bb193:

I guess you are using smartencoding in nero Vision, which effectively just uses the MPG2 coding if it is compatible.

When I try that, I get sound synch problems (I think it is missed frames in my signal), so I don't use smartencoding. That stops the sound synch problems but is quite a bit slower. That said, it is still a reliable and quick process.

I just use Nero for the whole thing, including cutting out the ads.

Yes, I do use the smartencoding, but seldom have sync problems.  VideoReDo includes an application that takes care of this when it does happen.  I used to have far more sync problems when I was using WinDVD Creator, which explains why I haven't updated in the last 4 years!

---

Core 2 Duo Q6600; ASUS Striker Extreme
4GB DDR2; ATI X1300 Pro
Seagate SATA II (320GB & 3 750GB jbod)
AverMedia Hybrid tuner - USB; Hauppauge PVR-USB2

I suspect this has been mentioned already but the easiest way to record dvrms files is to install SONICENCODER.  I think it comes pre-installed with OEM MCE but for those of us who built our own machines, you can google for it.  Email me and I'll send you it - 1.3MB home@dalerivers.com

I also had to de-regionalise my DVDROM because it was UK locked.  www.rpc1.com  You can burn to DAEMON Tools instead of a DVD as well. 

If you use MY Movies 2, SonicEncoder also allows you to copy DVDs to your hard drive

 

bb193,

  I have Nero 7 and in Nero Vision 4 it doesn't give me an option to edit dvr-ms files.  When I select all files it does show them but when I try to add them it gives me an error.  Could you please let me know how I can edit dvr-ms files in Nero 7?

Thanks,

Chuck

bb193:

I use Nero 7 and would recommend it.

Earlier versions were flaky, but since about June last year, it has been OK and just getting better with every monthly release.

Out of the MCE interface, Nero Vision 4 (part of Nero 7) allows you to top/tail and remove the ads, and then author a DVD to play on a standard DVD player. It takes about 90-120 minutes to burn a 2-3 hour film. You can set the priority, so it will do it in the background without disturbing other programs you are running.

I have got up to about 4 hours onto a DVD, when I record multiple programs. You can choose what compression you want, or simply tick the box that says 'automatic- fit to disk' and it will use the least compression to just get the recording on your disk. Simple.

They have now included some plugins in which allow you to burn from within the MCE interface. I don't think you can cut the files from it, but it is simple to burn from your sofa.

There is a free trial download on their site.

 

crarbo1:

I have Nero 7 and in Nero Vision 4 it doesn't give me an option to edit dvr-ms files.  When I select all files it does show them but when I try to add them it gives me an error.  Could you please let me know how I can edit dvr-ms files in Nero 7?

I'm not quite sure what you are saying. It sounds like you are saying that, with your installation of Nero 7, when you fire up Nero Vision 4, and try to add a dvr-ms file to process, you get an error. So presumably you can't process dvr-ms files at all with Nero Vision 4, let alone edit them?

What error message do you get?

I guess it is something wrong with your installation, or something wrong with your dvr-ms files. How are you recording your dvr-ms files? Analogue or digital? dvb-t, satellite or what? Do you get the same error with Dana Cline's test file - http://www.mediacenterstuff.com/downloads.htm ?

I have lots of problems (mainly sound sync) with the first version of Nero 7. Have you downloaded the most recent version from their website and installed that? I might be tempted to uninstall any old Nero software and then use their cleanup utilitiy, before reinstalling?

Does the 'import' function work at all for you? Can you import an unprotected DVD and edit that?

Have you tried stripping out the MPG content from the DVR-MS file (for example by using DVRMStoolbox - http://babgvant.com/files/folders/dvrmstoolbox/default.aspx) and adding that?

Have you tried reporting the error to Nero, and seeing what they say?

It does work, so I do think it is worth the effort to keep trying. You'll get there in the end.

Cheers

Eric

---

Regards

Eric

Thanks for your reply,

  When I run Nero Vision a screen comes up asking me what I want to do.  The choices are Make DVD, Make CD, record to Disc, Make movie, Make slide show, Capture video to hard drive, and open saved project.  From that I select make Movie, this may be wrong though.  When in that screen there is a section in the upper right cornder that says My Media Files.  A button is at the bottom of that allows to browse for media files.  When I try to find my dvr-ms file that is on my desktop or the test file that you referred me to, it doesn't see it there.  I can see from the list of supported file types that dvr-ms files are not supported.  The list does include file types such as divix, wmv, mp4 and others.  I'm not sure what you mean by processing the dvr-ms files.  Is there some step that I need to do first?

I hope you can help me from the info above,

 

Thanks,

Chuck

bb193:

crarbo1:

I have Nero 7 and in Nero Vision 4 it doesn't give me an option to edit dvr-ms files.  When I select all files it does show them but when I try to add them it gives me an error.  Could you please let me know how I can edit dvr-ms files in Nero 7?

I'm not quite sure what you are saying. It sounds like you are saying that, with your installation of Nero 7, when you fire up Nero Vision 4, and try to add a dvr-ms file to process, you get an error. So presumably you can't process dvr-ms files at all with Nero Vision 4, let alone edit them?

