Video Converting

kit1cat

Prominent Member
Joined
Sep 4, 2002
Messages
1,710
Reaction score
144
Points
350
Age
70
Location
Plymouth
I have started moving programs that I want to keep from my virgin+ HD box to a external usb drive for streaming to my media player. (Helios x5000)

I have been taking the following steps which work well.

1. record program on virgin+ box in HD with 5.1 sound.
2. copy program to Panasonic HS2 dvd recorder in xp mode with stereo pcm sound.
3. high speed dub program to dvd-ram disk.
4. copy video file from ram disc to computer and change file extension to mpg.

This produces a video file in mpeg format 704 x 576 with 1536 kbps, 48 Khz 2 channel pcm sound about 4Gb in size. These files play fine on my computer and media player.

What I would like to do is reduce the file size without losing the 1536 kb stereo sound. I have tried converting to avi but the best sound I can get is 256kb mp3, other formats are similar.

Does any one know of a video converter that can convert a video file but leave the sound intact? Can it be done?

Thanks
 
Unless you particularly need audiophile-level sound quality then 256kbps MP3 is going to be more than adequate. I'd be surprised if anyone could tell the difference between that and the original broadcast.

I use Handbrake for converting MPEG recordings to H.264 MP4 or MKV files. It needs a lot of computing power (or time) but it does produce much smaller files with no noticeable loss in quality.
 
The programs I am saving are all live music shows recorded mostly from BBCHD, so I want to keep the maximum audio quality possible. I have converted some older recordings to avi with 256kb sound and they do sound flat compared to the pcm stereo recordings. If the recordings were normal tv shows/films the 256kb would be fine.

I will have a look at Handbrake, thanks.
 
But don't get confused between different formats level of kb. Different codecs need different amount of kb depending on how good they are. The 256kbs is more than enough. It is most likely the codec converter you're using. Don't use VBR and use CBR compression settings. If you want good level for music, then you need at least in 320kbs mp3 format. That's as good as what you're going to get from a CD. They won't be broadcasting any better quality than CD quality anyways. They still haven't upped it to DVD quality never mind bluray.

Handbrake is very good for a freebie program. If you want to still use divx/xvid you have to get an older version of handbrake.

my 2 cents.
 
The biggest quality drop probably happens when you re-record it from the V+ box to the DVD recorder. There are ways of preserving the remaining audio quality once the file reaches your PC (involving quite a lot of manual faffing around, splitting video & audio into two files, transcoding them separately then merging them back together) but the transfer from V+ to DVD looks like the weak point in your chain, so I very much doubt you'd gain anything from the extra effort.
 
The biggest quality drop probably happens when you re-record it from the V+ box to the DVD recorder. There are ways of preserving the remaining audio quality once the file reaches your PC (involving quite a lot of manual faffing around, splitting video & audio into two files, transcoding them separately then merging them back together) but the transfer from V+ to DVD looks like the weak point in your chain, so I very much doubt you'd gain anything from the extra effort.

You could be right. I have no idea of the audio spec's of the recordings on the V+ box, the HS2 as 2 audio settings for recording in XP mode, Dolby Digital, low bit rate and pcm stereo. pcm stereo produces lot bigger files. I also have a Panny EX78 Freeview dvd recorder in my bedroom, it may pay to also record the program to this recorder for archiving and cut out the coping from the V+ box, I suppose it depends which has the better audio quality to start with, freeview or virgin?
I suppose the answer is to keep the mpg files I have and get a bigger external hard drive or burn to dvd-r.
 
You can keep the original audio track if you really want to, encode the video into x264/MKV using Handbrake, this should leave you with an AAC audio track.

Then download mkvtoolnix and run mkvmerge, drag and drop in the Handbrake generated mkv video and untick the AAC audio track. Now drop and drag in the original video.mpg file into mkvmerge and untick the video track.

Click the mux button and it will generate a new mkv with the x264 video and the original audio stream.

* MKV is a universal container and can hold any combination of video + audio.
* Your media player must support MKV and the codecs used.
* In MKVmerge go into File->Options->mmg and tick the box for disable header removal compression as many players do not yet support this.
 
You can keep the original audio track if you really want to, encode the video into x264/MKV using Handbrake, this should leave you with an AAC audio track.

Then download mkvtoolnix and run mkvmerge, drag and drop in the Handbrake generated mkv video and untick the AAC audio track. Now drop and drag in the original video.mpg file into mkvmerge and untick the video track.

Click the mux button and it will generate a new mkv with the x264 video and the original audio stream.

* MKV is a universal container and can hold any combination of video + audio.
* Your media player must support MKV and the codecs used.
* In MKVmerge go into File->Options->mmg and tick the box for disable header removal compression as many players do not yet support this.


Thanks for info, will give it ago. I don't think my media player supports MKV, but handy to know for future reference. :smashin:
 
If it only supports like XviD/AVI what you could try is use Staxrip (encodes into x264 + XviD) start it select the XviD profile.

Input your video and for the audio track click on where it says MP3 and instead select just mux. It might let you mux the PCM audio into the AVI but AVI has more limitations so even if it works your player may not support it.

Also FYI a decent media player like the Asus OPlay that can handle x264/MKV can be gotten at a very reasonable price these days.
 
I have a WDTV media player that supports MKV, but I don't think these modern media players can touch the Helios X5000 for sound quality.
 

The latest video from AVForums

Is 4K Blu-ray Worth It?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom