How to convert videos for playback on a Philips-TV

[ipodboy]

Hi there,
I need your help one more time
My dad wants to save his old VHS-cassetts on HDD, means he wants me to digitalize them…
Our PC has ports for S-Video and Cinch and so on, therefore the VHS-recorder is connected via S-Video and Chinch.
In VLC I can watch/ hear the video and audio from the recorder.
With the export-assistent I want to store the file on the HDD of the computer.
The resulting file always has a ".ps" ending, insignificant which container I take. Then I tried to rename the file with different endings (.avi, .asf, .mpg, .wmv, .mpeg).
Most of the time "Windows media player" can play the file.
That's ok but not brilliant, and it would be nice to fix the "ending problem"

Now the real problem:
My dad wants to show the videos an our PhilipsTV 9704.
I have no clue which container (and in there which video- and audio-format) I should take?!
I already tried the proposals VLC makes in the drop-down-menu before clicking on "convert".
Also I tried to rename the container, as I already mentioned above.
The resulting clips are stored on a usb-stick, which is plugged in the TV, but the PhilipsTV can't play them:

.ps isn't shown in the TV-menu
.asf is shown but can't be played
.wmv same like .asf
.avi, .mpg, .mpeg is shown and the TV wants to play them but after 2 seconds it stops


How can I save the video, so that PC AND TV can play it?
I'm out of ideas, please help me!
Thanks a lot!!!

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

.ps is just another name for .mpg.

[ipodboy]

Thanks Rémi,
but why does the file always end with .ps for every container I choose (avi, mp4 and so on)?
Also the TV doesn't show .ps files, it seems as if he thinks he can't play them, so my problem still exists

Any other tipps which format to choose?

[mederi]

Hi!
avi+xvid(mpeg-4)+mp3 is widely supported. First of all you should check more details about incoming stream:
Media > Open Capture Device...
Tools > Codec Information
Then you decide whether you want to keep the original format or you need/want to transcode it either on-the-fly or to record original first to convert output file later into desired final format. Original format without transcoding always means the best quality.

[ipodboy]

Hi mederi and thanks for your response,

I think, as you already said, it would be clever to save the incoming stream in it's original format first.
Therefore I checked to Codec Information, but I don't know which format I should take from the settings!?
Here is what I see:

Stream 0:
Typ Video
Codec: 24 bit RGB (RV24)
Resolution: 320x240
Framerate: 29.970000

Stream 1:
Typ Audio
Codec: PCM S16 LE (araw)
Channels: Stereo
ScanningRate: 44100 Hz
Bits per Sample: 16


Which formats correspond to these codecs?

Also you'd say "avi+xvid(mpeg-4)+mp3 is widely supported", does you mean "avi" as the container or "xvid"?
I tried "avi" as the container, mpeg-4(800kbitS) as video format and mp3 (192kbitS) as audio-format. The PC could play the resulting file (170MB for 20seconds), but the fu***** TV again not
I also tried "Save Raw-Input" (in the Convert-Window) but no file was stored on the PC ?!
And always there are .ps files for every Container i choose?

Questions over questions…
I'm at my wit's end
Please help, thanks

[mederi]

According to Codec Information it is some kind of uncompressed audio/video stream. You are doing something wrong. There has not been any MPEG-4/MP3 compression applied at all, because 170MB for 20seconds is too much. It must be the original uncompressed stream. Small picture of VHS video quality mean that I would use compression on-the-fly instead of recording of huge amount of uncompressed video first.
Media > Convert / Save... > Capture Device; Convert / Save button > Destination File - Browse; [v] Display the output; Profile - Create new profile icon button:
Profile Name: [avi-mpeg4-mp3];
Encapsulation: AVI;
Video Codec: [v] Video, [] Keep original video track <<< Do not tick!, Codec [MPEG-4], Bitrate [500 kb/s] <<< find the lowest bitrate that corresponds to acceptable output quality;
Audio Codec: [v] Audio, [] Keep original audio track <<< Do not tick!, Codec [MP3], Bitrate [128 kb/s], Channels [2], Sample rate [44100]. Again decide bitrate and sample rate depending on quality of VHS source.
> Save button.

Profile [avi-mpeg4-mp3]
> Start button

[ipodboy]

thanks!
One more try…
Result:
Video on the TV: yes
Audio on the TV: no

On the PC audio and video works…

Update:
Now I tried the following:
Container: MPEG_PS
Video: MPEG 2, bitrate 1024kbit/s, 25FPS
Audio: AC3, 320kbit/s, 2 Channels, 441000Hz

And it works, but bad video-quality…
I hope I can improve it
Thanks so far!