What error message do you get?

I guess it is something wrong with your installation, or something wrong with your dvr-ms files. How are you recording your dvr-ms files? Analogue or digital? dvb-t, satellite or what? Do you get the same error with Dana Cline's test file - http://www.mediacenterstuff.com/downloads.htm ?

I have lots of problems (mainly sound sync) with the first version of Nero 7. Have you downloaded the most recent version from their website and installed that? I might be tempted to uninstall any old Nero software and then use their cleanup utilitiy, before reinstalling?

Does the 'import' function work at all for you? Can you import an unprotected DVD and edit that?

Have you tried stripping out the MPG content from the DVR-MS file (for example by using DVRMStoolbox - http://babgvant.com/files/folders/dvrmstoolbox/default.aspx) and adding that?

Have you tried reporting the error to Nero, and seeing what they say?

It does work, so I do think it is worth the effort to keep trying. You'll get there in the end.

Cheers

Eric

crarbo1:

The choices are Make DVD, Make CD, record to Disc, Make movie, Make slide show, Capture video to hard drive, and open saved project.  From that I select make Movie, this may be wrong though.

You need to use make DVD, and then add the dvr-ms file. You can then edit, create chapters, design a etc. Let me know how you get on.

---

Regards

Eric

Thanks for the help.  That worked but it still didn't have dvr-ms as supported file types.  However, I did change that to all files and it was able to process it.

Thanks again for your help,

Chuck

bb193:

crarbo1:

The choices are Make DVD, Make CD, record to Disc, Make movie, Make slide show, Capture video to hard drive, and open saved project.  From that I select make Movie, this may be wrong though.

You need to use make DVD, and then add the dvr-ms file. You can then edit, create chapters, design a etc. Let me know how you get on.

There is a program that shipped with certain versions of the original media center (pre 2005) that was installed automaticaly when windows was installed. It was on disc 2 packed within the media center cab file it is called sonicencoders.msi do a Google search to find it; not sure if it was proprietary software or not, but it does work in 2005 I got a copy of it from a friend who jumped on the media center bandwagon from day one. It added burn Video DVD in the create cd\dvd section of Media Center. Or you can buy Nero 7 Ultra and it puts the same option in the Burn CD/DVD section.

---

Intelligence is the retention and use of knowledge gained from others and then sharing that knowledge to better mankind.

Michael Gatzke

Step 1: Get a copy of SageTV Media Center
Step 2: Install and configure it by reading the tutorial on How To Skip Commercials and Burn Video to DVD.
(http://www.geneomatic.com/wordpress/?p=337)
Step 3: Enjoy

Can anyone please explain to me why a movie I recorded in MCE Vista Home Premium is blank?

I can watch the movie in MCE or WMP, it is of course a .dvr-ms extension. I have downloaded several programs that claim to be able to convert and extract the this type file to mpeg format.

The problem is that it is a 7gb file, but every program I have tried (Digital Media Converter, Nero Vision 4,  Super, Cyberlink Power Director, AutoDVRConvert) all convert the 1st 15 seconds of the movie, basically the intro showing the movie company logo and then starts with the credits and the rest is blank, just a black screen when previewing it in the decoding program. It shows that it is 2 hours but there is no movie, just the black screen.

The movie was recorded from Dish Satellite and in properties it says it is not protected. So what is my problem? What happened to the movie which I know is there because I can watch it on my pc but can't burn it?

Any help would be appreciated.

 

I also downloaded and installed DVRMSToolbox and here is the resulting FAILED log. Can anyone tell me what is going wrong or what  am doing wrong or what I need to do to fix this problem?

-----------------------------------------------------
InputFile=C:\Users\Public\Recorded TV\The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada_SEDG_29_05_2007_14_28_04.dvr-ms
Processing actions, this may take some time!!
Profile = dvrmstompg
ProcessId = 4520
DvrmsToolbox Version: 1.2.0.6
Throttle DVRMStoMPEG
FWThrottle: C:\Users\Public\Recorded TV\The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada_SEDG_29_05_2007_14_28_04.dvr-ms
Waiting to process file
Queue file
Duration = 00:00:01.0280000
Waiting to process...
Processing now...
Output DVR-MS file as one MPEG stream
Conversion Started: C:\Users\Public\Recorded TV\The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada_SEDG_29_05_2007_14_28_04.dvr-ms to C:\Program Files\DVRMSToolbox\The 3 Burials.mpg
Using default muxer
Error in Do Work - Retrieving the COM class factory for component with CLSID {3E8868CB-5FE8-402C-AA90-CB1AC6AE3240} failed due to the following error: 80040154.
Action did not complete successfully
Total Duration = 00:02:42.2710000

 

I've been working at this for some time now myself and I've run into a lot of problems and spent money I didn't have to.  I have some suggestions for other people to use and also some questions about the process so please take the time hear me out.  :-)

My intent is solely to have a relatively quick, easy, and problem free (syncing especially!) process for archiving my Recorded TV.  I've also attempted to automate this as much as possible (processing full directories with DVRMSToolbox).  I'm still trying working on the "problem free" portion of this process too...

