Recording 2 hr MPEG2 from EyeTV to DVD gives bad time track

[Mike W]

Hi,

I've got an EyeTV Hybrid USB device that allows me to capture OTA (Over The Air) digital TV to MPEG2 files, e.g., a recent 2 hr. PBS show to a 2.1 GB file. I can play this file successfully in the EyeTV client app (just updated to v. 2.4) including using the time slider to position at any time point in the 2 hrs.

 

With EyeTV running, I can drag & drop two of these files onto a new video DVD in Toast 8.0.1 on my MacBook Pro, running OS X 10.4.9, and they fit on the DVD. (Note that if EyeTV is not running, Toast reports that it can't interpret the files -- I'm presuming that there's a QuickTime codec for the EyeTV files that's only available to Toast with EyeTV running. Curious to know if this is right.)

 

With all "automatic" "best quality" settings, I can record the DVD. Toast goes through both multiplexing and encoding phases (which run a lot slower on my G5 than on the Intel Core Duo MacBook Pro :-)

 

The resulting DVD has a pretty menu, and splits each of the two titles into multiple chapters at 5 min. intervals (if I have that option selected). Advancing through the chapters in Apple's DVD Player jumps the time by 5 min. as expected UNTIL I get to about 1 hr, 40 min. on the first title, when the timer jumps to 25 hrs+, navigation commands stop working and eventually DVD Player crashes.

 

I get similar behavior playing the DVD on a standard DVD player device.

 

Deselecting "split the title into chapters" drops the chapter navigation from the DVD, but the time track still jumps to 25+ hrs at the same point.

 

Since the failure point, 1:40 = 100 min., I was suspicious, but the second title fails at an earlier time.

 

Is this a known bug? Is there a patch? Workaround?

 

TIA,

 

Mike (who finds the combo of EyeTV and Toast to be -- otherwise -- very cool)

 

PS: I can supply the EyeTV files for debugging if that's useful.

[Mike W]

Sigh... Neither of the alternatives that you suggested worked. I'm still getting screwy time tracks (i.e., jumps from 00:54:23 to 27:55:18 in the middle of a title and navigation buttons stop working.)

 

Wonder if there's actually a problem in the time track in the source MPEG2 (generated by EyeTV). Is there a player (other than EyeTV) that I can use on either Mac or Windows to play the EyeTV files and watch the time track info?

 

TIA,

 

Mike

 

I have the EyeTV 250 so mine encodes the MPEGs rather than capturing existing OTA MPEG files. So I can't do any troubleshooting. However, I can provide some info that may help you in your troubleshooting.

 

.... I suggest the following steps:

1. Use the Toast Media Browser to access your EyeTV library. Only add EyeTV videos by using the Media Browser or by using the EyeTV application's Toast button.

2. When you have the video(s) you want in Toast choose Save as Disc Image from the File menu.

3. When the disc image is done, switch to the Image File setting in the Copy window to burn the DVD. If the disc image is too large for a single-layer disc, Toast's Fit-to-DVD feature will do additional compression to make it fit.

 

An alternative you can try is to go to the Custom Encoder settings window in Toast and choose "Never" re-encode. There are times when that prevents Toast from re-encoding the MPEG so it only gets multiplexed. Sometimes Toast finds the MPEG to be too far out of compliance for video DVD and insists on re-encoding. If it doesn't re-encode then you could fit two 2.1 GB files to a single-layer DVD.

[tsantee]

I have the EyeTV 250 so mine encodes the MPEGs rather than capturing existing OTA MPEG files. So I can't do any troubleshooting. However, I can provide some info that may help you in your troubleshooting.

 

The OTA MPEG files are not in a video DVD compliant form. It is the pixel resolution that is out of compliance (i.e. not 720x480 for NTSC or one of the other resolutions acceptable for video DVD). So Toast needs to re-encode those MPEGs (although there is an option I'll explain later). When Toast re-encodes it is irrelevant what size the existing MPEG is. What matters is how long the video is. Toast can fit about 2-1/2 hours of video to a single-layer disc when it is doing the encoding. So you can't put two 2-hour movies on the DVD unless you are using DL media. I suggest the following steps:

1. Use the Toast Media Browser to access your EyeTV library. Only add EyeTV videos by using the Media Browser or by using the EyeTV application's Toast button.

2. When you have the video(s) you want in Toast choose Save as Disc Image from the File menu.

3. When the disc image is done, switch to the Image File setting in the Copy window to burn the DVD. If the disc image is too large for a single-layer disc, Toast's Fit-to-DVD feature will do additional compression to make it fit.

 

An alternative you can try is to go to the Custom Encoder settings window in Toast and choose "Never" re-encode. There are times when that prevents Toast from re-encoding the MPEG so it only gets multiplexed. Sometimes Toast finds the MPEG to be too far out of compliance for video DVD and insists on re-encoding. If it doesn't re-encode then you could fit two 2.1 GB files to a single-layer DVD.

[Mike W]

Thanks for the quick response and tech info! I'll give both of those options a try.

 

Will report my results.

 

Mike

[tsantee]

Sigh... Neither of the alternatives that you suggested worked. I'm still getting screwy time tracks (i.e., jumps from 00:54:23 to 27:55:18 in the middle of a title and navigation buttons stop working.)

 

Wonder if there's actually a problem in the time track in the source MPEG2 (generated by EyeTV). Is there a player (other than EyeTV) that I can use on either Mac or Windows to play the EyeTV files and watch the time track info?

 

TIA,

 

Mike

That sounds like a problem with timecode breaks. If you export the MPEG from EyeTV as an MPEG file and open it in MPEG Streamclip you can use Streamclip's Fix Timecode breaks command in its Edit menu and then choose Convert to MPEG from the File menu. Then use that MPEG in Toast.