JasonA: What are you using to trim? Try using Video Redo for trimming & editing. It’s the only thing I know of that will edit closed-GOP formats (MPEG2, MPEG4) natively, without re-encoding. I actually run a Windows virtualization setup on my machine just for this program.
Using this suggestion I was able to properly trim the segments
I loved the atypical way that Colbert interviewed these guys. It’s so refreshing to see such a funny interview like this – as opposed to the standard ass kissing/rock god sort of interview. Thanks for posting that.
That was great Steecoe, the editing looks good. Thanks for sharing that. Just what I needed at 7:45 am. A good laugh and then some high energy metal ass kicking.
After a whole lot of internet reading, I picked up the Hauppauge HD PVR 2. It was $149 at Futureshop. I also have one of the “splitters” coming from Ebay, the one Ron mentioned. Hopefully it will get here before Xmas (USPS). I have to say that none of the options really looked that appealing after my research. There were a lot of bad and mixed reviews on the cards and USB units. I went with the PVR 2 because it looks like Hauppauge has done a little work with drivers and capture software lately and it looks like I might be able to capture 5.1 which is a plus. I haven’t set it up yet, so I’m not counting on anything. I have a box with XP on one drive and 7 64 bit on another, so I’m hoping it will work with one of them. I have a cable DVR with HDMI and component out. After capturing, I have Videoredo and Vegas with an AMD 6 core (virtual) and 12 gigs of RAM so I’m hoping to make some blu rays. I’ll let you know how things are going, wish me luck .
Dan, sounds like an excellent choice. After fighting with the BlackMagic software, and losing, I spent a lot of time researching items from Hauppauge, ElGato, and others, and finally settled on the Hauppauge Colossus for my system. I’ve got the card and software installed, but haven’t really tested it out yet, other than to hook my tablet HDMI out to it to see if it was working (it is). The HD PVR 2 was very high on my list, as you said, Hauppauge seems to have updated their software recently to add things many of us that aren’t going to use it to capture game play would be interested in. Good luck with everything!
Thanks for the good wishes guys. Well, my splitter showed up on Friday and I set up my rig yesterday. The splitter did it’s job and only one output was used because it says the output resolution defaults to the lower of the two systems or TVs. My TV is a 43″ 720p plasma and I wanted to capture at 1080. I soon discovered that my cable box puts out 1080i and not 1080p. I looked into this and it appears all broadcasting is done in 720p or 1080i.
My daughter had recorded an hour long One Direction doc on Much Music about a year and half ago so i figured this would be a good place to start. I hooked up the HD PVR 2 as per the instructions and drivers and software installed fine (win7 64bit) and then I downloaded the latest drivers and capture software. I tried to install the update from a flash drive and the PVR didn’t like that so I copied the files to the hard drive and the installation went fine after that. I opened the capture software and I could see the TV image on my computer screen so I didn’t connect the through output to my plasma. I made sure the cable box displayed 1080i on the front and then recorded a three minute sample from the One Direction special and it seemed to take, picture looked good and the properties said 5.1 audio.
After a couple more samples, I recorded the full hour long show but the file was bad. The capture seemed fine while it was recording, but VMW5 said there was no video and PowerDVD wasn’t showing the time while the video was playing. Also, Explorer wasn’t showing the length of the video which it had with the first sample. The capture software had hung up when I stopped the full recording, so I rebooted windows and tried it again and it worked the second time.
I opened the .ts file in redo and zapped the commercials and then I used VMW5 and created a DVD compliant file. I was a little concerned about the interlacing as I could see artifacts in the various editing and authoring software but the DVD looked great on the plasma except for a bit of blockiness (?) in the fast motion scenes. The 5.1 worked like a charm. The volume was a little low, so I’ll have to look into that.
I’ve read a fair bit about 720p vs 1080i and I’m still not sure which way to go, so I will experiment with some different settings and see how things turn out. Sorry for rambling, but maybe someone might find it helpful.
This is true Steecoe, but I’m not going to limit myself to DVDs, I’d like to try some blu ray authoring as well. My first move was a comfort zone thing. I’ve authored tons of DVDs but my first blu ray will happen shortly.
Made the blu-ray. It looks fine. Actually, not much different than the DVD. Perhaps it’s the player’s and TV’s ability to scale up and down for resolution. Overall, very pleased.
