MPEG TS

[ds7615]

It looks like everyone has been able to download DVHSCap and capture files fairly easily... I downloaded it... it recognizes the camera...I can control the camera...but it when I capture video it creates an .m2t file with 0 bytes. I'm not sure what is happening? Is there some setting in DVHSCap that I'm missing? Any help would be appreciated!

[Fioreg]

Hi,

In realtion to the zero bytes issue using DVHSCap. It may have something to do with an initial short take! Try to move the tape to the next scene and stop/start the video capture at start finish of scene since this will help also with the subsequent steps of the editing!
If you are coming back to the post also specify what model are you having problems with!
Take care!


Stefano

[Fioreg]

Well. we had to be patient for a while but I finally was able to use the latest release of VLC to transcode the m2t files captured from my microMV camcorder with DVHSCap and obtain VOB or MPEG4 (.mp4) files.
While I have not been fully successful in the mp4 transcode (mostly I suspect my capture was to big and for example if you want to import it in iMovie you cannot exceed 9 and half minutes because you would obtain back a file that exceeds the 2 GB limit that QT can handle!), I had good luck with the VOB file.
Some DVD programs out there could use it directly but if you need editing you may want to feed it bac to your favorite programs and for that you may like to use Openshiiva (openshiiva.sourceforge.net) to rtranscode to .mp4 if VLC is not working for you!
I hope this simpler route to get your microMV movies on ypur Mac will be of help to all of you!
truly,


Stefano

[Fioreg]

Hi everybody,

I was wondering if at this juncture DJ, zorglub or other wonderful people at videolan could get their hands dirty and hammer out some instructions to get the optimal use of vlc 0.7.1 to transcode out pescky m2t files!
Thank in advance to all of you who will venture there and to the many visitors of this post!

Truly,


Stefano

[The DJ]

You'd better write it yourself. You know all the details now.

http://wiki.videolan.org/tiki-index.php

[Fioreg]

Sorry DJ,

I had not checked back in a while! OK I guess you are right I should try to summarize and organize the procedures presented in the postings.
I cannot undertake the job now and probably will take me 'till summer (I am planning a 3 week vacation and hopefully I'll be testing some more of VLC transcoding and posting about them as well).
So probably everybody can check back in Septemeber or so, meantime if any of you comes across some interesting fact related to the TS video capture and trancoding please do not hesitate to post it here ( in addition to sending me emails as some of you have done!).
Truly,

Stefano

[Fioreg]

Hi everyone,

I believe I had briefly mentioned that I was able to have Titanium 6 recognize the microMV camera. Last time I had no tried to see if in fact a fully functioning capture was possible by mean of Titanium 6. Finally I tried this past weekend and unfortunately it did not work. The only thing I am left to check is that I have not installed the last Titanium update.
I'll report in this forum if things change after i run the update patch!
So long,

[philgoy]

Hi ! and thanks to all of you for sorting out this mess.
I found this post on http://www.slashcam.de
It seems that Sony plans to stop MMV altogether. Great news for all MMV users who spent a lot for these "concept cameras" !
Well this would certainly makes even less likely industrial support for MMV from Apple and others. All hopes rest with GNU people ?

Philgoy, sorry owner of a DCR-IP7E

-----------------------------------
Gibt Sony MicroMV auf?
Laut einem Bericht der japanischen Nihon Keizai Shimbun plant Sony die Produktion von auf dem proprietäre MicoMV Format basierenden Camcordern wegen der insgesamt geringen Verkaufszahlen einzustellen - obwohl Sony noch im Oktober ein neues, extrem kleines, MicroMV-Modell, die DCR-IP1 vorgestellt hat.

Diese Massnahme scheint Teil des Versuchs von Sony zu sein, nach enttäuschenden Ertragszahlen die finanzielle Situation zu verbessern - Sony wird wohl auch weltweit bis zu 10% der Arbeitsplätze streichen.
-----------------------------------

[Fioreg]

Hi again,

Well I certainly will not be crying for the loss. Let's think about it. Today norm for manufacturers is to replace digital appliances every year or 6 month and on top of it new IEEE standars have been recently chosen to replace MPEG2 (MPEG TS) with the H264 multimedia standard for the next DVD generation. So I guess it was to be expected that microMV as well as other standards will be replaced at on time or another.
Now I guess you discontent descends from the fact that Sony never really gave this format a full go, especially in regard to Mac support,and in that regard I fullly agree with you.
If you are worried about the consequence being that also other developers will stop working toward that end you are right (for the same reasons spelled out above and the small numbers of microMV users it does not make a lot of sense).
Now a bit of good news, if you have not caught the new post-thread please go there and check what I said about using DropDV (ww.dropDV.com) to re-encode the .m2t files captured with Apple SDK DVHSCap in .DV format that you can immediately acquire with iMovie.
Beside the .DV transform I will publish my experimenting with VLC to achieve lossless transcode.
In addition, my other advice is buy a few more microMV cassettes before they disappear from the market (and whatever other supply you may need) and enjoy your smart and compact microMV camcorder for many years to come as I plan to do!
Take care you all,


Stefano

[Fioreg]

Hi to everyone,

Sorry for not honoring the promise to comeback by Septmber with a new updated series of tools for using the microMV format in the Mac OS X platform.
One of the reasons is that I was waiting for the new version of VLC to arrive but I soon found out that the rewriting of 8.0 had brought too many bugs. It was not even playing regular formats. I did not chek back until today for new releases, so I have not checked out how VLC 8.1 can manage the microMV (or the .m2t files captured with Apple DVHSCap (part of the SDK 1.9 package).
On the other hand I have not wasted completely the few months since my last post and can update you on the great results I am getting by using DropDV (I have no ties with the developers or retailers!). It is now version 2.04 (the first time I mentioned it was 1.0 and then 1.1).
You can feed it the .m2t file and it will immediately encode audio and video in .DV files. These can immediately be opened in iMovie and edited before using iDVD to burn out the final project.
Some of you had written to me expressing reservations of the potential degradation of the quality of audio and video (and to some degree it was visible in DropDVD version 1/1.1). I have to say that the issue is almost non-existant with this latest release (2.04). Unfortunately this is not a freeware software and it costs 39.99 to purhcase a license (19.99 if like me you are upgrading from version 1/1.1). However, you can download the software and evaluate it for free save to have the images imprinted with the developer web site address.
As you can imagine, I also would have liked to be able to find open source software, but this remain to date the simplest and most effective 2 step procedure I have found to transcode my microMV recordings!
I'll keep you posted as I advance in re-evaluating vlc 8.1 and open source software fro lossless conversion!
Truly,