Taking the show(s) on the road

[nyc6035]

I've been using Sagetv for about 6 months with the sagetv server happliy recording shows for rendering to the sagetv extenders for tv display.

Now I would like to grab some of the content and place it on a pc for local viewing on the road. The files from the server appear to be .ts files.

The laptop is running windows 7 and I'm using VLC player which handles 'most' anything....except it seems the 'native' sagetv *.ts recordings.

This is probably a 'basic' question - but I didn't find anything on search.

I would appreciate if you could point me in the right direction as to how to play/convert/tweak whatever necessary to make this work. Not sure if I need a standard codec on the laptop -or if I need to tweak the recording parameters on the server.

Thx.

[Fuzzy]

What is the source you are recording from? .TS is just a container, and can hold quite a variety of video and audio streams.

[nyc6035]

I am recording from the SageTV Media Center V7. I haven't tweaked anything. I have also the placeshifter...which I could use if I wanted to do a network connection...but what I'm looking to do is jus move the source file from the sagetv server to the local laptop and play.

I haven't made any modifications to the sagetv software for the recordings it makes.

[GKusnick]

Originally Posted by nyc6035

I am recording from the SageTV Media Center V7.

That's what you're recording with. But where is the actual TV signal coming from? Digital broadcast, analog or digital cable, satellite? How is that TV source connected to your computer, and what sort of tuner device are you using to capture it? These are what determine the format your files are recorded in.

[nyc6035]

Silicon Dust HDHomeRun Tuner. I'm using an OTA antenna to pick up digital broadcast channels. The PC that's the DVR is using the ethernet connection to receive the signal from the HDHomeRun.

[GKusnick]

In that case Sage is just saving to disk the already digitized signal sent out by the broadcaster, in whatever format they broadcast in. There are no settings in Sage to tweak because it's not doing the digitizing; it's just saving the bit stream as it comes in.

If you want to see what the format is for a particular recording, go into the Recording Details screen for that recording.

[wayner]

If you are using an HDHR for OTA signals then your files should be actually saved as MPG files which can easily be handled by VLC and almost any media player including Windows Media Player.

You might want to try MPC - Media Player Classic as well as VLC

[pjpjpjpj]

I used to be able to watch with VLC in v6 (.MPGs recorded via HDHR), but have not even tried in v7. Does the embedding of metadata by Sage into recordings possibly cause problems with viewing, or is that not even a factor?

[wayner]

Metadata embedding is not a factor - I use VLC as well as other programs, such as AirVideo on the iPad.

[nyc6035]

So I tried MPC ...I also deleted and reloaded VLC 1.19; Deactivitated and then reactivated Windows Media Player, updated Directx. Still no luck.

Using MPC this is the media profile of a typical file I'm having no luck playing:

General
ID : 1 (0x1)
Complete name : \\BASEMENTSERVER\SageTV\NBCNightlyNews-704344-0.ts
Format : MPEG-TS
File size : 2.20 GiB
Duration : 29mn 48s
Overall bit rate : 10.6 Mbps

Video
ID : 512 (0x200)
Menu ID : 1 (0x1)
Format : MPEG Video
Format version : Version 2
Format profile : Main@High
Format settings, BVOP : Yes
Format settings, Matrix : Default
Codec ID : 2
Duration : 10s 644ms
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 9 476 Kbps
Nominal bit rate : 24.0 Mbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
ActiveFormatDescription : Pillarbox 4:3 image
Frame rate : 29.970 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Interlaced
Scan order : Top Field First
Compression mode : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.152
Stream size : 12.0 MiB (1%)

Audio #1
ID : 513 (0x201)
Menu ID : 1 (0x1)
Format : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Format version : Version 2.5
Mode extension : CM (complete main)
Codec ID : 129
Duration : 29mn 48s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 384 Kbps
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel positions : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth : 16 bits
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 81.9 MiB (4%)
Language : English

Audio #2
ID : 514 (0x202)
Menu ID : 1 (0x1)
Format : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Format version : Version 2.5
Mode extension : CM (complete main)
Codec ID : 129
Duration : 29mn 48s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 192 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth : 16 bits
Compression mode : Lossy
Delay relative to video : -404ms
Stream size : 40.9 MiB (2%)
Language : Spanish


Any and all suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

[wayner]

I have no problem playing most Sage files in VLC - just tried using version 1.19 and I have used previous versions over the past several years. This is using OTA recordings from my HDHR as well as recordings from the HD-PVR.

The only time I had problems was with HD-PVR recordings when the recording started at a different channel and different video format and then the format changed - from 480i to 1080i for example as the HD-PVR started recording before the channel change occurred.

Are you recording QAM or OTA? All of my HDHR recordings are OTA and they are stored as .mpg files.