Windows XP MCE...

[Triumphdog]

I have the MCE with the TV card. There are 4 settings for quality, 1 being the lowest and 4 being the highest, if I put it on setting 3 "better quality", then I can have about 1 minute of video for about 40 megs ! Seems crazy large to me. I finally found out how to easily put these dvr-ms files on to a DVD, I just havnt burned it yet, because I want to record a football game and it is three hours! Meaning approx. 7.2 gigs of space required on setting 3! Seems crazy. I realize I can use shrink but even down from 7.2 is going to be compressed a lot for a 4.8 gig disk. Anyhow, does anyone have experience with this program and what works best for you?

[anonymez]

i suggest you leave the 'quality' setting on 4, and the it should be around 50mb to 60mb per minute. it is entirely normal, assuming you have a digital tv card. Use shrink to compress, or if you want to keep the quality, span the movie over 2 discs, using a transport stream cutting program such as "cuttermaran", and author to dvd...

[Triumphdog]

Im using WinDVD and there is a screen where I need to choose format. There is DVD (1 Hour) and DVD (2 Hour), I am worried that it will only do up to 2 hours of dvd video, although It is a football game I will be recording tomorrow and it is three hours. Is there another program that will make a dvd file with the dvr-ms file?
Here is what the screen looks like:

[anonymez]

forget about that setting for now, as it is used for burning. Its probably best to just capture the game to your hard disk, and when it has finished, see how large the recording is. no matter how large (probably between 6-10 gig, depending on your broadcaster's bitrate), you should still be able to back it up a number of ways

just post the final size here

[Triumphdog]

Hey thanks bud. I will let ya know, it will be sometime tomorrow evening, take care and thanks again, and real quick, do you use any programs to transfer your recorded tv files in dvd files??

[anonymez]

yup, i use "tmpgenc dvd author", works wonderfully for mpeg input...

if you want to convert to mpeg, you can use a program such as DVR-Ripper...

[Triumphdog]

Ok, should these programs work with the dvr-ms file that the MCE creates?

[Triumphdog]

Also, should these programs perhaps lower the file size at all?

[anonymez]

yes, as long as you convert to mpeg first, as mentioned in my previous post

once you convert to mpeg (should be a short while, with no quality loss), you 'author' (prepare it for dvd), and if it is too big, you can use dvdshrink to make it fit a single dvd, or you can span it over 2 discs...

shrink is the program that will lower the file size

[Triumphdog]

Thing is, I went and get DVR Ripper from here : http://www.thegreenbutton.com/downloads.aspx

Thing is, it always crashes when I attempt to go from DVR to MPEG...Also, I am using WINDVD to make a mpeg file, but the format worries me, like the pictures above, I am nervous that when it says DVD (1 Hour) and DVD (2 Hour) under format, that it will not let me surpass 2 hours of video...when I need three...

[anonymez]

download & install this: http://www.softforall.com/Multimedia...er07070197.htm

then try running dvr-ripper

[Triumphdog]

Ok thanks man, I will try it and then let ya know tomorrow how everything goes

[Triumphdog]

Well...it was recording great...and for some reason I went to stop it and it had already been stopped..It recorded 9.26 gigs which was 3 hours 4 minutes and 29 seconds long...then it stopped, like 2 or 3 minutes before it was over, wierd...I didnt even schedule it or anything, just a manual record, any ideas?

[anonymez]

is it possible you hadrun out of hard disk space? usually programs stop recording if there is little free space left, a number which you should be able to change.

as for the recording, should you decide to keep it, were you able to convert to mpeg?

[Triumphdog]

I had plenty of space 190 gigs left...but...I think I figured it out...MCE TV Tuner mode operates completely on a guide format. For example when I click record, it says what the program is and what channel, and these settings below do not allow me to just stop it whenever I want, beause football games sometimes run over the time they are listed on the tv guide. SO...I am just going to need to schedule a recording that runs over like, half a hour or even more after the show, and make sure that I just stop it once its finished.