driver for the PVR 150 as well.

I think this solved it. Prior to this, the WinTV 1600 was creating files three times larger than the PVR 150 - even when it was the same show, same channel. As far as I can see, this is no longer happening. I'm running at about .9 Gigs an hour on most of my usual channels (SVCD) in which case I won't even need AutoCompress.