I mainly try to archive old tv shows but, like Hokie before me, I also am trying to archive old football/basketball games.  These football/basketball games present unique problems because the file sizes are quite large (about 5GB on average).  Removing commercials only drop the file size to around 4.5 gigs.

Anyway, I've got the process down (record, remove commercials and convert with DVRMSToolbox) up until authoring the DVD.  I've tried a number of options, all of which have some sort of problems...

Worst cases (avoid these):  I want to warn people that Roxio Easy Media Creater 9.0 (or any version for that matter) is completely useless.  Well I take that back; I have gotten some value out of the ringtone creator, though I could have found something similar for free.  Anytime I've added a MPEG or DVR-MS file to EMC that's over, say, a half gig, EMC locks up.  Also it doesn't have a very good video editing tool I don't believe.  Save your money!

So-so:  DVD-Flick.  Just not a good tool if you want to have a lot of control over your authoring (chapter placement, etc.). 

There is also a program out there called SUPER that I was pleasantly surprised with.  The biggest drawback with SUPER is that you can't add chapters to the DVD compliant output containers you use with it.  You also can't create any menus or anything so that's out the door.  It is very easy to use though and provides a number of conversion options.  Again, I just wish I could add menus/chapters.  This is my last resort when I can't get the below options to work.

Best cases:  I've had moderate success with DVD Styler, but of course I've also had some problems; mostly syncing issues.  I've not been able to get much help via the DVD Styler SourceForge forums so if anyone knows an alternative for the authoring portion of this process, please let me know. 

For the actual burning process, I plan on using DVD Shrink.  I've had great success with this program 99% of the time.  The few times it hasn't worked has been in burning dvd files created from DVD Styler.  I don't recall the error message off the top of my head, but it couldn't find some file to burn to be DVD compliant.  In the case that this happens, I've used Nero to burn the files.  In either case, there's still the syncing issue.

I know the syncing problem is not caused by DVRMSToolbox because I can play the mpg files with no syncing problems.  So it's the authoring process that's the culprit.  I imagine it has to do with the whole "demuxing" process it uses.  It's just frustrating sometimes and I wish someone had an all in one program that would take care of everything together (commercial removal, convert, author, burn).

Ideas?

HELP! is there any proven method for burning copy-protected shows like from HBO ?

i have dvr versions saved in MCE and cannot do a thing with them. i have been able to burn other UNcopy-protected shows like American Idol with no problem - i don't even care about commercials and all that. i just want to archive the sopranos for personal use so i can get them off my computer - they take up a lot of room.

***i need an uncomplicated, step-by-step explanation on how to unstrip the copy protection, compress, and burn :-) ***

i have DVD Shrink, DVDFab, Nero, and AnyDVD installed. i tried downloading dvrmsToolbox and had no idea what to check and run so i removed it altogther. i've tried Nero Vision but it freezes after a few seconds in the writing phase which i imagine is when the code blocks it or whatever. i would invest in the SIMA thing for future recordings but i have these shows already recorded. and after reading all these posts there are so many suggestions... what truly works???

btw..this site is rox!

 

 

Freshie,

It looks as if you have everything you need.  Perhaps your notebook capacity is the hangup. 

I hope you realize that telling you how to actually go about ripping/archiving copy protected material is illegal.

---

Core 2 Duo Q6600; ASUS Striker Extreme
4GB DDR2; ATI X1300 Pro
Seagate SATA II (320GB & 3 750GB jbod)
AverMedia Hybrid tuner - USB; Hauppauge PVR-USB2

Just wondering why people aren't by a $50-$200 DVD recorder and putting it between their HTPC and the TV?

The DVD recorder could record in real time and they are very easy setup and the SP/LP/EP settings make it easy to fit 2-6 hours of tv/movies not to mention no copyright problems or lengthy compression times and the recorders make very compatible burns..

What sort of problems would arise from this?  I'm assuming I'm missing something?

You are absolutely correct that this will work, but there are a couple of issues:

1) You will lose some quality in the process. How much? Probably not very, but for some people any loss is unacceptable since they have already lost a bit in the recording process.

2) Convenience is a factor for most people. Once they have scheduled a recording in MC, they want to pretty much forget about it until they want to watch it. Even though it is easy to play the show on MC and record it on the DVD recorder, they won't do it because it requires more effort than NOT doing it...

The conclusion I came to was that most recorded TV will NEVER be watched before it is deleted and the space used to record something else. There are a very few shows I specifically want to watch every episode of. Those I set to never delete. For the rest of the shows I record, I just want to make sure that at whatever time I sit down to watch TV, there will be a stable of decent shows that I can watch from the hard drive.

My philosophy doesn't work for people who specifically want to watch their shows on regular DVD players, of course. I've only needed that a couple of times and was able to use the built in "Record To DVD" function of MC. Takes FOREVER and kills the closed captions, but it does mostly work.