Maximum file size (segments)

[feilerd]

Does anyone know of a setting or plugin that will let you set a maximum file size in Sage? Right now, to copy a file to a DVD (for backup, or to play on another PC--I don't need to play on a set top DVD player), I have to transcode (and either lose quality or at least a huge amount of time). If Sage let me set a max file size (say 4.5 GB), I could just copy the resulting files to DVD and be done w/ it. Sage can already handle this to some extent--if I shut down and restart the app while it's recording, it's smart enough to create a new file (appended w/ a sequence number) and fluidlyu play them one after the other when I select it from the menu.

[gplasky]

Why do you HAVE to transcode? My DVD backups exceed 7 GB and Sage plays them fine. It takes me less than 10 minutes to put a DVD on the hard drive.

Gerry

[BobPhoenix]

Think he is going from HDD to DVD and not the other way around.

[stanger89]

Shouldn't have to transcode anyway, not if using a DVD compliant recording quality. Should just be able to split the file.

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by BobPhoenix

Think he is going from HDD to DVD and not the other way around.

OK-that's the part I missed.

Gerry

[feilerd]

Yes, I'm going from Sage to DVD. Ripping DVDs to Sage is no problem for me.

Stanger--that's exactly what I'd like to do. I've found a product that says it'll let me split MPEG1, but nothing that says I could do that w/ MPEG2. Every product I've seen/tried wants to transcode--so it takes hours--I really just want to split the file into two or more segments--but be able to play them w/out reconnecting them. Is such a thing possible, and if so, can you suggest a product to do that?

(I am using one of the DVD quality settings)

Thanks

[MeInMaui]

Well, I guess you could format your recording drives using FAT32. The file size limit for that file system is 4GB. I'm pretty sure SageTV would automatically segment the file when that limit is reached. I don't know what, if any, other drawbacks there would be to doing this.

I would think that most recordings would be less than 4GB in size anyway. For the occasional long recording it might be a worthwhile investment to purchase VideoRedo so you can segment the recordings yourself (without any transcoding).

Aloha,
Mike

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by feilerd

Yes, I'm going from Sage to DVD. Ripping DVDs to Sage is no problem for me.

Stanger--that's exactly what I'd like to do. I've found a product that says it'll let me split MPEG1, but nothing that says I could do that w/ MPEG2. Every product I've seen/tried wants to transcode--so it takes hours--I really just want to split the file into two or more segments--but be able to play them w/out reconnecting them. Is such a thing possible, and if so, can you suggest a product to do that?

(I am using one of the DVD quality settings)

Thanks

VideoReDo, Womble MPEG VCR, those two for sure will cut without re-encoding. Seems like like I've run across some freeware tools that do it to, but I can't remember any off the top of my head.

[feilerd]

Originally Posted by MeInMaui

Well, I guess you could format your recording drives using FAT32. The file size limit for that file system is 4GB. I'm pretty sure SageTV would automatically segment the file when that limit is reached. I don't know what, if any, other drawbacks there would be to doing this.

I would think that most recordings would be less than 4GB in size anyway. For the occasional long recording it might be a worthwhile investment to purchase VideoRedo so you can segment the recordings yourself (without any transcoding).

Aloha,
Mike

Most recordings are, in fact below 4 GB--unfortunately the ones that aren't (ie the 2+ hour ones) are the ones I'm most likely to want to burn to a DVD. I'm not much into the whole 2-4 hour transcode process; can VideoRedo split an MPEG2 without having to transcode it? (If not, I'm drowning in tools that can transcode and give me multiple smaller files, but thanks).

re FAT32, thanks for the suggestion, but I'm happy w/ NTFS--it just doesn't seem worth all the extra work/trouble/risk for the minimal gain. If only Sage would offer the option to specify a max file size, even w/ NTFS. It would be extremely useful.

[feilerd]

Originally Posted by stanger89

VideoReDo, Womble MPEG VCR, those two for sure will cut without re-encoding. Seems like like I've run across some freeware tools that do it to, but I can't remember any off the top of my head.

Thanks very much; I'll check into them!

[MeInMaui]

Originally Posted by feilerd

Most recordings are, in fact below 4 GB--unfortunately the ones that aren't (ie the 2+ hour ones) are the ones I'm most likely to want to burn to a DVD. I'm not much into the whole 2-4 hour transcode process; can VideoRedo split an MPEG2 without having to transcode it? (If not, I'm drowning in tools that can transcode and give me multiple smaller files, but thanks).

As Stanger said above, VideoRedo definitely can split files without transcoding. If you ask me, it's worth its weight in gold. I use it to trim out commercials. It only takes a couple of minutes to do it's thing.

Aloha,
Mike

[Menehune]

I even use VideoRedo to join the "raw" vob files ripped from DVDs at work.