Sorry to be absolutely ignorant if I am on the subject, but I will admit this is my first time to experiment with downloading my TiVo (where I thought it was impossible with a Mac).
Two things:
The video has a thin fuzzy/static (snowy television) bar across the top of the image. Obviously, this is petty, however, annoying while watching something. Any ways to get that off? I'm sure there is a possiblity of some editing software being used, but if there is just a simple setting in TiVoDecode to be flipped, that'd be much easier. Or maybe this "flaw" is the inevitable and I should just feel lucky to have downloaded some TiVo on my Mac.
Also, the video is stretched vertically. It's almost an apparent 4:7. I do not have HD, so it should be standard 4:3. Anyway to quench this insatiable desire to watch a better quality?
Thanks,
joel
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Forgot something.... I probably upsetted some of you by forgetting this too.
I have VLC. I know I can adjust the aspect ratio there to 4:3 and watch it fine... minus being able to get rid of the fuzzy line, I'm at least able to fix the proportion.
My biggest deal is wanting to put these videos on DVD to watch externally. Granted, I haven't tried burning them too DVD, I just don't want to waste the length of time it takes to burn these only to find out the quality is as is still.
I only have iDVD at the moment, maybe another program allows me to adjust the aspect ratio? Or maybe iDVD does as well?
So to finish it off... if there is a switch to be flipped in TiVo decode to convert with the natural aspect ratio, what might it be?
A cure for the thin snowy bar?
And a way to burn it with the right aspect ratio onto DVD?
Thanks again,
Joel
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The resolution of a standard def tivo file captured in High Quality mode is 480x480 (Best Quality might be 720x480 D1, not sure though). It is up to your playback software to stretch it back to 4:3 (640x480 square pixels). The Tivo does this automatically. It looks like you must do this manually with VLC.
480x480 is not a valid resolution for mpeg2 DVD, only 352x480 and 720x480 are officially allowed according to spec, but it is possible (maybe even probable) that your DVD player will play 480x480 even if it is out of spec. And it will depend on your DVD authoring software as to whether 480x480 is accepted, rejected or automatically reencoded to 720x480. I do not know what iDVD will do.
The fuzzy dotted line on top is Closed Captioning info which you will not see when the file is played back on a TV. Video created for playback on TV is created with "Action Safe" and "Title Safe" as guidelines. The "Action Safe" area is approximately the center 90% of a full standard def 720x480 D1 video (640x480 square pixels). "Title Safe" is approximately the center 80%. A computer monitor will display the full 100% but TVs crop off a border around the edge. How large the cropped border will be is determined by the type (and age) of the TV. On older TVs it is possible that only the "Title Safe" area will be visible while on newer TVs (especially plasma and LCD) you might see all of the "Action Safe" area (and maybe a little more). If this isn't explained well enough, search google for "Title Safe" and "Action Safe" you will find tons of info.
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> The fuzzy dotted line on top is Closed Captioning info which you will not see when the file is played back on a TV.
So that's where that is. I was asked about extracting caption information. Do you know of any way to extract this and convert it to something more useful than a fuzzy line? Is there some tool out there to do this?
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I believe the TiVo files from TivoToGo contain closed caption data in the user packets of the mpeg2 stream. However, it's probably in a TiVo specific format. After decoding a TiVo file, I used Sonic's CinePlayer to play it and was able to see garbled captioning data. The garbled captions resemble the actual closed captions when viewing the same video on my television using TiVo. CinePlayer and MPlayer expect the captions to be stored in a format normally used in DVDs. SCCTools has documentation on this format.
I'd like to see a tool for TiVo files like rtvcc for ReplayTV files to convert closed caption data to DVD closed caption format.
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I have had some success with SCCTools (windows only) CCExtract tool. There is a tool called T2Sami which extracts the caption info from certain tivo files, and I have been working with the author to get it working with files from the 540 series tivos and to get a command-line version working on UNIX. It is currently working well for me, but he has asked it not be widely distributed just yet, he is still working on it... The web site for T2Sami is http://shinnyo.com/t2sami/
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Have you and T2Sami's author, jmemmot on tivocommunity, been able to decipher the CC format of 540 series TiVo? If so, that's great news. It would be nice, in addition to T2Sami working with 540 series TiVo, to have tivodecode working as well to convert 540 TiVo CC data to the DVD format. Then we can burn the video to DVD with closed captions.
Also, would you publish the CC format of 540 series TiVo?
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> Have you and T2Sami's author, jmemmot on tivocommunity, been able to decipher the CC format of 540 series TiVo?
Yes. Mostly him, I found code which was able to decode it already and pointed him at it, and he did all the work ;)
> It would be nice, in addition to T2Sami working with 540 series TiVo, to have tivodecode working as well to convert
> 540 TiVo CC data to the DVD format. Then we can burn the video to DVD with closed captions.
