PVR USAGE TRENDS

Started by michaelchung, May 13, 2021, 07:19:55 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

michaelchung

I am a returning user to PVR after a 7 year absence.  I now have a Beyonwiz V2 and would appreciate feedback from users on current PVR usage trends.  Obviously, technology has improved significantly since the old DP series days.  In those times I used to edit recordings with VideoReDo and export them.  I would appreciate an insight on what today's equipment can do and any resources that will assist in getting a handle on today's usage trends.

Many thanks,
Michael

raymondjpg

Quote from: michaelchung on May 13, 2021, 07:19:55 PM
I am a returning user to PVR after a 7 year absence.  I now have a Beyonwiz V2 and would appreciate feedback from users on current PVR usage trends.  Obviously, technology has improved significantly since the old DP series days.  In those times I used to edit recordings with VideoReDo and export them.  I would appreciate an insight on what today's equipment can do and any resources that will assist in getting a handle on today's usage trends.

Many thanks,
Michael

I don't know much has changed since you last ventured into PVR territory. In-PVR editing of recordings might have become samewhat more sophisticated, but still not up to the convenience or standard of VideoReDo particularly for stripping out non-program material.

OpenWebif is a great improvement on capabilties of the Beyonwiz T/U/V series. If, like me, you have little time for live TV, then you can run the PVR headless and copy recordings for editing using any web browser or download manager.

There are also many plugins that extend the capabilities of Beyonwiz T/U/V series beyond the scope of just a TV set top box or recorder. I don't have any experience of those, so others might comment.

As an aside, I find the Enigma2 format convenient and reliable as a back end for Live TV in Kodi.

I don't have any experience with other contemporary breeds of PVR.
Beyonwiz T2, Beyonwiz U4, IceBox BYO with Hauppauge WinTV-dualHD (x2), Hauppauge WinTV-quadHD

prl

There's not much in the market to choose from.

If you want IceV they sell the V2 and a 500GB Humax. Fetch TV is still a going concern, and I think Panasonic is also selling PVRs (and maybe alo some of the other "big name" consumer electronocs companies.

Fetch and Panasonic both lack useful skip, only FF/REW and 5 min skips.

There is no frame-accurate editing on the V2, only by I-frame/GOP (group of poictures).
Peter
Beyonwiz T4 in-use
Beyonwiz T2, T3, T4, U4 & V2 for testing

IanL-S

I think the V2 is the best choice. The open source "softeware" used to power it means that you are not dead in the water if the manufacturer goes bust or withdraws from the Australian market.

I record on my various PVRs, a mix of aging Topfield and more recent Beyonwiz units. I the ftp them to my PC where I use VideoRedo to renove adds and pre and post padding (with unreliable time schedules with commercial networks, particularly on their secondary LCNs, you need generous pre- and post padding (I use 40 minutes pre and 65 minutes post).

One thing to remember is that HD transmissions now use H.264 (mpeg 4) enconding rather than MPEG 2, so VideoRedo takes much longer to process the files. On my 8 core/16 thread Ryzen system 4, with 32Gb ram, H.264 files is about the limit, even when using fast M.2 NVMe drives.

You will need either Video Redo 5 or 6 to edit/process H.264 files.

The two critical fiels for Beyonwiz recordings are the *.ts file and the *.eit files (the latter stores infomation a bout the program; episode name and description).

You copy the edited *.ts file and the associate *.eit file back to the V2, and run a command line instruction that recreates the other 4 files associated with each recording. This is a little more complex that if you are copying the recording to a Toppy, as the TFtool app will convert the *.ts and *.eit to Toppy *.mpg, *.inf and create *.nav file. At present I am still using the old Toppys to watch recordings and my wife does not want to learn how to use the newfangled Beyonwin PVRs.

Ian
IceTV: IceBox + BYOB IceBox + 2xTRF-2400 + 2xTF7100HDPVRtPlus + SKIPPA [RIP] + T2 + U4 + V2
No IceTV: a few Toppys and T2
Synology NAS
Check out the oztoppy wiki and oztoppy Forum for Toppy help

grumpy_geoff

Quote from: IanL-S on May 18, 2021, 08:20:20 AM
You copy the edited *.ts file and the associate *.eit file back to the V2, and run a command line instruction that recreates the other 4 files associated with each recording.

No need to resort to the command line.  You can download the plugin "reconstructapsc" and use it in the GUI's media selection list on the selected file to create the .ap and .sc files needed for playback navigation.

IanL-S

Thanks for the information @grumpy_geoff on the plug-in which I had not realised existed.

It is a different way of working to the workflow I have developed over the years. It looks to do much the same as the RebuildNAV TAP on the Toppys, but hopefully more reliable.

Ian
IceTV: IceBox + BYOB IceBox + 2xTRF-2400 + 2xTF7100HDPVRtPlus + SKIPPA [RIP] + T2 + U4 + V2
No IceTV: a few Toppys and T2
Synology NAS
Check out the oztoppy wiki and oztoppy Forum for Toppy help