i just tried it using Vegas and it froze after an entire day.

what other tools should i use to convert a .ts file into somn else?

i just tried it using Vegas and it froze after an entire day.

what other tools should i use to convert a .ts file into somn else?

First, if it is an m2t stream, it's not 1920 x 1088, it's 1440 x 1080.
Second, what were you trying to convert it to in terms of size?
Third, what are your computer specs?
Last, what had you done to the media? (filters, overlays, etc)

I'm assuming you're using a template in Vegas?
If it froze after an entire day, i'm going to hazard a guess that heat knocked it out.

it's not an authored project.

it's a mpeg2 stream of the movie Swordfish that has been recorded off of a regular cable channel. and it is a 1920x1088 file. it's about 8.56 gigabytes and is 2large to burn onto DVD DL (which burns only 8.1gigabyte despite the 8.5 label).

i can't even open it with vegas, the application freezes, but the computer remains fine. any files out there that can recompress this? i'm thinking virtualdub yeah?

I'd be trying VDub, or better still, Nero's Recode. Currently, it's unmatched for quality.

ah... i knew i had somn in my toolbox to use. i'll try recode when i get home.

i wonder why i can't open it with vegas and do it? i tried vegas on ripped .vob's of the DVDs that i have and it doesn't work either. is it cause DVD file structure is diff than hard disk?

ah... i knew i had somn in my toolbox to use. i'll try recode when i get home.

i wonder why i can't open it with vegas and do it? i tried vegas on ripped .vob's of the DVDs that i have and it doesn't work either. is it cause DVD file structure is diff than hard disk?

Vegas' vob reading capability is designed for disks from DVD camcorders, not ripped movies from DVD. I don't know exactly what is different, I've never been incentivized to find out, as I've never ripped a DVD. Maybe someone else has a more useful answer.

I've been playing with sorenson squeeze trial and its pretty good.

Essentially the same process for hdv as capped mpeg TS. I open it in hdtvtompeg, and convert the TS stream to an mpeg - this has to be done because sorenson won't open the TS stream for some reason. Set your output and encode.

Sorenson squeeze is pricy and the trial leaves a rather large semi transparent watermark but is a good encoder for windows.

The other option I know of is to use the VFW windows media video 9 codec. It is WMV9 but allows you to put it in something like an avi container. What you need to do is use hdtvtompeg to convert you TS stream to mpg, then open it in virtualdub mpeg2 verison. Set your compression to the WMV9 codec and export.

The VFW codec is available from microsoft, it's listed for legacy playback or something. Don't have a link since I don't use it.

To actually get a WMV9 in a WMV container you're only other option is windows media encoder. Last time I tried it was a horrible and buggy program that liked to lock up a lot and made things hard to do especially for HD. I think you will need to use hdtvtompeg again and have an mpeg2 software decoder installed to open the hd stream in wmv encoder.

i already tried th wmv9 encoder. terrible =(.

i'm gonna try HDTV2MPEG, i think that'll do it. thx for the suggestions! =).

First of all your 1088 number is off. I get that dimension if I save a screen shot with something like Nero Showtime frame capture and insert it into Photoshop, but it's not the real size. Your video is almost certainly 1440 x 1080 with a 1.33 aspect ratio. Using an odd size like 1920 x 1088 is going to confuse your renderer and make it take forever if it doesn't crash. Try rendering to a standard HD size and your situation should improve greatly.

uh... first of all, i didn't make Swordfish starring John Travolta, Halle Barry and Jack Hughman!

secondly, regarldess of resolution, i just tried nero recode, doesn't work. recode is made by the same guy behind DVD SHrink, thus, it's primarily geared towards (ultimately) DVD-Video.

thirdly, HDTV2MPEG didn't work either because it, too, is geared towards DVD's MPEG2 specs.

i'm looking for a way to make this a bit smaller so i can burn an HD version of this. i got a front projector and have the regular DVD version but i really wanna have more HD version so i can showoff my front projector =).i can't keep showing T2, it gets stale. anyway, it's one of the very few 1080p version of a DVD i already have.

the point is, this file is a 1920x1080p .ts file with .ac3. but it's 8.5+ gigabyte and i can't burn it on DL media. there's no option in nero to "overburn" a DL media either. so... i guess i just have to wait for the HD-DVD/BluRay version of it or buy a hard drive just for HD movies =).

