Evesham iplayer - the Freeview PVR you've dreamt about!

[Bob Crabtree]

Quick question. I saved a couple of films on my USB drive. Annie Hall for example is < 2GB.

Q1. Why does it expand to almost 4GB when I set it up to burn to dvd?

Q2. It would appear that subtitles are part of the mp2 stream. Can I keep them when I burn to DVD?

Thank you. Appreciated.

Someone smarter and more experienced than me will hopefully address your second question but the first one, I think, is purely to do with the software that you are using to create a DVD.

My currently quick and dirty workflow for turning movies captured on iplayer into DVDs is this:

1/ Bring the MP2 file into VideoRedo Plus, edit out the tops, the tails and the adverts, then export as an MPEG file (and that export - just like the editing - seems to take no time at all, just a few minutes). The new file is a little bit smaller than the original, of course.

2/ Bring the MPEG file into Ulead DVDWorkshop, add chapters (but no menus - unless I'm feeling fancy) and export as a DVD .iso image

3/ Use DVD Decrypter to load that .iso image and burn a DVD. I use DVD Decryter, rather than any of the dedicated disc-burning suites I have available (Roxio and a couple from Nero), simply because DVD Decrypter attempts to do nothing other than burn the DVD - so it's acceptably fast (I'll typically choose only to burn at 4x mind) and I know there is going to be no changes made.

Using the above method - and depending on the length of the movie - I'm pretty sure that I could often get two movies on a single DVD - just by bringing the MPEG file for each movie into DVD Workshop.

But blank DVD are wonderfully cheap to buy, so I've never even thought to try doing this - I can see no point in bothering to have multiple movies on a single DVD.

[damianw]

I tried importing the MPEG2 into Sony Vegas Movie Studio and it insisted that I would have to transcode the file... and then insisted that after doing that it wouldn't fit on the disk (despite it being less than 2Gb MP2). So does ULead accept the MP2 as-is?

[MarkR]

Thanks Bob. I dont' have VideoRedo and that seems to be the missing link. Ulead MovieFactory wont import the mp2 file (saying "not indexed"). Nero7 will but expands it 2x. Adobe Encore will import but needs to trancode it. What is this mp2 file! VideoRedo costs more £££ so I might look for a free alternative.

Still not sure where those subtitles are hidden.

Thanks again.

[Cliff203]

Whenever I find my recordings have disappeared, I find if I do nothing and wait a dialog box eventually informs me the hard drive is being checked. About 15 mins later the ‘lost’ files reappear. Hope this is some use to anybody apparently loosing files.

[lindien954]

With the Evesham iplayer, you don't actively download and then install an update - you simply press a button to say, yes, install the available update.

I have a netbox netgem and I would like your firmware to compare it. at netgem we have the possibility of installing the firmware by usb by downloading it.

[Bob Crabtree]

I tried importing the MPEG2 into Sony Vegas Movie Studio and it insisted that I would have to transcode the file... and then insisted that after doing that it wouldn't fit on the disk (despite it being less than 2Gb MP2). So does ULead accept the MP2 as-is?

No, it can't open any of the MP2 files I've tried - comes up with a message saying that the file contains no video data.

[Bob Crabtree]

Thanks Bob. I dont' have VideoRedo and that seems to be the missing link. Ulead MovieFactory wont import the mp2 file (saying "not indexed"). Nero7 will but expands it 2x. Adobe Encore will import but needs to trancode it. What is this mp2 file! VideoRedo costs more £££ so I might look for a free alternative.

Still not sure where those subtitles are hidden.

Thanks again.

Mark,

Earlier in this thread, chrestomanci recommended mpeg2schnitt.

Dive over here.

Oh, and pass again on the subtitles!

Anyone?

[Bob Crabtree]

I have a netbox netgem and I would like your firmware to compare it. at netgem we have the possibility of installing the firmware by usb by downloading it.

Ah, right - understand now why you asked.

That manual upgrade option, though, is not one currently offered for the iplayer, as best as I am aware.

[MarkR]

Thanks Bob. I went for VideoRedo. Apart from subtitles it seems to do a lot. I don't want to be mucking about with numerous different programs. They are promising subtitle support. Fingers crossed. In the meantime I am looking at projectX et al.


Update: ProjectX and Ifoedit will create a DVD with subtitles from the mp2 file! Nothing fancy, no menus but no reencoding so very good quality. I can't see how to get more than 1 movie per dvd with subtitles. Truth is, it is much more complicated than I thought it would be. Subtitles alone could be a 4 year degree course as far as I can see.

[Bob Crabtree]

Thanks Bob. I went for VideoRedo. Apart from subtitles it seems to do a lot. I don't want to be mucking about with numerous different programs. They are promising subtitle support. Fingers crossed. In the meantime I am looking at projectX et al.


