How to get better quality recordings

[Intel4004]

Hello All,

I would like to get a few comments to my description of the video work I have been doing and that which I am trying currently to get done.

My equipment includes:
1. Ilo DVDRHD04 recorder
2. P4 3.0 CPU
3. P4C800 ASUS mobo
4. WinTV-PVR-500 MCE
5. Corsair CMXP512-3200xl DDR SDRAM x 2each
6. And one very ancient ASUS AGP-V7700 Deluxe GeForce2 GTS graphics card
My Software includes:
1. WinXP sp2 uptodate
2. VLC media player
3. AC3Filter
4. AutoGK
5. ffdshow
6. GordianKnot
7. Womble MPEG Editor
8. CoreVorbis Audio Decoder
9. Direct Show Ogg Vorbis Filter
10. DVD Decrypter
11. Huffyuv AVI lossless video codex
12. Macromedia Flash Player 8
13. InterVideo Win DVD 5
14. Xvid MPEG-4 Video Codex
Here-to-for I have been recording TV shows on the Ilo onto DVDs set @ the max quality option on the Ilo. Then I would take the DVD to the PC and dycript it; run it through womble to edit out the commercial; then off to AKG to compress. For an hour show I used 350meg avis.

Now enter the WinTV-PVR-500 MCE. I was at once very impressed with what SageTV did for the tuner. I have all the competition products but within a day of trying them I uninstalled them.

However, a few issues evade my understanding. Setting sageTV 2.2 to use MPEG2 decoding for recording I don’t get anywhere near the same quality avi files I do using the above process with the ilo recorder. One thing I notice when I go to run AGK is the only option I get for sound is MPEG track 0, Where with the other process I could choice from 4 or 5 different tracks.

One thing sageTV has over the Ilo is getting the recording to start on time. The Ilo depends on setting the system clock via the remote and no way to sync it to the real world. Thus, you never know if the Ilo is going to cut off the front or end of a show.

However, I have notice one of my local channels doesn’t start when the guide says it will (seems it is always 3 minutes slow) so sageTV cuts the end off the recording but that’s not sages’ fault.

Anyway if I can get some feed back on how to use the WinTV-PVR-500 MCE to capture TV shows and make high quality end products please point me to a guide or source where I can learn how to control this system.

Thanks

[Blkhrtd]

Can't help you with most important questions, however, about the recording cutting off early: I believe there is a feature of Sage that allows you to pad specific recordings. If memory serves me correctly, you should be able to add a few minutes to the end of that specific recording when setting it up.

About the other 'quality' issues, I'd like to know this information as well. It's a been a year since I was attempting to fine tune my Mother's SageTV setup and I never quite achieved what I considered exceptional recording quality. Starting to put together a Sage box for myself and figure I begin where I left off last time.

Good luck.

-Shadrach

[stanger89]

Assuming you're using a good (say 3GB/hour) quality setting, the biggest improvement in PQ comes from calibrating the capture settings. There are details on the Sage community site for doing that.

[mightyt]

Originally Posted by stanger89

Assuming you're using a good (say 3GB/hour) quality setting, the biggest improvement in PQ comes from calibrating the capture settings. There are details on the Sage community site for doing that.

stanger ... the screen shots on this wiki page are all missing?

T.

[stanger89]

no idea...

You can look here too:
http://users.mcleodusa.net/r/ratpac/

[mightyt]

Originally Posted by stanger89

no idea...

You can look here too:
http://users.mcleodusa.net/r/ratpac/

thanks ... that works!!