I had considered doing something like this, and I have ported the guts of T2Sami to compile and run on UNIX platforms, but it is written in C++ and I don't really want to 'contaminate' the pure C codebase of tivodecode. I could probably either bite the bullet and port the relevant t2sami code to pure C, or release a seperate tool through sourceforge for extracting the captions.
BTW, the t2sami codebase already supports writing out captions as .srt files (at least the latest released version does, he is still working on that for the new version) which are supported in most DVD apps for subtitles.
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> Also, would you publish the CC format of 540 series TiVo?
I don't really know that much about it. The best I can do is point you at the thread on tivocommunity which gave jmemmot enough information to implement it. I think because he already knew about the caption formats he was able to figure it out pretty quickly.
As far as we can tell, we are able to extract the CC information from all of the Series 2 models with the possible exception of the DirectTivo models. I have built up relationships with enough hearing impaired people through the TCF that I can get feedback for most of the models that have been manufactured. It takes time to do this however, because those people have to take time out of their schedules to do this for me.
In any case, the end goal for the work I have been putting into T2Sami has been to make the Tivo Closed Captioning as widely available to the hearing impaired as possible. To this end, I have already made the source available and when we are satisfied is is stable, I will help jeremy put out a UNIX version. My hesitation about doing anything now is that I am still working out some fairly critical details and want to use the environment I am used to.
When it is completed, T2Sami is intended to create DVD projects for DVDAuthorGui for both standard ( 720x480, AC3 ) and non-standard ( native tivo : 480x480, Mp2 Level I ) formats with Subtitles and/or DVD Closed Captions. I can create these DVDs now but because of idiosyncrasies in the Tivo MPeg streams the three components : audio, video and captions end up poorly synchronized in a very non-linear fashion. I have work underway way that should correct this and make creation of the complete DVD project reasonably automatic.
If you are interested in what is available, you can go to the t2sami.com website.
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To sum you up in lamens and to make sure I absolutely understand: The test will be when I burn it and then replay it on a external DVD source, correct? It should, on most, be "adjusted" but is not guaranteed.
Thanks again, yo.
Joel
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I too have the issue withe the top line looks like "creepy crawly pixels" :)
But this is only after using Direct Show Dump on a PC. I have not used your decoder yet.
But curious, if you use TivoToGo and play the transferred file, no issue on the top line.
Is that because Tivo's propietary file and MAK are decoded differently?
It's a shame you guys have had to reverse engineer this functionality, hats off!
You guys should think about creating a PayPal donation account, you deserve it!
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Sorry to be absolutely ignorant if I am on the subject, but I will admit this is my first time to experiment with downloading my TiVo (where I thought it was impossible with a Mac).
Two things:
The video has a thin fuzzy/static (snowy television) bar across the top of the image. Obviously, this is petty, however, annoying while watching something. Any ways to get that off? I'm sure there is a possiblity of some editing software being used, but if there is just a simple setting in TiVoDecode to be flipped, that'd be much easier. Or maybe this "flaw" is the inevitable and I should just feel lucky to have downloaded some TiVo on my Mac.
Also, the video is stretched vertically. It's almost an apparent 4:7. I do not have HD, so it should be standard 4:3. Anyway to quench this insatiable desire to watch a better quality?
Thanks,
joel
Forgot something.... I probably upsetted some of you by forgetting this too.
I have VLC. I know I can adjust the aspect ratio there to 4:3 and watch it fine... minus being able to get rid of the fuzzy line, I'm at least able to fix the proportion.
My biggest deal is wanting to put these videos on DVD to watch externally. Granted, I haven't tried burning them too DVD, I just don't want to waste the length of time it takes to burn these only to find out the quality is as is still.
I only have iDVD at the moment, maybe another program allows me to adjust the aspect ratio? Or maybe iDVD does as well?
So to finish it off... if there is a switch to be flipped in TiVo decode to convert with the natural aspect ratio, what might it be?
A cure for the thin snowy bar?
And a way to burn it with the right aspect ratio onto DVD?
Thanks again,
Joel
The resolution of a standard def tivo file captured in High Quality mode is 480x480 (Best Quality might be 720x480 D1, not sure though). It is up to your playback software to stretch it back to 4:3 (640x480 square pixels). The Tivo does this automatically. It looks like you must do this manually with VLC.
480x480 is not a valid resolution for mpeg2 DVD, only 352x480 and 720x480 are officially allowed according to spec, but it is possible (maybe even probable) that your DVD player will play 480x480 even if it is out of spec. And it will depend on your DVD authoring software as to whether 480x480 is accepted, rejected or automatically reencoded to 720x480. I do not know what iDVD will do.