Update: ProjectX and Ifoedit will create a DVD with subtitles from the mp2 file! Nothing fancy, no menus but no reencoding so very good quality. I can't see how to get more than 1 movie per dvd with subtitles. Truth is, it is much more complicated than I thought it would be. Subtitles alone could be a 4 year degree course as far as I can see.

Mark,

I downloaded the source for ProjectX, installed the Java Dev kit, compiled ProjectX and then ran it up and - having been spoilt by Video ReDo Plus - found it far too clunky and slow to be of practical use.

Or am I missing something?

As for IfoEdit - it looks very clever in the way it handles subtitles but doesn't do anything I currently want to do, so I didn't download or run it.

[Bob Crabtree]

Somehow - not sure how - Evesham looks to have turned off the BBC HD channel (501) on the iplayer I have here.

Unless, that is the BBC has stopped its test transmissions.

Anyone still getting BBC HD on Freeview or know quite what's going on?

[MarkR]

HI Bob, Thanks. Project X is not particularly user friendly but it does the job as far as dvb subtitles are concerned. I downloaded the 20MB exe version and it seemed straightforward enough if demuxing is your thing.

BTW - was recording from TV guide and iplayer swapped channels half way through. Checked guide and the red dot was still on E4 but it had changed to recording C4. Very annoying as I missed most of end of program. There was no overlapping program - as far as "my recordings" were concerned -1 file with a channel change in the middle. It was at about 1h:45m - maybe something to do with splitting big files. Who knows - very annoying.

Silly question Bob but is your review out yet?

[Tell]

Somehow - not sure how - Evesham looks to have turned off the BBC HD channel (501) on the iplayer I have here.

Unless, that is the BBC has stopped its test transmissions.

Anyone still getting BBC HD on Freeview or know quite what's going on?

Well I was about to order one said box taking a gamble, thought I'd check the forumn and find this !. I won't be ordering a box then if it doesn't get Freeview HD !. Evesham have shot themselves in the foot if they have disabled it.

I did check the signal strength via my Pace twin and bit rate error. Where I am the bit rate error is e-6 which is nothing [ie. a super signal even thou I don't see it on my equipment], so there is still a signal there as far as I'm concerned.

So is anybody getting BBC HD in the London area now ?.

Please reply.

[Bob Crabtree]

Well I was about to order one said box taking a gamble, thought I'd check the forumn and find this !. I won't be ordering a box then if it doesn't get Freeview HD !. Evesham have shot themselves in the foot if they have disabled it.

I did check the signal strength via my Pace twin and bit rate error. Where I am the bit rate error is e-6 which is nothing [ie. a super signal even thou I don't see it on my equipment], so there is still a signal there as far as I'm concerned.

So is anybody getting BBC HD in the London area now ?.

Please reply.

This will, I'm pretty sure, have something to do with the recent firmware update - though quite how, I don't yet understand.

A little bird told me that I was likely to lose HD after the update if I did a channel re-scan.

Perhaps understandably, I didn't do one directly after the update and nor have I done one any time since.

So quite how I've lost HD is a bit of a mystery - though I suspect that, somehow, my iplayer was set (without my permission) to do a channel re-scan.

My assumption is that anyone buying now will find that they have no BBC HD if the iplayer they buy has the latest firmware and will lose it some time if they have an older firmware version and allow iplayer to upgrade to the latest firmware.

Know, though, that the BBC HD service is a trial that could be turned off any day and that, once it's gone, you'll have no HD broadcast until a full service starts - when ever that might be.

But if and when that happens, a further updater will come along that turns on the reception of HD on Freeview.

[Tell]

Well that's it I'm not buying one. I'd buy one to get HD DTT with PVR and added functions on the basis that the service was limited and liable to interuption but I won't buy one for everything else that the box does but no HD DTT, so Evesham can stuff it so as to speak if they have disabled the HDTV DTT part of it. They can keep their 319 boxes that they have got in stock. I did email them and asked them the question yesterday. They have been good enough not to reply.

I have read other peoples post around the place where they say they didn't get HD DTT first of all and assumed that they had tuned the channel in by hand, by some means. I'll have to wait till there is a FTA satellite HDTV PVR and connected to my motorised dish. Assorted boxes are promised but nothing yet is available unless I missed something.

You don't think they have just reduced the transmitter strength although it looks pretty strong here.

Good title BTW "Evesham iplayer - the Freeview PVR you've dreamt about!" good dreams or bad dreams .

[MarkR]

Bob, Can't you ask Evesham about BBC HD. Its sold as an HDTV STB - if they switch that off I think we are entitled to return them. If they have I will.

Bob, I got round to using VideoRedo. I save as Mpeg but in Ulead DVDMovieMaker the size of the file increases and it rerenders the files. Does your Ulead not rerender in making the ISO.

Thanks