ffmpeg -i inputfile.wtv -vcodec copy -acodec copy -f dvd outputfile.mpg

So (depending on where you are) your SD and HD WTV files are probably in different formats, whereas my SD and HD files are all MPEG-2. This method is about retrieving the core MPEG data in the file, but if the WTV contains H.264 data it would explain why it won’t work for you.

I’ll update this post to say that, but as you said this is getting pretty old, now. I’m sure that others have come up with better ways of doing it. Good luck!

However you describe a 2 stage process – firstly convert to DVR-MS and then convert that to MPEG. But in my experience you cannot right click a HD WTV file and convert to DVR-MS (works ok for ‘normal’ WTV files.)

And yet reading your instructions, the convert to DVR-MS does seem to work for your HD files – is this really the case?
Thank you

ffmpeg.exe -y -i “showname.dvr-ms” -vcodec copy -acodec copy -f dvd “showname.mpg”

If so, maybe the version of ffmpeg you have doesn’t support dvr-ms?

“file.dvr-ms: Unknown format”

then just returns to the prompt. HELP!!

you may have to run powershell as administrator to the above command to work

Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned

/code

## metaname.ps1 ##
# get the Toub.MediaCenter.Dvrms.dll from the dvrms toolkit site and save in in c:\
# if you save it somewhere else, change the path below
[void][System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadFile(“C:\Toub.MediaCenter.Dvrms.dll”)

# set the vars below to fit your situation
$source=”e:\recorded tv”
$target=”e:\recorded tv”

# this loop gets the Title, Subtitle, and Description from each wtv file and renames it
foreach ($file in gci “$source\*.wtv”) {
$wtv = New-Object Toub.Mediacenter.Dvrms.Metadata.DvrmsMetadataEditor($file)
$attrlist = $wtv.GetAttributes()

# you can add or remove other metadata as you see fit
$t = $attrlist["Title"].value -replace(“:”,”-”)
$s = $attrlist["WM/SubTitle"].value -replace(“:”,”-”)
$d = $attrlist["WM/SubTitleDescription"].value -replace(“:”,”-”)

# the multiple moves below handle cases of duplicates and long descriptions, only one will actually work.
move “$file” “$target\$t-$s-$d.wtv”
move “$file” “$target\$t-$s-$d-2.wtv”
move “$file” “$target\$t-$s-$d-3.wtv”
move “$file” “$target\$t-$s.wtv”
move “$file” “$target\$t-$s-2.wtv”
move “$file” “$target\$t-$s-3.wtv”
}

/code

http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/8517

The line (in my code) that you’ll want to change with help from the above examples is:

%ffmpeg% -y -i “%%f.dvr-ms” -vcodec copy -acodec copy -f dvd “%%f.mpg”

I’m not well versed in using the command options of ffmpeg as you may have gathered.

many thanks,

Mike.

@Bob: stream the .mpg video direct to your PS3 using WMP or TVversity or some other media server using a (W)LAN connection. (Wired is superior.)

I haven’t done much video editing stuff so I can’t help you there. I do hear that all the cool kids use avidemux. Have you tried it? There’s a Windows version.
http://fixounet.free.fr/avidemux/

This was a TOTALLY helpful post. The one last barrier I’m experiencing is I’m trying to copy the resulting movie file to a USB key to play on my PS3 and some of the files are bigger than 4GB (max size supported by FAT32 which is the only thing PS3 supports).

Can you recommend a good MPEG2 splitter program? I’ve literally tried something like 10 of them off the web and none of them have done the job right. Thanks in advance!

Bob
bobspam@yahoo.com

Manually setting the buffer size doesn’t seem to make any difference: as someone says in the above link perhaps the copy mode ignores the bufsize flag completely. I gave up on the issue because it doesn’t seem to make any difference for me. The videos I have produced are fine so far; they run well in MPC-HC in Windows 7 (http://mpc-hc.sourceforge.net/) and on my PS3 via PS3 Media Centre. Is playback any better for you in other programs?

Anyway, the buffer underflow may or may not be the issue in your case. There could be something different about your source file or your version of ffmpeg that wasn’t apparent for me. I wouldn’t have thought that the DVB-T stick would be a problem, because Media Centre takes the raw input from whatever hardware and produces the same type of file. Or maybe it does something that I’m not aware of depending on the source?

This is all just guessing, though. I wish I could help. Please let me know if you fix it and/or the buffer underflow warnings.

Do you have any ideas?