The fuzzy dotted line on top is Closed Captioning info which you will not see when the file is played back on a TV. Video created for playback on TV is created with "Action Safe" and "Title Safe" as guidelines. The "Action Safe" area is approximately the center 90% of a full standard def 720x480 D1 video (640x480 square pixels). "Title Safe" is approximately the center 80%. A computer monitor will display the full 100% but TVs crop off a border around the edge. How large the cropped border will be is determined by the type (and age) of the TV. On older TVs it is possible that only the "Title Safe" area will be visible while on newer TVs (especially plasma and LCD) you might see all of the "Action Safe" area (and maybe a little more). If this isn't explained well enough, search google for "Title Safe" and "Action Safe" you will find tons of info.
> The fuzzy dotted line on top is Closed Captioning info which you will not see when the file is played back on a TV.
So that's where that is. I was asked about extracting caption information. Do you know of any way to extract this and convert it to something more useful than a fuzzy line? Is there some tool out there to do this?
I believe the TiVo files from TivoToGo contain closed caption data in the user packets of the mpeg2 stream. However, it's probably in a TiVo specific format. After decoding a TiVo file, I used Sonic's CinePlayer to play it and was able to see garbled captioning data. The garbled captions resemble the actual closed captions when viewing the same video on my television using TiVo. CinePlayer and MPlayer expect the captions to be stored in a format normally used in DVDs. SCCTools has documentation on this format.
I'd like to see a tool for TiVo files like rtvcc for ReplayTV files to convert closed caption data to DVD closed caption format.
I have had some success with SCCTools (windows only) CCExtract tool. There is a tool called T2Sami which extracts the caption info from certain tivo files, and I have been working with the author to get it working with files from the 540 series tivos and to get a command-line version working on UNIX. It is currently working well for me, but he has asked it not be widely distributed just yet, he is still working on it... The web site for T2Sami is http://shinnyo.com/t2sami/
Have you and T2Sami's author, jmemmot on tivocommunity, been able to decipher the CC format of 540 series TiVo? If so, that's great news. It would be nice, in addition to T2Sami working with 540 series TiVo, to have tivodecode working as well to convert 540 TiVo CC data to the DVD format. Then we can burn the video to DVD with closed captions.
Also, would you publish the CC format of 540 series TiVo?
> Have you and T2Sami's author, jmemmot on tivocommunity, been able to decipher the CC format of 540 series TiVo?
Yes. Mostly him, I found code which was able to decode it already and pointed him at it, and he did all the work ;)
> It would be nice, in addition to T2Sami working with 540 series TiVo, to have tivodecode working as well to convert
> 540 TiVo CC data to the DVD format. Then we can burn the video to DVD with closed captions.
I had considered doing something like this, and I have ported the guts of T2Sami to compile and run on UNIX platforms, but it is written in C++ and I don't really want to 'contaminate' the pure C codebase of tivodecode. I could probably either bite the bullet and port the relevant t2sami code to pure C, or release a seperate tool through sourceforge for extracting the captions.
BTW, the t2sami codebase already supports writing out captions as .srt files (at least the latest released version does, he is still working on that for the new version) which are supported in most DVD apps for subtitles.
> Also, would you publish the CC format of 540 series TiVo?
I don't really know that much about it. The best I can do is point you at the thread on tivocommunity which gave jmemmot enough information to implement it. I think because he already knew about the caption formats he was able to figure it out pretty quickly.
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=333138
As far as we can tell, we are able to extract the CC information from all of the Series 2 models with the possible exception of the DirectTivo models. I have built up relationships with enough hearing impaired people through the TCF that I can get feedback for most of the models that have been manufactured. It takes time to do this however, because those people have to take time out of their schedules to do this for me.
In any case, the end goal for the work I have been putting into T2Sami has been to make the Tivo Closed Captioning as widely available to the hearing impaired as possible. To this end, I have already made the source available and when we are satisfied is is stable, I will help jeremy put out a UNIX version. My hesitation about doing anything now is that I am still working out some fairly critical details and want to use the environment I am used to.
When it is completed, T2Sami is intended to create DVD projects for DVDAuthorGui for both standard ( 720x480, AC3 ) and non-standard ( native tivo : 480x480, Mp2 Level I ) formats with Subtitles and/or DVD Closed Captions. I can create these DVDs now but because of idiosyncrasies in the Tivo MPeg streams the three components : audio, video and captions end up poorly synchronized in a very non-linear fashion. I have work underway way that should correct this and make creation of the complete DVD project reasonably automatic.
If you are interested in what is available, you can go to the t2sami.com website.
Nice. I appreciate it, man.
To sum you up in lamens and to make sure I absolutely understand: The test will be when I burn it and then replay it on a external DVD source, correct? It should, on most, be "adjusted" but is not guaranteed.
Thanks again, yo.
Joel
I too have the issue withe the top line looks like "creepy crawly pixels" :)
But this is only after using Direct Show Dump on a PC. I have not used your decoder yet.
But curious, if you use TivoToGo and play the transferred file, no issue on the top line.
Is that because Tivo's propietary file and MAK are decoded differently?
It's a shame you guys have had to reverse engineer this functionality, hats off!
You guys should think about creating a PayPal donation account, you deserve it!