I've got a couple DVDs that I've made of HD media in h.264 using Recode, they show wonderfully on my projector. Same with many, many 720p disks on standard DVD.
Recode works wonderfully whether frameserved from Vegas, or from an avi dropped straight into it. I'd respectfully suggest that you've done something odd with the video when you ripped it, or the codec that you used is screwballed.
The video should be 1440 x 1080 at a pixel aspect of 1.333, as others have mentioned.

the point is, this file is a 1920x1080p .ts file with .ac3. but it's 8.5+ gigabyte and i can't burn it on DL media. there's no option in nero to "overburn" a DL media either. so... i guess i just have to wait for the HD-DVD/BluRay version of it or buy a hard drive just for HD movies =).
Recorded from cable 1080p ?! You mean 1080i , right?
If original *.TS file only 8.5Gb possible you have not 1920x1080p(i), but only 1280x1080i (light HDTV ;)
Try delete padding from *.ts by converting to PS(program stream) *.mpg,
or just demux TS to ES (elementar streams m2v+ac3)
Use ReJig to shrink m2v and make HDDVD with DVDlab:)
But i've agree with Douglas Spotted Eagle, best way is convert to mpeg4 avc with Nero Recode.

There must be commerical breaks in the movie, use Vdub to delete them then burn onto a DL DVD+R, the size will be smaller. If there are no commercials, best off compressing to WMV, the XBOX360 supports wmv files on disc in HD.

Let me echo what DSE said: Nero's recode is simply wonderful. I've pretty much dropped everything else like Quicktime, WMV and DiVX because Recode is so much better.

jack, no commercials. not from cable. i'm *trying* to recompress, i haven't found any tools capable... yet.

laurence, recode doesn't work on it.

when i get home i'll have to gspot it to see what kinda codec it is exactly.

TMPGEnc Xpress 3.0 has not been mentioned. It robustly encodes WM9. The problem with WM9 is that it's slow, and you will spend time experimenting with it's many settings. WM9 will do some strange things like drop frames if the bit rate setting is too low for the selected quality. It has a rather non-intuitive slider for choosing a preference between motion and quality, that has to be taken together with a bit rate. So basically what you're trying to achieve is getting the slider away from motion and toward the quality end of the slider for the highest motion scene possible before it starts dropping frames. It takes experimentation to optimize. But when you do, it's an extremely efficient codec, even better than h.264 for getting the file size down. All WM9 is progressive video. 1080i *.ts is converted to 1080p. It takes power to decode it. Many people settle for converting 1080i60 to 720p60.

Virtual Dub is the other way to go, and additionally you can put the WMV inside an AVI wrapper with AC3/dolby which you can't with a WMV encoder alone.

I've wanted to try Recode, but it seems like its focus is more about getting a ripped DVD compressed to fit onto a single layer DVD disk than about the needs of HD, but I could be wrong.

In any case, you wouldn't make a living going against Douglas Spotted Eagle, however the exception being that ts files (m2t) are exclusively 1440 x 1080 is not so, ts broadcast streams are very likely to be 1920 x 1080. We associate with what we work with, but HDV is not the only format for mpeg2ts streams.

A good resource for information on codecs and the tools they use is found at videohelp.com

nice thread.

you can encode interlaced windows media, there is a good faq on the subject on the microsoft website somewhere... windows media will also do 5.1 surround sound, at better quality than you'll get with dolby... you'd probably have to play it back off of a computer, but these days, there are digital connectors on the back of all hi-def big screen tv's, so you wouldn't have to use the analog connector.

anyone who questions wmv picture quality should download some of the clips from www.wmvhd.com, and play 'em back on an hd tv... it's a really good looking codec.

nero h.264 rocks big time, but i don't know that it has vbr encoding capability, the audio is inferior to wmv, and you'd have to use the nero media player to watch it... there is a lot of player overhead with h.264 in general... here is a great link for understanding how player overhead can make a big difference: http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1916972,00.asp

>> Try delete padding from *.ts by converting to PS(program stream) *.mpg,
or just demux TS to ES (elementar streams m2v+ac3)

This is good advice. Many programs will hiccup with a TS but are fine with a PS. RemuxTS (freeware) would be worth a try...its fast!

No familiar with that term. Thanks

BTW, I just bought Nero a few days ago and did a test burn with Recode using various source files types, from m2t to WMVHD. So far it is fabulous, fast, and the only successful solution for creating HD content with sound that will play on my Avel Link Player. Best $79 I've ever spent.

I'm curious as to what others are using as a source file type? Are you converting to WMVHD first? How about intermediate codecs such as Cineform?

Paul, I'm not sure what you accomplished since the AVeL LinkPlayer can already play m2t and WMVHD files.

onverting to WMV takes a long time. I guess I didn't realize I could just copy m2ts.

The mp4 files Nero creates are a whole lot smaller than m2ts.